Oh! I weep for my country.
My dear friends, I must be honest with you today, I would have preferred not to be here to talk to you or write this article to you to read.
Today, I would have preferred to lock myself up in my room before God alone to weep and to pray. To weep and pray for my nation where darkness has descended.
To weep and pray for my families and friends that are killed and taken out of existence in the world and also in my country Nigeria.
To weep and pray for Miss Deborah Emmanuel who was killed because she found herself in a part of Nigeria she thought was home but was not.
To weep and pray for my Bishop and my lordship, Bishop Matthew Hasan Kuka the world acclaimed voice of the voiceless, who has now become soft target for those same voiceless people who sees him as part of their problems rather than as part of the solution.
To weep and pray for the poor miserable murderers of Miss Deborah Emmanuel who have been left uneducated and unemployed delibrately so that they can be manipulated, brainwashed and instrumentalized for political ends by religious bigots and political egoists.
To weep and pray for people who should be leaders, religious leaders who enjoy being ambivalent in the condemnation of people when it is perpetuated by one of them.
To weep and pray for our political leaders under whose watch this nation has crumbled and they keep looking for who to blame for their mess which they have put all of us.
I would have preferred not to write this article to you now, to tell you about love, the word of God instructs every Christian and every Christian preacher to reflect on the essence and meaning of Christianity, the love we should have for one another, but how can you preach love in Nigeria?
How can you preach love in a country where violence has become a rule? Where hatred and intolerance have become norms rather than acceptance?
Where corruption has become a culture and tradition, where impunity has become law?
Where the government feels so helpless that it is now appealing to even to religious leaders to talk to non-state actors so that they will not make insecurity situations in our country worse. Those were the words of the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when he was speaking to all the Catholic bishops of West Africa gathered in a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
You could be wondering how the presidency could admit that they have lost control, that they have left the ground so free and the country so lawless and so stateless that non-state actors now take over the entire country not only in Sokoto, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Kaduna, on the highway between Kaduna and Abuja or between Abuja and Lokoja, etc but throughout the country.
How can you preach love in Nigeria, in a country where those who want to follow the rule of law are regarded by the rest as weak?
How can you preach love in Nigeria, in a country that claims not have any state religion but constantly places a religion in an unhealthy advantage against the others?
How can you preach love in Nigeria where a few people have collected what belongs to everybody and they are doing with it what ever that pleases them?
How can I tell Nigerian students to love their neighbours, love their country, love their leaders when their parents have paid their school fees, paid their hostel accommodations and they are back home sitting at home because of strike. In a country where the ruling party within a space of less than two weeks can rake in from 27 persons 26.3billion naira collected as fees for Presidential nomination forms and the same ruling party is unable to finance our education properly such that our teachers are at home and our students are roaming the streets?
How can you preach love in Nigeria, in a country where members of the the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria (ASUU) have collaborated with Independent Electoral Commission in Nigeria (INEC) to install misfits in power in the country because the have collected money, all the electoral officers who install the present ruling class in Nigeria are professors of our universities and members of ASUU and INEC chairman for many decades have been a member of ASUU. So who do we blame?
How can you preach love in Nigeria, in a country where forgiveness is regarded as weakness, in a country where when you bring the light, you are accused of exposing darkness, in a country where when you love, you are seen as being stupid.
I would have preferred to stay indoor and weep and pray for my country but I CAN'T!
Ponder on this as you get your permanent voter's card (PVC) ready to cast your vote next year... Let's make our country Nigeria great again. Have a beautiful day.🙏 Rafd9828.
