Most of the time, when enquiries are being made from a rape victim, one of the questions frequently asked is, “Did you shout or cry for help” in other words, did you raise your voice.
Some of us can be quiet to a fault. Probably that was what happened to Sapphira! She knew her husband did not sell the land for the amount stipulated by him, but because she refused to raise her voice in the contrary, she lost her life too.
It is quite impossible for some people to raise their voices when evil is being perpetuated because they are sycophants themselves. There is a Yoruba proverb that says that, “it is a thief that knows the footpath of another thief. “If someone is a thief, he/she would not want to give his/her friend up for any reason but it may backfire in the end.
One thing we use our voices for is to express an opinion or desire. It is however unfortunate that, some of us think or believe that we are voiceless, we believe we do not have the voice to express our opinion or desires. As a result, we suffer in silence or better still, we graduate to the suffering and smiling high school.
Irrespective of our gender, academic qualification, financial status etc, we must learn to raise our voice when necessary. Sometimes, an opinion may not be taken heed to at a point in time but because it has been stated, it is on record, and with time, it may be considered.
As citizens of our various nations or residents in a particular community, some of us always, “mind our business” by refusing to raise our voice when our leaders do what is wrong or even when we have a good idea that counts, we would rather keep quiet than offer a reasonable suggestion. Why? We often castigate ourselves before anyone does. Some of us have very low self esteem that, we not only look down on ourselves, we think down and talk down about our person before anyone does.
We must always remember that, we don’t have to be rude or saucy before we can raise our voice or make our opinion known One may be courteous and the fellow’s words will still count. The most important thing is to proffer a sensible solution to a problem or to let people know that we have a good intention which may help move our institution or community forward.
Most of the time, we seem unconcerned about most activities in our immediate community or Nation at large. Some of us keep quiet physically and even go numb spiritually. What I often tell people is, even if you are not within the corridor of power, you can still raise your voice in the corner of your room and tell your Creator to bring about a change in what is happening around you. Don’t sit on the fence always; let people know where you stand when it is needful for them to know.
Learn to cry out to God for help and if there is a need to say some important things, say it out and make sure you cry out, If you have someone you call a close pal, then raise your voice in praise if the fellow does what is right; at the same time, if the fellow is walking in error, raise your voice in correction or better still raise it in prayers.
The most important thing is that you should never be quiet when there is no need for you to do so. Stand as an intercessor and learn to praise others and correct in love. Don’t just sit still till things get out of hand and then begin to clasp your hands in sobriety when you should have done the right thing. Raise your voice now. It goes a long way you know!