Authors-choice: Hope & Revival

Many of you who witnessed the election on February 25th may be wondering why God allows bad things to happen.  Buhari and his footsoldier, Mohamed Yakubu, rigged the election despite all of the prayers and supplications. Why would God allow that to happen? These are the kinds of questions that have plagued mankind’s relationship with God for centuries and are one of the main reasons why many people have abandoned the faith, become atheists, and given up on religion. In this paper, we will look at why God appears to let things happen and what this means for our relationship with him.

One way to answer the question is to ask who God allows bad things to happen to. This is significant because we can all agree that bad things should happen to bad people. For example, if a person steals, he should be punished. However, most people disagree that bad things happen to good people. Are Nigerians good people? Though some Nigerians are good, there is ample evidence that the vast majority of Nigerians are not. Here are five reasons why Nigerians aren’t as good as we think.

1. Spread of corruption

Corruption pervades every sector in Nigeria, from public government circle offices to local government and all the way down to the lowest strata of society. Nigeria scores 24/100 in the global corruption perception index in the 2022 world global corruption index.  In layman’s terms, 24/100 is equivalent to an F9 at university. Furthermore, we are ranked 150th out of 180 countries in terms of corruption, with the highest score being the most corrupt. Some may argue that high-profile corruption cases in Nigeria occur at the highest levels. Nonetheless, it is equally true that the Nigerian state is corrupt at all levels.

2. The Nigerian Constitution is fraudulent.

The nation’s constitution is fraudulent and allows victors of electoral fraud to be sworn in and “enjoy” state powers while their cases are still being heard in court. Who would vote for a constitution that allows electoral fraudsters to be sworn in? This is why Bola Tinubu stated, “Power is not served ala carte; they must snatch it.” He is well-versed in Nigeria’s constitution. And indeed, Prof Pat Utomi of Arise TV argued that it was not Tinubu who said those words first, but Arthur Nzeribe, an Igbo, who said that it doesn’t matter if you bought the form for the elections, do your best to be declared the winner and then use the power of the state to frustrate and decimate the opposition. Thus, can a group of people be considered good people if they deliberately allow a loophole in their constitution that allows criminals to be rewarded for their criminal actions with the highest office in the land and allows them to “enjoy power”? 

3. Corruption of the Best is the Worst

According to Socrates, “The corruption of the best is the worst”, it follows that a country cannot, in theory, have a good population if the majority of its best citizens are corrupt. Universities are the center of learning in other parts of the world. Professors are involved in research, development, and technological advancements and they formulate economic policies that result in enormous wealth for other countries all the while molding young minds. Professors, however, are employed in Nigeria to rig elections beginning with the INEC chairman, Yakubu Mohammed, who is a professor of history and a university lecturer, who together with other university professors, are now spearheading the most primitive election rigging Nigerians have ever seen. However, by doing so, these professors have exposed themselves and let the cat out of the bag as to why Nigerian universities are being so poorly run by these professors, who have exposed themselves to be irredeemably corrupt.

4. Nigerians are narcissistic

Nigerians have an exaggerated sense of self-importance, despite the fact that most African countries outperform us in all indices of development. Consider our nearest neighbor, Ghana, which has a 9% higher education rate than Nigeria, while our East African counterpart Seychelles has a literacy rate of 95.9, while we barely reach 60%, and this holds true for all indices of development, as there is virtually no city in Nigeria with pipe born water, good roads, adequate supply of electricity, and or standard health care, yet we arrogate to ourselves the title of a giant. So the simple answer to the question, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” is so that those who believe they are good will realize they are not.  As a result, if we want bad things to stop happening and people like Tinubu to stop stealing your elections, we must stop stealing government funds to build our personal houses in the village. Let us stop misplacing people’s files in order for them to pay a bribe. Let us stop inflating government contracts fraudulently, or petty theft will be just another Tinubu or Yakubu waiting for an opportunity.

5. Nigerian are not united

The ethnic profiling, killing, and maiming of people, especially in Lagos, who are from a particular tribe, happened within a week after the elections were rigged. Instead of the entire Yoruba community rising up to denounce it, this is further proof that Nigerians are not good people. Nigerians should be fighting together for the new Nigeria that Peter Obi has proposed is possible.

Thus, the above five reasons, though not exhaustive, show that Nigerians are not as good as they think, and so when we ask “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people,” the answer may be that many people who think they are good are not, and bad things help them see their evil and change their ways. Another reason why God allows bad things to happen is the Christian belief that God, though he could have done it, did not create a closed world (where men are only robots and he alone can control what happens) but rather an open-ended universe (where men can actually make decisions that shape the universe, making it open to many possibilities). He made man in his image. He created man in his own image and likeness, giving him freedom and intelligence to choose between good and evil. Thus, we can use our talents for good or evil, creating a more violent and unjust world. We see that Buhari and his agent Yakubu Mohamed could have held free and fair elections to ensure justice for all, but they chose manipulation, injustice, and violence instead. Thus, men who choose evil are responsible for injustice and wickedness, not God.

However, this is why heaven and hell exist: God gave man the freedom to do as he pleases, but He also requires a strict account of every man’s use of that freedom at the end of his life. Those who used their freedom for good would go to heaven, while those who used it for evil would go to hell forever. Thus, God allows temporary evil and injustice in this world because all who do good or evil will receive eternal justice. The Bible says God lets the rain fall in good and bad weather and lets the weeds grow with the darnel until harvest, when he gathers the wheat into the granaries and burns the weeds in an unquenchable fire. Perhaps the ultimate end of Buhari, Tinubu, and Yakubu would be the eternal punishment of hell fire which God would inflict on them on the last day if they do not repent for this big theft in this life, but let us not think that we would escape hell if we don’t repent of our own petty theft. He who is faithful in little is faithful in much, and he who is dishonest in little is dishonest in much. Petty thieves are just Tinubu or Yakubu waiting for their chance.

6. Jesus Christ and the redemptive suffering

Jesus Christ—true God and true man—provides another explanation for why God allows things to happen. The sinless, innocent, and just one. God allowed him to suffer. Why? Thus, Christ died to redeem us from death out of love. Christ’s passion and death defeat evil and show us that suffering can be redemptive. The sinless one freely chooses, and embraces the Cross as an act of love, in perfect love and obedience to his Father, reconciling us to God and showing us how we must embrace the cross and suffering that comes our way in atonement for our sin and the sin of the world. According to the Catholic Catechism, sin makes men accomplices in criminal structures that lead to violence and injustice. Sins create ungodly social systems. Personal sins create “structures of sin.”

Hence, it is sins and immorality, not God that cause bad things. Thus, we must unite to restore public order and morality. But it must be remembered that the goal is not to purify structures, but to help people become moral again. No matter how much you purify structures, if you do not restore the people in them to morality, these sound structures will once again be endangered. Pope John Paul II said, “This is a task which demands courage and patience.” [23] Courage because we must not be afraid to clash with the prevailing atmosphere. And patience—changing society from within takes time. It takes many people working on different projects with like-minded people to promote schools and educational institutions that provide urgent human formation that eventually bring about the right moral environment.

Chinwuba Iyizoba

Editor: Authorschoice