WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH…

When the going gets tough, the tough get going is a play on words involving idiomatic (Proverb) and distinct meanings of "go" and "tough." In context, "the going" means the situation, "gets tough" means to become difficult. “The tough” means people who are strong or enduring, and "get going" means to become fully engaged. Taken together, the meaning of the phrase is when the situation becomes difficult; the strong will work harder to meet the challenge.

Another interpretation could mean those who act tough and proud will vacate a situation when it becomes difficult lest they be proven not as tough as they appear to be.

Yet another interpretation could mean, when the situation becomes almost impossible, those who are truly strong are wise enough to pull out, rather than being totally decimated.

The origin of the phrase has been attributed both to Joseph P. Kennedy (1888–1969),[1] father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and sometimes to Norwegian-born American football player and coach Knute Rockne (1888–1931).

You may want to ask me, why all these rhetoric? Well! I noticed that the situation of this country called Nigeria Is going to a level where people will start committing suicide because they cannot cope with life challenges any more. You can imagine someone, who out of nothing struggled to go through the University or Polytechnic hoping that afterward, things will get better. This year made it the eighth year he graduated without a job. It has gotten to the stage where he resigned to fate and hope to be paid N20, 000 monthly and won’t mind, at least just to have something doing.

There is another case of a man with four kids and a wife that was sacked from the bank where he was working on no reason, the man tried his best to get another Job but all to no avail. The wife gradually changed in behavior, whenever the man called any of his kids, all he always heard from them is “Daddy I am coming” and they will never show up. At least a responsible father should be able to cater for his immediate family, when this is not done; such father becomes nonentity in presence of his family.

 Nigeria is a country that is really blessed with both human and material resources, but I’m surprise to know that only about 10% of her total population can boast of living up to standard. The remaining 90% live in abject poverty. I wonder what the government is doing from the money realized from the sales of our oil on daily basis.

Well! Fellow Nigerian youth, let us not lose hope in this country. Let us keep pushing forward in hope and believe with God almighty, the change is near as it is the only constant phenomenon. There has been a time in this country when people get more than what they need, now we do not have enough, surely the better time is certainly on the way back to this country. The going is though now, but let’s keep going for I see a better Nigeria coming soon.