Charles Ofoji
One attribute of God which people exploit, with reckless abandon, is the goodness and mercy of The Almighty. This is why people, who spent the whole week doing evil, would have the audacity to sit in the front row of church on Sunday. They know that the merciful God will not visit them with instant justice. In His mercy, He gives human beings time to repent and purge themselves of their iniquities.
Because of the unequalled tolerance of God, men and women who eat in God’s name, professing to be pastors, prophets and miracle performers, are littered all over Nigeria. There is hardly any street in the cities in Southern Nigeria without a new generation church, sometimes tormenting the inhabitants of the area with noisy worship.
Due to the prevalence of poverty, Nigerians are easily exploited by these so-called pastors and prophets. And there is no way of knowing if they are genuine – all because the good God does not strike to death the impostors.
A popular Lagos pastor, who claims he has the power to see tomorrow, could not even foresee that his own church building will collapse and kill dozens. He also says he is a miracle performer, still up till now, he has refused to raise those who died when his church building collapsed. Do Nigerians still need any evidence that not all who call on God’s name are His servants? Majority of those avowing to be God’s servants are people who abuse the mercy of God. Certainly, there would be very few pastors in Nigeria if the Almighty were a God of instant justice, many would have been struck with death or insanity.
It is also doubtful if those men of God who accompanied President Goodluck Jonathan on his private pilgrimage to Israel would have been spared.
At a weekend, Boko Haram killed 17 and abducted dozens of young women and girls in Adamawa state, what the man, who was supposed to provide security, felt took priority over his job as commanderinchief was to undertake a private pilgrimage to Israel, accompanied by 20 other elected and unelected government officials.
Notwithstanding the security challenges that we face, even if all things were good and equal, should a sitting president engage in the frivolity of going on pilgrimage? One cannot be more Catholic than the pope. How many times have we heard that a president or prime minister of any of the countries that exported Christianity to us left his post to go on pilgrimage in Israel?
If Jonathan read his Bible well, he should know that obedience (doing the right things) is better than sacrifice. The same God of Israel, where he went on his pilgrimage jamboree, had rebuked King Saul through Prophet Samuel for failing to do the right things. Saul after refusing to obey the commandment of God thought he could please Him by offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. For not doing the right thing, there and then, God denounced him from being king.
Jonathan could be likened to Saul, who disobeyed the commandment of God but thought the could placate Him by going on pilgrimage. One of the greatest commandments of God is “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Mark 12:31. Who are Jonathan’s neighbours? Surely, it is not the vice president or senate president. His neighbours are millions of ordinary Nigerians who entrusted him with power to lead them to their dreams. And if the quality of lives of these Nigerians after six years of his presidency are benchmarks, it will be difficult for Jonathan and his journey fellows (mostly elected officials) to show that they have loved their neighbours as themselves. Or that they have obeyed before sacrifice (the sacrifice of pilgrimage).
The mother of Nigeria’s problems is that Nigerians don’t love one another. If Nigerians love each other, surely, the country would be a better place. It would mean a governor would care about the welfare of the rural child and would not engage in insane treasury looting. Because there is no love, once the monthly allocation comes from Abuja, after paying salaries and settling the speaker of the state assembly, a typical Nigerian governor would pocket the rest money and would never give a damn about the welfare of the people, which he was voted to advance.
In his six years at the helm, Jonathan cannot point at any project to uplift the poor and create jobs for our teeming youths.
How could Jonathan be worthy of pilgrimage when he and his crew have not even found it necessary to visit the killing fields of Nigeria and comfort the victims of Boko Haram. As I write, about 10,000 fleeing residents of Michika local government in Adamawa state are trapped at the hilltops of the Nigerian/Cameroon border. Reports have it that they are being killed by snakes and other wild animals.
The pilgrimage God and the people expect Jonathan to perform is not even to go there, but to at least do something to offer those Nigerians the relief they deserve as citizens.
