Bishop Kukah’s Christmas Message, A Call For Change And Not Commotion -By Reuben Alhamdu Avong

Undoubtedly, the year 2020 had been a very terrible year for the world at large and Nigeria as a country in particular. The emanation of the corona virus that had everyone running for their lives and this will forever remain a very sorrowful story to tell on the lips of young and old, rich and poor, literate and illiterate.

Suffering increased though, figures were flying on air with the aim of aiding citizens manage the terrible condition. But then, evident on the faces of poor Nigerians, the figures never reached their target. It was indeed another year with dark clouds of death similar to the poor living conditions Nigerian have been facing even before the outbreak of the corona virus.

It was in the middle of all this blood and bullet, the tears and sand, the pain and sorrow, poverty and hunger, insecurity and injustice the list goes on and on that Bishop Kukah took it upon himself to remind the government that the people under their care deserve better, that a pandemic is not and should not be an excuse when it comes to the care of the people who walked miles and stayed patiently under hot sun just to vote in their favor at the polls.

The Bishop decided to end the year 2020 with a strong call for change in his Christmas message which he titled “Another Christmas with Dark Clouds of Death”. In this timely message, the clerics sang a song all Nigerians Christians or Muslims, young or old, believers of God or not are supposed to be dancing to and if possible add some tenor to the bass.

If Nigeria has not failed as a country as the Bishop had said, then definitely we are driving on the path to failure. The stories on the front pages of our dailies, the headlines on the TV stations and all other communication means sang the same song that only call of the dance of a burial ceremony. little wonder the Bishop insist that the roads leading to the cemeteries are more crowded than any other place. If it is not a bomb blast in the far north, it is the story of kidnapping in the middle belt.

All the stories seem to be the same, the only difference seems to be the name, venue, date and time. What a sad story of the great giant of Africa. A country the black race once looks up to for food when hunger strike, for water when their Wells have no more water.

I can clearly recall while growing up in Zaria, in the missionary school I attended, St Bartholomew schools, I had classmates who were from the neighboring countries like Ghana, Togo and Cameroun just to mention a few. A lot of them had to move into Nigeria with their families in search of a better education and a better life. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case as today we beg them for what we had in excess and refused to manage properly.

I think Bishop Kukah spoke to a very large extend, the mind of good thinking Nigerians when he clearly stated that he rut and decay in our country today is evidence of a people who have not yet seen the light and that the darkest part of our problems sinks in the daily lives of northern Nigeria. Carrying out a bling evaluation, one will horridly come to the conclusion that poverty, insecurity, poor education, hunger, bad schools, bad road networks is in the north more than any other part of the country so then, if there is anyone that needs to add tenor to Bishop Kukah’s bass, is the man from the north who definitely needs this change more than another Nigeria.

Rather than seeing the message of the cleric as an attack on a segment of the country which clearly is not, Nigeria should see it rather as a call for unity not minding weather you are Christian or Muslim, traditionalist or atheist. The fight should be against insecurity, poor education, and bad governance, banditry and kidnapping, corruption and marginalization, and the whole lot of others. They are the actual enemies and anyone who points them out, should be an actual friend.

Finally, let me paraphrase the words of the Bishop who said that, amidst the pains and the trials, we can say with the Psalmist: Our tears have become our bread (Ps. 43:2). We have no reason to doubt that at the fulfillment of time, in His own time, the Lord will dispense justice to our nation. It will come as day follows light. We definitely have to agree with what was in the mind of the composser of our national anthem that a nation bound in unity will always succeed.

REUBEN ALHAMDU AVONG
STUDENT OF PHILOSOPHY
VERITAS UNIVERCITY ABUJA
08083424194 avongreube448@gmail.com