Nigeria at war with itself, we must pray, By Henry Oqua

“Whether they are called communal clashes in the English language, or acts of terror, we have them everywhere now.”

First of all, I want to apologise to all the people who have had their lives torn to pieces by the act of savagery called terrorism. My fellow Nigerians, I have been very insensitive to our collective plight. I have taken for granted your misery. I have read, listened, and watched coverages of these incidents, with a detached mind which no one should do.

You see, with every story, I grew a certain numbness to your pain. With every bomb scare or actual explosion, I have tried to look from afar off. This I did, so as to keep my sceptic and cynical mind in check. I did this to see if I could analyse it and come up with a logic to the whole chaos. I must tell you that I’ve failed at that woefully.

It’s so easy to be detached as I’ve been till now, sitting pretty in Abuja, feeling “safe” in my own little world. Believing that it’ll end before it gets to me or people I know. Well, it has gotten here faster than I had imagined.

It used to be in far away Afghanistan that we heard of bomb blasts. Then it got closer to Northern Africa. When it hit Borno, I shamelessly felt that was far enough. No sooner than it hit Borno, it engulfed the entire north-eastern Nigeria. It soon spread to the north-west, and now it’s all over the North.

Whether they are called communal clashes in the English language, or acts of terror, we have them everywhere now.

With the incessant kidnapping down south, endless cases of rape in the south-west, farmers Vs herdsmen in the middle-belt region, we are in a full scale war.

More souls have been lost in the May Day bombing in Abuja. There is no gain saying that if we don’t pray now, many more will be lost. Who knows, maybe I will be a victim of the next one.

No matter what deity one worships, no matter what tribal marks we may carry on our faces, we have blood running in our veins, and as a result we are compelled to feel pain.

Tell me whatever you may, no religion supports or approves of one person taking the life of another for any reason whatsoever. Out of ignorance, some people have had reason to believe what people who actually don’t know better than themselves have had to say about terrorism and religion.

My faith is irrelevant if I cannot respect the sanctity of that one thing that I cannot give which is life.

I dare to say right now that the act of terrorism in itself, is a battle between God who created all flesh, and the devil who seeks to belittle God’s perfect creation which is man.

History is full of instances where man has been made to look like he created himself; believing that he (for some deluded reason) is better than another.

We must realise, as a country, that we owe it to our God to respect the life He has given us in His infinite wisdom. We must realise that the people who are responsible for this heart-aching terror cannot be categorised under any other group of humans. They are the workmen of the devil. They seek only one thing and that is the goal of destroying what God made and placed on-top of all other creations of His.

Now more than ever, we need to pray. However we think we can connect to God, let’s use it. Let us stop to suffer in silence, believing that He surely knows and sees. We must call on His name in any language we know, and I believe He will quickly rescue us.

Our biggest mistake as a country has been in our chasing a mirage called “Government”, to solve this act of evil.

We have sought to use logic to explain our pain. We have leaned on philosophy and mathematical reasoning too long.

None of those can save us, ONLY God can.

If only we will agree to pray to Him. In whatever language we may understand, if only we would yield ourselves to Him, He will rescue us.

To some more sound minds at this time, I may be wrong but I dare to say that history agrees with me.

We have a leadership that has left many of us disillusioned, and it’s not an act of cowardice to say we may have this same one for a while longer.

But I do believe that if we pray, if we collectively ask God to come to our rescue, He’ll change our situation in a way even the most intelligent mind cannot phantom.

May the souls of the dearly departed rest in peace.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land,” 2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV

 

Follow Henry Oqua on twitter: @henryoqua