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?

CAN AND ZONING: MATTERS ARISING (2)



Rev Yakubu Pam...North Central CAN

 I apparently spoke a little too soon! I had written last time that “mum has been the word from the now thoroughly discredited and disowned Rev Aminci. As I write this, he seems to have simply vanished from the public space. Mischief has an expiry date!” As subsequent events have shown, this particular mischief didn’t expire; it shifted gear.

For the benefit of those who might have missed the piece and therefore are probably at sea about all these, let’s rewind a little.

The Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum, in the process of searching for a consensus candidate to fight for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party in the wake of the zoning controversy, decided to meet with leaders of the two major religious groups in the land. They did and while there has been no public reaction of any sort from leaders of Jamatul Nasrul Islam (JNI); the Northern wing of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), it would seem, has not been the same again, since then. A cleric by the name of Habu Aminci, reportedly claiming to represent the body told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service that “the Christian community in the northern region has resolved to stand on the side of pro-zoning, by ensuring that Christians in the region vote on the side of a Northern aspirant, whether in the PDP’s presidential primaries and the general election as well..."

Reactions were swift. The Kaduna chapter of CAN was the first to speak through a statement signed by its secretary, Reverend John Hayab. The statement dissociated the group "from claims by a Christian clergy, Pastor Aminci that CAN has taken a position on Zoning and would only support a northern candidate in the 2011 presidential elections, saying it has no business with partisan politics".

Describing Aminci's claim as untrue, the statement said "CAN has never and will not, in any case, be partisan in issues related to politics rather, it will continue to maintain our neutrality of being apolitical but religious organisation conscious of national development, cohesion, integration and peaceful coexistence of our dear country."

CAN further stated that it “has no business with such partisanship politics, and has not in any way taken such a stand. Rather, its persistent stand that Nigeria as a country has suffered a monumental under development, owing to nothing but corrupt and bad leadership, and as such Nigerians must irrespective of religion, ethnicity, political inclinations rise and vote into power men and women of virtues, moral and upright tendencies..."

Next to react was CAN, North Central Zone. Rev Yakubu Pam who spoke on behalf of the zone denounced the Aminci's statement as unauthorised and not representing the views of CAN members in the area.

Then came the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which spoke through its Secretary, Elder Saidu Dogo. His words:

“We wish to state that Pastor Aminci which some national dailies were quoting to have spoken on behalf of CAN in the north actually came with the Ciroma entourage and is not an official or the chairman of CAN in Bauchi State or any other state for that matter.
“The Chairman of CAN in Bauchi State is Bishop Musa Tula, who represented the northern CAN Chairman, Archbishop Peter Jatau during the meeting with the Ciroma committee. Pastor Aminci is not an official of CAN anywhere and therefore has no locus standi to speak for christians in the north.

“Those making any issue out of the interview he granted to the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were doing it mainly for mischief and for their selfish political interest. Our position as religious leaders is to remain neutral and continue to pray for the best leadership for this country.
“We wish to state in very clear terms that there is no crack in CAN and will resist any attempt to be dragged into issues that are purely the affairs of politicians. During our meeting with the Ciroma committee, we never said anything on zoning. What we told Ciroma and his committee members was that as religious leaders, we would continue to pray for the best leadership for this country...Ciroma restated our position at the meeting in an interview he granted journalists shortly after the meeting when he told them that the only thing one gets from religious leaders is prayers.”

That was the situation until Rev Aminci surfaced again on the BBC Hausa Service announcing the birth of what many see as a splinter group of CAN in the North and Abuja. Named Northern Christian Leaders‘ Eagle Eye Forum (NCLEEF), Aminci said his new group was a child of necessity borne out of his members’ determination to “not just watch a clique toy with the prestige and dignity of the North”. They are therefore poised to ensure the emergence of a Northerner as President in 2011 to that the North is not cheated out of the remaining four years of the Yar’Adua northern presidency.

He also countered those who said he was incompetent to talk on behalf of Northern CAN: “If they say I am not a member of CAN, they have made a mistake. I am a Christian and a member of CAN. That is indisputable.”

It is not hard to see that this man of God, if he indeed is one, is a political jobber who simply tried to use the platform of CAN to push the candidacy of his principal, whoever that is. When this was roundly and effectively resisted, he took the next obvious step: create a platform. In the circumstance, if the consensus candidate who has emerged is his principal, we we’ll hear a lot more about him and his so-called group in the coming days. If not, he’ll fizzle out unless the aspirant finds value in his mischief.

It is sad that we have people like him in our midst – giving us all a bad name. Lord have mercy.

CAN AND ZONING: MATTERS ARISING



Rev John Hayab,
Secretary, CAN Kaduna Chapter





Not even the Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Leaders Consultative Forum could have anticipated it. As its consultations on the search for a consensus presidential candidate from the North from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was about to end, they chose to touch base with religious leaders.

In the event, they met with leaders of Jamatul Nasrul Islam (JNI) and those of the Northern wing of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). As I write this nothing, to my knowledge, has been heard in the public space about JNI's reaction to the politicians' proposal, whatever it was. Not so, in the case of CAN - thanks to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa service and a cleric by the name of Habu Aminci.

Reports, quoting BBC, had it that Pastor Aminci granted an interview following the meeting between the prominent northern Nigerian politicians and CAN in respect of Nigeria’s presidency in the 2011 elections, in which he purportedly spoke on behalf of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). He was quoted as saying that: “the Christian community in the northern region has resolved to stand on the side of pro-zoning, by ensuring that Christians in the region vote on the side of a Northern aspirant, whether in the PDP’s presidential primaries and the general election as well..."

Reactions were swift. The Kaduna chapter of CAN was the first to speak through a statement signed by its secretary, Reverend John Hayab. The statement dissociated the group "from claims by a Christian clergy, Pastor Aminci that CAN has taken a position on Zoning and would only support a northern candidate in the 2011 presidential elections, saying it has no business with partisan politics".

Describing Aminci's claim as untrue, the statement said "CAN has never and will not, in any case, be partisan in issues related to politics rather, it will continue to maintain our neutrality of being apolitical but religious organisation conscious of national development, cohesion, integration and peaceful coexistence of our dear country."

CAN further stated that it “has no business with such partisanship politics, and has not in any way taken such a stand. Rather, its persistent stand that Nigeria as a country has suffered a monumental under development, owing to nothing but corrupt and bad leadership, and as such Nigerians must irrespective of religion, ethnicity, political inclinations rise and vote into power men and women of virtues, moral and upright tendencies..."

Next to react was CAN, North Central Zone. Rev Yakubu Pam who spoke on behalf of the zone denounced the Aminci's statement as unauthorised and not representing the views of CAN members in the area.

Then came the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which spoke through its Secretary, Elder Saidu Dogo. His words:

“We wish to state that Pastor Aminci which some national dailies were quoting to have spoken on behalf of CAN in the north actually came with the Ciroma entourage and is not an official or the chairman of CAN in Bauchi State or any other state for that matter.

“The Chairman of CAN in Bauchi State is Bishop Musa Tula, who represented the northern CAN Chairman, Archbishop Peter Jatau during the meeting with the Ciroma committee. Pastor Aminci is not an official of CAN anywhere and therefore has no locus standi to speak for christians in the north.

“Those making any issue out of the interview he granted to the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were doing it mainly for mischief and for their selfish political interest. Our position as religious leaders is to remain neutral and continue to pray for the best leadership for this country.

“We wish to state in very clear terms that there is no crack in CAN and will resist any attempt to be dragged into issues that are purely the affairs of politicians.

“During our meeting with the Ciroma committee, we never said anything on zoning. What we told Ciroma and his committee members was that as religious leaders, we would continue to pray for the best leadership for this country...

“Ciroma restated our position at the meeting in an interview he granted journalists shortly after the meeting when he told them that the only thing one gets from religious leaders is prayers.”

Meanwhile, mum has been the word from the now thoroughly discredited and disowned Rev Aminci. As I write this, he seems to have simply vanished from the public space. Mischief has an expiry date!

But in all of these, one question has continued to tug at my heart. And it is this: how united is CAN? On a national issue such as this, should we have these any voices - State, North Central, the North, speaking for CAN? If this umbrella body of Christians is supposed to comprise five sub-groups - Catholic Secretariat, Christian Council of Nigeria, Christian Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria/Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Organisation of African Initiated Churches & Evangelical Church Winning All/TEKAN, why does it seem to be operating like a geopolitical federal arrangement. It just so happened that the three groups that spoke are in agreement with each other and, presumably, with the national body. What if it had been different? This ought to be food for thought for the current leaders of CAN, I think.







IT’S SPECIAL PRAYER DAY!



Our Lady of Salvation Church, Baghdad
... after the bloody incident



If you are a practicing Christian, you are either getting ready for church, on your way to church, in church already or have gone returned from church, depending on the time you are reading this. That is as it should be and I congratulate you for staying in the faith.

But imagine with me, if you will, that while in the midst of service, armed men stormed the sanctuary, took the entire congregation hostage and began to bark orders at everyone, and making demands that you barely understand. One hour snailed into another and the “service” that was supposed to have lasted only one hour, if you attend one of those “microwave” churches (apology to Rev B) or two/three hours dragged on and on. Imagine that the matter eventually caught the attention of the authorities and security agencies were drafted to the scene. One lead to the other and you began to hear gunshots and cries of agony and bodies dropping all around you in dull thuds. All you could do was await your turn, because you dared not look up. Then as suddenly as the explosions started, it ceased. A surreal quiet returned. You opened your eyes, summoned some courage and looked around you. The siege was over! But so was the earthly sojourn of 55 of your brethren – their lives cut short, suddenly and brutally. Over 80 others were also in danger of losing life or limb. None of it made any sense to you. But then, it’s real!

Now, if you thought that was taken from a work of fiction, you must have missed the news of the unfortunate incident three Sundays ago in Baghdad, Iraq. One news report rendered it this way: “At least 55 people were killed and 70 were injured in a massacre yesterday in the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, after Iraqi forces carried out a raid to free the faithful taken hostage by al-Qaeda….According to local sources, there are two priests among the dead, one of whom was shot by a terrorist. Among the dead were also women and eight to ten children. The security chief of Baghdad, Qassem Atta, spoke of eight militants among the dead….The terrorists, who claimed to belong to the organization the Islamic State of Iraq, the Iraqi cell of al Qaeda, had threatened to kill the hostages if some members of the terror network of Osama bin Laden prisoners in Iraq and Egypt were not freed”

WIN WHILE WE WAIT QUIZ Question 3
(Go to www.kingdompeoplemag.com for questions 1 &2)

An Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda, known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) soon claimed responsibility for the attack and went on to give a 48-hour ultimatum to the Coptic Church of Egypt, to free two wives of priests who them are "imprisoned in monasteries" because, they converted to Islam. They described their attack on the church as “a raid on one of the shelters of obscene idolatry, which had always been used by Christians of Iraq as a headquarters for the fight against the religion of Islam and which supports those who fight this religion” and aimed at helping “our poor Muslim sisters…imprisoned in infidel monasteries in idolatrous churches in Egypt." The reference to “our poor muslim sisters,” in the statement, is believed to refer to Camellia Shehata and Wafa Constantine. Both of them were said to be wives of priests; one of whom was believed to have converted to Islam, and the other set to follow suit but have been held in the church against their will. The Egyptian Coptic Church has denied the accusation.

This is neither the date nor the forum to debate the recourse to terror in these matters. Our objective here is to draw the attention of all Christians, particularly those of us in those parts of the world where hostility is far less deadly, to the plight of our brethren in Iraq and similar places across the globe.

Iraq is in the news currently because of that October 31 deadly attack. But it has never left the radar of persecution watchers since the US-led invasion of the country. So deep has been the persecution that it is believed that as many as 500,000 Christians have fled that country since the war started. No prizes for guessing that many more will follow in the wake of the recent attack. But Iraq is not alone. She’s not even in the top-10 of Christian-persecuting nations in the world, according to Open Doors, a persecution watchdog ministry.

North Korea tops the list. Described as “the most difficult place in the world to be Christian”, North Korea tops that list. It is a place where “all religious activity is seen as a revolt against North Korea’s socialist principles and the cult of Kim Jong-il and his father and where “considerable numbers of secret Christians have been discovered, arrested, tortured, and sometimes killed..”. Iran, with only 0.35% of its population professing the faith, comes next. In 2009 alone, at least 85 Christians were arrested many reportedly mistreated, with, those released remaining under surveillance, and court cases are pending. A number have death sentences hanging upon their head for apostasy.

Predictably, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in the big league. Public non-Muslim worship is forbidden, at the risk of arrest, imprisonment, flogging, deportation, and sometimes torture. Expatriates form the bulk of 2.2% of the population who are Christians. Open Doors say “they are generally allowed to worship privately but some have been arrested, issued with death threats and forced into hiding. Recently there has been an increasing number of arrests. Most Saudi believers must keep their faith secret or risk honour killing.

Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania and Laos complete the top ten; while China, Pakistan and India with their large populations feature prominently in almost daily reports of life-taking and life-threatening incidences of persecution.

I have said of these to say this important thing: Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted (IDOP) and I strongly implore ALL of us to join in prayer for our brothers and sisters all over the world facing the fire just because, like you and me, they profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Incidentally, Northern Nigeria has featured on the list for at least one decade; it’s currently at Number 27. Doesn’t that make it even more urgent and important? Thank you.

BOY, OUR CHRISTIAN HERITAGE IS DEEP!

The Sunday evening service was about to end when Apostle Joseph Ayodele Babalola, then leader of the Christ Apostolic Church, arrived at one of the parishes in Ibadan. His presence was duly acknowledged and he was invited to take the closing prayer and say the grace. He obliged. He went on and on and on. Midnight came, he was still praying. The service became a prayer vigil. At day break on Monday, he was still praying. The remnant of congregants who had stayed the night began to leave one after the other in search of their “daily bread”.  The apostle was still praying. When members of the church returned three days later for their midweek service, he was still praying; they simply joined him. About an hour into the day’s session, he finally shouted: “in Jesus’ Name we have prayed”; to which everybody chorused “Amen!” He handed over the microphone to the host pastor hoping he had not prayed too long!

Apostle Babalola went to be with the Lord since 1959.

Rev Dr Lekan Babatunde, senior pastor of The King’s Chapel with headquarters in Ibadan, told that story at the recent campmeeting of Christ Chapel International Churches. Apart from ministering at seminar sessions and the miracle services in the evening, along with chief hosts Rev Dr Tunde Joda and Rev Mrs Victoria Joda, and some other CCIC pastors, he also spoke at the special session for men, where he told the story. He was teaching on the necessity for men to devote more time to prayer, if they are going to be able to play their God-given roles as husbands, fathers, priests and leaders.

And I agree with him absolutely and even can confess to feverishly praying along with my other brothers for grace pray more. But as I ponder that story later, it is the heritage of zeal and spiritual strength that men and women of God like the late Babalola bequeathed to today’s Christians that kept tugging at my subconscious. What continues to flash in my mind, is the ease with which direct inheritors of heritages such as these, are lightly dismissed as ignorant or pseudo-Christians, by sections of the church on account of minor disagreements or differences of practice.

You see, dear reader, one of the major reasons, the Church is weak in Nigeria, and many parts of the world, is disunity. God commands His blessings in the place of unity (see Psalm 133). But, what you find is a fragmented body, each part holding most of the rest in contempt. And, as one has found out, a lot of the contempt and condescension, flow from ignorance – ignorance of the Biblical and/or revelational basis of some of the practices we frown at in one another. This itself has roots in arrogance, which forecloses respect for and graciously listening to each other.

Yet, an understanding of the antecedents of church bodies and groups and their leaders will go a long way to assist in the journey to unity, which is Christ-directed imperative; a command that we can only continue to disobey to our collective and individual hurt. And, as we saw from that snippet from Apostle Babalola’s ministry above, Christianity in Nigeria does have a deep heritage; one that we can be justly proud of and tap into as a unifying platform. 

I became a convert to this line of reasoning from some of my experiences in the last few years. In 2004, I began a special project then titled, Nigeria’s Kingdom Generals. It was designed to showcase, leaders of the Christian faith in Nigeria who, for at least twenty years, had laboured in God’s vineyards consistently, scandal-free. They were to be selected very carefully from the length and breadth of the church. In other words, it was to be a kingdom project, with no bias in favour or against any denomination or group within the Lord’s body.

Conceived then as a special launch edition of the magazine, KINGDOMPeople, it was to feature as many such men of God as my team and I could gather materials on without having to interview them. We didn’t want to interview them for two important reasons. One, from experience, many of those who truly qualify to be included in the project would baulk at the idea of being described as “kingdom generals”, and were unlikely to want to do anything to encourage any such projection. Two, we wanted to leave no one in doubt that those who got on the list did so without soliciting for it in any way.

We were under no illusions that it was going to be easy. But it turned out to be almost daunting! That is, however, a story for another day. The process of researching the stories meant for the publication has proven an eye-opener. It has made all the efforts well worth it. It has helped me lose some of my “Pentecostal arrogance”, as Pastor Ladi Thompson of Macedonia Initiative Nigeria, once put it. That when I found myself say saying to myself: “Boy, our Christian heritage sure is deeper than we realised!”

By now, I can sense a question in your mind; so here’s the answer. Nigeria’s Kingdom General has been rested. In its place is “Vanguards of the Faith”, which is running in as a special section in KINGDOMPeople magazine, the rebirth edition of which, will roll off the press this week. Believe me, it is a must read for anyone who wants to be God’s tool to answer the Lord Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that the Father “Keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are(11); that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me ( 21-23).