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Investing Our Collective Tears BY THE year 2001 will go down on record as a year of blood and tears, and of pain and anguish for many Nigerians. It was the year of heightened tension on the political, ethnic and religious fronts. It was the year of the Sharia crisis in Jos, which turned the otherwise peaceful town into a war front, leaving many hundreds of Nigerians dead, and many more rendered homeless and jobless. It was the year of the most senseless destruction in Kano, when some Islamic fanatics decided to kill their Nigerian brothers and burn their homes, shops and churches, in reaction to the American led anti-terrorists war in Afghanistan. It was the year when the long-standing ethnic antipathy between the Tiv and the Jukun of Benue and Taraba states was taken to the most horrific extent, with the alleged killing of 19 soldiers sent on peace mission, an event that was swiftly followed by the levelling down of Zakibiam and surrounding villages in the same sordid manner as had occurred two years earlier in Odi.
2001 was the year when road accidents involving luxurious buses, trailers, and private cars earned Nigerian roads a place in the unenviable list of the most accident-prone roads in the world. The year 2001 was the year when unemployment crushed many Nigerian youths and defaced many able-bodied men and women beyond recognition. It is the year when a good number of our country men and women starved to death while others eked an existence that is unworthy of human beings, as the basic need of food, shelter and clothing went increasingly out of the reach of the lower ranks of the citizenry. And most painfully and shamefully, Nigerians were presented with a bloody gift on Christmas eve, when they woke up to hear of the assassination of Chief Bola Ige, Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation.
When I think of the year 2001 and all the tragedies of that year, my mind goes to all the adults in our society who are still shedding tears of sorrow everyday in our land. I think of the tears of those who are losing their loved ones to motor accidents that have begun to claim more lives in our country than the AIDS pandemic. I think of the tears of family members who are losing their bread-winners or their children to armed robbers, hired assassins and ritual killers. I think of the tears of those who are losing their friends to political bandits, and to city thugs. I think of the tears of those who are losing their relations to the stray bullets of our trigger-happy security agents, who often turn road-blocks and check points into theatres of violent intimidation and gun-point extortion. I think of the tears of those who are losing their brothers and sisters daily by extra-judicial killing either at the hands of an angry mob or one of those murderous vigilante groups that are now operating freely in many of our towns and villages.
True, as I think of the year 2001, the lot of my impoverished confreres continues to haunt me - the multitude of people in this country who are condemned to death by instalments in the form of starvation, disease, ignorance and abuse, all at the hands of the demon of selfishness, greed and avarice, that bestride our land that is otherwise so richly blessed. I think of the loads of tears shed everyday by the millions of people who have lost their wholesome existence and human dignity and respectability to a callous political and economic elite, whose lust for money and power is well nigh insatiable. As the poor of Nigeria bear this awesome burden with resilience and grace, they nevertheless mourn daily the loss of a meaningful existence.
Reflecting on the barrels of tears occasioned by natural disasters, accidents and the many acts of man's inhumanity to man, I am thinking of something creative and positive - the idea of investing our collective suffering, our pool of our tears, so that we may reap a harvest of truth, justice, peace, security and prosperity. Yes, I have been thinking seriously of how to invest our collective tears, because I hate to think that this reservoir of human suffering in Nigeria would simply go-down into the ocean of decay. I hate to think that these tears, brewed as they are in pain and anguish, should be shed away or lost to humanity. There should be a way by which the collective tears of the Nigerian poor could be recycled in order to yield for us a harvest of joy. There should be a way by which our flood of tears, which today is indeed a cesspool of shame, could be transformed into an oasis of fortune, by the power of God Who is capable of bringing the utmost good out of the greatest evil. Yes, I am thinking of generating from the abundance of tears in our land a counter-force to the pervading features of fear and anxiety, and the old wind of frustration and despair, which will only increase our misery.
I am challenged in this reflection by my faith in the eventual victory of truth over falsehood, in the definitive power of light over darkness, and in ultimate triumph of good over evil. I believe that falsehood shall not prevail forever, and that the man with the olive branch, and not the one with the cudgel, shall have the last laugh. I believe that shame, destitution, humiliation, defeat and death, are not the true end of those who hunger for truth and thirst for justice. No, I believe that joy is the ultimate lot of the just who may have to endure anguish and tribulation momentarily.
I am thinking of a twist in fate, a change in fortune, or a reversal in the tragic drama of our lives, by which the poor and the weak, the meek and the humble, who are today crushed beyond recognition, will rise from the pool of shame by virtue of the investing of their valuable tears of sorrow. I am thinking of a process of regeneration or rejuvenation by which the dreamer and the sage, the visionary and the prophet, who are today humiliated by the prevailing circumstances of poverty, violence and falsehood, shall someday rise to prominence, by virtue of sowing their precious tears of sorrow. This is a positive strategy that borders on the dynamics of hope. It has deep roots in the Judeo Christian tradition and in the wisdom of our ancestors.
The challenge is for the victims of our prolonged nightmare not to despair, but to appreciate and embrace the dynamics of hope, which does not disappoint. The challenge is for suffering Nigerian to strive to sow their tears and invest their sorrows. Suffering Nigerians should let the agony of their fragmented existence melt away gradually in the warm pool of tears that have been gracefully surrendered into the hands of the Almighty God who is all powerful and all just. In this way we can look forward to reaping very soon a harvest of justice, good governance, security, joy, peace and prosperity. Fr. Ehusani is Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. January 2002 |