Let’s Start The Festival Fire

Fellow Nigerians and all the people of goodwill, I humbly and assumingly present to you a Revolutionary Manifesto titled the “SACRED DEED”, and by this singular attribution also, light the long awaited fire of non – violent revolution in our dear country Nigeria. A great number of Nigerians have been left in this cold for too long hoping to hear a whistle- blow from the Comrade Leader. Many of us have been greatly surprised that none of such has been forthcoming. And nothing like that may come during our life time except if we come to appreciate the fact that a united, peaceful and prosperous nation that is expected to be the end-product of our revolutionary engagement is first of all a democratic script drawn up by a people who have a conscience, and whose vision and mission are not tucked away in the very dirty armpits of violence and extremism but are instead a helpless confession of total addiction to authenticity, hardwork and integrity.

Their humility about the past, their readiness to forgive and their willingness to learn, more than the babylonic outlines of demonised sky scrappers along a marble-tarred terrace or a digitalised supersonic society that moves with speed of a sound, are the most highly prized credentials every member of the Nigerian commonwealth requires as a proof of their qualification for the Comrade Leadership position in the different strata of our society. And because good or bad as the case may be, is always a quality of universal significance even in its most radical evolutionary enunciation or in its application, the names and roles identified on this road map which the SACRED DEED symbolizes are not assertions and unnecessary impositions on our collective intelligence.

Does anyone need to be told that this is the meaning of an insult? It is rather a confirmed effort of Divine Providence for the self –actualization of all both as a people and as a nation. It is a gradual and on-going process of sensitization, re – alignments, re – structuralization and re-organization as well as the visible articulation of a collective destiny in a language that kneels on its two knees to seek the approval of all. Does democracy need to go elsewhere to find its proper definition? Of greater importance is the fact that God himself is a democrat.

At the peak of the face-off I had with the members of the parish council of our lady of Fatima Parish in 2000, and armed with some basic convictions about the faith of the Universal Church and with due considerations and regargd for other intervening variables, I chose to consult with the oldest Catholic Priest in Ukwa/Ngwa land and a widely acclaimed model of the priesthood Rt. Rev. Msgr Gabriel Sunday Etche (now deceased). The awareness that was created in me and the secret links that were forged with the help of Rt. Rev. Msgr G.S. Etche by the event of that consultation challenged me strongly to the point of writing an application to Bishop Vincent Ezeonyia CSSP, the Catholic Bishop of Aba in the year 2004 for the job of a Private Investigator. Thus for the past ten years I have had the opportunity to reflect deeply on the real challenges of growth and development for a Third World country in the 21st century. Along this line, the feeling of total dissatisfaction which thunderously greeted me at the entrance point of adult responsibility as the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Umuagbai, Obohia Road Aba in 2000 compelled to first of all voluntarily submit my perso, my credentials and my ambition as a Catholic Priest to scrutiny, insisting however on preaching the gospel.

In the course of this investigation, and having remained practically open to the demands of nationhood, I have come to appreciate the fact that the evolution of a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria requires an unbiased and honest acknowledgement, astute organisation, unique arrangements and general co-ordination of the diverse components of the truth about our history and condition both as individuals and as a people. While this formula demands the contributions of all and sundry, the activities of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP have frustrated every sincere effort heroically expended to put Nigeria on the path of true nationhood.

I was filled with great sympathy after listening to Mr. Goodluck Jonathan on the National TV during the PDP National convention in Abuja who, amongst other things, said that PDP has not been killing for a long time. To the extent Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is believed to be innocent about the many atrocities committed by these vampires and Satanists especially with references to the death of his bossom friend and former Minister of Justice Chief Bola Ige, to that extent Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is to be believed. The truth is that PDP represents the ego of every person, place or thing that is base and evil in Nigeria.

To love truth sincerely, writes Lenard Hand in an article titled “Democracy: Its Presumptions And Realities (1932)”, means to pursue it with an earnest conscientious, unflagging zeal. It means to be prepared to follow the light of evidence even to most unwelcome conclusions and as well have the courage to accept them; it means to labour earnestly to emancipate the mind from early prejudices, to resist the current of desires and the refracting influences of the passions, to proportion on all occasions, conviction to evidence, and to be ready, if need be, to exchange the calm assurance for all the suffering of a perplexed and disturbed mind. To do this is very difficult and very painful, but it is clearly involved in the notion of earnest love of truth.

Truth is the only worthy object or target of every meaningful investigation, experiment or adventure. Truth is only one, universal and beautiful, but it has many faces (phrase?), speaks different languages and lives at different locations at the same time. Every human person who is attracted to only one of the faces, or languages, or locations of the Truth deserves to be awarded a certain measure of recognition, honour and integrity. But such a person faces the risk of naked exposition to a kind of growth and development that is monstrous/cancerous on the one hand, and dwarfed on the other. Here, one becomes an unrepentant though unconscious victim of mediocrity and is transformed into a closed system that has no connection, no relevance and no contributions to make with regard to other people and the surrounding environment. Unless there exists in an individual or a group with a latent ability to appreciate the unity, beauty and universality of truth even as the facts of multiply and particularity are incontestable, such an individual or a group is always reduced intrinsically between permanence and change. Based on this, one cannot but admit here that the interactive actions of permanence and change are powerful elucidating factors of reality. Permanence and change are not mutually exclusive; they are:

•Word (w.w.w). To the extent he fulfills this ideal, to that extent he is God for himself and for others.

•Every opposition either in part or in whole to the Brotherhood which our great party holds, symbolizes and realistically manifests is (a) Accursed (b) A Heap of Ruins and (c) Dust. He is the ONE.

•A drop of the blood of a member of this brotherhood (PDP) is an ocean of the blood of all of us.

The statements and many others of differed significance constitute the secret manifesto, propaganda and agenda of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria. Over and beyond the sincerity, commitments and zeal of millions of card-carrying unsuspecting members and fans of the People’s Democratic Party, the soul of PDP as a party is Occultism, Satanism and Terrorism.

I believe that in as much as the old Lugard’s baby is an innovation, a new Nigeria must be an art in which all the originating and defining factors of our destny both as individuals and as a people must constitute themselves into a unified writ of summons for, and at the same time the legitimizing factor all the promises of western civilization. For this reason, I must not fail to unequivocally state here that revolution, democracy and knowledge are instruments of warfare that can transform into weapons of violence and knowledge and instruments of mass destruction in the hands that they submit to scrutiny and as well be patient and humble enough to obey the traffic lights at the different junctions of our traditional society which is deeply rooted in and inescapably defined by the traditional African values of authentic religiosity, the sanctity of life, respect for elders, hospitabilty and uncompromising honesty.

As it stands now, and to be realistic, even as this forms the very contents of our dream for a New Nigeria, it is imperative to point out that the Presidential Seat is standing only on one leg. The Military, in the real sense of the word, has not returned to the barracks. The corruption of the military is one of the greatest tragedies that can befall a nation. This was Ibrahim Babangida’s deliberate engagement with the Nigerian military as he plotted to enthrone himself as a life president. And with the late Gen. Sani Abacha, the situation became a risky subject for discussion. The military is trained to kill. If a trained military personnel means to shoot a gun, it is not to excite anybody or to disperse a crowd. He means to kill, and will feel a sense of failure if he does not achieve this result. For a terrorist to cause a total destabilization of a race or state and that incite the deployment of the military against innocent, suffering, poor and oppressed people – a situation he stage-managed – just to score a political point is the meaning of genocide. This is why General Buhari stood tall above other contenders to the presidency. He possesses the discipline, the resilience and the resolve to persuade the military to go back to the barracks, without being distracted from attending to his executive duties.

Supposing but not conceding the fact that MEND or the Niger Delta struggle has been hijacked and turned into a terrorist action with the sole purpose of destabilising Nigeria, and that President Goodluck Jonathan is also being influenced then change – a big, lasting and large “Change” is not an accidental occurrence, not even an imposition but a capital need for the Nigerian people. Therefore, let there be change in Nigeria, even as we appreciate permanence. We must allow change to happen to what needs to be changed.

Indeed, times and seasons are pregnant for Nigeria. The expectation is about the birth of a new kind of citizenship which compels us to make some sacrifices, drop some parochial interests and raise a memorial for our martyrs and heroes past.

Therefore, arise fellow compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey!

Addressing the U.S Military at the beginning of the war against terrorism in the Middle East, George Bush, former U.S President said:

•Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master and no one deserves to be a slave;

•The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it;

•The call for freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it;

•We are confident that the desire for freedom, even when repressed for generations, is present in every human heart. And the desire can emerge with sudden power to change the course of history;

•Before history is written in books, it is written in courage – the courage of honourable soldiers; the courage of oppressed peoples; the courage of free nations in difficult tasks.

•Rev. Fr. Kenneth Chinkata Evurulobi.