To God Be the Worry

"Have you got your own copy of a prayer said by a Kansas State senator sometime ago?"

"What prayer and which senator?"

"It was an opening prayer delivered at the opening session of their senate by one of them, a minister called Joe Wright."

"And what's so special about the prayer that everybody is now hungry for ir"?

"It's special because when he was asked to kick off the new session with a prayer everybody was expecting the usual mumbo- jumbo religious cliches and generalities. But this minister astounded all. He came out smoking like old, dazzling Smokin' Joe by jolting everyone with an upper cut, gbosa! like that".

"That must be very wicked. How did the prayer go?"

"It went like this: 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good', but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbour's possessions and called it ambition. We have ridiculed the time-honoured values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen' ".

"I think Niagaran politicians also need a prayer like that, don't you think so?"

"I doubt. If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything. The Niagaran politician does not stand for anything".

"It's a lie. There are some among them who can also stand up like Wright and say a similar prayer".

"Like how?"

"Like this: 'God, forgive us for we know we have sinned against the people by undermining the spirit and letters of the constitution in our 'grab-a-day' activities. We have stolen from the common wealth and called it allowances. We have stolen the people's mandate and called it free and fair burglary. We have compromised justice and called it rule of law. We have ridiculed public officers, ransacked the treasury and called it oversight function. We have left undone what we are supposed to have done and done those we are not supposed to have done and called it due process. We have slapped one another and headbutted sergeants-at-arms and called it law-making process. We have ridiculed our oath of office and defiled our time-honoured cultural values for a pot of isi-ewu (goathead pepper soup). God, search us and exorcise from our body politic the evil spirits of individualism, nepotism, ethnicity, regionalism and all forms of primitive loyalty for the greater glory of our dear country".

"To God be the glory!"

"That cliche again!"

"It appears you don't like it. Do you?"

"No, it is an overused expression. Niagarans have become so religious that THE END is no longer opin ( end of ) cinema for them. Virtually every film footage or home video or one-minute documentary now ends with TO GOD BE THE GLORY."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, except that it shows we have seemingly run out of ideas and ever ready to cover our shortcomings with religious tarpaulin. We are like the outsiders who weep more than the bereaved. We have watched National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, films showing seeming suicide missions to outerspace - the dangerous spacewalks, the floating space station, the heart-in-the-mouth docking manoeuvres and the kami-kaze rescue interventions like in the case of Apollo 13 - yet none of the films ends with TO GOD BE THE GLORY. I'm sure God, Himself, is worried about the sorry state of our mind in this our dear country".