It is another Monday again, fresh from a very eventful weekend (both worldwide and personally). Let’s talk worldwide; we all know what happened in Lebanon, France, and then France again (we don’t all know). These are sad days; luckily we are not all sad people, that brings us to the point of this message – sad people.
Over the weekend, the normal ones among us chose to register our solidarity with the people of Paris (and France generally), a few of us heard about Beirut too and we showed a little concern; but some sections of the populace did not see reasons with us – and went as far as faulting us for being sympathetic to foreign problems when we had similar issues troubling our nation… bla bla bla. I really think this is sad. Terrorism is a bad thing, all bad things need to be unitedly condemned and fought with the help of all possible resources (in this case, our voices) wherever it may be.
So we prayed for Paris and questions arose, like “When last did you pray for Nigeria”? Well personally, I did so the last time I prayed – which was this morning (like every other morning including Saturday morning before I heard the news of Paris). To be able to come up with such a question is a clear sign that they (the accusers) do not pray for Nigeria (well, except there’s a crisis).
We cannot overstate the importance of praying for our motherland. I remember back then whenever my mother was not alright, the whole house was not alright and we tried to avoid situations that would make her “un-alright”. Nigerians need to spend less time pointing out people who are more concerned with foreign issues and do something helpful other than talk (or type). Truly, it cannot be totally well with us when it is not well with our beloved country (1Timothy 2:1-4, Jeremiah 29:7), admittedly, we often fail at this duty; but the guilt of negligence should not be channelled in only one direction. Typically in Nigeria, if you are not in Adamawa or have family or friends there, you do not care much what happens there. Don’t get me wrong, we are good people, but don’t be surprised when a Nigerian person says thank God it’s not here when you tell them a bomb went off in the next state.
In Port Harcourt for example, you walk into a bank and you see on the TV, CNN to be specific (they are always watching CNN or Channels TV) that there has been another bombing in some village in Yobe state with a difficult – to – pronounce name. The guy in front of you on the line says something about Hausas killing each other, the old lady behind you who happens to be Yoruba says some other things that end with “thank God for this side sha”. Getting out of there and turning on your radio; you’ll be confronted with an argument that will one way or the other involve Gov. Wike and his predecessor Amaechi. This would go on for hours, and perhaps they’ll finally say something about it on the evening news. But somehow the death of some guy who is a member of ISIS will make the news in record time.
I do not know why this is, but it represents the fact that our problems are deeply rooted and not necessarily composed on twitter last Saturday. Therefore, leave us be. Allow us to pray for Beirut, France and France again. Tragedies happen, and I believe (as a Christian) that prayers are always needed by victims of such. As for my country, Nigeria; I pray for her every day, I hope one day she’ll get well. But getting angry at us for praying for Paris will not help her. Why not try praying for her too. Prayers won’t finish.
Personally too, this is mostly what I was going to say.
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