KINGDOMPerspective July 29, 2007
Inspiration for this piece came from two sources as different and apart as chalk and cheese. The first source is Tony Oganah, a lawyer, publisher and politician. Although, he once ran for office on the platform of one of so-called conservative parties, he is of the Tony Enahoro School of Politics, even if he does not necessarily agree with every detail of the new constitution being spearheaded by the veteran nationalist and politician. Of course, he is a PRONACO activist.
The other source is "my president." By that I mean the man of God who heads the umbrella body of Pentecostal and charismatic churches, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. A man I respect so much but do not always agree with, Oritsejafor came out of the "come-as-you-are" generation of pastors who would not have anyone link their faith with their hairstyle. Like my Senior Pastor, he still dons his punk hairstyle, decades of "going-ye" later.
On a visit by my wife and I to the Oganah family, last Sunday, Tony and I got talking about the state of the nation. Everything from the nature of the last charade called elections to the controversial sales of refineries to Obasanjo’s blue-eyed boys whose special-purpose vehicle for the deal was appropriately named Bluestar Petroleum. After all, if you are a powerful potentate’s blue-eyed boy, you cannot be anything but a blue star!
What resonated with me as we drove out of the estate where Tony and his wonderful wife (Nkechi) and their children live was his comment on the role of the Church in the affairs of our nation. He noted that the church has had no influence on governance and felt that this should not be so. I agreed with him but put it down to disunity in the body. I explained to him that I should know, because of the great challenges we have faced trying to publish a non-denominational magazine known as KINGDOMPeople and how we have had to start a One Church Campaign as a project of the magazine. I also sought to let him see the worldwide nature of the disunity citing the recent statement by Pope Benedict XVI to the effect that non-Catholics may be styled "Christian communities", but they do not belong to the one and only one catholic and apostolic church established by the Lord Jesus under the leadership of Apostle Peter (more on this at a later date). Tony did agree that disunity was an issue but he went on to posit that the problem may lie more in the fact that many of those in leadership of the various bodies "have been compromised."
That of course got me thinking and wondering until, back at home, "my president" weighed in on the issue. In an extensive interview with Aramide Oikelome who heads the Faith Desk of this newspaper, Pastor Oritsejafor expressed surprise that the Church was not being involved in finding solutions to that blight on the national conscience, the Niger Delta crisis. He argued that majority of the citizens of that region of Nigeria are Christians and implied therefore that they should be quite responsive to the intervention of their spiritual leaders.
His words: "In my own opinion, one of the mistakes they have always made is that when they call the supposed stakeholders of the Niger Delta, they never bring in the church and it has always baffled me why they don’t do this…the Niger Delta is basically composed of Christian states…Everybody you see there (if they want to be honest with you) is a Christian one way or the other. They may not be committed, but they are Christians; they were baptized in church…"
Rationalising the need to involve the church further, he said: "Not only are we organising prayers at the moment (which is very important), but also we want to be further involved; we want to be involved in negotiations in the sense that some of these boys (militants) do not trust a lot of government officials. On the other hand there are people they believe are credible"
Then, he came to the issue that had been tugging at my heartstring since my discussion with Tony earlier, the issue of credibility. Said "my president": "We can become the bridge. We can talk to these boys and reach a truce with them to stop the fighting and the kidnapping for a year and let the government fulfill its part. If they don’t, then nobody can blame them. Then we can go to the government and tell them that our credibility is at stake and if they don’t perform, we would come out publicly to condemn them. I don’t need any money or anything from the government. No governor has given me any money because, I don’t want it, I don’t need it. So, if they don’t perform we will come out and tell the whole world and when we start talking, people will listen because they know we are not politicians…"
Making the case that credibility is the rock upon which church leadership is (or should be) built, he admitted that "a lot of institutions in the country have been bastardised. Many do not have credibility, but I think to some extent there are still people in the church who have credibility and can stand up against injustice. We know that if we do not do what we say, then we are in trouble because we have nothing to preach to anybody. My members can walk out of the church because truth, justice and equity are directly related to what we preach. So, if I don’t stick to what I say, it goes completely against everything that I am doing. That means that I have no platform again. A politician can divorce his wife and still remain a politician or even become the president, but I can’t do that; I can’t drive my wife away and then open the Bible to preach…"
I wanted to shout: "tell them pastor, tell them my president", but somehow, I didn’t get the release in my spirit. Yes, Pastor Oritsejafor was right, the church should go beyond praying and get involved at least as intermediaries and peace brokers. And possibly there is nowhere needing that kind of intervention now more than the Niger Delta. And yes, he can flaunt his own credentials as a credible man who has not received any money from any governor, but can he really speak for others? The fact that he needed to declare that openly suggests that either there are people out there who have received money from governors or, there are governors willing to give in order to compromise men of God or, both. So there is a credibility challenge that the church must confront and deal with.
More important than the credibility problem in the leadership cadre of the church implied in all of these, is the issue of the credibility of politicians, many of whom fly the Christianity flag and are therefore products of the church led by Pastor Oritsejafor and his other revered colleagues in Christian Association of Nigeria.
When the PFN president made the distinction between those in the church and politicians, he sounded like politicians dropped from some unknown planet. Yet we know better, don’t we? When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), after smartly selling the public and our erstwhile immunity-protected governors the dummy of unwillingness to carry out its threat to prosecute them after their tenure, finally got cracking recently a discernible trend seem to have begun. The profile of the five already arraigned, at the time of writing this, should be food for thought to all Christians and in particular, the leadership. Four of them, are to use Pastor Oritsejafor’s words quoted above are, "…christian(s) one way or the other. They may not be committed, but they are Christians; they were baptized in church."
Although, these men are innocent until proven guilty, it is still instructive that they could be accused of that much evil! Plateau State’s Joshua Dariye never tired of thanking God for his many court victories each time EFCC’s exuberance pitched them against due process. Yet he has never really denied wrong-doing, at least, that he is a fugitive from justice in the United Kingdom. Orji Uzor Kalu presided over "God’s Own State" and his presidential campaigns in the run-down to the last "elections" were like crusades for the amount of praise and worship that featured in many of them. There is fine-boy, and seemingly cerebral Chimaroke Nnamani, the "Ebeano" governor whose catch phrase was "Enugu is working…to God be the glory." And horror of horrors there is Governor Jolly Nyame who still carries the title of reverend and who, if media reports are to be believed, has offered to return "part of his loot."
My dear President, I suggest that the church’s involvement in the Niger Delta and everywhere else must transcend prayers and direct intervention as peace brokers; it must extend to, if not primarily be, ensuring that those who go to government naming the name of the Lord, must have the rest of Christ’s family to contend with each time they step out of line in the course of serving Christ through the nation. That, in my humble opinion is the urgent challenge to church leadership today.
First published in a Nigerian Daily, the Sunday Independent, published in Lagos Nigeria.
Thursday 26 July 2007
Wednesday 18 July 2007
OF SURROGATES, FLOODS AND FOUNDATIONS
It would be laughable, if it were not such a serious governance issue. I mean the current debate on who is in charge in Nigeria today. Newspaper editorials, informed commentaries and punchy letters to the editor are all asking the same questions: Who is in charge, Yar’Adua or Obasanjo? Do we have two presidents? Is Obasanjo a kind of senior president? And I ask: Are you kidding me? Or are we all a pack of Rip Van Winkles, just waking up from a long slumber (with apologies to Angryman Michael John)?
Please replay the drama of the last one year or so in your mind. One man loves Nigeria so much he couldn’t see a future for her without him. So, he decided to throw away his own future; a guaranteed future of international respect and world statesmanship status. You call it the third-term agenda, I call it mindless self-immolation. When that agenda failed, he decided to find Nigeria another lover created in his own image and his own likeness. In order to ensure that this disinterested new lover wins Nigeria’s heart, he put together a boxing contest, recruited a loyal referee and malleable judges and handed them instructions to ensure victory for his preferred suitor. He declared the contest a matter of life and death; joined the man on the scale at the pre-match weigh-in to leave no one in doubt that his massive weight was not just behind the surrogate lover-boy but the weight was in him as in “Christ in you”.
Of course, the fight degenerated into a mess, featuring so many below-the-belt punches, head butts and even ear-chewing. The original lover-boy occasionally went into the roped square to hold the hands and legs of one of the more determined opponents of his protégé. The referee lent his hands too. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would have called it “roforofo” fight. All these happened in the full view of the spectators; some of them officially certified ring-siders who know a good boxing match when they see one. They were so disgusted they left damning reports before huffing away to their various homes, to await invitation to the next fisticuff festival somewhere else in the world.
Anyway, the referee, in exercise of the powers conferred on him, proceeded to raise the hands and legs of the winner and decorated him with the championship belt. Of course when everybody else had gone home, the new lover who styled himself servant-lover promptly handed the belt over to original lover-boy who proudly placed it where everybody who visits his famous farm-house would see it. Of course he is magnanimous enough to allow servant-lover to wear it each time he has to make a public appearance; but with a stern warning to return it in good shape immediately thereafter.
Now some spectators are crying foul. Some are yelling, green-white-green (not blue) murder. Some are shouting themselves hoarse that the new lover should be left alone to consummate his illicit affair with the bride. And again, I ask: are you kidding me? Does anybody really expect differently? Not me! All is said to be fair in love and in war and this was both! Obasanjo fought for and won the presidency with everything that he had, including his future and even his peace of mind. He did it for himself, not for Yar’Adua. So anyone expecting him to go home quietly and leave Yar’Adua to live with the bride and be happy forever after cannot be realistic.
Smart man, he took many steps to ensure that that does not happen. And while he was taking those steps, many were cheering him lustily on. He fixed “Mr Fix-It” long before he re-stepped in by proxy, and it only took the reverberating effect of that to give “Surgeon, the educated Ali” a few months of grace in the grass. The legislators have him to contend with. Whosoever steps out of the legislative agenda being drawn up at Ota would be promptly whipped into line. And the governors also have to answer to him or else. Welcome to OBJ’s Nigeria!
These days Obasanjo must be singing merrily in his bathroom every morning, or afternoon, or evening, or whenever it is that retired but not tired generals and presidents find time to do such un-presidential things: “I did it my way.” Frank Sinatra would be pleased. He might add a chorus, “In my pocket, in my pocket, I have them all in my pocket”. The melody may not be too soothing, the rhythm may be jerky, but the lyrics would be correct. It would reflect the status quo in today’s Nigeria. And I am laughing.
I am laughing, because I know this is only correct for a season. I am laughing because of the sheer folly of men wanting to play God. I am laughing because I am fully persuaded that ONLY God the Almighty is God and he would not share his glory with any man. I am laughing because I know that the dominion God gave man over the works of his hands does not include dominion over his kind. I am laughing because our nation’s political history is replete with examples of the surrogate gone smart.
Let me give one example that still rankles with me till today. At the commencement of political activities in 1978 preparatory to the return of civil rule the following year, Chief Obafemi Awolowo put in place a very efficient political machine that I know ranks favourably with any one of its kind anywhere else in the world. Now, Awolowo was nothing if not a consummate planner and competent administrator. He was a leader per excellence whose heart was with his people. He called that machine, Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, with the party slogan as “UP NIGERIA”. The party had a winning platform built around four cardinal programmes including free education at all levels free medical services and integrated rural development. UPN was the party to beat nationally but particularly in the south-western part of Nigeria. As a result, even if a goat got the ticket of UPN, it was bound to win fair and square in that region. Note that please: win, fair and square. And win virtually all that got the ticket did.
In the event, people who contributed next-to-nothing to their own victories and who were certainly truly beholden unto the party and its leader found themselves in the legislatures across what was then known as the LOOBO states; that being acronym for Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo. They were loyal party men until their personal interests clashed with that of the party and the nation!
I recall how the UPN Parliamentary Council consisting of all legislators on the party’s platform met with the leadership and agreed on what was considered as a reasonable level of salaries and allowances for legislators at all levels. They were directed to present those figures at the various assemblies and resist anything higher. It just so happened that the National Party of Nigeria came up with higher figures which were generally considered as scandalous at the National Assembly and before you could say “UP ME”, UPN parliamentarians had broken ranks with their party and its leadership. The party kicked. The UPN Director of Organisation had responsibility to move in and get the men to tow the line. He almost paid for it with his life! Thankfully, Ebino Topsy, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, is alive to tell the story.
This is not nearly like today’s situation, but it tells the story all the same. One very perceptive columnist put it this way: when will Yar’Adua and Obasanjo fight? And the answer is simple: when Yar’Adua’s interests truly clash with those of Obasanjo.
But as I said earlier, the peace that I have in all of these is I know both sides are acting the pawn on God’s own giant chess board. At the risk of sounding like a broken record – scratched compact disc, if you like – a flood is coming. The tide of evil in our nation will be stemmed; a flood of righteousness will take its place. The question is, are you prepared for the flood?
The Lord Jesus, always right on the mark, had this description of the wise man, the one who is ready for the flood: “He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6: 48).
And you ask, what is the rock? How do I build on the rock? The rock is truth; it is righteousness; it is playing by the rules, not manipulating it. The bible describes the man who will stand “when the come comes to become”, as the late Ozumba Mbadiwe would have put it: “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil”
(Isaiah 33:15). The actors in this national tragic-comedy must check if they fit.
No I do not judge Obasanjo or Yar’Adua. Who am I to judge another’s servant! But the prophet Isaiah said in a not-so-dissimilar context: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). Perhaps Kingdom Perspective is echoing that voice.
Please replay the drama of the last one year or so in your mind. One man loves Nigeria so much he couldn’t see a future for her without him. So, he decided to throw away his own future; a guaranteed future of international respect and world statesmanship status. You call it the third-term agenda, I call it mindless self-immolation. When that agenda failed, he decided to find Nigeria another lover created in his own image and his own likeness. In order to ensure that this disinterested new lover wins Nigeria’s heart, he put together a boxing contest, recruited a loyal referee and malleable judges and handed them instructions to ensure victory for his preferred suitor. He declared the contest a matter of life and death; joined the man on the scale at the pre-match weigh-in to leave no one in doubt that his massive weight was not just behind the surrogate lover-boy but the weight was in him as in “Christ in you”.
Of course, the fight degenerated into a mess, featuring so many below-the-belt punches, head butts and even ear-chewing. The original lover-boy occasionally went into the roped square to hold the hands and legs of one of the more determined opponents of his protégé. The referee lent his hands too. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would have called it “roforofo” fight. All these happened in the full view of the spectators; some of them officially certified ring-siders who know a good boxing match when they see one. They were so disgusted they left damning reports before huffing away to their various homes, to await invitation to the next fisticuff festival somewhere else in the world.
Anyway, the referee, in exercise of the powers conferred on him, proceeded to raise the hands and legs of the winner and decorated him with the championship belt. Of course when everybody else had gone home, the new lover who styled himself servant-lover promptly handed the belt over to original lover-boy who proudly placed it where everybody who visits his famous farm-house would see it. Of course he is magnanimous enough to allow servant-lover to wear it each time he has to make a public appearance; but with a stern warning to return it in good shape immediately thereafter.
Now some spectators are crying foul. Some are yelling, green-white-green (not blue) murder. Some are shouting themselves hoarse that the new lover should be left alone to consummate his illicit affair with the bride. And again, I ask: are you kidding me? Does anybody really expect differently? Not me! All is said to be fair in love and in war and this was both! Obasanjo fought for and won the presidency with everything that he had, including his future and even his peace of mind. He did it for himself, not for Yar’Adua. So anyone expecting him to go home quietly and leave Yar’Adua to live with the bride and be happy forever after cannot be realistic.
Smart man, he took many steps to ensure that that does not happen. And while he was taking those steps, many were cheering him lustily on. He fixed “Mr Fix-It” long before he re-stepped in by proxy, and it only took the reverberating effect of that to give “Surgeon, the educated Ali” a few months of grace in the grass. The legislators have him to contend with. Whosoever steps out of the legislative agenda being drawn up at Ota would be promptly whipped into line. And the governors also have to answer to him or else. Welcome to OBJ’s Nigeria!
These days Obasanjo must be singing merrily in his bathroom every morning, or afternoon, or evening, or whenever it is that retired but not tired generals and presidents find time to do such un-presidential things: “I did it my way.” Frank Sinatra would be pleased. He might add a chorus, “In my pocket, in my pocket, I have them all in my pocket”. The melody may not be too soothing, the rhythm may be jerky, but the lyrics would be correct. It would reflect the status quo in today’s Nigeria. And I am laughing.
I am laughing, because I know this is only correct for a season. I am laughing because of the sheer folly of men wanting to play God. I am laughing because I am fully persuaded that ONLY God the Almighty is God and he would not share his glory with any man. I am laughing because I know that the dominion God gave man over the works of his hands does not include dominion over his kind. I am laughing because our nation’s political history is replete with examples of the surrogate gone smart.
Let me give one example that still rankles with me till today. At the commencement of political activities in 1978 preparatory to the return of civil rule the following year, Chief Obafemi Awolowo put in place a very efficient political machine that I know ranks favourably with any one of its kind anywhere else in the world. Now, Awolowo was nothing if not a consummate planner and competent administrator. He was a leader per excellence whose heart was with his people. He called that machine, Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, with the party slogan as “UP NIGERIA”. The party had a winning platform built around four cardinal programmes including free education at all levels free medical services and integrated rural development. UPN was the party to beat nationally but particularly in the south-western part of Nigeria. As a result, even if a goat got the ticket of UPN, it was bound to win fair and square in that region. Note that please: win, fair and square. And win virtually all that got the ticket did.
In the event, people who contributed next-to-nothing to their own victories and who were certainly truly beholden unto the party and its leader found themselves in the legislatures across what was then known as the LOOBO states; that being acronym for Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo. They were loyal party men until their personal interests clashed with that of the party and the nation!
I recall how the UPN Parliamentary Council consisting of all legislators on the party’s platform met with the leadership and agreed on what was considered as a reasonable level of salaries and allowances for legislators at all levels. They were directed to present those figures at the various assemblies and resist anything higher. It just so happened that the National Party of Nigeria came up with higher figures which were generally considered as scandalous at the National Assembly and before you could say “UP ME”, UPN parliamentarians had broken ranks with their party and its leadership. The party kicked. The UPN Director of Organisation had responsibility to move in and get the men to tow the line. He almost paid for it with his life! Thankfully, Ebino Topsy, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, is alive to tell the story.
This is not nearly like today’s situation, but it tells the story all the same. One very perceptive columnist put it this way: when will Yar’Adua and Obasanjo fight? And the answer is simple: when Yar’Adua’s interests truly clash with those of Obasanjo.
But as I said earlier, the peace that I have in all of these is I know both sides are acting the pawn on God’s own giant chess board. At the risk of sounding like a broken record – scratched compact disc, if you like – a flood is coming. The tide of evil in our nation will be stemmed; a flood of righteousness will take its place. The question is, are you prepared for the flood?
The Lord Jesus, always right on the mark, had this description of the wise man, the one who is ready for the flood: “He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6: 48).
And you ask, what is the rock? How do I build on the rock? The rock is truth; it is righteousness; it is playing by the rules, not manipulating it. The bible describes the man who will stand “when the come comes to become”, as the late Ozumba Mbadiwe would have put it: “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil”
(Isaiah 33:15). The actors in this national tragic-comedy must check if they fit.
No I do not judge Obasanjo or Yar’Adua. Who am I to judge another’s servant! But the prophet Isaiah said in a not-so-dissimilar context: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). Perhaps Kingdom Perspective is echoing that voice.
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