CRY, MY BELOVED COUNTRY
Nigerian is great nation if only our leaders pay attention to the cry of the people. But it has become a land where justice is infringed, where evil has become the order of the day, where Peter is robbed to pay Paul. And the rich make haven for themselves. Africans, weep! Nigerians lament your plunder. The godly have been swept off from the land, not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each haunts his brother with deadly net.
You men of deceit who have become rich by extortion, corruption and outright theft note that great sorrow awaits you. The lord on high looks upon your deeds and is saddened. How much longer can this go on?
The earth tremble, the Lord rises. Sooner or later the debtors will take all you have and you become penniless, trembling and helpless. A land where plenty blood has been shed, where souls have been soiled. Our land has been destroyed and everything in it. For mere lucre filth, you have shamed your name and imperiled your lives. The very stones in the walls of your house cry out against you, and the beams in the ceiling echo the complaints of the poor.
Selfishness is wholly responsible for the high incidence of corruption, what sorrow awaits you who build cities with money gained through murder and corruption! What sorrow awaits you who build big houses with money gained dishonestly? You believe that your wealth will save you or buy you security. Whatever a man sows, he shall reap. Beware of the judgment of time, you rulers that demand gifts, judges that accept bribes, and other workers of iniquities.
Beware, the time is here! Judgment is just by the corner. Soon if there is no repentance from evil deeds, there will be great confusion in the land. Listen to the voice of reason! The poor cry out and the heavens hear their voice. Our leaders make decisions based on who has the most inducement to offer. Now, everything, including the much-hallowed justice has been reduced to 'Cash and carry.'
A single finger in a leper's hand imperils the whole hand. The unholy foundation you have laid has now forced the young generation of Nigeria into other heinous practices. Now the country is noted mostly for negative things. Young Nigerians, the supposed leaders of tomorrow are now into internet fraud, robbery, child trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping, drugs, etc., while those who managed to scrape through the educational system now go out in droves in search of highly-elusive self-realization within their local system.
Our young women, the supposed mothers of the nation, are now into prostitution, both locally and internationally. Cry the beloved nation! what a great sorrow await your elite, the leaders, who have countless opportunity to put the well-endowed country on a great pedestal but chose to settle for spoil of office, lucre and filth to dump the country in the nadir of nations.
The cry of the poor have risen and today, those who labour to amass wealth illegitimately do not live to enjoy it. Sooner or later they develop one terminal ailment or another and pass away. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Nothing, it is said life is a vapour. All is vanity upon vanity! So, what purpose does the stolen million serve?
As for men who proclaim themselves to be men of God or pastors but teach God's word for a price, giving favourable message or sweet message to selected members of your congregation, hear this: 'As for the prophet who lead my people astray, if one feeds them they proclaim peace, it does not; they prepare to wage war against him, therefore night will come over you without vision and darkness without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets and the day will go dark for them, the seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced, they will all cover their faces because there will be no answer from God.'
•Thank God Isiguzoro writes from Ejigbo