I thought I had heard the worst of insults until I heard a frustrated taxi driver ‘give’ it to another last week. After the former had humbly received all the ‘missiles’ from his colleagues, he dropped a bomb. “If your dad had controlled himself enough, you wouldn’t have been alive today to spew such gibberish!” Chai.
The silence that came with this life-threatening insult was deafening. The ‘bomb recipient’, awed by the utter wittiness of his colleague, just drove off… shattered. Awwww. His colleagues gave him a good laugher indeed.

I have been pondering on how important self-control is to humanity ever since. Just a little restraint… Just a little discipline… Just a little self-control…

In life, the little things make the greatest of differences. We sometimes have a retrospective look at our lives and we realise what a difference our lives would have made if we had controlled ourselves just a bit more. We realise the embarrassment we would have avoided if we had kept that urge under control… only a little more.

All the ills today’s world has been plagued with have one thing in common; an absence of self-control. An absence of self-control means a presence of problems untold. We are wallowing in challenges because someone is refusing to control him/herself.

Ever observed how one man’s indiscipline on the road can cause a fatal accident? Ever seen how one driver’s lack of self-restraint can cause an unending traffic? Such is life.

Our lack of self-control may not only cost us… but others as well. Many of us at the bottom, especially in Africa, strive to live because someone we voted to the top lives in abundance at our expense… because of lack of self-control.

The essence of self-control can’t be downplayed in society. I know people whose out-of-wedlock children and ‘baby mamas’ have made life on earth enough hell for them that they don’t budge at the mention of hell anymore. I know others whose lives have plunged into misery because of a fling they had with whoever wherever. Blackmail.

Someone is in jail today because they couldn’t control their anger/hunger. Another is in deep waters because they couldn’t control their mouth. Chai!

Regardless of our social standing, we can’t take self-control for granted. What we can’t control about ourselves today will control us tomorrow.

Reckless spending today, for instance, will leave you a pauper tomorrow. If you can’t put your lust to bed, that lust will put you to bed. Lust makes nothing last. Lust will indeed make that pleasure your last!

If you can’t control yourself, your salary will be used to pay tithes at clubs, drinking spots or even lotto kiosks! If you can barely control yourself, you’ll spend all your earnings and savings on a wedding! If self-control is out of your checklist, you will live impressing others all of your life. Many of us have needless depression because we want to create needless impression! Control yourself. Keep that urge in check!

In the biblical Proverbs, remember what was likened to a man without self-control? A city with broken walls! A city with broken walls has no defence. It is prone to attack. It accepts everything and anything. There’s no standard. Its future is bleak. Such is a life without self-control. Every day wahala dey!

I see some young men today flaunt their libido around and it is obvious they still haven’t learnt enough from the biblical Samson. Aside from getting wasted by women, they ‘charge’ themselves up with alcoholic beverages and aphrodisiacs. If as young as you are, even as an unmarried man, you need Rockman capsules to help boost your libido, in your mid 50s you may need ‘life support’ capsules to help you do same. Chai!

Just a little self-control… and the whole world will be under control. Just a little self-control… and we won’t have young people in need of alcoholic bitters to eat. At only 20 years, you need bitters to eat. If you start battling kidney diseases later in life, leave your household witches out of it. They know nothing about it. You are on your own bro!

Purge that urge before it surges and leads you to a dirge. Some wives have lost good husbands because they couldn’t control their lust; a lust for materialism, a lust to be like others. Many marriages have hit the rocks because someone refused to tame their libido!

Controlling oneself means controlling the entirety of their lives. Greatness is all about self-control. If you can’t control yourself, you can’t control anybody.

A little self-control could have prevented a sex tape which put the whole family into shame. A little self-control would have prevented that ‘pregnancy-trapped’ marriage and its accompanying headaches. Only a little self-control… and you wouldn’t have rushed into a wrong relationship/marriage.

This week, let’s all make a resolution to control ourselves; our senses. Control what you hear. Control what you say. Control what you see and even control what you feel. A life that will ever be great is one that was controlled. God help us.

Forgive me if I stepped on your toes in this write-up. I am still learning self-control dear. Haha. Great weekend.


• The writer is a playwright and the Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications, a writing company in Accra. (www.scribecommltd.com)