When Deacon Gamaliel Onosode told me, minutes after he arrived at the Ikeja GRA venue of this meeting, “I am always teaching”, I should have taken the hint. I didn’t. So, I failed to prepare myself for what was about to happen. He had arrived two minutes before the scheduled time of noon and met the organisers still scampering around to put things in place. He sat patiently and prayerfully for what must have seemed like an eternity, for the programme to begin and took his place behind the podium. Then he began to teach…
Date was Saturday, April 26 and the meeting was The Real Men Luncheon of Christian Men’s Network Nigeria, which styles itself as “a ministry to men by men proclaiming the eternal truth that ‘manhood and Christlikeness are synonymous.’” It was the third in a quarterly series that had featured two other great Nigerians, Elder Felix Ohiwerei and Dr Christopher Kolade. Onosode had been requested to speak on the theme, “The Real Man.”
And so Onosode took the podium and began to teach. Not that I am a stranger to teachers and teachings. Far from it! The late founder of Christian Men’s Network, Dr Edwin Louis Cole used to describe himself as “teacher of men in how to be men,” and my senior pastor, Dr Chris Tunde Joda, who is also president of CMN Nigeria is, nothing, if not, a great teacher of the word of faith. But somehow, this corporate icon, this highly cultivated man took us all aback by the teaching loaded, first, in his preliminary observations and then in his presentation.
He began, innocuously enough, by thanking “one of the men who spoke earlier.” He was a gentleman, he noted, who remembered to apologise that the programme was starting late. Then he delivered what you might call the coup de grace in these words: Decent as it is to apologise for starting late, it is better never to start late. Time is a non-renewable resource. Real men must respect the movement of the sun.” He suggested that the organisers might consider stating the time of future events in terms like ’12 noon for 12:30pm’ to indicate that gates will open at noon, but the event won’t start until thirty minutes later.
Lesson Number One over, Onosode went on to address aspects of his biography mentioned by the secretary of the Ikeja chapter of CMN Nigeria, Dennis Onwuegbu who, in inviting him to the high table, recalled that he was one-time Presidential Adviser on Budget and a former presidential candidate.
He placed on record that he served as President Shehu Shagari’s adviser for only 75 days. This was during the president’s second term which began in October, but was terminated in December 1983, by the military in a coup d’tat.
On his attempt to run for office as President under the auspices of the All Peoples Party (APP) which later became All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), he recalled that his involvement in party politics at the time was received in three ways. There were those like Dennis who, by his own admission, shouted ‘hallelujah, a Daniel has come to justice.’ A second group saw him as ‘a fallen angel’ for daring to go into the dirty arena of politics. There was also the ‘wait and see’ group. So there were three groups: the hallelujah group; the fallen angel group and the agnostic group. Without delivering a judgement on which group was right, he declared his conviction that politics has an over-arcing influence on other areas of life wondering if it should be abandoned for the so-called dirty ones. He however recalled a number of incidents soon after that attempt failed at the party level. First, he attended a Christian gathering at which he had elected to seat somewhere in the audience.. But he was soon recognised, first relocated somewhere upfront and later relocated again and asked to lead one of the prayers. So much for ‘a fallen angel’ who had ‘tasted the forbidden fruit of politics,’ you’ll say. He also recalled that a prominent Church leader also soon publicly declared that he was in error in discouraging Christians from participating in politics.
Space constrains me from continuing on the many nuggets contained in even the preliminary observations of this man of God, so let’s go into the main message itself.
Onosode, who said he preached his first sermon in Ogbomosho, Oyo state, Nigeria in 1953 and had been a deacon for 42 years took his first bible text from chapter three of the book of Daniel (verses 12-30). He recalled how the three Hebrew boys, Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego took a firm stand against the evil of idolatory, even at the risk of burning in the burning fiery furnace of King Nebuchadnezzar.
He drew particular attention to verses 15-18 which reads in the King James Version like this: “Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
Onosode noted that the position taken by these young Hebrews was that there were no conditions under which they would bow to anyone but God. In other words, there was no compromise. This was the same courage and non-compromise Apostles Peter and John demonstrated early in their ministry. They had performed the miracle of healing the lame man at Gate Beautiful. For their success, they got a night behind bars and a trial before a council of Jewish elders. But their judges found it expedient to free them and perhaps as a compromise, delivered a kind of ‘go and sin no more’ verdict. The apostles thought differently and said so.
The bible passage quoted by Deacon Onosode (Acts 4:18-20), records it like this: “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
He also recalled the courage of Daniel, the compatriot, friend and peer of the three Hebrew boys, who had to keep the company of lions for a night, because he wouldn’t fail to worship his God even for one day, nor worship Him in secret to please anyone
(See Daniel 6:10-28).
Onosode listed a number of other qualities the real man must possess. He must live a life of love. He must, like Paul, “take pleasure” in weakness because, “what you may be tempted to see as weakness gives God the opportunity to manifest his strength.” The real man must not allow threats of suffering or hardship to bend him because as Peter said, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps (1 Peter 2:21). Therefore, the real man will not succumb to the threats to his pocket or his health.
Ye are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, he reminded his listeners quoting from Matthew 5: 13-14. and admonished : when the light becomes a mere mirror there is a problem. God wants us to be special wherever we are. We should do nothing to make us less. We must at all times live up to our status as light and salt. Therefore, the commandment in Exodus 23:2 that “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil…” must be taken to heart. So is the injunction to “fret not…” repeated again and again in Psalm 37.
Possibly the climax of Deacon Onosode’s ministration came during the interactive session. In answer to a question about how to resist corruption, he said the truth of Scripture that ”When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7) plays out every time he came face-to-face with the enemy. He cited many personal experiences, how God gave him the words to speak and the opponent is disarmed. My conclusion here is this: whatever else he has, the real man needs revelation too.
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