And so Professor Adenike Grange, erstwhile Minister of Health of the federal Republic has appeared in court, along with several others including her former Minister of State colleague and the Permanent Secretary, also, a professor. As I write this, she is in custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. By the time you read it, however, it is hoped that she would have been out on bail for two days. What a difference a few months made in the life of this world-renowned paediatrician! What a sad twist of fate!!
As the Ministry of Health Eleven were being arraigned, Representative Ndudi Elumelu and his colleagues on the House Committee on Power and Steal, sorry Steel were criss-crossing the country visiting the sites of multi-million dollar power projects signed, sealed but undelivered by the Obasanjo regime. I understand that in some cases the ice-cool Committee chairman needed radars to locate the sites and at some sites telescopes to see the work done! It would have been comical were the effect of these shenanigans not sometimes tragic. And I know you know what I mean.
All of which reminds me of what Dr Christopher Kolade told the men at the Real Men Luncheon of Christian Men’s Network Nigeria in January. He has posited that although, everybody falls victim of corruption, it is the lowly, the poor, those who cannot help themselves who suffer the consequences most. The current power sector investigations illustrate this truth very graphically. So graphically that it hurts the eyes.
It therefore cannot be overemphasised that the battle against corruption is indeed the battle of our lives. And like Dr Kolade said, on that occasion, the true Christian soldier, which is what all Christians are supposed to be, must fight against corruption because it hurts the people Jesus came to save. That much was clear from his mission statement in the bible where he said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised…” (Luke 4:18-19).
Incidentally, Dr Kolade has been doing much more than preaching about fighting corruption; he has been working with a team of committed people on how to nip it in the bud. He has been working through his ministry, Managing Business For Christ, established to bring business people and business practices to Jesus.
Come to think about it, if all the Christian business persons involved in the power sector contracts had business practices influenced by the teachings of the Lord Jesus, would the Elumelu’s committee have found the sordid things they are uncovering?
Permit me to give you a glimpse into what Dr Kolade has been telling the people, who gather every first Saturday of the month, at Golden Gate Restaurant, Kingsway Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria to rub minds with him.
At the February edition of the meeting styled, Breakfast with the Lord, the former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom said, success in all endeavours must start with a decision about whose agent you want to be and therefore in whose power you’ll succeed in that venture – Christ’s or yourself.
He reminded his audience that in Numbers chapters 13 & 14, when the children of Israel were confronted with that kind of decision on their way to the Promised Land, they had to choose between a majority report which saw them as going in their own strength, and a minority report which boldly declared, we can make it, if the Lord be pleased with us.
Children of God, including members of MBFC, he said, face the same choices today. “Like the majority who said let’s go back to Egypt where, although we were slaves under hard labour, we had all that we wanted, it is tempting to focus on having the basic things of life irrespective of what it does to our self-worth. It is easy to lapse into all of that in the business world. It is easy to disgrace, scandalize the name of Jesus to clear your goods at the port. It is easy to excuse yourself by saying why doesn’t Jesus change the heart of this man hindering me from clearing my goods? When we get home, we are satisfied that we have put food on the table but, in the process we have been unprofitable servants of the God we claim to serve.”
Providing a pointer to the direction the Christian business person must follow Dr Kolade said we must never forget that “God brought us here; He has an agenda, the programme belongs to Him; you don’t know when he is going to take you out. So, it seems reasonable to ask Him, what am I supposed to be doing today? Some of us are saying, ‘I’ll get into business with you, Jesus, when I have satisfied myself, when I have it all’, rather like the man in Luke 12: 16-20; the fool who prospered. Yet every plan we make is in the hope that the plan will materialise and that we would be here to see it materialise. So, it all depends on Him, you see.”
He then asked rhetorically, what then is the way forward for the Christian in business and the professions? His answer: “we must adopt the Caleb Report which says we can do it, ‘if the Lord be pleased with us’. So everything we do, we must do to please God; we must do as agents of the Lord Jesus.”
At the March meeting Dr Kolade posited that those who wish to have good success in business must adhere strictly to a set of rules. The rules follow the pattern set by the Lord Jesus Himself in the book of Luke chapter 10.
He pointed out that even as Jesus sent out the 70 disciples because “the harvest is truly great”, it’s the same way that Christian businesses and business practices are being sent to the world to prosper and influence. Therefore the rules are the same.
Dr Kolade said, “Jesus sent them out as ‘lambs among wolves’. So are you. He told them and he is saying to us today: you won’t find it easy, those I am sending you to will make you uncomfortable, they will try to devour you. They will attack you where you are most sensitive, your moral courage. Yet He says go and don’t take anything with you. It’s going to be dangerous, but go, only in my strength, in my wisdom. As long as I am with you, you will overcome. In spite of everything, go out there and do the assignment; do business as I have directed you. The Lord Jesus said to them and He is saying to you, if they reject you, move on. But don’t leave without a word for them; that they are in a bad way for rejecting you and whom you represent.”
Continuing, Dr Kolade drew attention to what happened when the disciples returned. They were very successful and were naturally excited at their success. Of course Jesus was proud of them, but He cautioned them: “…rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
Why did Jesus have to caution them? Dr Kolade explained: “they went out, did as they were told and came back to report joyfully. If you are faithful, if you do as he said you should, your success is sure. But please don’t rejoice for the wrong reasons. Your joy should be, not in the result, your joy should be that you are approved of the Lord. If you speak and God does not touch the heart of the hearers, nothing can happen. So, you cannot take any credit. All you have been is a good instrument in the hand of God. You are part of a mysterious adventure. The way things happen, the way things change is mysterious; you don’t know how. That’s because it was done of Christ. Don’t allow yourself to be deluded that your skill does the work. God uses your skill for His own purposes. When you go out, never forget you are only His instrument. He’ll speak through you, if you’ll let Him.”
Dr Kolade concluded: “Jesus is saying to all of us, go out and do it my way; be my agent and I will get things done wherever I send you. Remember Paul plants the seed, Apollos waters, but neither of them can bring the increase – only God does.”
For the good of our land, more people must hear this message; please spread the word and attend the next MBFC meeting on Saturday May 3, 2008.
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