God Abegeth Thee

 

I was thinking this morning...... Nigerians respond to evil reports in different ways that are mostly monosyllabic. Chai! Ewo! Shuo! Jesus! Goodness me! My God! are common exclamations. Recently, Nigerians have started combining exclamations with prayer. One such prayerful exclamation is 'God abeg o!'

'God abeg o!' is a pidgin English exclamation that urgently seeks the intervention of God. However, with time, as situations became dire, some persons are looking for quicker ways of getting God's intervention. One of such is the belief that God responds to the language of the King James Version (KJV) faster than modern colloquialism of queen's English and pidgin English. Consequently, instead of 'God abeg o!' what you hear is 'Oh God, Abegeth thee.' Hmm!

It takes a serious issue like the oil theft situation in Nigeria to switch to this KJV-Pidgin mindset. It's been reported that Nigeria loses about 700,000 barrels of oil daily to oil thieves. To underscore how bad the situation is, one of the Oil  companies reported pumping about 35,000 barrels from one of its Wells but received nothing but air at the terminal. All the crude volume pumped through the pipeline was stolen along the way.

It is estimated that Crude oil thieves steal about 40% of our commonwealth at source. When the 60% that gets to the terminals is sold, the politicians steal the revenue. How have we become a nation of thieving leaders and followers? As I reflected on how this large scale theft is bleeding this nation to death, all I could do was exclaim and pray 'Oh God Abegeth thee!'

'Happy School Fees Week' is what I wish parents with children returning to school. Oil theft, fraudulent subsidy regime and burgeoning external debt have resulted in inflation-pro-max in Nigeria. With about 40% increase in fees across board, many parents are really struggling. While some have bitten the bullet and downgraded their children's school, others are faithing it and praying 'Oh God Abegeth thee.'

Truly, these are perilous times (2nd Timothy 3:1) but also a critical time in the life of our nation as we approach 2023. I therefore implore you to join me to pray for God's intervention for us to get it right this time by saying 'Oh God Abegeth thee!

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday.

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey