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End of history… dawn of change

By Afis A. Oladosu
29 May 2015   |   5:41 am
Yes, dear brethren, kindly join me in praying that today marks the end of ‘their history’; kindly join me in supplicating to the Most Merciful that today marks our arrival to the promised-land.
Otaru of Auchi

President-elect, Muhammadu Burhari (right); HRH Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji Aliru Momoh; and The Ogieneni of Uzairue, Alhaji Kadiri Omogbai at Jumat Service at the Arafat Mosque, Auchi during the President-elect visit… on May 15, 2015

In the name of the Almighty, the Beneficent, the Merciful “You shall not follow what you do not know—you must use your hearing, sight, and heart (intellect)…” (17:36) 

Yes, dear brethren, kindly join me in praying that today marks the end of ‘their history’; kindly join me in supplicating to the Most Merciful that today marks our arrival to the promised-land.

Pray, let this be the end of history of the suzerainty of the underlings in our land; open your palms to the heavens and pray that today should signal the beginning of the reign of the notables.

Pray that this generation and the ones to come never have to suffer the ignominy of being citizens of a failed leadership.

Pray that never again shall we experience the authority of those who have eyes but cannot see; pray ceaselessly that never again shall Nigeria be inflicted with the pain of having a leader who can only lead from behind.

Brethren! It was Francis Fukuyama, the American thinker and writer who, in 1992, wrote a book titled The End of History and the Last Man.

In the book, Fukuyama, in a typical American mentality, argues ‘that the advent of Western liberal democracy may signal the endpoint of humanity’s sociocultural evolution and the final form of human government’.

He says: “What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”.

Brethren, Fukuyama would have known by now that in reference to, among others, ‘mankind ideological evolution’ the end of history is actually not here yet.

I thought Fukuyama would have become wiser upon pondering events in Russia, China, Iraq, Syria and in other parts of the world that ‘history’ is not made in America; that history cannot and could not have ended with the triumph or the emergence of western liberalism.

He would have known that in reference to human history and its interactional reality, no single scholar could pontificate on that precipitous point in human life when the world would simply evanesce.

It is my argument that that which would come to an end in our socio-cultural and economic realities are those streams and trends that we, as active and conscious agents in the phenomena, desire to bring to an end. Such is the event which took place on March 28, 2015 in Nigeria.

On that day ‘history’ came to end for some; on that day an uncanny collusion occurred between terrestrial and celestial portents which eventuated in the dissolution of the dissolute powers at the ‘centre’; powers which have held this nation in the jugular since close to a decade now.

Thus today, brethren, Nigerians are saying let there be an end to ‘their history’- the history of leaders who deal not in hope but hopelessness.

Let there be an end to ‘their history’- the history of men and women who thought the infestation of the polity with naira and dollars and the consequent corruption of some people’s integrity can provide alibi and an escape yacht for them from the typhoon of retribution. Let there be an end to their history- the history of ‘jackals in government offices.

Here the word Jackal is deployed as a metaphor for those men and women whose conscience, with reference to their perfidious search for personal lucre, became not a guide but an accomplice.

I reference that assemblage of opportunistic persons who took over the political space during the past couple of years and mismanaged the resources of this nation.

Ernest Hemmingway, the American author and journalist, once said that “the first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin.

But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists’. Brethren! Please pray that today marks the end of the era of ‘business as usual’ in governance in Nigeria. Pray that today marks the beginning of business ‘unusual’.

In the latter, Jackals would have no space and chance. In the former, Jackals usually appropriate all spaces of opportunities.

At dawn ‘Jackals’ are in business; at dusk, they are active. The ‘Jackal’ usually dedicates his life to the pursuit of fortune and wealth wherever such may be found even if it leads to misfortune of the other.

In fact, to him there is more fortune in misfortune than misfortune in fortune. Thus every tragedy is an opportunity, every situation is a key to providence. Ask our compatriots in the north east – there the Jackals have been in action.

Ask our compatriots in the north east- there the political vultures have been busy.

Majority of the outgoing political class in Nigeria wanted to deny unto this country the chance to rise again. Wherever they go, like jackals, they leave their landmarks for all to see and ponder.

Like Jackals which leave landmarks with their urine and feces, the out-going political class is equally leaving its landmarks in our village, on our streets, on our life; landmarks of fuel crises; landmarks of insecurity; landmarks of power-outages; landmarks of …comatose nation!!! Brethren, Satan is quoted to have once said: “I hate those who trade in sin, though we may have the same merchandise”.

Ironically, those who trade in sin in this country do not hate one another. Rather, they love one another.

They have a cathedral (government offices), a priest (corruptible administrators), and an unholy scripture which guide their activities: Corruption. Brethren, given the above reflections, I thought you would agree with me that today should mark the end of ‘their history’. In fact, Nigerians are unanimous that an end to our sufferings begins today.

It feels we now have a Prophet Musa who would take us through the wilderness and across the ocean of infamy and indignities.

It feels, as has been predicted by Prophet Muhammad, this country is ready for change since we have given the charge of our affairs to “those who know the affairs’.

Therefore Brethren, I pray that today marks the beginning of our arrival to the promised-land. The promised-land in my reckoning is that over which the honest and the truthful preside; a land over which the conscious and the pious are sovereigns.

It is that in which the sovereign is constantly afraid of the retribution of the Almighty should he fail to discharge the task of leadership.

Ibn Qayyim says: “Be satisfied with whatever Allah grants you from this worldly life. Walking thereon is like walking in a land that is filled with beasts, and on water that teams with crocodiles.

That which causes delight (in this life), usually turns to be source of grief…’. May the Almighty grant ease and relief to our new President from all the ‘dis-ease’ and ‘grief’ that would be handed over to him today (aamin)! (08122465111 for texts only)

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