ORTHODOXY, INTER-DENOMINATIONALISM AND CHILD EVANGELISM

ORTHODOXY, INTER-DENOMINATIONALISM AND CHILD EVANGELISM

Mark  10:13 And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.  10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Introduction

Good day my brothers and sisters in Christ. Permit me to give my exhortation in a written format, for which I trust God that you all have copies in your hands. I have chosen to have this written for the records and so that if my words will be referred to in the future, I can be properly quoted. In November 2013, I gave a similar exhortation to an assembly of God's people but because there were no facility to have my words recorded, my statements were delivered out of contexts in some quarters and the end result led to my family and I leaving that church and coming to Chapel.

I must begin this exhortation by thanking my able Superintendent of the Children's Church, our brother Prof. for giving me this opportunity to speak. I also wish to thank my coordinator at the Secondary Section, Dr N, for the support and help I have received from him since I joined this team. I thank my fellows teachers at the SS2 class: Sis N, Sis B, Sis F, Bro and Mrs . For the support I have received from them and the opportunity given to me to minister to the children and to horn my ministry in that regard.

My exhortation will be short and I trust God that it will be straight to the point. I intend to speak on issues I have observed amongst us as ministers to the children, to praise us in many ways and to point out a few things, which in my view, constitute a clog to our ministry here. With the hope that we can remove them for greater efficiency as ministers of the most high God to the most precious vessels in life: the children. I plead with God that we will be blessed and instructed as we read.

The above scripture, Mark 10:13-14, came to life for me in the year 2005, while undergoing Children Evangelism Ministry (CEM) training in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State. My instructors told me that Christ's reaction to the attitude of his disciples in rebuking those who brought children to him was that he was "much displeased". They said the original words translated as "much displeased" carried a notion of great indignation. In other words Jesus is very pleased when we bring children to him and he is "much displeased" when we hinder them from coming to him. Our ministry as children evangelists is to bring children to Jesus. And from the above scripture, I can confidently say to you that the Lord is very pleased with what you are doing. Praise the Lord. The danger, however, lies in the fact that the enemy of our souls is not sleeping and he can very well use the same disciples who were supposed to bring children to Jesus, to hinder our efforts at doing this. I'm saying that child evangelism can become an avenue for leading children away from Jesus and in the process making our Lord "much displeased" with what we are doing here. I am sure that because this possibility abounds in every ministry, church and family, everyone will want to note the things that might be hindering our bringing children to Christ and with God's help stay away from such things. I trust God to help us in this onerous ministry.

Inter-denominationalism

The Chapel of The Resurrection is a great assembly of God's people. From the little I know, I understand that the church pursues an interdenominational vision, to cater for the wide spectrum of Christian worshippers in a foremost citadel of learning like the University of Ibadan. I understand that it provides worship opportunity for the Protestant Christian views that students, lecturers and workers in the University might possess. In this bid, the Methodist Church of Nigeria, the Anglican Communion in this country and the Presbyterian Church, have provided the pastoral leadership in this church; all of these under an interdenominational setting.

If I understand inter-denominationalism well enough, I believe it is not a place where a vain and lazy ecumenism is provided so that every possible Christian belief is permitted to float. I believe interdenominationalism is our own little effort to play down the minor things that divide Christian congregations over the years and to provide opportunity for the essentials of our faith to be taught and practiced. So interdenominationalism will have as its essentials:

1. The bible as final authority.
2. Jesus as Lord
3. A common history and orthodoxy.

With the bible as final authority, the church has its first constitution. But we understand that despite the bible being final authority, there has been no end to divisions and controversies in the church. So, at this point the interdenomination is forced to appeal to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in each of our individual hearts. Therefore, whatever else we might disagree on, we end up appealing to Christ in the individual members of the church so that peace might reign in God's holy temple and so that gospel proclamation and the prosetylizing of the world can continue. You will agree with me that this is necessary or there will be no end to controversies, and that will certainly hinder our witness to the world.

The last thing that an inter-denomination like ours must not forget is our roots: our orthodoxy. While every church will certainly claim its roots or orthodoxy from the Christ and the bible, Chapel of the Resurrection will have to come to more recent history for its orthodoxy. If my knowledge of church history is correct, the Presbyterian, Anglican and Methodist churches are the by product of the 16th Century Reformation which a former Roman Catholic monk led - that is Martin Luther. The leading product of the Reformation was the restoration of the bible to the homes of the common man. By the end of the day, the laity did not have to wait for the clergy to read and interpret God's word to him; he had God's words with himself. So God began to speak to people from scriptures. With the bible in our hands, God's people encountered the faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). In the bible there was a restoration to orthodoxy.

Orthodoxy

A quick Google search reveals the meaning for the word "orthodox":

orthodox /ˈɔːθədɒks/

adjective

1. following or conforming to the traditional or generally accepted rules or beliefs of a religion, philosophy, or practice.

It was in the bid to preserve the traditional beliefs of Christianity that God caused for the authors of scriptures to have it written down. And in the bible we have the life and words of Jesus recorded. Our Lord also instructed that the apostles were to teach the nations all that he has taught them (Matthew 29:19-20). And in the epistles we find the teachings of the apostles. Theologians call them church age doctrines - the doctrines the church ought to abide by. The study of church history reveals that the first step that the enemy takes to derail the church is ensuring that the church comes to a low view of scriptures. So that when God's people begin to take Papal declarations, angelic visitations, historical relics, visions, dreams, revelations, "thus saith the lord" or "God said to me", etc, more authoritative than scriptures, we begin to find doctrines infiltrate the churches that threaten expressly revealed truths in the bible. And because these things, many times, are fresh, sensational and new, God's people are very likely to be led astray by them.

When I was growing up, we used to revile some churches as orthodox. I only got to understand that that term "orthodox church" was actually a good and blessed term recently. Our fathers who coined that term had it in mind that the children found in the churches they leave behind will abide by the tradition laid out as the foundation of those churches. That tradition being the bible or "Sola Scriptura" as the Reformers used to say. The churches we call orthodox then were Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptists, etc. These are the churches who provide the leadership of this chapel today.

To introduce the crux of this message, permit me to use an example we are all familiar with. Everyone knows the Jehovah Witnesses here. The Chief error of JW is that they consider Jehovah, God, as their ultimate source of worship and believe that Jesus Christ is just the Son of God; he doesn't share deity with God. In the process, their worship centers around God. History reveals that this error led their founder to enact a new bible, different from the one we have and to present a new orthodoxy to his people.

The church today finds itself almost repeating the errors of JW. This time, the God exalted is not Jehovah but the Holy Spirit. This teaching is predominant not in orthodox churches like ours but in most charismatic and Pentecostal churches. The phenomenon that makes the Holy Spirit the new God that Christians worship cannot be separated from the practice of glossolalia or "speaking with tongues". Other phenomenons include the practice of seeing visions, hearing voices, and pure mysticism. Those of us who have been in these churches can say with authority that these phenomenons have taken the final authority that the bible should have in the church. The greatest danger that this possesses is not what it has done to those churches, but how it is creeping into the so called orthodox churches and rendering their orthodoxy a joke. The Pentecostal phenomenons have gained entry into the orthodox churches because it promises a new spirituality for churches that have lost their true spiritual walk with Christ. I am saying that when orthodox churches lost their vital relationship with Jesus and only submitted to a dead orthodoxy hinged on the letter of scriptures, it became fascinated with a false spirituality that the Charismatic movement was selling and very easily bought into it.

Knowing that most of us teachers in this place have a Pentecostal or Charismatic background, am I hereby saying we should stop speaking in tongues? No.


Rather, I would want us to pursue and understand why our fathers called this churches orthodox churches:

Jude  1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

2 Corinthians  11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

True spirituality is knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior. The error of JW and Islam is having God without Jesus. The error of Pentecostalism is pursuing religious experiences purportedly originating from the Holy Spirit but having no doctrine of Christ in it. When we come to Jesus, then we know God as God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ. Except Jesus reveals the Father to us, whatever picture of the Father Islam, JW or you and I have of him is a false picture. In the same vein, except Jesus reveals the Holy Spirit to us, what we might have possessed is another spirit whom john told us will pervade the world today (1John 4:1). The bible never told us to pursue the Holy Spirit and some experiences he could give us. The bible instructed us to pursue Jesus and he will give us the Holy Spirit to instruct and guide us, John 16. In the process of seeking spiritual phenomenons, hundreds have opened themselves up to demonic activities.

Let us beware of this.

Child Evangelism

The thrust of my message is to show us just one danger that arise in our evangelizing children. Our calling as disciples of Christ and instructors of these children is to bring them to Jesus. Not to lead them to religion, to Jehovah or even to the Holy Spirit. Our duty is to lead them to Christ. In the process of doing this, our children come to possess the Spirit of Christ within them. They also gain an accurate understanding of Jehovah God.

The means of doing this is to call our children's attention back to the bible. For within scriptures, especially the gospels and epistles, is the person of Jesus revealed. (In the bid to return to the bible after leaving our former church, I inaugurated a fellowship that I lead called the GODSPATNERS Evangelical Outreach. We hold fellowship once a month in a school in Basorun. Our next meeting is this coming Saturday. You are heartily invited to it). We cannot do this accurately except of course we as teachers know our bibles well enough. This message is not meant to disparage Pentecostalism or whatever influences it has had on us. Rather, it might occasion us to compare whatever Pentecostal experiences we possess with biblical truths. And if we find any discrepancies, we can discard such experiences. The freedom that an interdenominational church like ours possess must not be lost. If God's people believe that their relationship with God is best exercised through Pentecostal "gim gim", by all means pursue it. If however, like me, you have your doubts about these phenomena, then live by scriptural standards you know. But let the overall sum of all that we do be that we are pursuing a relationship with Jesus and at the same time leading our children to him.

A few months ago, I was invited to join the syllabus committee of the children church. This committee is led by the able Dr A. I have seen her commitment and adherence to the tenure of scriptures, so much so that I am confident that the Pentecostal excesses I criticize in thus message are not likely to find their way into our children's curriculum in this place. This message is an additional call on us to ensure it doesn't. And I am very privileged and grateful to be part of that team.

Our calling is to lead these children to Jesus. I trust God that we will not earn his much displeasure by leading them elsewhere though our own lack of understanding.

I thank you for listening. God bless you.

Let us pray...

(This speech was originally meant to be delivered to teachers at the Children's Church of Chapel of the Resurrection, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, on the 9th August 2015, but due to time constraint, I preached it instead.)

ABLE MEN

ABLE MEN 

Exodus 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 

There is much conjecture as to what will be Nigeria's President elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, greatest strenght as he assumes office exactly two weeks from

today. Some think it should be a fat national treasury, others believe his success will lie in his own inherent personal integrity, while others think that the increasing popularity of his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), with the larger than life Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as leader, will be his greatest strenghth. I am convinced that while all the aformentioned parameters may be an advantage for Buhari, his greatest secret to success will lie in his ability to marshall able men to lead key aspects of the nation's public life. Buhari's success will lie in his ability to find likeminded individuals who will help reproduce the blue print he has carefully outlined in the APC manifesto into a workable format for the rapid development of the nation, as it is clear to everyone that much time has been wasted on frivolities by past administrations and the need to hit the ground running is so very important at this crucial time in our national life.

 The few weeks running up to the transition to a new government has continued to unviel to Nigerians the kind of charachter the president elect is and the type of government he is going to run. Buhari is not mincing words about the "CHANGE" philosophy he espoused through out the campaigns leading up to the elections. A few days ago the General made it clear to the public that he was not going to influence the choice of a Senate President. He said he could work with anyone. One would have thought that a Buhari government, that is already showing commitment to the rule of law and dictates of the constitution, will want to influence the choice of key persons into positions at the National Assembly so that laws he might wish enacted could find quick passage. But not Buhari. It is clear that the President elect may have disvovered the archile heels of past leaders in this country: their penchant to become preoccupied with less than important issues, while leaving important matters unattended to. It is this character that the men that must work with Buhari must possess. This leads me to enumerate the kind of men that must work with Buhari. Foremost in the list of people who will be found in Buhari's inner cabinet must be Buharists. 

Buharism is a quiet movement that had built up through the twelve years that the General sought the office of the presidency via democratic means. Buharists are detrabalized individuals, found in all the religions of the country, particularly Islam and Christianity. They are men and women who appreciate the General's lifestyle of honesty, uprightness, discipline, thriftiness, incorruptibile and hard work. Buharists are people who also practice these virtues in their private lives. These are the people who are truly likeminded with Buhari. Fortunately, many of them are professionals, working in both the private and public sectors of the country. They can be found in all the geo-political sections of this country. These are the men Buhari must find to work with him in his close carbinet. These people are largely unknown. They are both young and old. But they are Buharists at heart; they will do the General's bidding and abide religiously to his dictates. Buhari can be rest assured that these people will not steal public funds and will use every resource available to them for whatever they are meant for. The late amazon, Prof. Dora Akunyili, fits this picture. She had worked with the General and when an upright individual was being sought for by Obasanjo to lead the NAFDAC, reports have it that Buhari recommended her for that job. These are the kind of people Buhari must seek to work with him. 

The second group of people that will work with the General are political associates. Politics is a game of numbers and when a man wins a political position, quite naturally his associates are the ones who will work with him. The mistake that past administrations have made here was making political associates their first choice. Buhari has made it clear that this will not be his style when he rejected the list of ministers from the hands of elected APC Governors a few days ago. Nonetheless, it makes sense to believe that he will still appoint political associates to his cabinet. What will happen, however, is that such men will be his choice from a pool that has been provided to him. The next thing is that such people must be given quick orientation and converted to Buharism. I say this because if any one of these men show the slightest form of corruption in a Buhari government, they will be shown the way home even if they had only been in government for one week. 

The last set of people who will work in a Buhari government are people who he has

no direct authority over their choice to position and whose choice to office he will not influence. An example of this is what has been mentioned earlier: the choice of the Senate President. Others will include Speaker of the house of Representative, principal officers in the National Assembly, State and Local Governments officials and others like them. Buhari is also likely to give his party, the APC, the freedom to choose individuals to lead some public institutions. While the General shall not appoint these people, everyone of them must know that a Buhari presidency will strenghten the anti corruption outfits in the country, along with the police, such that corruption in Nigeria's public and private life will become a thing of the past. By the close of his government in 2009, most Nigerians will be Buharists at heart. 

The bible verse at the opening of this article were the words of Jethro, Moses' father in law, to him as he lead Israel through the wilderness. Jethro told Moses his success will lie in his ability to choose able men to lead aspects of his government. This centuries old advice is still relevant today. Human resources is the greatest and best resource a nation can have. Nigeria, with its teaming population of 170 million people, has human resources in abundance. My prayer is that God will grant Buhari the wisdom, capacity and courage to find able men to work with him. 

Amen. 

Deji Yesufu is a blogger and a Christian minister. He lives in Ibadan.

Pictures from Google Images.

THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY: The Oyo State Story

THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY: The Oyo State Story

by Deji Yesufu

Gov. Ajimobi

When Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State was announced reelected, not a few people were convinced that the incumbent governor rigged the just concluded gubernatorial elections. The people who share this position are of course people who did not vote for him. These people occupy the majority of the voting population in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, were the incumbent governor lost to Senator Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja. While I did not vote for Ajimobi, I do not share in this rigging sentiment at all. I believe Governor Ajimobi allowed for a level playing ground for the elections in the state. Also, I am convinced that ever since the demise of Chief Lamidi Adedibu, Oyo State has began to witness the emergence of true democratic practices. This is what informed the defeat of former Governor Alao Akala by Ajimobi at the 2011 gubernatorial elections, even though Akala was incumbent. Governor Ajimobi understood this very well and thus deployed his campaign machinery effectively across the state for the 2015 elections. The Governor saw that his popularity in his native Ibadan town was overshadowed by that of former Governor Ladoja, and so ensured that he won the hearts of the people in other local governments in the state. So that even if he came second to Ladoja in the eleven local governments of Ibadan and did not get any vote from Ogbomoso due to the overbearing presence of Akala in that part of the state, he understood that there were still atleast other twenty local governments he could still win he reelection bid with. This is what the governor did and it paid off. I am certain that even by the eve of the elections, Ajimobi was not sure he would be reelected. That might be what informed his racing to the Splash FM studios on Thursday evening for some image reshaping, after Ladoja had just concluded an interview there. What happened in Oyo State on the 11th April, 2015 is what I wish to call the triumph of democracy. The candidates sought the votes of the people through extensive campaigning through the length and breadth of the state and the majority carried the votes. As we celebrate and congratulate the Governor, I wish to use this medium to appeal to the Governor and his supporters to be magnanimous in victory. My hope is that the Governor will review the position of his critics and work on those flaws of his that nearly cost him his office in Agodi.

While Governor Ajimobi's performance in restoring peace to Oyo State and his efforts

Ajimobi and Ladoja

at building the infrastructural base of the state cannot be disputed, the Governor's critics felt that he could do a lot more than these. The foremost issue held against Ajimobi in his campaign was his attitude towards workers' welfare. The Governor's supporters are quick to point to the fact that an almost 40% reduction in federal allocation, along with delayed payment of monthly subventions, was at the root of workers' salaries not being paid. But they must be reminded that Oyo State was not always owed subventions and that there was a time this state was enjoying extra funds from excess crude sales. It makes sense to say that if the Ajimobi government had made appropriate savings in the time of excess, it would have had enough for the time of scarcity. Outside salaries, this government will also need to make effort to effecting workers' promotion as and at when due. The issue of pensioners not been paid for months is also a matter that the government needs to take heed to. And finally, the Ajimobi government may need to begin to consider merit as basis for employment. The issue of "knowing somebody" before one can obtain a job at the civil service can never attract to best minds to the State's work force.

Another thing that nearly cost Ajimobi his job was the matter of sanitation. Even though I was not affected by the demolishing exercise of the government in sanitizing our markets and street, I could not understand the motive behind the exercise if at the beginning of the administration, shops were demolished and cars towed away for parking on NO PARKING zones. And then suddenly as election drew near, the government stopped demolishing shops and towing vehicles. The reason they stopped seem to be that they were trying to court the favor of the electorate in the coming elections. If this is it, then the government was not sincere in its motive behind the earlier demolishing exercise. A government should considers order, hygiene and safety (the reasons for demolishing) higher than reelection. If the government will resume its sanitation exercise, they should do it humanely and with sincereity. Especially now that there is nothing at stake as it where.

The 2015 Gubernitorial elections were truly keenly contested and for a space of about five months, the five leading contestants, Ajimobi, Ladoja, Akala, Teslim Folarin and Seyi Makinde, continued to beg the electorate for votes. In that time period, the electorate was king. Everyone of these individuals are very capable of occupying Agodi. Ladoja did it for me because of the record he had concerning workers' welfare in the past and the really nice philosophy in Ibadan that says "Ibadan o kin si' yo le meji", ie, Ibadan never votes one person twice. Indeed that philosophy held forth in this election except that Ibadan has realized that they are not the only kingmakers in the State.

Once again I congratulate Gov. Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi on his well deserved victory at

Former Gov. Akala

the poles. I emplore him to be magnanimous in victory. I beg him to break the jinx of non performing second termers, the same way he broke the jinx of a Governor never elected on a second term in the State. I plead with him to be Governor to all and not just those who voted for him. I trust that the Governor will listen to his critics and correct past lapses. And I believe if he would do this, his second term in office will be very successfull.

THE PREACHER AND POLITICS

THE PREACHER AND POLITICS

by Deji Yesufu

The common sentiment among many in this clime is that the Christian preacher should not be involved in politics. The thinking is that politics is dirty and the preacher man is supposed to be clean, therefore the two should not mix. This essay will not be concerned with proving the fallacy behind this thinking because it is clear to the well discerning that if anyone is needed at all to sanitize an unclean system, it should naturally be someone who is clean. I would rather be showing the advantages of having a Christian preacher not only involved in partisan politics but also actively taking sides on political divides. I must state however that not all preachers will see the need to be involved in politics but for those who do, particularly with pure

Buhari/Jonathan

motives, it should be clear to them that they are pursuing a mandate of heaven and they have God as their support.

The Christian Preacher is first of all a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of what God did in Christ in reconciling sinners to himself. The news says that every man born of a woman is born a rebel against God. As a rebel, he is destined towards earning God's wrath in eternal perdition - hell. The reason being that God is a just God and will punish every sin that man commits - big or small. The same God who set up this system of Justice then brought himself under judgment so that sinful man might not earn the judgment and wrath of God. God was in Christ when he came to the world and died for the sins of all men. So that in the same manner with which the lamb takes away the sin of a community under Moses' law, so did Jesus become the sacrificial Lamb of God that will take away the sins of the whole world. The preacher's primary duty is to point all men to the cross of Jesus Christ. With the hope that some will acknowledge the works of God in Christ on the cross, confess their sins and believe in Jesus Christ to save them from their sins. This is the good news of Jesus Christ: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved…" (Acts 16:31). The reality, however, is that the gospel message is to be preached to men who live in the flesh and who have needs that must be met. Men who are hungry, sick or who live in crisis ridden environment cannot hear the gospel. Thus the bible teaches: 1

 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth - 1 Timothy 4.

Gospel acceptability is closely linked to man's social environment. Therefore, while the Christian minister must preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, he must also support any legal means that will lead people to live in an environment that is quiet, peaceable, devoid of oppression, and one where justice prevails. These was what a man like Martin Luther King Jnr understood when, as a Christian minister, he led protests against segregation until the American society set up laws that made racism illegal. Today, a black man rules the United States of America. Everyone knows that Barack Obama is simply reaping the fruit of the labor of men like Dr King.

Today, Nigeria stands on the threshold of history. Our fathers had bequeathed a society that is free from British colonial rule. So that the people of Nigeria could govern themselves and determine their own destiny by themselves, while enjoying the blessings of the resources that God had given them. This is peace and quiet. Then a time came in this nation when it was thought that the civilian public could not rule themselves, except the military, the man with the gun, helped them. God be praised that on May 29th 1999, Nigeria witnessed a transition from military rule to civilian rule. Since then we have successfully transmitted power from one civilian government to another. All of these encouraging peace and quiet in our midst.

Then suddenly it seems that a cabal had held this country hostage. A political party by the name of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) held the nation to ransom. So that for sixteen years, after military rule, this party held sway. They kept sharing the dividends of democracy mostly amongst their members while the man on the streets languished in poverty. This is what informed the preacher man to of necessity join the political discuss and support the candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress to root out the PDP from power. And God be praised that the presidential election of March 28th 2015 saw the emergence of an opposition party, defeating an incumbent president. Today the future of Nigeria speaks of peace and quiet.

These are the reasons the preacher must be involved in politics. Thankfully, the running mate of General Buhari is himself a Pastor - Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Other preachers may not branch into full time politicking like Osinbajo but all of us owe it to the people we pastor to support progressive ideologies that have within them the capacity to better the lives of the people. What is the use of a Christian minister who preaches a sound gospel to a congregation on what Christ Jesus has done on the cross while more than half of the congregation are either hungry, jobless, without education, without medical care, or without hope? He could as well be speaking to the wind.

I, as a minister of Jesus Christ, did not consider my ministry complete until I could see a government come into power that will better the lives of the people I oversea for Jesus. And I am thankful to God that most of the people who look to me for spiritual admonition canvassed actively for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. When our story shall be told tomorrow, we would be able to say that we did not join the bandwagon of lies that taught that Buhari was coming to Islamize the Nigerian nation. We did not, for one second, believe the false prophecy of Buhari loosing this election. We studied the man Buhari beyond his tribe and religion and came to the firm conclusion that he possesses the qualities to lead this nation out of the dept of corruption and insecurity she has found herself. We saw in the APC manifesto a workable document for a better Nigeria.

The duty of Mr. Preacher is not ended.

As much as we have supported Buhari to becoming president, we shall pray and trust

The People's General

God long enough until his administration succeeds. We trust God that in the days of Buhari, Nigeria will know peace and quiet. We believe God that in his time godliness will exalt this nation and every sin that has brought reproach our way will be taken away. We trust God that the gospel we preach will begin to make sense to the world; as the world have seen a new breed of Christian ministers who love God and humanity enough to side with good even, sometimes, at great cost to their reputation. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Long live the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the land of the living.

Praise the Lord!

Hallelujah!!

JONATHAN'S SIN

JONATHAN'S SIN

by Fashina George

All indications regarding the outcome of the coming presidential elections in Nigeria on Saturday, 28th March 2015, point to the fact that Nigeria is facing the first time that an incumbent president might be loosing an election in the country. This is a good thing in itself because it shows that Nigeria's democracy is growing and democratic ethos is beginning to take firm root on our shores. By the time the results of the elections are read out, many might want to ask why Goodluck Jonathan lost the election. They may want to conjecture what was the leading factor that led to his defeat by Gen Muhammadu Buhari at the 2015 presidential elections. Some will suggest his weak stance on corruption; others will explain that his wife's unbridled and uncouth utterances was his waterloo; and yet others will say that the Nigerian people truly bought into the "CHANGE" mantra of the All Progressive Congress (APC). I wish to state in this article that the leading factor in Jonathan's defeat at this year's polls was his inability to curb the violence raging in the northern part of Nigeria. Jonathan's singular sin is insecurity.

President Goodluck Jonathan inherited a precarious security situation when he came to power in May 29th, 2011. Boko Haram (BH) had been attacking parts of northern Nigeria and it was the job of the newly installed chief security officer of the country to curb the violence. It didn't stop. Rather, under Jonathan, the violence perpetrated by BH only worsened - these evil people even had the effrontery of encroaching on Abuja, the nation's seat of power with bombs at the United Nation building, the Police Headquarters and the bombing of various motor parks at Yanyan. Rather than action, all that the Nigerian people got from their president was condemnation, regrets and promises to deal with the perpetrators. Promises that never found fulfillment. Then came the ignominious kidnap of more than 200 secondary school girls at their dormitory in a government secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, as they sat to write their final examination. At first, the government of Goodluck Jonathan denied that the girls were kidnapped but after weeks of inactions and more denials, they finally accepted. Those who tell the story of how these girls were kidnapped say the terrorists that took them seem to have had all the time in the world to carry out their dastardly act. They conveyed the girls in trucks into the Sambisa forest, a journey that took hours to complete. It is believed that if the Nigerian government had not been in denial, and had taken active measures to recover those girls, they would never have made it into the dungeon of the terrorist. Today, it is close to a year since the Chibok girls have been taken. The Chibok girls' kidnap has since become a worldwide phenomenon, with prominent world figures calling for Jonathan to "Bring Back our Girls". The Nigerian public was yet to recover from the shock of the Chibok girls kidnap when we began to learn of BH taking over town after town in Borno State, turning them into Islamic Caliphates. All of these along with hundreds of Nigerians killed who did not renounce their Christian faith. Then BH entered Adamawa State and ransacked Mubi, the second largest town in the state. Up till this moment, no one knows how the exact number of people that have been lost to the works of these evil animals. In both Maiduguri and Yola, refugee camps have been set up to take care of thousands of people displaced from their homes. The list is simply endless.

When the Jonathan government was requested to explain why these things were happening right under its watch, the government threw out the poser that some people were trying to make the nation ungovernable for Mr. President. Rueben Abati even took the matter further by blaming Gen. Buhari for this when he wrote in an article stating that Buhari had made the comments in the light of his loss to Jonathan in the 2011 elections. When Buhari took Abati to court on the matter, he and the Jonathan government had to settle out of court by writing an apology statement published by the Guardian Newspapers. While the government of Jonathan traded blames rather than take responsibility and carry out measures to stay the rapid intrusion of BH on the nation, BH reign of terror continued as they shifted base from Borno to Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and Adamawa States. The Nigerian armed forces too was beginning to feel the weight of the ineptitude of the government, as many soldiers refused to fight the insurgents, claiming they were ill equipped. The result was the court marshalling of a number of soldiers and officers and their being sentenced to death. As these matters went on, many soldiers were reporting through private social media accounts the gory matters going on at the war fronts. We heard stories of how funds that were meant to be used to equip the soldiers were being diverted into private pockets. Soldiers were sent to face their deaths in the hundreds as many could not refuse the orders of their superiors, despite being ill equipped. When the National Assembly instituted actions to investigate how the trillions of naira budgeted for the military to fight these insurgents seem to be going down the drain, the matter was frustrated and the investigations never took place.

Some people have suggested that a state like Borno State which has a large voters' population was not a priority for the government of Goodluck Jonathan since they had always voted en masse for Buhari, and were likely to vote for his again in 2015. They argue that allowing such a state to be plunged into a state of war might add to Jonathan's fortune at the coming poles. Some others felt that the Jonathan government just did not take the insecurity situation in North East Nigeria serious enough. They said that it did not occupy a priority for them. In all of these, nothing lends more credence to these positions than what had happened some five weeks ago since the elections were suddenly postponed. The excuse given then was that there was a need to improve on the security situation in the country before elections could proceed. Suddenly, what the Goodluck Jonathan government could not do in six years, it began to do in six weeks. We began to hear of the efforts of the Nigerian military as they recovered town after town from the BH insurgents. Many people could not but conclude that it took the fear of Jonathan loosing the coming elections for him to do what he was supposed to have done all this while. Unfortunately, the gains that the military have made in this short period of time have not improved Jonathan's rating at the poles. The President's negligence has cost the nation too much in terms of amount of lives lost; it is simply too late.

The stern truth is that Goodluck Jonathan has failed to secure this country. Too many lives have been lost for him to yet be entrusted with another four years in office. Some could even say that the blood of the dead is dripping from his hands. Whatever people say, one cannot but conclude that Jonathan singular sin was the insecurity his government failed at curtailing. The over 15,000 lives lost to the violence of BH under his watch cannot be blamed on anyone else but him. We must at this point thank him for the little he has done and show him the way home through the ballot boxes.

Fashina is a Media Consultant. He resides in Lagos. He can be reached through electronic_mails_4me@yahoo.com

THE VERDICT OF HISTORY

THE VERDICT OF HISTORY 

by Fashina George

What will tomorrow say of our actions today? Could it be that some of us act today without thinking of what verdict history shall give of our actions? Some hide behind the fact that the verdict of history will usually be the product of what the writers' of history choose to say of it. But what such people forget quickly is that regardless of the point of view of the historian, and regardless of the bias used to record an

A Historical fact

historical event, there are usually only one verdict history gives of that event. That verdict could either be good or bad. Wise men ensure that the decisions they take today, the words they speak, and the actions they carry out shall place them on the right side of history. When history shall give its verdict, it would pronounce some people good, others bad and it will describe some as ugly. I will be describing in this essay some people history is likely to place in the three aforementioned grouping and my desire for writing this is that those who might find themselves in some ignoble position in history as a result of their words and actions today could retrace their steps so that history might speak better of them tomorrow. This essay is prompted by the position of many players in the political scene as Nigeria gears up to another presidential election that is coming down to a choice between two individuals: the incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and his biggest opponent, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

I begin this discuss with a look at the bad. For me, as a supporter of Buhari in the coming elections, "the bad" are people who know for certain that Goodluck Jonathan is not competent enough to be reelected but must support him because of some pecuniary gain they stand to get. As it stands, a loss for Jonathan at the polls will be a loss to some people's source of illegal funding and corrupt enrichment. These are the people who cannot afford for an anti-corruption crusader like Buhari to be president. And they are the ones at the root of the campaign of calumny against the good General's name in numerous documentaries airing in prominent media houses around the country. These men and women are the Daniel Kanu's of our day. Daniel Kanu was the infamous gentleman who was planning to raise a million man march to campaign for Sani Abacha to transition from a military ruler to becoming a civilian president. If death had not come at the right time, Abacha was gunning for a lifetime presidency and an evil man like Daniel Kanu would have been at the root of it all. The historical account of the mid nineties in our country clearly shows that a man like Daniel Kanu was a "bad" in all sense of the word. Unfortunately, we have latter day Daniel Kanu's who would have us believe that Jonathan is the savior of Nigeria. They want us to know that what their principal could not do in six years, he plans to do in the next four. They see no problem with the insecurity in the land; they cannot understand that the death of over 15,000 men and women in north-east Nigeria at the hands of festering insurgency should be blamed on an administration that is not competent enough and on a Commander-in-chief that cannot command. These men and women are bad people because they are clearly fostering an incompetent leadership on the Nigerian people all because of what they stand to gain from it all. History will certainly give the verdict that such people were evil.

Next, we take a look at the ugly. An ugly sight is one that is not fitting to behold. The ugly in the present Nigerian electoral scenario are people blinded by ethnicity and religion in their choice in the coming election. Nigeria has the Muslim and Christian religion as the predominant religions in our society. Unfortunately the leading candidates are from these religions: Buhari a Muslim and Jonathan a Christian. Some people are ugly electorates because their choice of candidates is solely based on the religion the candidate is professing and not competence. While supporters of both Buhari and Jonathan can be guilty of this, the supporters of Jonathan are guiltier. The reason is because the lie that Buhari is seeking to Islamize Nigeria is raging more among Christians while no Muslim has ever been told that Jonathan is seeking to Christianize Nigeria, despite the fact that he is known to attend prominent Christian worship centers around the country, canvassing for votes. General Buhari has made it abundantly clear that he is seeking to preside over a secular Nigeria and that every man's religion, under his administration, shall be private. Those who investigated the manner he handled the question of Nigeria joining the Organization of Islamic

Politics beyond creed or tribe

Countries (OIC) have shown that the Buhari government of 1984 jettisoned the idea of Nigeria joining the IOC. While very few people know that Goodluck Jonathan is the only serving Nigerian head of state that has ever attended an IOC meeting. Unfortunately, the ugly would not believe this. Their manner of thinking is incredibly hard to behold and even reason with, so that sometimes the best option is to avoid these people entirely. The unfortunate part of the present political quagmire is that most Christians who appear undecided as to who to vote for in the coming elections can be found in this group. These people are certain that Jonathan is not competent enough to run a second term in office, but they cannot bring themselves to voting for a Muslim.

The other people that must be seen as ugly in my electoral grouping are those whose choice of candidature is purely based on ethnicity. Here some supporters of Buhari will appear to be guilty. But one must excuse the northerners for their tribal bias at this point. The first reason being that Goodluck Jonathan might have cheated the northerners out of their legitimate share to power. After the death of Yar'Adua in 2010, the right thing for Jonathan to have done was not to run for office. He had a wonderful opportunity to apply the recommendations of the Justice Uwais led Electoral Reform committee to changing the warped electoral process of Nigeria. He could have sat as an observer while at the same time overseeing an election that was certain to be free and fair, as an incumbent will not be running and the electoral reforms would have been adequately applied. Unfortunately, he did not. He however promised the northern people that he would be running a single term in office. This condition alone procured him support from many former head of state, prominent amongst them, Olusegun Obasanjo. Again, Jonathan reneged on this promise and is now running for a second term in office to the chagrin of his former supporter, Obasanjo, and the annoyance of the northern people. It is no surprise then that he has virtually zero support from the north, while Buhari, who already had a cult following from that region has, garnered their support. The insecurity in the north, which many believe Jonathan left to fester because he and some of his subordinates were benefitting illegally from it, has not helped him also. Quite naturally, the people of the South-south and the South-east have come to again support their own. What might differ this time in the political equation is that the All Progressive Congress(APC) has made inroads into the South-south, especially Rivers State, which has Gov' Amaech at its helm, a leading APC stalwart. There are also a number of people in the South-east who share the sentiments of the likes of Fr. Mbaka and are likely not to vote Jonathan in March 28th. And, finally, the South-south and South-east will not be able to ruse up astronomical figures for Jonathan as they successfully did in 2011 with a functional INEC card reader. In all of these we can still find an electorate that is ugly in sight because their choice of candidate is based solely on ethnic sentiments. One could excuse the northerners for their sentiments for Buhari but there is certainly no excuse for even a South-south or South-east person who votes for Jonathan; seeing that his six years in office has only recorded failures and to vote for him solely on ethnic grounds, is indeed an ugly sight to behold.

Finally, we take a look at the good. The good in this political situation are the opposite of the aforementioned in this article. Any man whose choice of candidate is not based upon what he would eat now but upon what his children's children will eat tomorrow is a good man. Any person whose choice of candidate is based on competence: on precedence; on record in public office; on the candidate's manifestos and plans for governance; is a good person. Any man or woman who chooses to vote in the coming election, not basing his choice on religion or tribe is a good person. History will speak well of these people because they are the ones who could judge the matters on ground rightly and make choices beyond primordial sentiments.

No person alive today wishes to be spoken of as an evil person in the days to come but this will be what will be said of the bad and the ugly this article has described so far. Nigeria occupies a momentous period today in her history and just as some good men and women are spoken of today as having helped deliver her from the grip of British colonial rule and years of military rule, so also will some men and women be recorded as having led the campaign to deliver her from the grip of neocolonialism - a colonial rule that has the rich and the wicked oppress the poor and the righteous. I am saying in effect that General Buhari represents the poor, suffering but righteous elements in Nigeria today and a support for him is a support for good. Those who will vote for Buhari would have transcended all these evil and ugly sentiments. These men and women shall have history declare that they were indeed good people.

Join the clamour for good in Nigeria. Vote Buhari/Osinbajo of the APC for president and vice president respectively on March 28th.

Vote for Change!

Fashina George is a media Consultant. He resides in Lagos, Nigeria.

SELMA and the Coming Elections

"You may ask ‘when will we be free of this darkness', I say to you today my brothers and sisters: despite the pain, despite the tears, our freedom will soon be upon us" - Martin Luther King (Jnr).

When the movie SELMA, starring the Nigerian Hollywood actor, David Oyelowo, made the big screens, the producers of the movie and its star actor, Oyelowo, came to Nigeria to premier it. They made it clear that the lessons the movie taught should add to the political discussions as the elections draw near and possibly help focus it towards better outcomes. The story of SELMA tell of the activities of the great human and black rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King (Jnr), in the town of Selma in the southern American State of Alabama in the year 1965, that spurred President Lyndon Johnson to move the United States Congress to pass a bill that struck out voting restriction in all elections in the United States. The price that was paid for this great

The Real 1965 Selma Protest

social reform to come to be, that of pain, deaths, sufferings, denials and betrayals, amongst the people of Selma, is what the movie is all about. One cannot but realize that as Nigeria faces the 2015 elections, which has the possibility of determining its future, there are similarities between the suffering black people of those days and the Nigerian masses; and thus an election year like this one can actually help us redeem ourselves from our oppressors like they did. The 1960s was the decade of social activism in the United States of America. The results are still far reaching, with a black man ruling that great nation today but the price paid was even greater. Confirming the words of the great English writer Mark Twain: "No people in the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion; it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed must (begin) in blood, whatever may answer afterwards".

Buhari

Nigeria has also had it own fair share of social reforms that have come through blood stained activism. One of them is the democracy we practice today. What we however see today is that at every juncture in our present history, this democracy stands on the peril of being truncated. This is because our democracy does not have a sound foundation. A constitution inherited from the military combined with an echelon of corrupt and undisciplined politicians have continued to make our democratic walk wobbly through the years. We find, however, an opportunity to get things right via the presidential candidature of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress. Buhari has been accused of truncating a democratically elected government of Shehu Shagarin in 1983. What his accusers never mention is that the government of Shagari was either going to truncate the future of Nigeria through brazen and galloping corruption, or it stood to be truncated. We are thankful to God that the latter happened. Buhari, either in or out of power, has succeeded in every public office assignment given to him. The consequence has always been that the General came out of each of such assignments even poorer than he went in. As chairman of the NNPC and someone who oversaw the construction of all existing refineries in the country today, Buhari never enriched himself illegally, neither does he own an oil block. His party, the APC, carried out a credible and transparent presidential primary in November 2014 that led to his emergence as the party presidential flag bearer. These are the revolution that the Nigerian political experiment has been witnessing in the past one year. The similarity with the story of SELMA is that the same way the black community stood oppressed by the whites in 1960 Americas, so also do the poor and ordinary Nigerian stand oppressed by a rich and corrupt political class. In Buhari, the ordinary Nigerian finds a representative because, although Buhari had had more than enough opportunity to enrich himself and join the corrupt political class, his high sense of integrity combined with his

Selma: The Movie

disciplined mien, has kept him from such. So that today, his leading credential is his integrity; a fact that his worst critic has not been able to dispute. Buhari represents the poor and oppressed Nigerian people, many of whom have decided to support him by purchasing the N100 "Buhari Support Organization" cards to lend their widow's mite for him. And in a dramatic sense, the biblical story of the widow played itself out in one of Buhari's campaign in Sokoto, when an eighty year old woman gave the General a million naira to support his campaign. It was a reluctant and tears filled Buhari that collected the money.

The 1965 Assault on Protesters

SELMA tells the story that non violence can overcome the most oppressive regime. Some have called for a revolution in this country. What they do not know is that most revolutions that turn violent usually have a beginning but no one can tell its end. In a democracy, the most effective revolution is a people coming out en-masse to vote out incompetent leadership. SELMA left a legacy of voting rights for all oppressed people around the world. Now that we can vote, we must come out and carry out our franchise in a manner that favors the ordinary man. Martin Luther King Jnr. Is the epitome of non violent protests for obtaining human rights and liberties. One of the protests that were carried out in those days, as depicted by the movie, went awry with local policemen beating and battering the protesters. In the process one Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot and killed. At the funeral of the young man, Dr. King said these words: "We will vote. We will put these men out of office. We will take their power. We will win what you were slaughtered for!" That is revolution. That is the power of what a voting public can do. If Nigerians are convinced that they could have a better deal, then they should heed the words of the late activists and come out and vote and take power from wicked men. If however they believe that this is the best life they could have and that Nigeria needs no change, they can continue with the status quo.

Oyelowo/King: Striking Resemblance

As for me and my house, we say "CHANGE!"

Pictures from Google.

OPEN LETTER TO PROF YEMI OSINBAJO

OPEN LETTER TO PROF YEMI OSINBAJO

by Deji Yesufu

I greet you sir in the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo

I trust God that it is well with you and all of yours. I, along with other Nigerians, came into this new week - a week preceding the coming election - with the news that the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), along with prominent members of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), held a meeting at the Redeemed Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway over the weekend, with you present, where it was said that the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan was endorsed over Gen. Buhari for the coming elections1. I wish to state categorically in this letter that CAN has not expressed the general opinion of Nigerian Christians. I want to encourage your spirit by saying that even if leading Pastors in this country have chosen Jonathan ahead of Buhari, your principal in the coming elections; there are some Nigerian Christians who disagree with this position. And I want to apologize to you for the trauma that you must have endured this last weekend as you watched men in the same work of Christ along with you, reject you for whatever reasons best known to them. I will start my letter to you by briefly telling you the story of my conversion to Buharism. Then I will try to locate the underlying motive behind the decision of these pastors in rejecting you. Finally, I would encourage you to focus on the task ahead of not just winning this election but also helping to salvage Nigeria from the grip of the lawlessness ones.

My Conversion to Buharism

As a Christian minister, there is an incidence in the bible that I am sure you are familiar with. It is one that involved the bible character Joshua. It reads: "13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? 14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 15 And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so."2 Many bible scholars agree that this story is one of many incidences where the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in his pre-incarnate form in the Old Testament. Here our Lord gives a relevant instruction to both Joshua and all of us Christians as you face probably the biggest warfare of your life. Joshua waned to know whether Jesus was for Israel or for the enemies. Jesus announces to him that he was for neither. In the process Joshua discovers something that causes him to worship God. I believe what Joshua discovered was that at the point of life's greatest wars, God never appears to take side with any group; rather he stands on the path of truth, verity and justice. And God will side with any group that has these elements present in their make up. I wish to state that God is neither for a Christian candidate in the election nor for a Muslim candidate; he neither for CAN or for a Muslim group; rather God is siding with any group or party that espouses the principles of truth, justice and

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari

development this country desperately needs at these times. Any other group that might mouth these tenets but deny them in practice will not have the support of the Almighty God.

These are essentially the sentiments that I came to grasp with when I converted to Buharism. Following Pastor Tunde Bakare and the Save Nigeria Group's endorsement of the candidacy of Gen. Buhari in December 2010, I gave the GMB option a thorough study and came to the conclusion that he was a better presidential candiditate in the 2011 elections. What solidified my position further was the attitude and sentiments expressed by fellow Christians to this decision of mine. It was clear to me that unlike our Lord and Savior who will side only with truth, Christians very readily threw away the Buhari option merely because he was a Muslim. The lie that he would Islamize Nigeria also did not help. On becoming a Buharist, I sat down to understudy the whole foundation of my faith in Christ and I discovered that many of it was faulty. Since then I have had to discard many cherished practices in the Christian faith and even leave the local assembly I had worshipped with for eight years. At the close of the day, Buharism brought me into a firmer and clearer grasp of the person of Jesus Christ. And I am sure anyone will agree that this is spiritual growth indeed. Buharism showed me that Christianity is not a mere religion but sincere love for human beings, regardless of the faith they profess. It showed me that truth and justice are the foundation on which God's throne was founded. It showed me that a person need not profess Christ to be used by him to better society. It showed me that God could still replay the story of Cyrus in rebuilding a fallen nation of Israel in our present political history. Despite my conversion to Buharism, I remain a Christian. But a Christian with a clearer grasp of the person of Jesus Christ. I am now a Christian that is not bound by mere religious sentiments or parochial mindsets. This is what I believe a lot of Christians become when they come to know and support the candidacy of Gen. Buhari.

The Motive of these Pastors in Rejecting You

About two weeks ago, a news items surfaced from one of the many online news agencies in our country. It said, among other things, that a certain individual had been given large sums of money from the presidency of Nigeria to distribute to leading pastors in this country to garner their support towards the coming presidential elections3. While the veracity of this news item can be disputed, it is yet to be refuted by the individual who was clearly named by the news agency. I hope to show here that the motive in rejecting you at that meeting last weekend may not be too far from this incidence. Jesus taught us that there are two gods men worship: mammon or God4. There are no other options. This challenge is bedeviling the Christian faith at the moment and the end result is that the motives that underlie people's actions generally in life might either be for gain or for God. It is not news anymore that Nigerian Christianity is becoming the leading harbinger of a money gospel that many have very appropriately labeled the prosperity gospel. Neither is it surprising that majority of the men who rejected you in that meeting are the leading propagators of the prosperity message in our country. While the prosperity message has many tenets that one cannot explore at the moment, the key point of it all is money: how to get it and how to retain it. Thus the harbingers of this message follow the gangster rapper's philosophy of life: "Get Money or Die Trying"5. This philosophy stands in stark contrast to that of our Lord that instructed us not to make money our god or that of the apostle Paul that taught that if we have food and clothing we should be content6.

Nigerian Pentecostal Pastors

Therefore, when these pastors who espouse a money gospel came face to face with deciding on who to support in the forthcoming elections, it was not difficult for them to decide against a sound and properly laid out manifesto of the APC; neither did they have any qualms in discarding brilliant minds in the person of yourself and other leading APC stalwarts; they could not see any virtue in a leader that has no trace of corruption in his record of public service in the person of Buhari; neither did they see the new opportunity for change that the APC offers. These pastors very easily chose what has from the foundation of their ministries informed every other decision they have made in the past: they simply chose what will bring them money, advantage, acceptance with the powers that be; they fell to the god of mammon and gain that they have all along worshipped.

The Road Ahead

I was part of the people who met with you at the "I Have Decided" rally held at Teslim Balogun Stadium two weekends ago. I had received an email requesting my presence and had to travel from Ibadan on short notice that weekend to see you enumerate in fifteen minutes the vision of the APC for the coming political dispensation. That vision is what I wish you will focus on now because we shall reach that goal as a nation by the help of God. At that meeting, you taught us, Christians and Muslims alike, to join forces together to deliver our streets, neighborhoods and offices to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming elections. The "Change" fever has since caught everyone and most people I know are ready to vote anything but this present contraption we call a government. I receive calls for money and aids from Pastors in Maiduguri and I realize that what I could actually give them to help salvage that besieged Nigerian city is a new government of Buhari who is known to have tackled insurgency in the past and can do it again.

The road ahead will include a preparedness to enter into the greatest assignment of your life so far, which is to lead the largest black nation on earth. A nation that has been bastardized by years of harlot leaders but which now has the opportunity to have a scion of the late Obafemi Awolowo lead her and help introduce and implement the hundreds of laudable ideas that late sage had written in his books. You have a great opportunity to do well for Nigeria in the coming years. The road ahead will also include forgiveness and a reevaluation of your faith in Christ. When you come to power, like Joseph did, you must forgive your brethren who are at the moment selling you away for a pot of red porridge. You are coming to power to help save Nigeria from imminent doom and this is the path that God has chosen for you. These men, who have rejected you now, will face their shame in the days to come. But it is your duty and mine to forgive them and help them realize the folly of their action. To employ the words of the sitting president when he came to power in 2011, General Buhari and yourself "must hit the ground running" from May 29th onwards.

There is so much to do. There is a nation to save and rebuild. There are insurgent elements all around the country that must be silenced. There is an economy to revamp. There is a nation to help place in the map of advancing countries in the world of science and technology. There is a sea of human capitals among Nigerians youths waiting to be harnessed to turn this nation into a developed country. There is an African continent waiting for Nigeria to offer the lead to development and progress. The list is endless. In short, Nigeria is waiting for the manifestation of a son of God7.

Conclusion

It is my sincere hope that the aim of this letter, which is to uphold your hand in the events of the coming elections, has been achieved.

I had argued in previous essays that Christians were not participating enough in

#IHaveDecided

partisan politics. I envisioned that a day will arise when a position shall be left in public office that a Christian alone could fill and there would hardly be anyone around to fill it. I am happy to see that when that situation arose in the APC, the leadership of the party found an experienced individual in your person to fill the gap. Despite your rejection by an arm of Christian leaders in the country, please be informed that a host of others support you. And more than anything else, the God of heaven is with you8.

Be rest assured that the prayers of God's people are with you and you have our unalloyed support in this mission. The duty of nation building is undoubtedly prominently connected with our responsibility to make disciples of all nations. If Nigeria, our Jerusalem, knows peace and progress; our calling to reach the world with the gospel of Christ will only be made a lot easier. Go forth and make history.

God bless you.

References

1. www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/02/02/bakare-blasts-can-pfn-for-endorsing-jonathan/www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/02/02/bakare-blasts-can-pfn-for-endorsing-jonathan/
2. Joshua 5:13-15
3. www.saharareporters.com/2015/01/29/kennedy-okpara-distributing-jonathan’s-bribes-pastors
4. Matthew 6:24
5."Get Money or Die Trying" is the name of the hit album by American Gangster Rapper 50cents. One finds that the Prosperity Preachers share similar philosophy with Rappers.
6. 1 Timothy 6:6
7. Romans 8:19
8. Hebrew 13:5

WHAT IS GOD SAYING?

WHAT IS GOD SAYING ABOUT WHO BECOMES NIGERIA'S NEXT PRESIDENT?

Revelation  1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

On the morning of the last Presidential election in 2011 that had president Jonathan pitted against Gen. Buhari, I had a strange experience. I am certain I heard no voice but I suddenly became aware that Buhari would loose the elections. Having put in so much effort in convincing friends about him, I was naturally disappointed but the "word" I received that morning was one of consolation because the conclusion seem to me then to be this: though Buhari will loose, time will show the Nigerian electorate that they made a mistake in rejecting him. Is February 14th 2015 the day Nigeria will rectify her mistake? I don't know. But I wish to say a thing about what God may possibly be saying about who becomes the next President of Nigeria.

We are in desperate times and with the advent of Pentecostal Christianity, many have simply given up the hard duty of faith and hope in God concerning issues of life, and simply turned to overnight prophets to tell them what the future holds. They thereafter pattern all their lives after these prophecies, many times to their own hurt. The coming elections have not been without its own share of prophecies. What gives me consolation is that the folly of the prophecies lie in the fact that God seem to be saying different things. The same God that prophecies continuity in one prophet, speak of change in another. Should it not be clear to us all that these prophets are hearing their own lusts?

On the other hand, their is a school of Christian thoughts that teach that God never speaks. This is an unhealthy extreme. How can we say the same God that made the mouth and ears, cannot speak? Sure he speaks in his word, the bible and he tells us that "my sheep hear my voice..." So God speaks and if we are not hearing him, we should return to him, possibly in repentance.

I believe that God has already spoken about who should be the next president of Nigeria. The question is not what he is saying but what are we hearing. The above scripture describes Jesus as one who speaks with a voice of many waters. Waters in scriptures denotes people. Christ speaks through his Word, people (good or bad), circumstances, etc. A truly spiritual man hears God everywhere because God has designed the whole world to proclaim himself. So that beholding the sunrise, nature, animals, etc, we can see God's love and providence. In life circumstances we can hear God's counsel concerning life issues. And concerning Nigeria, God has spoken.

God would have every Nigerian electorate to judge the candidates projecting themselves for President and conclude which of them from their precedence should be president. We have a sitting president who has spent six years in power. Has he done well enough to continue? What he claims to have not been able to do in six years, can he do it in another four years? Has he kept his promises? Is Nigeria safer under him? Are the corruption index lesser under him? Does he have what it takes to truly lead? Beyond religious sentiments, does Jonathan have a justification to seek another four years in office?

What about his leading contender at the poles? Does Buhari have what it takes to lead Nigeria? Has he succeeded in leadership responsibilities in the past? Beyond religion, what is his record on the matter of integrity and corruption? Does he possess a team that can revamp Nigeria? What is he promising to do? Are they practical? Does Nigeria deserve to continue in the same direction or do we deserve another try in another direction? What are Buhari's credentials regarding combating terrorists? Has he done it before; can he do it again? What about corruption: does Buhari possess a body language that supports corruption?

These are what God is saying. God has not told anyone who will become the next Nigerian of president. Whoever said he had such is "prophelying". God is speaking through the "many waters" of the Nigerian situation and asking the Nigerian electorate to judge for themselves and decide by themselves who they feel is most competent to rule this country. Indeed God's voice is intertwined with the voice of the Nigerian people. Whoever we vote into power is God's will for us.

That, ladies and Gentlemen, is what God is saying to the Nigerian nation.

BUHARI AND THE RELIGION FACTOR

Buhari

No matter how we look at it, the two leading factors that will determine the manner with which people will vote in the coming presidential elections are religion and ethnicity. In my previous essay, I had come down hard on Christians for their inability to objectively weigh the candidature of Gen. Muhammadu “Okechuckwu” Buhari beyond the mere fact that he was a Muslim. But if I must be honest with myself, I will admit that the majority of those voting for Buhari  are doing so because they are of the same relgion with him or they are from the northern of Nigeria. So the Christians should not be blamed too much. Following the dismal performance of President Goodluck Jonathan in office this past six years, Muslims in the south-west are generally rooting for Buhari. Christians are largely divided over voting for Goodluck Jonathan. Many Christians agree that Jonathan has not performed well in office these six years but they still cannot fathom the thought of voting in a Muslim into office – especially one that they allege to be a fundamentalist. As we face the 2015 elections, the ethnic factor will yet play a deciding role on who becomes president too. It can be taken for granted that the core north will be voting overwhelmingly for Buhari, while the South-south and the South-east (in spite of the public denunciation of Jonathan by Fr. Mbaka) will vote largely for Jonathan. The South-West will be the deciding factor for the coming elections and the All Progressive Congress (APC) in choosing a South-western Christian as Vice-Presidential Candidate, may actually have thrown in the joker that will cause for the elections to favor Buhari in “FeBUHARI”14th.

In this essay I hope to analyze the religious aspect of the coming elections and come to conclusions that would favor Buhari in the coming elections. Despite being a professing Christian, I think that religion can have a negative consequence on the manner people handle issues of life. That is why any true Christian with knowledge

of scriptures will agree that religion is an antithesis of what Jesus Christ advocated. In fact I could argue further that it was religion, helped by the political powers of that time, which crucified Jesus on the cross. So when he rose again and bequeathed Christianity to us, he certainly was not giving us mere religious duties to observe. Our Lord bequeathed a way of life that will transcend religion in all aspects. When the ordinary man looks at the true Christian, he might conclude that he is a man of religion but the Christian knows that what he practices goes beyond religion. So despite the fact that the coming elections will be determined by whether  the leading candidates are either Christians or Muslims, I am particularly interested in expressing the views of some folks like myself who are not blindly led by religion in their decision making. These men and women are not religious in the strict sense of the word and so can judge the candidates objectively. I hope that my conclusions will help other people roped into viewing the candidates from a religious prism alone cease from doing this. As a Christian, my essay is directed to other Christian. I am arguing basically that even if the Muslim decides to vote Buhari on mere religious sentiments alone, the true Christian, not bound by the blind folding nature of religion, should not be voting Jonathan on religious sentiments too.

Sunday Adelaja

Pastor Sunday Adelaja is a charismatic pastor of the Pentecostal type and leads one of the largest churches in Europe. In a six part paper series the cleric lent his voice to the candidature of Gen. Buhari. He explained in his papers that he was not initially decided on who to vote for until the APC picked Prof. Osibanjo as Buhari’s running mate. Knowing Osibanjo well, it was not difficult for him to pitch his tent with the team Buhari. Following this development, he took his time to research the man Buhari and he published his discoveries in his papers. This man’s Damascus-like conversion to Buharism reminds me of how I also became a Buharist. I had been a long time enthusiast of Pastor Tunde Bakare. One day in December 2010, a friend of mine approached me in church and told me that the Save Nigeria Group, the civil society group Bakare leads, has thrown in their support for Buhari. I couldn’t believe it, “Buhari ke” I said in Yoruba vernacular. Days after that time I took my time to research the person of Buhari and came to same conclusions that Pastor Adelaja enumerated in his papers. What was the challenge initially was that I could not think of voting Buhari before this time in December 2010 because I was largely ignorant of his person and was falsely informed by the information his enemies had sold out on him. The truth was that Buhari was not even among my first three candidates at that time. Unfortunately majority of Christians who cannot fathom themselves voting for Buhari today were like me in 2010: bound by religious and ethnic prejudice, and largely ignorant or misinformed on the person of Buhari. You may look up the essay of Pastor Adelaja to see some of the things about Buhari that he enumerated there but I will just pick on a few and discuss them here.

One thing the Pastor discussed about that I wish to shed light on was the manner with which Christians were failing to obey the Golden Rule Jesus Christ gave to us. The Golden Rule simply states that every man should treat other men the way and manner they themselves wish to be treated (Matthew 7:12). Pastor Adelaja explained that if Buhari had been associating with Muslim clerics in the same manner and frequency that Jonathan does with Christian leaders, he would have been called something worse than the Muslim fundamentalist that he is being alleged to be today. The Pastor wonders why no one calls Jonathan a Christian fundamentalist. He even goes further to explain that the Muslim community in Nigeria has been more tolerant of Christians than Christians have been of their Muslim counterpart and I

Religious Harmony

think this is a great indictment on the church. Incidentally, the occasion that led many Christians to conclude that Buhari is a Muslim fundamentalist was the one occasion in 2001 where he chaired an Islamic program that was discussing the shariah. His statements in that program were misconstrued to mean he was advocating shariah for the nation and it was also published in ThisDay Newspaper. Buhari has since explained his true position on the matter(), but the Christian inquisitionists have refused to hear and have run to town with their own version of the story. It is not enough for them when they are told that as paramount ruler of this country in 1984/85, Buhari did not Islamize Nigeria, rather Christians were predominant on his cabinet. Many have explained how Buhari’s close associates in his private life are Christians and the fact that in all his four times running for President, he has only had Christian running mates. No one has been able to provide a verifiable document for the lie that Buhari sought to bring Nigeria into the IOC when he was head of state. All that the Christian needs to do at this moment is to judge Buhari in the same manner with which he himself wishes to be judged.

All available evidence shows that Buhari is a true Muslim. A man of religion who religious persuasions have informed his manner of life both in private and public. Very few people know that despite the liberty that his religion permits him in regards to the numbers of wives he could marry, Buhari had only always been married to one wife at a time. His first wife had four girls for him and this did not push him to marry another wife so as to give him a male child. Buhari’s leading problem might be his inability to trumpet himself – the very mark of a man of integrity. The Babangida government that slammed him in jail for three years after he was removed from office could not find one evidence of corruption against him. The Obasanjo government that proscribed the PTF that he chaired could not find one evidence of corruption against him. He remains the only former head of State that does not have a foreign account. He remains the only former chairman of NNPC that owns no oil rig. Following the 2011 elections, he had to move out of the apartment he rented in Abuja because he could not afford to pay the rent. At the moment he still owes his party, the APC, N21.5 Million on the presidential form that he bought, which he

The People’s General

insists on paying for himself. He is said to collect only 10% of the monthly allowance that the government pays past heads of state. He wrote a letter to the ministry of finance explaining that the money that was supposedly meant for him was too much and will amount to corruption if he accepts it. Buhari built only one house for himself in Kaduna and inherited another from his father in Daura, Katsina State. Every function he has undertaken to carry for Nigeria following his retirement from the military has always been for free as he insists that the government was already paying his pension allowance. It is not for nothing that the northern people call his “mai gaskiya”. Buhari, over the years, has shown himself to be a man of integrity and one that is committed to truth. It was his penchant for sticking to what is right that led to his government being overthrown in 1985, as corrupt elements in the military were becoming increasingly threatened by his upright manner of life and saw to it that he was gotten rid of. Prof Pious Adesanmi, in a recent debate on the coming election, argued that the only problem with the Nigeria system was the lack of integrity found in virtually all of its institutions. He then proposed that it makes abundant sense to elect a man like Buhari with integrity to lead this country in a time like this. Hopefully, his life of integrity will rub off Nigeria and all that is our problem will begin to find solution.

I wish to remind my Christian brethren who are still not settled on the candidature of Buhari to look up the life and words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ never advocated any religion. In fact many believe that Jesus was not even a Christian – he would more accurately be called a Judaist. Jesus however taught a basic principle and that is that the true godly man was the man who does what is right not just the man who professes what is right (Matthew 7:21). We have all sort of leaders in this country, including the present that professes Christianity but is alleged to have a “body language” that supports corruption. None of these leaders have measured up to Buhari in integrity. In the same manner that he towers over all past leaders in physical height, so also does he lead them in integrity and manner of life. Nigeria is in desperate times again and in the same manner that Buhari and his colleagues helped save Nigeria from collapse in the second republic, Providence may have returned him again to help deliver this nation now. I call on my Christian brethren to vote beyond religious sentiments; to look up the lives of the candidates presenting themselves for president; and to vote based on the conclusions they find. The conclusion that I have found on Gen. Buhari based on the information I have on him is that this man is a man of integrity and a man that possesses the requisite qualities to lead Nigeria in these times.