Nigeria: Open letter to Almighty God

By Promise Adiele

Almighty God, I write this letter to you on behalf of all the oppressed, suffering, brutally assaulted, and routinely bludgeoned people who live within the geographical expression called Nigeria.

I wholeheartedly thank you for the great things you have done in our country. Oh God, I reverence your name seeing that there is nothing you cannot do.

The creator of heaven and earth, the Supreme Being, the greatest force in creation, the beginning and end, at the mention of your name, every religion, authority, altar, divinity, and machination must bow.

I cringe and tremble before your overwhelmingly glory-filled presence. For me, it is an unrivalled privilege to write an open letter to you. I am sure, in your infinite, unending mercies, you will answer our prayers.

As the persona in Christopher Okigbo’s poem, “Heavensgate” who stood before mother Idoto’s watery presence like a prodigal, stark naked in his natural simplicity, repentant of his numerous misdeeds and intransigence, God, I come before you today in total humility and repentance.

Like David in the Bible, I come with a “contrite heart and a broken spirit” while acknowledging your love and grace towards us. Thank you, most gracious God.

Oh God, this open letter to you has become necessary because Nigerians are on the verge of being exterminated by an unconscionable demagogue. Oh God, Nigerians have arrived at a cross-road.

The remedy is too far away. I am one of those who believe that humanity should only invoke your power and authority when they are helpless and hapless. Right now, Nigerians are helpless and hapless. Grace too eludes us.

You declared in the Bible in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins, and will heal their land”.

Forgive our sins today and heal our land. Arrive quickly and save your people. Wicked men and women have gathered to feast on our souls.

They are everywhere. They drink blood for water and human flesh for meat. They are reaping where they did not sow, singing songs of victory over the blood and lives of the innocent.

Our leader, whom you enthroned to lead us, (yes God, if you did not enthrone Buhari, he would not be president) has fled abroad for medical tourism while doctors in our land are on strike. It defeats every strand of reason that while our hospitals are in dire need of repair, our president admits failure in that sector by travelling abroad to patronize other country’s medical establishment.

This, he is doing after assuring us during campaigns that he will not travel abroad for medical purposes. That to me is not the definition of integrity. Our country has become rudderless and it is obvious that there is no leadership.

Like never before, our country is polarized along the lines of ethnicity. Death has become commonplace in our land. Herdsmen slaughter people at will. Bandits have taken over our lands, and terrorists are the new lords of the manor. Unfortunately, there seems to be a kids-glove treatment of these developments from the power hierarchy in Nigeria. Security has become a big luxury.

People die every day, children are kidnapped daily, women are raped, men and young boys are sodomized and buried alive, yet, the perpetrators are rewarded either by cash or by state pardon and afterwards, sent abroad to study. God, help us or we perish.

It is more painful because our leaders gloat over our misfortune. There is no empathy, no direction, no compassion, and no emotional affinity. For how long, Oh God will this continue? You rule supreme in the affairs of men. Please do not abandon us to raving wolves.

Presently Oh God, vultures are gathering for the 2023 elections. Whatever be our sins for inflicting us with this current hardship, God, I pray you to forgive us. Do not afflict us further in 2023 with another demented, sickly leadership.

As the vultures gather towards 2023, to finally submerge our country, please God, disappoint their devices and let not their hands perform their enterprise. Oh God, when Nebuchadnezzar conceived himself as a god, you proved to him that you are the ultimate God of all flesh.

History is redolent of how you have proved to different men and leaders that all powers belong to you. We pray that you intervene in our country and prove to men that all powers belong to you. As 2023 approaches, may our country not be afflicted with a comatose leadership.

May our country not be consigned to the hands of fools, idiots, and irresponsible, incompetent evil men whose intentions are not genuine. As they gather under the spreading chestnut tree of common treachery, to allot our common inheritance to themselves, let them suffer physical, psychological, and emotional handicap.

Let them also be caught by their dragnet. Let them fall into the pit which they have dung for Nigerians. Shame too shall be their comeuppance. But let real, honest men with integrity and sincerity of purpose emerge.

Oh God, our economy has reached a nadir. The media recently reported that our government defied the principles of economics and printed money to spend. That is the lowest any country can sink. Gradually, due to economic illiteracy, our country is returning to the days of Idi Amin of Uganda, the illiterate dictator who printed money because he needed money for the sake of it.

Although CBN has denied any knowledge of the currency manufacture, we still pray that you intervene because there is no smoke without fire. Prices of goods and services continue to skyrocket everyday while wages and income remain stagnant.

Many families groan under the weight of hardship. Oh God, how long will this continue? We need your intervention in this country as quickly as possible. Do not let us perish. Due to bleeding nepotism and mindless misrule, your children in different parts of the country are angry, very angry.

They are agitating for separate countries where they can effectively determine their existence. These agitations can lead to war. When it happened from 1967-1970, over three million of your people died. Some families are yet to recover from that war. God, let this not repeat we pray.

Oh God, the once flourishing country, Nigeria, has become a laughing stock across the world. Wherever we go, we are humiliated and ridiculed. Young people do not have any hope in the country because the government has failed them.

Therefore, they resort to other unenviable, despicable means to survive. They are ready to flee the country no matter the destination as long as they leave the country. While rogues and criminals bounce around in celebration, many innocent people are hounded for rising against impunity.

They populate the prisons. See from heaven Oh God, how we are depredated and misruled. See the anger of our youths who are stuck in higher institutions because their lecturers are always on strike. When they graduate, they do not have jobs either. For how long Oh God? Infrastructure has collapsed totally in our country.

Ordinary electricity has become a big luxury too. Fuel subsidy, which the current government said was a fraud when they were seeking our votes, is now entrenched, becoming a channel to siphon our scarce resources.

Many people, pretending to be pastors, have also taken to using your name to deceive other people. These people present themselves as your representatives here in Nigeria, but many of them are fraudsters who deceive the gullible and the weak among us. Among other things, these pastors are hand-in-gloves with some evil men to punish your people.

They prophelie for these evil men and encourage them to the throne of leadership to kill us. Oh God, those who prophelied that Buhari was the messiah Nigeria was waiting for only heard from Satan and not from you.

Deal with any pastor who will join forces with wicked men to punish your people. Stop any pastor that will speak when you have not spoken. Strike such a pastor with dumbness. Deliver your people from spiritual marabouts because they are agents of the devil.

Heal our land Oh God for the sake of your name. If it is your will that we achieve destiny as one country called Nigeria, under a restructured umbrella, let your will be done. If it is your will that we disintegrate, every man to his country, to achieve destiny, then, let your Will be done too.

In all things God, let your Will and not the will of mere men prevail. Together, we shall sing songs of victory on the mountains of triumph and jubilation. In Jesus Mighty name we pray and the people echo… AMEN.