THE HOPE OF A DEAD TREE.

Statements that make references to occassions of death generally create worrisome pictures in the minds of hearers, send shivers down their spines and provoke thoughts that depict consciousness and attitude of rejection and separation from involvement. As a universal norm, death is treated as forbidden.

Inspite of the interaction and association that humans have had with death, which dates back to the very season that life began, it remains a strange phenomenon, not because it is uncommon but because efforts to understand, check and curtall its whims have always been abortive, making it the more formidable and insurmountable. Humans therefore can do nothing but own it, though as a Trojan horse.

Perhaps, the scriptures, being aware of this saddening and blatant human perception, had set out to initiate efforts and views aimed at both pampering the heart of man and tampering with the assertion making death invincible, to calm human nerves. And, track an avenue of hope by figuratively putting the illustration on a tree; that if it is brought down and it dies, that there's hope, it will revive and come alive again.

"For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant".(Job.14:7-9)

That seems to represent the story of NIGERIA, which has remained the same, from one administration to another over the years. Nigerians have become acquainted and fed up with political jargons and promises which are familiar and virtually unchanged over the years, the same are peddled by gladiators from the same squad but flying different colours; who will eventually become more clueless and helpless than the ordinary street citizens when given the opportunity to deliver.

The last elections came as a nightmare, as the expectations of the masses were toppled despite concerted and massive efforts to install the wishes of the people and men who had proven records of integrity and capacity to deliver.

Who knows how it will end? A country which is existing in huge ruins; the educational system, health, security, infrastructure, judiciary, employment, food security and entire governance have been crippled being enmeshed in corruption, plunging the nation into serious social turbulence and rendering her future in a very uncertain and gloomy state. It seems very obvious that the fate of the country will likely be swinging like a pendulum between the worse and the usual.

Yet, the new administration, has come up with a style and agenda which they flag and purport to be the magic wand in their hands that will perform the trick to bring the dead country back to life, leaving the populace with the hope that can be likened to that of the dead tree. Do they have the right concoction and the formular of this magic portion to redeem Nigeria, like the scent of water would nurse a dead tree to sprout according to the scripture? Hmmmm! Only time will tell!