Promise Adiele

Promise Adiele

All the major religions in the world, including diverse spiritual practices, acknowledge the potency of curses as mediums for retribution and vengeance. Curses activate the spiritual thoroughfare as immediate catalysts to achieve revenge, especially when a person is helpless or less able to extract physical retaliation in a given circumstance. Curses also occur as spiteful, destructive thought forms that originate from a jealous, vindictive heart where a perceived enemy has not offended or harmed the issuer of the curse. As a Christian, I understand the nuances of courses from the Biblical point of view although research has exposed me to the place of curses in traditional religious practices and cultural provenance.

In Wole Soyinka’s The Trial of Brother Jero, Brother Jero’s old master cursed him that the “daughters of discord” would be his downfall. Why did Soyinka refer to women as the “daughters of discord”? That is a matter for another day… hehehe!!! The curse was justified because Brother Jero had usurped his old master and taken over his place of worship at the Bar Beach. Did the curse materialize? Yes. Women posed a major threat to Jero’s prophetic merchandise. Chume, his devout follower, forced him out of the beach after Jero’s dubious business misadventure with Amope became public knowledge. The gods and all the controlling elements can curse someone as they did Zifa in J.P Clark’s Song of a Goat. The gods cursed Zifa with impotence because he defiled the land by burying his father among men although his father had died of the dreaded white disease.

Curses are indeed real given all the identifiable emblems and evident realities of their vicious potential. However, the Biblical dimension of curses strictly explains the conditions under which curses operate, in which case they can be potent or ineffectual. According to Proverbs 26:2 “as the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come”. I am aware that there are many dimensions of curses in the Bible with different interpretations but I hold the above quoted verse sacrosanct because it is spiritually logical and existentially realistic. An unjustified curse will not prevail, but a justified curse will surely succeed. The muse reminds me of how in the Bible Balak contracted Balaam to curse the Israelites. However, Balaam blessed them altogether because he did not find any guile or justification to curse people whom God had blessed. It simply means that to curse someone whom God has blessed is a waste of time and energy. But someone whom God has cursed is already doomed to disaster. Can God curse someone? Yes, he can. He cursed Adam, Eve, and the serpent. Some people are mortally afraid of ancestral curses but again the Bible in Ezekiel 18: 1-32 provides a concise explanation of ancestral curses. As we say in popular parlance …no shaking, ancestral curses will not prevail under the circumstances explained in Ezekiel 18.

Unfortunately, Christians are mostly afraid and scared of curses. It is either because they do not understand the interpretations of the quoted verses above or they understand them but are not convinced about them. The Biblical verses quoted above simply mean that a curse that does not have a cause will not prevail. A curse that is not justified will dissipate like an early morning fog. So, it confounds every scintilla of reason that a Christian will be afraid of curses. Cursing someone or issuing curses against someone who has not offended you is a total waste of time. It is a causeless curse that will naturally return to the originator. It does not matter who is issuing the curse – father, mother, uncle, villagers or anyone. The curse will not prevail as long as the directed recipient has not committed any offence or is implicated in one infraction or another. However, the curse will prevail in multiple folds if the expected recipient is guilty as charged. That is why I do not bother about curses. It will not prevail if I am innocent. But let it prevail if I am guilty. There is nothing to worry about. But even when one is guilty and a curse prevails against him, divine mercy plays a huge role in the process of redemption. God is merciful.

Curses made an unceremonious incursion into Nigeria’s political atmosphere recently when many Nigerians, united by suffering, desperation, and hunger set aside the 25th of February 2024 to upbraid INEC chairman Mr. Mahmood Yakubu. These Nigerians, using the vast instrumentality of social media, delivered different shades of devastating curses on the INEC chairman and all those who assisted in enthroning the current APC government led by Mr. Bola Tinubu. These Nigerians believe that the presidential election was massively rigged and that the INEC chairman subverted the will of the people by colluding with recalcitrant forces to switch off the iREV when it was apparent that the APC candidate was woefully losing the election. They also identified all the judges, governors, and every person who in one way or another contributed to manipulating the last election to undermine the wishes of millions of Nigerians. According to them, the hardship and excruciating economic pain in the country is easily attributed to the current government which many Nigerians believe to be a misnomer.

The question is – did the INEC chairman implicate himself by compromising the last election and enthroning a government that has unleashed economic terror, suffering, and anguish on Nigerians? Did the Supreme Court Judges undermine the wheel of justice by turning a blind eye to obvious evidence of an electoral heist in the last election? Did some governors deploy state apparatus to aid electoral criminality to ensure that the APC presidential candidate emerged victorious in the election? Did many media houses fail to report these anomalies because they were compromised sufficiently to turn a blind eye to the truth? Nigeria’s current socio-economic misdirection, the unpopularity of the current APC government, and the brutal onslaught of hunger and starvation indicate that Nigerians may have voted otherwise in the last election. Currently, there are hunger protests across the country as the economic situation continues to nosedive without any sign of revival. If indeed the INEC chairman betrayed his office and compromised the last election, it follows, without any form of equivocation, that the curses rained on him by hungry, desperate, and exacerbated Nigerians will prevail. The same goes for all the judges, governors, journalists and thugs who in one way or another were implicated in sabotaging the will of millions of Nigerians.

However, if the INEC chairman is innocent of all the charges against him, if all the judges are also innocent, and if indeed some governors, journalists, and thugs are all innocent of any wrongdoing during the last election, no amount of curses against them will prevail. But it is absolutely so that Nigerians, variously subjugated and trammelled as a result of the last election are venting their frustrations against people they perceive as responsible for their affliction. One justification for the curses from millions of Nigerians against the INEC chairman and all those who participated in the rape of democracy during the last election is the subsisting economic misery which the current government has inflicted on the people. It is more disturbing because as the people suffer and gnash their teeth, the current government wallow in obscene opulence and annoying extravagance which shows that the leadership does not empathize with the populace.

A curse issued from a heavy, bleeding heart attracts familiar monsters on its way to destroying the target. It is improbable for a heart to become heavy in a sustained manner if there is no enduring reason for its heaviness. The hearts of millions of Nigerians are heavy from febrile anxiety, death, hunger, insecurity, desperation, and uncertainties. These conditions are not frivolous or misplaced. It is a testament and reflection of the general angst which continues to define the outcome of the last election. Should the INEC chairman, judges, governors, journalists, and all the thugs who actively participated in the electoral misconduct of 2023 be worried about the curses from millions of Nigerians? A clear conscience fears no accusation. They should indeed be worried if their hands are not clean. However, if their hands are clean, then they should go to bed and have a sound sleep. But if they are guilty, they should begin to tinker with the proper propitiation to assuage the spiritual elements and be free from these curses.

When curses are valid, they are slow in coming and may take a while. In all, we believe that those who are issuing curses against perceived electoral criminals are justified but if the curses do not find any justification to locate a target, it will surely return to the issuer of the curses. I strongly align with the Bible that the curse causeless shall not come and the curse with a justifiable cause shall surely prevail.

Promise Adiele PhD

Mountain Top University

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