Home OPINION COLUMNISTS Idle Talk From Scholar, By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Idle Talk From Scholar, By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Ozi Usman 3The economic recession seems to have brought with it or has taught people on how to marry to some kind of idle talks which they carry around all over the country. If you walk into any place where there are two or more people discussing today, what you are likely to hear are the same idle talks, most of which you may not be able to place properly in the context of how such talks would contribute positively towards developing themselves individually, not to talk of the development of the nation.
It is within this context that one would like to place the story that is now trending; the story which was floated by no other person than a PhD holder, a professional writer, a social reformer, a commentator, a high level teacher and above all, an immediate past special adviser to ex President Goodluck Jonathan on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.
He came up with a beautiful, entertaining write up on the demons and the witches and how they affect not only the seat of power in Nigeria, but also the occupants of such power as well as, by extension, the fortune of the entire country.
The first thing that came to my mind when Abati flew that kite a fortnight ago was that, well, as a commentator, he might have ran into shortage of idea that week, and so decided to use that topic to while away time, as part the idle talk.
A week after Abati floated the kite, another journalist with Vanguard newspaper, Mr. Ben Agande came up with an advance version of Abati’s reasoning. Agande, who said that he had covered Aso Rock for his newspaper for a reasonable period of time, went deeper, to even give many examples of how demons and witches have taken over the Presidential compound.
However, the present occupant of the seat which Abati vacated, Olufemi Adesina, responded to Abati last night, using the words of Holy Bible and daily experiences in the life of individuals to debunk the picture painted by Abati.
Of course, anybody, like Abati, who chose to make the issue at stake a big one, presents a picture of a person just waking up from sleep from the day he was born into the realities that have been with humanity since the creation, or he is landing into the world from another planet or he, like I said, lacked something tangible to say; something that would take Nigeria out of the excruciating economic hardship and into the next level of development.
The issue of demons and witches is a settled one, right from the creation. Most of the forebears and Prophets of God tasted the work of devil, even as in the history of creation when Satan refused to obey God’s commandment that he should bow before Adam. Because God banished Satan from the Heaven for disrespecting Him, he vowed to destroy all the descendants of Adam.
For a very short while of over 50 years that I have tallied around, I had experienced and witnessed dozens of demon and witch attacks in many parts of the country and the world. Some of such experiences are as follows:
1. While driving from Okene to Kano sometime in 1989, I reached a point at Gwagwalada,when I discovered, through the side mirror, that the road was folding along with me from my back. In confusion, I tried to look ahead of me but, darkness suddenly fell in under a hot sun. I didn’t know what happened next. I found myself in a hospital where I was told that I have been on admission for three days. This was not in Aso Villa.
2. I was dreaming that a woman offered me two pieces of black kernels and that I quickly threw them into my mouth, chewed and swallowed them. The two kernels stuck in my throat. I suddenly woke up in the midnight to discover that I could no longer swallow saliva. My throat was fast drying up. After consistent prayers for three days, I vomited out the two kernels practically. That was not in Aso Rock.
3. A 63 year old father of my friend went to his farm as usual at Agbowa-Ikosi in Lagos state to pluck some cashew. While plucking the cashew in broad daylight, something fell on his faec and suddenly, darkness fell on his world upon which he asked his grand son by his side whether the night had fallen. From the farm, the old man was led back to the house by his grand son as a blind man. That was not in Aso Rock.
4. Sometime in 1991, I visited a friend/colleague, Mr. Ian Nimo in Scotland, the Great Britain. Two days after my arrival, a familiar voice, of my aunt who was far back in Okene, Kogi state in Nigeria, kept on calling my name all over the place. The voice was so chilling and tearing me apart that I had to plead with my host to allow me to return to Nigerian if he would not want to take my corpse back. When I returned to Nigeria and Okene, the same aunt confronted me with a lot of strange questions that confirmed what I went through in Scotland. That was not in Aso Rock.
5. There was this man inside a taxi cab in Abeukuta, Ogun state, who received a hard slap on his face from a force he did not see. The driver of the cab, who heard the sound of the slap turned in panic to see the man besides him. The act of turning to seen the man that received the slap caused the vehicle to veer off the road into a small gutter, and behold, the man was dead. And it was reported that he died in a motor accident. Abeukuta is not Aso Rock.
6. In Ago, Edo state, a strange voice warned a father to ask his 30 year old male child to stop disturbing ‘their’ peace with constant recitation from the Holy Qur’an, after tormenting the said son for four days. The voice said that if the son continued, ‘they’ would come back to deal with him. That was not in Aso Rock.
What is being implied here is that whatever strange things that are happening in Aso Rock are not peculiar to it. But one thing that many spiritualists have come to agree on as consensus is that the evil and the good are always in contest around the seat of power.
As a matter of fact, it has been said time and time again that a King or an Oba or an Emir or any other ruler is surrounded by all sort of forces and characters; the ones he sees and the ones he doesn’t see: that an average chief is chief of the human being, of jinn, of witches, of evil ones and saints. This may be extended also to the President, the governors and chairmen of local government councils as well as other leaders.
If this fact is understood, whether in its spiritual form or as in passing, there would be no need to make a special fuse over it on the pages of newspapers.
However, how the existence of demons and witches in a particular place affect the minds of the leaders or the policies such leaders ought to implement for the good of his subject is subjective. Indeed, it is neither here nor there.
To me therefore, the write up by Abati on this subject was just another form of idle talk, especially, at this period when the economic recession has reduced once busy Nigerians to gossiping.

It was a scholarly gossip. [myad]

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