By Ebele Orakpo
“This must be the last days that the Bible talked about or how does one explain all these disasters taking place all over the world?” asked John as the commuters in the Ikeja-bound bus listened to the evening news. The newscaster had mentioned the flooding in Australia, Brazil and Pakistan.

“God really loves Nigeria oo. If not, we would have been having some of these natural disasters here,” commented Emeka.”Oh really! So He hates these other people, is that it?” asked Mercy to which Emeka replied: “I am not saying He hates them but remember God said in the Bible that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, so apparently, He has chosen to shower more love on Nigeria than other nations.”

“Well, there is no need arguing with you, but you must realise that we have our own fair share of problems – bad leadership, lack of basic infrastructure, widespread poverty, corruption, religious intolerance, etc. Are they not enough? You want to add tsunami and its younger brothers to the list? Please, God is not unjust. And besides, who says we may not have these disasters as time goes on?” said Mercy.

“God forbid! Ah, God will not allow the lizard to grow hairs, as the Igbo would say,” exclaimed Clara.

“Brazil is a poor nation and yet they are grappling with natural disasters; just concede that God loves us,” insisted Emeka.
Stated Joe: “True, God may not allow it but human beings may fuel it by their activities. Some of these disasters are man-made, I must confess.”  “How?” asked Ify.

Thereupon, Joe launched into a lecture to explain further. “Some are as a result of activities carried out by man over a long period of time. Environmentalists have been shouting themselves hoarse on the way we abuse the environment, warning of the consequences of our action but we are not listening. I remember my Virology lecturer told us that microorganisms were not meant to attack man until man invaded their territory and kind of, displaced them from their natural habitat.

As the Hausa would say, ‘Karambanin akuya, gai da kura(It was pure meddlesomeness of the goat that made him think he could greet the hyena without disaster’). We think we can abuse our environment without consequences.”

Said Tosin: “God knows that if such disasters happen here, we are finished because we have not been able to handle ordinary emergencies not to talk of emergencies of this magnitude.”

“God loves all His creation. Nigeria is not richer than Brazil,” said John.

“Who told you that? Nigeria is richer than Brazil.” “In what way is Nigeria richer? With our industries?” he asked sarcastically. “We have natural resources,” said Emeka.

“Abeg forget that. That mantra is becoming obsolete. Please wake up. This is the 21st Century where economies are knowledge-driven. Brazil manufactures vehicles. Which one do we manufacture here?” Japan has no natural resources, yet it is one of the super powers. India nko? No deceive yourself oo,” John cautioned.

“But haven’t we been having floods in parts of Nigeria? There was flooding in Sokoto and Kebbi recently. So we are not really spared from such disasters,” said Mercy.

“That one na junior flood. Can you compare that to the Australia flood? The bottom line is to take care of our environment, stop destroying the ozone layer because if we continue on this destructive path, a time will come when we will no longer have any shield from the sun’s rays and skin cancer will become a common occurrence,” stated Joe.