WHEN GOD HOLDS MY HAND......

I have just recently become older than I was exactly a year ago and, since I began to write this, I have even become older than I was when I awoke this morning. At my current age, I no longer accept the usual comment that "age is just a number".  Now I do not think of such a comment as fact but as consolation. If age was nothing more than a number, why do I now wake up sometimes to unexplained physical aches that I did not experience in the first five decades of my life? Why do people tell me that I don't look my age when they didn't say that to me 40 or even 30 years ago?  If age is just a number, why is it that I can no longer run as fast or jump as high as I did when I was a teenager?  Why then has proximity to the grave become much more real and closer to me than it ever did?  Why do I feel that I have so much to accomplish with so little time to do so?  Why is it now a stamp in my consciousness that at any time now the bell will toll for me? If age is just a number, why have I become more conscious of the fact that this is now legacy time for me when that was never in my thoughts previously?  Why is God teaching me things that He probably didn't think I needed to learn until now?  Please stop telling me that age is just a number because, to me, it isn't.

I know that my day of reckoning is closer now than it ever was and, although I know that I will not be the one to set the agenda for our conversation when I meet God face-to-face, I am thinking of the questions what I would like to discuss with Him when He holds my hand and welcomes me to heaven.  The more I think of my dream meeting with God, the more questions I have and the fewer the answers I have to situations that I had  long thought I was knowledgeable about.  Clearly, as I get older, I am not only thinking of my mortality but I am also looking at things differently and realizing how much I really desire to know about life and the world in which I have lived for as many decades as I now have.

If God grants me the opportunity, I would thank and then ask Him why he chose me for the blessings that he bestowed on me when I lived in this world. The truth is that if God had ever given me a pen and paper and asked me to script the life that I wanted to live when I was born, there is absolutely no way that I could have scripted it the way it came out.  I could never have even dreamed of the quantity and nature of blessings and miracles that God chose to pour into my life.  Certainly, this is not the life that I envisaged as a young man and it is only by favor greater than my human intellect and hard work that I am who and what I am.

I would ask God why He took my mother when I was only nine (and my youngest sister was only three years old) and why He took my father just shy of twenty years later - just as my youngest sister was writing her final examination as an undergraduate.  Then I would ask Him why He chose not to let my siblings and me drift as nomads and why He paved the way for us to become successful individuals. I would ask Him if He did that to fulfill His word that the children of the righteous would never beg for bread.

I would ask God why He felt that I deserved to be alive to see the first non-white person assume the high office of the President of the United States. Then I would thank Him for making it such that I was not only alive for that but was also here to see my children grow up and vote for a US President that looked like them.  Perhaps by the time I am having this conversation, I would also be able to thank Him for the opportunity to see a woman as President of the United States.

I would ask God why He made some people white and others black; why He made some gay and others straight; and why He allowed some to be rich and others poor.  I would ask Him if that was to test the ability of man to love others as much as God loves mankind.  I would report to Him that so many in the world that I just left have been hated and harmed by others just for being how God made them, and I would ask God if the hate in this world should ever be expected to end. I would beg God to raise people that would lead efforts to promote love in their communities because too many people who claim to be religious in the world are pushers of hate and violence against those who don't share their race/ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, class, religious affiliation and/or political identity.  I would ask God why human beings believe that they must judge others over who and what they are when He who is the maker of us all has not judged His children but has instead said: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy".

Finally, I would request God to keep His wall of protection around the family that I left behind on earth when He brought me to join Him in heaven.  I would ask Him to keep my children very close to Him every moment of their lives, to continue to reveal Himself to them according to His will and to maintain permanence in their hearts and lives because I desire to see them in heaven when they have lived their full lives here on earth.

THE INEVITABILITY OF CHANGE - BY PAUL INYANG

 

‎Paul Inyang‎, USA

 Some days I wake up and I see the “glass half-full”. It is not so easy for an “old” curmudgeon like me. We are like dinosaurs and ten...d to stay the course without much variance. We are almost always suspect of change—all its elements and underpinnings. Things are never what they say it is and we have seen it all before—at least that is what we think. But life is constantly moving despite all our misgivings and dragging us all along. It is the old story of a battered people who have lost their zest and have become cynical about every life circumstance. That is not my story today—for life is funny in its twist and turns. One can find themselves in what may seem like a quagmire but the way out may well be that we have to learn to smile about our life and remember that if we have lived long—we have seen it all probably. In every difficulty there is a lesson—one that we can readily see and those that we have to figure out with time. We just have to wait long enough and learn to laugh at ourselves.

It all reminds me of the recent budget situation in my homeland. The budget has been lost and found so many times that it has become hilariously delicious to read about. The characters that are emerging are just as funny as the story itself. The “budget mafia” and the bumbling advisors who in the eyes of many Nigerians do not seem to have a clue. There are the many explanations, “surprise” submissions, inserted items and lack of fundamentals in putting together a budget. Going from an “incremental budget” to a “zero budget” and the constriction of agencies in an attempt to make government “mean and leaner” as they say. Legislators who pretend not to know the problems and a presidency that appears to be finding its feet. The antic of the Nigerian civil servants who the president had all the confidence in, only to be sidelined by last minute items that his folks did not appear to spot prior to submission. In my new world that would merit an immediate firing to all involved. If we can overcome the embarrassment—the story gets juicy. It reminds me of the old saying that the “devil in the details”.

President Buhari has fired the first salvo—24 heads of agencies and parastatals have deservedly been fired. For me, this is a significant indication that we are in for a protracted effort to rid ourselves of corrupt practices. Yes, recovering money from wayward politicians and their cronies is important and must be done. This action signals a more in-depth recognition that the real war is in reforming the system and institutions. There has been speculation that the civil service is next in line. Reportedly, permanent secretaries and directors are in his line of vision. I would dare to say a broader systemic gut is required. For those who understand the process, nothing happens in civil service without the blessings of the permanent secretaries and directors. No money changes hands without their involvement. They are the ones who resist change the most—yes, change will not come until this bloated bureaucratic system is totally reformed. A good start would be the purging of the entire structure and its leadership. The caveat though are their replacements.

Is the president susceptible to same impunity??? Yes he is if not careful. We hope the President's integrity and moral steadfastness guides his decisions. We hope he will also follow due process no matter how arduous the process. The country needs this example. As Segun Ayobolu of The Nation newspaper states—“impunity is the common factor that binds the thieving public official, the Boko Haram terrorist, the armed robber and elected office holder….in the sinister brotherhood of evil”—the defective elements of our society.

I have to admit that all of these happenings can be very confusing. This is the case because Nigerians have never seen anything like it. So some have turned it into jokes—the “change we need”. That informed my earlier assertion that—sometimes some of us have to be dragged into change. Change was never meant to be orderly. It is also the challenge of democracy. Out of this chaos I believe is something special awaiting Nigerians. These are phases that we must go through as a country. We should have a sense of humor while participating and watching this evolving process. Here we go—let see what happens next. It ain’t so bad watching change after all.

 

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TIME TO RE-THINK RELIGION

This is not an attack on religion, neither is it intended as one.  I am aware that there are those who may wish to attribute unintended motives, and they are welcome to have a field day with their human desire to assert victimhood.  I have no interest in feeding that need. Simply, it is time to rethink religion.  Jesus Christ did not form a religion but he preached redemption, love, forgiveness and social justice - all values which His apostles instructed that all who call themselves Christians ought to abide by. Some Muslims tell me that Mohammed encouraged peaceful coexistence and adherents of Judaism also know that the character of God is defined by love, peace and righteousness.  As we move deeper into the 21st Century, we need a re-examination of what we know and believe if we are to be responsible custodians of a world that was given to us for caretaking.

We live in a world that has more affluence than at any time in human history, yet we have more people scraping for a living than at almost any time in history.  We are much more technologically advanced and yet more blinded and driven by a desire to destroy others by what we know and build.  We are more aware of the importance of religion but are more driven by a need to affiliate ourselves with religious denominations and doctrines.  We deny the possibility that we all serve the same God and, instead, we claim that our God is superior to the one that everyone else serves who does not belong to the religious group with which we affiliate.  

It certainly appears from recent history dating back to the last few decades that the more religious a family or society becomes, the more hate and conflict that evolves in that family or society.  When we look around, we see religious leaders flying around in private jets, and living all-out in the lap of luxury while members of their congregations who finance the lavishness live in penury.  They build schools and universities that most members of their congregations cannot even afford to send their children.  As if that's not enough, they twist the holy books of their religions to extort money and respect from their followers.

Thanks to terrorism built on, and propelled by religious interpretations, our world is much more dangerous than at any time in recent human history.  Even then, we tend to claim that one form of terrorism is justified while another is not.  So, most of us condemn Islamic terrorism while some of us justify acts of terrorism against Planned Parenthood clinics or keep silent when a young white supremacist enters a church and kills black worshippers in what most reasonable people would consider a terrorist attack.  Due to religious beliefs, we condemn law breakers but embrace members of our religion who disobey court orders and claim to do so in the name of the same God who warned us to submit to established authority.  Around the world, politics has become increasingly polarized, and polarizing, either because of religion or because of the belief that some of us are superior to others - a claim which is also often justified by religion.

What are we to do?  I do not claim to have the answers but there are some things that I know.  One is that you could travel the world or even through a little town and you would find that the people that would be the kindest and most loving toward you are not people who practice your religion or any of the major religions that you know.  In many cases, they would be people who do not even adhere to any religious practices but their actions are consistent with what we know to be the character of God's love and goodness.  I also know that God is not the author of confusion.  Therefore, no religious leader or believer who implicitly or explicitly supports any of the conflicts that now prominently destroy families, societies and nations around the world should be considered as a true representative of God.  Finally, I know that God is true and our world is moving farther and farther away from His truth and clinging to religious dogma.  In so doing, we are becoming an increasingly fractured and morally bankrupt people.

We should allow ourselves the space to re-examine our beliefs and actions to see if they actually square with the values of the early leaders of the religions that we are affiliated with, and of the God that we profess to serve.  High chances are that we would find that they do not.  In that case, we must step back and begin our faith journeys afresh.  In a world where religion now appears to be causing more problems than it solves, it is indeed time to re-examine religion.

A MATTER OF EXPEDIENCY

‎Paul Inyang‎ 

December 15 at 12:59pm · Odenton, MD

 

Reports on the recent money matters’ affecting the country has surprised most of us—this writer included. The revelations have come at lightning speed—such that it is hard to verify or even ascertain the sources or its validity. The common denominator in all of this is that a great deal of money has been taken from the treasury and misappropriated, stashed away or simply spent frivolously. I am not sure which one it is but all the same the losers are the citizens—you and I. We have joked about being included or mentioned and made jokes about it but nothing changes the seriousness of the problem. It has maybe served the purpose of denying the incredulity of the situation and kept us collectively from losing our minds. If you are like me—you are left stunned by it all. This after all is the great wealth of a Nation that has been frittered away. This is communal wealth that we will never get back in our life time.

There seems no end to these practices. Many of the people who are on top today are beneficiaries of these same practices that they now profess to want to bring to an end. This writer would have mocked the thought of it but the question is—are there people whose hands have not been dirtied by these sordid practices? Please look at the list of the ministers and name one that has not had a leadership role in our nation and participated actively or tacitly in creating this debacle? Maybe we should presume they are all clean. Now tell me how you prosecute someone if your hands are just as dirty. There are a few quotes that this writer is reminded of— “those who seek equity must do equity”, “those who come to equity must come with clean hands” and "equity follows the law". The enormity of the fraudulent practices is mind boggling. Most of us want to just retreat to our world and pretend it does not exist—it is easier. That is the extent and quagmire this President has to confront. Many of us would like to see draconian tactics utilized to punish the culprits—this writer included. That is our base instinct. Unfortunately for us we all profess to be civilized so we have to choose the democratic route—it must prevail.

This writer said some time ago that President Buhari’s greatest challenge will be that of resisting the temptation of mistaking civilian rule for military rule. When human beings are under stress they resort to what they know and have experienced. He was a military man for most of his life and this is his comfort zone. Most of us would probably be worse as we have those tendencies in us. If the reports we read and see on videos are right—outlandish military tactic are being seen in display. Some of us enjoy this because it quenches some of our thirst to draw blood from people who have mistreated us so badly and taken our birth rights with ignominy. Democracy however requires that we discipline ourselves and utilize due processes. The president himself has stressed this but it is hard for this writer to believe that he the president is not aware of how some of his underlings are prosecuting this war on corruption and proceeding to treat people. This writer stands firmly behind doing so but in the appropriate way. It is easy for him to look the other way. Must government arrest these people in public and brutalize them as they do? If there is a message being sent out—who is the message for? Africans have a habit of mistreating each other in public and our country is no different. Yes, this tactic was utilized by the previous government but we do not have to make the same mistakes. Where does it end? If this is not put in check, we are headed in the wrong direction towards a police state because of our lack of internal restraint and boundary.

If we are trying to stop corrupt practices—we are required to do so utilizing due process—that must be the example we set from the top down. The entire nation is angered by the depth of this issue and we must deal with it appropriately. It is an opportunity to utilize these problems to build and strengthen our institutions—especially those charged with the duty of prosecuting this “war”. If there is a need to change the leadership of these agencies, then we must do it appropriately. This is a gift not a curse and we are obligated to set the right tone for those who will continue do this work long after we are gone. As someone once said— “this is a marathon not a sprint”.