GUIDE OUR LEADERS RIGHT

Our dear leaders, we’ve been on this journey for so long,

Where’s the Promised Land at?

 For in dire time we sought you,

Back when in hunger we slept, and in poverty we sat.

For there was no room left for us in prosperity to pitch our tents,

No space in success to lay our mats.

So we trusted in you to rescue us,

Yet, in all our faces you spat!

Stuck with the wings of a chicken,

And the eyes of a bat,

You tried to lead us through development’s path.

Until we both got lost, and found ourselves on greed’s road, facing corruptions flat.

Now, after several attempts at progress,

Being struck repeatedly by failure’s dart;

It all seems hopeless,

And we are now left to face the odour of democracy’s fart!

We are at limbo, with no trick left in the bag,

No rabbit to pull out of the hat.

But the day of reckoning is near,

When the hungry mice will be fed to the famished cats

Yes, we’ve had enough,

Enough of the brickbat

You’ve had your chance,

Now with our voters’ cards we will act

Is this how you felt just before the last election?

If so, you need to read my thoughts below…

GUIDE OUR LEADERS RIGHT

I remember once back at school during a Citizenship Education class, the lecturer walked into the class and told us to tear a sheet of paper for a test, and to our amazement; he asked just one question - “Write the two stanzas of the national anthem’’.

Reading this you would probably feel the way I did after hearing the lecturer’s question - “What a cheap 20 marks! Thank GOD I was class for this’’. So I picked up my pen and started, taking the first stanza for granted; I proceeded to writing the second.

Oh God of creation

Direct our noble cause

Guide our leaders right

Help our youth the truth to know

In love and honesty to grow

And living just and true

Great lofty heights attain

To build a nation where peace

And justice shall reign.

On completing this in less than a minute, I went back to attempt writing the first stanza, and attempting I did for the next half an hour, constantly confusing the two stanzas.

Arise O’ compatriots, direct our noble cause… mixing up on and on.

Well, I continued on the train of confusion, muddling up both stanzas until a few minutes to the end of the test when I finally got it! I had almost failed to recite, let alone write my country’s national anthem. 

Yet, this was an anthem I recited every day as a child - how did it escape my memory like it was complex algebra?

As embarrassed as I was, I still got my 20 marks at the end, but I was even more embarrassed to learn that some of our leaders, who wanted the mantle to direct and lead us, couldn’t even get as far as I did in the first twenty seconds of my test, during their screening for political office.

“How sad” I thought, that the so called leaders we prayed to the GOD of creation to guide right, didn’t even know the prayer, not to talk of praying along with us.

I shouldn’t be harsh on them, people forget things, I inclusive, so let’s not hang them for it. We’ll just keep praying for GOD to guide them right.

GUIDE OUR LEADERS RIGHT

To guide means to lead, direct or show the way. In essence, when we sing the second stanza of the national anthem, we are asking GOD to show our leaders the way, we want the GOD of creation to lead our leaders.

Fancy a follower praying to GOD to lead the people he elected to lead him. Does that mean the leaders elected were not capable of leading the follower in the first place?

If to guide is to ‘show the way’, does that mean the leaders didn’t even know the way they wanted to take us in the first place, yet they asked to be voted in? - To stir our ship into oblivion?

Could it be that they think they know one way, and we are praying to GOD of creation to show them ‘the true way’ that benefits us and the country at large…

That would mean we are indirectly praying for ourselves.

O GOD of creation,

Direct our noble cause,

Guide our leaders right.

The most compelling observation I made from this section of the anthem is the fact that the prayer in the second line can only be said by those who have adopted the noble cause in the first, who have arisen with their compatriots, and heeded the call to serve their nation in love, strength, faith, heart and might.

These are people ready to play their role in the building and success of the nation – to help ensure its continual freedom and unity.

1st Timothy 2: 1 says “I exhort therefore that first of all, all supplication, prayers and intercession, and the giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of GOD our savior; who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”

I made reference to this scripture to reflect on that same second stanza which I believe to be in consonance with it. Apostle Paul admonishes us to ensure that prayers are made for all those in authority and HE will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth.

O GOD of creation,

Direct our noble cause,

Guide our leaders right,

Help the youth the truth to know.

Wow! How amazing is that!

First, we establish the nobility of the cause as exposited in the first stanza, and then we seek to be directed by GOD, who should also direct our leaders; and to bring our youth to the knowledge of the truth.

After examining this with insight, I realize I am in no position to complain or grumble about any situation, circumstance or hardship the country is going through, if I have not asked myself the following questions.

i.        Am I a compatriot? (their duties are extensively listed in the first stanza of the anthem)

ii.      Have I heeded the call and adopted the cause?

iii.    Have I sought for direction from GOD concerning the cause?

iv.   Have I sought for direction for the leaders?

v.     And finally, do I know the truth?

Freedom, peace and unity are achievable ends we all want to experience, as identified in the anthem; but, the truth sets you free, so how can we have freedom without knowing the truth?

How can our leaders direct us if GOD is not directing them?

And how can GOD direct them if we are not fervent in prayer for HIM to do so?

One reason I like the national anthem is that it clearly states the fact that the success of our pursuit of the unity, peace and progress of our nation is hinged on the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the compatriots (citizens) clearly stated in the anthem.

Yet, these same citizens fold their arms and complain about their leaders, about corruption, about the poor state of infrastructure and the economy.

Oh yes they complain!

Some turn to the GOD of creation, hear the truth from HIM, but scarcely live by it - they are as guilty as the leaders they castigate.

Many don’t pray for their leaders and refuse to join the noble cause. For them, their only cause is filling up of their belly, yet they criticize their leaders for not making democracy benefit them.

Many who do pray for their leaders, forget they requested GOD to direct those leaders, and reject the direction offered. They disobey the laws and statutes of the land.

Why pray for them, and then disobey them?

Why rebel against authority?

We want GOD to direct our leaders, and when HE does so, then we must understand that disrespect and disobedience of to those leaders is indirectly done to GOD.

SO LET US PLAY OUR ROLE – IF WE PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS TO BE GUIDED, KNOW AND DO THE TRUTH, THEN OUR NATION WILL HAVE THE PEACE, UNITY AND FREEDOM WE DESIRE…

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Copyright. Olayinka Agbaje-Williams, 2015

Image courtesy tribuneonlineng.com

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