Blood, tears and confusion: Which way Nigeria?

For several months now, we have woken up to nothing but bad news in our beloved country, Nigeria. It is not getting any better either. The latest being the abduction of girls in Chibok, Bornu State. Young girls that did nothing but want to have basic education.

#BringBackOurGirls is a campaign got the whole world talking and offering help even when we can't say we know the whole truth about it all. What with the many conflicting reports that we hear daily. It is heart breaking to know that some girls are in some forest or some unknown place away from their families and loved ones abused, brainwashed and scared out of their wits. This amongst other things show that there are people in this country who think the girl-child should not be educated and this senseless act might just be their way of showing it.

#BringBackOurGirls because they are innocent and holding them and doing this evil won't do anyone any good or solve the fundamental problems we have in this country.

#BringBackOurGirls instead of making much noise and doing little.

#BringBackOurGirls by being vigilant and not the whole 'I don kia' 'No be my business' 'E no concern me' attitude we have about everything.

From the bombings, the kidnappings to the jungle justice that is still happening on our streets, (I saw pictures of a woman who was suspected of kidnapping some children. She was of course lynched and burned.) We need to not only pray, but to be our brother's keepers. We need to do the right thing and not just talk (scream, debate all day) about it. We need to do what we can as citizens to help and not spend our time and energy blaming the government for everything. (Don't think I don't know there are inadequacies.)

God bless Nigeria and give us the wisdom we need to tackle this situation.

Blessings.

Lily Johnson

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My humble opinion

I am so sorry for being M.I.A for a while. It’s just that I had a lot going on for me. I have been extremely busy and soon going to write my exams. I am so happy I am almost through with my programme and hope I come out with something better than I had hoped for.

Well, I also heard the stories most of you guys heard about the violence against women that made headlines last month. I still read somewhere this morning about a woman that cut off her husband’s penis. So it is not just against women, it is that some couples have embraced violence instead of good old communication. And the fact that people don’t do what they ought to do before getting into marriage.

Marriage is supposed to be a union of two people who after finding out they love each other unconditionally, complement each other, can live with each other, can tolerate each other, have mutual respect for each other and want to live for each for the rest of their lives, decided to make the union legal or bring it before God for blessings. Just as any relationship, marriage does have its crazy times but if there is love and tolerance, I believe it would never get to violence. The couple might have screaming matches to vent their frustration and stuff but would not bring a knife to each other’s bodies. 

The problem is that people are getting married daily for reasons that are wrong and even funny. Sometimes, a woman might marry a man she knows doesn’t love her but thinks everything would work out because she loves him to bits. People marry for money, security, to get away from family, to make some ‘prophesy’ to come true, to attain a particular status in the society, to be identified with a particular name maybe because the family is famous...it is a terrible situation.

Before and after marriage, couples should always pray together. I am talking about holding hands and praying for God’s guidance. There is something about you and your fiancé or husband holding each other’s hands to pray. It is very intimate. Let him pray for you and you in turn should pray for him then pray for each other, your relationship, your marriage and every other thing.

I still believe that if a marriage isn’t destined to work out, it wouldn’t. I am not carrying placards encouraging divorce but there are some situations that there isn’t any other solution to them than just walking away. Some women [men too] would have been alive or less damaged if they had just done that.

May God in His infinite wisdom guide and protect us all.

RIP Titi and Olori Bolanle

Lily Johnson