The quiescence of the dead to object to their eternal
confinement six feet below, certifies the reality of
their non-existence. We, the living, also grope in a
void of vanity that we proudly call existence. The
movement of the living from the void to the
darkroom
below is wrapped in mystery. I have seen
mysteries to a point of not being mystery-awe.
The Agagu episode was not a mystery as such but
something like it. A dead man Olusegun Agagu was
enclosed in a casket of gold with all his vanished
accomplishments – former governor of Ondo State,
former chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
former Minister of this and that, Dr this. Chief that,
ex- His Excellency etc. His corpse was on the way
to its final resting place in Iju Odo in Ondo State.
The man in the small metal box was isolated in the
belly of the plane while others were seated in the
cabin. The man could no longer sit with the living
among whom were my good friend, Tunji Okusanya
(Snr) a.k.a. Rector, his son, Tunji (Jnr) and other
people of mixed importance. In less than two
minutes of take-off, the plane crashed and closed
the gap between the living and the dead. The
accident was a dramatic illustration of the dead
burying the dead.
When Jesus said, ‘Let the dead bury their dead’, it
was not a parable. It was a poetic mockery of
mortal humanity. He saw no difference between the
dead and the living. What separates them is time
and space of tenuous insignificance. One sleeps in
perpetuity while the other functions in the chaos
and ructions of human existence. For one, the
politics of life has ended. For the other, he
skedaddles with death in the politics of hide and
seek. When mourners and undertakers assemble
for the funeral of a departed one at a cemetery,
their posturing and pretensions notwithstanding,
they are flirting with the rehearsal of their own
funeral. The difference is in time and space; one
sleeps that day, others will come to sleep on other
days. The cemetery gate is the metaphor of life and
death; the barrier between the dead on the other
side and the dead on this side. While some dead are
sleeping in the graves in the cemetery, the other
category of “the dead” (the living) are on long-
queues outside the cemetery gate uncertain of
whose turn is next.
The dead in the graves are the ones that have been
eternally denied the right of redress and corrective
privilege for all their actions when they were
outside the cemetery. But those at the gate are the
living that still have the privilege of correction. The
stories of those inside the cemetery have sufficient
lessons for those outside it. But very foolishly,
many who are still outside the gate will still go
inside the cemetery with the same blunders
committed by those within believing that eternity is
nothing but a fantasy promoted by those seeking
recompense for their perceived self-righteousness.
The circumstances of the literal narrative of the
accident excite me just as its figurative
dramatisation.
A spiritual rhapsody was introduced to the narrative
when Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State urged all
Nigerians to intensify their prayers as a way of
cleansing our nation of all its profanities and
iniquities. He made the call when he paid a
condolence visit to his bereaved Ondo State
counterpart, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko. Fayemi’s prayer
alert is troubling. Of all the countries of the world,
Nigeria appears to be the one with the highest
number of churches, pastors and prophets who are
very very close to government and political leaders.
Even if I don’t know what goes on in other
churches, I know that in my own church, prayers
are always said for Nigeria during some of these
special programmes. If all these prayers are still to
be intensified as Fayemi suggested, it shows that
most of our churches have either not been praying
for the country, or have not been sincere in their
prayers, or that GOD is not accepting our prayers
for one reason or the other.
Countries all over the world had been granted
autonomy by GOD to run their affairs but here in
Nigeria, we keep showing our incapability to
manage our affairs ourselves. We bother GOD for
virtually everything that other countries have taken
for granted. We organize vigils, special prayers and
even visit prophets before we take a flight, before
we travel from one part of the country to the other,
we pray to get jobs, we pray before writing exams,
we pray to get contracts, we pray before attending
political meetings/rallies, before our children go for
national service, we pray not to be victims of Boko
Haram, kidnappers and ritual killers. Even simple
thing like eating also requires prayer otherwise… we
pray when our drivers take our children to school
and pick them from school, we pray before we
sleep. With all this list of ‘befores’ coming from
Nigeria alone when will GOD rest?
Our post-tragedy attitude reveals one thing –
human existence is a puzzler. As soon as a tragedy
occurs, we cry, we shout, we moan, we mourn and
we grieve. Afterwards, I mean in a very short
period, we begin to laugh, we rejoice, we frolic, we
enjoy, we razzle and continue with life as if nothing
had happened. The one that is dead is the one that
is doomed. This is why I think government attitude
to tragedies is spiteful. It is convenient for the
government to deal with tragedy in a casual manner
because Nigeria is one nation where tragedies are
on queue. As soon as one erupts, the next on the
queue allows just some few days of hoopla before it
takes it own turn and it does not take time at all.
If the government is therefore overwhelmed with
tragedies and lacks the capacity to prevent them, it
is because we have allowed tragedies to become a
routine occurrence hence death no longer shocks
us.
Besides, government’s strategy in the management
of tragedy needs some elevation. Making
predictable moves all the time does no credit to its
creative capacity. Immediately the tragedy
occurred, I was expecting government to set up a
panel to investigate the cause or causes of the
crash. And it did. Yes, it may be the natural action to
take but my concern is that the country is becoming
notorious for its festivals of probe.
Government has never shown the political will to
release past investigation reports or even release
White Paper on them. Why must we always set up
panels to investigate tragedies when we can set up
one to prevent tragedy so that we can stop turning
funerals into a way of life.
The death of a dead man is far-fetched, eldritch,
curious and preternatural. Methinks we are
exaggerating the fatality of death knowing that
nobody dies twice. Everyman, whether in a casket
or in a mansion, dies once. When therefore a
corpse in a casket, on its way to its final resting
place, is assaulted again by death, such bizarre
attack is misplaced venom from the one that has
the final encounter with everyone that carries the
flesh of sin. This second death is nothing but an evil
expression from the one that is proud of the
superfluity of its sting. Otherwise, why waste your
sting on a man that is already gone?
The riddle lies in the multitude of victims that
became the casualties of the cabbalistic fellowship
between death and its evil accessories that were
engaged in a conspiracy of revenge over covenant
breach. Agreed that death is the conclusion of life’s
vanity and the finality of the unrewarding labour of
man on earth but why must another man depart
consequent upon the unfaithfulness of the other to
the obligations of his covenant? Why did GOD allow
a collateral damage of the innocent in the crossfire
between death and the brotherhood. The Christians
are not wrong when they refer to GOD as
unquestionable. What then is the point of engaging
GOD in a dialogue that will end in rhetoric? I
therefore submit myself to a mystery I can NEVER
unravel.
[By Dapo Thomas]
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