Many years ago, I guess it was around the year 1983, still a child by then, I remembered an incident, though not sure of the happenings. I realized the town where I was born was deserted; every house as far as I know was under lock and keys, able men and young people were nowhere to be found. My great, great grandmother (of blessed memory) and I were the only people at home then. Our house is close to the roadside, to the palace and the town’s market; so if I open the ancient of days wooden window I could see what is going on. In my curiosity, I usually pimped through the window, sometimes opened it. There and there, I saw men in uniform, from the way they dressed then they are today’s Mobile Force of the Nigeria Police and full load of soldiers in different trucks parading the town from different angles. Most times, they entered into people houses forcefully, arrest, thrown these people into the waiting trucks and marched on them (I never known maybe they are politicians or men of the oppositions but what I later found out was that Akin Omoboriowo hailed from my hometown). Anyway, one of my relatives was not so lucky, he was arrested, tortured and beaten to stupor; he later recounted this. At that time, people’s shops were been forcefully open, their items sold at cheaper prices, I still do not understand the happenings.

It was years later, and that was in 1992 when I relocated to Akure, the (then) Ondo State capital that I understood the events that occurred in my hometown. I saw LACO stores (a 5-storey building along the popular Oba Adesida Road) raised to the ground, Kikiowo House around Ayetoro street (an edifice with many flats, rooms and shops) also destroyed with fire and Agbayewa House around Arakale Quarters very close to my Alma matter, Aquinas College also destroyed, at this time, a big iroko tree was already shaped at the first floor of the building. For many years, Akure did not witness major investment, as people not sure if there will be another election violence. Time will fail me to tell of the events in 1993 and series of violence and thuggery under Adedibu and his cohorts.

One thing I know of, as citizens of this great nation, Nigeria, we have been living with violence I think right from the beginning of the Amalgamation, people and businesses have experienced harsh economic, social, cultural and politic conditions. “E go better” was our slogan at a time. We once cope with “SAP – Structural Adjustment Programme”, Better Life for Women. Our education nosediving, we keep patching it. Nowhere is safe, armed robbery here and there, militancy, abduction, terrorism and most recent ritual killings and kidnappings; even houses with heavy security were being burgled day and night, even at a time when people go to the church to worship their God.

After my December experience, somebody said to me, “Please whenever you are going out, do carry any important item along, and them keep safe inside the key”. I was surprised days after when I switched on my television, I saw an announcement declaring important items of a military officer missing. Everything that the officer has worked for, credentials, laptop, all gone, in a moment, between going into the banking hall and coming back to his car parked along ever busy Asokoro road in Abuja.

As I was not writing to bother my reader with the Nigeria problems, which we already know, likewise, I am not here to tell you of the solutions to the myriad of problems mentioned earlier, I have given out many solutions from the programs, projects I organized and developed and in many local, national and international meetings, I have participated. It was just of recent that a respectable man in the society was apologizing to me, “Casey, how are you? Are you still doing that your Youth Crime Watch program? I said, yes Sir. And he replied, I am very sorry for not believing in your vision. We never knew that crime situation will become worst like this.” Who knows too? I have cried out, “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Many people have waited for a better and new Nigeria, many have prayed for a change of story, which has refused to come, we are moving gradually from endless hope to hopeless end. We are not suffering because we are going to Heaven, we do because of our inactions and negative reactions to governance over the years, first as a people and secondly as Christians. We love prayers in this nation, many want the devil to die, many want their enemies to die, but many have forgotten that they are their own enemies.

The thinking of many today is where is that God? Is God truly with us as Christians? If God is with us and if we love God as a people then why is it that God deliver us not from today’s Midianites, the Boko Haram, poverty and hunger? Houses and hospitals are full with sick people with no hope of cure, not to talk of been healed. In today’s church, you will be thoroughly checked as a sick person if your situation not critical before they can allow you into the church premises. Where is the power as of old? Is the Bible a fraud or what? Many so-called Christians today are bunch of churchgoers, never wanting to come to the knowledge of the truth, no power hence the reason why we are daily being molested and push around. Most Christianity is just in names, Peter who cannot rock the boat, John who cannot love and Esther who is not beautiful within.

When Jesus said, in the world we will have tribulation, but be of good cheers I have overcome the world, is He referring to our case in Nigeria or the tribulation that is yet to come? Why are the Europeans, the Americans and Asians not experiencing the same scarcity and wants we are experiencing today? We are rich yet poor and in our poor state, we make many nations rich. Is it because we are going to Heaven?

It is high time those who are ‘nameth’ the name of Christ to wake up, to seek God and bring His hands down upon our nation. Yes, we have sinned, but not only us, the world sinned too why are we going to carry the burden of the world when we are not Jesus. I will not blame those who are seeking greener pasture elsewhere, for I realized that people that hardly receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal Saviour here in Nigeria when travel abroad becomes pastors and fervent prayer warriors, helping those who claim to be born again at home. It is an error.

Right from when I was a child until now, our situation has not changed. There is need for a right and righteous cry.

Many years ago, I guess it was around the year 1983, still a child by then, I remembered an incident, though not sure of the happenings. I realized the town where I was born was deserted; every house as far as I know was under lock and keys, able men and young people were nowhere to be found. My great, great grandmother (of blessed memory) and I were the only people at home then. Our house is close to the roadside, to the palace and the town’s market; so if I open the ancient of days wooden window I could see what is going on. In my curiosity, I usually pimped through the window, sometimes opened it. There and there, I saw men in uniform, from the way they dressed then they are today’s Mobile Force of the Nigeria Police and full load of soldiers in different trucks parading the town from different angles. Most times, they entered into people houses forcefully, arrest, thrown these people into the waiting trucks and marched on them (I never known maybe they are politicians or men of the oppositions but what I later found out was that Akin Omoboriowo hailed from my hometown). Anyway, one of my relatives was not so lucky, he was arrested, tortured and beaten to stupor; he later recounted this. At that time, people’s shops were been forcefully open, their items sold at cheaper prices, I still do not understand the happenings.

It was years later, and that was in 1992 when I relocated to Akure, the (then) Ondo State capital that I understood the events that occurred in my hometown. I saw LACO stores (a 5-storey building along the popular Oba Adesida Road) raised to the ground, Kikiowo House around Ayetoro street (an edifice with many flats, rooms and shops) also destroyed with fire and Agbayewa House around Arakale Quarters very close to my Alma matter, Aquinas College also destroyed, at this time, a big iroko tree was already shaped at the first floor of the building. For many years, Akure did not witness major investment, as people not sure if there will be another election violence. Time will fail me to tell of the events in 1993 and series of violence and thuggery under Adedibu and his cohorts.

One thing I know of, as citizens of this great nation, Nigeria, we have been living with violence I think right from the beginning of the Amalgamation, people and businesses have experienced harsh economic, social, cultural and politic conditions. “E go better” was our slogan at a time. We once cope with “SAP – Structural Adjustment Programme”, Better Life for Women. Our education nosediving, we keep patching it. Nowhere is safe, armed robbery here and there, militancy, abduction, terrorism and most recent ritual killings and kidnappings; even houses with heavy security were being burgled day and night, even at a time when people go to the church to worship their God.

After my December experience, somebody said to me, “Please whenever you are going out, do carry any important item along, and them keep safe inside the key”. I was surprised days after when I switched on my television, I saw an announcement declaring important items of a military officer missing. Everything that the officer has worked for, credentials, laptop, all gone, in a moment, between going into the banking hall and coming back to his car parked along ever busy Asokoro road in Abuja.

As I was not writing to bother my reader with the Nigeria problems, which we already know, likewise, I am not here to tell you of the solutions to the myriad of problems mentioned earlier, I have given out many solutions from the programs, projects I organized and developed and in many local, national and international meetings, I have participated. It was just of recent that a respectable man in the society was apologizing to me, “Casey, how are you? Are you still doing that your Youth Crime Watch program? I said, yes Sir. And he replied, I am very sorry for not believing in your vision. We never knew that crime situation will become worst like this.” Who knows too? I have cried out, “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Many people have waited for a better and new Nigeria, many have prayed for a change of story, which has refused to come, we are moving gradually from endless hope to hopeless end. We are not suffering because we are going to Heaven, we do because of our inactions and negative reactions to governance over the years, first as a people and secondly as Christians. We love prayers in this nation, many want the devil to die, many want their enemies to die, but many have forgotten that they are their own enemies.