As usual, I will not attempt to pretend am an orator. Rather, I am just a messenger with a message, and I know just exactly how to deliver it.
Just recently, I discovered there has been a wide gap between me and my history lessons, which prompted me to dedicate few hours to refreshers. Not too long into my sojourn, I made a shocking observation. I noticed they were not termed orator for possession of choice words, nor charisma, neither anything you would list; but because more than all these, they preached what the world wouldn’t ordinarily stomach. This quickly reminded me of Agar Herbert Sebastian, who in his work – A TIME FOR GREATNESS, 1942 – says ‘the truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.’
I remember Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, Kwame Nkrumah, Obafemi Awolowo et al. They were termed orators, not because they massaged our emotions with the words we all love to hear, but because they hurt our emotions with the truth we detest with passion. Yet, we sing all hail liberators when their name knocks the door of our memory. Their epitaph oozes greatness for they refused STATUS QUO.
Do you aspire to be an orator, and a great one at that? Then, you must determine not to be a STATUS QUO ORATOR. We know them that went such path; their names were written on the sand of history, and washed away by the tide of event. We also know them that went the other way; their names were written on the rock of history. Maybe you will tell me what will scrape it off.
If we must effect the change we so desire, then STATUS QUO is never, and will never be an option. Remember, we write and speak to change the world, our world.
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