By UZOR EMMANUEL UZOR

Over the years, the after math of any evil did in the past have been under review by the successors or any forbearers especially in the modern day African Christianity.

In a bid to finding a lasting solution to these mind-bugling jigsaw that has haunted us as well as thrown many families between the fold of Christendom into quagmire and also in a situation that has incapacitated their both spiritual, economical, political cum physical soundness, I traversed through the scripture to actually know whether this particular thesis still remains “The fathers have eaten the sour grapes and their children’s teeth are being set in edge”.

Ezekiel 18 belongs to the literary unit constituting of chapters 17 and 19 and within this unit; it functions as an oracle of salvation that transforms the negative messages of Ezekiel 17 and 19.  The oracle is the message of hope to the people who are overwhelmed by catastrophe.

Some authors describe the text “a prophetic disputation” that culminate in a appeal for repentance while some authors prefer to read it as a Divine lecture on sacred law, in which God alters a traditional idea of application of sanctions attached  in the infringement of that law.

These two ways of reading the text are acceptable for the present interpretations since the text contains all the features of a disputing speech (thesis, counter thesis and dispute moreover, except for verse 1 God speaks in the first person through the entire text. The text concludes with a general appeal for repentance (Vr 30 – 32).

After the messengers formula in (v 1), the text opens with a proverbial slogan in 18.2. “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and there children’s teeth are set on edge.

The slogan drew my attention on certain troubling personal or collective experiences of the modern person in modern day Christianity in Africa soil most of which defy any satisfactory explanations.

In fact, the very experience that it describes underscores the measure of strangers implied in some one’s teeth feeling rough when another person had eaten sour grapes. It is clear that this would not happen under normal circumstances. Even today, this proverbs still forms part of popular parlance people recall it whenever they feel they suffer unjustly for the offences  they did not commit in the face of obvious injustice that could imply in above saying,, some objections could be raised, and certainly been raised in biblical literature (of Rom. 3:3 – 8) against the justice of God.

In the text under discussion, the objection is more clearly stated in Ezk. 18:25 – 29 yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair” Hear now oh house of Israel, is my law unfair?

Within the context of our text, this objection refers not only to the case of children suffering the penalties for their parents’ deeds but it is also a general criticism of God’s way of dealing with human beings.

Through Ezekiel, God contests these accusations of foul play claiming rather that the human beings are the inconsistent in the relationship. I consider it necessary to write this text as a theological response to certain experiences of our people, which often lead to moral and social degeneration of individuals and groups.

Doing this will be inline with the basic purpose of the oracle; to announce to the people; freedom from trans-generational retribution and to draw the attention to conventional responsibility.

The present discussion rightly begins with a presentation of the meaning of the proverbial slogan. The proverb slogan represents the thesis of the disputation (v2). In principle, it describes the principle of trans-generational responsibility that is a situation in which a person suffers an adverse effect of the bad moral actions of his or her forbearer.

The sense of its use in Ezk 18 is that when a father or one generation sins by breaking God’s law, the Son of the following generation shares the guilt of their ancestors and may have to pay the penalty attached to that guilt. Like all proverb which develop out of experience, Ezekiel contemporaries who were in exile thought the proverb givers prefer explanation to their situation, with so many things so terribly off beam.

This situation seems falastic about human possibilities. It follows that the setting of the oracle’s exile.

Apart from epithet Israel, the term Beth Israel (house of Israel ) in v 25, 2 – 3 is used else where to address the exile representatives of the covenant nation (cf Ezk 24:21, 17 – 22). By using these proverbs, it is evident that they found the cause of their many troubles in the sins of their ancestors rather than in their own sins.

Many reasons add up to develop this global picture. In Israel, the covenant is the context that gives meaning to all relationships. The major cause of affliction and suffering of individual and people is the breaking of God’s law. Biblical law is covenant law and covenant forms a people into a corporate entity or grouping solidarity in which the individual exists because of the group.

The individual identity of families, clan, people or nation as a group has a personality of its own within this covenant context, the group identity and solidarity extends and includes all members of the group in all generations. It is a trans-generational solidarity.

On the basis of this principles the text is of genesis Gen. 2:43 -44, for instance, presents Adam as a first human being and his actions and penalty of his action as extending to the entire human race (cf Gen 5:12 -21). The principle also may be illustrated by the cry of the crowd who stood before Pilate with the cry; “his blood be on us and on our children” (mtt 27:25). Another backdrop to the proverb of Ezk. 18:2 is the sacred law Exodus 20:5 and Deut. 5:9. This law states that the Lord punishes children for the iniquities of parents (idolatry), to the third and the forth generals.

Generally, this law is made within the covenantal relationship where it presents what we could call “titled pattern of cause and effect which is at the centre of this theological discussion. Within this covenant context, the breach of law that governs this most vital of all relationships by an individual could result to suffering and affect the entire people. 

Most often, a similar logic runs behind the moral traditions of different religions any breach of order in the universe introduces suffering and disharmony which persist through generations until harmony is restored.

Corporative religions delineate conceptions of morality, which have implications for both human life and practical order of things in the universe. This tradition therefore indicates what people must do to live ethically to uphold order in existence.

In African traditional religion(s), the more traditional is best understood within a worldview an intricate relationship that involves the supreme Being, the ancestor, and the spirits, all who impinge on human life in one way or the other.

The biblical tradition also accords a position of prominence to the moral dimension. This is in accord to the Israel’s monotheistic conception of God as being primarily concerned with the ethics and morality in fact, the bible opens by postulating the existence of divine given law governing the world for the infraction which God, the Supreme Judge brings human beings to account (Gen 13.

The observance or non-observance of God’s law is a powerful factor in the identity of any religious group. This explains being found over wild stretches of Africa regarding kinship with all it implies some people have had experiences or even heard stories of families who believe they are held in bondage by the sins of wicked ancestors.

A story is told of a family suffering deaths of several male children born into the family, each time as the child is turning 18 years of age. According to the story, an investigation was carried out in the area of traditional divination and they found out that their great grandfather buried an18 year old son of his opponent alive. A similar story is also told of another family with a history of madness which they believed was caused by the wicked deeds of their ancestors.

Such stories sound mythological and fallacious, but they affect the lives of their descendants. It leaves to investigate the explanations given to these families’ problems are justifiable, since other pathological reasons could be adduced to the cases in question. Yet one cannot deny the reality of beliefs in the interconnectedness of all realities in good and evil experience teaches us that one person’s breach of law (social or religious) could bring untold suffering to the lives of other individuals.

To cite more banal examples, a person who breaks a traffic law can cause the death of another individual. The death of this innocent victim could mean poverty to the family that was dependent on the dead victim for food. Ends

UZOR EMMANUEL UZOR is a philosopher, journalist and Public Affairs Analyst resides in Onitsha, Anambra state contact uzemuzor@yahoo.com or 07030988583

Today, as I flew into Port Harcourt ‘International ‘airport from Lagos, I finally came to terms with the fact that Nigeria, my beloved country, the ‘giant’ of Africa is still a toddler nation, 51years and counting after it attained its flag independence. To be sure, like millions of our country men and women, I had always felt that our leaders in the past, perhaps because they were lacking in knowledge and were bereft of proper formal education, had laid the nation bare and stolen her blind. I have known all along that our infrastructure was shambolic and that our systems did not conform to world standards. But somewhere inside of me, I had this feeling that what we needed was a decent, university-educated young man or woman at the helm of affairs of the nation to ‘move us forward’.

Thus, when Yar’ Adua took up the mantle of leadership, I heaved a sigh of relief and looked forward to the coming of a quantum leap forward. But ill-health intervened and we all understood the President was severely incapacitated by this act of God. Knowing Nigeria, one was not surprised that Yar’ Adua’s kitchen cabinet took over and kept a stranglehold on the country until his demise. Then comes  Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. And I thought at last, God has looked upon our nation with a smile on His face. He has given us a man who has attained the ultimate price in learning- a Phd. And the man has had strokes of good luck attending to him all along over the last decade. From a non-partisan at OMPADEC, he had been picked as Deputy to Alams; had become Governor when Alams desecrated his office and thenceforth to VP and as the saying goes, the rest is history. As extras he hails from the minority Niger Delta region and he has a wife who goes by the name patience. To cap it, he took for himself an Architect as Vice President. I honestly felt that the time to build a new Nigeria was with us. When during his proper election campaign he promised Nigerians a dose of his good luck, my joy knew no bounds.

Alas, I was a fool. I failed to remember that the dress does not make the monk. I was blind to the fact that you could go to school and acquire all the degrees in the world but the school may not go through you and you are worse than the uneducated. When he made his speeches at home and abroad and he sounded and reasoned like an Ijaw fisherman (Please my brothers, no offence is intended, we are together), I thought he was just suffering from stage fright and that soon he will come to his own and be a master of statecraft. Was I mistaken? You bet! 

Back to today. I fly into Port Harcourt and the entire nation is milling around. I am shocked but not surprised. While in Lagos I had read the papers which suggested that the PDP was to hold its gubernatorial primary election in Bayelsa State tomorrow in spite of a Court Order directing it not to do so. I had also heard that the President would personally be on hand to pick who will govern him in Bayelsa while he governs Nigeria. Every Nigerian already knows that the President does not want the incumbent governor (T. Sylva) to even contest the primary thereby abridging the latter’s constitutionally guaranteed rights. And I thought- where is the Phd?  Where is the learning? Where is the refinement that comes with education? I was forced to come to the painful conclusion that what we have as President is an ‘educated” brute. Bayelsa has been flooded with ‘foreign’ troops (Police and military) over the past several days. The entire PDP machinery has been mobilised to Bayelsa to neutralise Chief Sylva. But that is not enough for President Jonathan and his Dame (coincidentally she is also flying into Port Harcourt today). The President has to personally be on ground in Yenagoa to subvert and pervert the rule of law- his mantra.

It is unfortunate that Nigerians, unlike the rest of the civilized world does not put a price on acts and or omissions of people in power. Otherwise, Nigerians would have been shocked (some say we are beyond shock) to know what it is costing the nation for this mobilisation of the Federal might by Mr. President to fight a political battle even within his own party and kitchen. You may call me partisan, but I have it on good authority that the President’s fear is that even if he, the no 1 citizen was to face Mr. Sylva in an open contest in Bayelsa, he will lose to the governor. The reason is obvious. It is not because the governor is a super star or miracle man. It is the nature of our politics. The governor of each State controls the party structure of that state. Mr. Sylva did not invent this situation. The President cannot and must not be allowed to use even worse illegality to correct the apparent anomaly.

Finally, it has dawned on me that we as a nation will remain toddlers for a long time to come. The rest of mankind are pushing the boundaries of knowledge and here we are, messing around with brute force, sharing offices and the spoils thereof. Boko Haram has put paid to foreign investment (except perhaps in oil and gas), we have no roads, our airports are a national disgrace, our boys and girls cue to find places in Ghanaian schools, our hospitals are still consulting clinics or worse still, mortuaries, electricity is still a luxury and unemployment remains dangerously high. Yet all that this man with a Phd can think is to fight for who rules Bayelsa State. The only picture that readily comes to my mind is the Igbo hunter who, having gunned down the elephant and put it on his shoulder, attempts to use his toe to pick a snail. Absurd, you may say. But that is all I see.

Henceforth, I will take any insult thrown at our nation without batting an eyelid. When they call us monkeys, I can understand. We are not so different. When they call us pigs, I see where they are coming from-are we not so dirty, literally and metaphorically? When they say we are lawless, it is a truth that is as bright as daylight. Bring on the insults. We are Nigerians. We deserve them all. Thanks to the Goodlucks of this nation.

Ekiye Benibo

Yenagoa.

18^th November, 2011.