The Nation Newspaper

Tag: faith

  • Activating your possibilities with Faith

    Activating your possibilities with Faith

    • Text: Mark 6:5, 6 He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and healed them. He was amazed at their lack of faith

    Where faith is unavailable, supernatural experience is an illusion. Things will follow a natural course of action unless faith is employed to transit to the realm of the supernatural. Your link from perception or expectation to reality is faith. Faith is the bridge that connects with awesome testimonies. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. (Hebrews 11:1). In the preceding chapter of the text, Jesus had an encounter with a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. The woman had visited physicians and spent all she had but her situation grew worse. When the woman heard that Jesus was in the town, she made up her mind that if she could touch the hem of His garment that she would be healed. The stinking woman was undaunted by the insults from crowd. She endured their pushing, insults and beatings in her bid to wade through the crowd. Eventually, she got to where Jesus was, touched His garment, her faith made her whole and the issue of blood stopped instantly. As Jesus was going to the house of Jarius to heal his sick daughter, news came that she was dead. Jesus considered the unwavering faith of Jairus. He went to the room where the dead girl was laid, He took her by the hand and said to her, Talitha Koum meaning Arise and walk. The moment He said that, the dead girl rose up.

    In the passage of our text, Jesus came to Nazareth His place of birth. His people had faith that Jesus was the son Mary. They confirmed that He had male and female siblings. Besides that, His professional calling was not in doubt as they confirmed that He was a carpenter. That was however where their faith stopped. The people didn’t have faith that He was the Son of God and doubted that He was capable of healing their diseases which made it impossible for Jesus to perform any miracle there. Jesus Christ said that all things are possible to him who believes. Faith is the changer of fate. When you have faith, your fate changes. It is not the volume of your prayers that determines answers to your prayers, it is the volume of your faith (Mark 9:23).

    It is faith that has the capacity to lead you to Grace.You can’t enter into His grace without faith. When He leads you to His Grace, disgrace is disgraced, you are elevated beyond your level of competence and the testimonies of other people will be forced to bow to your testimonies. Romans 5:2 says that, By whom we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope  of the glory of God”. Faith is the purveyor of good economic, physical and spiritual reports. Faith gives a good report (Hebrews 11:39). As the Lord lives, you shall be the next to testify to a good report in the name of Jesus.

    Not only that, Faith delivers from sicknesses, bad habits and it sets free from drug addiction etc. Through faith, the captives of the mighty are set free, embargoes are lifted, stones are rolled away and whatever is classified as dead is brought back to life. In faith, wedding bells begin to toll, doors of naming ceremonies are opened and there are occupational breakthroughs (Galatians 3:23-25). Faith removes all the mountains of life (Matthew 17:20). A mountain is whatever challenge that had been around you and not moving, causing you to fear, blocking your sight and elongating challenges endlessly. Paul told the Corinthian that, “So we’re not giving up How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever”. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

    Read Also: FEC approves fund to bridge $878bn national infrastructure deficit

    When you have faith, nothing can obstruct or hinder you in life. “For by faith ye stand”.  (2 Corinthians 1:24b). The challenges of this world shall bow to you because faith will make you to dwell in God’s secret place and you shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. It therefore doesn’t matter what is happening around you space, within your family, at your place of engagement or in Nigeria, please maintain an unwavering faith in God for a better tomorrow, be committed to unyielding faith in His capacity to turn things around and it shall end in celebrations. The God of faith is the God of all flesh and there is nothing too difficult for Him (Jeremiah 32:27) but what activates His power to turn things around is your unwavering, stubborn and determined faith In Mark 9:23, He said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to Him that believes”.

     From this moment dear beloved, please stop seeing impossibilities in your life, stop seeing irreconcilable differences your marriage, stop seeing hopelessness in your health and stop seeing doom concerning the economy and security of Nigeria. Nigeria is going to change for the best. All that are looking down on you today shall begin to look up to you from tomorrow. Power is going to change hands from man to God. To activate faith and make it to work great things in your space, you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ by accepting Him as your Lord and Saviour and you must devote more time to knowing Him through His Word (Joshua 1:8). You must be deliberate to know His mind concerning the issues of life. Don’t give up no matter what. Declare what is written in His word as against what you are seeing. God has promised never to leave or forsake you no matter what. Weeping may endure for a moment but joy comes in the morning.

    Prayer: Father Lord, please increase my faith and open the gateway to my full restoration in the name of Jesus Christ

  • ‘We can be united in faith, not doctrines’

    General Overseer of Jesus Liberation Squad Lagos, Apostle Dele Johnson, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on unity in the body of Christ ahead of the dedication of an ultra-modern auditorium next week. Excerpts:

    Is unity of the church, which you always advocated, not becoming a mirage?

    Unity of the church is a task and the church doesn’t want it to happen. You will also agree with me that even the church is ignorant of what is required of us to maintain unity. Some of us don’t even know that the unity of the church is a task.

    Every one of us must play our role to ensure that the church is united. Not only being united but must be seen as united. You see, that is why I have problem with those peoples that are so denominational. That’s why I have problem with those people that feel that they know all the truth and other people don’t know anything.

    Anything you do that amounts to the disunity of the church, God is not on your side. The church must be seen as united.

    Like pointing out the wrong deed of other church leaders in the public?

    For instance, church leaders who speak ill of others and condemn those who have won more souls than them are causing disunity. Now you come and say they are demonic because you have one hurt inside you. If what you have is a hurt and you are using the hurt to stab people, to start with, you are deceptive.

    If genuinely, what you want is the unity of the church, you don’t go about it like that. You don’t wash your dirty linens outside. What you do is look for an opportunity take it to a bigger audience or the fathers privately.

    What if they don’t grant you audience?

    They will grant you audience so long as they know that you are well meaning and you have integrity.

    What if they grant you audience but don’t yield to what you are saying?

    The point is has open criticism succeeded in solving the problem? No. they have only succeeded in painting the church as a disunited organ. And anybody who paints the church as disunited, God is not on your side.

    Go and read your bible very well. That they may be one as we are one that is the ultimate desire and prayer of the Jesus. So, dividing the church does not answer the prayer of Jesus. They should sit down and think of better ways of solving problems.

    They should stop painting the church black. You don’t even correct elders in public. You don’t disparage fathers on the pages of the newspaper all in the name of truth. What truth? Is there anyone who goes to the toilet without having excreta in his anus?

    These are the fathers that have killed the beasts of Ephesus. They have given us the opportunity to say we have confidence to come together to shake the lands. They are using what I call Babylonian method. Hit the man on top and you will shine quickly.

    You can’t do that in the house of the Lord. There are still more souls to be won. You just come and your souls will come to you. How can you say that someone is diabolic when you didn’t see anything in his hands?

    It is not by causing disaffection and poisoning the minds of people. How do you say that someone is preaching the gospel of demon? What is the gospel of demon? Is giving not in the bible? Is Christianity not sacrificial life style? You give your time, money, your energy. Is it not a life style?

    If you see a pastor prospering, it means that the church has prospered. The prosperity of the man of God is in the hands of the people. The prosperity of the people is in the mouth of the man of God. They should stop whipping sentiments that some people are poor.

    There will always be the poor in your midst. What is important is that we always raise the game to help the poor. But, you can’t help all of them. It is not possible Even when Jesus what alive he didn’t help everybody.

    All these people talking ask what is their contribution to anybody’s life or the church? They should count the number of people that were nobody that they have helped so far. They are just using Babylonian method. Let it be written, let it be said that what a man sows, he will reap. Yes, they will reap it.

    But Apostle Paul chastised Peter openly?

    He did that in the church.

    But he wrote about it?

    He wrote to the church. The media might have been there and they took it.

    He didn’t do it in public?

    He wrote to the elders of the church. That is what the epistle is all about. You don’t start criticising fathers of faith because you have access to Facebook. They always say that they are saying the truth. What is the truth? The truth is let the man who has not sinned throw the first stone. That is the real truth to me.

    The body of Christ does not operate like that. We don’t pull ourselves down; we help ourselves. You don’t trample on a soldier who is wounded; we don’t leave them there; we help. You don’t trample on a father who has been there for people.

    Even when they make mistakes just like the story of Noah and his children, you go back and cover their nakedness. That is what the bible teaches us to do. It is not to come and destroy them in a piece of paper because you have access to social media and because you’re saying a truth that is deceptive.

    What is unity of the church?

    It means having one voice and speaking as one on issues of concern. The bible has not told us to be united in doctrines. We can’t be united in doctrines neither can we be united in methods. But we should be united in faith.

    It is in the bible that we should pursue the united of faith. That’s what the bible teaches. You can’t come to the pages of the newspaper and social media to despising someone on his method. We can’t be united in methodology and styles. Our unity is on our faith. Jesus Christ is the son of God. He is coming back, heaven is real; hell is real also. Nobody can controvert that.

    What’s the significance of the forthcoming dedication?

    For us here, it is very significant because it will cause a paradigm shift in the assignment God has given here especially because we have prayed and we are still praying and we know what God has promised. The dedication is an opportunity to invoke God’s presence through the voice of His prophet into our situations.

    It has taken over ten years to get the auditorium ready. Isn’t that too slow for God?

    For me, I don’t compete with people. That’s why at 57, I don’t have gray hair. And somebody said maybe I am using a dying cream. I only compete with myself. With the targets that I set for myself, I am a chartered banker for crying out loud. I didn’t need to borrow money.

    You didn’t borrow?

    I didn’t borrow. And we do not owe anybody a dim. I’m not saying there is anything wrong in borrowing but my mindset is I can’t be doing God’s work and be borrowing. He must provide and I waited until he provides. That has been our attitude to it.

    You waited until he provided?

    We waited until he provided. And we kept on doing it step by step: a little drops of water makes an ocean, He kept telling us what to do for money to come in from the time that we bought the land. We have never left this place to rent a place for any day from 2006 that we started this building. Everything was built while we are here. We started from trampoline tent to bamboo and then to the final building. We have been here all the while.

    What lessons have you learnt from the building project?

    So many people have been here, to say, wow! This is a heavy building. I told myself if God is the one building it, then where is your pride? So, it taught me humility. If God is the one building, He knows how He will supply. So, it is important for us to improve on our ability to hear God clearly.

    There were so many things I tried that didn’t work. I tried breakfast outreach. We tried dinner but no money came back. It was just investment. There was a time that we did praise jams. I sold my car to pay artists to one Easter in Toyin Street, Ikeja for the concert.

    Yinka Ayefele, Kenny Saint Brown agreed to come and so I paid them. But it rained so heavily that day the event flopped. At that point, I wept and God said ‘calm down. I am the one who will build the church. Why are you stressing yourself?’

    Within me, I felt so empty. I am a banker so I had thought of how I could package shares, debentures, etc. I actually did but it didn’t work. If it had worked, maybe by now, I would have had gray hair and my neck would have been thin.

    But this one brings rest of mind we are not owing anybody a dime. I am not trying to castigate those who borrow money for God. If He tells this guy to borrow money, did he tell you to borrow too? If you must borrow money, hear God. God can do one thing in a million ways. He enjoys it and that is why He is God.

    I learnt humility and I learnt listening and faithfulness of men. When we started, I know how many who ran away for the church and I know those who got stuck to us saying, man of God, we know that God has called you and we stand by you.

  • Two books on faith, values for launch

    Two books on faith, values for launch

    Two books Legend of the Lost and Lush Garden in an Arid Land by Executive Director Family Values Development Initiative (FVDI) Okey Nwamadi will be presented on March 10 in Ikoyi, Lagos.

    A keynote on Technology and Values for Future Leaders will be presented by the Institute of Information Management President/Governing Council Chairman, Ambassador Oyedokun Oyewole, while special guest of honour is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture and the Real-sector Mr Dolapo Bright.

    Legend of the Lost is a fiction that looks into contemporary events that will eventually lead to the end of times saga. The plot builds up to reveal how environmental crisis and technology will play critical roles in the apocalypse. Both books will appeal to different categories of readers and help them make right decisions in their day to day life.

    Lush Garden in an Arid Land is a collection of poems on essential values for social development. The publication is a response to FVDI’s periodic youth programmestagged Values for Future Leaders.The book targets different categories of young people, and the poems are specific to various values that form character and eventually challenge the emergence of a better society.

    At a pre-launch session, Nwamadi said FVDI’s campaigns were geared towards restoring faith in the family system through supporting education and enterprise.

    “The values that bind families are what make the family the bedrock of any society,” he said.

    He noted that the society with its traditional family structures is going through enormous changes and that stress within the family has brought about these changes that threaten family values.

    “Maybe at the centre of this disconnection is our society’s inability to read, learn and assimilate adequate knowledge with which to combat the marauding changes that face families. The decline of reading comes at a time of increasing media saturation. Simply put, just because people are not reading does not mean they are not being informed. They’re watching movies, television, listening to music and podcasts. Regrettably, all channels of information are not created equal. Someone reading a book and someone watching the movie adaptation, in fact, think differently,” he added.

    Continuing, he said: “The difference is the level of assimilation. Promoting a good reading culture amongst our youth is therefore one of our cardinal agendas.

    ‘’Reading helps our children to grasp concepts and think logically. At FVDI, we have assumed the moral responsibility of ensuring that the values that are the mainstay of traditional family systems are sustained.

    We support our work through publications and events, by promoting literary materials targeted at different categories of young people.”

  • Chidoka: I’ve faith of becoming Anambra governor

    Former Minister of Aviation and ex-Corps Marshal of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Osita Chidoka has said his experience in the November 18 governorship election gave him hope that he will govern the state one day.

    Chidoka, who contested the election on the platform of the United Peoples Party (UPP), said yesterday that God’s time is the best

    According to him, his ambition to govern the state had been rekindled with the encouraging experience garnered during the poll.

    He spoke at an interactive session with members of his campaign organisation and people of his community in Obosi, Idemili North, to thank them for their support.

    Chidoka said the journey to Anambra Government House had just begun, insisting that there will be ‘no retreat, no surrender’ until the objective was achieved.

    He said: “God’s time is the best and what I am asking from God is to give me what is due to me. Whatever God has destined must come to pass. The journey we have started will continue and I want to assure Anambra people that they will not be disappointed in our next outing.

    “I am optimistic that I will win the next governorship election because that election will be determined by a lot of factors. After the 2019 general elections, we will begin to work for the 2022 election in earnest, and the experience we gathered this year will be our guide.

    “What we should do to move forward is to return the secrecy of balloting. That is to say that the voting point should be in a secluded area so that the voter would not be influenced.

    “We also have to reduce the impact of money in our electoral process because money was widely used in the Anambra election, and that was because there was no secrecy.

    “There is also need for more voter education, for people to learn that money collected during elections will ultimately affect governance.”

  • Faith without work

    Faith without work

    They are all ceremonies of violence. The ritualist in Lagos, the suicide bomber in the northeast, the ogre in Ozubulu. The one chants incantations, stews up dark concoctions, rules the mind and enacts deaths.

    The second is a little girl or boy, strapped with a lethal device and little promise from heaven, walks into a school or market or mosque or church, the bomb goes off just like the spleen and limbs.

    The third, driven by revenge or some other addiction, decides to walk into a church, rattles off bullets in all directions. Families mourn afterward.

    The last subverts a ceremony with a gun. Not allowed are the communions, the prayers, the solemnities of songs and sermons. The others also subvert as well.

    The ritualists in Lagos are not giving children to the childless or healing to the sick, or succour to estranged families. They are doing the strange thing. They are luring or coercing innocents into dingy tunnels, making slabs like abattoirs where human parts are cut into packages. They also torment and rape.

    All three have one thing in common. They appeal to faith. Whether it is traditional religion, Islam or Christianity, they are sourcing the power of belief. They are revealing to us the potential of faith for violence. Nor has it begun today.

    But they tell us to be wary of prophets and prophesies, of the Bible and Koran, of amulets and crucifix, of charms and incantations and glossy beads and blood sacrifice. They tell us that a religious people are not necessarily a godly people. That in every faith is a potential for fealty to a goon, a ritual killer, a kidnapper, a prophet of doom.

    So, a religious people can bear a belly for violence. The Ozubulu case is a story that needs more probe. But we need to see the accounts that went into building the beautiful church where blood was shed at will on Sunday. It tends to turn upside what the bible says of the house of God. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run into it and is safe.” “Or all those that be in Judea, flee into the mountain.”

    Yet with violence, with the confidence of gun and the casual precision of a mad man, about a dozen lives peter out. The story of rival gangs is still in the air. But the mere fact that it fills the imagination tells us how violence and drugs have been associated with the temple of the Almighty.

    But more potent in this story is filthy lucre.

    The story is rife that the big guns whose source of money beggars the mind helped build the church. Perhaps if we investigate the money that churches have used to build pulpits and foundations around the country, we will know that God has no hand in them. Purer are the days of David when God forbids him to build his temple because his hands are soaked in blood. David did not do drugs, but he fought war for his people, God’s people. Yet it disqualified him to build a temple.

    The Ozubulu story invokes filthy lucre of distorted glamour. Ethnic entrepreneur Nnamdi Kanu wanted to turn it into a nationalist affair by blaming it on Herdsmen. Biafra is too pure to infect the church or kill fellow Biafrans. His story did not gel even among his followers.

    But the case of the suicide bombers and ritualists tell us how poverty leads to overthrow of the purity of the spirit. The use of small boys and girls in the northeast dates back to poor governance. Boko Haram evolved with hooves of blood. Yusuf was killed, but he had built an alternative society. He gave them bread, shelter and clothing. He gave them brides and grooms, he gave hope when society reeled with fear and failure.

    The successive bad administration created it because they had government. One of the past governors, Sherriff who just lost out in PDP, once boasted that the media wasted its time reporting anomie in his enclave. His people could not read. Hence Boko Haram rose in blood and cruel belief.

    The people had no jobs and they had no skills. Current Borno Governor Kashim Shettima is, with focus and collaboration, confronting the task of rescuing a society from a generation in the sewer.

    The ritualists are also taking advantage of a society lost to fear. Where there is no prosperity, mischief reigns.

    It is a story of faith without work, not faith without works. Both work and works are singular. Faith without works means, faith with adherence to the higher ideals of love, hard work, honesty, etc. Faith without work is materialist. It is about bread and butter. So, if in Apostle James’ inspired words, faith without works is dead, in Nigeria today, faith without work is deaths. Deaths from suicide bombers. Deaths from ritualists. Deaths in Ozubulu. It is a travesty of the lofty ideal. Philosopher Hume saw it when he said, “the corruption of the best produces the worst.”

    At the root of the intersection of religion and violence is bread and butter. The biggest religious conflicts in history, The Crusades, had economic calculations of territory and power, other than the so-called argument of the profanation of holy lands by infidels. In his novel, The Interpreters, Soyinka proclaims that religion is the “justification of existence.” It is a way of asserting the right to be free. The ritualist wants to be free to be ritualist, as Boko Haram wants to be free to impose its weird Islamic cosmology. With thinking like this, philosopher Isaiah Berlin warned that the twentieth century was complicating the definition of freedom.

    But religion has never been free from commerce. Hence Churches preach bread and butter more than the spirit of joy and the blessedness of love. We don’t see the Babalawo today as a spiritual vanguard as older society consecrated them. They now carry the strokes of woe. Islamic clerics can tell you how to snatch that husband or overthrow that contractor.  Max Weber, the sociologist, argued that the most religious societies tended to be the most mercantilist, a point he suggested in his opus, The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism. John Calvin who led the Calvinists to God and profit, became Weber’s ballast of proof.

    If Nigeria is a religious society, it should learn to distinguish between worship of values and money. That is what makes a society great. At this moment, God has been submerged under mammon. So, we need faith with both works and work.

     

    Boko Haram by cocaine

    Yale University co-conducted a recent study about how children and juveniles hide bombs in hijab and detonate them in public places. That report is out of date. The young ones don’t even care to wear hijabs to kill. Their masters cleverly strap the device around their waists and torsos. But more striking from my investigation is that the Boko Haram goons inject the boys and girls with heroin and cocaine. They drop them off in strategic locations, like schools or markets, and the innocents walk under the narcotic influence until the bombs go off.

    I hear the security forces are now looking for ways to undercut this tragic new innovation in cruelty.

     

    The cycle

    Last week, I mused over the cycle of life when I addressed a group of young writers in Ibadan and attended a funeral for the mother of Governor Rauf Aregbesola in Ilesa. All in one day.

    I was to address the students and quickly be on my way to Osun State. The event, called Young Writers Summit, was spearheaded as a labour of love by Victor Adejumo-Bello, who rallied students from between age 10 and 17 to write poems, shorts stories, plays and essays. Over 70 finalists emerged from about 400 participants. Many adults, including teachers and parents, attended.

    I was plied with many questions, and I knew I could not make it in good time to Ilesa. I chastened myself with an epiphany. I was addressing those who had just begun a life journey. They wanted to be tomorrow’s stars. In Ilesa, I was going to a woman who had just ended hers, and she also had left us a star in Aregbesola.

    I recalled my recent visits to some of his schools where the feeding programmes and facilities, et al, were making stars. I eventually arrived in Ilesa, the event almost over. But I had placed my foot in both, the beginning with student-writers, and the end with departed beloved, who had sown a seed in a son, who is sowing seeds in his state.

     

  • Expensive faith

    Last year, bitterness was dressed up as a garland of flowers and handed to Goodluck Jonathan, piecemeal, calculatedly; till he got utterly swamped by its scent. Some dandy ‘priests’ sold him a

    triumphant tale of success at the March 28, 2015 presidential election. Their prophecies were convincing. They leapt from forked tongues with extraordinary spunk and fire, seducing the former president and ensnaring him to bogus plots that reality shut out at birth. The prophets lied. Jonathan lost the presidency to Muhammadu Buhari.

    Faith destroyed Goodluck Jonathan. Faith in spurious prophets to be precise. His hankering for unearned ‘grace’ and ‘glory’ ensnared him in a futile, mischievous plot, invented to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Goaded by flawed belief, the former president committed series of flawed actions that eventually showed him up as a pitiful hostage to lust and emissaries of mammon.

    At his defeat, Jonathan awakened to a rude shock: “The prophets lied.” While rumours of a ‘N7-billion-booty-for-heavenly-grace’ rent the air, Jonathan grudgingly accepted that he had been fleeced in an elaborate con reminiscent of Christian Andersen’s timeless plot of the fabled emperor’s invisible garment. Having discovered Jonathan’s lust for power to be irrational and naked, the swindlers sold him a curious talisman for victory, the Most High’s ‘grace.’ But Edumare’s ‘grace’ is never for sale. Hence Jonathan, like the fabled emperor, walked naked in the political square; stripped of glory, passion, integrity and belief in the false ‘prophets.’ The invisible ‘grace’ they sold to him was never of Edumare’s infinite mercies. Eventually, Jonathan did what a man and good sport should do, he accepted defeat and made that ‘epic’ phone call to Muhammadu Buhari.

    In Jonathan’s tragedy subsists timeless lessons for the intuitive. Will Nigeria’s youth emancipate themselves from the shackles of their spiritual daddies and mommies before they suffer worse fate than Jonathan? This applies to both Christian and Muslim youth that are persistently swamped by vapid mysticism, brainwashed and domesticated like dogs on a leash via a curious doctrine that preaches a conflicting canon of Puritanism for faith and profit.

    This dogma is advanced principally by the nation’s Pentecostal pastors and even rogue Muslim clerics. The latter, having witnessed the stupendous wealth enjoyed by their Christian peer, have resorted to equally desperate means to attain heavenly ‘grace’ and bounties.

    By their gospel, worldly success has become the major indicator of spirituality and “God’s grace” hence their subjugation of the divine spirit of the soul to the pursuit of riches. Thereby, they succeed in brainwashing daily, their oft submissive and unassuming “fishes” and flock, mostly youths, turning them into hapless preys in their pursuit of material wealth and paralysis of asceticism.

    In the mix, it becomes very easy for politicians to co-opt the help of these false prophets to brainwash and mislead the youth in the pursuit and attainment of their selfish political ends. It is undoubtedly easy for so-called General Overseers (G.O) to instruct his ‘fishes’ and ‘flock’ to lean towards a particular power bloc and cast their votes for a particular politician irrespective of the recipient’s qualification for such benefits.

    Strange thing, faith. It has wiggled its way to befuddle and rob too many Nigerians clear of substance and reality, till they become not much expression in sight. In pursuit of salvation and “His Grace,” the faithful “believe” quite laxly and live less humanely, even as their passion pales as their faith increase, by their pastors’ “holiness and grace.”

    It doesn’t matter that the truths the preachers preach, as their deeds, reveal an insufferable perspiration towards ridiculous and yet shared goals: a mansion, a choice car, a huge bank balance and an intimidating fortune with limitless possibilities to exploit.

    But if no one could read in between the lines, at least everybody gets to see truths they incessantly bandy in dazzling and yet ugly manifestations. By their lifestyles, their truths are at once disputed no sooner than they speak it: expensive suits; huge, bullet-proof black jeeps with sirens to announce their presence; well appointed mansions; trigger-happy armed escorts and a wanton lust for the fleeting epitomize their righteousness and grace.

    In essence, their messages revolve around wealth. To the poor, they offer deliverance and the banishment of poverty. To the rich, they offer salvation and the perpetuation of wealth undiminished. It doesn’t matter how the latter come by such wealth. It doesn’t matter if in acquiring such wealth, they keep the Commandments of God. What matters is for both the poor and the rich to “sow seeds” in the name and temple of God.

    Everybody affects the transcendence of faith but nobody wishes to fulfill the demands of faith. The pastors lied; true devotion demands total abhorrence of the worldly and steadfastness in faith. But what is faith? What manner is everyone’s faith? Kind of a trick question, isn’t it?

    Nobody wishes to observe the rigorous dedication and humaneness characteristic of faith. Everybody wishes to eat their cake and have it. That is why some desperate bank chiefs could indefatigably steal from poor, struggling publics to indulge their wantonness and yet scurry to their pastors to purchase absolution and a first class cabin to Paradise at offering time.

    And that is why our equally errant and desperate pastors always manage to “intercede” on their behalf in the presence of God that he may for their sake, disable his Commandments and forgive his “children.”

    Ill-gotten wealth acquires superfluities of “His grace” only. Money is never required to hinder retribution and acquire salvation. Why scurry downward to our dullest perception always and praise it as “wisdom?”

    The gospels being appreciated rob too many of intellect and thought. That is why they are inclined to categorise men who are one-and-a-half-witted as geniuses despite their disabilities because they have been brainwashed to appreciate only a third-part of their wit.

    The gospel of prosperity-at-all-costs wholly negates the doctrine of control by conscience which requires rigorous honesty and fastidiousness. In simple terms, the Nigerian cleric vehemently contradicts and rejects the ascetic view that covetousness and lust for material wealth should be shunned as preached by the valid and true scriptures.

    Equally duplicitous and yet vulnerable to deceit, these loyal congregants pander to their gospel of prosperity thus substituting simplicity and honesty with a new brand of spirituality that invests materialism and covetousness with high moral significance.

    Both clerics and adherents rampantly engage in capitalistic pursuits not only for the expediency of making a living but in the expectation that such activity would amass for them a fortune. In this regard, they recklessly pray and intone: “It is my right to be rich! Heavenly father, you have promised me so! I bless you father because I am rich!”

    A major effect of this belief is that the modern faithful seeks to accumulate wealth with an earnestness of purpose that ridicules the very foundations and admonitions of faith as illustrated by the case of few notable bank chiefs who were recently sacked and prosecuted for gross acts of financial fraud and abuse of office by the EFCC.

    Such an approach to monetary gain is strikingly encouraged by their uniformly fraudulent, greedy and indulgent pastors whose gospel of materialism constitutes a moral habitus that burdens the seeker and possessor of money with a bandit’s obligation towards his loot.

    Thus today, we have celebrity pastors ogling wealth like a filthy fantasy. Today, we have such pastors buying up every available hectare to build ostentatious worship houses and schools far out of reach of the commoner.

  • ‘I ‘ll be governor of all Edo, irrespective of faith’

    ‘I ‘ll be governor of all Edo, irrespective of faith’

    THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, yesterday promised to carry along the people, irrespective of their faith and engender a brighter future for the state, if elected as governor.

    In a Sallah message, Ize-Iyamu said he will not be sectional governor, who will promote religious division for political gains. He promised to foster peaceful co-existence and unity in the state.

    Ize-Iyamu said his administration would focus on building a safer state by taking concrete steps to create jobs and equip the people to become job creators.

    He promised to revive the industries that used to provide jobs, but have became moribond.

    He said: “I am prepared from day one to work assiduously toward increasing your opportunities to be skilled, to be equipped and to be empowered with a small business loan in your community to give you the power, ready to prosper doing an honest day’s work”.

    The PDP candidate added: “We will build the infrastructure of the mind and soul where brother cares for brother and sister cares for sister and we all care for our senior citizens. We cannot allow our senior citizens retire into penury”.

    He blamed the APC government for not fulfilling its promise of change. He said allowing the APC, which is owing pensioners their entitlements and local governments areas of salaries to continue in governance in Edo would amount to more hardship.

    Ize-Iyamu said: “I sincerely celebrate with all our Muslims brethren in Edo state on yet another Eid-el-Kabir. They must realize that this is a period of for sober reelection and an opportunity to appreciate the fact that God is merciful and has provided the opportunity of the September 28 election for all Edo people to change the government in our dear state for good”.

    He added: “It is a divine call on all of us irrespective of our faith to join hands together to rebuild our state and to love one another, to eschew all forms of violence, adhere strictly to the noble tenets of Islam and peaceful coexistence and play our part to achieve the Edo state of our dreams”.

  • A decade of royalty and faith

    A decade of royalty and faith

    Preamble

    To some people, the number of years spent on earth matters much more than anything else. To some others, life is not much about longevity as it is about quality. Believers in the earlier concept ensure the yearly celebration of their birthdays even if there is no success accorded to it.

    On the other hand, those who think more of qualitative and meaningful life often see celebration of birthdays as a mere social anathema signifying an unnecessary aristocracy of birth against the necessary aristocracy of intellect which they perceive as the propeller of human growth and development. Mostly, women belong to the earlier concept.

    It was against the background of this analysis that Nigeria’s first President, the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe wrote in the introduction to his autobiography entitled ‘My Odyssey’ thus: “Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his causes of actions. But then, he dies. Nevertheless, his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”. Human life is a pilgrimage from the unknown to the unknown. No one knows whence he emanated or whither he is bound. The greatest philosophy of life should be to live for the benefit of others as much as one lives for the benefit of self. And that is what philosophers call a footprint on the sands of time.

    This article would have been published in this column last Friday. But yours sincerely was not available either in the country or at any settled place to be able to put pen to paper and add a voice to those of the pros or cons. However, since an occasion like this is a platform for history to which contribution can be made promptly or deferred, it can never be too late for ‘The Message’ to be a contributor to this golden honour hence this humble addition.

    Not his birthday   

    A few days ago, precisely on August 24, 2016, Nigerian media were fully awash with greetings and congratulatory messages to His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). The day was supposed to coincide with his 60th birthday. But unknown to most people who tried to help him celebrate the occasion, His Eminence would rather celebrate achievement than mere birth date. That is the school of thought to which he belongs. Though, he is of royal blood, his assumption of the exalted royal throne of the Sokoto Caliphate ten years ago (2006) at the age of 50 was not due to his birth per se but to the evident achievements of his intellectual being as an intellectual entity. And the impact of his fatherly royalty as well as his competent leadership of Nigerian Muslim Ummah in the past one decade has been unprecedentedly historic. This Sultan does not celebrate birthdays because he does not believe in the aristocracy of birth but that that of intellect. However, he does not deprive those who want to celebrate it for him of their right to do so.

    Point of reference

    When His Eminence was seven years on the throne in 2013, yours sincerely wrote an article about his leadership style in this column which remains as current today as it was then. Thus, the article is repeated here for the records. Please, read on:

    “In every crowd of horizontal men, there is always one vertical man who deserves honour not much because of his vertical position but because of the significant difference which that position makes to the crowd. History and man are like Siamese twins or a pair of scissors. The one cannot do without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. And their symbiotic relationship ensures that reciprocal baton of substance continues to change hands between them for as long as they remain in existence”.

    “Ten years ago, in Nigeria, an innocent human crescent lay hidden in the firmament of the orbit waiting to be sighted before prompting Nigerian Muslim Ummah into a united folk. That crescent is the towering personality generally known today as the SULTAN. The gentleman’s name did not ring any bell in Nigeria before he was named and crowned ‘THE SULTAN OF SOKOTO’ in November 2006.

    Thus, the emergence of Brigadier General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar (rtd.) as the successor to the exalted throne of the great Sokoto Empire without any controversy came as a surprise to many Nigerians. At 50 years of age then, many people thought that he was one of the youngest men to become the Sultan in many decades. But he disagreed with such a suggestion as he recalled that his own father, Sultan Abubakar Sadiq III who was demised in 1988 ascended the throne at the age of 37.

    With a sound military background and a diplomatic pedigree facilitated by modern travelling exposure, since coming into office, this Sultan has consistently demonstrated a rare royal leadership depicting him as a millennial royal Captain divinely designated to pilot the affairs of Islam and the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria with great success. Some random peripheral but irrelevant noises about him and his office by certain relevance seekers do not make any difference in this case. After all, a trillion dogs may line up on a railway to bark at a surging train and that can never halt its surge.

    Philosophers’ assertion

    Philosophers who assert that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may be right after all. The example of Sultan Abubakar is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted royal office about a decade ago, this gentleman has convincingly exemplified all the qualities of genuine leadership. Every statement he has made socially, religiously or politically and every action he has taken officially or privately has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people have learnt one lesson or another.

    As Chancellor

    Five years after his assumption of office, the symbiotic relationship of history and man was reconfirmed in Zaria, on Wednesday, (November 23, 2011), where a galaxy of well-meaning men and women from all walks of life assembled to say “we are here to bear witness”. That was the day His Eminence was installed as the CHANCELLOR OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA. The occasion was just one of many laurels accruing to him since he assumed office as Sultan. Before then, he had been the Chancellor of the University of Benin. But none of these matters to him as much as his service to humanity. Besides building a very solid bridge across Nigeria in all strata, this Sultan has significantly reduced the once dominant tribal tendencies to the barest minimum.

    Definition of leadership

    A onetime American President, Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), once described a leader as “a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it”. By his activities and functions so far, Sultan  Abubakar has proved Truman right by demonstrating to Nigerian Muslim Ummah that the time has come for the reformation not only of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) but also the Sultanate.

    When he assumed office in 2006, he hinted that the Sultanate would be put on the internet to enable all educated Muslims have access to their leader.  And in this age of computer, can anyone meaningfully lay claim to any serious knowledge without adequate access to the internet? That is why he decided to start the reformation of the Sultanate through the instrumentality of the internet. And as an exemplary leader, he demonstrates his leadership prowess by possessing mastering fingers on the computer.

    Islam’s first law

    In Islam, education is the first law. It is only through it that man can understand life in all its ramifications. That was why Allah’s very first revelation to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) ordained education thus: “Read in the name of Allah who created; He created man from clots of congealed blood; Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who taught man by the pen; He taught man what he did not know…”Q. 96:1-4. To further emphasize the compelling need for education in Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said in one Hadith that “knowledge is a lost treasure. Muslims should look for it and pick it wherever they could find it”.

    Without education there can be no information. And without information there can be no progress. That is why the Sultan started his reformation of the Sultanate from the premise of education. It is only with education that most problems in this world can be solved without much ado. Sultan Abubakar also believes that education without social harmony is like a virtue without value and that there can be no harmony in a society where people are overwhelmed by ignorance and penury as is the case in Nigeria. Thus, he has consistently focused on both. Perhaps that was why he initiated many educational programmes including the scholarships for female Muslim medical students in the South-West Nigeria being managed by the Muslim Ummah of that region (MUSWEN).

    At his installation as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University five years ago, Sultan  Abubakar told the crowd that the current socio-economic indices in Nigeria were a clear indication that the country had begun to drift. He lamented the nation’s unprecedented underdevelopment despite the enormous resources with which Nigeria was endowed. Today, the situation that warranted his lamentation has become more manifest.

    About corruption

    In His Eminence’s words: “Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed Nigerian citizens to the brinks, fuelling and confounding social conflicts even as inter-communal crises have extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property”. He went further to say that: “Persistent insecurity has generated panic and anxiety; our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation; the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decay engendered by ignorance and greed.”

    Tertiary education

    At the same occasion, His Eminence also noted that “the reform of the tertiary education sector could not be effective without putting in place, the progressive developments required in the basic and senior secondary education sectors. He insisted that “our state governments, especially those of the North, must begin to realize the enormity of the challenges facing the education sector and take urgent and necessary steps to address these challenges.” He lauded the founding fathers of ABU, especially, the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and urged the authorities of the ABU to continue to abide by the cardinal principles on which the institution was founded.

    That is the renascent Sultan for you, a man who is at the topmost echelon of the tree of comfort but feels so much concerned about the plight of the peasants who are deliberately consigned to the weeding of the shrubs without any hope in the official policies. He has never relented in his advocacy for good governance and denunciation of corruption and religious intolerance.

    As a guest of CAN

    When he was invited in January 2010 as a Special Guest of Honour to a religious seminar organized by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) with the theme: ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbour’, Sultan Abubakar delivered an historic speech that reverberated meaningfully across the entire world. And in May, same year, he also invited the leadership of CAN to a special conference of the NSCIA held in Kaduna. The theme of that conference was: ‘Islam in the Eyes of the Christians’. He is the first Nigerian first class Monarch ever to engage in such an interfaith affair at the national level and his speech on that occasion was also electrifying. Please read an excerpt from that speech as presented below:

    “….we initiated, as we had done for the JNI, a thorough review of the activities of the NSCIA and an extensive reform of its structures. It is our firm belief that these reforms are not only desirable but necessary, to reposition the Council to play its strategic role as the apex Islamic body in the country and to respond, effectively and meaningfully, to the challenges facing the Muslim Ummah in a multi-cultural and multi-religious society.

    NSCIA’s reform agenda

    We have had extensive consultations over the last one year and have received very useful inputs on the reform agenda from all the constituent bodies of the Council. Our strategic objectives in this exercise had been and shall remain: firstly, the promotion of Muslim Unity and Solidarity, to accord the Ummah the ability to speak with one voice and to act and work together for the advancement of Islam.

    Secondly, the development of Education and Economic Enterprise, to enable the Muslim Ummah play an active role in the socio-economic life of Nigeria is a sine qua non.

    Thirdly, the promotion of peace and religious harmony both within the Muslim Communities and between the adherents of Islam and those of Christianity is a joint effort that cannot be handled with levity.

    Fourthly, the establishment of effective linkage with Government, at local, state and federal levels, to safeguard the interest of the Ummah and to build consensus on those vital issues that bind us together as a nation must be pursued and sustained.

    It is therefore our hope that as we bring this reform process to its logical conclusion, we will receive the support and patronage of the entire Muslim Ummah as well as the co-operation of all stakeholders including State Governments and indeed the Government of the Federation”.

    The task of governing

    “On that occasion, His Eminence laid emphasis on “the task of overcoming Nigeria’s problems and he called for sacrifice, dialogue and understanding. He said all national stakeholders must overcome the myopia of greed and self-centeredness to move this great nation forward and safeguard its strategic interests….we must begin to look into the future with hope and confidence and to ensure, first and foremost, that we shore up the foundations of our political system. The National Assembly, and indeed all tiers of Government, should not relent in their current efforts at Electoral Reform and in ensuring that Nigerians have a genuine electoral process that guarantees free and fair elections. Unless and until we do that, our nation will continue to be haunted by the unholy alliance between fraudulent elections and illegitimate electoral outcomes, the consequences of which we all know too well. We must break away from this vicious circle and confer on Nigerians the power and indeed the ability to decide, freely and willingly, who leads them at all levels of governance”.

    Conception of leadership

    Talking about leadership, His Eminence said “there is also the urgent need for us to re-evaluate our conception of leadership as a nation…. needless to add, that there is no way we can make genuine progress as a nation when a significant number of our populace wallows in abject poverty unable to secure the requisite means for their sustenance and to cater for the health and educational needs of their families. Democracy must build a humane society capable of looking after legitimate needs of its citizenry. For it to be truly successful, it must be able to bring real progress to all sectors of our diverse society. He concluded that “finally we must all work hard to limit the influence of wealth in our society and to support those values that promote social responsibility, excellence and hard work”.

    That is Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, a leader who knows the problems of his followers and associates with them in solving those problems. Through his humble interaction with all Muslims in Nigeria irrespective of tribal or geographical boundaries, he has become the first Sultan to create a strong feeling of a united Muslim Ummah under a competent and considerate leadership. And by speaking out incessantly against policies which seem to deliberately impoverish ordinary Nigerians across board, this Sultan has brought a rare hope to Nigeria and the Muslims are the luckiest for it. Such a leadership deserves allegiance, loyalty and regular prayer from the Ummah and not just celebration of birthday and congratulatory messages to mark the occasion.

    We pray for the elongation of his life with very sound physical health, exemplary wisdom and Allah’s constant guidance. Amin

  • Unveiling the Unlimited Power of Faith!

    We discover from our deep reading of the Bible, that faith is the master key to taking delivery of our inheritances in Christ. For instance, items brought by courier men to our homes must be signed for before delivery. Likewise, when angels descend with our packages and the appropriate signature is not received, they are forced to return with them. Therefore, faith is the appropriate signature that compels or commits angels to release our packages to us. That is why Jesus said to the father of the demon possessed boy: …If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23).

    We must understand that though everything in redemption belongs to us, only what we believe is released. This is because any truth of scriptures we receive and believe, commits God to empower us to realise it. That is, we must believe the Word before we can be empowered to become what it says. As it is written: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12).

    We also discover that faith holds the answer to all the questions of our lives. This is because faith, as a virtue, has unlimited power to deliver everything that pertains to us in God, anytime. When the blind men met Jesus for their healing, He said to them: According to your faith be it unto you (Matthew 9:29).

    Furthermore, we understand from scriptures that there is no irreversible case with faith. For example, when one of the rulers of the synagogue told Jairus not to disturb Jesus because his daughter was dead, the Bible records: But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole (Luke 8:50). From this scripture, it is therefore evident that faith has the capacity to revert any situation.

    Moreover, when Martha told Jesus that Lazarus was already dead for four days, He replied: …Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? (John 11:39-40).

    Thus, through faith, Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus came back to life. That’s how powerful faith is!

    But, what is faith?

    • Faith is a spiritual treasure of inestimable value: That is, we cannot place value on it because it is far beyond what can be measured. Therefore, faith is the answer to every problem of life. For instance, when Jesus’ disciples asked Him why they couldn’t deliver the boy possessed with demons, Jesus said: …Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you (Matthew 17:20; see also Matthew 15:28).

    Faith is also the answer to the breakthroughs we desire. Thus, Peter did what he was commanded, believing, and he experienced a boat-sinking, net-breaking dimension of breakthrough. Furthermore, it empowers men for exploits and supernatural breakthroughs. Moreover, it is the master key to a world of unlimited possibilities and the answer to clearing the barriers on our path. The Bible says: By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days (Hebrews 11:30; see also Luke 5:3-8).

    We must understand that the worth of any man’s life in the Kingdom is a function of the faith at work in him. That’s why the Bible says …the just shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4; see also Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).

    Faith has the capacity to exempt any man from the horrors of life. As it is written: For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4; see also Psalms 91:7-8; Matthew 9:29).

    Faith deflates every pressure and brings us to the realm of divine pleasure. All these make faith an asset of inestimable value. However, it is important to know that we cannot build our faith without an encounter with God and His Word, and that begins with  you confessing your sins, and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour (Romans 10:17). That is what being born again is all about. If you are ready for this new birth experience, please say this prayer and you shall be born again: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!”

    For further reading, please get my books: Unlimited Power of Faith, Born To Win, Breaking The Curse Of life and Winning Invisible Battles.

    I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have five services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:35 a.m., 9:10 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. respectively.

    I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 01-4548070, 01-4548280; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

  • A leap of faith

    It is eye-opening news that Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State, described as “a privately owned Islamic faith-based university”, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) towards research in the Osun Osogbo Grove, a significant ritual ground of Yoruba indigenous religion.

    A report said: “The MoU which was signed at the grove was to enable the university to conduct researches to establish some of the medicinal benefits that can be derived from certain plants and organisms that have been preserved in the sacred grove over the years.”  It quoted the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Bashir Ademola Raji, as saying that a researcher from the university, Dr Afolabi Nusra Balogun, had made certain discoveries in the Osun Osogbo water and some plants in the grove which would contribute to health care delivery when fully developed.

    It is noteworthy that last year the Osun Osogbo Grove’s 10th anniversary as a World Heritage Site made the headlines.  The grove is the site of the Osun Osogbo Festival, a star tourist attraction that draws a high number of domestic and international visitors. Recognised for natural and cultural reasons, the Osun Osogbo Grove is the second of two UNESCO-branded sites in Nigeria, coming after the Sukur Cultural Landscape in Adamawa State, which attained the distinction in 1999.

    Describing the grove, UNESCO World Heritage Centre said: “The dense forest of the Osun Sacred Grove, on the outskirts of the city of Osogbo, is one of the last remnants of primary high forest in southern Nigeria. Regarded as the abode of the goddess of fertility Osun, one of the pantheon of Yoruba gods, the landscape of the grove and its meandering river is dotted with sanctuaries and shrines, sculptures and art works in honour of Osun and other Yoruba deities. The Grove, which is now seen as a symbol of identity for all Yoruba people, is probably the last sacred grove in Yoruba culture.”

    Interestingly, last year’s celebration coincided with the 100th birth anniversary of a central figure connected with the preservation of the grove. It was the centenary of the late Austrian artist and Yoruba-culture champion, Susanne Wenger, who died in Osogbo in January 2009 at age 93.

    The “Susanne Wenger’s Sacred Colloquium 2015? held at the King’s palace in Osogbo featured a paper presented by Yusuf Abdallahi Usman, Director General of NCMM, to mark the two anniversaries. Usman’s paper was titled “Late Madam Susanne Wenger and National Commission for Museums and Monuments as Springboards to the Development of Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove and Enlistment as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”

    Usman described Wenger as “a phenomenal woman of different interpretations.” He added: “She was a great artist, culturalist, spiritualist and naturalist, intellectual, researcher, philosopher and philanthropist who devoted her life to serving nature, culture and people. She championed the beautification, preservation, adoration, conservation and unification of nature and culture in the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove.”

    Preserving the pristine naturalness of the Osun grove was a passionate mission for Wenger.  She regarded the grove as “endangered life” in dire need of protection.  “At the time of my arrival and initial efforts, a contract was ready to be signed giving over to a sawmill the rights to cut down the giant trees of the groves and river-altars,” she recalled. Wenger was “against utilization other than ritual.” She said: “Every tree standing is another witness to our devoted struggle against ruthless destruction.”

    For Wenger, the “holy groves” stood for “a space of devotion to life.” She reportedly once spent a few nights in the grove “to experience nature”. But her various opponents didn’t understand her seeming fuss about what she called the “sacredness of Nature”

    “Oshogbo’s Muslim fanatics’ fire electronically amplified abuses at her more than at all other representatives of the traditional cults,” observed European photojournalist Gert Chesi, who co-authored a book with Wenger, A life with the gods in their Yoruba homeland. Chesi said: “They don’t simply rain curses on the gods, but on the chief fighter in their cause.  Those who seek profits from the groves’ valuable land form the other main group of adversaries. The groves are a battlefield of conflicting interests. She averted schemes to run a roadway through them, and to break-up sacred rocks for house-building material.  When one of her shrines was blown apart five minutes after she left it, she laconically remarked: ‘It was evidently not good enough for orisha, so let’s build a better one’.  Some money came in from somewhere and she did exactly that.  She saved her first Oshogbo shrine by sitting down between a bulldozer and Shoponno’s most ancient, reconstructed altar.”

    Wenger herself spoke about some of the challenges she faced. At one time, she said, “Orisa warned us in an actual way that the Muslims were about to lay the foundation stone for an Islamic cemetery here within four days”. Hunters shot at Wenger in the grove on several occasions, and a gun-wielding fisherman who was violating the sanctity of the river once threatened her.

    The casualties of the battle were often Wenger’s sculptures in the forest, destroyed either by the weather or by vandals.  “Muslim fanatics ganged up with the hunters and those who wanted to build houses here, and they mutilated the images by striking off their arms and sexual organs,” she lamented.

    What did Wenger want?  Well, she defined her cause by stressing what she didn’t want.  “One thing will never happen,” she vowed, “that I will submit to the transformation of the holy groves into an ‘Oshogbo Pleasure Garden’.” At one of the shrines in the grove, according to her, “we actually once discovered a secretly erected notice board to that effect.”

    This background makes it even more fascinating that Fountain University is fascinated by the grove’s resources. The university was established by the Nasrul-Lahi-li Fatih Society of Nigeria (NAFSAT) in 2008, and it is located in Oke Osun, after the Osun Osogbo sacred grove.  Ahead of the university’s convocation two years ago, its Vice Chancellor told reporters: “We are exploring the United Nations Heritage Site, the Osun grove, as a potential source of novel pharmaceutical compounds in Nigeria.” It is constructive that the faith-based university appreciates the possible hidden treasures of the place of worship of a different faith, which is reinforced by the recent MOU with the NCMM.

    It is a testimony to Wenger’s work that the forest is “a protected area”, a national monument established by Decree 77 of 1979, and a World Heritage Site. It is thought-provoking that she was initially demonised, especially by those who belonged to religions different from the one she chose. She remained an unapologetic devotee of Yoruba indigenous faith till the end. Her struggle and the still-unfolding positive results demonstrate the importance of religious freedom and religious tolerance.