Its unarguable that fasting and prayers are necessary spiritual faith gadgets for achieving a grace and divine upliftment to overcoming spiritual warfares. It is a gate way to appealing to the immortal supreme being for the atonement of sin and safeguarding mortals against the contemporary Pharaoh and King Herod.
However, the call for a 21 day fasting and prayers in kogi state is not only deceitful but a spiritual mischief of big wig within the corridor or arena of power to divert the attentions of vast majority of kogites from the maladministration and rift within the house of kings.
This accidental and situational closeness and recourse to God has been viewed as a late wake-up call by the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, His Excellency, Edward Onoja. This is because several incidents that should have initiated a call of this nature have suffered a deafening silence in the past.
A university undergraduate (Daniel Usman) was murdered in a broad day light and left in the pool of his own blood in Anyigba during the February 2019 general elections leaving his poor parents, sibling, relatives and course mates to grieve for days, weeks, months and till when God knows. Not even a five minutes silence and prayers was observed for the soul of this innocent boy whose only offence was coming out to exercise his civic responsibility as a law abiding citizen not to talk of visiting his murderers with the long arms of law.
As a corollary to the case of innocent Usman Daniel, in the aftermath of the November 16th 2019 Kogi governorship election, a PDP Woman Leader, Mrs Salome Acheju Abuh was gruesomely burnt to ashes at her resident in Ochadamu, Ofu LGA on the 18th of November. Again no fasting and prayers was organized and scheduled for this inhumanity to humanity. The alleged suspect were only paraded in Lokoja the state command of the Nigerian Police Force after several pressures from civil society organizations, human rights agitators and opinion voices. Till date how far has their prosecution gone even with useful confessional statements made during their interrogation? Its yet to be made public.
In the same vein, Umoru Shaibu and Farouq Lukeman were murdered in Abocho, Dekina LGA after several houses were razed down in a serious inferno on the16th November 2019 governorship election. Nobody was arrested in connection to this not to talk of prosecution and calling for special fasting and prayers.
Away from triviality, pettiness and deceits, what are we fasting and praying for this time? For the killers of the aforementioned to return their arms / ammunitions and become ordained workers in the government house chapel or Imams in the government house “Masjid”?
The election that caused the death of all these people, had come and gone. Settle for real business of governance; provide succour, deliver on campaign promises, reduce crimes and criminality, fight insecurity head-on and stop this face-cover approach of appearing to be “spiritual” or religious.
Today, Kogi East in particular; people can no longer sleep with their eyes closed because of the sound of guns and the flying bullets, kidnapping and armed robbery are ravaging Kogi East. The influx of guns and its attendant effects have come to stay with us. The fear of being killed by armed men can even make a pregnant woman deliver before the end of her gestation cycle.
In conclusion, why the sudden call for prayer and fasting now when deserving incidents in the past have suffered negligence? Kogi deserves prayers and possibly fasting but we should not be too quick to accept it in good faith without putting into considerations; who make such calls, at what time and for what reason. If it must be justified, there is a need for the Deputy Governor to restore his call to default setting so we can begin from Daniel Usman in that order. Kogi 21 day fasting and prayers not needles but ill-conceived, deceitful and a late wake-up call by the deputy governor his Excellency Edward Onoja.