Are the Aluu 4 murders getting swept under the carpet? Will the Nigerian government not see justice through on behalf of the families of the murdered? Will there be no looking into what the nation can do collectively to stop kangaroo courts and jungle justice? Will there be no public inquiry into the deaths of these men so that all Nigeria can learn its lessons?
I remember 2005 when Samuel, an 11-year old beggar was dragged on his bare back to the front of the national stadium, beaten until his forearm hung limply and unnaturally from his body and then burnt alive. All this at the brief testimony of a woman ‘pure-water’ seller whom Samuel was patronizing that fateful day when she fuelled mob-action by saying Samuel was trying to hex her baby with a N50 note! After Samuel’s summary lynching, there was a furore in Nigeria and people were deeply offended.
Move forward seven years in the information age where the world has become a global village because of modern communication technology and the lynching that has sadly become commonplace in Nigeria goes viral in the form of the gruesome murder of four undergraduates of Uniport. Again a public outcry and Nigerians are deeply offended at the state of affairs in their country as well as at each other.
But then after a few days, absolute silence. The nation buries its head in the sand like an ostrich, hoping it will go away? Will it go away if we just saying nothing and try to forget what has caused such offence and so many sleepless nights? Even I wish it would but surely we know better.
When I said something about continuing to trust God for our nation, some were indignant saying that we speak ignorantly about God. But the truth is that if it was not for God Who is holding the great nation of Nigeria together, we should have been decimated long ago into oblivion by civil war or other human disaster.
So what is the way forward? What can ordinary Nigerians do to stop injustice in the nation? Someone said to me that the way forward is talk. Ok, I will give him the benefit of the doubt, after all the pen is mightier than the sword and by words, nations have been revolutionized. So how can we merge words with action to educate the uneducated? How about bridging the class divide that seems to be breeding hostility between the increasingly middle and working class people?
As for Boko Haram, does the North want to continue in power so badly that it will keep taking as many lives as it wills until it gets it? Is this the kind of attitude we want in power in Nigeria?
On a more eternal level, in God I continue to trust. Thank God Who still keeps Nigeria in one piece. Vengeance is the Lord’s; He will repay. And the wrath of the Lord is fearful. For any other trouble we can run to God for safety. But from God’s wrath, where can one escape?
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God’s] wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (requite), says the Lord.
Romans 12:19 (Amp)
30 For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine [retribution and the meting out of full justice rest with Me]; I will repay [I will exact the compensation], says the Lord. And again, The Lord will judgeand determine and solve and settle the cause and the cases of His people.
31 It is a fearful (formidable and terrible) thing to incur the divine penalties and be cast into the hands of the living God!
Hebrews 10:30, 31 (Amp)
