At creation, God created man. He said man was beautiful. Then came the twist. As men began to multiply, we see in Genesis 6:5 to 6:6 something that has bothered me as a fellow man. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of his heart was altogether evil all the time. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.’”—And then in Verse 8, we see a turn. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
It is clear therefore that we have Noah to thank for being alive today. Noah’s good-heartedness was recognized by God, and God sought to use this “Good seed” as a farmer would, to begin a “new breed or generation of mankind.”
The great experiment called mankind is in its elements as I write in the 21st century. It is against this backdrop that this article takes flight. When you turn on your television (if you are in Nigeria and there is light, or wherever you are), it’s hard to watch bombs dropping on tiny Gaza even if you were the worst hater of anyone of any religion or ethnic stock. It’s hard to see the rubble that’s being made of Gaza. It’s hard to hear that the body count has grown to 35,000. It’s difficult to know that more than half of the dead are women and children. In all of these, to my mind, what is harder still to understand is this: What was Hamas thinking when it did what it did on October 7th, 2023 when it invaded a sleeping and partying Israel, slaughtering over 1200 people and kidnapping hundreds? It is a puzzlement because mankind is a wonderment.
As protests rock universities in the United States and across Europe (Africa next), I wonder in my heart, knowing man the way man has evolved, what, if anything, will be achieved by the protests. The police will eventually charge in, and shoot some black people in the mostly white crowds.
With man, nothing changes as we have seen through history: The destruction of Jerusalem, AD 70. The rise of the Caliphate in the middle centuries and the attendant mass genocides of Hindus and Buddhists in the hundreds of millions across India and the rest of Asia. The trans-Atlantic slavery that claimed 23 million lives. The British massacre of the Nembe. The British massacre in Benin in 1897 and the burning to the ground of a great economic and cultural power. The British use of chemical weapons on the Malay in 1948. The Ottoman massacres of Armenians in 1917. The Hitler-directed Nazi Holocaust that claimed 6 million lives. The Chinese cultural revolution that claimed 26 million lives. Josef Stalin’s evil rule that took out 53 million of his own people. The extermination of American Indians, original owners of America, in the building of modern America. The Second World War that claimed 75 million lives. The Vietnam War and the chemical weapons genocide of ordinary Vietnamese by Agent Orange introduced by the Americans. The Nigerian Civil War and the starvation that claimed 3 million lives. The ongoing wars in the Congo and Sudan. The genocide in Rwanda that claimed 1 million people. Bosnia and Herzegovina. All of these in no particular order of magnitude of cruelty.
Dear reader, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza. What is the sum of everything?
It all comes down to this. “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.” That was Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr writing in 1849.
Translated, it means simply: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Ladies and gentlemen, no matter how advanced man becomes, he regresses all the way back to when there were only four people on earth. There was Adam, there was Eve. We had Cain and Abel. The entire earth belonged to these four at the time. Do you still wonder why Cain killed Abel?
All through last week, Trump dominated the news in a matter of infamy with porn star Stormy Daniels in a New York court. As that case unfolds, the Supreme Court of the United States is considering whether a President has absolute immunity. It boggles my mind why they took the case in the first place. I thought the answer was right there before them, staring at everyone. It is elementary to what became the American Revolution and the creation of the United States. A President is not a King.
While the Supreme Court ponders an elementary American question, India goes to the polls over a 7-day period to elect the next Prime Minister. The opposition parties are being hounded in the process and people thrown in jail. Narendra Modi, who is poised to win a third term, may need to read up on the history of India. He must know not to promote Hindu religious nationalism. He must know to maintain the secularism of India to preserve the nation.
Oh yes, and that drama playing out over the White Lion of Kogi. He considers himself a King. The EFCC should leave the White Lion King alone. They ought to know that the powers of a King are unlimited!
In my beloved hometown, as campaigning begins, one wonders if any real problems that concern the people will be solved by whoever wins, come September. Will the darkness continue or will there be light? I have solutions for whoever wins, and is prepared to listen.
Through last week I had a number of interactions with the Honorable Commissioner for Education in Edo State. In one such interaction, I told her to sell me the EdoBEST project. She spoke passionately as anyone would about something they had birthed. In my distillation, I came to realize that we had all been mistaking EdoBEST to be a project. No. It is aspirational. The idea is a dream, like the American Dream, an Eldorado, a crave and a desire to pursue excellence in our school system. It is bearing fruit. The Igbinedion Education Center just produced the best NECO results in Miss Chimamanda Onochie. I hope the Commissioner will take a cue from this and strive to return as many schools as possible to Old Boys’ Trusts who have shown capacity. This will help create two levels of intervention. As the owners of the schools do their bit, the State Government will do its bit. It is on these pillars that EdoBEST is best served.
In the final analysis, let it be known that Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, the Honorable Commissioner for Education, is a rare gem. She was well chosen by Governor Godwin Obaseki. It will serve the incoming government to look for more people like her to serve.
God bless Edo State, and, may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Ovienmhada, author, poet, playwright and public affairs commentator, can be reached via [email protected]
