By the rivers of Babylon

As if that was not enough, the different terrorist groups have again sounded the trumpet of a more deadly world war. Many people thought that Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula would be the most deadly group after 9/11. Some people thought that the killing of Osama bin Laden […]

As if that was not enough, the different terrorist groups have again sounded the trumpet of a more deadly world war. Many people thought that Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula would be the most deadly group after 9/11. Some people thought that the killing of Osama bin Laden would end terrorism in the world knowing not that something more deadly was on the way. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) would invade the Middle East capturing Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city on June 2014. ISIL is capturing and holding territories declaring an Islamic caliphate in the Arab world by rounding up and executing anyone who shows the slightest bit of resistance to its domination. The execution of 250 Syrian troops in August after the capturing of al-Tabqa air base is only one example. Boko Haram in Nigeria has just pledged allegiance to this deadly terrorist group.
In every national tragedy, it is expected that every body should go into serious reflection to see how each person has contributed to the calamity that has befallen the nation. It is a waste of time to apportion blames only to the leadership of a nation when death is dangling over every body’s head and the agents of death with their political sponsors have refused to relent. When the Israelites found themselves in exile, they went into deep reflection. They asked themselves. “How did we arrive at this mess? Where is God? Has the creator abandoned us?” The elders, priests and prophets went into serious prayers while the poets composed songs to make the people think. One of such songs echoed the nostalgia for Jerusalem, their ancestral and real home of peace. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, when we remember Zion. And the wicked carried us away into captivity requiring of us a song, now how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land” (Psalm 137: 1-4).
The hymn, “By the rivers of Babylon” expressed the lamentations of the Jewish people in exile. Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians 586 BCE: The Kingdom of Israel that was united under Kings David and Solomon was divided again. The Kingdom of Israel in the north was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. This caused the dispersion of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. The southern Kingdom of Judah (Jews and part of the Tribe of Levi) was free until the Babylonian conquest to which Rivers of Babylon refers. The waters of Babylon were man-made canals that flowed between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. The Tigris flows along the foot of the mountains on the northern side of the Mesopotamian plain at a somewhat higher level than the Euphrates (cf. Ezekiel 1:3). The condition of the exiles led them to raise their hearts and minds to God for freedom. They openly expressed the desire to return to God with the hope that their supplication would be acceptable to God. This was individual and personal commitment to true change of attitude. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord” (Psalm 19:14)
Later, the hymn, “By Rivers of Babylon”, became the music of the Rastafarian faith in 1970 as recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton (Jamaican reggae group, the Melodians). The song became popular in Europe with a renewed rendition in 1978 by Boney M. For the Rastafarians, “Babylon” was a symbol of oppression and unjust governmental system. No one could stop the song that spread like wild fire. Other versions like “Dark tears of Babylon” by Liz Mitchell were produced. Other Musicians like Frank Farian reproduced different versions of the “Rivers of Babylon”.
The journey so far in the political history of Nigeria reminds me of the funeral oration of Mark Anthony in William Shakespeare Julius Caesar in Acts 3 Scene 1. At the beginning, Mark Anthony said: “The evil that men do live after them.” Some Nigerians who have put in place a terrorist machinery to destroy fellow Nigerians did not think that one day, their own fire would consume them. This is the time for Nigerians to use their reason knowing fully well that the evil that people do now live with them. Nigerians should now sit and weep “by the rivers of Babylon” over those who have ignited the terrorists’ carnage in our dear nation only to justify a political CHANGE. Let every Nigerian regain his or her reasoning, to remember that this evil of terrorism was design by some people to discredit the government without a credible alternative option. What are we changing from and what are we changing to when those who are singing the music of change are part of the national calamities that has befallen Nigeria since independence. Perhaps the nature of this change is to repair what they have destroyed over the years by not allowing the democratic process to grow and consolidate in spite of human errors.
Think of how some people could decide to kill their brothers and sisters just because they want a religious state. “O judgment! Men have lost their reason”. This is how Mark Anthony concluded his oration. Earlier, Cassius had said: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings” (Act 1 Scene 2). This calls for a change of individual attitude. The government is judged weak today because no body has been arrested and/or judged for making inflammatory and threatening statements, which points to the existence of a terrorist group to deliver on their statements in Nigeria. The quality of governance is now assessed with the ability to wipe out the terrorists with a military power and might. This distraction, which lacks both faith and reason, appears to be the primary aim of those who prefer the annihilation and death of their own people to sound the drum of a political change. It is those who have truly lost their reason that would request a person who has stolen and hidden their treasure to help them search for it.
Some Nigerians understand the meaning of change only in the context of a new leadership. During the military era, some Nigerians were never satisfied with an incumbent; hence any announcement of a coup came with the same usual sound track, “My fellow country men” and was celebrated and welcomed. After a few months of military brutality, some Nigerians would wish for another coup because the red light of military dictatorship was not changing to the green light that would usher in a democratic process that had been aborted often by over ambitious dictators. It is time for Nigerians to learn to accommodate and consolidate rather than fluid change that has always taken the nation a multiple miles backward. We are where we are today because some traditional, religious and political leaders did not use their FAITH and REASON to take advantage of early warning signals to avert the  inferno of religious extremism that has now gone beyond their control to a global terrorist network. Our Faith and Reason is our BREATHE without which we are dead. Let us arise to our personal faith and free ourselves from mediocrity and mental slavery. As long as people are displaced from their homes in Nigeria, we remain “by the rivers of Babylon”.
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja and Consultor for the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City ([email protected]).