I saw a video of a charming young boy online asking his mom to ‘calm down’ as she was set to punish him for a misdemeanour.
I was moved by his sobriety, which reflected in his promise of “last chance”, when confronted with the fact that he is a regular offender.
The exchange was indeed funny, but it depicted the efforts parents put into moulding children into responsible adults. I want to assume that his mom indeed calmed down because the appeal was moving enough to make anyone change their mind.
Interestingly, the video inspired this special message to the good people of Lagos State because of the deeper meaning it conveys.
Fellow Lagosians, we need to ‘calm down’ as we enjoy the coming holiday and festivity.
It is a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim’s heart of sacrifice and faith in Allah. We need to emulate and demonstrate his sense of self- restraint at this time the world is combating the scourge of COVID-19.
We need to be moderate in our celebration and observe prescribed protocols towards defeating the deadly coronavirus. The world needs the responsibility and commitment of its people to oust coronavirus.
I urge every Lagosian to ‘calm down’ and not get carried away by the excitement of the moment. Like the rest of the world, we are still in the middle of a pandemic and need to remain extremely careful to keep the gains of the sacrifices we have all made in the past months.
Let’s calm down!
As an aside, I would like to meet the young boy since we both now have exclusive right to the phrasal verb ‘calm down’.
⚫ Babajide Ṣanwo-Olu is the executive governor of Lagos State.
