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Waiting For God(ot) and Obasanjo's 'prayers'

By CHIKA UNIGWE

Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com

In Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon sit around waiting for Godot to appear. Day in day out, they repeat the same futile motions. Godot never appears. In our day, retired Gen. and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria says to any willing ear that he is waiting on God to decide whether or not he should run for a second term in office. Normally, I would say to each his own. However, Obasanjo is the president of my country. I cannot afford to be silent.

For those of us who believe in God, we are also, frustratingly, aware that He gives us freedom of choice. We, determine, to a certain extent, our fate. It would be a lot easier if we were to pass over our decision making responsibilities over to God. Let Him decide. Then, He can take the blame. However, we know that it is not as easy as that. Which is why we do not wait to hear God's voice to decide what to eat for supper, we do not wait for His voice to decide which car we want to buy, we do not wait to hear Him tell us whether or not we should buy a thirty-two inch TV or a smaller model.

Moreover, we believe that our consciences are there to guide us. They are the 'God within.' President Obasanjo does not need a May appointment with the Almighty to make up his mind. Let his conscience do that for him. If he is as good a Christian as he would have us believe, let his deeds speak for him and let the 'God within' be his guide.

For Vladimir and Estragon, time is of no essence to them. They just wait. They do not learn from the past, as they return each day. The present is an exercise of the same activities which yield nothing. Their future will be no different. That is not what we wish on Nigeria. Let the past and the present judge Obasanjo and determine if he should run for presidency in the future.
Unigwe is USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper contributing editor and columnist. She is the author of 'Teardrops', a collection of poems, and her short story, 'Touched by an Angel', was broadcast on the BBC World Service. She also wrote the acclaimed USAfricaonline.com essay Sex, Women and (Hu)Woman Rights.

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