Nigeria: One Death Too Many

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 am particularly saddened by the Dana Airways plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday the 3^rd of June 2012.  I received the news of the crash on Sunday evening with total shock, I was worried and upset. This should not happen again, no not again, not now and not ever. I tried to convince myself no one had died. How could anyone die on a day a paedophile just slammed his car yet again into a church in the northern part of Nigeria killing God knows how many people and a cargo flight crashed in Ghana only a day earlier killing 10 people.

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.

I am scared and worried, as much as I hate to say this; ‘many more Nigerians will die.’ I can hear you saying; God forbid, To fia kwa, Olorun maje, I reject it in Jesus name and many more of our usual parlances.  Everything about Nigeria is just a joke, we joke with our lives, we joke about God, we have best comedians in Government and every corners of the country is full of several ‘I go dyes.’ How on earth can people live their lives the way we do, with no regards for anything and at the end of the day we pray to God to set us free from the problems He (God) did not cause in the first place? We do not need to wait for Prophet TB Joshua to predict another death before we know it is coming.

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. 

Do you suppose God is happy with all the many people who died in that plane crash, there are professionals, diplomats, government officials, businessmen, and even men and women working for God. This could not have been caused by God.  Until we change our mindset and take God out of it, them many more of us will die.  We need to put God aside and take our lives in our hands, God has done his bits, he has breathed the breath of life and commanded us to go and live our lives, It is now up to us how we live it.  God will not give us life and live our lives for us; this is where we all get it wrong.  Nigerians need to take their lives in their own hands, leave God out of this, because God has done what he ought to do. Let’s come together as a nation to repair all the damages.

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.

Abiola Olaifa writes (abiolla@gmail.com , www.abiolla.com )