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Sometime
ago, I wrote of a woman who openly expressed unhappiness over her
husband’s ova kwayet (reticent) attitude. Specifically, she complained
that he was used to haus to wok, wok to haus and an extremely shy
person. She added that only recently, she had to persuade him to join
her in paying a very important visit to a family friend of theirs whose
child just graduated from university. But on the day in question, the
husband hardly participated in the lively discussion that ensued
concerning the ill health of our dear late President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua. When he eventually did, he admitted he was unaware that
Goodluck Jonathan was the then acting Vice President of Nigeria, to the
chagrin and shame of his highly articulate and lively wife.

The experience prompted this statement from her:
na wie de “pain” pesin dem de put nie faya and she decided to seek
advice from neighbours and friends on how to address her “problem” as
it were. She was advised to speak with her husband one to one, and
persuade him to hang out with colleagues and friends as well as network
with people to keep him up to date with current events. Importantly,
she was urged to encourage her husband to watch the NTA news at nine o
clock every day before going to bed. When her plan paid off, she dubbed
it her miracle of the century.

What is a miracle?

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (6th
Edition) states that “an act or event that does not follow the laws of
nature and is believed to be caused by God” is a miracle. Also, it says
that; a lucky thing that happens that you did not expect or think was
possible, is a miracle. Therefore, the woman who said her husband’s
change of lifestyle from that of a recluse to an upwardly mobile and
lively person is a miracle is absolutely correct. She had given up hope
of getting the husband she had always prayed for, and laik jok, laik
jok, tins jos chenj fo beta.

With the fast pace of life in this computer age
that we are in, there’s this desire to accomplish things in a hurry.
The “yahu yahu” boys and girls who indulge in various fraudulent
activities on the Internet expect nothing but miracles as they interact
and transact different kinds of business with their “clients”. Like
these boys and girls, their “clients” also expect their own miracles.
You find one who is expecting a contract award and goes about
consulting prayer warriors and imams hoping for miracles and “pleasant”
surprises. And of course once this proves to be so the “successful” one
would conclude by saying, na Baba God du am fo mi (the Almighty God
made it possible).

The idea of making it shap shap (quickly) is doing
more harm than good to our teeming youths and elders too. Today, there
seems to be a growing number of lazy people compared to those who are
ready to painstakingly go through the rigours to achieve.

While politicians are pursuing miracles from all
the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, the number of students caught
cheating at examination halls across the country is on the increase.
There is evidence in the high incidence of failure among candidates
that sat for the last O/L WASC/GCE examinations.

In addition to the popular miracle centres,
churches and crusade grounds we have new miracle centres in secondary
schools whose principals and teachers collude with their students to
cheat during examinations for unearned “good results”. At the end of
the day, “olodos” and “blok heds” easily make credits in all subjects
they entered for in the examination.

Such places are called mirakul sentas where the impossible occurs for a fee. The more you pay the more miracles you get.

Like a cankerworm, the activities of mirakul
sentas keep dealing dirty blows to our body politic. From the local
government councils up to the federal level, mirakul sentas are
everywhere and the unexpected happens at the pleasure of the owners of
these centres and of course their cronies. Unless these centres are
wiped out, Nigeria will continue to be a country of great potential
without attaining true greatness.