IS THERE A PROPHET IN THE LAND?

KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
With REMI AKANO

Did you see the picture on the front page of last week’s edition of this paper? It spoke volumes for the grand finale of the Obasanjo-Iwu landmark civilian-to-civilian transition elections! The two electoral officers were literally caught napping. Wise guys; they thought they might as well make up for the sleep they lost at home to the heat and unwanted music of the Hummer’s Band led by Mosquito Charlie - both by kind courtesy of the super efficient power holders otherwise known as PHCN. And both for which Nigerians are so grateful to the largest party in Africa that they are rushing to return it to power by landslides.

But let’s not make too much out of the essay quality of the picture lest we incur the wrath of the Honourable Minister of Information and Communication, Mr Frank Nweke Jr who may already be in possession of incontrovertible evidence that the picture was stage-managed or arranged or organized like the Cable News Network (CNN) report on militancy in the Niger Delta. Remember what happened to CNN thereafter? They have become so broke that they might soon close shop because Nweke ordered the withdrawal of his Heart of Africa campaign, which was being aired on that station. I certainly don’t want that kind of faith for my dear Sunday Independent.

But pardon me for that digression. It’s just that Election 2007 has taken on the characteristics of a hunchback. As Ray Ekpu once put it, the hunch back, that is, whichever way you touch it, it hurts. And the pain it accentuated daily by the general attitude of major actors in the macabre drama playing to a world-wide audience.

By now you probably have had it up to your throat, I mean right to the point of nausea, by the role played by Professor Maurice Iwu and his highneck, sorry INEC outfit in bungling an historic assignment. But while we are at it let me just note two or three things in passing.

Iwu says to congratulate him for printing, air freighting to Nigeria and distributing several tonnes of ballot papers within a few days and early enough for the Presidential elections. How more brazenly insulting to our collective intelligence can any one be! First you create an avoidable problem through partisanship, blow about seven billion Naira to solve it and then congratulate yourself for it!

Next Iwu said what his INEC has in place has laid a foundation for future elections. If that is true then we all better kiss democracy goodbye and probably send an understudy team to the jungle preparatory to learning their ways!

Lastly I understand that the Professor is a Christian; a catholic who I understand even booked a mass at an Abuja Church for his benefactor, Dr Andy Uba so that he might win the Anambra governorship elections. He would therefore have read or at least heard about this bible passage: “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Whether he is acquainted with the passage or not, there it is and I just wonder whether he could recognize any of his activities and those of some of the people he had been hand-in-gloves with in the last year or so in those abominable seven! For instance when Dr Tom Ikimi and Alhaji Sule Hamma, representatives of Candidates Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari respectively said collation of results was not even halfway when Chairman Iwu announced the Umaru musa Yar’Adua’s landslide victory, were they lying? Or did the chaiman manifest some of the items on the Lord’s “hate-list” above? After reading that presidential election returns, many who watched it live on television including this writer noticed that the professor stumbled as he read the date the result was issued. Was that a kind of Freudian slip?

Of course the lead actor in the drama, our beloved out-going president may also want to peruse the list in Proverbs 6! And I say that very regrettably because here was a man whose integrity many people could swear by before 1999 now becoming enmeshed in this dirty and dirtying power play. Those days when Comfort Obi used to run the “CAN YOU TRUST THIS MAN” query in her magazine on account of the doctored Electoral Act of 2002, many dismissed it as making an integrity issue out of a mistake. Then the third term issue came and not a few people could swear he knew nothing about it, even when his uncharacteristic silence spoke volumes otherwise. And now he is expressing disappointment at the malpractices and violence which characterized the elections and which he pinned at the door of all the parties. In other words he knows nothing about whatever proportion of these criminal activities could be traced to his party! I doubt if there’s anyone out there taken in by that.

In saying all that I have said, I am simply asserting that this nation’s democracy has been brazenly raped; that grave injustices have been done that requires to be remedied. I am asserting that nothing good or enduring can come out of the Yar’Adua/Goodluck government being steamrolled into place, in spite of whatever sterling personal qualities the two gentlemen may possess. This is simply because you cannot but reap whatever you sow.

Many have suggested to let bye-gone be bye-gone. Let the aggrieved go to the tribunals and accept whatever comes from it. That, they argue, is the constitutional thing to do. On the other side are those who have rejected the elections and have instituted a series of mass action to push through their view point. That is extra-constitutional.

Predictably, majority of my brethren and “sisthren” (apologies Funmi Iyanda) belong to the former group. The position as always is that we need peace in this land. We should just continue to pray and believe that God will intervene to right the wrongs. But I beg to differ. God in many instances depend on us!

The Orange Revolution that reversed a similar situation in Ukraine recently was spearheaded by the Church. In fact a Nigerian Pastor, Rev Sunday Adelaja was in the vanguard of it. Nuns led to final rally that saw Ferdinand Marcos scampering out of the Philippines in the eighties. I am sure they prayed and then acted. Biblical examples abound of God sanctioning resistance, even war! David’s experience at Ziklag may help illustrate my point.

He and his men of war had returned to their camp after an abortive attempt to fight on the side of the Philistines against Saul. He wanted to show gratitude to a king who had accommodated him while his own king was hell bent on hunting him down. What they found on their return was devastating. The place had been raided by the Amalekites and David’s two wives, his children and those of his soldiers had been taken into slavery! I tell you, you are no better than a slave when you don’t have a say in who rules you; when your vote does not count and you are rudely, violently told so!

David burst into tears, naturally, you’ll say. And anyone who truly loves this country should be as saddened by the cavalier, in your face manner of PDP’s conquest of the national political space. But when David had cried to his heart’s content, he called in the prophet. Is there a prophet in this land?! Or is everybody hiding under the guise of praying for peace? Anyway David did not call in the priest to pray any of those peace in the land prayers. He asked God a direct question: The bible records the story this way: “And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. [8] And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? “(1 Samuel 30:7-8). Neither did God equivocate; He didn’t tell him to “seek peace and pursue it!” Verse 8 of that passage ended thus: “And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. “

David pursued and recovered all! So can we; provided we ask God first. But like I asked earlier, is there a prophet in the land to lead the inquiry? Is there a David in the land to lead the pursuit once the answer comes in the affirmative?