By Stephen Ojapah MSP
The late Catholic Bishop of Lokoja Joseph Sunday Ajomo was a saintly man. I have never met him, but I have met many who have encountered him personally. And they still remember very vividly his fatherly care, love for the people and the church. Many still remember his wise and eternal stories which he usually tells at the beginning of the Mass and will eventually link the story with the readings of the day. One of such stories he told is titled: The king who never looks down.
“In a certain town, there was a king who was so proud. He told himself, his face will always be up and will never look down, any time he moves around his kingdom his shoulders were always up and will never look down. One day as he was moving around the village, he matched some animal dung and it soiled his white gown, from his knee downwards, he saw people covering their noses and avoiding him. And he has told himself he will never look down. Anywhere he goes, people were avoiding him because he was smelling and he doesn’t know why people were avoiding him” .
In the history of the Israelites, they have been blessed with all manner of kings, the good, the bad, and the ugly. In the coming months I shall be reflecting on some of these kings, and how our modern-day kings, queens, politicians, priests and bishops, can always learn to look down especially when the glory of the office we occupy is still controlling our affairs.
In 2nd Chronicles there are 21 rulers of Judah and God put them all on the throne. In fact, many of them have names that include God’s name—”Yah,” in Hebrew. All the names that begin with “J” or end in “iah” reflect that, like “Uzziah” (“God is my strength”) and Abijah (Yah is my father”). Despite their religiously symbolic names, we’re dealing with a pretty mixed bag here. In this reflection, we will look at the life of Rehoboam and Jehoram. “After Rehoboam had consolidated his rule and had become powerful, he abandoned the law of the Lord, he and all Israel with….. He did evil, for he had not truly resolved to seek the Lord” (2nd Chronicles 12: 1, 14). Rehoboam might be Solomon’s son, but he totally mishandles the rebellion in Israel with his heavy-handed rule and causes the 10 tribes to break off and form their own nation. He’s unsuccessful in getting them to return to the fold. The Chronicler says, “he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord” (12:14).
The second king in this reflection is Jehoram: “When Jehoram had come into his father’s kingdom and had consolidated his power, he put to the sword all his brothers and also some of the princes of Israel. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king” (2nd Chronicles 21:4-5). When this king takes over the throne, he kills his brothers to eliminate any competition. Even though he gets a warning letter from the Prophet Elijah himself, Jehoram ignores God at every turn. Finally, “the Lord struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease” and refused to pay for a colonoscopy (21:18). If that sounds painful, that’s because it totally was. His bowels eventually fall out and that’s it for him.
Kings and Princes abandoning God, is not knew, in fact what will be new is such people following the dictates of the Lord and doing justice in ordering the society in the right way. Power is very corrosive, and it corrupts, only very few powerful people survive the corrupt and corrosive elements of power. During the years of General Sani Abacha, one of Nigeria’s former heads of state, he was a man of great honor and pride, he did his best to put Nigeria in the path of progress and peace, he had the best of intentions, but there were times he never looked down. This fact steered at me more vividly when I saw what Durba Hotel has been turned into now, a flat land with no single building standing. The hundreds of rooms and suites have been pulled down. 30 years ago, this General Sani Abacha owned hotel was the best and talk of the town. It had the best facilities and housed the VIPs of our generation. Thirty years down the line, another king who never looks down has pulled everything down.
One of the most difficult aspects of our lives as men and women of privilege is our inability to look down. So even when we smell and people are pointing to us the dung we have matched, our eyes are so up and not willing to look down. In the Gospel of Luke, there is a very clear example of the king who doesn’t look down. “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores” (Luke 16: 19-21). At the end of the reading, we will see how the rich man was punished and Lazarus rewarded. The biggest sin of the rich man was his inability to look down, so, he never knew that Lazarus was there and what he was going through.
Early this year, Channels Television Interviewed our dear president, Muhammadu Buhari. We all watched with kin attention, watching to see a man who looks down to know the plight of his people. The anchor, read the updates from the national bureau of statistics. The numbers of unemployment. The debt rate of the country, the price of the exchange rate of dollars and other foreign currencies etc. The response of the commander in chief does not reflect a leader who truly looks down.
The attitude of leaders and people generally not looking down is not gender base. In the bible, we know the corrosive attitude of women like Jezebel. But we equally have queens like Queen Athaliah our one and only female ruler. She’s also the only monarch in Judah who’s not descended from David’s house. Things do not go well for her. After her son is killed, Athaliah sees a chance to “destroy all the royal family of the house of Judah” (2nd Chronicles 22:10). That means having her grandchildren murdered and taking the crown for herself. Not only is she a worshipper of Baal, she’s a terrible person who ruins just about everything. Eventually, her own people rise up against her in a coup and execute her in the streets. She lived her years as queen not looking down and connecting with ordinary people. Her inability to connect with the ordinary people became her waterloo.
A poor beggar at a filling station stopped a military officer from moving after he finished refueling his car. The poor beggar shouted: Wait!!! And the officer waited angrily. The poor beggar went to the back of the officer’s car and picked up his cellphone to give to him. When the officer stopped to refuel his car, he left his phone at the back his car. If he had continued driving, his phone would have fallen off and certainly broken. Many have ignored the wise counsel of the poor and have broken their arms, legs, ribs and even reputation.
Fr Stephen Ojapah is a priest of the Missionary Society of St Paul. He is equally the director for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism for the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, a member of IDFP. He is also a KAICIID Fellow
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