It was General Oladipo Diya, who, while being harangued by a volley of mockery over his condescending act of grovelling before a very junior officer and other acts considered beneath a soldier, when he was arrested for plotting a coup against Abacha, that threw in one of the most unfortunate false analogies.
He retorted to the charges that he did not act true to his calling , that ‘even Jesus wept.’
They way Diya put it, is how many, who rely on second hand sources, understand the biblical account in John 11: 35.
They assume it is the reaction of Jesus Christ to the pain He suffered when He was being crucified.
Fafafa… foul!
Segun Adeniyi in his back page column in This Day, pointed out to Diya at that time, that the account in John 11:35 which is referred to as the shortest verse in the Bible, has nothing to do with the angst of Jesus while being led to Golgotha and that it has nothing to do with his own pain but out of compassion for others..
Like Adeniyi enunciated, Jesus wept out of compassion on seeing Mary and Martha weeping for their brother Lazarus, who had passed on.
So the comparison Diya sought to draw was entirely unsuitable, as it was not out of fear of being punished for wrong doing that Jesus wept; was totally misplaced as Diya’s emotional outburst ostensibly was to beguile his boss into feeling sorry for him and vexingly irresponsible as the comparison shouldn’t have been made in the first place.
Diya was alleged to have being part of a coup plot which was a crime against the state and instead of owning up or standing firm to defend himself, he broke down emotionally under what should have been a routine in his line of duty and wept.
Same level of false evidence is being repeated now with the comparison of Boko Haram with the biblical prodigal son.
The prodigal son did not commit any crime. He only asked to be given what was rightfully his ahead of time. The portion of resources he left home with was what his father willingly gave him when he asked for it. He did not steal it. Even when he went away with the wealth, he was not recorded to have used it to oppress, torture, scam, maim or kill anyone.
The riotous living he was said to have engaged in is what an average young man exposed to such wealth would have done . Probably go to clubs and have a nice time without investing the money.
And when he realised his gaffe, he went and begged his father to accept him as one of his servants meaning he was even willing to serve what he considered a just punishment for his overzealousness: to lose his place as a son and become a servant.
What he was telling his father was something like ‘I don’t deserve to be your son, punish me by making me your servant but at least give me food to be eating.’
This is what the Chief Of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, is comparing to people who slit the throats of children; go to schools and butcher young boys in the most gruesome manner; invade boarding schools, pick underage girls and perpetually be raping them for years; sack villages; plant explosives at public places while blowing up people in smithereens.
Oluyede who made the comparison is probably like Diya whose comprehension of the biblical text was only surface deep.
But the unfortunate is for people who should know , rather than correct him like Adeniyi did to Diya, to be sharing it with gusto.
@Agbeseandrew
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