Category: Discourse

THE graduation is a joyous occasion to the institute, as it demonstrates the continued resolve of the management to achieve the enviable dreams of the founding fathers of the institute. Let me for the umpteenth time, salute the revolutionary vision of the founding fathers, who established the institute for the training of Nigerians for the nation’s petroleum industry.

The wisdom of these men and women realised early at the inception of the Petroleum industry in Nigeria, that indigeneous human capacity will be critical, not only for the development of the industry alo for creating value for the economy will long be remembered.

Since PTI was established by Decree No 37 of 1972, several events at national and international levels have continued to justify its creation. Just three years ago, precisely on April 22, 2010, the President and Coomander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, signed into law the Nigerian Content Act and established the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to implement it. By doing so, Dr. Jonathan demonstarated an uncommon willto to push through the policy of increased indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry.

The soon expected passage into law of the petroleum industry will be another landmark in the history of the petroleum industry, with unquantifiable positive implication for local capacity for the industry. We are most honoured to have among us today the driver and catalyst of these twin landmark policy initiatives in the person of our indefatigable Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs Alison-Madueke (CON).

In Africa, the acute shortage of technical Manpower in many African Petroleum Producers’ Association (APPA) member-countries has been a source of concern for the association. To solve this problem, APPA in collaboration with the government of Egypt has established an African Petroleum Institute (AFPI) in Egypt to produce the required technical manpower. I am happy to inform you that Nigeria represented by the Institute was a member of the five member-countries committee that accomplished the task.

For the 40 years of its existence, it is on record that PTI has been consistent as the sole supplier of fit-for-purpose technical manpower to the Nigerian and other African countries’ oil and gas industry. Our ability to do this stems from our culture of excellence nurtured by hard work. The institute’s education and training programmes are underpinned by the highest quality and standards. Our tamper proof admission process, which ensures that we admit students who have the preparation and motivation to take full advantage of the institute’s distinctive educational and training experience is complemented by quality curricula and assessment. We constantly invest in the capacity development of our faculty and staff as part of our quality management system.

As an institute dedicated to excellence, we realise that quality is a moving target, which must be followed to keep pace with it. We have, therefore, with the tacit support of the Federal Government, been strategically refocusing to meet the evolving industry’s demand for certified technicians and technologists. It might interest you to know that through the PTDF upgrade project of the Federal Government, the institute is now equipped with several cutting-edge industry grade facilities. Top of the long list of such facilities for training and research in different disciplines are the Drilling Simulator (DRILLSIM (000) and TESTSIM 5000 which are the first of their kinds in any research facilities in different disciplines are the Drilling Simulator(DRILLSIM 6000, which are the first of their kinds in any training institution in the World. These simulators – are used for the training of all categories of personnel involved in onshore and offshore drilling operations.

Apart from the upgrade project, the Federal Government also approved three strategic capital projects with which the institute intends to extend its services to critical areas of need. The projects located at the institute’s Osubi land are: the Centre for Corrosion Study, the Skill Acquisition Centre and the Fire Academy. Most of these projects have been completed. I am confident that the remaining ones will soon be completed.

It may interest you to know that the motivation for a special skill acquisition centre arose from the need to address the problem of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta through a well-articulated skill acquisition and entrepreneurship programme. We deeply appreciate the encouragement, patronage and show of concern by oil and gas companies, governmental bodies and other stakeholders who have assisted in addressing the problem of youth restiveness through the patronage of our skill acquisition programmes. I wish to specially thank Brass LNG, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Chevron Nigeria Limited, Ondo State Oil Producing Areas, Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Rivers State Government, Other government agencies and individuals for the patronage. Let me also use this opportunity to appeal to other companies to key into this programme.

Today, we are gathered here to celebrate scholarship and achievements. For our dear graduating students who imbibed the institute’s culture of excellence through hard work, this is your pay day. In this ceremony your hard work, diligence and focus shall be rewarded with diplomas, certificates and prizes. At the end of this ceremony you can say with confidence and pride that you are, indeed, graduates of PTI. I salute your sense of hard work. I urge you, therefore, to ensure that in whatever you do, you let the fear of God, diligence, hard work be your guiding principles. I wish you success in your future endeavours.

While congratulating the graduates, it will be immodest to fail to congratulate the Management, faculty, staff and students and friends of the institute as well as the host communities and the petroleum industry in general because the milestone we are celebrating is a function of collective commitment geared tpwards the accomplishment of the objectives of the institute. I most thankfully acknowledge the donations and complimentary messages from various companies that responded to our appeal for assistance towards the success of this convocation.

We are gratefully for your noble gesture and look forward to more fruitful years of cooperation between your organisations and the institute. I thank you once again for your presence and attention. I wish you safe journey back to your respective destinations.

God bless you all! who realised early at the inception of the petroleum industry in Nigeria, that indigenous human capacity but also for creating value for the economy will long be remembered.

Since PTI was established by Decree No. 37 of 1972, several events at national and international levels have continued to justify its creation. Just three years ago, precisely on April 22, 2010, the President and Commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, signed into law the Nigerian Content Act and established the Nigerian content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to implement it. By doing so, the federal Government under Dr. Jonathan demonstrated an uncommon will to

Text of a lecture delivered by Dr. Jhalil Balewa, a US-based medical doctor, at the third Afe Babalola Law Lecture held at the Aafe Babalola Multipurpose Auditorium, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti.

Early History: There is no river without a source. I ask for a little indulgence to go through our history so we can surgically analyse how we got to this state before we rush into a curative regimen. All evidence suggests the early settlement of Nigeria millennia before the spread of agriculture 3.000 years ago. The earliest culture in Nigeria is identifiable by the distinctive artefacts of the Nok people. These skilled artisans and ironworkers flourished between the fourth century B.C. and the second century A.D. in a large area above the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers.

Long before 1500 A.D. much of present-day Nigeria was divided into states, which can still be linked to the modem ethnic groups that trace their history to the origins of these states. These early states included the Yoruba kingdoms, the Edo kingdom of Benin. The Hausa cities, and Nupe. In addition, numerous small states to the west and south of Lake Chad were absorbed or displaced in the course of the expansion of Kanem, centered to the northeast or Lake Chad. Borno, initially the western province of Kanem, became independent in the late fourteenth century.

The sixteenth century marked a high point in the political history of northern Nigeria. Borno dominated the region for 200 years. Despite Borno’s hegemony, the Hausa states wrestled for ascendancy among themselves for much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is a major reason for an understated logger-heads between the Kanuris of the northeast and the rest of the Hausa-Fulani northern Nigeria, a fact that goes over the heads of most of our policy gurus.

European Slave Trade in West Africa: By 1471 Portuguese ships had reconnoitered the West African coast south as far as the Niger-Delta. Portugal’s lasting legacy for Nigeria was its initiation of the transatlantic slave trade. The Dutch took over Portuguese trading stations on the coast that were the source of slaves for the Americas. French and British competition later undermined the Dutch position, and Britain became the dominant slaving power in the eighteenth century.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the area that was to become Nigeria was far from a unified country. Furthermore, the orientation of the north and the south was entirely different. The savanna states of Hausaland and Borno in the north had experienced a difficult century of political insecurity and ecological disaster but otherwise continued in a centuries-long tradition of slow political and economic change that was similar to other parts of the savanna. The southern areas near the coast, by contrast, had been swept up in the transatlantic slave trade. Political and economic change had been rapid and dramatic. By 1800 Oyo, a constitutional monarchy, governed much of southwestern Nigeria, while the Aro, another polity, had consolidated southeastern Nigeria into a confederation. Both Oyo and the Aro confederacy were major trading partners of the slave traders from Europe and North America.

Colonial Nigeria: In 1885 at the Berlin Conference, the European powers attempted to resolve their conflicts of interest in Africa by allotting areas of exploitation. The conferees also enunciated the principle, known as the “dual mandate,” that the interests of both Europe and Africa would best be served by maintaining free access to the African continent for trade and by providing Africa with the benefits of Europe’s civilizing mission. Britain’s claims to a sphere of influence in the Niger Basin were acknowledged formally, but it was stipulated that only effective occupation would secure full international recognition. In the end, pressure from France and Germany hastened the establishment of effective British occupation and the creation of protectorates in northern and southern Nigeria.

Frederick Lugard, who assumed the position of high commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria in 1900, was occupied with transforming the commercial sphere of influence inherited from the Royal Niger Company into a viable territorial unit under effective British political control. His objective was to conquer the entire region and to obtain recognition of the British protectorate by its indigenous rulers, especially the Fulani emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate. Lugard’s immediate successor, Hugh Clifford (1919-25), introduced a diametrically opposed approach emphasising Western values. In contrast to Lugard, Clifford restricted the power of the northern emirs by scaling back indirect rule, while in the south he saw the possibility of building an elite educated in European-style schools. This was as the first evil seed of our present day problem.

British colonialism created Nigeria, joining diverse peoples and regions in an artificial political entity with little sense of a common Nigerian nationality. Inconsistencies in British policy reinforced cleavages based on regional animosities by attempting simultaneously to preserve the indigenous cultures of each area and to introduce modem technology and Western political and social concepts. In the north, appeals to Islamic legitimacy upheld the rule of the emirs, so that nationalist sentiments there were decidedly anti-Western.

Independence and Civil War: By an Act of the British Parliament, Nigeria became an independent country within the Commonwealth on October 1 1960, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the first and only Prime Minister and head of government. In 1963 Nigeria became a Republic within the Commonwealth. The change in status called for no practical alteration of the constitutional system. The President elected to a five-year term by a joint session of the parliament, replaced the crown as the symbol of national sovereignty and the British monarchy as the Titular Head of State. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the Republic’s first President.

One of the most important developments during the I960s was the declaration of independence by the Eastern Region in 1967, followed by a 30-month civil war. In the face of increased sectarian violence, the Eastern Region’s military governor, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was under pressure from Igbo officers to assert greater independence from the Federal Military Government (FMG). Ultimately, on May 30, 1967, Ojukwu proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra. He cited as the principal cause for this action the government’s inability to protect the lives of predominantly lgbos and suggested its culpability in genocide.

Initially, the FMG launched “police measures” to restore the authority of Lagos in the Eastern Region, but soon full-scale civil war broke out. Finally, in January 1970 Biafran resistance collapsed, and the FMG reasserted its authority over the area. An estimated I to 3 million died from hostilities, disease, and starvation during the civil war, and more than 3 million lgbo became refugees. The economy of the region was shattered. In several years, however, the Nigerian government achieved the rehabilitation of 70 per cent of the industry incapacitated during the war.

The Federal Government granted funds to cover the region’s operating expenses for an interim period, and much of the war damage was repaired. This single act was greatest disservice to Nigeria, the beginning of gross corruption-contracts, conspicuous consumption, absolute power abuse and unfettered disdain for law and order — to mention a few of the ills that were introduced. The regions had self-sustenance before and contributed to the fiscal functioning of the centre i.e. the Federal Government. This was the first time the Federal Government did not just trickle down but took total fiscal control of a region. Since then our regions produced nothing of substance and now became wards of the Federal Government. This was the quoin of our national moral decay.

Coups and Mostly Military Government: In the postwar period, all significant political power remained concentrated in the FMG. The influence of Yakubu (Jack) Gowon who had come to power in a 1966 coup, depended on his position as chairman of the Supreme Military Council, which was created in March 1967. The regime ruled by decree in October 1970, Gowon announced his intention of staying in power until I976, the target year for completion of the military’s political program and return to an elected civilian government. But many Nigerians feared that the military planned to retain power indefinitely. ln 1972, Gowon partially lifted the ban on political activities that had been in force since 1966 in order to permit a discussion of a new constitution that would pave the way for civilian rule. The debate that followed was ideologically charged, and Gowon abruptly terminated the discussion.

The Gowon regime came under fire because of widespread and obvious corruption at every level of national Iife. Inefficiencies compounded the effect of corruption. Crime also posed a threat to national security and had a seriously negative impact on efforts to bring about economic development. The political atmosphere deteriorated to the point where Gowon was deposed in a bloodless military coup in July 1975. The armed forces chose as Gowon’s successor Brigadier (later General) Murtala Ramat Muhammad a Muslim northerner. Muhammad was assassinated during an unsuccessful coup in February 1976, but in a short time his policies had won him broad popular support, and his decisiveness elevated him to the status of national hero. He had sought to restore public confidence in the Federal Government, reduce government expenditures on public works, and encourage the expansion of the private sector. He also set in motion the stalled machinery of devolution to civilian rule by a commitment to hand over power to a democratically elected government by October 1979.

Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, succeeded Muhammad. Keeping the established chain of command in place, Obasanjo pledged to continue the program for the restoration of civilian government in 1979 and to carry forward the reform program to improve the quality of public service. In 1979 under Ubasanjo’s leadership, Nigeria adopted a constitution based on the Constitution of the United States that provided for a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The country was now ready for local elections, to be followed by national elections that would return Nigeria to Civilian rule. Obasanjo also initiated plans to move the federal capital from Lagos to a more central location in the interior at Abuja. Ultimately, Abuja became the country’s capital in December 1991.

The Second Republic, 1979—83: In 1979 live revamped parties competed in national elections, marking the beginning of the Second Republic. The presidential succession from Obasanjo to a civilian, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was the first peaceful transfer of power since independence. Nigeria’s Second Republic was born amid great expectations. Oil prices were high, and revenues were on the increase. It appeared that unlimited development was possible. Unfortunately, the euphoria was short-lived. A number of weaknesses beset the Second Republic. First, the coalition that dominated federal politics was not strong, and in effect the victorious National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Shagari governed as a minority. Second, there was a lack of cooperation between the NPN-dominated Federal Government and the 12 states controlled by opposition parties. Third, and perhaps most importantly the oil boom ended in mid-I981, precisely when expectations of continuous growth and prosperity are at a height. The recession that set in put severe strains on the Second Republic. This epoch started our hollow romance with ‘our democracy,’ where our campaigns were limited to regional, ethnic, and religious instincts alone, no sharp ideological differences amongst political parties or whatever they will offer to the citizenry.

Return to Military Rule: On December 31 1983, the military seized power once again, primarily because there was virtually no confidence in the civilian regime. The leader of the coup d’etat was Major General Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner whose background and political loyalties tied him closely to the Muslim north and the deposed government. The military regime tried to achieve two goals. First, it attempted to secure public support by reducing the level of corruption; second, it demonstrated its commitment to austerity by trimming the federal budget. In a further effort to mobilise the country, Buhari launched a “War Against Indiscipline” in the spring of 1984. This national campaign, which lasted 15 months, preached the work ethic, emphasised patriotism, decried corruption, and promoted environmental sanitation. However, the campaign achieved few of its aims.

The economic crisis, the campaign against corruption, and civilian criticism of the military undermined Buhari’s position, and in August 1985, a group of officers under Major General Ibrahim Babangida removed Buhari from power. The Babangida regime had a rocky start. The most serious opposition centred in the labour movement and on university campuses. There was also considerable controversy over Nigeria’s entry into the Organisation of the Islamic Countries, an international body of Muslim states, in 1986. Buhari’s regime had initiated the application, which Babangida allowed to stand. The strong reaction among many Christians proved to be an embarrassment to the regime. Babangida remained in power until 1993, when he ushered in an Interim National Government under the leadership of Chief’ Earnest Shonekan. This step followed the military’s annulment of election results in June 1993.

Text of the paper presented by Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State, at the Annual Partners Dinner of the Apostles in the Marketplace (AIMP) on February 21.

Protocols

Let me start by expressing my heartfelt

gratitude to the board of directors, central

working committee and members of the Apostles in the Marketplace (AIMP), for inviting me to share my thoughts with you on a topic that is central to the very objectives that informed the founding of your organization. Looking through the organizational structure of the AIMP, I was impressed to see a number of individuals, some of whom I have the privilege of knowing personally, whose weight in integrity, passion for service and patriotism has been a bulwark of inspiration to me through the trajectory of my life.

I am glad to contribute to this discourse which I have been intimated is part of a robust framework being developed by your organization, aimed at inspiring more Christians, particularly the youth, to consider active involvement in politics. All stakeholders, particularly those of us on the ‘inside’ have to work collaboratively to figure out how we can sell politics to young Christians in Nigeria as service and sacrifice – core Christian values; and to follow-up with concrete platforms for hand-holding – for those interested – through a terrain that has been avoided by our society’s finest for too long.

I am also happy to publicly declare, that as one with a strong Christian upbringing and whose faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, has been the basis of my passion, courage and resilience in the course of my activism in and out of public office; that I have no other source of ‘power’. In these days that some go to great lengths, delving into the diabolical to get ‘supernatural’ help from insidious spiritual mediums; it is necessary to reassure my listeners, many of whom might be wondering how I survived the dark military era as an active participant in the pro-democracy struggle at the risk of my life. Some have asked the source of my strength as I faced treachery and injustice for the 3 ½ years that I was denied a mandate freely given to me by my people; ladies and gentlemen, I make bold to say that my faith is built on nothing but the grace and mercy of God.

The paradox of religion in Nigeria

Ours is a very religious society. This is a reality that we can all affirm anecdotally but which is absolutely empirically verifiable. Consider some facts and figures. There are more Anglicans in Nigeria than there are in England, the church’s mother country, or anywhere else in the world. The Anglican Church in Nigeria boasts some 18 million members and is the world’s largest Anglican congregation. The largest Roman Catholic seminary in the world is the Bigard Memorial in Enugu which has about one thousand students – five times the number enrolled in the largest U.S. Catholic seminary. No other seminary matches this prodigious intake. Vast cathedrals and mega-churches with tens of thousands of attendees and hundreds of thousands in membership dot our major urban centres. The Living Faith Church (also known as Winners’ Chapel) possesses the largest church auditorium in the world, the 50,400-seat Faith Tabernacle in Lagos. The Deeper Life Bible Church’s headquarters congregation in Lagos had 150,000 members as at 2004 and had planted more than 6,000 branches across Nigeria. In Nigeria alone, the Redeemed Christian Church of God claims 14,000 branches with 5 million members.

But these figures are just a prelude. Nigeria is at the centre of one of the most fascinating role reversals in history. She has become a missionary-exporting nation and now sends hundreds of pastors to the West, carrying with them a unique brand of spirituality. Some of these pastors lead the largest churches in Europe and Africa.

Christianity as we know it on our shores is no longer the bequest of foreign missionaries but has become a genuinely Nigerian brand of religion. Indeed, some scholars now argue that the epicenter of global Christianity is no longer in the West, but has moved to the southern hemisphere, and that Nigeria is its new hub. To back up this assertion, they cite the proliferation of churches and professing Christians at a time that western Christianity is in steep decline. Christianity has become one of Nigeria’s main cultural exports. Huge church conventions held at the end of every year draw pilgrims, academics, reporters and tourists from the world over who want to observe and participate in the festivals of spiritual recrudescence. At first glance, Nigeria is enjoying a glorious springtime of the Christian faith.

There are, however, other aspects of our social, economic and political realities that provide a sobering portrait against the backdrop of this spiritual boom. Even as we exult in our country’s potential emergence as global Christianity’s centre of gravity, we must also acknowledge other less salutary facts. We are beset by a host of plagues: hunger, chronic conflict, terrorism, disease, corruption and various portents of weak statehood. Official graft is particularly endemic. Conservative estimates indicate that between $4 billion and $8 billion is stolen from public coffers annually. 70 percent of our population lives in poverty.

The landscape of our country is pockmarked by institutional dysfunction and infrastructural dilapidation. All of us here bear the burdens of working and producing without basic infrastructure such as power supply or of securing our families given the weakness of the formal security apparatus. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 32.5 million Nigerians are unemployed. The economy is growing but not fast enough to absorb the jobseekers emerging from our schools each year. The axiom that an “idle mind is the Devil’s workshop” goes back to the 14th century and it shows that societies have always recognized a link between unemployment and social chaos. In our case, that link is certainly obvious, considering the now chronic incidents of conflict, insecurity and terrorism.

However dreary the statistics are, we find the more worrisome omens in the intangible socio-psychological trends that cannot be readily measured. Almost every day, the news headlines scream with reports of some terrorist outrage or yet more news of fraud or theft in the government, deepening a rampant collective pessimism about our society’s prospects. There is a pervasive sense of uncertainty, anxiety and near-hopelessness about our common future. Most dangerously, a lot of people no longer see a clear, scrupulous path to a decent and fulfilling life. Many of our young people are entranced by the possibilities of upward mobility inherent in fraud and a variety of get-rich-quick schemes that reflect our societal bias for instant gratification. Others have been initiated into terrorism and political violence.

It is not just high-level graft that ails us. We must reckon with the various instances of low-level corruption that are everyday experiences. From the almost customary example of uniformed men soliciting bribes to other episodes ranging from genial requests for “help” or “assistance” to outright extortion that characterize our contacts with bureaucracy and with each other, oddly enough with people who are avowedly religious. These instances in which we are often compelled to negotiate compromises with our consciences are so frequent that it is no understatement to say that corruption is assuming cultural proportions in our society. Just from commuting on our roads, there is evidence that our society is contemptuous of rules and order, and that as a people we no longer have any regard for the norms of civility and mutual respect. All that matters seems to be the individual’s quest to get ahead at any cost.

All these suggest that the defining contradiction of Nigerian life at present is the coincidence of increasing religiosity and declining public morality. We are witnessing a universalization of religious syntax and symbolism across various domains of society, ranging from politics to the popular culture, at a time when our ethical capital is being depleted. Churches are proliferating in the midst of social and moral squalor. Nigerian Christians live in a bipolar reality. On one hand, as Nigerians we share in a common social experience marked by decadence, while on the other hand, we function as believers in the controlled environments provided in our churches. In effect, the values and virtues imparted by our faith are hermetically sealed off from social reality. Consequently, the society persists in its ethical freefall despite what appears to be an ongoing religious revival.

The theology of disengagement

What is responsible for this profound dissonance between our extravagant religiosity and our alarming deficit of public virtue? Regarding the phenomenon of high church growth and nose-diving public morality, we can agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who once warned, “We must not be tempted to confuse spiritual power and large numbers …An increase in quantity does not automatically bring an increase in quality. A larger membership does not necessarily represent a correspondingly increased commitment to Christ.”

To a large extent, the flagrant contradiction between our religious and social conduct is the result of the dominant strand of theology over the past three decades. Widespread pessimism about the prospects of the Nigerian project has found expression in a theology of non-engagement. It has roots in the wave of ‘Holiness’ churches that emerged during the mid-1970s. Preaching an austere spirituality that prioritized personal moral rectitude and spartan discipline as the hallmarks of righteousness, these churches depicted the world as a field of profanity. Entanglement in secular affairs posed the risk of subverting one’s salvation. The only legitimate sphere of social engagement was the fellowship within the church itself. The larger society was a lost cause. All efforts were to be directed at fulfilling the level of righteousness required to qualify for heaven.

This dichotomy between the sacred and the secular is essential to understanding the bipolar approach to business, politics and public life. Beginning from the early 1980s, the austere ‘Holiness’ movement was displaced by a more buoyant Christian movement that advertized God’s relationship with individuals in more material terms. According to this new theological narrative, God is committed to blessing the individual in the here and now and not just in the afterlife. This commitment is expressed in miracles, healing, financial advancement and the guaranteed general wellbeing of the Christian. This brand of spirituality became more salient from the mid-1980s following the end of the oil boom, the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme and the consequent near extinction of the middle class.

In a climate of recession and economic uncertainty, a theology that cast salvation as a route to divinely underwritten upward mobility resonated and it fuelled a proliferation of churches across the country. The increasing popular resort to faith was accentuated by the political instability and repression occasioned by a succession of military dictatorships right up till the late 1990s. The essential dichotomy of the secular and sacred remained. The new churches that emerged from this movement are largely not conceived as centres for projecting the gospel’s redemptive properties into their communities but rather as cities of refuge where beleaguered citizens flee from the depredations of a dysfunctional state.

The theology of this movement which is loosely described as the ‘Prosperity’ movement interprets salvation in overwhelmingly personal terms. It has little conception of society or the common good. Rather, the individual is spiritually primed to achieve material success in spite of the society. Indeed, the subtext of this theology is that events in the society are inconsequential to the fortunes of the individual believer. The individual in a very specific and personal sense is at the centre of God’s love, grace and redemptive plan. It is not surprising that what has emerged is a highly compartmentalized religiosity; one that perceives no moral obligation in the public space and in which the happiness of the individual is paramount. This is a broad brush description of the Christian scene in Nigeria. It does not apply to all churches but it is a fairly accurate portrait of the general complexion of Christianity in Nigeria.

Between God and Caesar

Historically, Nigerian Christians (like our contemporaries worldwide) have had to debate the extent of their social and political engagement in the context of the biblical admonition to render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. The axiom comes from the incident in the New Testament when Jesus was asked whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. He replied by asking for a coin and questioning his interrogators as to whose image and inscription the coin bore. “Caesar’s,” they replied. Well, Jesus said, since the coin bore Caesar’s imprint then it was lawful for those who lived in Caesar’s domain to render back to him his rightful taxes and to render to God what belonged to God. Traditionalists construe this dictum as an injunction against Christian involvement in politics. Indeed, it has been seized upon by opponents of Christians’ active participation in public life, to argue that religion and politics do not mix. It has become the kernel of a theology of non-engagement.

On the other hand, advocates of Christian public engagement offer a richer and more nuanced understanding of this principle. Since Caesar himself was made in the image of God, it follows that his humanity, his empire and taxes, and therefore the politics of running the empire and administering the taxes, must be submitted to God who wields ultimate sovereignty over creation. This is supported by scripture that expressly declares that “… the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men…” One of the ways the Almighty demonstrates His sovereignty in the affairs of men is through the activities of regenerated men and women in public life – men and women who fear God and submit to Him as vessels through which His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

The conundrum for Christians who desire to engage constructively in the workings of their society and are yet wary of confusing the domains of Caesar and God can be summarized thus: are holiness and social responsibility mutually exclusive or complementary? Can we live out both ideals or does one have to nullify the other? Is it possible to be holy and be socially engaged? Is it possible to be deeply committed to the faith and to be an active citizen?

I believe that this synthesis of civic and spiritual tasks is not only possible but absolutely necessary. As John Wesley said, “There is no holiness but social holiness.” Every Christian has two responsibilities. The first is to put on the mind of Christ; the second is to carry that mind into the public square – into whatever is public, whether that means the media, the marketplace, the academia, the trade union or parliament.

My view on this issue has been forged over the course of a lifetime spanning my upbringing and my lifelong reflection on the place of values in shaping society. I was born into the Catholic Church in which the belief that the church must be an active agent of social justice and political transformation was rife. This belief found expression in the social activism of Catholics in various nations and in the liberation theology movement in Latin America. The defining principle of my moral upbringing is that emulating Jesus Christ is not just a spiritual endeavour but a revolutionary posture that expands the frontiers of justice in society. It is about serving a higher purpose in the public square and locating the right vocational channels through which to actualize one’s spiritual commitment. This understanding of the faith has guided me through my years at the frontlines of pro-democracy activism in exile and my service in public office.