Fellow Nigerians, let me confess that I have a
soft spot for men of God, especially Pastors. The
reason can’t be difficult to fathom. I’m not just
a Christian; I had the great privilege of being
born by my heavily spiritual mum and dad in an
Aladura church in Ile-Ife. That was in the good
old days when men and women truly served God
and prayed more than a praying mantis. We
never doubted the efficacy of prayers or the
supremacy of the almighty. We lived side by side
with Muslims, animists, atheists and sometimes
worshipped with them or indeed, practised
whatever we chose to practice. That was your
own business.
We celebrated every festival. We even sometimes
chose to fast during Ramadan. For us, it was all
fun, sitting down in the evenings, under the stars
or moonlight, breaking fast with our Islamic
neighbours. Or waking up in the early hours to
partake in feast called Saari. Wow, my mouth
and tongue are salivating together as I go
through this process of recollection. We attended
the same schools with the children of the
privilegentsia. The only difference was that a few
of them rode to school in chauffeur-driven cars,
even convertible Chevrolets and Phantom Rolls
Royces like Ooni Aderemi’s children and grand
children, while most of us ‘rode’ on our legs.
But it wasn’t really a big deal as we lived happily
as one.
A brief recital of my family’s religious origin is
even worth repeating here and now. My paternal
grandparents were Muslims from Ihievbe village,
in the present day Edo State, Owan East Local
Government. I can’t remember ever meeting my
paternal grandmother but I knew my paternal
grandfather as Baba Onirungbon Yeuke (a
character from one of D. O. Fagunwa’s novels)
because he had that long and curly beard like a
Rastafarian. He was gentle and meek and prayed
to Allah endlessly.
I often wonder how my father migrated from our
village and meandered his way all the way to
Ile-Ife where he met my beautiful mum, fell in
love and got married. It is even stranger to me
how a son of such a devout Muslim navigated
himself from the Islamic faith to converting to
Christianity. Not just that, he picked up the name
of Jacob and my eldest brother picked up the
name Simeon while I was given the name Joseph
at birth as if to cement the nature of my birth
and foretell my future as someone who would
make certain forecasts as a journalist.
The essence of my preamble is to rhapsodise
about how beautiful and tolerant life was in
those wonderful old days before we lost our
innocence in recent times. It is strange how
things have changed since then. I think the
churches in the bid to catch the new generation
over-funkyfied the way we now worship. Religion
has almost become an arm and leg of showbiz.
And the Pastors have lost control in this era of
totalitarian freedom. Beyond that, there are too
many challenges confronting our youths today.
The first is the collapse of education. The second
is the lack of jobs even if you manage to
graduate from one of our troublesome
institutions. The third is lack of social welfare.
The fourth is lack of hope in the foreseeable
future. The last but not the least of the
debilitating factors is lack of parental care and
attention.
To further compound the volatility of our
combustive situation, our churches have misread
and misjudged these children of hate and anger
who attend services with their attention
elsewhere. What I’m trying to hint at and explain
is that our men of God must wake up to the
shocking realities of the 21st century. These
youths have acquired a massive power via
information technology. Indeed it is almost akin
to a god they worship. Many of them have
become so paranoid about life and our society
so much that they see virtually everyone as the
enemy who contributed to their misery and
disillusionment.
These youths can be divided into three
categories. The first are those who have
managed to survive against all odds and are
trudging on with the hope of a greater tomorrow.
The second are those acutely frustrated who
have given up on society as it is and believe
they can cause a peaceful or bloody revolution in
the land. This category breaks into two parts;
those who prefer the subtle approach and would
encourage the democratic process and those
who feel the whole system should come all
tumbling down. The last are those with
inordinate ambition who feel they can only make
it in life by being errand boys to every
government in power. Their mission is to survive
any government in power and preserve the status
quo with the hope of picking up some crumbs, or
even power itself, sooner or later.
To exacerbate matters, the long and short of our
current dilemma is that our politicians have
succeeded in tearing our social fabric apart using
the instrumentality of religion. What I find most
bizarre is the present game of trading ridiculous
religious propaganda. The Christian politician
tells us to beware of Muslims who may choose
to Islamise Nigeria. The Muslim tells us to avoid
Christians who are likely to Christianise the
Northern Muslims. For God’s sake why are we
doing this to ourselves at this time and age
when smaller and less prosperous nations are
doing great things devoid of religious wranglings.
Our proclivity for matters of faith seems to have
assumed the most dangerous dimension in the
course of campaigning for the February 2015
Presidential elections. The visit of our President
to Bishop David Oyedepo’s church last Sunday
was the climax of it for me. Since I joined
Twitter and became addicted to it, I doubt if I’ve
ever witnessed the torrents of attacks that came
out of that innocuous visit. A new coinage THE
GATE OF HELL went viral because it was
reported by God knows who that the famous
Bishop rebuked those opposed to the second
term ambition of Mr President, promising to
banish them to the Gate of Hell and lock them
in. Till this day, I have searched fruitlessly for
any such statement and found none.
I have endeavoured to watch the video of the
Presidential visit which was mercifully uploaded
on YouTube and nothing of the sort emanated
from the Bishop unless the full footage had been
cleverly edited which I doubt. I’m one of those
converts to Buharism but I will never support
anything that would further divide our nation.
I’ve had only two encounters with Bishop
Oyedepo and he left me in awe of him on both
occasions. The first was a Virgin Atlantic flight
to London many years back and he sat next to
me and we chatted like we were old buddies. I
was impressed with his simplicity and candour.
The last time I saw him was about three years
ago in Ghana at the opening of Jimoh Ibrahim’s
Energy Bank. As soon as I walked into the board
room and greeted everyone, I noticed that Bishop
Oyedepo and everyone in the office remained
standing and I said to him, “Daddy, you can’t
stand up for me sir”, to which he replied, “I have
to stand up for our future President.” I was truly
humbled by such humility. Therefore, I’m always
sad to read all those vicious attacks on this
great man of God.
I have read many reports about his fabulous
wealth, his private jets, his expensive
universities, etcetera, and concluded that the
Bishop is a victim of success. Chief MKO Abiola
had a way of putting it succinctly: the bigger the
head, the bigger the headache. I don’t know of
anyone who would tell the number one citizen of
Nigeria not to attend his church for fear of a
political backlash. And if the President comes,
his duty is to bless the august visitor. Even our
Lord Jesus Christ did not discriminate against
anyone.
What has happened is that many of our young
folks want to know where our Pastors stand
today and that can’t be an easy task. They want
to know if our respected clergymen feel what the
rest of society feels. This is the basis of all this
agitation.
In fact, I don’t envy our Daddy G O, Pastor E. A
Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of
God. Many of these young guys have been
asking how neutral can he be now that a senior
respected Pastor under his mentorship, Professor
Yemi Osinbajo SAN is now the Vice Presidential
candidate of APC. The dilemma is further
compounded by the fact that the President
enjoys a warm relationship with Pastor Adeboye.
It is not going to be easy but God will guide His
men aright. They will still pray for everyone
fortunate to come in contact with them. I was a
beneficiary of such blessing during my own
Presidential campaign. We need to appreciate
the enormity of their responsibilities to society at
large.
Our leaders also have some lessons to learn
from this debacle. They should try to visit
Pastors as anonymously and incognito as
possible. I did so when I contested in 2011
choosing to visit one of the most revered Pastors
Daddy Adeboye in his office at the Camp,
unobtrusively after one of the Church’s major
celebrations.
It would be terrible if we open up our icons to
public odium because some leaders want to
exploit the Pastors’ spirituality and popularity to
electoral advantage. The religious card being
played is fast becoming ineffective and divisive.
A top Pastor sent me a few messages which I
intend to consolidate and paraphrase and share
with you because of their relevance given the
climate of religious hatred being fomented by our
politicians.
“Good day people, vote your conscience. Don’t
be manipulated. If your Pastor says don’t vote
for a Muslim, ask him if Daniel served a Saint,
whether Modeccai did not serve King Ahasseurus
and if Joseph was not a Prime Minister under
Pharaoh. This election is not about North versus
South, nor is it about Christian versus Muslim. It
is about Nigeria and good governance. Don’t
allow politicians to divide us. When they share
money, they don’t talk about religion. When they
want donation from Aliko Dangote, they don’t
remember he is a Muslim. When they enter an
aircraft, they don’t ask the religious faith of the
pilot… They and their wives go to Dubai to spend
money. Dubai is in the United Arab Emirate but
they have no problem buying houses there. But
when it comes to politics back home, they say
their opponents want to Islamise you…
“Vote for your conscience. If you want to vote for
Jonathan, vote for him based on your conviction
that he has performed in your estimation and not
because he’s a Christian. If you want to vote for
Buhari, vote for him because you feel
disenchanted with the Jonathan government, not
because he is a Muslim. Say no to bigotry. God
bless Nigeria…”
There is nothing more to add. The choice is
yours. Decide on who your preference is. It shall
be well with our nation… !
Tags: Backpage , Featured, Pastors

a good article,but turn partisan at the latter stage,no one can be upright again

Ooto oro bi omo iya isokuso. Tell them, he who has ear to hear, let him hear.

That is why the end game remains pulling out of that country at the best opportunity.