THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN LIFE In recent weeks, news have spread around about the gruesome murder of a woman named Bridget Agbaheme by a mob in Kano on the ground of blasphemy. In Abia State, it was also reported how some members of a cult murdered three students of the Abia State University who were also members of a rival cult and their heads were used as a goal post. What impunity! These kinds of events and happenings are not strange in our country. Commenting on these incidents, Chris Ngwodo writes on the Premium Times, “ Infact, lynchings happen and are condoned all over Nigeria. The practice of “necklacing”- drenching victims in fuel, placing tyres around their necks before setting them ablaze- is very popular in Lagos and immediate environs. The “Aluu 4” were lynched in Rivers. Summary executions and lynchings were the stock in trade of the Bakassi boys, the ultra-violent vigilante cult that enjoyed the endorsement of the then Anambra Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, and which murdered over 3000 people in the early 2000s. People suspected of witchcraft and homosexuality are at risk of being lynched anywhere in Nigeria to considerable public appeal. In the past two years, in Bauchi and Borno, women have been lynched on suspicion of being suicide bombers. In February last year, Ahmed Falaki, an agriculture professor at ABU, Zaria was lynched in Kibiya, Kano, on suspicion of being a terrorist. Falaki was murdered right in front of a police station with the officers present watching in the belief that they were lynching a Boko Haram kingpin. Not one of these cases has led to a conviction of the guilt parties” (Chris Ngwodo, Nigeria’s Culture of Violence, Premium times Nigeria). Added to this is the serial murders carried on by the Fulani herdsmen in some states of the country all in the name of finding pasture for their flocks. Even on the part of the government, we read about the massacre of Shiites in Zaria by the Nigerian Army leaving 347 people dead. In the same month was the shooting of peaceful and unarmed pro Biafran supporters in the South East by the army; and worse, they seem to be unapologetic about it. On the individual level, just some months ago ( February 25, 2016) we read of a doctor in OAUTHC( who was also a senior officer in Nigeria’s Air Force) who fractured the skull of a colleague on the spurious offence that the lady was not quick to remove her car from where it was standing as an obstruction to his car. Sometimes before this, a friend of mine who is a law student told me countless number of incidents that happened in hospitals in his state (Ondo) of patients that have died because of how they were treated by the doctors and especially the nurses. The lack of care and compassion, the harshness and the sense of duty rather than a sense of affection have led many to the grave. Another friend of mine, a medical student gave an instance of a young boy that died while he was on posting in the hospital. After the death, the mother placed all the blame on the lack of care and affection of the leading doctor who treated the child as an object rather than a person and she even insisted that the child was already getting well until that doctor “killed him”. You can hardly listen to the news especially on the radio without hearing gruesome accounts of violence even in the home. Whether it is the wife killing her husband or the husband killing the wife or the father killing the son or the son the father, these cases abound. And in many of these cases it is not just some stark illiterates acting out of ignorance, many otherwise educated and respected people have been caught in the conundrum. Even when such violence does not lead to death, the threat to another person’s life is enough. Kidnappers are everywhere and there is no safety wherever you turn and many people live all their lives in fear because they don’t know whether they will be victim of their own family, of a cruel nurse, uncaring doctor, drunken police, power-hungry soldier or even a mob.
SO MUCH FOR CIVILISATION
F. Gordon Taylor writing a note to the revised edition of George Guest’s book, the March of Civilisation, penned these words, “ The words quoted in the preface-“…civilization… is rapidly becoming the common possession of mankind”- fall strangely on our ears in 1950. In the past twenty years we have seen our civilization challenged and narrowly escaping defeat by the new barbarism. Nor did this barbarism end with the defeat of the Axis. Blindness, cruelty, and greed are the monopoly of no nation or group of nations, and civilsation is, of itself, powerless to root out evil from the heart of man”
“Why do we do what we ought not to do and why don’t we do what we ought? Why, with all the scientific advances and advantages of living in the 21st century, are we still confounded by not only widespread hate and evil but also the malevolent inclinations in our own heart- even towards those we claim to love”( Greg Bahsen, Crucial Concept Of Self Deception in Presuppositional Apologetics) With all our advances away from what Thomas Hobbes called the state of nature, it seems that the description poor, nasty and brutish really does speak to us today even at the height of scientific and political advancement. It seems that there is a problem in the human heart that not even advancement in civilisation can take care of. The cases that have been cited above are not just the vestige that results from some people that are yet to be civilized, these are in some cases doctors, respected businessmen and successful professionals and even University students. It seems that all our education and cultural progress has not dealt with the barbarism in the human heart
It easy however, to label these particular instances and to see the problem as their problem. But as Greg Bahsen noted above, at the end of the day, it is also about the problem of hate in my own heart and yours. Many of us might have clean records and might never imagine ourselves joining a mob or being involved in domestic violence or treating other people’s lives with disregard but deep within us we have our own envy, anger, strife, intemperance and hatred. For many people who have found themselves in this condition of violence, it has always begun in their heart; the seed was already sown and it only waited to produce fruit. We are all caught in this vast web of problems with our own heart and with our relationships with people. Even if we don’t have the audacity to do many of these things, their seeds remain in our hearts and it’s just as deadly.
G K Chesterton once said that fall of man is the most empirically verifiable fact but yet it is the most denied. All these events that we see around and the ones we see in our own hearts remind us of the fall of humanity. The Christian worldview in contrast to many other worldviews gave an account not of the continuous progress of man but the fall of humanity from its perfect and holy state to sin. By disobedience to God, man lost communion with God and its very nature was affected by the fall. Sin took hold of humanity and the history of man has been the acting out of the fall of man and the sin that has plagued us. Immediately after man was sent out of the garden of Eden, we read of Cain killing his own brother, Abel. Violence and wickedness filled the earth until it was recorded, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time”( Genesis 6:5, NIV). Our problem is not ignorance, our problem is not immaturity neither is it forgetfulness, at the heart of the human problem is SIN.
Our present generation has grown so much in all respects that we have thought that by our progress we will solve all our problems and conquer all of nature; but deep within is our own heart left unconquered. If we have the diagnosis wrong, our approach will only be futile. Education and progress has done much for us but it has not dealt with the deeper issues that confront us within. Our intolerance, pride, anger, outburst, hatred are problems that need more than education. What we need is redemption. The Christian worldview presents to us exactly that. Christ is the only person who claim to have the power to deal with human heart; the root of the problem. This claim has been made evident in the lives of many that have put their trust in him. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”(Ezekiel 36:26, 27). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”(2 Corinthians 5:17). “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people”( Hebrews 8:10). “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14) “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. “( 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN LIFE
One of the underlying fact that seems to be absent from our culture is the understanding of the fact that life has value. Our culture of violence clearly reveals that we have lost a consciousness of the value of the person beside us. We take liberty to do as we like to the human life because we have not kept in heart the value of the human soul. However, there are many people that have come out to react to the violence we see around and how it is ingrained into our society. In all of the cases they have come down to this same fact; the value of the human life. Chris came to the same conclusion in his article as well as Chidi Anselm in the article, “Taking the Nigerian Life Seriously” for the premiumtimes. While they all agree that the human life is supposed to have value, they don’t tell us where that understanding of value is grounded
Naturalism, the belief that man is just a product of matter, time and chance has led in recent times to the devaluation of the human life. Infact, naturalists who are also atheists or agnostics have claimed that the human life is the same with the animal life. Since we evolved from them, as they claim, we are only guilty of speciesism if we claim that our own existence supersedes the others we have evolved from. Recently, there was an outrage in the US when a man in a Zoo decided to kill an elephant to save the life of a young boy. Infancticide, abortion, killing of adults (that to them are having more bad effect than good) are being advocated all around. The human life has become something to be evaluated based on an equation. The cultural shift that Atheism is advocating which is a logical conclusion from its worldview is doing damage to the value of the human life. Truly, if man is just a “cosmic accident” (as claimed by Richard Dawkins), a product of evolution and will soon explode out in a cosmic heat, then we cannot lay claim to any value for the human life. It makes no difference what we do to it or how we treat it. It is just a mere product of matter, time and chance. If this view is correct, then we cannot be concerned about all the events that we see all around, at least our concern will not be about the human lives that have been taken or threatened. But contrary to what they teach, naturalists believe deep in their heart as evidenced by their actions and what they advocate that the human life really has value. Richard Dawkins will claim that life has no inherent value but will still claim that rape is wrong. On what basis? We might ask. It occurs every time in the animal kingdom, so if his theory of naturalism is true, then rape cannot be wrong. So much for inconsistency.
However, in the bible, right in the first chapter we are told that human life has value and that value is grounded in the fact that man was created in the Image of God. “Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” ( Genesis 9:6). The reason why you cannot shed the blood of another man is because he was created in the very image of the Supreme, Sovereign God, and the creator of human life. This is not just an understanding that we cannot create life but that we did not. The creator of the human life himself placed a value upon it, by virtue of which we cannot treat it as we like. This value is inherent in every man. Every man bears the image of God and irrespective of whatever distinctions we use to categorise ourselves, at the fundamental level is the fact that each of us bears the image of God. Commenting on the reaction of Adam and Eve after the fall, Ellen White writes, “As they witnessed in drooping flower and falling leaf the first signs of decay, Adam and his companion mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead.” Right from the very presence of God, they recognized how precious everything that God made was and were saddened by the consequences of the fall of nature. How much more should we come to grasp with the value of the human life that is imprinted with the very image of God
While God is the creator of life and has the right to take it, the bible consistently reveals his hesitation. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? Cast away from you all your transgressions, and whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves and live ye.”( Ezekiel 18:23,31,32). God in his Sovereignty pleads with humanity to choose life rather than death because of his great love for his image bearing creatures. What then about us ordinary humans? How much more then is the necessity laid on us to understand that everyone we see is an object of divine love and perseverance.
“He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!”( 2 Corinthians 5:15,16). Paul states here that by his understanding of the cross and the redemption that Christ provides, he has stopped looking at others from a human point of view. Christ accepted the inferior nature of humanity became a man and took the human nature, went through privations and lack, scorn and hatred, culminating in his death on the cross. He did all this just that humanity will be redeemed and not be lost. In Luke 15, we see the Shepherd searching earnestly for the one lost sheep and the woman looking carefully for the one lost coin and the father longing patiently for the one lost child. All this illustrated to us the value that Christ places upon each individual in terms of redemption. No matter how man y names are in the book of life, God’s desire is that all men will be saved ( 1 Timothy 2:4). “The value of a soul, who can estimate? Would you know its worth, go to Gethsemane, and there watch with Christ through those hours of anguish, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood. Look upon the Saviour uplifted on the cross. Hear that despairing cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Mark 15:34. Look upon the wounded head, the pierced side, the marred feet. Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled. At the foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Christ would have laid down His life, you may estimate the value of a soul.”(Ellen White, Christ Object Lessons, 197). All this Christ would have passed through for just one single soul to be redeemed. The human life has an inestimable value by creation and by the price paid for its redemption

Haba....see epistle, pity us na

BEYOND DISTINCTIONS
Chris Ngwodo noted in his article quoted above that the reaction of Nigerians to these violence have been fraught with insincerity, ethnicity and religious divide. He gave the example of Bridget’s case and that of the Abia State University Students. The first one was popularized because it was a Muslim mob killing a Christian woman, a northern mob killing a southern woman. On the other hand, the second case did not receive as much publicity as the first because it was Christians killing Christians and southerners killing southerners. He stressed the fact that our responses to these events are always fraught with our biases. The violent acts of the mob is wrong not because it was a southern woman but because she was a woman at all; northern or southern. Their act was wrong not because she was a Christian woman but because she was a woman at all; Christian, Pagan, Atheist or Muslim. The violent acts of the Fulani herdsmen are wrong not because they kill southerners but because they kill human beings created in the Image of God. That is why the killing of the pro Biafra supporters and the Shiites is wrong. They are human beings and it is wrong for their lives to be taken in such violent ways without a justifiable cause.
Nigeria as a country is well known for its diversity but such diversity and the cultural identity it leads to should not make us forget that people are not valuable because they are part of us. It is not Us versus Them. The value of the human life is intrinsic irrespective of their age, social status, economic status, race, gender, education status, religion, cultural identity, profession. Every single human life is important and should not be evaluated by sociological distinctions. A child is a human being whether he has a damaged brain or not; the old woman is a human being whether she serves any purpose or not; the boy in the slum is a human being whether he has a future or not and the child in the womb is a human being whether fully developed or not. And for this reason, their lives have value and should be treated as such. No distinction can undermine that. That is a fact that we must not undermine. The value of human life is not premised on their usefulness but on the very fact of their existence as image bearers. “You have heard that our ancestors were told, 'You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. 'But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.”(Mathew 5:21-23) This is where it must begin. It must begin from a dependence on Christ to help us overcome the anger, the hatred, rage that lies deep within our own hearts.
THE CRY FOR JUSTICE
In another article written by Chris Ngwodo on this same issue titled, “The Nigerian Tragedy of Getting Away with Mass Murder”, he noted that two things might be responsible for the impunity with which these acts are carried out; the understanding that nothing will be done by the constituted authority and the fact that even the constituted authority are guilty themselves
Even though the days of theocracy are gone, God being a God of order constituted authorities in every human society. The understanding of the fall of man and its propensities to evil must be met. Though God has provided redemption in Christ, he knows that not all men will accept the work of Christ in their heart. He understands that society will sometimes be a victim of the evil in the heart of man. He understands that for society to be in a state of tranquility and peace, there needs to be punishment for evil acts.
However, God’s response is not just to deter people but to meet every wrong act with justice and he has placed that responsibility in every constituted government. “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding”, “….that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men”, "Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves: for they watch over your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you", "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men :”( Daniel 2:21; 4:17; Heb 13:17, 1Peter 2:13-15)
God has placed a responsibility on every government to punish evil doers among other things and for these responsibilities he gave them, they will give account of their stewardship. The silence of government is a sin against God. The government themselves must understand the value of every human life under their watch and they must realize that they have a God given responsibility to meet all these violent acts with necessary justice. The peace, order, serenity of society demands such act of justice and even when the government falls short of recognizing human value, they have` to be humble enough to apologise to the citizenry. Though we have a lot of economic and political issues to deal with, this must take precedence because in a society that has no regard for human life, the economy cannot thrive and politics will merely be a game (as many people see it already)
However, we have lived long enough to know that justice is not always done. Even in societies with advanced democracy and by implication, Judiciary, there is still a cry for justice. There is something in the human heart that calls for justice and we all can relate to it. Inspite of that, Justice is not gotten. As we look at all these issues that go on, our hearts cry out for justice and we are saddened by a lack of it. If we have a universal sense of justice, it means there is a universal judgment in such a way that hunger means an existence of food (not necessarily availability). And as C S Lewis said, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”
There is a judgment. There is justice; there is satisfaction to what our hearts cry for. “…for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10) “And behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be”( Rev 22:12). There is a judgment. But it is not just for the mob or the violent men or those who deny the value of the human life. I am included in that judgment in the same way as you. We will all stand before the judgment. The only one thing that will make us to stand in peace and joy is when Christ is our lawyer and advocate and he also covers us with his righteousness. This does not lessen the responsibility of government but tells us quite frankly that we will not always get justice here and even if we do, there is a greater judgment which has eternal consequences where he who reads our hearts, keep records of our actions and our words will give to every man according as his work. The blood of Abel cried out for justice (Gen 4:10) and that of the martyrs( Rev 6:19-20). With them and everyone, we will all cry out, “ Great and Marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints”( Rev 15:3) SOLEMN THOUGHT (R.F COTTRREL) O solemn thought and can it be The hour of judgment now is come; Which soon must fix our destiny, And seal the sinner’s fearful doom? Yes, it is so; the judgment hour Is swiftly hastening to its close; Then will the Judge, in mighty power, Descend in vengeance on His foes. He who came down to earth to die An offering for the sins of men, And then ascended up on high, And will e’er long return again, Is standing now before the ark, And mercy seat and cherubim, To plead His blood for saints, and make The last remembrance of their sin. The solemn moment is at hand When we who have His name confessed, Each in his lot must singly stand, And pass the final, searching test. Jesus! We hope in Thee alone; In mercy now upon us look, Confess our names before the throne, And blot our sins from out Thy book. O blessed Savior! may we feel The full importance of this hour. Inspire our hearts with holy zeal, And aid us by Thy Spirit’s power, That we may in Thy strength be strong, And brave the conflict valiantly; Then, on Mount Zion, join the song, And swell the notes of victory.