Who is Man’s Worst Enemy?

The pros and cons of the argument as to whom or what should be perceived as man’s worst enemy have raged on for centuries and there is still no end in sight. Many are the great thinkers who have propounded their theories backed by very authentic illustrations supporting their thoughts on this subject. Those motivated by the Christian faith have held the belief that His Majesty Lucifer is man’s worst enemy. Other thinkers have maintained it is greed--Radix malorun est cupiditas: to wit, greed is the root of all evils. Some have blamed pride, others women. I once read that a man’s greatest weapon is his mind but, his worst enemy is his mouth. In my view, however, after an extensive, profound, careful observation of man, I can state that man’s sexual desire is certainly his most powerful and deadly enemy.

This issue has been well documented and the argument could now be rekindled agreeing or differing with our adored truth-seekers. Money has proved a very worthy customer when talking about man’s bitterest enemy; so has greed which has driven others to kill for money. The devil has also done his best in terms of proving he is man’s worst enemy: he denied Adam the earthly Paradise through deception and as triumphant as the devil has been, he has been constantly held culpable when he has not even thought of a particular sin. However, one cannot discount women when it comes to the search of man’s worst enemy looking at the seeds of discord they normally sow between the best of friends to make them the worst of foes to the disintegration of families, making brothers perpetual adversaries.

First of all, the idea that our sexual volition is our mortal enemy can be traced to the origin of the Garden of Eden. Although the Bible intimates that the downfall of Adam and his subsequent expulsion from the Terrestrial Paradise was the consequence of his eating of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, some religious enthusiasts have always maintained that the story is metaphorical. In reality, these pious men attribute the loss of the Eden garden as being the consequence of a sexual intercourse between the very first couple —an event which the Bible blatantly refuses to expatiate on. It thus, means that our enmity with our sexual drive dates back from Adam.

For those who shore up the notion that women are the source of man’s misfortunes may also have a point. After all, they can back it up with the figurative tale of the Garden of Eden as Eve was the pulling power who led Adam and mankind into eternal damnation if indeed mankind lost the Garden through coitus. They normally point out that it is women who whet men’s sexual appetite. What with women westernising themselves these days with some of them showing their boobs and other sumptuous bodily parts in public which indeed should be displayed in hidden places! The desperate attempt by some women to feel and look sexy with its concomitant obscene way of dressing that bears all is always potent to knock every man off his feet (including very religious men). Nonetheless, our sexual craving can be metaphorically likened to car or a horse—it can be controlled. It is when we refuse to control it—when we succumb to its never-diminishing influence-- that it veers us off the right path.

Yet, man has always been incapable, since time immemorial, to properly and constructively conduct his sexual yearning. This case has been since the beginning: Adam could not control it; or could the blessed David be in command of his eroticism as he took the wife of one his generals and shortly after cleverly organised his death. There are an uncountable number of examples of men who have all crumbled in the face of this mighty tyrannical antagonist—their sexual urge. Certain men of God have experienced the same fate as Adam due to their sexual inclination but some of these godly characters justify their sexual sins by the same Bible by which they revile all vices—a case which makes sense of the Shakespearean axiom that the devil can cite scripture for his purpose. In the end, these religious men wallow in the vice they are meant to admonish us against.

It is worthy to note how our lust has haunted and continue to nag us in all spheres of life. By this insatiable sexual pleasure, some men in responsible positions have lost their sense of impartiality. What do you think of the Managing Director who employs his staff, especially the women, with the sexual relations he can have with them at the back of his mind? This seems to be the new phenomenon in many countries. Can you consider the teacher who grades his female students not because of the content of their work but by the content of their ravishing corporal parts?! Most of us have been witnesses to this problem but have had to cast silly innuendos against these offending tutors.

It was exactly his sexual longing which brought about the fatal end of president-dictator Sani Abacha. His detractors were looking for the most potent way of eliminating him, having failed through a coup d’etat and poisoning. Having cudgelled their brains for years and finding no easy way out, they happened to try the simplest of all solutions in the end to eliminate Sani Abacha: to bring some of the most gorgeous ladies from India to seduce him and then poison him. Under the tutelage of his sexual gratification, Abacha was immediately behaving like the proverbial billy goat who smiles only after inhaling the urine of the nanny goat. Thus, the downfall and the resulting death of Abacha came easily after a few minutes but his death is blamed on a heart attack!

A headline story “Sex Scandal Rocks Presbyterian Church” was carried on Peace FM’s website on the 19th of May about an alleged sexual transgression involving one Doris Sobre, a female administrator and some leading members of the Presbyterian Church. Prominent among the suspected sexual offenders was the District Pastor, Reverend Kissiedu Ayi whose main defence was captured in the platitude “… mere fabrications by a faction in the church…” to tarnish his reputation. The next day, the ramifications of the same headline story had reached a crescendo where the administrator whose sexual escapades brought about the furore was given the sack. The Bible cannot be mistaken when it declares judgement will start in the house of God. For, if the men who are to conduct the Lord’s sheep into His Holy pen decide to lead them to the lair of a pack of hungry lions, then we are doomed. It is quite unequivocal that these men of God are watching and benefiting instead of watching and praying. What is quite baffling is when Reverend Ayi blames his predicament on a “faction” in the church who wants to cast a slur on his good name. Why must there be a faction in the church? – a place which is meant to be a sanctuary and a refuge to the afflicted; a place of worship and a place of togetherness and one accord all in the name of God.

George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm that: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others”. We all know that we are not all equal before the law but nobody thought it will be so glaring and ludicrous when two people commit the same felony. Captain George Mfodjoh (Retired) and a man whose alias is Kumasi Rambo engaged themselves in some unsavoury sexual bouts of epic proportions. The former is a law-maker in Ghana’s Parliament charged by his constituency to make laws to punish bad people of which rapists are not exempt. The latter is your normal well-built neighbourhood bully who acts as he pleases. The law-maker finds himself in a sexual mood. He checks around and sees a poor girl; he pounces on this girl, seizes her by the neck, and with a pistol to her head drives her home and assaults her sexually without using a condom—after all this is not a heinous crime since he is a legislator. Kumasi Rambo on the other hand catches a poor girl running to catch a bus and in a brutal manner like we normally witness in Hollywood films, drags this girl begrudgingly to a drinking-bar in front of everybody, grabs a condom from nowhere like a magician and in broad daylight quenches his sexual flame by acting a pornographic film before scary but attentive people reeling between awe and pleasure.

The remarkable thing was while the Rambo was disgraced (of course he blamed the devil for his libido), arrested, charged and finally sentenced to 30 years imprisonment using the laws made by the Captain and his colleagues, the captain was exempted from the incongruous court system which wanted to trial him. The Rambo was a menace and a social misfit who was a great encumbrance to society and so he deserves his 30 years imprisonment. But the Captain is needed in parliament to ensure good laws are enacted so that confounded scoundrels like Rambo can be removed from our neighbourhoods. It is gratifying to realise that colleague legislators of Honourable Mfodjoh acted to allow good sense to prevail. How could any judge worth his salt sit on a preposterous case like that with the purpose of finding the honourable man guilty because he has entered uninvited the legs of a riff-raff who is required by law to open her legs for the facile entrance of prominent people like the Member of Parliament for Ho Central? The collusion by colleague MPs beggars belief, but the fact is that the laws of Ghanaare made to punish people like truck-pushers, farmers, masons, carpenters and the common man and not an MP!

In the end, a study of man can really show that maybe Satan, woman, greed and money are his enemies but they are not as deadly as his sexual volition. Envy, enmity, incompetence, mediocrity and injustice are the vices which co-exist with our libido. And if man believes in God and His Holy Scriptures, it is definitely this uncontrollable sexual inclination which will conduct all of us to hell if there be one. And no matter how convincing our outward holiness is, it is these secret sexual immoralities in private places that “will come before the judgement seat of Christ”! For, if God is a just God—and we know He is—and He did not spare the people of Sodomand Gomorrah, do we think He will pardon those of us who have had the benefit of learning from the downfall of these people?

Thomas Dickens.