Why are we expecting a healthy society when all of these (and many more) ‘enemies’ are being made daily?
In Nigeria, it is a well-known secret that the churches and mosques are filled to capacity with hypocritical worshippers. Perhaps I am chief, I don’t know. I do know though that more than ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine per cent of these worshippers go to pray for, among other things, ‘financial breakthroughs’. This means they pray that unmerited, unexplainable and unworked for riches should suddenly fall into their laps. They also go to pray for divine healing. This means that in spite of their eating habits, the heavens should see to it that they stay in perfect health.
Above all, this given per centage of Nigerians referred to above goes to pray for protection against all their enemies, big or small. The enemies may include their landlords (so he would forget the rent), their creditors (to forgive their debts), or that their favourite witches will die, die, die! Certainly, these are noble prayer requests. And, man, do Nigerians pray! Indeed, they are hard at it in the morning, noon and night. To my mind, however, I think it is still not enough. They need to pray harder against their enemies. That is where the root of Nigerians’ problem really lies.
I once gave a ride to a young, female university graduate around nine in the morning in one of the cities in Nigeria and naturally, I asked her where she was off to. She said, ‘to church’. And this was a working day, a Monday. What was she going to do? She obliged me. ‘To pray’ she said. I asked her what prayer remained for Monday that Sunday did not take care of. She said ‘more prayers’. What about her job? She said, ‘they would understand.’ What about night vigils: aren’t those for mop-up prayers? She replied that ‘enemies were always around, so one cannot rest.’
At that point, I left off asking anything more. As it turned out, the young lady believed enemies were behind her not getting a good job, her not being married yet, her not having a car yet (a few years after graduation), etc. I forbore to point out to her that these powerful enemies were also likely to be behind her not being able to stay at her job and she must go around praying during office hours. I also did not point out to her that she needed to really pray against the enemies she was making that very hour by not being in her office to serve them.
Anyway, a light bulb went off in my head on that matter. It struck me that Nigerians really need to pray against their enemies o. Since they are always going around to praying, work is being neglected. In the morning hours of weekdays, people ‘have gone to pray’. At noon times, people cannot rest in their houses because others ‘are praying’. Throughout the night times, innocent people cannot sleep because the guilty ‘are praying’ into loud speakers, presumably against enemies that are standing in the way of their breakthroughs and perfect health.
It then occurred to me that Nigerians have an awful lot of enemies to pray against. I therefore decided to assist them by drawing up a list for them. So, if you are a Nigerian, you need to pray against:
— people who think you have pocketed the money released for tarring the road leading to their houses. You must pray against them; they are dangerous people;
— people who think you have pocketed the money released for the electrification of their village or district. They are worse than cobras and must be bound spiritually;
— people who think you have jacked up their bills (any) so that you can pocket the difference. They are liars that must be consigned to hell;
— people who think you are part of a ministry syndicate that extorts huge sums out of clients who come to conduct normal businesses in the ministries. You then make them pay tens or hundreds of thousands above normal fees to share with your colleagues. These are dangerous people who can’t recognize business when they see one;
— people who think Police/FRSC/Civil Defense check points are really for extorting money out of the public by claiming that their ‘shons are in the shun’ so should be given something for pure water. These people must be checked spiritually;
— people who think that the money you collected from them to help them renew their state licenses is really illegal money. Tch, tch, tch, these liars must really be repelled;
— people who think that the money you took from them, before ‘helping’ them to find their files under office carpets is really ransom money. They need to be prayed for, or their souls will rot in hell;
— people who think that you allow road contractors to bribe you into okaying their work and this is why we have such deplorable roads;
— people who think that you have a registered company through which you collect contracts to execute from your own office where you are employed;
— people who think you take money from the country for a contract and fail to execute the agreed contract or you do a shoddy job of it need to be prayed against. Imagine that; an entire country calling you a thief. You really need to show them in your prayers;
— people who think you’re just drawing a salary you don’t deserve in your office since you hardly show up there for more than a few days in the month must be out of their minds. Pray against them, man;
— people who think you’re just collecting money from the hospital or school or office as a worker (since you’re hardly there (or just physically there) to help alleviate the load) are not good people. They need to be prayed against;
— people who think that the police illegally collect what they say is ‘mobilisation fee’ (used to put fuel in police vehicle before the police can respond to people’s emergency calls) are those whose heads are not correct. They are enemies of the state. They must be prayed out of the state;
— people who think that it is wrong to kill other human beings like yourself in order to perform a money-making ritual or power-making ritual or client-drawing ritual just because you’re a pastor or imam or businessman must be prayed bound until you perform an exorcism on them;
— people who go around thinking you swallowed their pension money really need to be prayed against;
— people who think they are the victims of your armed robbery or kidnapping or human parts-selling enterprises need cleansing prayers. They are enemies;
— people who think they are victims of police’s indiscriminately distributed bullets also require serious prayers;
— even goats and sheep that believe you have illegally built your house on their free patch must be seriously prayed against…
Clearly, all Nigerians are the enemies that we must pray hard against. Only a handful have managed not to be someone’s enemy. The sober question, however, is why have Nigerians gone around making so many enemies for themselves? So sorry. I think a more appropriate question is, why are we expecting a healthy society when all of these (and many more) ‘enemies’ are being made daily?
What strikes me most in people’s prayers is that people hardly pray to be helped to do right by their neighbours. No, no, it’s others who need that help. That’s why you are told in a governmental agency to ‘do the needful’ or ‘do what you’re supposed to do’ or ‘do the appropriate thing’. Failure to do ‘the right thing’ makes ‘you’ an enemy.
Perhaps, we should begin to pray for our enemies. Perhaps, then, things will turn around for the better.
