The Angel of The Lord appeared to Goodluck son of Jonathan while he lay asleep with his wife Patience in the palace of Akinola Aguda. The Angel caused a deep sleep to come over Patience such that she did not awake while he spoke to Goodluck.
‘It has pleased the Lord of Hosts to grant you good success where thine predecessors had severally failed. The Lord has heard the cries of His children since 1972 for there to be light in the land and He has seen it fit to answer their supplications.
Therefore tomorrow you shall proceed to the temple where Power is Held here in this city and you shall turn on the lights across the nation’ the Angel said.‘How is it that the Lord has seen it fit to grant me this success? The Lord knows that I sit on this throne precariously and out of necessity…why has the Lord chosen me for this task?’
Goodluck queried.‘Was it not the Lord your God who brought you out of Otueke? Was it not He who saved you from the creeks of Bayelsa and gave you your fedora in place of your fisherman’s net?
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof….He freely gives to whom He pleases. Was it not The selfsame Lord who saw it fit not to allow Moses to lead His children into the land of Canaan?
If it pleases the Lord He is able to allow any man to reap where such a man did not sow….the work has already been done, the Lord only requires that you go and turn on the light’ the Angel countered.‘The nation has toiled for many years and many billions have been spent on light.
My predecessors have been snared by promises of thousands of megawatts in the past and they have failed. But nevertheless at thy word, I will go forth to the temple where power is held and will turn on the lights’ Goodluck said.
After the Angel of the Lord had left, Goodluck son of Jonathan was unable to go back to sleep and he roused his wife Queen Patience to narrate what the Angel told him. But the Queen did not pay him much attention as he spoke for she was still in a state of half slumber.
In the morning, King Goodluck called upon his closest advisers Odein son of Ajumogbia, Diezani daughter of Allison who was also the wife of Madueke as well as Ima son of Niboro.
Together they headed to the temple of power holding and demanded the keys to the room from where the nation’s light was controlled. King Goodluck turned his eyes to the heavens and said a prayer ‘My Lord My God you have instructed me to do this and I have believed you.
I ask that thou wouldest not forsake me as I turn on the light for your children’ The King then turned on the light and for a few moments nothing happened.
Then the lights everywhere in the temple began to come on for the temple where power is held itself had no light. The King nervously instructed Ima son of Niboro to seek out reports from all parts of the land as to whether the darkness had been overcome.
All over the country there were reports of pylons which had hitherto lain moribund coming to life. Wherever power was generated, it was being used to turn on the lights and the people were liberated from their darkness.
And it came to pass that in the time of the Acting King, Goodluck son of Jonathan, the lights were turned on in the nation.From Potiskum to Port-Harcourt there was much light in the land and the people knoweth not what to do with it.
There was an out pouring of great joy and in churches and mosques all over the nation the people came in rejoicing bringing in their sheaves.
The merchants of black gold who had hitherto profited from the darkness suddenly became pariahs in the land as the people swore never to return to the darkness again.
The merchants of black gold cast their eyes upon their stock of black gold and the several ships which were on the waters bringing in more of the commodity and they too knoweth not what to do with it.
Many of the merchants soon fell into financial ruin and their leader who had previously been feted across the ocean in foreign lands as a leader of commerce, proceeded into exile to escape his creditors.
And after a few months the people knoweth not what to do with their generators for they had lain redundant for many months. Soon after the people began to gather in various parts of the land in large open spaces to burn their unwanted generators. And they came in their thousands with many people bringing in several generators to be burnt.
And after the generators had been burnt, there remained a great mass of liquid metal in the furnace and yet again the people knoweth not what to do with it.
And the leaders of the people who congregated under the banner of the red and green umbrella decided to make a graven image of King Goodluck son of Jonathan from the great mass of liquid metal proclaiming ‘O King Goodluck son of Jonathan, may your reign be forever.
As you have liberated we your children from the darkness that had hitherto enveloped us, may your reign be long and without end’.
All across the land, the people cast graven images of King Goodluck son of Jonathan and in some places they made images of Queen Patience. And the King did nothing to discourage them.
And the Lord looked down on the nation and what He saw greatly displeased Him. But the Lord looked at His Angel whom He had sent to deliver the message to Goodluck son of Jonathan and He smiled.
*The writer by this piece is making a prediction [not altogether bold but based on factual and anecdotal evidence] that there will be a remarkable improvement in the supply of electricity in Nigeria sometime in 2010.
The Law of Unsowed Reaping states loosely that it’s not always the person who puts in the hard work into a project that ultimately gets the popular credit for it.
By Feyi Fawehinmi