This House Is Not For Sale: The SANCTION OF STEALING BY FAITH!

The three of them: a matured woman, a guy in his early 30s and a young man in his late 20s were laughing gaily about how long ago it was they’d seen each other last. And before long the matter had navigated into why the guys were yet to find the woman of their dreams.

“Women are just greedy these days. They don’t understand us guys!” said the dark twenty something year old guy.

“Really?” the matured woman asked.

“Yes.” chimed in the fair in complexion thirty something.

“Don’t you think you guys might be looking for what does not exists?”

“Naaa.” both guys said at once and laughed.

“For example,” said  Darky, “imagine how my best friend, just newly wedded has been paying back wedding debt! And all because he married a gal!”

“How come?” asked the bewildered woman.

“Can you imagine he earns N450,000 a month and still hasn’t paid his wedding debt even after six months?”

“Oh-oh. That’s not a good way to start marriage.” Said the matured woman.

“Women just want to empty a man’s pocket!” said Fair Man.

“And you know the most annoying part? This girl was just insulting my friend in a shouting match over his landed properties!”

“Did I not say women are greedy!” added Fair Man.

“But wait a minute, how do you mean his landed properties. Does she want the lands in her name or what? Otherwise that must be a really long throat babe he married oo!” Matured woman feigned shock.

“No, it’s not like that. She’s also my friend too. Matter of fact I brought them together. But the problem is that she’s going about saying all the landed properties her husband told her about, she’s yet to set her eyes on them.”

“Haba! What kind of talk is that? Did he tell his fiancée before they married he had lands and now after married there’s suddenly no land?” said Matured Woman.

 “You see, I understand my friend,” he said defiantly, “I knew why he told his fiancée that his mother’s land was his. He said it in faith and claimed it by faith!”

“Oh! You mean the young husband claimed that his mother’s lands were his!”

“Of course they are his! But they wife has no right questioning him, asking him: ‘Where are lands you said you have? Where are the title deeds for the land you said you owned before we married?’”

The matured woman stared long and hard at Darky.  The more they talked about the matter, the more Darky tried to help them see, even justify what was an apparent lie his friend told his fiancée, who after marriage was now beginning to ask questions.

“Thing is,” began Darky, “I don’t like how she’s disrespecting my friend by doubting and questioning him. And now she’s gone to report the matter to his mother.”

“But you know your friend lied to her!”

“That’s what girls like to hear!” jumped in Fair Man.

“But you know that is stealing. Your friend claiming something what is not his.” said Matured Woman sitting across them. Incidentally, she does not belong to any religion.

“No.” the young man replied. “It is not stealing. He was simply claiming it by Faith...You just don’t understand.

“And what did the lady’s mother-in-law say when her daughter-in-law complained to her about the inconsistencies about the land?”

“Her mother-in-law simply laughed naa and told her daughter-in-law that the land was her own and not her son’s.”

“Isn’t it clear to you as you’re narrating this story that your friend has not only lied to his fiancée in the name of Faith in God but has also stolen another person’s land by claiming it?”

“But it’s his mother’s land! And by right, like in my case, he’s the first son and is therefore entitled to the land.”

“Did you not hear what his mother said? ‘It is my land, not my son’s’?”

“Well...” he began, but sharply turned his face away frustrated at her precise logic. Then he said, 

“Does it really matter? After all, what’s his mother’s is his too.”

“From the mother’s response, it is very clear that until she formally handed the lands over to him, the land is unequivocally in her name and belongs to her.”

“But he’s the first son! And we are talking about claiming one’s inheritance ahead.”

“Until someone gives you something directly or grants you permission to own, use or have access to what’s theirs, if you ‘claim it’ or announce that it is yours, it is stealing, ho-ha!”

“What?!” 

“Haven’t you seen cases where parents change their wills? Suppose your friend’s mother changes her mind and gives the lands to someone else or even sell the land without her son knowing only for him to find out after her death that the land was never transferred to him, what amount of faith, or claiming in the Name of God will change that?”

“Well...”

“When religion sanctions and permits people to steal and call it Claiming by Faith, in the Name of God, do you see why, although Nigeria has so many religion, yet in comparison to countries full of agnostics, atheist or pagan worshippers as you call them, Nigeria is by far extremely corrupt? Look at those in political office today. Many belong to one Christian religion or Muslim faith or another. They all hold positions of authority where the rule of law ought to be enforced and honesty and ethics should be a way of life. Yet what do you see?”

“Those are not God-fearing persons!”

“So is your friend who claims a land that is not yet his and lies to his fiancée that they are his, is he God fearing?”

“Uh?”

“Exactly.”

“No, no. Wait. Those countries that do not believe in God, their riches and wealth are false riches! They don’t have true success!”

“Really? Let me get you clear,” the matured woman sat up, her demeanour one of combat. “Are you saying that someone who says let’s stop people from begging, from taking alms and empower them with skills and expertise so they can create, be productive and enjoy the sweat and money of their success, that such a person has no true success when he empowers his fellow man that way? So you mean your friend claiming an asset that is not his, has true wealth?”

“Er...Em...”

“Have you people fallen so low to the point where you delude yourself to such unbelievable extent; where you steal from Paul in faith, claim it from Peter and command it to be taken from John all in the name of ‘I have Faith this will be mine!” 

The young man shrugged his shoulders like what-did-it-matter how it’s done as long as Faith is involved. 

Then the woman said, “The other day like that a wretched man with no money in his pocket got an alert of N250,000 for doing nothing. Rather than go to the bank to explain that he was erroneously paid as this must have been a terrible error on the Teller’s part, the man went to church to make testimony! He said God had given him the money and answered his prayers to get out of poverty. 

“Three weeks after he had spent almost all the money, three persons arrived at his door. Apparently, the bank had called to tell him he had been wrongly credited, but he denied it and stopped picking up their calls (that is, unknown numbers not registered with a name on his phone). The two police men standing by the Female Banker were at his home to take him to the police station. The man begged and pleaded but they would have none of it.

“After almost a week in custody in the guardroom, he was able to pay the complete money. A few friends and family members had contributed the sum on his behalf.

“That money which the man claimed, was supposed to be been paid into a woman whose child was in hospital, and required surgery. The parents of this girl almost lost the child because the initial payment of N250,000 could not be paid immediately to begin treatment.”

“Oh.” was all Darky could utter while Fair Man stared in shocked.

“When you take what is not yours,” said Mature Woman, “even if it accidentally falls into your hands or was given to you in error, the premise that it was an error negates your right, claim or faith in saying it is yours.”

For a long time Darky remained quiet. He was sitting uncomfortably by the edge of the chair, his posture ram-rod straight, his eyes radiating disturbing clarity.

Tactfully, the woman redirected their conversation to safer grounds. Now more convinced Darky, in this very moment sees how his religion has misled and sanctioned him to believe that he could claim somebody else’s reward that was not his effort.