Jonathans unabated pessimism SPEAKING at a church service in - TopicsExpress



          

Jonathans unabated pessimism SPEAKING at a church service in Abuja last Sunday , President Goodluck Jonathan seemed nonplussed the country he presides over was experiencing more problems than when he assumed office. “We are facing a lot of challenges now as a nation, ” he said tersely. “The challenges did not start today but somehow , instead of abating, the problems started increasing for one reason or the other .” How that statement did not occur to him as an admission of failure is hard to say . Indeed, in his inimitable fatalism, he thought the country was fated to endure the problems , for after all , even one’ s closeness to God, he philosophised , did not make you immune to them . Said he : “I always say that whenever I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament , particularly the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land, the kind of challenges they faced; their confrontations, the wars up to the days of King David , they were always fighting. You may need to ask , why should children of God continue to be fighting ? I believe what is happening to us is not even as serious as sometimes the passages we read in the Bible and God saw them through . ” The problem with rudimentary knowledge of the bible is that inferences and conclusions are often misplaced . Should President Jonathan permit himself the task of actually studying the scriptures, he will discover the true rational behind the wars fought by the Jews . Since the president has a rather superficial understanding of the scriptures, he seems fated not to learn the rich lessons they provide for the wayfarer . He has made up his mind that since the Israelites endured unstable stretches in their history , Nigeria could not be different. He is unable to see that nations contrastingly do enjoy long stretches of stability and progress for espousing and implementing justice , equity , fair play , in short, righteousness , and that rewards normally accompany good deeds . Rather than surrender supinely to fatalism, a statesman of deep understanding will naturally investigate reasons behind the turmoil countries experience from time to time , and determine what can be done to avoid repeating history or at least mitigating its consequences . But what is perhaps most appalling in the president ’ s exegesis last Sunday is his admission that rather than abate , Nigeria ’ s problems were increasing . So , in effect , the problem is not that Nigeria has problems , which he reasoned predated his tenure, but that the problems , under his watch, were stupefyingly increasing. For this, there can be no exegetical explanation . The simple and obscene fact is that by his admission , the problems were increasing . In other words , under him , the problems had worsened ; and they have worsened , not because his predecessors made it so , or because God mysteriously decreed it, but because he lacks the discipline, wisdom and altruism to redress the problems . His superficial religiosity leads him to visit churches for prayers to remedy the country’ s grave ills , instead of the emendations which spiritual contrition should lead him to . He gave this bewildering explanation : “One of the reasons I go round churches, at least in Abuja , is to thank my brothers and sisters for the prayers they have been having for the country, the government and me. ” He is not telling the truth . His visits to churches are a disingenuous attempt to whip up religious sentiment and rally the faithful behind him . He can fool worshippers ; he can’ t fool God. Why is he still surprised that under him the country’ s problems are worsening? Does God no longer reward faithfulness , and does righteousness no longer exalt a nation? source;the nation.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:41:54 +0000

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