his world is not a bed of roses. Nonetheless, some persons believe that they were not born to suffer. Such persons' patron is Joy. For them the name Job is a curse while Joy is embellished in abundant blessings. Hardly can you come across anyone nowadays bearing Job as name.

Recently, a newly married couple was blessed with bouncing twin babies, male and female. They are one of my acquaintances. Therefore, they requested me to find suitable names for the twin babies and also to baptize them. Enthusiastically I suggested, "The female twin should be called Joy while the male is to answer Job, so that both can be simply called JJ." As if the couple made a rehearsal, they shouted with one voice, "Joy, yes! Job, no!!!" At last they settled to name the female twin Joy and the male Jay. I asked them the meaning of Jay. They told me that its meaning does not matter, so far they rhymed and abbreviated as JJ. Who am I to object? After all, a dog answers any name given to it by the owner.

When I went for one month's relief duty (Vertretung) in one of the parishes in Germany, the parish priest I relieved had a dog called Sophina. What vexed me was that the dog sneaked into my room when I was taking bath and ate the costly dry fish I bought from African market for cooking soup during my stay. I caught it red handed but I did not beat it, because it is an offence to beat a dog in Germany. They respect dogs more than human beings. I just gentle drove it out of my room. When I complained to my host parish priest, he politely said, "Don't worry. My Sophina is a nice dog. It loves you. That's why it visited your room and consumed that African stuff." I sighed and corrected him that it is not stuff but costly dry fish. Then he laughed and said, "Kein Problem. Alles klar." (No problem. I understand).

When a baby comes out of the womb, its first external action is crying. If it does not cry, the midwife on duty makes it to cry by gentle beating. Indeed crying is not an outburst of joy but suffering. Nevertheless, there are tears of joy which emanate from the eyes when someone laughs extensively. However the texture of tears of suffering and tears of joy are not the same. A simple tasting on the tongue will convince you. Tears of suffering are bitter and thicker. On the other hand, tears of joy are sugary and watery. Just get a sample from someone crying and someone laughing joyfully. Taste the two and see that the difference is clear. Do you think I am joking? I mean my words.

The obituary posters of deceased young men or young women normally carry this caption: "Painful Exit" or "Sunset at Dawn." If the deceased was elderly it is captioned "Glorious Exit" or "Celebration of Life." Painful Exit does not warrant any celebration. It is full of regrets, sighing and tears. During the funeral ceremony of a youth who exited painfully, the youth sympathizers make painful demonstration by destroying anything their hands could reach to show their grievances with death. They sing touching dirges and question death for claiming their colleague. At the end they make merriment over food and drinks in order to wipe out their tears. Life is a stage which comes and goes.

The opposite of Painful Exit is Painful Living. The latter is worse than the former. What caption is suitable for a person who lived painfully and died painfully? Is it Double Calamity? The excruciating pain common Nigerians are undergoing presently is nothing but painful living. It is man-made and not God ordained. The Good and Omnipotent God endowed our country Nigeria with abundant human and natural resources which can last till the end of the world. But our greatest problem is bad governance or bad leadership. Our democracy has metamorphosed into demon-cracy. No wonder the popular deceased musician, Sonny Okosun, of blessed memory sang prophetically in 1984 "Which Way Nigeria, which way to go…After many years of Independence we still have a long way to go… Let's save Nigeria. Sooner Nigeria will die." The late musician's prophecy is being fulfilled today by the excruciating pains Nigerians are undergoing under the Renewed Hope Regime. An anonymous commentator says that 'Which Way Nigeria' gives the impression of a nation without direction. It is a nation walking in a numb manner, like it needs to be helped to find its way. It is common to hear such comments like "I don't know where we are going in this country. Our leaders do not know where they are leading us to."

Nigerians are hungry. The cost of living is so exorbitant. Many can no longer afford the money to buy basic foodstuffs like garri, rice, beans, yams, etc. The drinking of garri with milk, sugar and groundnut, which was common some years ago, is no longer affordable. A plate of manageable food nowadays is one thousand naira and above. To be satisfied you must eat two or three plates. Hence some resort to taking only breakfast and supper. Some eat only in the afternoon. The current President of the Senate told Nigerians to eat wherever they see free food. Hence Nigerians are now endowed with extra sense of smell which enables them to locate wherever celebrations that involve food is going on. If you are celebrating anything nowadays, then kindly provide for numerous gate-crashers.

Not long ago, some hungry and angry youths in the northern, western and some parts of southern Nigeria came out to protest against hunger and bad governance. They were treated like enemies of the state. The police teargased them. Some were arrested and charged with treason. Even minors were incarcerated. Nigerian Constitution guarantees 'peaceful protest.' Did not some of our present leaders protest during President Goodluck Jonathan's regime? No one arrested them because it is a constitutional right. Only violent protest is abominable. You cannot beat a hungry child and forbid it to cry. People are hungry. They need food on their tables. As I was writing this, I heard from the radio news that there will be food crisis in about 25 States in Nigeria in 2025. I beckon on grave diggers to start digging mass graves nationwide because death rate will surely triple when acute famine breaks out.

There is no smoke without fire except during the miraculous burning bush experienced by Moses. The casual removal of fuel subsidy was the root cause of the current painful living. Also the high cost of the premium spirit called fuel made the pains worse. My ears are seriously itching to hear the voice behind the Renewed Hope Regime announce reduction in the price of petrol. If this is done, the high cost of living will automatically go down.

Another thing that makes living today to be painful in this country is acute power outage. Many poor and limited individuals that depend on electricity for their daily living have been thrown out of business. In many places nationwide, the darkness that existed before creation has returned. As a result, the powers of darkness have overtaken the breadth and length of this country. God did his best by saying, "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3). The world was illumined instantly. Nigeria was in God's mind when he made the universal declaration. In addition the Divine Mandate to humanity after creation was to go, subdue the earth and conquer it. It is the responsibility of the Federal and State Governments to actualize the Divine mandate for the welfare of their teeming citizens. If there is constant electricity and other dividends of Democracy, then Nigerian will surely march gladly into the Promised Land. Sonny Okosun of blessed memory will heave a sigh of relief from the world of the dead.