By Promise Adiele
Many people vehemently argue with verifiable indices that Nigeria, in addition to being the poverty capital of the world, is also the world’s spiritual headquarters. The level of spirituality in Nigeria sometimes morphs into arrogance. Adherents of various religions always want God to arbitrarily subvert His divine ordinance for their sake. They erroneously believe that God created the world for them and at the wave of their hands, with fasting and praying, God will bend backwards, make Himself a liar, and please them. These people wallow in spiritual rascality and personal imprudence by assigning responsibilities to God. They stop short of giving God instructions. Yes, God must answer their prayers whether He likes it or not. God must answer their prayers whether it is in line with His divine will or not. Yet they echo “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. But when they pray, the will of God becomes immaterial as they desperately seek to superimpose their will on His will. By believing that God will respond to all their whims and caprices, these people inadvertently insult the divine authority of the Almighty.
The genuinely discerning among us is miffed to watch disoriented compatriots inundate the spiritual highway with cosmetic, self-serving, inordinate requests couched in sterile phrases to blackmail the Almighty to d o their insincere biddings. The spiritual proclivity of Nigerians has paralyzed their will to resist subversive, criminal enthronement of evil in the polity while cowardly clinging to timid phrases like “it is well”. How can it be well when people accept docile leadership and the continuous inauguration of immoral power psychology which inflicts hardship on their lives daily? While we claim to read the Bible and understand its precepts, we forget the warning in Ephesians 3: 20-21 that “God can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
The question is – what power works in us? Is it the power to accept perfidious leadership and swallow the insipid pebbles of poverty without a squawk? Is it the power to pray for treacherous politicians whose only motivation is to fleece the exchequer and plunder our common patrimony motivated by uncontrolled avarice? What power works in Nigerians? When the power to resist SARS worked in Nigerians, that iniquitous police department died without a trace. The power of resistance collapsed the edifice of military rule in Nigeria. The power of accepting fraudulent power dynamics is why Nigerians are currently submerged in poverty. The power of the deaf, dumb, and crippled among Nigerians account for the inexplicable silence in the country under unpropitious socio-economic conditions. What power works in Nigerians in the present dispensation?
Recently, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, and current Nigerian Senate president Mr Godswill Akpabio urged Nigerians to take a break from their fight against poverty and pray for the Tinubu’s administration to succeed. Akpabio, looking fresh, robust, and well-fed like a bay palm tree oblivious of the economic ruin the current government has inflicted on Nigerians, smiled heartily during the flag-off of the Kugbo Bus Terminal in Abuja while professing the stale mantra “pray for Tinubu’s government to succeed.” As Akpabio spewed that composite profanity, many Nigerians were unsure where the next meal would come from and the cost. While Akpabio was mocking Nigerians to pray for a government that has impoverished their lives, many people were stuck at work because they had no transport fare to go home. While Akpabio was urging Nigerians to pray for their traducers, many people had spent a whole day in petrol stations in agonizing, pitiable formations to buy fuel, a scarce commodity even at an exorbitant cost. Akpabio’s utterances were evocative of insensitivity which characterizes Nigeria’s ruling class who are largely protected from the pervading economic crossfire in the country. One cannot blame Mr Akpabio much because he has consistently benefitted from the largesse of governance as a former commissioner, governor, minister, and now president of the Nigerian Senate.
Perhaps, Akpabio’s ascension to the throne of the Nigerian Senate president is a testimony of the country’s fight against corruption. Last year, the same man was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on allegations of monumental fraud of N40 billion under his watch as a minister. Also there were allegations of N86 billion contract scams involving him and a former MD of NDDC Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei. The EFCC had in the past arrested Akpabio over the alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom funds. Also, Civil Society Organizations under the aegis of the Network Against Corruption and Trafficking (NACAT), accused Akpabio of looting over N1 trillion of Akwa Ibom State treasury as governor and over N200 billion NDDC funds as a minister. It is this same man who is urging Nigerians to pray for the Tinubu administration to succeed. Indeed, God, the angels, and the entire host of heaven will revolt and flinch in disgust that such a character would have the temerity to subscribe to divine intervention by urging Nigeria’s depredated populace to pray. Akpabio is indeed a lucky man to come from Nigeria because this is the only country where a citizen alleged to have stolen public funds would become the Senate president and the graft agency would simply look away. It defines the Nigerian political architecture populated by various shades of alleged criminals and enemy nationals. Mr. Godswill Akpabio sir, Nigerians will not pray for the Tinubu administration to succeed for many reasons.
Tinubu’s administration has, in the last year, unleashed existential mayhem, hardship, suffering, and economic onslaught on millions of Nigerians and the situation does not seem to abate any time soon. Rather, Nigerians are daily assailed with reports of government profligacy and personal entitlements which continue to bleed the country’s resources and further impoverish the people. Nigerians will never pray for the Tinubu administration to acquire a new private jet for the president amid the high cost of living, adversity, and evident privation across the country. It is the same way that Nigerians were urged to pray for Buhari to succeed, but eventually, the maladroit Daura retired General only plunged the country further into the abyss of penury and indigence. The Tinubu administration, continuing where the Buhari administration stopped has earmarked a whopping N155 billion to buy foodstuffs for Nigerians. Recall that a former Buhari minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Mrs Sadia Umar-Farouk has been asked by a court to account for the payment of N729 billion shared to 24.3 million poor Nigerians in six months. Perhaps, no money was shared because there is no evidence to support it. Therefore, Nigerians view the Tinubu N155 billion poverty alleviation fund with reservation. No, we cannot continue to pray for such mindless extravagance to continue.
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate is 34.19% as of June 2024, the highest since 1996. Food inflation in the country as of June 2024 is 40.87%. In May it was 40.66%. There is a systemic growth of economic tribulation to tragic dimensions which, from all indications will continue to nosedive as Nigerians lurch in different shades of economic calamities. So when Akpabio urges Nigerians to pray for the Tinubu administration to succeed, one wonders the justification for such spiritual impudence given that the one calling for the prayers has no moral justification to do so and the one receiving the prayers does not need it for obvious reasons. The heavens will surely not answer prayers that would diminish the population of millions of people in one country. By asking Nigerians to pray for a government that is averse to their plight, Akpabio is unconsciously requesting them to become accomplices in their misery and excoriation. No sir, Nigerians will not pray for the Tinubu administration to succeed. They will pray for personal grace to survive the Tinubu administration.
According to a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), a total of N721 billion was paid in cash as bribes to public officials in 2023. In the bribery chart, judges and magistrates came first, having collected the highest amount of bribes in 2023. Given the roles played by the Nigerian judiciary in the emergence of the Tinubu administration, the current report affirms the mangled process which gave birth to the current political superstructure. So, where exactly should the prayer of Nigerians be directed – to their safety and survival or to the current administration with all the filthy baggage? Nigerians are confronted by more invidious malaise at the collective and personal levels which should provoke their spiritual revival rather than praying for an unconscionable government to succeed. Mr. Godswill Akpabio, kindly pray for yourself, pray for Nigeria, and pray for EFCC to succeed. Leave famished and deprived Nigerians alone to pray to God for their well-being and survival.
Promise Adiele (PhD), wrote from Mountain Top University and can be reached via Promee01@yahoo.com
