There is war in many parts of the world. There is war between democracy and socialism. We see what is happening between Russia and Ukraine. Many people have died. The raging war in Syria which has claimed many lives and is still claiming more.
The war in Iraq which supposed to have ended when America stepped in is still dragging on and many people have been killed and are still being killed. Libya is the next. Problems are many in Libya since they killed their leader Ghadafi.
The war in Syria and that of Iraq and Libya are creating many tragedies. Citizens of Iraq, Syria and Libya are migrating to Europe. The hardship they encounter is unimaginable and the inhumane treatment of refugees and migrants is creating problem in European Union. Some nations accepted them whilst others did not accept them.
Many with children have double problems. When you watch them on television, you really see human misery; misery created by bad political leadership, people who govern their people without political blue print. As you read this, America’s Donald Trump and North Korea radical leader are spoiling for war with the world watching and praying it doesn’t happen.
Back home, war is looming in the sky in Nigeria with the way things are happening. Nigeria has all I takes to fix her country when they really give the elite, business gurus and the technocrats the chance. This is not the time for name calling, or use language of force to stop complaints and agitations. The language should not be, “We shall use all the means to crush them.” Or use various types of animal dance operations. That should not be the language of global leaders of today.
We need the language of peace and flexibility in thinking so that we can avoid war that creates refugees. Nobody likes to be like Syrian refugees or Iraq or Libya. Those who rule us must be ideologically based and work under God’s guidance. The age of Hitler is gone. Agitations should be diplomatically settled and issues addressed if unity is our priority.
In all, we can count ourselves lucky
Sometimes when things want to make us cry, we should look at some things and laugh instead. At times we do not appreciate what God has done in our life and what He is still going to do till we leave this earth. We leave our homes for work and we return back to our homes safely. Our children go out and come home safely. They do not come home with troubles, or report from police. Their peers do not have contagious influence on our children.
We do not have drug addicts in our areas. Our children have two homes: our home and the church. They feel free in the church and their priests create space for them to grow and they are free to express themselves to their priests who care for them.
Ponder on a life of continuity
We spend a lot in building our new houses but after we build, we are no more again. We live in our house and when we are no longer around they live there. There is a life of continuity. Men live in their father’s house while girls, after marriage leave their fathers’ house. Only on rare occasions girls live in their fathers’ house and that is when they did not marry.
Social interaction is very common and neighborliness is steeped into traditional values and individualism is frowned at. Traditional government cannot be replaced entirely with democratic government. Some villages cannot wait for government indefinitely for help. Some can fix their problems; especially bringing electricity to their neighbourhood by themselves. You are lucky you don’t heat up your house. You don’t spend money by heating the house. Your weather is clement. You are lucky because you live in the tropics. You wake up in the morning; you drive your car to work without the hassle of removing snow on the car. The menaces of various Hurricanes in the United States of America, landslides, Earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions in some parts of the world are all strange to our climes. Will you say we are not lucky? Despite so many leadership drawbacks in Nigeria, we can still count ourselves lucky that God is saving us from widespread Natural disasters.
The Very Reverend Monsignor Livinus Ukah is the parish priest of St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Aboru, Lagos
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