The State of Nigeria: Between the devil and the Love of a Nation.
As we go into the new year 2016 I ponder on many things including the state of Nigeria. Why is Nigeria still a fledgling so many years after independence? Why are the people still struggling despite their collective smartness, intelligence, perseverance, and go-getter attitude? And I came to the conclusion that maybe it is not the government but the people themselves. Nigeria surely, needs cleansing in every orifice of its existence.
I watch Nigerian movies sometimes and come out amazed but not so shocked at the atrocities Nigerians commit against themselves. Some people may not believe but some of the things featured in these movies are true. People using other people for money rituals, even their own family members. I know these things work sometimes because when I lived in Nigeria incidents happened to family members that were too close to home: one time, my sister was in a bus and somehow, they were able to make her temporarily deaf and dumb. She came home, did not speak to anybody, and carted away my mother’s jewelry box. When she came back, she still could not speak for several hours. It took a lot of prayers and wailing before she could finally speak. A friend of mine was among the only two survivors in a bus-ride gone “Wrong Turn” on a fateful day in Lagos. She told stories of headless heads and fresh human remains in a big compound somewhere in Badagry. Even my father, with all his prayers was not spared. He had taken a cab one day and found himself in a strange place surrounded by ritualists. They let him go only when the “spirits” told them his karma was too strong for ritual purposes. My father is a fearless man, and I had never seen such fear in his face as he recounted his ordeal that day. My younger brother’s own was traumatic but somehow funny. At Oshodi Bus stop one day, maybe because they could not use him for anything, they then told him to start counting the street lights along the expressway. I can’t even remember how he got home that day but it took the intervention of strangers. And there are numerous stories too good to be true but may be.
A very close friend of mine who lives in the US used to invite me to church but when it is was time to go to church she had switched to another church. And I wondered what she was actually looking for. God, or something else? She also used to travel to Nigeria to see a ritualist who made her perform all kinds of things. A couple of years ago, she told stories about how they went to a three-road intersection at midnight and how the things she saw, including a headless body, would forever keep her awake at night, but all in the name of what. Two years ago, her twenty-something-year-old son mysteriously died while skating, a routine thing he did all the time. Just like that. And I wondered if she’d made a pact with his life.
It is my belief that those who choose to make table with the devil must be ready to sit and eat, and they should not even complain when consequences start flooding in.
Nigerians need to take a hard look at themselves. Even if these things work, I am sure the gods too must be angry at the atrocities being committed in their names. How can a good portion of the population be dabbling in these things and expect the country to be at peace? Indeed, countless souls are crying somewhere, demanding retribution for their early demise in the hands of mere mortals that want to achieve things not with diligence and hard work but with the blood of others. It is common knowledge that some of these so-called pastors also make pacts with the so called gods to flock their congregation and become famous. Fame, at the price of what? A nation?
God is not stupid. He is a living, mighty, all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent, omnipresent, God. He sees all that is going on, and wonder why Nigerians lament. Since they have chosen to use their free will to go the way of the Diablo, what could He do? When men act they must think carefully about the things their acts can wrought, both good and bad. In Nigeria, people become millionaires overnight, and your family start nagging you to make money without wondering where the sudden wealth comes from. Surely, this mentality to subconsciously tread the evil path is what is going on in our politics today.
2016 is four days away. Nigerians, are we ready for recourse? Are we ready to call others to order, or continue to sink deep in the quagmire of rotten acts that will become a detriment to the wellbeing of future generations? Are we ready to take a side, for dark unmentionable things or the light of the true living God? Are we ready to wait our turn, or continue to take innocent lives that are slaughtered and sacrificed for evil intentions? Are we ready?
Time will tell. The gods too must be angry, and God is waiting.