“The one who urinates in a stream should be warned because any of his relatives may drink from the water.” – Nigerian proverb All around us, more and more people are afraid of engaging in truthful conversations. A sheer number of us have adopted silence as our mode of communication. Our interactions are hounded by murmurs of dissatisfactions over things and issues that bother us. And yet we prefer to be silent for fear of being branded ‘too known,’ of being ‘kicked out of the pack,’ and/or of being ‘hounded and persecuted.’ From our workplaces to our homes, we choose to be silent. Parents hush up their children for speaking the truth. Bosses threaten and in some cases terminate the appointment of those who dare to speak up against wrongs and vices. Fiancées break up relationships because their partners raise their voices on issues that negatively affect them. Excommunication has become trendy and we are all fearful of being victimised. Silence, like a fog has crept over our society. We speak less and chatter a lot. We talk less and grief more. We choose to breathe the fermented odour of silence, and suffer in our hearts. Soundlessness has become our companion and we refuse to form opinions lest our thoughts betray us. A surprising number of us are more willing to forfeit our God given ability to speak in order to stay on the good side of our families, friends, bosses, and even enemies. The result is that we have become a people and a society where silence has quietened the truth. The dominant posture is one that translates as, ‘it is better to silent and on their side, than to speak up and be found wanting.’ This silence is unconsciously churning out lots and lots evil thoughts and perceptions that finishes in a ‘pull-him-down’ mentality. But worse still, we have all become perpetuators to the suffering and horrors around us as more and more individuals glory over what they would benefit instead of ‘speaking the truth’ to make our society better. In the process, we are killing each other softly and swiftly. Contrary to popular opinion, silence is not a right, it is a choice. It is an attitudinal posture we adopt. Every single moment we remain silent over a wrong, a vice, an oppressive act, we give more power to oppressors, to bullies, to cheats, to corruption, to crime, and to atrocities. It is true that sometimes we lack the courage to speak. In most cases, it is because we do not want to lie and we do not want to offend. But the greatest danger lies in when we do not really care about the issue, or when we believe that some other person who is in a better position should speak up. Whatever it is, your failure to speak up emboldens wrong and evil in society. We allow ‘empty barrels’ to design solutions that compound our challenges and make them more complex. There is no doubt that quietness is a great source of strength. But quietness is not silence. It is noiselessness, not soundlessness. Quietness has a lot more to cutting out rants and raves. It has to do with persuasion and not brute force. It has to do with listening to people and creating meaningful conversations. It has nothing to do with being silent over issues and condoning to the insensitivities of bullies and oppressors. We all long for the ideal change. The change that embraces real freedom, justice and peace; to enable us design solutions that would prosper our society and ourselves. We need an environment that allows us to speak without fear or favour to enable us to be the individuals we are capable of being. Such an ideal is possible. The only hurdle is that, the bulk of us want this change without any cost to ourselves. Fortunately for us, the world needs this change more than we do as individuals. That is why the time is ripe for you to give your voice to issues. It is simply time for you to lend your voice to strengthen the whispers that advocate for rightness and rectitude. It is time for you to speak up on issues that disturb you. But more importantly, it is time for you to say ‘no’ and to take a stand and refused to be silenced. Remember every time you refuse to speak up, honesty, creativity, efficiency and synergies are cowed into submission. And then the vultures – corruption, hounding, arrogance, wastefulness come out.