For there to be a national rebirth, each one of us must have a personal re-examination of conscience. This is time for deep introspection. Search yourself, search your mind. What have I been doing? In what way have I contributed to our collective national shame and sorrow? Every nation or kingdom on earth is established for a purpose. And every nation or kingdom is set up by the authority of God. God rules in the affairs of men in ways beyond human comprehension. Sin is an offense against God and neighbour. Sin has various dimensions. There is sin of thought. There is sin of deed. There is sin of inaction or omission. There is sin of outrage, sacrilege, and indifference. There is personal sin. There is national sin. There is institutional sin. All personal and national sins combined together to weigh a nation and its people down, and ultimately destroy them! "Righteousness exalts a nation. But sin brings reproach" (Proverbs 14:34). Sin brings shame and disgrace. Sin brings destruction and hatred. Sin is at the root of every pride, greed, envy, jealousy, lust, wrath, laziness, killing and destruction, and other vices. All sins are product of the heart. Sin originate from a polluted heart. The people of Nigeria have, for long, been bedeviled with too many vices.
Problem of Nigeria is not only about visionless, incompetent, corrupt and greedy leaders. It is also about terrible followership! Each set is as vicious, wicked and ungodly as the other set.
A little scenario played out these few days. Food meant as Covid-19 palliatives, for the people under Covid-19 lockdown for seven months running, was not distributed to the people dying of hunger. Political leaders locked these foodstuffs away in various warehouses and maintained deaf ears over people’s cries of hunger, scarcity and high cost of food in the land. It shows how very low level we are running in genuine charity towards one another. It seems to me that the primary sin of Nigeria is sin against charity! Charity is the sum total of every virtue. It is the summary of all laws. We are disobedient people. We never obey even our own rules and laws! Government calls the looters, “hoodlums.” Someone says, “No, they are not “hoodlums,” They are “foodlums!” Funny as it is, I refer to them as “those the state has rejected and abdicates its responsibility over them.” They are citizens anyway. And government has responsibility over them.
The question is, why were these life saving commodities stocked away when the people are hungry and dying of hunger? What does it take to distribute these materials to the people? All of a sudden, in a moment of national confusion and chaos, the lid was blown open. The people got wind of where what they perceived to rightly belong to them was hidden. As expected, they broke all gates and cut all irons asunder, in a manner of speaking. They looted not only the warehouses, but also public and private houses of some of those they believed, rightly or wrongly, were behind their woes! This is taking the pattern of class war, as we speak, between the haves and the have-nots! Watching closely the manner of looting those warehouses clearly tells one that the leaders are actually from the led, nothing remarkably different. They are all the same.
Should the political leaders go ahead to arrest, charge and commit these masses of looters to prison for their action? The leaders are just on the verge of doing so using, as always, the instrument of law. One Philosopher said, “The law is like a cobweb. It is too strong to catch the weak. But too weak to catch the strong.” These political leaders are themselves also looters of national tills and treasuries! These are common patrimony meant for all the citizens. Who is to arrest, charge and commit them to prison as they do? The golden rule of life states that what you do to others is what you would want done to you! This is where all need to re-exam our consciences as the scripture verses of our reflection enjoined us.
I find something very fascinating in the Gospel of St. John. And I think it is relevant to cite as a way forward in this matter. In John 8:4-5,7,9-11, Jesus tells a story of a woman caught in the act of adultery by her Jewish people, “the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees.” They brought her to Jesus Christ and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In our Law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say?” Teacher, in our laws she deserves to die. Jesus maintained a momentary quietness, necessary for soul searching. In a way, teaching those who besieged him what they should have done first. Search yourself first. Then he said to them: “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” The gospel says when they heard this, they all left, “one by one, the older ones first.”
In my opinion, I think we have more honest Jewish accusers than the rest of us. “They all left, one by one, the older ones first,” because they self-indict! Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there. He straightened himself up and said to her, “Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?” She answered, “No one, sir.” Jesus said, “Well, then, I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.”
Our leaders should exercise restrain on how to go about dealing with those who cart away Covid-19 palliatives from warehouses. In condemning them, the leaders would have invariably and indirectly condemned themselves. Hypocritical condemnation, or selective application of justice, oftentimes comes with dire consequence! Everything is not about strict application of law. In any case, as we have seen, we all have been disobedient and law breakers! God's judgment comes in various form. But the Covid-19 looters must be clearly separated from arsonists and looters and vandals of other public institutions, private homes and businesses! These ones must be fished out objectively and bring to justice.
Go and sin no more! It is a proclamation of forgiveness. That is, forgiveness of God, if we first do honest soul searching and self-indict. Will Nigeria go and sin no more? This same gospel is still proclaimed today in the hearing of Nigerians. Go and do the same.
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