The Ancient of Days is one of the very many names people of faith all over the world call the Creator of mankind. From age to age, God is the One who has an exclusive and divine oversight on the ageing process of all created beings. From Ghana to Guyana, from Gabon to Gibraltar, He is ageless, and He towers over every tongue.
It was more than a sloganeering for Americans when they engrafted, “In God we Trust” on their coins in 1864; and then on the paper currencies in 1957. They meant it. But not even the most pious nation can claim a sole “ownership” of the Supreme Being. He is God by Himself. From Kenya to Kiribati; from Korea to Kuwait, the mysterious Creator rules over all tribes; and yet not identified by tribal marks.
No ethnic group can hold God in exclusive embracement; no one can put Him in the cubicle of unshared “ownership”; and no created being can grind down in a gasconade that God springs from his stock. God is not partial but He takes sides in battles to help advance the cause of technological advancement and humanity. Americans are inventing medicines that prevent and cure diseases; the Japanese are creating forays in technology; and the Chinese are innovating beyond human comprehension. God gave them the wisdom.
I have been privileged to travel the world, and have, in varying high and low capacities, worked with citizens from developed nations. Each interaction I have had with other nationals gave me the fact-finding opportunity to ascertain if these men are from Jupiter or Mars. Do citizens of developed nations of the world possess human endowments above and beyond Nigerians? No! Nigerians have globally showcased their cutting-edge cognitive capability, razor-sharp mental aptitude; and imitable, incomparable, unsurpassable cerebral endowment and quick-wittedness.
The ingenuity of Nigerians shakes the lintel in all fields here in the US and around the world. They are stupendously and diligently industrious and prodigiously creative. When I think back to the horde of graduation ceremonies I have attended and blessed in the last 20 years alone, it is gladdening to note how Nigerian children are making waves and not letting up.
Unfortunately however, the womb of the country that conceived these men and women is rottening off with corruption and depraved leadership. The more we strive to move forward, the quicker we doubly strut backwards. And this One God who created the Americans, Japanese, Chinese, and the rest of humanity also breathed Nigerians into existence. Through faulted leadership and docile following, we have taken our destiny from our hands and positioned it under our feet for self-immolation.
Leaders have come and gone and played their parts in the field of history in Nigeria. Some are away in their mansion hideouts, some still hanging around power, and some are gone into the world beyond. While in power, many of them killed us instead of making us live. They bruised us instead of healing us. They robbed us instead of enriching us. As those who came to kill, bruise and rob unleashed their worse, Nigeria is still standing. Soldier-come-soldier go, is a common aphorism in Nigeria. The nation, however, soldiers on. God is a Nigerian, my friend. And this is not a blasphemous submission.
We learnt that the sum of N38tn has been stolen since Nigeria Independence. All our patrimonies have been historically freely heisted and taken abroad. Between May last year and today, purloined funds we were told were recovered by the government. In naira, it was N204.8bn; in dollar $9.275bn; in pounds, £5.92m; in euro, €314.649m. A total of N3tn heisted from a country’s lifeline. It was half of the annual budget of Nigeria; and less than 100 powerful people are behind the Bunco and flimflam. But Nigeria throttles on. God’s got to be a Nigerian.
Pain is growing in the land and yet people are partying hard. I heard that last year alone, about N3bn was spent gulping down on beers. A broke nation has become a beering nation. On the flip side, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, one of the parastatals of Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance reported last week that Nigerians who have more than N500, 000 in their accounts were just two per cent. Men are poor! But one man in Lagos lately donated 700 Toyota Corolla 2016 model to a big church. Between Abuja and Lagos branches of another big church, about N3bn is raked in every month in tithes and offerings. Where did the money come from? I don’t know. What I know is that God’s got to be a Nigerian.
The remuneration for Nigeria’s federal legislators ranks the highest in the world with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum (N64m). Nigerian legislators are the highest paid lawmakers in the world and the least productive all at the same time. We expend a chunk of the nation’s resources to service about 1,000 people who are only serving on papers. You must not forget that almost 120 million people are considered poor and making less than a dollar a day. Nigeria is bled of her precious resources hourly, yet, she still has blood flowing in her veins. They call these men and women “Honourables” to which they proudly answer. A man does not have to be titled “Honourable” to live honourably. Many of these people are men and women of dishonour before God and men.
When the bespectacled dictator, Sani Abacha, ruled with iron hands, almost all the nations of the world abandoned Nigeria. The conclusion of the matter was that this God who is a Nigerian concluded the matter in His own chosen way. Nigeria came out of the trauma and hardship. When God concludes a matter, it becomes conclusive. God’s got to be a Nigerian. When I hear the booming sounds of guns from the creeks of Niger Delta and the blasts from suicide bombers around Sambisa Forest and Maiduguri, I fret and sympathise with those caught in the free-for-all. Nigeria! What keeps her keeping on? Please, agree with me that God’s got to be a Nigerian!
If this God loves us, why don’t we love ourselves? I hope those who are killing in the name of religion stop the madness. I hope leaders who are stealing and pillaging stop the craziness. I hope those who make men work hard without paying them their due salaries stop the oppression. I hope those who lie to us on a daily basis; who call white black, and black white stop the deception. God who is a Nigerian will soon fight for Nigeria. When God fights, no one has the might to fight back!
When I was growing up, inter-tribal affection was palpable in Nigeria. There were misunderstandings, but not at the present frightening and despicable level. That affection is gone. It is lost in the midst of senseless rat race of “everybody-for-himself”. President Muhammadu Buhari is in London seeking respite from a chronic ear infection. I wish him a jet-speed recovery. He will complete his assignment and fulfil his days. It is a height of spiritual ignorance to offer a death wish on a sitting president even if you don’t agree with his politics. Those who wish others death die many times go before them. We must be mindful that it is God who determines whose breath ceases first.
Men who fan the ember of tribal animosity are only fighting for self. War to them is big business so they encourage violence. In wisdom, we must paralyse these fools. Not through aerial bombings of the Niger Delta creeks; not through military adventurism, but through sapience and sagaciousness displayed in equanimity. I am sensing that maybe Buhari became President for such a time as this.
PUNCH
END
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