In days of yore, the African traditional belief accepted the concept of reincarnation. The Yorubas of South-west Nigeria in their mythology comprehended the manifestation of ‘Abiku’ (still born). Abiku are children who died suddenly, mysteriously and prematurely but were reputed to have power to come to life again to their parents through repeated births. To make an Abiku leave or ward him off permanently, parents used to consult powerful herbalists to break the jinx of their repeated births and deaths. Sometimes, parents would perform horrible sacrifices such as placing hot metals to inscribe scars on the Abiku or tying bangles around their neck and legs before burial. Often times, the Abiku defied all these, including divinations and charms of herbalists and would still return to the same parents even with the scars. This nature of Abiku soon gave rise to an adage: Abiku s’ologun de’ke, which literally translates as the still-born that defies the power of herbalist. Most herbalists therefore resorted to staying-off the Abiku in order to preserve their integrity. To demonstrate the vanity in any efforts at breaking the Abiku jinx, Nobel Laurel, Prof. Wole Soyinka wrote of the boast of an Abiku in a poem titled Abiku: ‘’In vain your bangles cast; charmed circles at my feet; I am Abiku, calling for the first and repeated times......’’ To this end, the question in every boy’s mind has been; who will confront and conquer Abiku?. Your guess is as good as mine. However, the myth about the Abiku and herbalists is fast becoming the metaphor of the people of Delta State in the hands of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is saddening to read, on daily basis how the poorest of the poor, the homeless and those in dare need of means of livelihood are also been looted in Delta State. It is aggravating, disheartening and sorrowful to see the poorest of the people in Delta State, languishing in famine, dying from acute poverty, yet those they entrusted power in their hands are feasting and dinning, marrying and been married, giving out their daughters in marriage and marrying wives for their sons. They are building houses in their numbers, living in presidential homes, driving all the state-of-art cars, yet behind their houses lie corpses of the poor and orphans wallowing in the streets without help, their mould homes are caving-in in the midst of flood, even those who manage to build block homes are driven from them by flood. They stand agape and akimbo, waiting for help to come from God, while their lands are been impoverished by multinational oil companies. They can no longer farm. Their children no longer go to school because of high level of school fees. Even the school structures are dilapidated. There are no factories, no industries, nowhere for those who manage to get some western education to work. There are no roads. These may not be noticeable to the super rich as their roads are in the air. Uduaghan and PDP are leaving our State with a legacy of looted wealth , an armed population of unemployed graduates, abject poverty, poor housing, damaged roads, stunted economic growth, high levels of illiteracy, high levels of infant mortality, inadequate healthcare and the list can go on forever. It is a legacy of failure, a fate worst than what our nation suffered under a colonial force and what is sad is that we are suffering all that at the hands of our own sons, brothers and sisters. We must dismantle this enterprise from our State, Deltans Arise!
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:29:14 +0000
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