TONYE COLES’: WHY FEAR FEAR
It was 4am and I was about to embark on a journey I had been on time without number. The program at the Redemption Camp in neighboring Ogun State had gone better than expected and my duty of ensuring worshippers exited the various parking lots around the Arena was completed without incident. The area was quiet as those staying behind had gone to sleep while the occasional strollers went about their prayer walks or whatever task needed completing at this hour. For me, it was time to head home and my destination this day was back to Ikoyi, Lagos where I lived.
Ordinarily this was a journey I did without much thought but times had changed subtly and that which used to be taken for granted was no longer so easy to overlook. Travel by road to anywhere and at anytime it seemed, was now fraught with unimaginable perils. Stories flood the airwaves of masked men indiscriminately opening fire with automatic weapons on vehicles in a bid to stop them and thereafter carting any number of captives that survived the hail of gunfire into the jungle, kidnapped victims held for ransom. To think that these bandits are willing to kill a few just to kidnap a few is mind boggling but therein lies the abysmal value paid to human lives today.
The God of All Creation had long foreseen the depravity that man was capable of unleashing upon each other and therefore set out certain laws well at the beginning of time meant to keep man in check. “Thou shalt not kill” He declared, the penalty for which was the loss of ones life, the finality of the penalty reflecting the seriousness of the crime. And so it was that He equally declared kidnappers must pay the ultimate penalty for the crime of stealing another human being for by not stamping down on kidnapping as soon as it rears it’s ugly head, societies abrogate their peace of mind to a life of constant fear and torment. If we must fear at all, let us fear the fear that comes when the law breaks down completely.
May today bring us righteous law enforcers
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