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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe crowd I saw that cold early morning on\narrival, from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the expansive Tel Aviv airport was\nunprecedented. More than I ever saw at Amsterdam\u2019s Schipol Airport or\nWashington Dulles International Airport. And the ease with which the passengers\nwere effortlessly attended to by the immigration and airport authorities spoke\nof the culture of efficiency in their system. I had minimal interaction with\nhumans, as the operations are mechanised. Officials only come to your aid when\nyou need help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instructively, though a Holy Land, I did not see\nwinged angels on guard at locations. I saw security personnel. All humans.\nCourteous, smart and attentive. In some places, they were not visible but not\nin any case unavailable. Evidently, even though Israelis have a genuine claim\nto God, as we are told, they do not hand over everything they need to do by\nthemselves onto God\u2019s hand, as we mostly do in Nigeria. Unlike us, they do not\npray for economic growth and recovery, they plan and work towards it, instead.\nThey don\u2019t engage in vainglorious invocation of God\u2019s name to deal with their\nsecurity challenges or existential issues. And they are surrounded by hostile\nneighbours. Instead, they take deliberate and detailed actions, not leaving\nanything to chance or fate. In 2018, for example, the budget for the Israeli\nDefence Forces was $18.5bn including a $3.1bn from the US Foreign Military Assistance.\nThe evidence is in well-resourced and capable armed forces at the ready to\nrespond, with precision and speed, at the least threat, even though The God of\nIsrael is there for them. Even though River Jordan is there, nobody is selling\nthe water in any corner, let alone some bottled concoctions merchandised in\nsome corners as a fellow reportedly did in Abuja recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel is a desert nation, but it doesn\u2019t disturb\nGod in prayers for seasonal rain for its agricultural yield. It employs\nagritech to irrigate the land from the Sea of Galilee for farming. Its desert\nland became a fertile land, because some people acted right, investing hugely\nin agriculture and technology. Food, of all varieties, is in abundance. Of\ncourse, the nexus between food security and national security is not lost on\nits leaders, old and new. I also noticed its topography is one of the most\nunfriendly: rocky, and mountainous. But with engineering ingenuity, a function\nof huge investment in education, innovation, science and technology, and\nresearch and development, mind-blowing architectural masterpieces dot the\nlandscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, in all the time I stayed in\nIsrael, I didn\u2019t see any gathering of noise-emitting, air-polluting\nworshippers, whether Christians or Muslims; theirs is an ordered and decent\nsociety. Made possible by humans, not angels or fellows entrapped by religion\nlike us. Honking of horn in traffic is a horrible offence. Funnily, I observed\nthat the people that prayed the loudest and longest at Mount Tabor and Pool of\nBethsaida, and other places of interest were Nigerian pilgrims. Nigeria has,\narguably, the largest delegation at every stream of pilgrimage to the Holy\nLand, I was told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Wailing Wall, I noticed Nigerians wailed\nlouder than the biblical women of Jerusalem, even when the place is a solemn\nground. We show off our religiosity at the drop of the hat, but there\u2019s scant\nregard for humanity in our governance, politics and economic transactions. We\nwear it on our faces for all to see. For 20 years of democracy, we are not able\nto build one new refinery, yet China built a 1,000 bed-hospital in 10 days to\nfight coronavirus. Why, I ask, do we as Nigerians think that by merely\npontificating and sermonising, we can get things done right or fulfil our manifest\npotential? We are the only country where official events are preceded with an\nopening prayer and ended with a closing prayer by either of the two dominant\nfaiths; sometimes, we close events half-way so people can go and pray \u2013 this is\nNEVER done in Israel, the birthplace of Jesus Christ\u2014yet, ours is one of the\nmost unlivable corners of the earth. Need I remind anyone that the Transparency\nInternational\u2019s latest Corruption Perceptions Index returned a damning report\non Nigeria recently? We pray for good roads, strike-free academic sessions,\nelectricity, railway project completion and the economy. The other day, I saw a\nphoto of some engineers of a construction company kneeling to be prayed for at\na worship centre by a popular pastor in order to complete the Lagos-Ibadan\nExpressway, contracted to them eons ago. I shook my head in utter disbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From many altars and shrines, we have invoked\ncurses on Boko Haram insurgents as, perhaps, another counterinsurgency strategy\nsince our military aren\u2019t succeeding with the proclaimed \u201ctechnical defeat\u201d of\nthe terrorists. Some $3.3bn meant for arms was shared by politicians while five\nNigerian soldiers carted away N400m during an escort duty from Sokoto to Kaduna\nin July 2019. The money was believed to be meant to purchase arms, but one \u201cBig\nOga\u201d felt it was better kept away for his personal use. The chaps he used for\nthe diversion cut across the two major religions. Though divided by religion,\nthey are united in theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need prayers to implement our budget and equip\nour health centres and hospitals to treat malaria. Bill Gates said ours is one\nof the worst places a child can be born into. \nSo far, over 47 have died from Lassa fever. It is caused by rats, we\nknow. Affected states rush to Irrua specialist hospital in Edo State for Lassa\nfever tests, instead of building theirs. We lack the capacity to end that\nyearly scourge ravaging our land and exposing our underbelly. According to the\nWHO, Nigeria is \u201cthe country where nearly 20 per cent of all global maternal deaths\nhappen. Between 2005 and 2015, it is estimated that over 600,000 maternal\ndeaths and no less than 900,000 maternal near-miss cases occurred in the\ncountry\u201d. Overall, maternal mortality rate is approximately 800 per 1000 live\nbirths and 58,000 maternal deaths in 2015. Yet, a beggarly N427.3bn, out of\nN10tn, representing 0.04% was allocated to health in the 2020 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are so religious, yet so godless. Yes, so\ngodless we loot the whole of annual budgets with no one punished. Abacha loot\nkeeps dropping every day. One big man used the money meant to feed the IDPs to\ncut grass in the camps. In another place, a snake reportedly \u201cswallowed\u201d JAMB\nmillions in the care of someone. A friend who returned from Mecca quipped that,\n\u201cOverbearing religiosity, as is our lot here, is a stimulant to our seeming\ngodlessness! Not even Saudi Arabia lays claim to our religious pretentions!\u201d\nGod does not delight in fools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The heat that greeted me at the arrival hall of\nthe Murtala Muhammed airport, that Sunday afternoon, with its non-functional\nair-conditioning system and indecorous airport workers chorusing \u201cOga, anything\nfor us?\u201d, reminded me I had returned to Nigeria where we implore God to fix\neven the A\/C for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless we put an end to this blind faith, as a\nnation, we will continue to be a basket case of national failure. Let\u2019s stop\ndisturbing God in Nigeria, He\u2019s the God of all creation too. As someone said,\nIsrael is a testimony to the reality of God and a good example to show the\nworld that humans have the capacity to use their brains to make the world\nbetter without undue religious rituals. Can Nigeria learn from it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jnwokeoma@punchng.com 07085183894<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Joel Nwokeoma I was in Israel last March. I traversed almost the whole length and breadth of the nation of eight million people in the Middle East, made up of 74% Jews, 17.8% Muslims…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[112,113,48],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-politics-governance","tag-israel","tag-lessons","tag-nigeria"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Israel.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
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