By Rev. Fr John Damian Adizie
Our beloved country, Nigeria, has gradually become a land flowing with tears and human blood; a land where people are no longer feeling secured. Dear reader, how did you feel seeing the lifeless bodies of 73 innocent Nigerians being driven round Makurdi metropolis in a motorcade of five trailers and six ambulances? How did you feel when these 73 Nigerians were being lowered down into the grave one after the other? Have you ever thought of the orphans and widows of these victims?
Remember, we are not just talking about 73 cows here. We are not even talking about 73 log of woods. Ra-ther 73 able men and wom-en, innocent Nigerians. As you know, without God’s grace, it could be anybody or anywhere, as long as Nigeria is concerned.
Any attempt to justify these killings is worse than the killings itself. Even if we succeed in convincing the world that these deaths were caused by communal clashes, that does not justify their killings. The fact remains, inno-cent Nigerians were brutally sla-ughtered like ani-mals and yet no single suspect was arrested. Ev-en at that, I exp-ected the Feder-al government to, at least, declare a day of mourning for these innocent Nigerians. Imagine, if it were to be a politician, I am sure, the national flag would have been lowered and a public holiday declar-ed to mourn the deceased. I even expected all Nigerian churches and mosques to, at least, observe a minute of silent prayer for these innocent souls—but who cares? After all, Benue State is not any other state. So, let the dead bury their deads.
While commenting on this ugly situation, Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue State lam-ents: “Our sons and daught-ers, pregnant wives, child-ren, fathers and mothers were slaughtered like ani-mals…” Unbelievable! Did I hear pregnant women? This is the most barbaric act in the history of human-ity. In most cases no one is allowed to kill women and children during war. Only a heartless and barbaric coward can lay his bloody hands on innocent women and children; how much more vulnerable pregnant women. This is an abomina-tion! The land of Nigeria has been desecrated. Niger-ia should not just declare a day of mourning, it should even declare a period of cleansing. The land of Nig-eria must be cleansed through prayer, fasting and mourning to avoid future recurrence.
As the blood of innocent souls keep flowing, I don’t know if you have ever asked yourself, what is happening in Nigeria? What is respon-sible for the Nigerian econ-omic recession? Why are Nigerian youths trooping out of Nigeria? Why do we have more Internally Displ-aced people in Nigeria whereas Nigeria is yet to be declared a warring nation? What is responsible for the in-crease in fuel prize? What ha-ppened to our precious Nai-ra? What about the prize of ordinary bag of rice? Why are Nigerians busy killing them-selves? What about the conse-quences of these bloodshed?
The wages of sin, according to St. Paul, is death” (Romans 6:23). We don’t need anybody to tell us that we, Nigerians, have sinned and whatever we are suffering in Nigeria today is as a result of our sin. When Cain slaughtered his brother, Abel, he did not go unpunish-ed. The Lord God said to him, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cur-sed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth” (Gen. 4:10-12). As our Lord Jesus Christ right-ly declares, “all who take the sword will perish by the swo-rd” (Matthew 26:52). The wic-ked will not go unpunish-ed!
Unfortunately, there are divergent views among Nigerian Men of God, while so many of them are silent and indifferent over the killings in Nigeria, so-me are beginning to pray for vengeance and even en-courage their members to fight back. However, no amount of anger, curses or even vengeance will solve the problem we are facing right now. Two wrongs can-not make a right. Instead, the Lord offers a way for-ward through the author of Chronicles.
In a situation like ours, the Lord declares, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (II Chroni-cles 7:14). Humility, prayer and repentance is the only way forward. As we turn to God and humble ourselves in prayer, God will forgive us; He will deliver us from bloodshed and He will surely heal our land, in Jesus name.
Amen!
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