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
