FEATURE ARTICLE

Sunday, January 26, 2025
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2025: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

o time is too late until one becomes moribund. A certain mad man says that his schedule is too tight, which includes the dance he will perform in the market place, but do this and do that doesn't allow him to concentrate. The 2024 Christmas and 2025 New Year spiritual and social activities tied me down so much that I am just waking up from mental slumber. Hence I am wishing all and sundry a marvelous and fruitful New Year 2025. It is quite certain that the New Year is getting old already. The month of January we just ushered in is winding up. With all accent I say, "Goodbye January! Welcome February!".

If you are alive today, you should count your blessings and give praise to God, who is our Architect and Master. The turbulent year 2024 ended in stampede. Regrettably, it was not a stampede to enter heaven, but a stampede to quench the acute hunger experienced nationwide in 2024, whereby hardship and hunger buried poor masses alive. Hunger coupled with excessive greed is deadly. The common food staple in Nigeria today is rice, which is soaked in carbohydrate. The constituency project brought home by most politicians is rice. The palliative shared to the hungry masses nowadays by charitable groups and individuals is rice. Hardly did I know before now that common rice can lead to instant death.

To be specific, rice gives the body energy and not death. It is the greed to grab the rice by all means that leads to death. In Okija in Anambra State, a philanthropist planned to feed the less privileged in his town during 2024 Christmas as he used to do in previous years. His generosity ended up in sorrow. Disorderliness and excessive greed killed his good intention. Instead of queuing up, the poor village women decided to show that might is power. It became the survival of the fittest. The most powerful grabbed as many bags as possible at the detriment of others. During the stampede, hell was let loose. The devil and his field commanders took over the arena. Women marched upon each other with all venom. Instead of the rice bringing succor to the hungry women and their families, it brought regrettable sorrow that will take years to heal. Some women trapped upon ended up in hospital beds while others were taken like logs of wood to the mortuary. In all, about twenty-two women lost their lives instantly. Indeed an Igbo proverb says, "Kama rijuo afo dachie uzo, ka m kwuru onu." This means that instead of eating and becoming a nuisance, it is better to starve.

A similar bloody incidence happened in Abuja within the same period. Ten persons were said to have lost their lives in rice distribution stampede in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory for that matter. According to an anonymous woman in tears in Abuja, "There is hunger in this Nigeria. Every Nigerian needs food." Some of those who died in Abuja had waited overnight outside the church in cold weather for the chance to enter early. Stampede is often caused by lack of adherence to public safety measures. Also people's desperation to survive is making crowd control difficult. The worst December 2024 food stampede occurred in Ibadan Oyo State where thirty-five innocent and hungry children lost their dear lives. I am still wondering till now how the bereaved families of the above 67 victims celebrated their Christmas and New Year. Instead of rejoicing, they were mourning. Who will console them? President Tinubu and the State Governors, where are you? Is there any concrete hope that the food stampede as a result of hunger will not worsen in 2025?

To those who survived the year 2024, I say with mixed feelings of sadness and joy, "Happy survival! Count your blessings!" Of course we are not better than the dead. It is only by the grace of God. At the eve of 31st December 2024, we experienced the Cross-over night; from the old year 2024 to the New Year 2025. It was a night of blessings and better tomorrow. We sang praises to God. A small girl in our church slept for one year: from 2024 to 2025. She was lost in darkness. Luckily I stumbled on her at the gallery stair-case when other worshippers have gone home. I tapped on her shoulder and shouted, "Get up!" She reluctantly opened one of her eyes and shouted, "Where am I?!!!" I answered her, "You are in 2025." She said to me, "Father, happy New Year!" I replied, "Same to you, but do not be lost in sleep in 2025." With fatherly care I escorted her to the gate of the church where some boys were igniting fireworks as an expression of joy at the dawn of the New Year 2025.

As we rejoice for surviving into this New Year 2025, some sad events occurring here and there have cut short the euphoria of our joy. Few days ago, there was a fatal fuel tanker accident in Niger State. Due to hunger and hardship, an uncounted multitude hurried to the scene to scoop fuel. In the process there was fire outbreak. About eighty-five persons were roasted alive. Their bodies turned into charcoal and ashes. About sixty-six persons sustained various degrees of injury and were rushed to the hospital. The fortunate ones will survive while the unfortunate ones will join their ancestors from their sick-beds. As at the time of going to the press, the death toll has risen to about ninety-eight. Nigerians fail to learn from history. Fuel tanker accidents have occurred at various times in the past in different parts this country. On each occasion, the people who rush to scoop fuel met their waterloo through fire outbreak at the scene. Toying with anything inflammable is a great risk. Who is to be blamed, the scoopers or the government? May God console the bereaved families and grant the dead eternal succor! Perhaps when they reach the world beyond, they would be more careful.

Have you not heard the sorrowful news emanating from Nasarawa State? A notorious young man by name Timileyin Ajayi slaughtered his newly found girl friend called Salome Adaidu, aged 24, in his human abattoir situated inside his room. Before the bloody incidence, the youth Corper Salome accompanied Timileyin his boyfriend to a shop to buy some bags. Hardly did she know that the bags would be used for carrying her severed body. A reporter said that Timileyin on reaching home dragged or drugged Salome and slaughtered her. His reason was that she refused to offer him sex. After cutting her into pieces, the evil boyfriend inserted the severed head in one bag and her vital organs in another bag. It was during transportation to an unknown destination that security personnel saw blood dripping from the bags. He was there and then accosted and arrested. The victim Salome lied to her family that she was going for a program in the church. Unfortunately she ended up in her boyfriend's house and was gruesomely murdered. Lying is a risky vice. The Bible says that the truth shall set you free (John 8:32). Girls and everyone else, tell your family where you are actually going always. Lying leads to a disastrous end. The devil is the patron of liars.

There is consuming fire nowadays in our country Nigeria. Therefore, run! Run!! Run!!! Yahoo boys, kidnappers, terrorists, human organ harvesters, evil boyfriends and other men and women of the underworld are on serious rampage. Few days ago, about 147 innocent villagers were ambushed and slaughtered in Borno State. Let us be prayerful and watchful. As we count our blessings in this year 2025, may we not fall victims of the evildoers and blood suckers. God, into your fatherly hands we commend our lives and our troubled country Nigeria!

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