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I overheard my mum telling someone, when I was young, how some thieves stole palm fruits from a palm plantation. On their way going home, one of them was caught stealing some palm fruits his colleagues were carrying. Pointing at him, one of them said, “We are thieves, but your own degree of stealing is something else, stealing from your fellow thieves”. Some people are like that, extreme in notoriety!
It brings easily to my memory the youth, in those days, known as ‘baddest’, a name he did not acquire by conduct. In the primary school, he was told to give the comparative and superlative degrees of ‘bad’, and he said, ‘Bad, badder, baddest’. Last week, my write-up was on, ‘It is possible’, which was based on the moral decadence in the country. This is ‘bad’, indeed. The indulgence has reached to the extent of a father sleeping with his daughter. This is ‘badder’ really. Last week, after sending my Column for publication, which was based on that, Saturday Sun of August 17, 2019, published the ‘baddest’ report on the indulgence.
It reported how a young man committed incest about sixteen years ago, by sleeping with his first cousin and when she was found to be pregnant, they decided to marry. Family members and their community objected because it is an abomination. The community had to offer various sacrifices to appease their gods. Aunty gave birth to a set of twin girls. Everybody thought that they had learnt their lesson. It was not so. Uncle was reputed to have relocated the lady to Abuja, where their incestuous relationship continued until she was pregnant again. She gave birth to a baby girl. When the baby was ten years old, he started defiling her. Uncomfortable with that, she asked her mum whether he is really her dad and then reported to her the sexual abuse on her. It led to a serious quarrel between him and the lady.
Not done yet, at the age of thirteen, Uncle left the village, where he was living with his wife, for Abuja on the pretext of going to bring the teenager home for holidays. At home, he continued his sexual abuse on her, his daughter, whose mum is his first cousin he abused, until his wife at home caught him. The matter was reported to the girl’s mother at Abuja, who took her for medical test. The result is that the teenager, at her young age of 13, is carrying her father’s baby in her womb, in the same manner her mother carried his baby!
In spite of her young age, she will deliver her baby safely by God’s grace. For sure, Uncle will be informed about it. Will he tell people that his daughter has delivered a baby for him? It will be a case of the baby and the mother having him as their dad! ‘Baddest’ indeed! Pity this unborn baby, who will have him as the dad and also as the granddad. Tufiakwa!
I appreciate the community for not compromising their stand in condemning the evil deeds of Uncle, when he impregnated his first cousin. It was wrong for them, however, to appease the deities. Uncle, the young lady, themselves and their land, were all created and owned by God and not the gods of their land. The sin he committed was against the Living God. He, therefore, was the One to be appeased for the violation of His Word. One of the people, who is a child of God, would have ministered God’s Word to him. If he repented, God for sure, would have forgiven him as He did to me on that April 16, 1972, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus. It would have been his portion also, for old things to pass away and all things in his life to become new. In great appreciation to God, one might hear him singing, all the time, ‘The things I used to do, I do them no more, the friends I used to keep, I keep them go no more, the places I used to go, I go there no more, there is a great change since I am born-again…’
In that case, he would not have ever thought of defiling his daughter, nor any other lady. He would have known that his body is the temple of God and that he will be accountable to Him at the end of life for the things he did with it.
Thank God that neither Uncle nor his family members aborted the pregnancies that produced his twin daughters, his third daughter and also, the one his daughter is carrying now. Some people are angry, when armed robbers kill someone. They fume when they see a corpse on the road, and wonder why some people are so wicked that they kill their fellow human beings. You can see compassion written over them during funerals of young people. If you ask them whether all murderers should be killed, their response is always in the positive and they mean it. Regrettably, God’s records are there about them, detailing the abortions they have committed or sponsored. These evil deeds can only be erased through repentance and pleading to God for forgiveness.
It is possible that some of the people, who ostracized Uncle, are also committing the same offense. To human beings, a sinner is one if he is caught, and as long as he is not caught, he remains a righteous man. God sees differently.
We must note that punishment, no matter its gravity, does not reform a man. Our government has established prisons, where civil offenders and criminals are incarcerated. There, the expected reform is not even achieved. The prisoner rather comes out, most of the time, hardened as he might have passed through the tutelage of hardened criminals. Hanging of murderers has not stopped people from killing others. It is only God and His Word that can change lives. We thank God for the impact of the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria [PFN].
There are some people, living in various cities in Nigeria and abroad, who do not visit their villages for ten years or more. A man from Rivers State, living in the US, who had not visited Nigeria for six years, was our guest on the recommendation of our family friend living in the US. We were surprised, when he left us for Port Harcourt and did not go home to see his parents. Sending Uncle away from the village for ten years might, therefore, mean nothing to him.
It might even be the case of borrowing from Paul to pay Peter. For sure, when being forced out of his village, he would not leave behind his excessive appetite for sexual union with his immediate family members. He would rather go to any city his close family members live to resume the indulgence. Soon after, news might come up that he has impregnated one of his granddaughters! What he needs is a permanent solution to this problem and the Lord Jesus is available for it.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; [email protected]
