GADAFFHI: MESSAGE IN THE “MADNESS”

“…However, not all men of God disagree totally with Gadaffhi. The immediate past National Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Joseph Ojo is one. Ojo, a close associate of the late faith movement icon, Archbishop Benson Idahosa told the Champion newspaper: ‘I agree with him. Nigeria should be split into six different nations. Gadaffhi said the country should be divided into two because of his religious sentiments but the reality is that this nation should split into six different nations...Any church leader who is saying that the country should not split is speaking through his nose; such a person is saying that because of fear of arrest. The Amalgamation has not helped us at all. In fact it has not helped anybody.’”

"Gadfly" Muammar Gadaffhi recently did what he enjoys most - raise some dust by weighing in on international issues in his own peculiar way. The controversial Libyan leader who doesn’t seem in hurry to hand over power to anyone, got on Nigeria’s case at a meeting with African students and, the dust he raised has taking on something of the significance of a weather event.

According to a widely quoted Libyan State News Agency (Jana) report, he recommended the division of Africa’s most populous, oil-rich nation into two countries, a Muslim North and Christian South. The objective: to “stop the bloodshed and burning of places of worship" as a result of recurring incidences of violent conflict between Christians and Muslims.

Rationalising his recommendation, Gadaffhi characterised the incessant violence in Jos, which in recent times has claimed tens of thousands of lives, as a "deep conflict of religious nature." This in his view resulted from the federal structure of the country, "which was made and imposed by the British in spite of the people's resistance to it." He cited the example of India and Pakistan, where according to him, a similar "historic, radical solution" applied, and it saved the lives of "millions of Hindus and Muslims".

Predictably, reactions came fast and furious with Senate President David Mark leading the attack. In a most unstatesman-like manner, he dismissed the Libyan President as a mad man who should not be taken seriously. Reacting to a suggestion from Senator Ayim Ude that the Senate should issue a warning to Gadaffhi for making inflammatory comment about Nigeria said, Senator Mark said “Why do you want to give a mad man that level of publicity. He said the same thing about Switzerland, he said the same thing about England and it did not work. In my own opinion, I do not think he needs that publicity at all."

Many other legislators towed similar lines, all positing that Gadaffhi was “mentally unstable,” “a man…really out of his senses" and “a reckless leader”, whose “madness is incurable” and whose statement was “condemnable”, amounting to “nonsense” and should therefore “be disregarded."

Some prominent men of God also joined the attack. Most Reverend Peter Akinola, then out-going Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) described Ghadaffi’s statement as irrational, arguing, “how can you be calling for the split of Nigeria into separate Christian and Muslims countries when you have Christians who are indigenes of the north and Muslims who are indigenes of the South and vice versa within the country?”

Most Rev. J. O. Akinfenwa, South-West Chairman of the Christian Association Nigeria said we don’t need A Gadaffhi to tell us what to do. His words, according to newspaper reports: “We don’t need anyone from outside to tell us that. We find its utterances unacceptable. Not from somebody like Gadaffhi, who has no good record; who we always known to be an international rogue, a trouble maker and religious fanatics.” He went on to warn that the Libyan leader’s comment should not be taken with “kid-gloves”, noting that “for him to have come out to say that, “maybe there are lot of things on ground which we don’t know. He has been in the vanguard of religious jihad for long, causing religious problems all over the world. Our security agencies should not take it low.”

Another prominent leader, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, who presides over Methodist Church Nigeria, issued a statement describing Gadaffhi’s comments as “not only an affront on the people of Nigeria but an insult and a worthless attempt to rubbish the sweat and blood of the founding fathers of this great Nation who did not only envision a one and indivisible nation state but did everything to guarantee the oneness of the entity called Nigeria as they eschewed tribalism and never politicized religion.”

However, not all men of God disagree totally with Gadaffhi. The immediate past National Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Joseph Ojo is one. Ojo, a close associate of the late faith movement icon, Archbishop Benson Idahosa told the Champion newspaper: “I agree with him. Nigeria should be split into six different nations. Gadaffhi said the country should be divided into two because of his religious sentiments but the reality is that this nation should split into six different nations...Any church leader who is saying that the country should not split is speaking through his nose; such a person is saying that because of fear of arrest. The Amalgamation has not helped us at all. In fact it has not helped anybody”.

There are several others, but easily the most significant is the about-face by Archbishop Akinola who at a media meet to marking the end of his tenure as Head of the Anglican Church declared: “He said, initially I dismissed him, thinking he was only being true-to-type, because he is the kind of person who could say such thing. After a week of pondering over the whole thing, I said to myself, may be the man should not just be dismissed. Perhaps what he has said is divine in the sense that it would serve as a wake up call to Nigerian stakeholders to find ways of finding lasting solutions to the issues at stake”.

Akinola said what Gadaffhi meant was that the time has come for Nigeria to sit and discuss her continued existence as one country under one God wondering, “where are the murderers and arsonists that caused mayhem in all the crises we have been having in this country. We need to come together and discuss the terms of our staying together if we want to be honest with ourselves…I support one Nigeria, but we have to discuss our continued existence as a nation. If Nigeria should burn, nobody will be spared. The time is ripe and due for discussion to settle Nigeria’s unity, that is what Gadaffhi’s statement portends. If Hausa-Fulani can do their business in the South unmolested, Kola and Ugochukwu should be able to do their businesses in Kaduna or Jos unmolested, and if molested, then government and the police have a duty to fish out the perpetrators and deal with them decisively.”

My take is this: like Akinola, I believe there’s a message in this “madness”. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves about the sanctity of the Nigerian union. If tyranny and injustice begot secession, even in Israel, it can anywhere (see 2Chronicles 10). Is any one listening?

HERE COMES THE FLOOD

We saw that in the experience of Noah’s time. The flood of God came; the tide turned. Noah and his family, who most certainly were the butt of many cruel jokes; who were fit only for the oddities page and never for the celebrity pages of newspapers, became God’s celebrities; they became God’s partner in the onerous task of rebuilding the world. So, of course, will it be for the minority presently tediously swimming against the powerful current of evil in the land. They would be God’s partners in rebuilding our land. Everything God does follows a pattern and is according a Kingdom principle. Nigeria’s case will not be different. The evil that’s been currently touted as our culture; the perfidy that’s been projected as a foundation upon which we can “move the nation forward”; the on-going attempt to employ a reasonably good builder to build on quicksand will fail.

Monday, November 23, 2009 would just have been another day on the calendar, but for one momentous event. The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua fell critically ill and had to be hurriedly flown to hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thus began a series of events which has taken eminent Nigerians including some clergymen to the streets in protest and last Tuesday led a group of youths to attempt to force their way into the National Assembly. An acting president is in place feeling his way through the exercise of executive power over the largest population of black people in the world. The power equation is fast changing.

As I reflected on the situation, I was reminded of a warning I was led to issue on this page on June 3, 2007. I shall quote it extensively, not for want of anything else to write, but because I believe, we are virtually there. So, here goes:

“You see, when you take a close look at the Nigerian condition brought sharply into focus by the events before, during and since the last elections, one cannot but remember one of the sayings of the Lord Jesus himself in the book of Matthew. He said: “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe (Noah) entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:38-39).

“Of course every one who has some acquaintance with the Bible knows that the Lord was referring to the pre-flood days recorded in Genesis chapter 6. For ease of reference however, let’s recall the story. Evil was bestriding the world, as I enjoy putting it, colossus-style. So bad was the situation that God was broken-hearted. The Bible says: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart (Genesis 6:5-6).

“Many of course were either oblivious of the situation; or too were too wrapped up in their desires or enjoying the fruits of their perfidy so much that nothing else mattered. They were having fun, holding banquets to celebrate ill-gotten wealth or fraudulently acquired power to notice that the drama was approaching a not-so-pleasant denouement. To borrow the contemporary word-paint of my dear pastor who inspired this piece, they were enjoying having their pictures, those of their many women and their palatial mansions on the pages of the magazines. They were the celebrities; the rave of the moment. They could afford to laugh to scorn, those who do not belong; call them names; even make them feel foolish, stupid etc. Noah was therefore a fool, or worse; he needed a shrink.

“The flood of evil was on, threatening to cover every inch of space and drown both the willing and the unwary. But God is never helpless. He would not let evil ride roughshod on his earth forever. So he decided to do something about it. He identified his uncontaminated remnant; the uncorrupted seed from which a new plantation can be cultivated. He found Noah. He decided to preserve him and wipe out the rest. The bible account in Genesis 6:7-8 states it like this: “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

“Please let’s note the last part of verse 8 above. It says Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I particularly love the Message Bible translation of this verse: “But Noah was different. GOD liked what he saw in Noah.” Are you different? Is God likely to like what he’s seeing in you? The Life Application Bible renders that same verse this way: ‘Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.” Are you a pleasure to the Lord? Or are you simply being a pleasure to that strange trinity that many currently worship – me, myself and I?

“This question is important because, every flood of evil is unfailingly followed by the cleansing flood of God. The current flood of evil in our nation manifesting in the unabashed celebration of fraud, illegality, abuse of power and sundry vulgarities will inexorably be followed by the flood of God. And our nation will be the better for it,

“We saw that in the experience of Noah’s time. The flood of God came; the tide turned. Noah and his family, who most certainly were the butt of many cruel jokes; who were fit only for the oddities page and never for the celebrity pages of newspapers, became God’s celebrities; they became God’s partner in the onerous task of rebuilding the world. So, of course, will it be for the minority presently tediously swimming against the powerful current of evil in the land. They would be God’s partners in rebuilding our land.

“Everything God does follows a pattern and is according a Kingdom principle. Nigeria’s case will not be different. The evil that’s been currently touted as our culture; the perfidy that’s been projected as a foundation upon which we can “move the nation forward”; the on-going attempt to employ a reasonably good builder to build on quicksand will fail.

“Mercifully we are in the dispensation of grace and the Noahic covenant symbolized by the occasional occurrences of the rainbow assures that the world would never again be wiped out by floods of water. But the floods of righteousness will yet come and it will sweep away all inequities, all injustices and all violence done to the psyche of God’s people. And God help the perpetrators and beneficiaries of these things. It is then and only then that Nigeria shall take her place in the end-time plans of God. Beware the flood to come.”

Dear compatriots, a flood is imminent.

NEITHER THE LONGEST NOR THE GREATEST

You are familiar with stories of the pauper who became prosperous; the slave who became the sovereign; the prisoner who became president. You probably have experienced it episodically too. And in any case, if you are a Nigerian or are familiar with the Nigerian story, you certainly know the Obasanjo story. Taken off Abacha’s death row, by divine providence, he soon found himself in the presidency of Africa’s oil-rich most populous country. And after eight years of playing the messiah, he hand-picked a successor in the person of Umar Musa Yar’Adua and brazenly imposed him on the country. Ironically, that president is suffering a reverse fate – as the president who became a prisoner, imprisoned by his own wife and friends! How ironic.

The great pity is that Yar’Adua had the opportunity to write his name in gold, but he blew it. As I reflected on events in our land since November 2009, I couldn’t but wish he had read and taken seriously our advice in this column in the early years of his presidency. I couldn’t but wish he had reached deep down within him and found the courage to break with the norm and refuse to fall in love with power.

In a piece titled, “THINK ON THESE THINGS: An Open Letter to President Yar’adua”, published on June 17, 2007, one of many dealing with the 2007 elections and their aftermath, we wrote as follows:

“The matter at hand, Mr President, is how to exercise the highly disputed mandate that you have in your custody. You see sir; the history of our nation has shown that we have so far built our political house on the quicksand of electoral fraud and manipulations and watered it with the blood of very many innocent citizens. In 1999, it was tolerated out of the expediency of getting the military off our backs. In 2003, the extent of the fraud was so benumbing that only a few people with doubtful democratic credentials saw the need for protest. Somebody characterized what happened in 2003 as the plight of a woman who having found herself in a position where rape had become inevitable wisely decided to derive whatever fun she could from it! 2007 therefore became more brazen; more dastardly; more violent…

“Now, an edifice, any edifice built on a weak foundation cannot stand. And there is no weaker foundation to build upon than that of evil! No matter how hard we try, it is bound to unravel someday. As one wise man has said, no matter how long you have travelled, no matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back…

“Now, to the vexed issue of the real way forward. Some have suggested an Interim National Government. This has been shot down by those who equate it with military president Ibrahim Babangida’s disingenuously constructed booby trap. According to those who argue this way, if it goes by the same name, it must have the same content and end up the same way! Many of this same people say that the ING has no place in our constitution. How simplistic! In a particularly disappointing intervention, a respected constitutional law teacher and columnist, writing in a respected newspaper on two different occasions hid his personal preferences under so much intellectual verbiage and ended up speaking from both sides of the mouth. ING, goes his argument cannot hold because it is unknown to our constitution which is our grundnorm. Then faced with examining whether Nigeria, as was being run, could be described as a constitutional democracy, he deadpanned: not quite! Now this later is the truth, the unemotional truth that must guide our search for solution to the existing situation.
“A time like this calls for men, leaders with vision, able to see beyond self and own-group interests. The Lord Jesus Christ, who for us Christians, is the model (or ought to be) is the best known example of true leadership. He gave up himself for the good of mankind. In the men’s ministry in which I am deeply involved, it is said that “manhood and Christ-likeness are synonymous”. And believe me it is true. You have to resort to self sacrifice in this matter.

“One of the Lord’s counsels, which I consider appropriate, in this case reads: “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain” (Matthew 5:41). To appreciate the import of this advice, one needs to understand that at the time Jesus was speaking, it was customary for soldiers of the Roman colonial army to randomly pick a Jew on his way to work or wherever and order him to carry his bag for the next mile. It was mandatory.

“Mr President, you may not agree with me, but everything you have announced as your plans - an inclusive government, electoral reforms and even your promise of servant-leadership, which the method of your election negates conceptually - all belong in the first compulsory mile. They are the minimum made inevitable by the manner of your arrival in the saddle. You must now take the voluntary next mile.

“You must now voluntarily go out of your way to vigorously work for the restructuring of this blighted federation. Our current constitution is faulty; it is a rickety foundation built upon evil and sustained by evil and can lead us nowhere. You must find it in yourself to engage with civil society, the opposition and conscientious elements in the international community to put something more concrete, more enduring in place. You must do it quickly; within the shortest possible time, possibly within 18 months. We can then hold fresh elections. If the new arrangement allows you to run and you wish to, I am sure your people will give you a clean mandate. On the other hand, if the new arrangement excludes you or you decide not to run, you would not have been the longest serving President in Nigeria, but you would be her greatest. Think on these things, Mr President.”

Pity, Yar’Adua is on his was to being neither.

THAT CHRISTIAN CONSULTATIVE FORUM COMMUNIQUE (3)

“…I also said that this was the kind of strategic intervention that the church should be known for. But I doubted that there would be any meaningful involvement of the church in the immediate - in these words: “I may yet be proven wrong, but if past record is anything to go by, none will come. And if it did, it would most probably the usual platitude. I sure would be joyful, were I to prove wrong, by the time you read this.” Happily, I was wrong. There indeed was a reaction from the church. No, it wasn’t from any of the umbrella bodies, to my knowledge. The Christian Association of Nigeria is still silent; the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria was, as I sign off on this piece one week after this new episode of “Till Death Do Us Part” opened, yet to find its voice. Perhaps the CCFN is still consulting. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria however, spoke up and directly too!”

As I noted last time, the US government’s statement on Wednesday February 24, the very day that President Yar’Adua was believed to have been smuggled into Nigeria like a thief in the night, was a kind of clincher. It was a timely strategic intervention that, analysts believe, forced the power hungry cabal around the president to an immediate volte-face, at least in the short-term. It was one intervention that immediately internationalised the crisis, reinforced local resistance, and isolated fence-sitters both locally and internationally; forcing many to crawl out of hiding and take sides with the truth.

I also said that this was the kind of strategic intervention that the church should be known for. But I doubted that there would be any meaningful involvement of the church in the immediate - in these words: “I may yet be proven wrong, but if past record is anything to go by, none will come. And if it did, it would most probably the usual platitude. I sure would be joyful, were I to prove wrong, by the time you read this.” Happily, I was wrong. There indeed was a reaction from the church. No, it wasn’t from any of the umbrella bodies, to my knowledge. The Christian Association of Nigeria is still silent; the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria was, as I sign off on this piece one week after this new episode of “Till Death Do Us Part” opened, yet to find its voice. Perhaps the CCFN is still consulting. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria however, spoke up and directly too!

Here’s how one of the newspapers reported their intervention: “…The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) …at the end of their plenary conference in Abuja called on the Presidency and the National Assembly to restore the country to the path of constitutional leadership and stop assaulting the psyche of Nigerians. The Catholic clergies in a communiqué signed by the President Rev Felix Alaba-Job, Secretary, Rev. Adewale Martins and read by the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rev Calistus Onaga said, ‘for over three months, we have been faced with a crisis of leadership that is rooted in unwillingness to be truthful in handling issues of governance.

"News report says President Umaru Yar'Adua is back in the country, we thank God and we pray for his continued recovery. But in the meantime, the nation should be promptly restored to the path of stability and progress under a clear constitutional leadership. We pray for the Acting President and Commander-in-Chief, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who now oversees the affairs of our nation’. The group also deplored the manner in which the President was taken back with his whereabouts shrouded in secrecy. Part of the communiqué read as follow: ‘Government and its functionaries should not be seen as working very hard to show that they cannot be trusted; we deplore the contempt with which Nigerians have been repeatedly denied knowledge of his whereabouts and the true state of his health. The immorality of dishonesty undermines the authority of government; they also violate the rights of the citizens to good governance.’…"

Bless these bishops for their forthrightness. Bless them for saying it like it really is. How I wish that this was coming from an umbrella body for ALL CHRISTIANS! In that case those in secular authority would have understood that they were hearing the voices of at least half the population of Nigeria, and then we would have seen if they won’t shudder at the repercussions of ignoring this weighty voice.

This obviously leads to the core challenges we face in the Church’s journey to national relevance; in the journey to, as one of the clauses in the CCFN communiqué put it, “lead in the transformation of our nation…” On this score, the CCFN communiqué was quite hard on the Church, rightfully so. It emphasised in virtually every clause the need for the Church to put its house in order, if it’s going to be able lead.

It says, for instance, that the Church needs a transformation of its own if it is going to lead in transforming the nation, stating that “the Church cannot be transformed if it has not been working to develop its own leaders and champions amongst its members. The church must therefore instil discipline amongst its members, sanction erring members and develop new leaders in the way of the Lord… restore the right values, re-establish high standards in corporate and public governance and social behaviour, and to adopt good discipline, and establish a reliable system for ensuring consistently good performance… its leaders must lead with integrity, honesty of purpose, and speak out forcefully against the ills of country’s leaders. The church must also teach and develop its members into leaders and must promote integrity and discipline, encourage austere living and generosity and discourage…materialism.”

Flowing from all of these is an acute awareness that the Church has to work on a number of things. Unity is key. As I stated in the serial, “A Wake-Up Call for Church Leaders”, the Church of Jesus Christ is one and indivisible. While unity is not necessarily unification and the unity of faith does not imply unity of doctrine, it is absolutely possible to unite around a set of minimum standards. And I think the communiqué came close when it reiterated “that the church is …a spiritual fellowship for Christians and its only agenda is that of God. And that it is, through this agenda, that our Christian leaders must be consistently courageous to teach all men (both leaders and followers) to observe all things that Christ has commanded.” And I daresay that, save for the controversial area of “discouraging prosperity,” which seems to have been wrongly equated with “discouraging materialism”, the communiqué can be developed into a kind of minimum standards that the Church ought to be willing and able to propagate and, where necessary, enforce in the conduct of its members, particularly in this context, those who go to public service flying the “Christian flag.”

As CCFN works towards an action plan, Kingdom Perspective wishes them God’s guidance and urge them to prayerfully consult widely, so that what will emerge will be widely acceptable without watering down God’s own standards. (CONCLUDED)