I had a ‘spoilt’ childhood. No, not what you think, I was well trained. As a child, my mother gave me almost anything I wanted for my minimum comfort, if only to make me forget that my father was not alive.
I remember that pap was one of the menu lists for breakfast in my family. Anytime I had pap for breakfast, hunger would visit me in school before the first break that we called recess, long before lunch break.
I solved the problem my own way. What I did was to create a false belief that I was allergic to pap and my mother believed me. All through my childhood to adolescence, no one served me pap in our house.
As I grew older and could take decisions on my own, pap found its way back to my menu as good food. That is the power of false belief. It thrives with lack of knowledge and it becomes the ‘truth’ over time when no one asks questions.
Myth is stronger because it is usually dressed with the fear of symbolic superhuman or traditional and cultural beliefs. Sometimes, myth is rooted in deities to scare you from asking questions and you just believe because the gods cannot be questioned.
If you reflect, you would remember many myths you were made to believe as a child which you found out to be untrue as you grew in age and increased in knowledge and wisdom.
In a dynamic world that no longer respects status quo, if you must make a difference, you must be one of those who ask questions. No one has ever created something new who is a conformer with what has always been.
Be it the home front, workplace, your social circles or the larger society, seek knowledge, ask questions. Some ‘myths’ were passed down to you to hold you down so you can continue to revel in your ignorance.
For every myth you have been made to believe, seek knowledge. Whatever human beings don’t understand, they mystify.
Welcome to June. Say with me if you believe – June was a good month.
Thank God it’s Monday.
©️ Akin Oluwadare Jnr
01 June 2026
