I haven’t slept easy in days.

Originally, I was writing an article about why I hadn’t written a newsletter in a while – a medical emergency that’s now resolved. But I cannot write about that.

News out of Nigeria

I am following the news in Nigeria and just feel sad. Because I care about Nigerians. While the country’s structural problems are too multi-generational to be engaged with blithely, the people constantly hold my heart. After all, a nation is not an abstract space. It consists of human life.

So, all I have been praying is, “God, please help. Don’t let us despair. Let us not become the victims of policies we cannot control. Deliver us from this “trailer jam.” And have mercy, because if you do not intervene, who will?”

I feel helpless because what can one do but help those we can and give what we can? I feel deeply that the leaders may lack empathy or are limited in proactive communication and public buy-in skills. But it is what it is. Such is not new.

How do we quantify or justify the many dimensions of the current inflation, currency devaluation, food crisis, and price escalation? Hmm.

A National Problem

I have never witnessed before what is unfolding now in my generation. Nigeria’s Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) happened too early in my childhood for me to experientially grasp it. I was shielded by my parents, much as other parents are now protecting their children from the pain.

I naively thought COVID-19 was the only cataclysm I would go through in my lifetime. But Nigeria said, No.

So, today I pray that God may stem the panic and fear. That he may create a way where there seems to be no way. For we appeal to him to grant our leaders wisdom to enable us to emerge from our monetary and humanitarian crises with grace.

Amen and amen

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