Meningitis: When A People Chooses Ignorance

(By Nk'iru. Njoku) - So the governor of Zamfara allegedly made the boo-boo of stating that the recent outbreak of Meningitis in Zamfara area was an act of God - a punishment for sin. 

The Nigerian arm of the internet has been thrown into an angry frenzy. Everybody is casting stones at this governor and I'm shaking my head. I mean, I do get the uproar. 

But is this not the same country where every goddamn thing has a religious angle even when it has zilch to do with your God(s) and everything to do with your simple refusal to apply COMMON SENSE? 

When you people hold prayer sessions in your offices before you start work for the day, what do you think you are doing? 

I'll tell you. 

You're saying 'I might be a professional, but my job is not really mine to do. If I fuck up, it's how God wants it to happen, after all I've prayed'.

When a person has a disability that has no cure but can only be managed, and you 'block your head' with the fancy words of your pastor and you then tell said person with disability to get a miracle from your pastor, you tell them you're sure they don't have faith and that's why they haven't been healed, what do you think you are doing? 

When you as a technician are doing a technical job and you are asked what your timelines are and you say 'by God's grace we will finish on so and so day', what do you think you are doing?

A Shocking Death and the Will of God

Oluchi Anekwe; source: jide-salu.com

(Simon Kolawale)--How do you respond to the electrocution of a promising university undergraduate, a first-class material at that? You can say "it is God's will" — as it is our custom in Nigeria — or you can say that once again, another light has been dimmed in clearly avoidable circumstances.

Oluchi Anekwe, a 300-level accounting student of the University of Lagos, was killed on Tuesday when a naked wire fell on her from an electric pole. Since there was no natural disaster such as a storm, you get the sense that the deadly cable had been hanging dangerously for a while. It was somebody's responsibility, I guess, to maintain those cables. The "somebody" failed in his duty and there are no consequences. Life goes on. We await the next electrocution, the next "God's will".