Say oh Lord! The Sovereign of all dominions! You bestow power to whomever You wish and withdraw power from whomever You wish; You exalt whomever You wish and abase whomever you wish; In Your Hand lies all that is GOOD. You embed the night into the day and the day into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. You grant sustenance to whomever you wish beyond reckoning” Q 3: 26-27

Monologue

Life is like a horse that surrenders itself to humans for riding. If it surrenders itself to you today do not be reckless in riding it. You may become the horse for life to ride on tomorrow. Nights are pregnant. They invariably give birth to wonders during the days. All pleasant or unpleasant events found in the records of history were conceived in the nights. The belly of nights is a mystery that cannot be easily explained through the successes or failures of human dreams.

Observation

Man is a mere spectator watching the environmental drama going on around him in the theatre of life. He only reacts to that drama randomly as it affects his immediate interest. The main actor in that drama is the phenomenon called destiny. And, the only antidote for the poison that destiny may sometimes constitute in the life of man is to be clad in the armour of faith.

In history, great empires and nations have reputation for rising to the peak of their glory at a time. And, at another time, they are known for falling unexpectedly to the abyss of life’s dungeon, when they might have reached the elasticity limit of their power wielding. And as it is with nations, so it is with rulers. In this situation, what obtained in the past still obtains in the present. This confirms that humans are like flakes of history they rise today and fall tomorrow according to the dictates of momentary tempest.

Comment

Nigeria is fortunate as a nation to be endowed with large-hearted men and women who have tentials to enhance that rare fortune but fail to utilize such potentials.

“The occurrences of life, as you can see them, change from time to time like weather. A person who is gladdened today may be saddened tomorrow”. In that circumstance, how much a man is able to cope with the harshness of life or relish in its comfort depends depends largely on the treatment he gaves clemency when the latter is at his disposal. Yet the world surges ahead without looking back at actions or reactions that dot the various lands of circumstances of life. Thus, within the twinkling of an eye, the Almighty Allah may change many things in human life to the amazement of man.

Efficacy of prayer

At a time in Nigeria when the elasticity of hardship unleashed on Nigerians by the country’s leadership was fast approaching its elasticity limit, we raised up our hands in prayer to the Almighty Allah to grant us a leader who would truly and sincerely serve the nation rather than someone who would turn himself into a master to be served by the nation. This was in response to Allah’s covenant with mankind when He said: “And, when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad (SAW) about me, tell them that I am very close to them and I answer the prayer of any well intentioned seeker, if he/she seeks my favour. Let such seekers trust My willingness to accept prayers so that they may be guided aright”. Q. 2: 186.

 

Analysis

Based on the above quoted verse of the Quran, we raised up our hands in prayer thus:

“Oh Allah! Give us a leader who will know that the greatest wealth of a nation is her human resources and develop such wealth for the future of the nation. Imbue us with a leader who will know the meaning of education and therefore give our schools and Universities priority in government policies. Appoint a leader for us who will be a good example for the country, abiding by the law and not choosing which of the court rulings to obey. We pray for a leader who will hold security of lives and property sacrosanct, not one who will be indifferent when his personal interest is not affected by insecurity in the land. That prayer was divinely accepted. But with our habitual greed, carice and untamable aggrandizement, we chose to reject the divine bounties of Allah in the satanic belief that Allah’s choice for us is not as good as our own ephemeral choice of vanity.

We need a Leader

Today, we are back to a new season of prayer askkng Allah to give us a leader who will sincerely stand by his oath of office and not one who will rule by his wills and caprices on the basis of religious bias and ethnic sentiment to the detriment of the country’s constitution.

We pray for a leader who will not crudely and greedily discard certain provisions of the constitution in a desperate bid to rule us despotically forever. We pray for a leader who will see himself as a servant rather than the master of the nation and therefore address the citizenry with due respect in decency and gentleman’s language.

We pray for a leader who will be just enough to spread the privileges and opportunities in the land across board without any atom of discrimination. We pray for a leader who will not destroy the legitimacy of his leadership and start running away from his own shadow at the tail end of his tenure. And, finally, we pray for a leader who will be large-hearted enough to be gallant in defeat and magnanimous in victory; not one who will be so vindictive as to play tribes against tribes, unions against unions and religion against religion.

We believe that the leadership qualities for which we are hereby praying are those that embody civilisation in all its ramifications. And, we are confident that Allah will be merciful with us in accepting this prayer.

Agitations

However, while we are eagerly anticipating the acceptance of this new prayer, some myopic and visionless agents of the Lucifer are still vigorously agitating for balkanization of this country in anticipation of their selfish material gains. Such vissionless elements do not see any lesson to learn from the experience of Southern Sudan Sudan or that of Southern Cameroon. Where are we going from here?

Oh Allah, we are at Your door, raising up our hands to You in prayer and placing our final hope on You without an iota of doubt. Kindly guide us to build a nation of hope and to elect a leader who will be loved and admired by all and not one whose natural trade in stock is hidden hatred for certain citizens and open indignation for others. To You we pray and from You alone we expect mercy.