The bane of Nigeria problems is the inability to make realistic appraisal and evaluation of her socio-economic vices. By analysis, Boko Haram insurgence is peculiar to the North; communal clash is of the North-central; pipeline vandalization is of the South-south while kidnapping is endemic in the South-south and South-west of Nigeria. Armed robbery and raping are common and general to them all. All these vices are not novel, they are normal bi-products of an ailing and bad economy.
Imagine the number of graduates that the country produces from our tertiary institutions per year without proper planning by the government to fix them up, either directly or indirectly. It is high time our leaders realize that if they are careless about the rest of us, nature is not careless! Let them know that these army of un-employed graduates must ‘wack’ (apology to Fela Anikulapo), whether they work or not. The question is how are they going to achieve this? Going by a popular theory of Maslow’s Needs, food is one of the vital components of man’s basic needs. Food is fuel to man as petrol is to automobiles. When the means of getting it is perceived to be bleak, the tendency is there for man to take to other non-conventional means of getting it to satisfy the need. This explains why we are having myriads of social vices in the society today. Psychologically speaking, when one is pushed to the wall, the tendency is there to change behavior and do against his/her will.
From the foregoing, what can prayer do? Prayer is the only medium of communication between man and God. Of course it is the language best understood by Him. However, it is not that we have not been praying before, but this time we need to pray more with intensity of repentance and belief in its efficacy to avert the on-going calamities in the land. Our knowledge in everything is failing us and there is need to call on to our creator through prayer to help us. It is common knowledge that most of these problems started like a child-play some years back, before escalating to this alarming and uncontrollable dimensions, because of care-free attitude.
The little knowledge from both local and international wars made me to perceive that what is currently going on here ( Nigeria) is more than war, most especially when one considers the number of causalities per year particularly since the insurgency broke out! It is more than war because war is usually waged between two opposing parties that are armed to halt, neutralize or come to terms with each other. But the nature of this ongoing Boko Haram is such that the other party is usually taken unaware; in their sleep, leisures; studies and even in their prayers just like that!
Ipadeola J. Adebayo,
Ibadan
