A nation in prophecy which must be fulfilled no matter what.
There are nations created merely to occupy geography. And then there are nations burdened with prophecy, nations whose existence transcends politics, economics, tribe, language or temporary suffering.
Nigeria is one of such nations.
To understand where we are today, one must revisit one of the greatest & most tragic journeys ever recorded in human history: the Exodus (journey out) from Egypt.
An entire people cried for deliverance. Heaven answered with terrifying wonders. Empires trembled. Nature itself suspended its laws. Rivers turned to blood. Darkness swallowed kingdoms. Death visited palaces. The sea opened its ancient mouth & froze (congealed as a matter of fact not literally) into towering walls so former slaves could walk through impossibility on dry ground.
Yet astonishingly, the greatest enemy of the liberated people was never Pharaoh.
It was themselves.
That is the painful mystery many still fail to grasp.
Those who had tasted bondage most deeply became the quickest to despise freedom when freedom demanded patience, discipline, sacrifice & endurance. Men & women who had watched God humiliate Egypt’s gods one after another soon reduced miracles to mere memories. The same people who danced at the Red Sea murmured days later because of temporary hunger.
And when Heaven fed them supernaturally, even abundance became insufficient.
They wanted more.
Not because God had failed them, but because slavery had damaged them beyond chains. Egypt had left their bodies, but had not yet left their minds.
That is the deepest captivity known to man.
Soon, they began to romanticize bondage itself. They remembered onions but forgot whips. They remembered garlic but forgot slavery. They remembered familiarity but forgot humiliation. They became so psychologically conditioned by suffering that the uncertainty of freedom frightened them more than oppression itself.
And so, unbelievably, some preferred returning to Egypt.
This was the tragedy of a people who saw wonders but never truly transformed within. So miracles most often doesn’t engender trust.
Because every promised land demands a different mindset from the one needed to survive Egypt.
And perhaps that is the real prophecy before us now.
Not merely whether Nigeria shall survive.
But whether Nigerians themselves are willing to become the kind of people capable of inheriting the future they endlessly pray for.
-Abiola Olatunde Aloba
