Funke Egbemode
Funke Egbemode

By FUNKE EGBEMODE

I’ll tell us a story.

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There once lived this small community of people. They were surrounded by powerful tribes. They were virtually defenceless compared to the military power and sheer number of the tribes around them. They were called the Gibeonites. One year, the most powerful of those nations, Israel, wanted to pass through their land. The Gibeonites were terrified, not just because this powerful nation had a great army and they didn’t but because the god of that powerful tribe was also power­ful. Indeed the entire kingdom lived in awe of them because of their God who could kill and make alive.

So terrified were the Gibeonites when they heard that the Israelites were coming that they resolved to confess their weakness and seek protection. They begged that Israel spared their land. They found favour and were promised that no evil, no war, no destruction would go near their land.

Several years later, a zealous king came and forgot that solemn promise and covenant to protect Gibeon. He moved his army against this small nation and killed so many of them. Husbands became widowers. Men watched their children being trampled to death by the horses of the Israelites. The elderly died in their hun­dreds. Homes were burnt and family compounds that once bubbled with laughter became desolate. By the time the army of Israel was done with Gibeon, there were a few people left. There was so much tears, blood and mourning. But what could the Gibeonites do? Noth­ing. They buried their dead and tried to move on.

King Saul and his army celebrated their victory and drank wine and made merry. Israel thought it was over. King Saul thought he had won another victory for his people. The Gibeonites had nobody to defend them, or so they thought. God was silent too.

Several years later, there was severe famine in the land of Israel.

King Saul had joined his ancestors and a new king, David, was on the throne. He tried everything he knew but the drought persisted. He ran to God and asked why this evil had befallen his people. God told him: ‘Saul and his family are guilty of murder. He put to death the people he was supposed to protect.’

In other words, God saw it all. He saw the zeal of Saul for his people. He saw the weakness of Gibeon. He saw how the army of Israel mauled and beheaded defenceless children, men, women, the elderly. He watched as Saul’s army burnt down homesteads and celebrated with wine. He watched the Gibeonites make graves in hundreds. He saw their tears, felt their pain. And why wouldn’t he?

He created both the powerful and the defenceless. He’s the God of the valley and God on the mountain. He’s the God of heartless Nigerian armed bandits and God of the mourning parents and frightened Christians.

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Back to our story. David then summoned the Gibeonites apparently in an attempt to pacify them so that God could take away the famine that was ravaging the land of Israel. After so many years of suffering in silence, accepting that the genocide su­pervised by King Saul was their fate, the Gibeon­ites poured out their hearts. They demanded a huge sacrifice.

‘Our quarrel with Saul and his family can’t be settled with silver or gold. And we do not want to kill any Israelite. Just hand over seven of Saul’s male descendants and we will hang them before the Lord at Gibeah.’ (2 Samuel 21:6) That was what the com­pensation for what Saul did to a defenceless tribe. Seven of his children were killed in one day.

What is the lesson in here?

It is about the Agatu killings, mass abduction of children from their school beds, the invasion of churches and killing of men of God, from Yobe to Kwara. It does not matter how much terms we come up with to describe the evils ravaging our land, the repercussion and compensa­tion that this nation will pay in the future will be proportionate to the genocide or the terrorism. The Lord of vengeance will do something about the senseless killings that we all think will go away if we ignore them long enough.

I hear things.

Do you also hear them? That it is the rich and powerful that are behind our woes, that it is men like us who made their money killing and selling other humans like chattels. They call it ransom but it is buying and selling. Kidnapping is buying and selling of other humans beings, hauling off other peoples’ children and loved ones into the forest and selling them back to their relatives. They call it ransom, that money they make from the pain and anxiety of others.

I hear things. Did you hear them last week or this? That the people we call bandits and criminals are not faceless. There are people who know them, people who know where they live but are afraid to tell, to talk. I hear that these criminals live among us. Some even wear turbans, others cassock. They pretend to be holy. We even believe they are. But they are mean and mindless. They are all about the money. They don’t care whose blood or how much blood they have to walk through to fly first class or drive brand new cars. They just want the easy soft life, at all cost. It does not matter who it costs, as long as they are not the ones paying. So they ravage the villages, highways and school dormitories and take away our loved ones. They go to church to steal, to kill and to destroy. They have the power. The rest of us are defenseless victims. They buy and sell us, live among us, spend their blood money anyhow they like. They come to town after devouring our souls and bodies to spray money made from our tears at parties we are barred from.

Those who should arrest them walk and work with them.

That is what I hear. Do you hear those stories too?

They said the bandits and kidnappers remit money to the corridors of power. Indeed, I just heard that they helped build the corridors of power. They bought the cement, Italian tiles and satin paints. You feel like crying? Me too. I hear all of them or most of them are involved! How then do they sleep? What do they need so much money for, especially since they cannot sleep their evil sleep on two evil beds or drive in two luxury cars at the same time? Why does the pain of the poor and powerless mean nothing to them? They already have money, why do they keep taking from those who don’t have? They already fly in private jets and first class cabin, why do they steal and steal from those who travel by road?

Imagine bowing, kneeling and greeting a bandit or bandit funder without knowing. They go to Umrah more frequently than “Iyawo Alhaji’ (go and watch the movie). They know all the prayer mountains, all the big prophets. Olorun ku suuru. Thank God for God. If I were God, I will wait for some people to go to River Jordan in Israel like they do so regularly, then I will freeze them there. But God is patient. He has watched them do this to us. He won’t wait forever, that much I know.

The men who are using their power to fund and protect terror will pay with their blood because they have shed blood. Those whose jobs are to protect the weak but look the other way will find the Lord’s vengeance on a narrow path. This is dedicated to all those who arm evil men to descend on defenseless homes to kill and destroy. I know they are reading this, your evil is waiting for you tomorrow.

How do I know?

All the years that it looked like God did not hear, see or do anything about the decimation of Gibeon, He was there. Al the time Saul felt he’d gotten away with the massacre, God knew his sons’ blood would be used to cleanse the land. All the time Israel cel­ebrated its victory over a small town, God knew the famine waiting for them.

Let not those in authority who can stop the geno­cide going on all over the country, and have done nothing, think the day of hanging on Gibeah will not come. Let not Nigeria not think that famine is not waiting in the years ahead. Do we even know the sins, bloodshed that we are paying for right now? Does it not look like we’re going through famine because this definitely was not the way we used to be. Surely, the blood of the defenseless will be avenged. All the holy books taught us that, including the Ifa oracle.

God is watching. Vengeance may not come now. He may not send famine tomorrow because we already have famine for horrible things we did in the past. But let our leaders do what they ought to do because when God decided to avenge Gibeon, only Saul’s sons, seven of them, I repeat, only King Saul’s sons and their blood was requested as sacrifice.

*Egbemode writes via: egbemode3gmail.com

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