By Rev. Fr. Gerald Nwafor
Two thousand years ago there was a scarcity of good Samaritans in the ancient near east, from where the first known good Samaritan story emanated. We’re told that many good and noble people passed by the road and none of them was willing to help the unfortunate victim who fell prey to the thieves on the dry desert road that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Probably many Samaritans passed by too, but none of them was a Good-Samaritan but only Samaritans without the prefix “good.” Today we are still in short supply of good Samaritans. Think of the situation today: if the noble and honorable people would come closer to the victim, it would be to see if the first robbers left anything for them to steal.
Maybe the shoes and wristwatches and the suits and ties of the victim. The saying in the public forum is “If you can’t help me, please do not hurt me more.” The ordinary Samaritan passed by, the noble passed by, and the honorable passed by, at least that was what we were told until the good Samaritan came to give a helping hand. What would be the terminology for the Samaritan who will go closer to the victim to see if there were any leftovers so that they can loot and vandalize?
Today, even the ritualist would take their human body parts and the doctors who steal the organs of dying people in the trans-Sahara would move in to harvest the organs of the victim. So, what do call those who act contrary to the Good Samaritan? THE BAD SAMARITAN.Nigeria is in bad shape. The president has less than one week to leave, and he is demanding a loan of $800 million from the UK. Who will pay back the loan? What is he going to do with the loan? Buhari, can’t you see that we are hurting already? Why are you like this? With a month to go, the lame-duck senate approved twenty-two trillion naira for the president in ways and means.
What is all this rascality? The president said he will retire in the Niger Republic if he is in trouble in Nigeria. Just a reminder to us of the forgotten wounds that his presidency, which benefited the Niger Republic citizens more than us. More SUV vehicles were donated to Niger. The oil pipeline was connected to Niger.
Oil exploration started in Niger. Train tracks and railways were built for Niger. And all these were on the Nigerian budget. If the president decided to do nothing, we can call it noble, but to take our money and invest it in a neighboring country and say to our faces that Niger is only 8 kilometers away from his house and that he would retire in Niger calls into question in the eight years of his stewardship as the president of Nigeria. Now he is spending extra days in the UK because he developed a toothache after attending King Charles III’s coronation. Is it not a sign that he ate a lot of meat on the occasion and hence the toothache? But that is not my worry today because after 8 years in office, and you did not care to build a world-class hospital in Nigeria, what can be more pressing again?
The governors in our states will choose how we can classify them. Governors who failed to pay the salaries of workers are not only Bad Samaritans but may be termed Evil Samaritans. I was reading about how a governor who would leave office on the 29th of May was broadcasting on the television that he has paid March salaries in the first week of May. I wondered what those families were doing in the last two months. Meanwhile, pensioners have not been paid in the same state for six months and counting.
The Nigerian public will always turn serious issues into jokes. I read on the internet why the youths were questioning the politicians and it goes thus: “Shame node tire you? You no see yourself? People don see you finish. We will soon give you wotowoto.”
These are some evolving languages that the new generation coined to address the Bad Samaritans in charge of our common good. Should I talk about the Senators and the House of Representative members that put our constituency fund into their private pockets? Now they are fighting about who will be the Speaker and who will be the Senate President. Do not be deceived at all because the person who is zoning the Speaker and the Senate President and the persons mentioned to take those positions are not Good Samaritans. Neither are they ordinary Samaritans, they are the Bad Samaritans.
The worst of the Samaritan is the INEC chairman and his workers whom the Nigerian public trust to do good at least once in a lifetime. The INEC chairman in this case went over to the victim who has been brutalized in this case the Nigerian electorate. Picked him up. Cleaned him up. Dressed him properly. Raised the hope of the Nigerians. And when it is time to bring the victim out for all to see, the INEC took a bribe and sold the victim into slavery.
Now we do not even know where the victim is, and the buyers have boasted that if we want our victim back that we should go to court. INEC is a Bad Samaritan. Now we are missing Maurice Iwu the infamous INEC chairman who brought in President Shehu Yar’adua. Maurice is now a Samaritan because without BIVAS we cannot accuse him 100% of election malpractice.
But Professor Yakubu promised us heaven on earth with over 400 billion Naira spent on election preparations and materials and sold us into slavery. I don’t know what is worse than a Bad Samaritan. We are still in need of the Good Samaritan who will rescue the victim called Nigeria from the hands of the marauders.
