Prayers, Finally Answered

Comfort Obi

With the discovery of a bomb in a church – The United Methodist Church, UMC – in Bauchi, our prayers have finally been answered. We wish ourselves evil. Now, evil is here with us. We talk and write and behave as if we have another country but Nigeria. Anything bad and evil happening in other countries, we claim.
Until the Indian ocean boiled over, triggering a Tsunami that visited disaster and death on countries, most Nigerians had never heard of Tsunami before. But days after the disaster, Nigerians suddenly discovered a fault in the sea bed between Nigeria and Cameroun that could trigger a tsunami. If there is a plane crash in another continent, we make it front page news, with a bold headline, without mentioning where. The idea is to make it look like it crashed in Nigeria. Before one reads the story, and finds out the truth, one’s heart would have done scores of somersaults.
We wish ourselves to be Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan. So, their lot is here with us. And we have no place to hide. Politicians threaten fire and brimstone over nothing. Now, fire and brimstones are with us. With their children abroad, they incite the children of the poor. And they get killed.
When Cotel'd Voire erupted after its presidential elections, politicians in mushroom parties here, whose parties neither control a state, a local government, nor even a council, wished us its fate. With the protest which started in Tunisia, spreading like wild fire to Egypt, Yemen and Jordan, they are wishing that on Nigeria. Do the people in those countries have the type of freedom we have in Nigeria? Has any Nigerian leader ruled for 30 years?
We need to see these politicians for what they are. They are selfish. How can a political party which controls one state, or none at all, suddenly think it could win over 20 states and control the federal government? How can political parties which control three or four states out of 36 states and Abuja, suddenly think it would control the federal government? To even try, they need to stop the propaganda, the lies, the hypocrisy and incitement. And it is not by being a dumping ground for those who lost in other parties.
These politicians, wannabes, and so-called leaders who wish us evil were the same people who, through their utterances and write-ups, invited the late General Sani Abacha to topple Chief Ernest Shonekan's Interim contraption. When Abacha began to show his true colours, they made a u-turn. We condone evil and criminality.
When the agitation in the Niger Delta began, it was justified. The neglect of the region by successive federal governments was criminal. So, it had sympathy. But gradually, the agitators derailed. From agitating for justice and equity, their activities degenerated to criminality. From oil bunkering, they began to import arms. They became gun-runners. They began to kill the old, the young, and children. They introduced kidnapping to us. They began to rape women, and engage in brazen armed robbery and other such atrocities. Instead of telling them that they were crossing the border line, we began to celebrate them in the media. We began to call them freedom fighters. We began to call them progressives. They began to share front-row seats with governors and traditional rulers. They became lords. They told stories of their exploits, and we hailed them. They built mansions in their poverty – ravaged communities, drove around in state of the art convoy of cars, and we hailed them.
In the South east, criminals parading as freedom fighters abound. In the guise of defending the Igbo, they introduced all kinds of crimes. Nobody can forget the mayhem visited on Anambra state by these people. They became a law unto themselves. They carried guns in daylight. The people lived in fear. One vigilante outfit set-up to defend the people against criminals became a terror to the people. They abducted the innocent, jailed and/or killed them. They demanded ransom from people. People were buying protection. One group cheated the Igbo by stopping the people from being counted during the last census exercise. The Igbo population when the census figures were released was scandalous. The Igbo ranked number four. Those who visited this injustice on the Igbo are, today, being celebrated as progressives and activists.
Some of our so-called political leaders, and a few so-called activists grant interviews and talk like they have another country elsewhere. They wish Somali, Iraq and Afghanistan on Nigeria. Now, the kidnappings, gun running, the killings, bombs, and gang wars are here with us. Nowhere is safe. In the South east, kidnapping is the most lucrative business for the youth. Young men (and even women) no longer want to work, or go to school. People get abducted even from the House of God. They visit untold hardship on their people. The Igbo should be ashamed that the Niger Delta where kidnapping began is now safer than the South east. But in all these, the North takes the cake.
When I was growing up, the impression was that the North is safe. That the people are honest. When I was posted to Bauchi for my National Youth Service, having lived all my life in the South east, my excitement knew no bounds. I made friends. As an Anglican, I went to church every Sunday. During the Lenten season, I went to church every evening. I was worshiping at the Cathedral. Nobody harassed me. I had fun. No longer. Politicians have corrupted the people. For selfish reasons, they have thought them who is a Christian, and who is a Muslim. Parents from the South worry when their children are posted to the North, especially, Plateau, Bauchi, and Bornu states, for their Youth Service. They may get killed for being Southerners, and especially, for being Christians. In 2010, three of them were slaughtered in Jos. Still, we are children of the same God. We all pray to make heaven. Yet, people are slaughtered in their worship places. Churches and mosques are, without any fear of God, set on fire, or bombed. It is crazy.
These criminals want to scare us from going to the House of God. We should not let them. We should tell them that Nigeria belongs to all of us. We are proud of our country, a big country, envied by neighbours and non neighbours. We are blessed with oil and all sorts of mineral, and human resources. We are proud of all these. But if the desire of these people is for Nigeria to break-up, why not? All well and good. But we can do so peacefully. If everybody is killed, who will these people rule. Who will they lead? Lord, have mercy!