This week sets the tone for a time of goodwill, a season of love and triumph of the human spirit over the power of darkness. It is therefore not a time to read from the book of Lamentation, which has never been identified anywhere as a strategy for either personal or national development. So, I would like to send a message of goodwill to Nigerians today in this season of anomie. Permit me therefore to preach on a subject we hardly invest in here – HOPE. Most of us think we don’t have hope of a better tomorrow given the myriad of challenges we have at this moment when we are supposed to be celebrating some remarkable change.
At this time of gloom, HOPE can’t be a popular word in any case. But as a man of God, the God of man has asked me to tell my people that there is a glimmer of hopefor the most populous black nation on earth, Nigeria. I see hope. Yes hope, despite the fire on many mountains, it shall come to pass that Nigeria, yes Nigeria, will lend to nations. And people from many powerful nations will queue up to obtain the Nigerian passport. I see hope. Let’s forget about the rampaging corruption in the land at the moment. Let’s ignore those who celebrate phony integrity over competence. Let’s celebrate restructuring of the federation that our leaders fool themselves about: they always laugh at us in their meetings. They think we can’t get federalism. Don’t worry. I see hope, Ngugi wa Thiong’o saw years ago when he declared in one of his classics, I always quote that, ‘Hope of a better tomorrow is the only comfort you can give to a weeping child’.
I declare again as an oracle of God, ‘It is well with Nigeria whether the thieves of state, the wicked ones at all levels like it or not. The Lord has asked me to warn the wicked who think they are prospering at the moment. Our God has asked me to declare to them that, ‘the wickedness of the wicked shall soon come to an end’ in Nigeria. It is a good land. Oh yes, a good land that will sooner than later celebrate the majesty of democracy and the law, whether the Generals who have sustained the Federal Republic of the(ir) Nigerian Army’ like it or not. We will sing redemption songs, yes, songs of freedom soon by His grace. This gloom, this present and clear danger too will pass. Nigeria shall be free. Don’t give up. Don’t curse the country.
Don’t open your mouth to join some ignorant people who can’t see the hope that I see: Don’t say, ‘Nigeria is finished’ because of the wicked rulers at the moment. They can use N37 billion to renovate phase 1 of a parliament building built with only N10.7 billion. There is power in the spoken word! Please, join us the blessed optimists to declare ‘God bless Nigeria’. Join the tribe of intercessors who pray fervently for the end of principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places in Nigeria. The One who created Nigeria by His powers and outstretched hands has assured me through His engrafted words that because He created the blacksmith that blows the coals in the fire and even created the wasters to destroy, no weapon fashioned against Nigeria by wicked politicians shall prosper. I am told to see nothing but HOPE, yes HOPE of a better Nigeria soon and very soon.
Don’t be despondent to join anyone who declares in Nigeria that, ‘blessed are you if you are hopeless, for you shall not be disappointed’. No, No, I see hope. I see revolution in digital technologies. I see explosion in an agribusiness and all the value chains. I see hope. Don’t worry. Be not discouraged about our leaders who can’t manage their homes and politics in their home states even as national leaders. This too shall pass. It is good that we have discovered at this time that they, after all, had neither integrity nor capacity to lead us at this time. We, in the Office of the Citizen, are aware of your concern that it is difficult at this time to see how democracy can thrive in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. Don’t worry! Invest in this big thing called HOPE. Don’t lose it. I know you want to tell me why it isn’t easy to invest in HOPE when somebody is rounding off writing a book on ‘Triumph of recklessness’in a jurisdiction where you are asking people to invest in a pearl called HOPE. I know you want to ask me whether that doesn’t amount to casting one’s pearl before a swine. Don’t worry. Just cast your bread upon this water. After many days, you will find it more precious!
Let me tell you some little, simple things about this precious gift called HOPE. Let’s explore why it is so important at this time.
I have been reflecting on hope a great deal lately. Hope isn’t rational. It doesn’t make sense as an anonymous writer on Noemiphotograhy once noted. Hope sees beyond the obvious. Hope may seem naive. But without hope, what else do we have? My research reveals the following facts about HOPE.
Faith and hope are closely linked, but different. Hope is a precursor to faith. While faith is believing and trusting in something that you cannot see, hope is imagining that there is something there to even believe and trust in. It is the belief in what could be. Hope redefines what is probable and opens the paths to the impossible. For example, faith is putting your trust in God to help in a financial difficulty, but hope opens the door to even let yourself consider that there may be a way out of your problem. Without hope, there can be no faith, because we would not even stoop to pray about those things we could not imagine.
Proverbs 13:12 tells us, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Put simply: hope involves the will to get there, and different ways to get there.
More on why hope important: Well, life is difficult. There are many obstacles. Having goals is not enough.
One has to keep getting closer to those goals, amidst all the inevitable twists and turns of life. Hope allows people to approach problems with a mindset and strategy-set suitable to success, thereby increasing the chances they will actually accomplish their goals.
Even in this world, hope still remains strong on the list of human needs. It is like a single candle during the night: it gives light for us to continue on and find the way out of the darkness. This light of hope burns so strongly in the hearts of some. Hope is all we need to keep on living. It is the foundation to build one’s life upon. It is a commitment to continue to struggle, creates endurance and strength in a person. Otherwise he or she is simply sitting back and wishing away his or her life.
Wait for this, because of hope some people take action and decide what will become of their life. People must also accept finite disappointment, but must never lose infinite hope, because in life there will be many failures, but without hope, there will never be a single achievement. Hope is a very necessary component of everyday life. We must never give up and never think that our goal is impossible or too hard to attain. If everyone thought that the goals that they had set in life were too difficult, there wouldn’t be any of the great inventions today, and this world would be a much different place. Hence, hope will always be the road map and light to the darkest path of life. It will be one’s guide on his or her path to happiness.
Hope lifts my eyes. Hope let’s me see what could be. Hope tells me there is more. Hope forces me to keep walking, searching, longing, loving…hope leads to faith.
That’s why hope is so important to us. Believing in ourselves or in the people around us will bring disappointment. But, allowing hope to lead us to faith means that life is about more then us and our lives. It’s about things eternal. You can see the power of HOPE. You can see the reason for investment in it at this perilous time.
According to Franklin D. Roosevelt, “We…hold to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” We are talking about ‘a living hope; a life giving hope; a hope that sees beyond our current troubles. Don’t quit. Don’t rush to Canada. It is not your country. Have just a ray of hope in Nigeria. Don’t leave it politics and policies to the mediocrities, the dealers who parade themselves as leaders now. Get involved in any spheres you can influence either in private or public sector.
Don’t ask for the Barnabas anymore. Don’t ask for a good man anymore. Just be a good man or woman wherever you are. Be the example you want Nigeria to be. I repeat stop reading the ‘Book of Lamentation’. Look for men, women, prophets and messengers of HOPE!
Power Of Hope From University Of Maiduguri!
There is indeed a remarkable story of hope of a better Nigeria from the University of Maiduguri the other day that judicial reporters curiously missed. Despite the Boko Haram’s ghastly attacks that have at different times affected the University of Maiduguri’s academic calendar and exodus of students and lecturers the university still recorded two first class graduates at the recent Law School unified, final Bar Examination and Call to Bar. Specifically, Ms Sarah Atumga Jeta from Gwosa area, near Chibok who was in Enugu Campus of the Nigerian Law School made a First Class. The second first class graduate from UNIMAID is Mr. Douglas Magaji Tswanoemo who hails from Taraba State. Kudos to the two courageous Nigerians who have faith in one of the old generation universities in Nigeria despite all odds. They didn’t run away. A pat on the back of the Management and Governing Council of the University too for sustaining high standard despite deadly terror attacks that haven’t actually subsided in the area. Ms Atumga and Mr. Tswanoemo represent the triumph of hopeover fearof a better Nigeria. They are true children of the God of Hopewho will continue to direct their noble cause!
Be the first to comment