God is counting on Nigerians to fix Nigeria
In the wake of the bloody week Nigeria has been through; the brutal murders by Fulani herdsmen in Jos and the bloody tanker explosion in Lagos, I stumbled upon this image on social media. Tagged along was the caption "pray for Nigeria". Underneath followed a host of similar comments; "God save Nigeria", "God come to our rescue", "God help Nigeria" etc.
About 10 years ago, I was driving in Abeokuta; the state capital of Ogun State, Nigeria. I hit a few potholes and this immediately triggered an outburst of complaints. My friend who was by my side in normal Nigerian fashion said: "only God can save us".
I am Christian, in Nigeria being religious is "popular demand". With an average of a church per street, an estimate of the number of churches alone in Nigeria stands at mammoth heights. This made it easy for me to relate with all the pleas for divine intervention which followed that social media post. But I have a school of thought which has evolved with time, so underneath the posts, I added a comment that read "If prayer was the answer, things would have changed".
As expected, I received criticism enough to drown a whale. In a "religious" society, one doesn’t just make such stupid statements. But honestly, I wasn’t refuting the efficacy of prayer. I pray, I even understand how confusion and hopelessness give you a need to seek out God. This, unfortunately, has become the default setting of a whole nation.
Genuine friends of mine took it upon themselves to send private messages. Their messages all bore the same tone - Don’t you feel sad about these events? Don’t you feel sorrow for the bereaved? Don’t you believe God can save us? My answer remained I do, I do, I do. Then they go on to ask, why do you feel prayer is not the answer?
Religion and foolishness share a common border. This makes straying across commonplace. One devotes its time to seeking help by relentless appeal to God, the other believes God equipped him with a sound mind, intelligence, and courage, so as to be able to take control of his situation. My statement "If prayer was the answer, things would have changed", was just a reminder to get out of our prayer houses, act like real patriots and save our country. Foolishness is repeatedly doing the same thing in hope of a different result. If our overdose of prayer hasn’t changed a thing, we should seek a different approach.
William Butler Yeats wrote:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
I feel these words very well come to life. In a week shaken by murder in mass amounts and gruesome accidents as witnessed in Lagos, it’s hard to imagine how much wider apart things can ever fall. The conviction of the best is shaken and perhaps lost, the tears shed from hearts turn away in grief and hopelessness become merely an outward representation of the depths of anarchy.
It’s time for this nation that so often finds unity in appeal to God, to find unity in purpose, to find unity in leadership, to see beyond tribe and ethnicity, and for the first time in decades cease to be short-sighted and find unity in governance.
The next months will be critical in determining how much we have learned. If we vote for parties, or for tribes, our brothers or sisters, then we might as well be spitting on the graves of all those lives lost to an era of turbulence. Prayers will not change a thing, as long as we would not change our orientation. Nigeria has an overdose of God already, what Nigeria lacks is true Nigerians.
In my bid to write and inspire us to greatness I have written on the topic “How Do You Love A Nation That Never Loved You?” You should take a read and I hope you will draw inspiration from it as well.