Professor Segun Ogungbemi ,
In last Sabbath's Haftarah is a succinct answer to the stream of misgivings and philosophical objections you have expressed here about President Goodluck Jonathan and entourage's pilgrimage to Israel to pray on the banks of the River Jordan where Jesus of Nazareth is said to have been baptised by his friend, John the Baptiser.
Although I share your antipathy towards that expensive pilgrimage enterprise – to some extent, at the same time we must understand that President Jonathan was on pilgrimage not to the River Jordan per say, but to the Holy Land and that he visited many other sites in the Holy Land. If the president had been a Muslim his pilgrimage would have been to Saudi Arabia and then of course the matter of visiting any holy rivers would not have arisen since fortunately or unfortunately, there are no "Holy Rivers" in Saudi Arabia. However, perhaps more important than rivers is the phenomenon that Fela attributed to Nigeria, but on a much larger scale in Saudi Arabia : "Oil dey flow underground like river" - and that too to the chagrin of the late Golda Meir : "Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil"
In the haftarah story the prophet Elisha glorifies God's name by curing the skin disease of Naaman, a foreign general. The Prophet Elisha sent the general a message saying, ( Verse 10) : " Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your normal flesh will come back and you will become cleansed."
Verse 14 : "So he descended and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as the word of the man of God ; and his flesh was transformed to the flesh of a young boy, and he became cleansed …."
The Full story ( a very short one) : Kings II, 4:42-5:19
Which does not mean to say that there are no rivers believed to be sacred in Nigeria, India, the Sudan, Egypt etc. In fact, during my period in Nigeria (1981-84), it was said that the leader of a religious organisation known as the Brotherhood of the Cross and the Star, in Cross Rivers State, was curing skin diseases by bathing his patients/ clients in the river there and that people from even faraway places like the USSR were flying over to Cross Rivers State for treatment. I know about this because my boss in Bakana, Rivers State, was an ardent disciple of the Brotherhood's leader and she wanted to take me over there for an immersion, but I was not in a hurry to do so after my full immersion experience in Umuahia where the fanatics nearly drowned me. ( Oluwatoyin Adepoju could check this out : the curative nature of some of Nigeria's Rivers – the healing properties of their waters)
A good song : Gary Bartz : I've known rivers , lyrics based Langston Hughes' poem
Wishing you a Good Day,
Cornelius
On Tuesday, 29 October 2013 01:35:15 UTC+1, seguno2013 wrote:
This is interesting. Don't they have rivers in Bayelsa State where the President can go with other Nigerians to pray? Or don't we have better rivers in Nigeria where the President and fellow Nigerians can go and pray? What is so special about river Jordan in Israel that attracted the President to abandon his high office at this material time to waste Public taxpayers' money in Israel? How many times have we seen the Prime Minister or President of Israel come to Nigeria for such a frivolous jamboree?I cannot imagine our President will go to a dirty river in Israel when we have better rivers in Nigeria.During the time of Jesus it was recorded in the Bible that people with shin disease and the physically challenged went there to bathe. And that Jesus performed miracles there. Did our President go to river Jordan to see a miracle water because such is not in his country?Na wa o!Yemoja will forgive you all. Aase.SO
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