OPINION:PLAYING THE GAME OF MASTERS WITH THE MASTERS OF THE GAME

"To play with the masters, you must learn the game of the masters. There’s no shunting or jumping queues. No matter how smart, brilliant or intelligent you are, you must learn from the Masters before you can play with masters and great patience, rectitude and resilience before you can become a Master of the Game."

PLAYING THE GAME OF MASTERS WITH THE

MASTERS OF THE GAME

Every game has categories of players.

As a child I remember passing by some men playing draughts close to Goodluck Bakery on Agege Motor Road, Idi Oro in Lagos. Yes, Idi Oro in Mushin. I spent my childhood in that hood. Great neighbourhood, better than those fancy neighbourhoods people like to flex about. One thing I noticed then was that there were three categories of men around there: The Spectators, The Ordinary players and of course, The Masters.

They played on different benches. The ordinary players funny enough, have more spectators. I never understood why until my uncle came visiting and I went there with him. He must have been a champion in Patako, Ibadan where he came from. I asked him why people don’t patronise the masters. He told me neither the spectators nor the ordinary players can comprehend the Game of the Masters.

In my teenage I developed a love for the game of Scrabble. I was a local champion until I got to University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University) and met real champions like Femi Awowade and others. It took me so much time watching the Masters play before I could play with the Masters yet I couldn’t play like the Masters of the Game.

To play with the masters, you must learn the game of the masters. There’s no shunting or jumping queues. No matter how smart, brilliant or intelligent you are, you must learn from the Masters before you can play with masters and great patience, rectitude and resilience before you can become a Master of the Game.

I remember a particular competition I stumbled on at the Polytechnic Ibadan during one particular long vacation. It was there I met another great player called Pandus.

The games had started in earnest. The players exhibited great prowess. Deft moves, fast thinking and dummies were displayed. It looked like the best were in the fray. Then, the Masters walked in and the game changed. It suddenly became a GAME OF THE MASTERS. And only the MASTERS OF THE GAME could play.

The stories of the games are not so important but the lessons I learned from them and how they apply to life, business and politics in particular.

In politics there are a class of veterans who are the Masters of the Game. In Nigeria’s four-year political season, the first thirty months are like the period ordinary players played. It’s a period all players can play. It’s a period smartness, brilliance and intelligence, and even Mother Luck come to play. A lucky player may actually excel to the extent he/she starts seeing himself/herself as a master.

The remaining eighteen months sees the Masters of the Game walking in. The game changes and the Masters take control of the game. Some stray minor players who have had luck push them to the fore may play like the masters. A Chess player may play like Kasparov but won’t defeat the Kasparovs when it get to the crux.

A new breed politician or business man may have become successful but engaging the veterans may be a misadventure.

A Yoruba adage says a child may have more new clothes than an elder but not as many rags. Another say what an elder sees sitting down, a youngster may miss looking from the top of an Iroko tree.

The 2023 elections are round the corner, and the MASTERS OF THE GAME are playing a Game of Masters.

To play with the Masters, you must have learned to play when it was off-season. You must also learn to play with the Masters without engaging the Masters in fisticuffs.

Attempting to outplay the Masters at the Game of Masters may lead to great loss.

IT IS NOW A GAME OF MASTERS AND ONLY THE MASTERS OF THE GAME CAN PLAY