01/11/2018
THE TIME TO SPEAK
I was called today, Monday, 29 October, 2018 by a close relative, asking if I was closer to my house. I asked why she wanted to know. She replied by telling me that a religious sect was protesting around my area about the long incarceration of their leader. I assured her I was closer to my children at that moment. She became relaxed. The palpable fear was about what happened two days earlier.
A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to our dear country, Nigeria. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.
If we do not speak and act now, we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Whenever you tuned to any television station in Nigeria, the sight that most time welcome you is that of poverty, rejection, pain, squalor, impunity, and disdain. We therefore can no longer be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. We have to save the soul of Nigeria,.
As I write, there is sporadic gun shooting around my area here now. How long shall we continue to live in fear and trepidation in our country,. I am sadly inside the house with my children at the moment.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. The Government arrogance is no longer to our advantage.
Have you ever seen the sights of IDPs in Nigeria? They move sadly and apathetically as they are herded off the land of their fathers into camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by bullets. So they go primarily women and children and the aged. How long shall we continue like this?
We may have killed thousands of our own people , mostly children in whatever guise and name. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless without clothes running in packs, on the streets like animals. It is happening all over the nation. We are gradually destroying the two most cherished institutions; the family and the village. We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. All of them are our brothers and sisters. We must understand their feelings.
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view, we may indeed see the basic weakness of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on line if our nation is to survive it's own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when " every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough place plain".
Be praying for me, my family and neighbours here. We still hear gun shots.
God bless Nigeria and Nigerians!
Note:
Gentle Reminder : our online training tagged "Peak Potential Training" begins on 1st November, 2018. Time: 7:30 pm- 8:30 pm.
Contact: 08062255424
Daniel Opaluwa
( Lead Facilitator )
GDI Mindset Training Center, Abuja
