Tragedy on Sunday
It was Sunday, 27th January 2002. The day started with the sun sending forth
its radiance into the atmosphere. Christians set out for their various churches;
others chose the day to do whatever it was they did not have time to do during
the past week. Indeed, it was just like any other Sunday, that is, until 5.30pm.
I left the venue of my part-time lectures which I attended after Sunday service
in spite of the fact that I had one more lecture to go. There was no specific
reason for me to leave; I just wanted to go home. I had only been home a few
minutes, when the first bang sounded. “That must be a heavy truck having a burst
tyre,” I thought, as I continued to rest lazily on a couch in the living room.
Maris, my wife sat nearby feeding our son, Praise. A few minutes later, we heard
it again, ‘booom!!!’ the whole apartment vibrated this time around. “What was
that?” my wife asked. I shrugged, “Someone must be using explosives for mining
somewhere”.
I saw the futility of that explanation as soon as the words came out of my
mouth. There were no mining facilities around where we lived. I guess I was
recalling my school days when we used to hear the sound of explosives because
our school was just a couple of miles away from a quarry.
Maris rose up and looked out from the window. “My dear, everyone is outside, I
think we should get out too before anything happens”. This time, everything
looked as if we were under heavy artillery attack, the difference being that we
could not see any visible signs. I could sense God’s peace in this situation
because I was so calm inside. By this time however, panic was in the air because
nobody knew what was going on. I told Maris,“Let’s wait a while and find out
what is going on first then we will know the next step to take”.
As the sounds and vibrations continued, I scanned the horizon from the vantage
point of our apartment, which is on the second floor of the building where we
live. That was when I saw a sight I had only seen in the movies. I saw in the
distance, great sheets of fire and cloud rising up and turning the skies into a
bright red and yellow colour. At that point, I knew what it was. I don’t know
how I knew what happened, but while everyone around were speculating, I calmly
told them that I suspect there was an explosion in one of the military
installations. This was confirmed later by the military authorities when the
public was briefed sometime later in the day. The explosions continued till the
early hours of Monday morning. As I was going to work in the next morning, I saw
people walking back to their homes from the various places they had fled to for
safety.
I thank God He spared my life and those of my family. I could have been right in
the middle of it all because my route home from my lecture center was by the
entrance of the particular army installation, which exploded. I had only passed
by less than an hour before the explosions began.
It is tragic and ironic that most of the people who died, did not die from the
explosion, but died as a result of drowning while fleeing from the danger zones.
They did not know that the ‘forest’ they were running into was actually a canal
covered with shrubs and water hyacinth. It grieves my heart that a great number
of those who died were children. Many are still missing. A soldier, who was
looking for his child, found a baby abandoned in one of the houses and rescued
the baby. No one knows who the mother is. Homes far away from the explosion site
were destroyed as they were hit by shells, which were propelled by the
explosion. A lady traveled from another state in Nigeria to see her mother in
law in Lagos. She will not be going back because she was felled by one of the
shells.
My Church, which is just a few kilometers away from the explosion site, had its
ceilings caved in and had its windows were smashed. But God is faithful; many of
our members have been accounted for. The loss, both human and material is
colossal and far reaching. Death struck once again, on a Sunday afternoon and
took the lives of people. The toll of human lives lost is in the neighborhood of
1000.
While we grieve for the loss of lives and property, we must also learn a lesson
from all this. Fear, is a tool of the enemy and he uses it with wicked
precision. Most of the people who died, were not killed by the bombs which
exploded, they were killed by fear. This was not helped by the fact that the
authorities did not react soon enough to let the people know what was happening.
The Bible correctly says in 1 John 4:18 that fear involves torment.
Another lesson we learn is that of preparedness. There are no guarantees for
tomorrow, but for those who know and trust the Lord, their future is certain,
either here on earth or in the bosom of our Lord.
Please pray for the people of Lagos in Nigeria, especially those who have been
badly hit by this tragedy. Pray for those whose relatives are still missing,
that God would re-unite them, those whose properties have been destroyed that
the Lord will restore them and most of all, pray for those who are grieving
their loved ones, that the Lord will comfort them. Copyright © 2002 by Steve O.
Popoola, All rights reserved
Steve Popoola was born in London but currently reside in Lagos, Nigeria with
wife Maris and son, Praise. I work in a bank as a Systems administrator. I am
Assistant Youth Director and Head of Publications in my Church. I also love to
sing and teach. I can be reached through my email address,
stpopoola@yahoo.com .
Visit the Steve Popoola Family Site for inspiring stories, articles and poetry.
http://www.biblepraise.org