Issues
Uses And Abuses Of Generative Power
Increasing reported cases of sexual abuse of women, including young and immature females, must raise the concern of people of goodwill. Whatever explanations that may be given as being responsible for such incidents, there is a need that more light be thrown into the issue of generative power in humans. It is also needful to separate cases of rape from other sexual abuses such as indecent assaults, indecent dealings with young persons, pederasty, etc. Rape has to do with having a carnal knowledge of an adult female against her consent.
Generative power is different from and quite independent of the procreative instinct. Rather, it is the rising up of the urge for all that is ideal, noble and pure in a human being, shortly before adulthood. It is a deep inner impetus during the period of transition from adolescence to adulthood, urging the individual to free oneself from existing dark burdens. It is not only an urge to set an individual free from old encumbrances, but it is a spur to start adult life on a clean slate, to build up an ideal future.
The generative power is an all-embracing inner urge which is a vital life-belt serving as an impetus to make an individual rise up in every field of endeavour. It is accompanied by a determination to face life boldly, with a strong volition to redress the past and embark on the journey of life with a zeal to face challenges. Unfortunately, the impetus of that zeal or volition can grow damp and weak if an individual allows external factors and distractions to divert the urge into various ignoble channels.
From the religious angle, generative power has the task and the ability to give value-added spiritual impetus to earthly endeavours, thus helping the spirit in man to unfold fully for action. Throughout the life of an individual, the generative power remains like a ready ally to help in giving courage and incentive towards striving for an ideal life. The creative nature of this natural power urges and pushes the individual to engage in activities that would be beneficial for all humanity generally.
Generative power and Spirituality are close allies, and when they work together without hindrance, then we see the best in a human being. Being spiritual should be understood to mean having a deep inner feeling, a sensitivity, concern or empathy which appreciates and works towards the common good of collective humanity. Even while striving for personal benefit, spirituality often shows its nature in what is commonly known as love or concern for the well-being of fellow humans.
Spirituality has much to do with intuitive feeling or inner perception which goes beyond objective senses. It engenders an ardent wish to do something noble and helpful beyond self, for here and now. Such state of being expresses the nobility of the soul of an individual, as different from those who have little or no feeling about what happens to others as a result of their actions.
Despite several frustrating experiences and temptations, spirituality strives for a purity of inner being and feeling, such that the urge for nobility does not succumb to base actions. Like a tender, growing flower, spirituality is meant to be given keen attention to enable it to mature and soar gradually without hindrances. This vital turning point in spirituality occurs usually during the transitional period, between the age of 17 to 22 or thereabout, showing as youth restiveness.
It is also during this transitional period that sexuality awakens and reaches a climax. But sexuality and generative power are not the same. One is a physical passion or feeling having to do with the urge for procreation, while the other is an awakening spiritual power, longing for utilization. The procreative urge has to do with libido at a certain stage of maturity of the body and quite a natural process. The urge can be more in some adults than in others, but generally, it can be diverted and dissipated in sensual and ignoble manner. Many factors account for the high degree of the amative appetite as well as for its dissipation in an unideal way.
Sublimation and diversion of generative power
To suppress any natural urge is as wrong as it is to misuse or divert it into some definite channel for the purpose of vanity or popularity. Genuine love gives generative power unlimited scope to manifest in a most ideal manner; thus we find that domestic harmony adds value to a man’s life and endeavours. To achieve some outstanding feat in life some people trade away their generative or amative power, for their desire or fame.
There are highly successful entrepreneurs, artists and other great achievers and performers who cannot be described as ideal partners in marriage or even as parents. Such one-sided success story cannot be described as ideal since the achievements are the results of sublimation. The story is more pathetic for those who, for purposes of earthly power and fame, go into some pact or alliance with some diabolical forces to acquire the means for great achievements. It happens often!
Some cases of abuse of women and children sexually, can arise from conditions given by some diabolical forces as pre-requisite for granting the desires of those who consult them. There have been cases of “clergy men” being asked by juggling fiends to take “pepper-soup” made with placenta of less than 24 hours after a woman had given birth. There had also been confessions by men given a condition of having carnal knowledge of insane women.
Sexual engagement is one outlet or means of expression of the generative power whose nobility lies in its combination with genuine love. In this sense, amative activity can be spiritualized, which can result in the incarnation of noble souls into the circle of such couples. But where lustful appetite is the driving goal, then there is an abuse in sexual relationship. It is for this reason that willing consent rather than force, becomes a decisive factor in rape cases.
A strong sexual drive in an individual is usually indicative of a strong, awakening spirituality, longing for useful application and utilization. It takes an ideal form when a genuine love is the basis for a union and ultimately geared towards inviting a noble soul into the union of the couple. The generative power is meant to be applied and utilized via sexual union towards spiritualization of human activities and engagements. Without such harmonious blend, sexuality can give love a misleading meaning, leading to abuses.
True concept of love embraces justice and loyalty and, therefore, genuine love would embrace loyalty such that relationship can be spiritualised. With such foundation, generative power drives individuals towards activities which add value to life and the society generally. A strong feeling of shame is an expression of spirituality, whose purpose is to prevent an individual from behaving like a beast.
Ways that generative power can be abused.
With the clarification that generative power is different from sexual instinct, it can also be stated that a mixture of the two is one principal way that distortion can arise in their expressions. A major purpose of the generative power is to spiritualise human activities and aspirations, thereby reducing burdens of guilts and enhancing salvation. But when lustful and bestial passions distort the purity of the generative energy, then there is an abuse. A situation where love is used as a bait for sex, there is an abuse.
Like every energy, generative power can be abused through channeling it into vanity and ego-driven activity, at the expense of other healthy human engagements or needs. An example has been cited where an achiever sacrifices sex or a fulfilling family life as the price for honour and fame. There are also situations where individuals, in alliance with some diabolical forces, sacrifice long-term peace of mind for a short-term glory. Like Lady Macbeth, there are women who become “unsexed” as the price for earthly power.
A normal human life is one that is balanced, healthy and fulfilling, where things are allowed to come and go the natural way. But humans can, in their vanity or ignorance, force conditions to alter through unnatural means. Dabbling into black magic through membership of various cults can result in the abuse of the generative power. Ranging from the intake of certain foods and substances, to engagement in some rituals, the blood can be affected and resulting in serious consequences which may not come immediately.
There are some deluded individuals who think that acquisition of hypnotic power by which means they can take undue advantage of others, is a great achievement. In such activities, the depletion of the generative power is involved, such that imbalances in personal account arises. Thus, what an individual withdraws or gains with one hand, gets repaid or lost with another hand. Those who rise in a meteoric manner, encounter a sunset in a similar but agonizing manner, where unnatural means are employed for fame.
Like a blank cheque, the generative power is a neutral energy by means of which an individual can navigate his destiny towards the light or darkness. Through cultivating and harbouring dark volition, aspirations and propensities, whether expressed in actions or not, an individual can draw close to dark realms of existence. Thus a link is established, through which channel the person can be a recipient of dark currents, pushing such person into dark deeds. This happens quite often!
Therefore, some of the actions which some people engage in, without knowing what pushed them into doing so, arise from the invisible threads or links which such persons had established with dark centres of energy. No doubt, there are numerous centres of energy by whose association or linkages individuals can become contaminated, thought-wise. Features of the generative power include the ability to create forms or entities not visible to physical eyes.
Such artificially created forms coalesce according to their identity or nature, as centres of energy, and become pollutants, infectious to humans. Increasing cases of sexual abnormalities and abuses arise from marauding activities of sensual thought-energy centres. Like vapour that condense and solidity at a definite temperature, lumps of energy centres hovering around humanity, fall like rain-drops.
Where the generating power is applied in the right and ennobling manner, it become a means of reducing the burdens on individuals and society as well as an instrument for positive changes. But where its principal purposes are mis-used and abused, a benevolent energy can produce malevolent results. We find such results in sexual abuses, criminal exploits and increasing association with malevolent forces through cultism, etc. Generative power works at its best via genuine love and noble volition.
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.
Bright Amirize
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
