NATURE’S INDEPENDENCE GIFT TO NIGERIA @ 52

“And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done” – Genesis 8:21(KJV)

As we wait graciously for the celebration of Nigerian 52^nd independence, I remember vividly this portion of the bible. It usually was our memory verse when we were in Sunday school. I try then to compare the situation of things recently in our country to this great suzerainty between God and Noah. I then wonder if Nigerians are not part of the promise!

“The images have been ferrying from north to south. Whole communities under water; roads that have been washed away, floating and bloated corpses; stranded travelers and motorists; diversion of traffic to badly maintained roads and a country effectively cut into two, by force of nature”. This succinctly describes the state of things in our dear country over the past days.

In many parts of the country it’s been reported that “the consequences of the flood is that there are huge losses of farmlands, a threat to  food security and health challenges, displaced families to mention but a few”. These occurrences has pushed me into wondering if Nigeria is not part of that world that god promised Noah that he would never again destroy by water! Or has God fallen out with Nigeria? Nigerians are blaming the Government. Why? Was there something the government could have done to avert the situation? Maybe the government could have bribed nature. Or is it nature’s gift to Nigeria to make its 52^nd independence?

In the words of the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Mailafia “the flooding we are experiencing in the country do not in any way fall into what you can term man-made. This is a natural phenomenon that cuts across the globe. With the technology in places like the United States, they still had the flooding there, in China and even our neighbour Niger with an arid land.

I can’t but agree with the honourable minister that there is a limit to which we can fight nature. The overflowing of the two rivers was purely an act of nature “novus actus interveniens”. Nigerians should for once absolve the government of wrongdoing. I believe many people from this ravaged areas were told by meteorologists’ to vacate beforehand. Since it has happened we commiserate with victims and pray the government, private individuals and Nigerians in general to take care of these victims of the flooding.

Borrowing the words of the Honourable Minister “ for anyone to think that the government has not done well or that there was something that we needed to do that we have not done is  little awesome because there is a limit to which we can fight nature”. I pray Nigerians give the government time to help in rehabilitating the affected areas instead of condemning them. Who knows if its nature’s birthday gift to Nigeria!