After walking in the hot sun, struggling to sit in a public transport, and hoping to get to your destination within minutes and when the vehicle suddenly moves with fresh air cooling your nerves, then a passenger slights stands up raises his voice which grabs your attention and starts preaching.
Do not get me wrong I am a Christian and not against preaching the word of God because everyone has to know about our Father in Heaven. However in these days the various ways where by people use to determine the little time some people will have peace and quiet is becoming rampant.
I boarded a public transport 'trotro' from the Kaneshi market to Madina the past week after a very hectic day. Honestly because the drive will be through the N1 motorway most passengers like myself engaged the conductor of the vehicle 'mate' to take our fares soon, so we can relax or doze off for some time.
Just when the vehicle hit the freeway and my eyes suddenly felt heavy, a middle aged man stood up from he first seat where he was sitting, faced the passengers and declared he was about to share the word. You could clearly see the frustrations on the face of other passengers including me who felt we needed some level of quiet in our life's. No one dared say anything for fear of being ridiculed as being a pegan or for reasons best known to them. Even though as he started he declared his message was short and simple it ended up being the opposite. He gave a lengthy message about how young men of today engage in all sorts of acts including preaching when all they did was to extort money from people. I dozed off in between his message and woke up hearing him depicting extremely gore conditions of male homosexuals. For once I was confused why he kept repeating that these were all students of one of the known Universities in the country and explaining in detail how ill they were and every detail of their various awful sores they have in private parts. What I could not take was why he kept on repeating this as the rest of his message.
To say I wished I was out of the vehicle is an understatement. This gentleman even though was preaching on very real issues was making passengers uncomfortable, nauseous, and irked. Thankfully he ended as we drew nearer to our destination and asked for funds 'collection' to help in the Lords work. He then asked to alight and joined another vehicle going another way.
Silently we were relived to have some quiet. Another gentleman hoped in and filled his place and once again we were on our way. Just like a scene from a movie, this new young man stood to his feet and shouted "Praise the Lord". We just turned to each other in the vehicle and burst into laughter I felt sad for this young man who had no idea what we had endured for the past 30 minutes. His message was very short since we were almost at our destination and spared no time also asking for 'collection'. He wasn't as lucky as his predecessor since he had nothing not a single change to spare.
As a country should there be laws regulating these issues? Although we hit hard on our chest, proclaiming democracy and freedom of speech are we not aware our freedom ends when someone's rights begin? I think the issue of these 'preacher men' in our public places have become too rampant with most screaming on top voices without thinking about others.
We need law makers in our country who really go through what we do and generate ways to solve our problems and not theirs. I dare say our law makers must face what we do on a daily basis and see if they can survive.
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