By Prof. Nathan Protus Uzorma
When St. Augustine inferred that “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent,” some scholars thought it was a mere propagation of naïve theology intertwined with tincture of philosophical madness. No, he was speaking from the point of view of classical Theodicy in line with modern Anthropidicy which however authenticates the fact that man is the product of divine being-God.
Man cannot avoid God and He God has made man a free moral agent contrary to the philosophical view of determinism. To say God cannot save man without his consent is to generate an endless philosophical argument within the framework of Logic; but to deny and negate the very fact that the primordial Lord needs our consent to assist us, is to deny the efficacy cum usefulness of prayer. Though this dictum may be anthropologically inflexible or religiously rigid but philosophically flexible hence Mahatma Gandhi enthuses “No one has the capacity to judge God. We are drops in that limitless ocean of mercy.”
Why is it that most politicians are wicked? Why is it that some of them thinks God can use prayer to change his will and destined desire? Why do they want the failure of their fellow political leader? Why do they kill and maim in order to attain success? Why do they pray evil prayer for one another? So many endless questions begging for answers which answer may not eventually come.
In one of the fables of Aesop the salve philosopher, he shared a story of a Scorpion being a poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across the river. “Are you mad?” Exclaimed the turtle, you will sting me while I am swimming and I will drown.”
“My dear turtle,” laughed the Scorpion. “If I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?” “You are right cried the turtle please hop on.” The Scorpion climbed aboard and half way across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle said, “Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there is no logic in your stinging me, why then did you do it? “It has nothing to do with logic,” the drowning Scorpion sadly replied, it’s just my character.”
The above philosophical fable simply authenticates the fact that what is in human nature must always manifest itself no matter how long one suppresses it. The Scorpion stung the turtle consequent upon the very primordial fact that it’s in its nature to sting. The Scorpion does not see stinging as an offence or crime. In the words of Aristotle, “The conduct of our live is the true mirror of our doctrine.” It surprises me how some politicians play politics with bitterness, they want to be known as only leaders that have succeeded which informs why they pray against the success of others.
Few weeks ago I found myself somewhere and I meet some personalities who may not be aware of the prayer topic that was to be presented by the moderator who nevertheless was a man of God of a growing Pentecostal Church. He asked everybody to stand up and we all did and some prayer topics were raised and we all prayed asking God to help solve the problem of.
On a second note, I noticed that the man of God raised another prayer point asking us to pray so that Gov. Hope Uzodinma will make a serious mistake in his administration. He continued to urge us pray so that the Imo state governor will fail in all his promises to enable another political party take over in 2023.
It was at this point that I became deeply exasperated with the so call “man of God.” Though when the later prayer point was mentioned, all those who were sitting down before suddenly stood up and raised their voices so high in obedience to the demand of the man of God. I remained silent and did not utter a word while listening to what I call vain spiritual invocation. I watched with keen interest and saw mentally depraved and spiritually disoriented mediocre urging the divine to fight political battle.
It was at this point I shouted down at everybody creating confusion through the so called misguided prayer. I started asking them, have we not suffered enough in Imo through APC leadership? Asking God to confuse Gov. Hope to continue to make more mistakes is like casting Imo into the lake of fire. Are we not surprised that the negative prayers going on against the state chief executive may be responsible for our woes?
They infused upon themselves religious illusion while jumping up in vain doxology to God, asking Him to create confusion in the administration of Senator Uzodinma. The God of righteousness could do nothing than to smile and frown at the foolishness of man. You want others to fail for you to succeed? Then, you must fail because you reap whatever you have sown. I am not saying that Gov. Hope is a good man, no! No one is good except God but whatever evil or bad done by Gov. Hope may be a product of an attempt to satisfy some people occasioned by ignoble prayers offered against him. Prayers are going on from time to time by those who love and other majority that “hate” him. Such prayer is not necessary because the reciprocal responsibility of such prayer falls back on Imolites.
While they were praying for the downfall of Gov. Hope Uzodinma, I was busy praying within me for God to forgive them and create in them a new spirit of obedience to his words which has it thus, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men. For kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” 1. Timothy 2:1-2. The scripture urges us to pray for those in authority so that they will rule in honesty and with the fear of God. The topsy-turvy of this is the product of ill-conceived ideology induced by the enemy of Imolites.
How does one except God to answer such prayer? If Gov. Hope Uzodinma fails, does his failure not amount to the failure of Imo State? I love my State Imo and I want things to work out well for us here. Gov. Uzodinma must not fail and all those praying for his failure are as well praying for the failure of ndi Imo. Like Aristotle, “The conduct of our live is the true mirror of our doctrine.” The way we pray exposes our greedy, selfish and piteous nature.
In the words of Aristotle, “Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good.” For Plato, “If a man had all that sort of knowledge that ever was, he would not be at all the wiser; he would only be able to play with men, tripping them up and oversetting them with distinction of words. He would be like a person who pulls away a stool from someone when he is about to sit down, and then laughs and makes merry at the sight of his friend overturned and laid on his back.” Wisdom 4:1 says, “For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.”
What else can we say? God loves us all and we must appreciate this divine love of God. It will be very unfortunate for anyone to wish for the downfall of his fellow man. We must avail ourselves of this divine love and extend same to others including our leaders. We should pray for them so that they can work very well to deliver the dividend of democracy to us all. Those who are making this ignoble prayer against Senator Hope Uzodinma, are making things worse for us all.
Chief Uzodinma had followed the philosophy of Kin Hubbaard that says “If at first you do succeed, don’t take any more chances.” We do owe our governor the duty to be praying for him. He is a human being and can make some mistakes. He needs to succeed for Imo to move on. Imo is not for only Gov. Hope Uzodinma, Imo belongs to us all.