Pentecost and spirit of change

We in Nigeria are very good at leaving the work for someone else. We know what should be done and even know how it should be done but not by me.  In religion Nigerians look for powerful men of God to do our spiritual bidding. That is why religious mercantile prayer warriors abound in the […]

We in Nigeria are very good at leaving the work for someone else. We know what should be done and even know how it should be done but not by me.  In religion Nigerians look for powerful men of God to do our spiritual bidding. That is why religious mercantile prayer warriors abound in the land. Babalawos, Alfas, Dibias, healing homes, bus stop prayer agents, new prayer homes and churches continue to multiply in the land.   And when we try to pray by ourselves, it is to lay the blame on another person. “I have been bewitched”. “It is the handwork of my enemies”. “My pastor saw it in the vision and told me earlier. It is my neighbor who reported me to the superior authority”. We are never responsible for anything because someone else has to take the blame for it. 
We want to have a stable country where everything works but we also want somebody else to build it for us. The government should not ask us for tax, reduce our salary, expect us to pay for electricity, water, telephone and no tollgates on our highways.  We want a clean environment but it should be cleaned by someone else. So we eat our corn and throw the chaff and stock on the road. We crack our groundnuts and throw the shells into the gutter, blocking the drainage.  We want to be employed and government or somebody else should provide the employment opportunity. Rarely do we look into ourselves to find out what we can do. Everyone is looking for a paid job. We want money but cannot work for it, so we steal whatever comes our way. Easy access to cash does not make you rich it only makes you have money.  Your wealth is what you can produce and reproduce, which no one can take from you. We are a country of poor men with a lot of cash to spend. Few persons desire to create the jobs to become employers of labour. It is more convenient for us to be an employee than an employer. It is easier to say they have not paid us, than to say I have not made enough money.
The governors, chairmen of local governments and their executives look towards Abuja for bailout funds and monthly allocations that cannot satisfy the executives and legislators, pay salaries of workers and infrastructure. So they take all sorts of loans mortgaging the future and fortune of their children yet unborn.  We trample on mangoes to get to the super markets to buy imported mango juice. We throw away fresh oranges from our trees and pay transport to cities to buy imported juice packs.
Even our government finds it cheaper to source for loans, internally and externally than to generate our own money. For any project to be executed in Nigeria, it is with foreign loan.  It is only in Nigeria, the country of Holy Ghost Fire, that government thieves are protected by their own people because he is of their tribe or language. This is the circle of laziness and greed that have overwhelmed our country.
In this season of Pentecost, let us all reflect on what made it possible to establish Christianity on the testimony of just a few persons. “God has raised this very Jesus from death and we are all witnesses to this fact” (Acts 2: 32). Because Jesus submitted to suffering, not counting his own benefit, but working for the salvation of all others, God has established his Church on the foundation of his suffering such that no power of the underworld can overcome it. Following in the example of Jesus, every Nigerian must make sacrifices. Many Nigerians have abandoned this country to claim asylum and citizenship of other countries that are better built and maintained than Nigeria.
Jesus Christ made sacrifices to change the face of the earth. He empowers us through the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost day to carry on this work through sacrifice. There is no way any organization, religion, country or enterprise can survive without sacrifice. Nigerians need to sacrifice now to save a country for ourselves and children. If we continue like this, we shall all eventually become refugees and asylum seekers in the better organized countries in Europe, Asia and America. We should be able to build our own country and our governors and ministers should be too ashamed to go to any London hospital in order to have a minor surgery when you had all the opportunities to build better hospitals in your country but chose to steal all the money. Imagine what it would look like if all the facilities that abound in Nigeria were allowed to work and function? Imagine that those who out of greed grounded Hamdala and Dubar Hotels in Kaduna did not do that? Imagine how Abiola’s Concord group of companies went down! What happened to NICON Insurance Company? What happened to National Fertilizer Company (NAFCON) in Port Harcourt? Who killed the many textile industries all over the country? What happened to the refineries? Imagine that NIGERDOCK did not go below capacity! What of Itakpe Smelting Company in Kogi State? What of the good old days of Delta Steel Complex (DSC) in Warri? That good old time the workers in DSC were better paid than oil workers. But those days are no more. We are in the season of greed and deceit. We have being in the period of anomie.
My prayer and wish in this season of Pentecost is that since Nigeria is a nation under God, may He allow the power of the Holy Ghost Fire to recreate us anew. May He allow the Holy Ghost Fire of nationalism, patriotism and sacrifice that gave us Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, and of course my own father, to descend on Nigeria. May he replace our political class of King Saul that has held this country down, destroying every legacy and stealing them away, with our own King David in Jesus Name! God it is time to give us own King David to defeat the Goliath that has insulted the sensibilities of the citizens of this country for too long. Let your Holy Ghost Fire fall again on our nation as on the day of the first Pentecost. And let the Church of God shouted Alleluia!
Rev. Fr. Ojaje Idoko, Director, Pastoral Affairs Department of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria