Rest In Peace.
To all souls lost in the Dana
Air Crash and others.
One death is a tragedy, a
million death is a statistics. (Josef Stalin, 1879 - 1953)
I waited patiently to get the confirmation, then CNN broke the news I was
not looking forward to. A plane carrying 153 passenger has just crashed
in Nigeria and none of the passengers’ survived. No not again! I made for
the kitchen to get a cup of tea; I still could not believe this is true. I
switched on my laptop and straight to facebook, to my staggering
disappointment, there are many horrific picture of the accident scene being
published on the newsfeed. I tried to hold my breath for a few seconds; I could
not help, but weep for the soul of the departed and for Nigeria.
I am beginning to think Nigeria as a nation is currently under a curse, a
curse not orchestrated by the witches and wizards, not cults or the devil as we
all proclaim. This curse I am talking about is the one orchestrated by
every one of us. A curse that has entangled the nation like the spiders
cobweb and until we started breaking free from the cobwebs; there may yet be
more of us to die.
The curse I am talking about is not the type put on us by household
wickedness and our enemies. This is a curse we have all inherited by merely
being a Nigerian, a nation with no value for life. We have inherited this
curse and fail to break free from it. This curse does not exclude the
highly placed, the pastors, imans and alfas or the ordinary people on the
street. The curse I am talking about is the type caused by our total
disregard for the norms and discipline that is required to run a worthy life.

Boko Haram is saying they are killing for God, Kidnappers are kidnapping
because God has made them do it, Police men and armed robbers are slaughtering
Nigerians because God permitted it, our bad roads are claiming lives daily,
because God hand is in every death. The Dana Plane has crashed because
God permitted it. Avoidable diseases are killing our children and mothers
because God is happy with it. We are fast to say these sad events are
caused by the devil, but not without Gods permission. Are we literally saying
that God is subject to the devil or the devil is subject to God? Do we need God
or the devil to prevent disasters? Must we need God to teach us how to
follow traffic rules, fix our dilapidated cars and take them off the road when
they are not road worthy? Must God teach us not to fly an Aeroplane not air
worthy? Must God teach us not to be cruel and murder ourselves daily? Is God
the reason our shameless leaders continue to steal our treasury dry and pay
huge tithe to our churches. The name God has been blasphemed far too much. We
are all simply waiting for the next ‘bad breaking news’, what a way to live our
lives.
We all wait for disasters to happen before thinking for a way to prevent
them; I just can’t but ask why we are so careless? The most ridiculous
part that I find utterly disturbing is our quickness in submitting to fate,
when bad things happen; we say it’s the devil at work and when it’s good we say
its God, but in all we thank God for making the calamity happen anyway, because
if God has not permitted it, the evil would not have happened in the first place.
What a paradoxical way to reason.
Nigeria is becoming synonymous with murders; people are killed daily in
circumstances that can be avoided. The roads are unsafe, the rails system
is none existent and the air is a time bomb. There is gross kidnapping,
armed robbery and even people are killed in the peaceful corner of their
houses. You do not need to be law-breaker or murderer to be killed in
Nigeria; people are killed without any provocation. Nigeria has become the new
Sodom and Gomorra, except something is done urgently; the nation may be getting
close to extinction.
This is calling on all Nigerians to come together at this moment of
mourning, let’s take a deeper reflection, this is not a time to blame anyone or
throw tantrums; it is the time to re-appraise ourselves. Are we really human?
Is Nigeria a mistake laid on a wrong foundation from on-set? What can each one
of us change around us? Do we need our Government before we can do what is
right with ourselves? Nigeria is our collective responsibility and we all
need to come together in change if we hope to build a nation we can be proud
of.