BEYOND “PROGRESSIVE” HYPOCRISY

“…It is that bit about Obasanjo “using” the EFCC that I find striking, because the commission, being referred to here, was led by none other than Nuhu Ribadu, now aspiring to run for the office of president of the Federal Republic under the flag of Action Congress. A few questions arise from this. If the leadership of the party believe that Ribadu was used then, are they sure that he is not being used now or that he cannot be used again, sometimes in the future? Does the fact that this man, by Akande’s admission, allowed a commission he headed be used to do his boss’ “dirty jobs” justify the high rating being ascribed to him in the character department? Ribadu is not on record, to my knowledge, as having admitted to, nor apologized for, that dent on his record at the EFCC; yet Akande says the dent is real and it didn’t serve the cause of democracy.”

Tuesday saw leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) gather for the party’s convention, at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in the ancient city of Benin, the Edo state capital.

On the agenda were amendments to the party’s constitution and election of officers to run its affairs for the next four years. Both were achieved without acrimony. In fact, save for the somber moments at the beginning when a minute’s silence was observed for each of late wife of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Clara, and elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, the atmosphere was convivial.

Thanks to live coverage on the networks of Africa Independent Television (AIT) and Television Continental (TVC), yours sincerely was able to observe the conduct of the convention. Beyond the carnival atmosphere and smooth as glass conduct of the affairs, however, one couldn’t but wonder at the depth of the democratic essence of the convention. Here are some of my observations:

Take the amendments to the party’s constitution. Convention Organising Committee chairman, Dr Chris Ngige was so eager to rush it through that he simply called the sponsors and supporters of all the motions and was going to put the question on the three amendments at one go! It took the intervention of the host governor, who could be heard in the background saying, “this is democracy,” to change his approach. He then dutifully brought all concerned with the motions back on stage to re-present the amendments proposed and put the question one after the other. All righteousness fulfilled! Yet, in the absence of any explanations on the implications of each proposed amendment, one cannot but wonder if the ‘ayes’, who had it in every case, really understood  what they were ‘having.’

And then, there is the election of officers for the party!  To put it in the words of a newspaper report, “National officers that will pilot the affairs of the party for the next four years were elected through affirmation.” In other words, the convention simply ratified that which had been done elsewhere. At its worst, elsewhere could have been in the sitting room of a party chieftain. At its best, which is what this writer would like to believe, it was all done by election at the zones. 1,008 votes were mentioned in the case of party chairman Akande. The implication of this best-case scenario is that the zoning formula being so roundly touted as a PDP affair, and condemned, is alive and well in ACN.  This is further confirmed by the fact that aspiring presidential candidates in the party are Northerners. So why condemn zoning?

This brings me to this very important pronouncement made by the out-going chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande (eventually reelected unopposed), which caught my attention. One of the newspapers subsequently reported it like this:

“National Chairman of the party, Chief Adebisi Akande, who traced its origin to the National Convention of December 2006 where the Action Congress was formally launched, blamed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for various obstacles erected on its way in the periods before, during and post 2007 elections. He said: "The former President used the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify candidates; he used the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to publish the names of our members allegedly for corrupt practices."

It is that bit about Obasanjo “using” the EFCC that I find striking, because the commission, being referred to here, was led by none other than Nuhu Ribadu, now aspiring to run for the office of president of the Federal Republic under the flag of Action Congress. A few questions arise from this. If the leadership of the party believe that Ribadu was used then, are they sure that he is not being used now or that he cannot be used again, sometimes in the future? Does the fact that this man, by Akande’s admission, allowed a commission he headed be used to do his boss’ “dirty jobs” justify the high rating being ascribed to him in the character department? Ribadu is not on record, to my knowledge, as having admitted to, nor apologized for that dent on his record at the EFCC; yet Akande says the dent is real and it didn’t serve the cause of democracy.

While on Ribadu, allow me to raise one issue that’s hardly ever touched; his Machiavellian disposition as evidenced by his Gestapo tactics and the use of blackmail to coerce some state legislators, for instance, to secure impeachment of one or two governors. If he could do it while the buck stops on someone else’s desk, what’s to stop him when that desk is his? And if he did it for the perceived good of society, what to stop him from doing it for whatsoever other interest catches his fancy, if and when he has the power? It might be in the interest of the ACN and the nation that Ribadu is seeking to rule to have him publicly admit his errors of commission and omission while at EFCC, before he is considered for higher responsibility.

Meanwhile, may I close this piece by repeating something I said in response to a recent Facebook note by Professor Pat Utomi. The progressives may want to consider the consensus option used by the widely vilified, but clearly more purposeful, Northern Leaders Political Forum. Draw up a set of criteria encompassing character, vision, charisma, experience, democratic temperament etc; have all would-be presidents who claim to be progressive subscribe to it, and put a panel together to select a candidate based on those criteria. A consensus candidate for change is required if 2011 is to be the year of change that most Nigerians want it to be.

Till we meet again in 2011, by God’s grace, please accept my wishes for a merry Christmas (belated though) and a year of excellence in every area of your lives, especially in your walk with God.

AN UNLIKELY LOVE AFFAIR AND OTHER STORIES

Margaret Izerbigie was a pretty young woman in her prime when they met. They had had a platonic friendship, one which had absolutely no chance of going anywhere, because they were as different from each other as chalk is from cheese. She was, in the words of a chronicler, “the daughter of a princess of juju, steeped in witchcraft and black magic”; he was an itinerant preacher. She had royal blood flowing in her veins; he had no claims to a comfortable childhood. Theirs was a most unlikely match, yet it happened!

One fateful day, Benson Andrew Idahosa, who having been fully persuaded that the dead could rise in the name of Jesus, and made raising the dead one of his life's works, arrived at the home of the Izerbigies. There was grief everywhere. One look at Margaret's face told him the story; something terrible had happened. On enquiry, Benson learnt that a young cousin of Margaret's had fallen ill and died. Sacrifices at the family's juju shrine had failed them! Benson asked for permission to pray for her, boldly declaring: “the God I serve can bring your baby back to life.” Now helpless, the family agreed. The young preacher emptied the room of all but his Christian companion, prayed for the child and suddenly, the little girl stirred back to life with a sneeze.

In the words of Rev Dr Elijah Akinwumi, of Missions Network Ministries International, Lagos, “Margaret was deeply moved by the event. Although previously sceptical, she could not deny the miracle working power of God. That night, on her own, Margaret asked Benson's God to forgive her sins and come into her life. Within a few months they were married and a partnership in the Gospel began.”

It is to that initially unlikely union consummated on June 4, 1969, between Benson, 35, and 26-year-old Margaret, that we owe the continuing story of Church of God Mission International Incorporated and the ascendancy of its current leader, Archbishop Margaret Benson-Idahosa. Now 66 and mother of seven children…this daughter of juju adherents was not just a faithful partner to her husband through 24 years of victorious ministry, she's been his effective successor over the past twelve years.

That story excerpted from, ‘Amazon in the Footsteps of a Giant’, is one of seven in the “Vanguards of the Faith” special section of the rebirth edition of KINGDOMPeople, currently in circulation. It sets out to celebrate those described as “icons of Christianity in Nigeria.” It’s a series everyone should read, not least of all because it will open our eyes to the depth of our Christian heritage and humble many of us who think our calling is more of God than those of others.

Take this other one titled, A Premier’s Pride:

“The year was 1962, and the result of the West African School Certificate Examination, as it then was, had just been released. It was a truly sub-continental affair and competition was therefore stiffer then than now. But that didn’t stop an 18 year-old boy from the so-called educationally disadvantaged part of Nigeria, the Northern Region, from winning all the laurels. It didn’t stop him from scoring the highest marks overall in the entire west coast of Africa and in the process, the highest in every subject he took.

“The nation must have been proud of him! But in the fierce, but relatively healthy, competitive environment of the days immediately after national independence, it was the North regional government that rose to celebrate little John. The premier of the region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto did not send him a letter of congratulations. He drove the 500-kilometer distance between “Kaduna, the seat of power to Aliade in the then Benue province, where this little gem was a student of Mount St. Michael Secondary School to personally congratulate him.

“As Adamu Adamu put it in a recent article, Boy John had “the world at his feet…with the Sardauna himself for a visiting patron-saint, little John could have become whatever he wanted to be in post-independence Northern Nigeria…” He could have asked for and received anything; from a choice of the best jobs to a scholarship to any corner of the world, but he chose neither. Instead, he chose the priesthood. In Adamu’s words, “…he turned his back on this material world just as he was on the verge of conquering it…and thereafter, little John dedicated all his physical strength and intellectual power to the cause of God”.

“That boy, as you might have guessed, is His Eminence, Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan the Archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese of the Catholic Church, former President of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Nigeria and until a July 2010, a single-term President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN…”

Nor was the story of Onaiyekan’s successor any less remarkable.

“Were the circumstances under which he was born the determining factor, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, would have been named Samuel, not Joseph. Like Samuel the prophet, his mother “asked him of the Lord.”

“The story goes like this. A young mother of one, a daughter, desperately wanted her next child to be a boy. So, she headed for a church in the city of Lagos, and like Hannah, placed her request before the Lord, and backed it up with a vow. As she related it to her son, many, many years later, she told God, “If you give me a male child, I will give him back to you. Just give me a male child”. A few months later, she got pregnant and at the fullness of time, her son came.

“But there was a problem. This child of covenant, healthy in every other way as he was, wouldn’t or couldn’t talk…Doctors couldn’t explain it; and so, there was no treatment. Then… soon after his fifth birthday, he opened up. He just began to talk normally like nothing ever happened. He didn’t learn to talk, or go through the mono-syllabic prattle stages of the growing child. Mrs Oritsejafor’s baby boy was whole and; ready to be given back to God, as she vowed. But, the young mother, in her joy, blissfully forgot her pledge, and simply set about mothering her beautiful bundle of joy.

“Familiar, isn’t it; that we make promises under pressure and then we forget – conveniently? But God is able to help us remember and to eventually pay our vows, somehow…That explains why in spite of a doting mother’s memory lapse, that son of promise is today…President, Christian Association of Nigeria…” Want more? Get the magazine.

KINGDOMPeople AND THE LORD’S LAST WISH

In many cultures, across the globe, famous last wishes of the departed are treated as sacred. They are implemented to the letter, even when they appear unusual.

Take the case of John Bryan Bowman. He was a prominent member of the Disciples of Christ, also known as The Christian Church. A lawyer who became a property manager and farmer, he also had the distinction of being recognised as a founder of Kentucky University in the United States. He also was involved in the organization of the College of the Bible, among others educational institutions.                  

When this Christian educator died at the not-so-ripe age of 67, his famous last wish was that dinner should be prepared every night after his death in case he came back to life.

History has it that Bowman’s wife and two daughters had predeceased him and he became convinced that when he finally joined them, his entire family would be reincarnated together. Motivated by this strange belief, he set up a trust worth $50,000 to pay servants to keep up the housework in his 21 room mansion. He also requested that a daily meal be prepared in case the family returned hungry. This will was honoured faithfully until funds ran dry in 1950 - 59 years later.

The Lord Jesus chose to cast his famous last wish(es) in prayer to his Father and our Father. John the apostle faithfully recorded them in chapter 17 of the book that carries his name. Now, of the items listed in this last testament of the founder of the Church that all true Christians claim to belong; unity was the only one he repeated again and again.

The relevant verses read: “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17: 11, 21-23, NIV)

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Flowing from these verses alone, it can be easily seen that unity is the heart of God. But if we honestly survey the Lord Jesus’ Church today, what we find is disunity writ large. Leaders are busy protecting their turf – committing adultery with the Lord’s bride, as one man of God famously put it. Unity is an urgent end-time task we all seem too self-satisfied, too wrapped up in personal and/or sectional agenda, or too conscious of our assumed doctrinal superiority to pay attention to.

Alcoholic Anonymous, I believe it is, that used to emphasise that doing the same thing, the same way and expecting a different result is insanity. Isn’t it time we changed the way we relate to one another within Christ’s body. To keep the church disunited, due to our pride, love of money, assumed superiority, historical differences and such avoidable things, is insanity. It is worse: it’s the closest you can get to apostasy.

It is in this connection that I joyfully announce the return to circulation of KINGDOMPeople, an inter-denominational magazine I have written quite a bit about here. It is back to take its place alongside other publications and ministries to work towards reversing the current almost sacrilegious state of affair. It is deliberately church-wide in coverage and will emphasise those things upon which we are agreed. It will not, ostrich-like, avoid areas of disagreement; rather it will serve as a forum for discussing such contentious issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect. It is hoped that we can through this, move away from keeping each other at arm’s length, to talking to one another, then begin to understand how we arrived at our various beliefs, practices and traditions, and at least begin to, at least, respect each other’ viewpoints.  That way we can at stop being among those the Bible say “sneer at anything they can’t understand” (Jude 1:12, MSG).

The magazine carries a Special Section: “Vanguards of the Faith,” on church leaders who have served in the Lord’s vineyard consistently for 25 years or more. The first in the series that we hope to run for a while to cover the entire Church features such “icons of Christianity in Nigeria” as Most Rev Peter Akinola, A Real Rock; Francis Cardinal Arinze, The Black Pope that Wasn’t and Archbishop Margaret Benson-Idahosa, Amazon in the Footsteps of a Giant. Also featuring are, Rev Dr Tunde Joda, Coach Extraordinaire; Most Rev Daniel Okoh, A Modern Day Timothy; Archbishop John Onaiyekan, A Premier’s Pride; and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, More Samuel than Joseph.

While it is true that all none of these church leaders requires any introduction, it is also true that each of them, in different ways, reflect the incredible depth of our national Christian heritage. Putting the series together has revealed how much ignorance there is about this important asset, which, properly harnessed, can help us on our way to unity. It is our hope that knowledge will remove some, if not all, the prejudices, arrogance and condescension with which parts of the body of Christ relate to other parts.

Another major assignment of KINGDOMPeople is to serve as an effective literature evangelism and discipleship weapon, partnering with as many like-minded persons, ministries and organisations, across the length and breadth of the Church, to win souls, refocus us all to accountability and deepen the Christian content of our lives, wherever it might please God to place us. That is why it is also styled as the general interest magazine with a KINGDOM MINDSET. Want to join hands with us in this important assignment? Join Gang Gaius. Details at www.kingdompeoplemag.com.

GONE FAR ON A WRONG ROAD? TURN BACK!

Dr Goodluck Jonathan

Dr Tunde Bakare

One wise man has famously said: “no matter how long you’ve gone on a wrong road, turn back.” As the clock ticks and the months thins down to easily the most destiny-altering elections this country has ever had, I get more and more convinced that Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan has no business in the presidential race for 2011.

In one of my earlier write-ups on the subject, I argued as follows: “I have said, and I know that most Nigerians agree, that one of Nigeria’s most critical challenges is the conduct free, fair and credible elections. This, we situate in the total lack of neutrality of those who have the constitutional duty of supervising this all-important pillar of democracy. Not even the military had succeeded in exorcising the lie of the demon that’s been sold to us over time – that every government must be interested in its successor, euphemism for imposition of its successors. It is a position rooted in the tendency of office holder to do things that they would need a friendly successor to cover up. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that to solve this critical problem , Nigeria needs an interim leader, disinterested in succeeding himself , who not do anything that he would need covered up after his tenure; and who is courageous enough to resist pressures from family, friends, ethnic group, political party and sundry other interest groups to lend his official weight to their cause.

“Now, let’s face it; such a person would be hard to find. But that is precisely the kind of person that Dr Jonathan has to be in the very short time it has pleased God to put him in office. I have no doubt in my mind that unless he yields to God, to be that man, he’s likely to be outside the will of God….

“Today, Jonathan is President of the Federal Republic by virtue of an arrangement that zones the top post to the north of Nigeria for two terms totalling eight years. The North should therefore have another term. I do not subscribe to the arrangement and so, were I in government, it won’t be binding on me. And indeed, if I have my way, it should never have been put in place at all. But it is in place in spite of ex-President Obasanjo’s latter day less-than-honest assertion to the contrary. And Jonathan subscribed to it. He came to office by it, and he is not on record, to my knowledge, as having ever disagreed with the arrangement. So, he is bound by it. He is a Christian and the Bible says that true Christians swear to their own hurt and do not renege! (See Psalm 15:4).”

That unpopular view, unpopular because many are convinced that the Northern Nigeria cannot claim any moral high ground in these matters, having “ruled and ruined” the nation for about 40 of the 50 years since flag independence, was on Wednesday reinforced by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

In a ruling reminiscent of Pontius Pilate, Justice Lawal Gumi was unambiguous that zoning and rotation are still firmly in place in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; though he went on to wash his hands off its application. He said:  “If a party’s constitution makes a provision as to how its affairs should be run, it must be run in that manner and the court is duty bound to ensure that the party complies with its constitution’s requirement’’. In refusing to “ensure that the party complies with its constitution’s requirements” in order not be seen to be “delving into the internal affairs of the party”; there can, however, be no doubt that the jurist does hope that honour can find some play among, even among politicians. It is the view of this column that anyone who flies the Christian flag must hold this as a sacred duty.

In another part of the article, I wrote: “Flowing from this, and most important of all, is this truth: there are simply no righteous ways by which Dr Jonathan can pick up his party’s ticket to run in 2011! To run, he has to play “realpolitik”, which is politics devoid of moral and ethical considerations; politics without conscience. He has to pull down the party structure, hound his opponents, tear the rule books and generally be ruthless. Recent events are already pointing in this direction… The sudden unearthing of a 2002 crime against ruling party chairman Vincent Ogbulafor reads uncannily like a page off OBJ’s book. All of these should be anathema to a man whose trajectory to the top has simply been nothing, if not divinely orchestrated.”

Now, if this statement by Sahara Reporters alongside an audio post on its website is to be believed, “realpolitik” is no doubt alive and well with the use of money coming gradually into play:

“Last Friday, Saharareporters broke the story of an attempt by President Goodluck Jonathan to bribe a visiting delegation of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) with $50,000. That story has been controversial since then, following a whimpering denial of the attempt by Tony Uranta, a muscle in Mr. Jonathan's inner circle, and a story in an online journal which gave the impression the convener of the SNG, Pastor Tunde Bakare, did not consider the money to have been a bribe…

“Bakare, known as much for his religious work as for his political activism, had confirmed on Sunday evening that the Minister of the Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe offered the SNG delegation the sum of $50,000 on behalf of President Jonathan.   The funds were returned through Uranta shortly after it was presented to the SNG delegation.

“Referring to Orubebe, Bakare (said) “…I wish him well because he neither said he didn’t give us money or we didn’t return money, he just said he did not offer bribe; and he began to give me definition of bribe, unfortunately he did not go to law school but he is trying to lecture a lawyer.”

“Jonathan’s attempt to bribe the SNG is a reminder of last October’s allegation by Global Information System, a private think tank of retired U.S. military strategists, of Jonathan’s ongoing “corruption of the Nigerian political process.”  The think tank reported that Jonathan was buying up delegates to the forthcoming PDP primaries for $13,000 (two million Naira) per vote...” 

Will Dr Jonathan have the most important of his credentials, honour, intact when all of this is over?