Do Not Disdain The One You Have

Do Not Disdain The One You Have Òwe Yorùbá (Yorùbá Proverb)

"Bi a ko ba i ti da asọ le asọ, a ki i pekan lekisa"

Translation: "If one is yet to have a new cloth the person ought not to call any of the existing ones rags"

Engineer Ogunleye and Children

Application: If we are yet to make appreciable progress in a new thing or project, we should not disdain those ones on hand, what we however need to do is to learn how to manage/utilize the ones we have. Take as instance, a contractor, Zion contractor, has been awarded a contract, by one of the private universities in the land, although the contract does not exceed one million naira. Assuming it was about three weeks ago that Zion contractor won this contract and he has been waiting for the mobilization fee, but he is yet to receive the mobilization fee so that he will start in earnest the work. In the meanwhile, let us assume as he expects this mobilization fees, another advert was placed on the pages of the dailies and the internet that the government of the nation wants to execute some projects worth hundreds of millions of naira and he wants contractors to bid for the project. Zion contractor having looked at the requirements for the contract to be awarded discovered that he is qualified to bid for the contract too and so he bided for the contract, but he was yet to win the contract. While running around to monitor the progress of the contract, the University that awarded him the earlier contract of about a million naira started calling him to come for the mobilization fees so that the project will start, but he was ignoring them because of the hundreds of millions of naira contract that he yet to win, the Zion contractor may at the end of it all lose the new contract and while dillydallying on collecting the mobilization fee from the private University, he may lose that too because he has not applied wisdom. This is why it is said that, if one has not achieved a new feat over the past one, one should not call the one that he already has insignificant, one should value and protect it.

Awarded Building Contract

It is a proverb that calls all to becareful on how one handles what one thinks is no longer relevant for all you know it may be all you will have as you may not get the new one you are aspiring to have.

This proverb is good for students who wants to change a course to another course but who is already studying a course in one of the higher institutions, such a student should not because he has applied neither sit for another entrance examinations for a new course belittle the course he is studying at that point in time because for all he or she knows he may not be admitted by the new institution and if he has belittle it and failed to do the assignments and tests as he ought to, he may not have good grade or even be expelled from the course.

Thus, whatever anyone has in his or her hands such a one should ensure that he guides the thing well until the new one and perhaps better one he is expecting arrives.