Drowning

Drowning

I was thinking this morning.... about drowning. God forbid (with my right hand making a circle round my head and my fingers snapping in front), I am not thinking of drowning myself, I am only thinking about the incident of drowning, and for good reason too. This was so when I read the screaming headline in the Vanguard Newspaper, 'Lamentations as flood hits 400 communities, 44 dead.' As I read the details of how communities in Anambra, Delta, Bayelsa, Niger and Kogi were devastated by floods, I shook my head in sorrow wondering why there should be so many lives lost to flooding, not hurricane or tsunami. As I got lost in hypnotic trance wondering how the warning to Nigerians living by the banks of River Niger and its floodplains to relocate was not heeded, I was jolted back by the words of an affected resident in Rivers State that he wasn't going to vacate his flooded house because he is afraid that his properties will be looted by hoodlums before he returns. Oh, at this point I remembered the words of Dr Zig Ziglar that 'You don't drown by falling into water; you only drown if you stay there.'

But why will anyone remain in the flood until they drown? Why can't they take themselves out? When I read that the flood also took toll on the dead as copses were washed up from graves in Ofu local government area of Kogi State, I can understand because a copse cannot run from flood but why will a living man remain in the flood until he is drowned? Oh Zig Ziglar is so spot on when he said 'You don't drown by falling into water; you only drown if you stay there.'

Someone might argue that our national emergency preparedness is appalling, saying 'I tire for Nigeria. If we have emergency responders in those villages, the deaths could have been avoided.' Well maybe so, or so I thought until I read how 31-year-old Jerome Moody died in a pool party organized by lifeguards in New Orleans, Louisiana to celebrate a summer where no one had drowned at any of the city's pool. How can anyone drown in a party organized by lifeguards? Some will say it is home trouble, but I know he did not drown by falling into water, he drowned because he remained under.

Please don't say those involved are suicidal. You are a loving husband and father and father and will never deliberately want to hurt your loved ones. You traveled out of town with some colleagues and in the evening after the meeting, your friend and colleague organized a party where 'comfort battalion' were invited without your knowledge. You were persuaded to attend and you oblige in the innocency of your heart. Before you knew it, the flesh failed you, you found yourself in the laps of a strange woman. You have fallen into water. If after the 'flood' you decided to give that colleague of yours 'diplomatic space,' you would have done well, but if you remain hand-in-glove with him, then I can only remind you that 'You don't drown by falling into water; you only drown if you stay there.'

We have been experiencing a flood of electoral manipulation for so many years. The ruling party since independence has always been accused of manipulating the electoral umpire and security agencies. Everyone knew we will drown unless we swim our way out and the Ekiti and Osun elections were like lifeboats. Instead of saving ourselves, we chose to remain in the flood of electoral manipulation and it is drowning us as a nation. Proverbs 24:16 says 'For a just man falls seven times and rises up again.' As we celebrate our 58 Independence Anniversary tomorrow, we need to rise up from the flood before we drown as a nation.

Happy Sunday.

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