I AM persuaded that what Nigerians needed most today is prayer. And I am not saying it lightly. It is a call for prayer of restitution: a prayer to invoke all the spirits of the earth and the heavens to look kindly on this bleeding country. We need to appeal to all the Angels, the Anabis, the Orisas, the Irunmoles, the Alales, the Prophets, the Elements and all Ancestral Deities to take a second look at Nigeria and consider the pitiful plight of hapless Nigerians.
I recollect that often times I have declared that God, or whatever name the Supreme Intelligence is called, is tired of Nigeria and He/She/It in fact has been begging people to help beg Nigerians not to put Him/Her/It to death. But I want to plead that at least for the last time before the collapse let us put aside our differences, which are huge, and cry with one voice for the salvation of the country that our forefathers laboured so hard to build. My father of blessed memory used to say that if prayers are not heard nobody would ever bother to pray. I think I agree with him totally that prayers are efficacious. But in the same breath, if prayers are efficacious, curses are also efficacious.
There are hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who rain curses on this country every blessed day. Nigerians who lost perhaps their only child to the poverty of equipment in our hospitals, Nigerians who lost their husbands or wives to the terribly bad roads, Nigerians who spent years in jail for offences they did not commit, or Nigerians who struggled to train six children up to the university level and are still burdened with the daily upkeep of those adult-children are all daily cursing Nigeria and regretting that they were ever born into this unfortunate country.
Can any one blame those who have every cause to curse Nigeria on daily basis? Is not there enough injustice and anguish to provoke bitterness against the country? Is there not enough suffering to make people prefer dying rather than continue to suffer the insanity of their leaders? Is there anything in the horizon for cheer? Are the news being daily churned out not sufficient to drive people crazy and hopeless? We need to pray therefore for a change of heart on the part of our leaders. We need to pray for a change of orientation. We need to pray for a change of attitude. We need to pray that followers should stop being idiotic and timid. We need to pray that Nigerians should be bold to assert their sovereignty and challenge vultures who have sentenced them to perpetual poverty.
Our prayer is not to ask that God should give us electricity or water. God does not give electricity. Amadiora and Jakuta, the famed Gods of thunder and lightning are not needed here. It is the thievery and crass planlessness of successive leaders that have installed darkness on us, not God.
God will not give us good roads. Roads are constructed and maintained by human beings. God will not provide Nigeria with a national Carrier. Our previous visionary leaders provided us with Nigeria Airways. Our visionless rulers destroyed the Carrier and stole all its properties. God will not give us productive education system and world class universities, we had them before. In 1975 University of ife was adjudged by UNESCO as the 12th best University architecturally in the world!
God will not save the dying Naira. Gluttony, mass plundering, economic misdirection and stupid over dependence on oil conspired to send the Naira to ts grave. It has nothing to do with God. Our prayer therefore is not about God saving the Naira or strengthening it.
Let me quickly warn that we should not overburden God or whatever name you call your Creator with issues that do not concern Him/Her/ It. For too often we tend to forget that right from creation human beings were given intelligence and the knowledge to recognise what is bad and what is good and the Free Will to choose either. If for whatever reason all those who found themselves in the position of leadership continue to use their Free Will to swim in badness instead of goodness, it is their palaver, and the domino effect is the suffering their warped leadership imposes on others.
God did not create Federal Character. God did not create JAMB. God did not create single Police Command. God did not create a lopsided Federation. God did not create the money-guzzling and pathologically corrupt Presidential system. God did not create the UNITARY government that has been the greatest bane of this country and its chief driver towards destabilisation and destruction.
God did not create war mongering Militias that are about to suck blood out of the country and snuff life out of her. Human beings created all these monsters. Our prayers therefore are to be directed at all those who were responsible directly or indirectly for the creation of these misfortunes.
I strongly believe that if we immerse ourselves in prayers, apologise to all those numberless god-heads that the country has wronged, and ask that those stiff necks and stone hearted individuals who are parading as our leaders to change their character and orientation, and pray that Nigerians collectively should stop being idiots in the hands of their so-called ‘leaders’ we may be lucky to have a change of heart and a new direction towards salvage.
Perhaps I should quickly add that our leaders should not come round to tell us that they have withdrawn billions of Naira from our Commonwealth to arrange for the prayers. Please leave all those trading in the name of their Gods out of this national prayer. Those roguish pretenders have enough fools in their congregations. Every creature has direct link with their Creator. No intermediary is needed in this project. Let every one approach this project direct from their hearts and believing that their prayers will be answered. And let all those who have been hurt, who have been seriously damaged by the Nigerian system, and those millions who have been denied jobs and sustenance find it in their hearts to forgive Nigeria and stop raining curses on her. A better Nigeria would certainly be better for all of us.
As at now, the omens are bad. Very bad and scary. Anarchy is beckoning. Secession is beckoning. Thank God the Military high Command has dispelled rumours of a coup d’état. Let us pray and hope that all will be well.
Let us pray!!!