I read on page 5 of The PUNCH Newspaper of November 14, 2016 about a young man of 29 years who was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by an Osogbo Magistrate Court on November 14, 2016. What was his offence? He stole 10 bowls of uncooked rice valued at N8,000 and four bottles of wine valued at N10,000. The suspect pleaded guilty and so should be on his way to jail, if not there already!
While I do not support any act of stealing, it just beats my imagination that the people that stole and mismanaged Nigeria’s wealth and made Fatai Ganiyu steal basic food item like a few bowls of rice are walking freely! A few of them have returned a token of their loot. More disturbing is the fact that only God knows whether the returned loot is being properly accounted for and used to solve the problem of the common man!
Ah! There was no Senior Advocate of Nigeria to argue that the young man might have been moved by hunger and serious penury. The magistrate worked according to the books. The poor man is on his own! No plea bargain, no human rights activist is required to fight for him since he has no value to them! For daring to steal to stay alive, that man would now bear the mark of an “ex-convict” for life! A Nigerian president once told us that stealing is not the same as corruption. Is this fair?
This case makes me remember the prayer of the wise King Solomon in Proverbs 30:8-9 that reads: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.”
We may not know how and when but for sure, God will not want the likes of Ganiyu to challenge Him of injustice and that’s why no matter how long it takes, those that stole and/or are stealing our national wealth should know that God is watching and a day of reckoning will soon come! The same God that is watching when a person that stole is sent to jail will be there with no mercy when corrupt souls receive their judgement.
Next time you are tempted to enrich yourself at the detriment of others, please remember that the blood of all souls affected by your theft will cry for vengeance against you!
Punch
END
Be the first to comment