If things had gone the way devil wanted it, “That Wound Can Heal” would have been my last article in Dragnet and in life. Yet, I still believe that the article was prophetic and pray that the trauma of beholding helplessly armed men trying to gain entrance into my own house 30 minutes before they could succeed and the disappointment of the security will one day erase from my memory.
As I lay down with my both fists tied at my back, my two feet strongly gripped with my own shirts and my mouth forced to kiss uninterruptedly my own bed for more than an hour, my mind was imagining the worst headlines. Gone Too Soon! Painful Exit! Goodbye Kempis! Sunset at Dawn! Transition to Glory! Caught at the Prime! I was imagining my editorial colleagues recalling our last moments arguing over a title an article should carry. I was imagining every person dear to my heart trying to prove that I had premonitions of the incident. I saw my confessor telling people that I was prepared for death having received sacrament of reconciliation a night before. Everybody would have been right. But nobody could have been more right than God. Devil is a liar because the robbery was peaceful after all!
Saying that an election is peaceful is begging a question. By its nature elections should be so because they are conventional. They are violent in our clime because of low mentality. That irregularity should not be made a stand point for judging otherwise mal-normalcy will dictate our vocabulary. Only a robbery which by its nature is violent can be described as peaceful if it goes without a sniff of life.
When I welcomed uninvited guests at 3.33am on Monday April 8, 2013, I expected war but got olive branch after all even in my boxers I was addressed as a gentleman. God does not allow the blood of his anointed drop so cheaply. Rather, on our behalf, our aggressors shed their own blood by their own mistake. I saw the bandits’ blood dropped gently and stained our marbles, a fore taste of future agonies since every heavy downpour begins with a drop.
The English call it abomination but we call it ‘aru’. We all believe in the sacred. Even cultists go to native doctors to reinforce their power. Do they not? Tradition and cultures teach respect for the elders. Any violence meted to an elder more so one who is not just innocent but sacred is a curse on the person and his generation yet unborn. Imagine Fr. Jerome Anaetoh in his 71 being forced to lie prostrate with his hands and feet tie at his back and the protruding stomach forced to carry the entire weight of his body for more than an hour by boys literally too young to be his great grand children! The sight is better imagined than beheld. Yet, it happened. These bandits tied and looted our fortunes and walked away like giants refreshed. Those gods will destroy they first make mad.
That is why sympathizers have been trooping in. sympathizers also present another lesson. I have learnt the best and worst in human solidarity. I have played host to numerous sympathizers including the possible parents and siblings of the hoodlums. Everybody wants to get the firsthand account. Some want to hear the story not how it happened but how it did not happen.
People’s curiosity can be annoying. Some wanted to know if I had a premonition of the robbery perhaps they take me to be T. J Joshua who saw Nigeria lost out a match they later won 4-1 in the last AFCON. Some wanted to know the colour of the pajamas and even the type of undin I was putting on. The most annoying were those who asked if I was with anybody in the room when the robbers came in. I wondered whether a priest is meant to share a room or bed. Either way, any answer confirms previous misconception or reveals new fact. Those who asked this question fall within the category of Christians who stand by to watch their priests make mistake, the fault-finders. They choose to call God ‘Almighty’ rather than ‘Merciful’ Father
My take is that the secrets of how it happened will go down with me to the grave. Those who deserve to hear the truth have heard me clearly. I cannot claim to know those who might have had a hand in the robbery but I am sure of those who had no hand in it. You may be disappointed that a priest has lied to you. No, I have only withheld some truths. Withholding truth and lying are two different things. Morality does not permit one to tell the truth where it may be injurious. This is called holy one. Aggressors and suspects deserve holy lie.
Now, let’s look at the suggestions of the sympathizers. Some suggested that I say black mass for the robbers. I have to point out that there is nothing like black mass. And by the way, only a fool interferes in the war of gods. Let Baal speak for itself. Some suggest that I go to boys to report so that they can begin something. My official position here is that police know bad guys more than me. If you give police a chance, they will arrest all the boys in Fathers’ house and reap in bail kickbacks. I have no business with those who disappointed me when I needed them most.
It is not enough to blame robbers, let us look at the system that produces armed robbery. Given all alternatives, no one willingly chooses to be a robber. The society is responsible. People pay N500, 000, to gain admission and stay 6 years in the University for a Course that should have taken only 8 semesters. At the end they are not absorbed into the labour market. We have a system where the rich get richer and the poor poorer. However, aggrieved persons should learn to channel their grievances to responsible persons and institutions rather than innocent people.
Anyway there was still Christianity left in my visitors- ‘We know you to be a gentleman. We don’t want to shed young and innocent blood in the house of God” With Fr Celestine Mbam, we cooperated and the robbery was successful and peaceful.
