Land ownership in the Geopolitics of Nigeria
By Taiye Olaniyi

‘‘The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters."

The geopolitical and socioeconomic syndromes in Nigeria of today are now yielding to tense situations and tensions as aggravated by the daily tilts of once Nigerian people with probable one destiny but now disfigured into both the geography of religion, politics, and land occupation.

The recent election results be they not rigged and or rigged as being postulated, accepted, unacceptable and what have you, have all heightened a great distrust for one another and as Eneke the bird once opined in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart, "If a man knows how to shoot without missing, I will also learn to fly without perching.

The Yoruba in the same token claims rightly too, "Adire ba lokun, ara ko ro okun ara ko ro adie", a bird that perches on a rope is neither at ease nor the rope on which it perches.

The nooks and crannies of Nigeria of today are so tense because of the presidential results and the provocative statements and insinuations here and there in its aftermath. The ember of violence, the fear, and the likelihood that such may replicate in the governorship and fringes of others next Saturday the 18 March after its previous postponement are equally frightening.

A religion that ordinarily should be a mass movement for those of the same persuasion, faith, and belief towards the God of their understanding is, today, so divisionary as well as the misinterpretation of the true nature of the Creator of every living being, everywhere.

The true concept of the "Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man" is being rubbished under filthy ethnocentric and tribal jingoism including religious differences.

Party politics is glaringly partisan, personalities, crude and politicking oriented and orientated to such an extent that economic and fiscal politics are more the norms than what ordinarily should be developments, developmental, and people-oriented.

Land occupation, cadastral maps, and geopolitics of Nigeria are now anchored on the rich getting it all, the rich getting richer at the peril of the poor getting poorer. Now, whatever had been relics of family circles, ethno-tribal unity, and "One Nation, One Destiny", are daily being torn into shreds and thus heightening a repeat of what Nigeria was before and aftermath of the Nigeria/ Biafra Civil War.

I remembered as if it were yesterday, when the were postage stamps of the world rammed into our memories, "Postage Stamps frame the horrors of war, the blights of famine, and plights of indigence." To unite us back to the understanding that God created us all in this geographic space called Nigeria and, that" Only our One and ever-living God owns the Land and All Therein," including us all Nigerians wherever we may find ourselves as owners, owner occupiers, residents, kings, princes, princesses, subjects and objects, "Divided We Fall, United We Stand".

I am inclined to protest but equally plead to Godwin Emefiele to allow God to win his heart and let him listen to the "Voice(s) of Reasoning, of Courage and Wisdom" as encapsulated in late Chief Obafemi Awolowo's topical books so that the plights of average Nigerians, the agony and miseries which his obnoxious fiscal politics and policy are daily subjecting the masses may not lead to justifiable curse and its bitter consequences. As a Christian which his name implies, he should remember that even Jesus Christ was once reported to have cursed though he concluded that one’s enemy be forgiven: "SCRIPTURE: MARK 11:20-25

"In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’

As for aspirants and their supporters, those electing and being elected, voting and being voted for, please remember the injunction of old: "The present generation of Nigerians and even the upcoming ones have no other country to call their home, Nigeria belongs to all, and we must all remain here to salvage it together."

God bless Nigeria.

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Taiye Olaniyi, a retired Postman of the Nigeria Postal Service, lives in Lagos