Do not suppose that I have come to flatter the ego of
your preachers. I did not come to promote their trade but to ask you to question
their words. I have come to turn the acolytes against the deacons, the Christian
mothers against the elders, the choristers against the choirmaster,
and the ushers against the general overseers. For the hour has come when the
enemies of the pastors and parish priests will be their own
parishioners.”
In my last
publication, I argued that for Nigeria to undergo a necessary countercultural
revolution, Nigerians should start by killing the father figure that holds the
youths back from becoming adults. I concluded with this prophecy:
“lo,
I teach you the Oedipus: he is that father killer, the ideal counterculture hero
that you lack most. But hope not that he has come to marry his mum, for she is
the next target on his list.” But I will suspend the chronology of
Oedipus list to address a situation that makes my heart to bleed.
There is a video in circulation on the social media
these days. In that video, a woman said to have been accused of witchcraft is
being assaulted openly. In that video, like in many other ones, the youths, do
not hesitate to undress the poor woman. And that is just one of those many
videos where Nigerian men and women are openly undressed at the admiration of
the public. The question that comes to my mind whenever I see such horrible
sights is why do Nigerians like naked people? Which of our irrational senses is
being resurrected before such sights? Brief, why do we admire with passion
scenes that every civilised society
detest with horror?
Of course, you are wondering why I think this has a
religious character. They are because all are linked. In the video in question, the
woman was said to have been proclaimed witch by a pastor. And in many other
cases, if it is not a pastor or a priest that made the prophecy,
it is a native doctor or a marabout. But in all, there is always one spokesman
of God who utters the oracle that sends our youths into that deadly and sadistic
rampage of an orgy. That
our youths drive joy in maltreating those they deem offenders are,
unfortunately, no longer surprising but that they get sexual gratification in
the nakedness of their victims is what surprise most. Since when our nation of
religious founders – religious congregations, Christian churches and Islamic
fraternities – have become a place where sex is only interested when it is
associated with humiliation and
disgrace? Are we really so detached from the sexual drive as we pretend to be? Does our
crave for naked sights speak of our inner sexual desires?
I think we should go back to the drawing board to teach
our youths that women are not sexual objects and that sexuality is too sacred to
be a means of satisfying our unguided hedonism. Sexual education should be taught to
our youths to make them understand the sacredness of womanhood.
Even in our pre-colonial society, our ancestors knew that
human body should be respected. They had a particular reverence for the
womanhood. Our present religious society
not just ignores that but discredit it with total alacrity and irreverence. They
go as far as kidnapping and raping old women. And in the name of one religion or
the other, they even kidnap children and when they feel that forcing them
into early childhood marriage is not
cruel enough they turn them into human bombs.
I know people will tell me that all these have nothing
to do with our cultural and religious motivated repressed sexual orientation.
But I am convinced that Nigeria must kill this elephant in our room before it
destroys all we hold sacred. We ought to stop seeing in the undressing and
molesting of women a way of satisfying our sexual orgy. And if ever we must
move ahead, we should remember that a countercultural revolution is a road we
must all travel. And therefore I repeat:
Do
not suppose that I have come to flatter the ego of your preachers. I did not
come to promote their trade but to ask you to question their words. I have come
to turn the acolytes against the deacons, the Christian mothers against the
elders, the choristers against the choirmaster, and the ushers against the
general overseers. For the hour has come when the enemies of the pastors and
parish priests will be their own
parishioners.”Ali C. Nnaemeka (mekaalison@gmail.com) ”The truth might be hard to say, painful to bear or even drastic for the truth sayer but still needed to be said”. Alisonomi
