NO ONE IS A VIRGIN

 

I was thinking this morning.... Last Wednesday, a day before the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest began, I took my young wife shopping at the local market in my neighbourhood. I found a free parking spot by the bench of a lady retailing small bunches of plantain. As I focussed my gaze on the tray of plantain, lost in thought, the lady stood up and picked up a particular bunch that looked like they were going bad. I observed her as she lifted the bunch, turned it around, and looked at it, her eyes twinkling with worry and her face washed with fear and uncertainty.

I peeped at her from the side glass of my air-conditioned car and imagined what could be going through the mind of the woman. If that plantain gets bad, that will be part of her capital gone. How will she feed her children and pay their school fees? 'Oh God, please send a customer to buy this plantain today,' I can imagine her praying. How do people, particularly petty traders with families, survive in present-day Nigeria? Our leaders are really heartless and wicked to not feel the pain of the masses. As I kept looking for who to blame for the predicament of the lady, I had a whisper that says 'there is no virgin in a maternity ward.'

I immediately recalled my experience in 2003 when I was called one midnight to drive a neighbour in labour to the hospital. She sat at my back seat, clutching the husband's hand, even as she moaned, groaned, and screamed. As her husband whispered soft words of encouragement, she barked at him, 'Shut up. No be you do am?' Wow! How can you blame the man for your labour pain? There is no taking in without first receiving. Both the man and woman had a part to play. Truly, there is no virgin in a maternity ward.

When it comes to apportioning blame for our woes, most people see themselves as virgins in a maternity ward. It is very easy to point at leadership or someone else as the source of your problem. While leadership failure plays a key part, we all are culpable. Nigeria is like a maternity ward, and no one is a virgin. We contributed to our current woes by our actions or inactions and must take responsibility. Psalms 139:23 - 24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

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