Whether you’re the president of this country or the richest man alive, one brutal truth remains: you will die one day. Your title, your wealth, your fame — none of it can buy you even one more breath when your time comes.
Have you ever truly paused to reflect? No matter how intelligent, powerful, or influential you are, death does not discriminate. Presidents, kings, tycoons, and geniuses have all walked this earth — yet none of them could outsmart the grave.
The human journey, if stretched to the extreme, lasts between one to 150 years. That’s it. A blink in the timeline of eternity… One day.
Let me ask you a question that should shake your soul: How are you going to spend your fleeting years between age one and 150?
How many of those luxury cars, sprawling mansions, or fat bank accounts will you take with you into the grave? None. Absolutely none.
Everything you are accumulating will be left behind — even the clothes you’re buried in won’t be yours for long… One day.
“O ma ṣe o! (What a pity!). Asiwere ko oro jo lai mọ̀ pé ohun ko lo máa ná.” (A fool amasses wealth, not knowing he’s the one leaving, not the wealth.)
Why do we deceive ourselves with vanity and pride, forgetting that our time here is running out like grains of sand in an hourglass?
From this moment forward, take a deep, honest look at your life. Who are you? What truly matters? Are you chasing purpose — or shadows?
Life is not a rehearsal. You only get one shot. It’s short, fragile, and unpredictable. Your journey in this world is a countdown — and the clock never stops ticking.
Have you sown love or hatred?
Have you built lives or destroyed them?
Have you lifted others or trampled them underfoot in your pursuit of power?
There is a grave waiting somewhere with your name on it. Cold. Silent. Permanent… One day.
The truth is this: your legacy is not what you store in banks, but what you plant in hearts. The world forgets millionaires. It remembers those who made a difference.
Don’t waste time arguing, scheming, competing over dust.
Serve. Give. Forgive. Love.
That’s what lives on.
We come into this world with nothing — and we will leave with nothing. So why act like gods when we are just passing visitors?
Remember: the same earth that welcomed you will swallow you one day.
So how will you be remembered? As a title? A tyrant? A transformer?
The choice is yours. But the end is the same: We are all going to die… One day.
•Mogaji Arisekola writes from Ibadan.
