As we witnessed the slaughter and were confronted with the monstrous obscenity of yet another 200 innocent souls being butchered by Fulani herdsmen in Plateau state yesterday there is very little that gives us cause for cheer in our country.
Evil abounds, acts of kindness are rare and people have become insensitive, unfeeling, uncaring and hard-hearted.
Worse-still, these barbaric events are undereported in the media, played down and quickly forgotten whilst the ruling class, from both sides of the political divide, do not appear to care less.
As the good people of the most powerful nation in the world, the United States of America, express sorrow and outrage about immigrant children being forcefully separated from their parents by Homeland Security and immigration officials and incarcerated at their southern borders, the people of Nigeria, as stoic and uncaring as ever, continue their day to day lives with little protest and no expression of horror, shame or disbelief as hudreds of thousands of their compatriots, including women and children, are butchered by heartless and cruel Fulani terrorists all over the country.
Saddled with a President with an insidious and utterly hideous agenda and who leads a Federal Government that encourages, administers and sponsors terror and protects the terrorists, the truth is that wickedness, horror, the flow of innocent blood, violent death, carnage and the barbarous and bestial acts of an undeclared civil war have become the norm in our country and we have lost our sense of humanity and decency.
Events that would literally traumatise people and give them sleepless nights in civilised countries hardly move us in Nigeria: we have become numb to our natural sensibilities of love, compassion, sensitivity and sound reasoning and our hearts have been turned into stone.
That is what the sinister and dark forces that have seized our collective destiny and that have been ruling our nation for the last three years have done to us.
We are used to abnormal bestial acts and the most barbaric courses of action and we sit back and crack jokes as our peoole are subjected to genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder by agents and friends of the state.
We clap and make merry as we are confronted with the ugly sight of our perverse and vampiric President dancing on the coffins and defecating on the graves of the slaughtered innocents by going to Eagle square for a party convention at the very same moment that his subjects in Plateau state are being butchered and carved up by those that the Holy Bible describes as “evil and bloodthirsty men” like turkeys on Christmas day.
Yet in this cacaphony of madness and theater of the absurd that Nigeria has been transformed into by the tyrant and his underlings there are still a few acts of kindness that remind us that all hope is not lost and that despite the evil that we see and hear about every day, we are still human beings.
We are reminded that in a nation which serves as home to millions of hard-hearted and unfeeling cruel souls, there are, thankfully, still a few good men.
Consider the following. Some time back I went to see a prominent and well respected man of God to discuss national issues and to ask him to pray for the nation.
When I got there I saw a good-looking young man with him. He treated the young man with such love, affection and kindness that I thought he was his son.
When I asked him he said that he was not his son but someone that he took into his Church and that he had more or less adopted.
He said that the young man’s whole family, including his parents, brothers and sisters had been wiped out all in one night by a group of cold-blooded butchers and that during the killing spree the young man himself had had his throat slit open and was left for dead.
He said that when he heard the story he was moved and decided to look for the youngman, take him in and look after him even though he had never met him before and he did not know his family. Such gestures and acts of kindness are rare and consequently I was deeply touched.
On my way out I saw the young man again and this time I looked at him more closely. I noticed that there was a deep and long scar across his throat which had clearly healed over a period of time but which was nevertheless stilI visible.
I also noticed that he looked confident, happy and relaxed despite his past travails and ordeal. As I left the Church and drove off in my car I thought to myself that this is a true man of God.
He took in and assisted the poor, the afflicted, the weak, the suffering and the vulnerable and he not only nurtured and strengthened them but he also gave them hope again.
That is surely what being a preacher, a pastor and a servant of God is all about: to care for the stranger, to bring healing to the sick, to heal the broken-hearted, to set the captives free and to be a good Samaritan.
This aspect of the glorious gospel of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in my view, is even more important than all the prophecies and miracles.
It is only a truly strong man that is filled with the Spirit of God that goes out of his way to help those that are suffering, in danger or in need.
The weak, the irresponsible and the morally reprehensible never help anyone but themselves whilst the strong, the responsible and the profoundly good are more than happy to lend a helping hand to those that are less fortunate. That is the message of Christ: to love and to do unto others as we would do unto ourselves and that is why the Holy Bible says “thou shall know them by their fruits”.
It is a joy and a relief to know that we still have such men in the Body of Christ and in our shores.
The Pastors name is Prophet T.B. Joshua and his Church is called Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
No matter what anyone may say or feel about this deeply committed and compassionate man the truth is as follows:
If we had more leaders and clerics that showed as much compassion and love to the poor, the helpless and the suffering as he does, Nigeria would be a much better place.
T.B. Joshua turned 55 years old on June 12th. Once again I wish him a happy birthday. He has done us proud.
Femi Fani-Kayode is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an evangelical christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006. He was the minister of culture and tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June 22nd to Nov 7th 2006 and as the minister of Aviation from Nov 7th 2006 to May 29th 2007. He runs a syndicated column on The Trent. He tweets from@realFFK.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
