My colleague, Funke Egbemode is back at her beat after a stint in government, as commissioner for information, back to do what she knows how to do best. When my colleagues go into government I say they have gone in for their IT! They have gone to see the inside of government, to see, learn and familiarise themselves with those things that are kept away from the rest of us despite the vaunted claim to transparency.
Brandish your type-writer, nay computer—(I am sorry, I am of the old school) — before senior government functionaries and wave the Freedom of Information Act gazette demanding this or asking for that, what you are told is the law has not been domesticated.
To our relief, Civil rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), has fought the case successfully in one of the states. What I am getting at is that Funke has studied the inner recess of government, how their minds work there—which is what makes her piece this week frightening, indeed, ominous:
“This regular festival of human sacrifice cannot stop where about 5000 smooth-talking politicians talk about where power must be,” she wrote. “Just a few people in the North enjoy a ‘northern presidency.’ Only the children of those few school in Switzerland and live in New York…The voters and their children are socialised to mass produce children after mass weddings. They have been told that it is their destiny to serve and slave.”
The crux of the matter: “Do you see the northern leaders de-emphasising age-old ways and hauling the almajiris to school or teaching them coding? Do you see young northerners in the cattle business quitting nomadic life? Do you see the farmlands of Benue and Plateau safe from devastation they leave behind? Do you see farmers going to bed with their two eyes closed and returning home safely after every farm day? Do you? I don’t.”
I had pencilled down the killings in the both Plateau and Benue states for my contemplation this week until my attention was drawn to the compelling piece by Funke Egbemode, and that of Suyi Oba Ayodele.
Captioned “The killings won’t stop”, Funke wrote:
“You can’t kill a cow.
“You can’t caution the herders.
“The farmers, tired of crying and bellyaching are fighting back.
“Herders are killing farmers.”
Egbemode was commenting on the killings in Plateau and Benue states where in the former 150 persons were killed in two attacks within a week. The death toll in Benue was at first 56, but as I was writing this, according to the governor, the casualty figure had climbed to 83. And at Ilesa Baruba, in Kwara, gunmen struck, killing four persons and wounding two.
The point she did not press is the imperative of state police, a tier of our security architecture to which I have drawn attention repeatedly in this column. The other point on which I have hammered is the essence of Creation Knowledge which brings us to the awareness of the times we are in and the immutability of the mechanisms that govern these times and life—unyielding and self-acting. These are the Laws of Creation also referred to as the Laws of Nature or Divine Laws. We are to recognise necessary signs of the times.
The whole world is literally in turmoil. The waves will sweep through everywhere as the world is in the grip of the prophesied World Judgment. The pressure of the Light baring down animates everything, bringing to life and awakening all that is slumbering or is dead in all mankind to face judgment. There is no hiding place for anyone any more: the strengths and weakness will be brought out, to the fore.
All that is wrong is coming to light, however well concealed or glossed over by our cleverness. All must reveal itself, visible to all men in every detail and then perish as a barren fruit. Goodness will receive fortification and weaknesses will constitute dross that will drag down. Nobility of soul becomes light and is protected while evil is dragged to its waterloo. One of the self-evident features of these times is the acceleration and intensification of events, sudden deaths, calamities and all! And of course, political and economic collapse! Conduct, thinking, relationships are affected.
Wars were predicted and rumours of war; so were drought, famine, flooding, hurricane and volcanic devastations. Climate change is another major feature of these times. Earlier this month, Nigerian Meteorological Agency NIMET issued severe weather alert, asking some southern States to prepare for flooding. The states listed were Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Ondo and Anambra. Heavy rainfall would be accompanied by strong winds.Worse conditions were predicted for Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa. They were marked down as high-risk areas with rainfall climbing up to 50mm within 24 hours.
Strong gusty winds with the potential to damage property were forecast for most of the northern states among them Jigawa, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi with Benue, Kogi and Kwara featuring in the wind belt. In 2012, floods in Nigeria displaced two million people while 363 were killed, according to National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA. In Kano, 5,300 houses were destroyed. In Dawakin Kudu alone 2, 300 houses were affected, said the State Relief and Emergency Agency.
The August flooding in 2016 was calculated would cost the United States economy between $10 billion and $15 billion. By September of that year flooding described as extra-ordinary damaged 40, 000 homes in South-East Louisiana. Scientists said at the time that Climate Change loaded the dice for Louisiana flood. Whether it is fire it is a picture of gloom. In 2014, there were 1, 298,000 fire incidents reported in the United States, damaging 300 vehicles and causing 3, 275 deaths. The following year, 2015, the record of fire incidents rose to1,345,500, causing 3,280 civilian deaths, 15, 700 injuries and $14.3 billion in property damages.
In his unique treasure book, The Gate Opens, Herbert Vollmann says: “Many indeed know of the coming of this World Judgment but they are still awaiting the trumpet-blasts which are to herald it. Let those who thus wait follow attentively just for once the news from the countries of the earth. Each day brings reports of political disturbances, economic distress, famine, of outrages and dreadful misery; plagues and drought afflict mankind, the earth quakes and destroys whole cities within seconds, deadly hurricanes rage along, volcanoes belch forth devastating fire, rivers overflow their banks, tearing away homesteads, cattle and men.
“Are these not trumpet-blasts for the Judgment, when here today and there tomorrow the waves of terror and dread roll over mankind, to shake them violently awake even at the last moment? What is sinister and new in this is the abundance of events never before experienced, the speed with which they follow one another. But who allows himself to be touched by them, unless they directly affect him personally?”
Terence McKenna, the verity of whose words and thought provoking which I am wont to refer for our reflection, states: “Nature is not mute, it is man that is deaf.” And this brings me to the main subject of today. As I did ask last week: What do these times say to us, to all mankind? Didn’t Prophet Isaiah give us the hint when he said: “Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought: speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us”? (Isaiah 8: 10) Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible.
It is the proverbial End-Time he spoke about, the great time of perplexity in which one conference follows another, but achieving nothing—when, according to Vollmann, distrust is everywhere, unrest and uneasiness, when hopelessness spreads ever more. God with us indicating the emergence of a new Era. And we read from the unique Work, In the Light of Truth, The Grail Message by Abd-ru-shin that the way out of the chaos and hopelessness; to joy and happiness, nobility, beauty and consciously being part of the wonderful life is to learn the Language of God in His Creation.
