THE DANGER OF SILENCE IN THE FACE OF INJUSTICE.

 

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

(BY PASTOR MARTIN NIEMÖLLER)

All the ethnic profiling in Nigeria should worry all of us. You may not be me but you may look like me and that may make you me as far as the mob is concerned. Hence whatever they do to me, they will do to you whether they are in positions of power or they are in the streets. The explanations and voices of victims of the mob are heard after the actions, that is, if they survive to be alive.

You may be getting some benefits from the perpetrators of the ethnic profiling now, but when the mob action starts, you may lose all those benefits just in one moment, that is, if you survive to count the cost. Alas, for many, it's other people that count their cost because they are no longer around to do the counting.

Religious leaders who don't speak out against injustice are accomplices with the perpetrators, it does not matter the reason they give for keeping silence. They are supposed to be like the conscience of the society, but alas, many are tribalists and even perpetrate the same ethnic profiling in their religious places. Pastor Niemoller was a German Protestant Pastor but regretted after the World War II about the complicit silence of the German Church that contributed to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime. I encourage every pastor to check his history out and read and watch documentaries on Rwandan Genocide and the role of the church.

This is a call to everyone to speak up, not because you like the people whose lives, properties and means of livelihood are broken and destroyed, but for your own sake or the sake of your children and children children. For a people that are focused on building a nation, responsibility, responsiveness, empathy and compassion are required in dealing with the issues that concern the lives and livelihood of everyone, for greater good, not vindictiveness