WHEN  MAN SAYS: “I’M GOD"  ”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

The purpose of this essay is to warn, to tell my countrymen and women to stop seeking a god on a white horse to rescue the nation. There isn’t a single god in Nigeria or anywhere in the whole wide world (www). The prayers for a Savior have gone unanswered. What we see are men and women seeking opportunities to exploit and lay to waste. The U S President DonaldTrump is an example of persons seeking to sit on God's throne. I support respecting and honoring ourselves and others, and I will give honor where honor is due. But one thing I would never do is to allow a man, a mere insignificant speck of dust, a mortal  like me, to usurp the throne of God . It is something I would not allow.

Despite how honorable a man is, he is not my God. My God loves me, wants the best  for me, looks after my wellness, and would even let Himself  die, if need be, in my behalf. The Igbos name their sons Maduabuchi (man is not God), Onyebuchi (who is like unto God?) or Onyekachi (who is greater than God?). The Igbos have a point worth noticing: Man isn’t and cannot be God by any stretch of the imagination.

 Like me , a man is mortal, he eats like I do, uses the toilet like I do, loves money like I sometimes do;  and can become jealous and evil like we all are, and when we die we all go 6 feet under the earth. So, what is the big deal? Man cannot replace God. God does things with equity, meaning God does things with fairness, even handedness, neutrality, impartiality, justice, justness, or parity. My God is not a Nigerian or European. When will Nigerians begin to recognize what I and many others are recognizing  too late? Man is not god.

 Man, no matter the degree of his popularity or length of the scroll on which his accomplishments are written, is not fit to be called God. Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto , would have been considered  the Fulani  god if he had not allowed deep-seated  hatred of Igbos  to becloud his achievements and turn them to his Waterloo. Odumegwu Ojukwu came closest to being a god who attempted to save his people who were at the mercy of hateful  jihadhists. Non-Igbo Nigerians hated Ojukwu for that with a passion. Ojukwu wasn’t the god I would admire because he didn’t face death with the people whose cause he had championed. He ran away. That leaves Nnamdi Kanu. Where is Kanu?

Obasanjo is not god because he selfishly sought  the third term in office. Buhari  is not god, and if he were, he was a cruel, sickly and hateful god who ruled through slaughter and vile violence . Yar’dua was not god, and Jonathan was far from being an Ijaw god. Babangida, the self-styled Muslim deity, is watching while his country perishes, goes to waste. What other gods do Nigerians go to polls to elect to continue to murder, pillage, and violate their rights?

 I am offended when men arrogate to themselves the titles and qualities only reserved for Chukwu or Chineke (our God). A famous example of arrogation is Herod the Great, ruthless ruler of the Jews, who sat on the throne of Israel and commanded his subjects to prostrate and pay obeisance to him with such words as: ”He’s God; it is the voice of God.” Herod usurped the throne of God. He said, “I indeed am God.”

 And what happened next? The usurper turned into a basket of ikpuru (worms), and there was a stampede that was massive and fear-inspiring. If I were there, I would initially run out with the crowd, to save my life. I will eventually return to where Herod was sitting before becoming ikpuru, I would clear the seat off of the hideous, crawling, swarming maggots and drag the golden throne to my hut.

 

And no human being would ever sit on that throne again. And if any woman who calls herself Mrs. Agazie, attempts to disobey me, I will not lay my hands on her, but would be in her village the following morning loudly demanding  that my dowry/bride price be given back to me with immediate effect.

I may consider sitting on the throne myself for a brief moment after telling my family, “Look, my name is Papa, and don’t ever call me God. Do you hear?” And that will be it. Would I be tempted to sit on the golden throne for a brief moment to see if the feeling of being God would fall on me? I might, but then I would not  because  the job God does is awfully hard, the job of dispensing love  with equity and equanimity is impossible for any Nigerian or European..

The Atlanta  Journal –Constitution of Friday, February 3, 2012 (pages B1, B3) carried a ludicrous story of a ceremony at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia,  in which Bishop Eddie Long was carried upon a throne, while self-purported rabbi named Ralph Messer of Colorado proclaimed: “He is a king. God has blessed him” before covering Long with what was purported to be a 312-year-old Torah Scroll said to still have the dust of Auschwitz and Beckerman. What nonsense!  Bishop Eddie Long died a few years later of HIV. His followers claimed it was cancer that killed the Bishop.

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blospot.com

December 8, 2017
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