By Msonter Anzaa
Fifty years have passed since Nigeria became an independent nation. The general consensus is that few things have gone right with the country while many more have gone wrong. People are confused. The things that people do in other lands that work, when you do them here, they don’t work. I thought this anniversary presents me an opportunity to present commentaries on top issues affecting us as a people. But that option appeals to me no longer. I m inspired to go Biblical about why when Nigeria drinks even ordinary water, it catches in her teeth.
In ancient Israeli times, God led Israel through His Prophets. His eyes were on every individual. If an individual committed a sin, God would point him out and order the punishment to be applied. In this way the one who sinned alone, and not the entire nation, paid for the sin. This continued until the people of Israel asked for their own king. Though God was not happy, He granted them their request. It was with the advent of a king that the destiny of an entire nation could be altered by one individual. In 1Samuel 12:13-14, we read of the conditions that followed. “Now here is the king you chose; you asked for him and now the Lord has given him to you. All will go well with you if you and your king follow him,” (Good News Bible). Now the condition for all things going well with Israel was not just that the people of Israel followed God, it had to be they and their king. In other words, if they or their king did not follow God, nothing was going to go well with their nation. It wasn’t long before this began to manifest. During the reign of king Jeroboam, he built his own altar and made idols to be worshipped there. This angered God (1Kings 12:25-34). The punishment for this however was not for the king alone. “The Lord will punish Israel, and she will shake like a reed shaking in a stream… The Lord will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and led the people of Israel in to sin (1Kings 14:15-16) (Good News Bible).
