Let us pray! Almighty father, we your children have suffered untold hardship and deprivations in Nigeria. The worst now is that kidnappers and terrorists have made life unbearable for us. O God, our government has abandoned us. Without you, we can do nothing. We place all our hopes and trust in you. No weapon fashioned against us, be it AK47 rifle or even machine gun, will prosper in Jesus mighty name, Amen!
This is my little contribution to the call by Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, for prayers against insecurity in the country. In a statement she posted last week on her official X (formerly Twitter) account, Mrs Tinubu urged Nigerians to intensify prayers against insecurity.
She averred: “Prayer works, and I want to thank all Nigerians, especially mothers, for praying for the safe return of the Al-Kadriya sisters. Let us, however, not relent in our prayers. Let us intensify our prayers as it is prayers that would bring us out of this conundrum we find ourselves as a nation.”
Even before Mrs Tinubu’s prayerful intervention, Nigerians have been praying. I join fellow Catholics to say a prayer for Nigeria in distress every Sunday. I wouldn’t know how the Tinubus say their own prayers since President Bola Tinubu is a Muslim and his wife a Christian. Perhaps, when the President starts with “Allahu Akbar”, his wife will end with “Holy Ghost fire”!
Whichever way the prayer goes, the point is that prayer should be a personal communication between an individual and God or between a group of people and God. It is a spiritual thing. Crime is not spiritual. Although we can pray against it, it demands more of practical solutions from government and security agencies. But what we have found in Nigeria is that a great number of people use religion to confuse gullible people in order to achieve their sinister objectives.
Mrs Tinubu may not be directly in government, but she is close to the corridors of power. As the wife of the President, whatever she says should be taken seriously. She goes to bed with the President and probably wakes up with him. What she knows, even the Vice-President may not know. And we could glean from her statements and actions what happens in the inner circles of the seat of power.
It is therefore disturbing that amid the rising spate of kidnapping and killings going on in this country, all she could advise us was to pray. I wouldn’t have bothered if this prayer advice had come from Archbishop Adewale Martins of Lagos or the Chief Imam of Abuja Central Mosque. But when anyone in government or close to the corridors of power begins to call for prayers, it could either mean that there is no hope for a human solution or that the government in power is clueless. It could also be an attempt to pander to the religious sentiment of most Nigerians, many of whom believe that all our problems can only be solved by divine intervention.
Maybe, the First Lady made the prayer request in her capacity as a Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). If that is the case, I apologise and rest my case. But it is doubtful if the exigencies of her current office allow her to do her pastoral work.
Nevertheless, Mrs Tinubu was happy that Nabeeha Al-Kadriya’s sisters have been released. That was what prompted the prayer request in the first place. Nabeeha was a young 400-level student of Biological Science at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria. She, together with her five other sisters and their father, were kidnapped early this January from their house in Abuja. The father, Alhaji Monsoor Al-Kadriya, was released and instructed to go and get ransom of N60 million to effect the release of his daughters. He failed to come up with the required ransom on the given date of January 12, 2024. The terrorists killed Nabeeha and dumped her body along Abuja – Kaduna Road. This elicited uproar in the country. As God would have it, the other sisters have been released. It is not certain whether it was prayer, or ransom or troops that rescued the girls. There were conflicting reports about how the girls were released.
Abuja has become a hotbed of terror in recent times. Between January 2021 and June 2023, over 40 kidnap cases involving over 200 victims reportedly occurred in the city. Terrorists attacked Kuje Prison in July 2022 and released hundreds of inmates. We wished it away. Since then, they have made further inroads into the city. The relevant authorities did not deem it fit to put measures in place to halt the menace.
According to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, there were inadequate operational vehicles and equipment to track criminals at some border communities of the FCT. These are minor things a serious government would have provided to curb insecurity. But, that was not done. At the end of the day, when things go wrong, those who are supposed to put things in order will call for prayers.
Hypocrisy is one of our major problems. Many of our political office-holders are corrupt and not honest in their dealings with the citizens. On Fridays, they will occupy front rows in the mosques. On Sundays, the Christians among them will take over the front seats of the churches. This has not stopped them from plotting how to steal the resources of the country and then try to hoodwink us with a call for prayers.
Late last year, Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, paid what he called a token into the accounts of each of Nigeria’s 109 senators. Initially, he said the token (about N2m each) was to enable them to enjoy their holiday. But when his attention was drawn to the fact that he was speaking on live television, he rephrased his statement, saying, “In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the Senate President has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return.”
In the 2023 supplementary budget of N2.17 trillion, the sum of N1.5 billion was mapped out for vehicles for the Office of the First Lady. The sum of N2.9 billion was said to be for the Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for the Presidential Villa while another N2.9 billion was to replace operational vehicles for the Presidency. The government also earmarked N4 billion for the renovation of the residential quarters of the President and N2.5 billion for the renovation of the vice-president’s residence. The State House is billed to gulp a total of N28 billion and N12.5 billion was for the Presidential Air Fleet. Late last year also, members of the National Assembly took delivery of brand new SUVs estimated to cost at least N130 million each. The total cost is said to be about N57.6 billion. There are many other wasteful expenses crippling the economy of the country.
If we had deployed the humongous amount of money budgeted for the National Assembly and the unconstitutional Office of the First Lady to procure modern, sophisticated weapons for security agencies, perhaps, there might not have been any need to call for prayers.
President Tinubu is reported to have just approved the procurement of some digital tracking tools and operational vehicles for the FCT. The FCT Minister also informed us that there would be a joint task force that would be well equipped to respond to security emergencies in Abuja. Congratulations to Wike and Tinubu. At least, they have made some practical moves, though belated.
My appeal to Remi Tinubu is to redirect her prayer request. She should ask God to open the heart of her husband to remember our security agencies, provide their needs, including welfare and sophisticated weapons, so that they can rout the devils called bandits, kidnappers and terrorists. Prayer without good work is dead!
