“Unknown to many, including this writer, the earlier defeat of the Senate Leader Teslim Folami’s motion for an extension of sitting beyond 6pm was to set the tone for one of those subtle divine interventions. Think about it, had the sitting been extended, Bello and his supporters would have had more time to try the patience and civility of the passionate nominee, who was visibly beginning to lose composure. With no choice than to end sitting within minutes, presiding officer, David Mark was able to accommodate only a few safe rebuttals before asking her to take a bow. Yet even this writer condemned the senators as unserious for refusing to sit beyond 6pm! Saved by the bell, you might say, but I see God’s fingerprints all over it. Akunyili’s ministerial prospect was all but dead, but it came alive again.”
You may or not see or see or feel it, but I do. And I am not just talking about resurrection at the personal level, which, for me is incredibly real and is manifesting in ways that even the blind would see - eventually. I am talking about resurrection power in and around us, sending powerful signals of the incontrovertible, if often disputed by the so-called intellectual, presence of the divine in the affairs of nations, including our own.
I’ll give a few seemingly insignificant examples from the just concluded screening of ministerial nominees who, by the time you read this, would have become Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
There were many near death situations which were reversed. Professor Dora Akunyili didn’t make the first list, in spite of the popularity she enjoys as a result of the uncommon courage she exhibited in the process that led us to the current dispensation. And when upon getting on the list she appeared at the Senate, there was that unfortunate encounter between her and Senator Kanti Bello, one that I have characterized at a different forum as between the “beauty and the beast.” Unknown to many, including this writer, the earlier defeat of the Senate Leader Teslim Folami’s motion for an extension of sitting beyond 6pm was to set the tone for one of those subtle divine interventions. Think about it, had the sitting been extended, Bello and his supporters would have had more time to try the patience and civility of the passionate nominee, who was visibly beginning to lose composure. With no choice than to end sitting within minutes, presiding officer, David Mark was able to accommodate only a few safe rebuttals before asking her to take a bow. Yet even this writer condemned the senators as unserious for refusing to sit beyond 6pm! Saved by the bell, you might say, but I see God’s fingerprints all over it. Akunyili’s ministerial prospect was all but dead, but it came alive again.
It you followed the exercise closely; you would also know the cases of Dr Shamsudeen Usman and the Taraba state nominee, Umaru Nuhu. As of Wednesday morning, there ministerial ambitions were virtually gone, according to media reports. Their nomination was said to have been withdrawn by the Acting President. But of course they were screened and confirmed the same day. And so, by the time you read they would have taken their place in the Executive Council of the Federation.
The case of Sanusi Daggash was even more dramatic. He had served as Yar’Adua’s National Planning Minister during the first term. He was dropped in circumstances that many thought was akin to betrayal. That was because in his zeal to serve the Executive Branch, he was said to have taken on his erstwhile colleagues at the National Assembly in a manner they consider as betrayal. He was subsequently sacked. Newspaper reports had it that it brought tears to his eyes!
But on Tuesday, all was forgiven. His long night in the cold ended. Given an opportunity to speak on the floor of the Senate, he admitted to erring, apologized to his colleagues and expressed joy and excitement at being asked to merely say a few words, take a bow and leave. In other words, he was accorded his privileges as an ex-Senator, against all expectations.
Then he said something, the import of which one hopes was not lost on too many of us. Saying that he was looking forward to being given a second opportunity to prove himself, he continued: “This is history in the making. In one government, the same government, I was asked to bow out, in the same government I was asked to come in; clearly for anybody, in a lifetime, this is a record, from 1960 to date.”
In other words, Daggash’s return to the same government that sacked him was unprecedented. And had anyone told him at the time he was sacked that he would return, it would have sounded like consolatory nonsense. But there it was, Daggash’s ministerial dream was resurrected, even as his erstwhile principal lay incommunicado somewhere in the vicinity. He might have merely seen as a record, but the discerning knows that it goes beyond that.
Is this about Easter then? Yes and No. Yes, because the annual commemoration of the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the most profound evidence of the capability and willingness to restore, even in the seemingly most irreversible circumstance. No, because, Christianity is nothing, if not a call to live the resurrected life everyday. It also a call to faith in God that no matter how long gone you think your dream is, if you’ll give it to Him, He is able and willing to breath new life into it.
Trust me, dear reader, I should know! I have so many dry bones around me – seemingly dodo-dead, irredeemably so. I’ve held on to them year after year awaiting the breath of life until it seemed it will never happen. But I see a stirring all around me. I see new life springing where there had been nothing but lifelessness; I feel suppleness in place of the rigor mortis of death. I urge you to look closely too and you’ll find God is set to restore on an unprecedentedly scale – if you’ve been trusting in Him.
I sense the same thing in the political life of our nation. Yes, I did say there was a flood on the way and it’s already on, even if it’s early days yet. But the aftermath of the flood is a new breath of life for those who will survive it. And that’s you – if you don’t give up or give in.
Here is my wish for a Happy Easter to everyone. May resurrection power forever be real to you and all yours, in the redeeming name of Jesus.
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