First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
Finding a definition for intelligence is like mining for big diamonds in the Sahara; a venture involving a lot of sand in the eyes but no bling for the guys. Every expert has his own definition and the novices too conjure up definitions.
The lazy sages say if you cannot beat them join them. So here goes my own:
Intelligence is knowing that you do not slap a mosquito dead on your white shirt as blood stains can be difficult to eradicate once created.
Intelligence is that mental capacity to think and respond to what is happening or not happening in the environment. Through creativity, one introduces things and concepts into the world.
Intelligence is putting the why question like a pistol to the head of anything happening or not happening in our environment. It is always more beneficial to have more questions than answers. This means that there are a lot of things to ponder about, research and solve.
In all the above definitions, problem-solving is a common denominator. Having five degrees in a Bitter Leaf institution and topping up with three more from an Ivy League institution helps no one if the exam passer does not translate into a societal problem solver. Nice graduation photographs are of no use to the community. Of course, it fans the flames of the family ego but who ego epp?
The rhetorical title of this article can be answered thus: Those who are the beneficiaries of intelligence are people whose problems have been solved by an intelligent study of the problem and its patterns and then eradicated by creative solutions.
Look at the problem of roads in Nigeria. A hypothetical mile long road would have a few potholes that wreck the car tyres. People respond by buying SUVs that navigate the terrain with ease. Soon the rains come to flood the roads and jeeps. The floods also go indoors to destroy millions worth of property (millions in any currency).
Perhaps the intelligent thing was to build a good road with adequate drainage in the first place. Does this concept need one, two or 15 degrees? And whatever happened to solving the problems before they exist? Rains come yearly and some years might be heavier than others. Rain has been there from the beginning of the Earth so one would expect that everyone plans for it.
There has to be a mental capacity to respond to the environment and when all else fails, then the next best thing is to find someone else at the same level above the sea who gets a comparative amount of rainfall a year but never gets flooded and ask them to come and reproduce their ‘miracle’ in our land. That great miracle is also called thinking.
Glossary
Epp – slang for the word help
