James Travis Reeves, popularly known as ‘Jim Reeves,’ was a world-renowned country music hero and the singer of the epic song, “We Thank Thee,” which had remained top of the chart till he passed onto greater glory on July 31, 1964 in a plane crash. According to Wikipedia, “Gentleman Jim,” as he was fondly called, was immortalized in both “the Country Music and Texas Halls of Fame.”
Jim Reeves, in that musical masterpiece, appreciated the significant things that keep mankind alive, things that many take for granted. For instance, he thanked the Lord for “a new-born day” and a new mown hay; for the sunshine and “the air that we breathe,” for the birds that fly; for the trees and the seas; for the fields and pastures “where the cattle may roam.” Above all, he thanked the Lord for His “love that is so pure and so free,” which He pours out to world at no cost at all.
Since Jim Reeves passed, the world has changed markedly. The serene, eco-friendly world that he used to know is no more. Instead, climate change has brought out the unwanted repercussions of green house emission that has depleted the ozone layer for God-knows-when. It is taking its toll on the entire humanity, violently visiting them with hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, floods, land-slides, wild fires. We thank the Lord for the lives that He saved during these natural disasters, as we pray that He grants eternal rest to those that He called home via those cataclysmic occurrences. We thank Thee, Lord.
Covid-19 invaded the world, due to some official misjudgment in some quarters, claiming lives in frightening proportions out of the world’s nearly eight billions of human populations across the world. Whether we like it or not, Covi19 is still active and on the rampage, as no conclusive professional literature on the mystery virus is yet to be authoritatively assembled and disseminated. The industrialized economies are expectedly are manufacturing vaccines to save their peoples from the deadly virus. Then, vaccine inequity puts countries suffering from “arrested development” on tenterhooks. Unable to manufacture any vaccines – not for lack of knowledge or means – but eat a humble pie by waiting for vaccine donors who, at times, donate expired ones. What a shame.
Lately, Omicron – Covid-19’s newest variant, said to possess a higher speed of transmission than all the previous variants – has hit humanity with a new wave of trepidation. We thank Thee, Lord, for the disclosure that this new variant excites milder reactions from Omicron patients. We thank Thee, Lord, for safeguarding heavy populations against devil’s counsel that Covid-19 does not exist in their territories. We thank Thee for hammering sense into their heads, forcing them into compliance with the indisputable. We thank Thee for bringing healing to many Covid-19 and other patients afflicted by a variety of other ailments. Lord, heal them swiftly. Amen.
Nigerians thank Thee for Your our safety and security which are concentrated in Your hands only. Continue to protect us and put the fear of Your mightiness and Omnipotence in the hearts of the sponsors of terrorism in our country. Only You, Lord, can sanction them. We Thank Thee.
For recently honouring, with new monarchs, the kindred speakers of the ancient Yoruboid languages – the Ígálà, Yorùbá and Itshẹ̀kírí – who are a holistic part of the larger, West Africa-based Kwa language phylum. We thank Thee for the content and competence of these new kings: the Àtá-Igala, Ọọ̀ní of Ifẹ̀ and Olú of Warrí who all share a common ancestor, according to studies. May their impact on their traditional spheres be life-changing for their subjects. Long may you live, my kings, to foster unshakeable unity and uninterrupted progress among the kindred trio.
We thank Thee, Lord. You are the reason for this glorious Season. Take us safely into the new year, 2022; and may it bring enduring hope for the African continent, one, indivisible Nigerian nation in quest of a paradigm-changing leadership. The Igala Kingdom, which, in the 1960s, was the 9th most populated ethnic group and the second most agriculturally productive Native Authorities after Kano. Today, we are so badly mismanaged and marginalized that the kingdom is now the ghost of itself.
We wish the “Global Village,” the African continent and the most populous country in Africa a Happy New Year and a healthier, safer and kinder humanity in 2022 and beyond.
