The Nation Newspaper

Tag: God’s

  • ‘I’ll invoke the gods for Buhari’s re-election’

    Claimant to the throne of Awka-Etiti kingdom, Anambra State, Chuma Ojukwu, has vowed to invoke the gods of the land to pave way for the second term bid of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He said the decision was to reciprocate Buhari’s intervention towards perfecting and facilitating his release from custody.

    Ojukwu, who addressed reporters yesterday in Awka-etiti, thanked the president for his release, and prayed God to grant him longer life and good health to complete his second tenure.

    “By the power bestowed on me as a traditional ruler, I pronounce with Awka-Etiti kingdom’s 320 years ancient power of authority (Ofo) that President Muhammadu Buhari must be alive to complete his tenure till 2023,” Ojukwu prayed.

    Ojukwu claimed to have been charged before a Rivers State Magistrates’ Court in Port Harcourt on a three-count charge of obtaining goods under false pretence, among other issues.

    He added that the offence was punishable under Section 419 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999.

    The monarch was discharged on two counts but was found guilty on one of the counts and has appealed to a higher court of law.

    “I have now appealed to High Court through a notice of appeal filed and served on December 5, 2017, based on my conviction and sentence on count three.

    “I prayed the High Court in the notice of appeal for an order of the High Court setting aside the verdict of guilt with respect to the third count against me. An order of the High Court dismissed the charge of defamation of character against me and I was discharged and acquit with respect to count three charge,” he added.

     

  • Nation of gods and lesser creatures

    Nation of gods and lesser creatures

    We do not know how to create a heaven or sustain the like of it but we love to create gods by the dozen. I do not speak of divinity that manifests only in far-fetched miracles and dreams; I speak of individuals we deify as our vanities dictate.

    Being rich is the closest you get to being god in Nigeria. Add an impressive root and very intimidating academic record to the mix and you have yourself a 21st century hero or god. Of what calibre are man-made gods? Who really, is the Nigerian idol? Olusegun Obasanjo? Atiku Abubakar? Diezani Allison-Maduekwe? President Goodluck Jonathan? Muhammadu Buhari? Wole Soyinka? Late Gani Fawehinmi?

    Do their deeds make them worthy of hero-worship or blind deification? To what would these individuals owe our reverence of them? Some would say it is their brilliance and extraordinary achievements. Anyone could be brilliant from time to time but intelligence is what we have to affect all of the time.

    How intelligent are our ruling class? How brilliant are Nigeria’s industry titans – state-made and corruption-activated billionaires to be precise?

    By their citizenship, do they provide pathways to empowering the Nigerian youth; the disillusioned jobless graduates and school drop outs of Umukegwu, Akokwa, Urualla, Apongbon, Idumota, Agege, Agbor, Sankwala, to mention a few?

    Do they teach the youth to evolve beyond the greed, selfishness and idiosyncrasies of their generation?

    Do they teach us to make peace with our guilt and conquer our demons? The answer lies as much in their utterances as their deeds. Transcendent moments and heroic acts are in truth, deeds of an exalted intelligence and unsullied mind, traits that the incumbent ruling class pitifully lack.

    Despite our protests and dissatisfaction with the status quo, the Nigerian citizenry equally lacks that towering immensity of intellect and strength of character that remains prime requirements in the constitution of a progressive race.

    Our lust for heroes and gods illustrates a fable; it is not of latent strength but disintegration. It reveals the weakness and shallowness of the Nigerian adult’s awfully preadolescent mind. Thus his predisposition to creating gods of impoverishment and war.

    Some would say the random hero may pass as god. But the Nigerian hero is a human sound bite. He is essentially a half-formed mammal, animal to be precise. He is hardly humane. He has been flipped upside-down and inside-out; he has been scrambled, corrupted and fertilized by ghastly manifestations of self love, tribalism, wantonness, perverted education and sense of worth.

    “All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours,” says Aldous Huxley, English writer. However, the manner in which the Nigerian electorate worships its ruling class and celebrates its bestiality makes it impossible for the latter to affect the necessary humaneness, tact and humility that are prime requirements of occupants of exalted public office. Having made super humans of them, they begin to delude that they are unquestionable. They parade themselves as gods and see the electorate by whose strength they attained their exalted positions as lesser creatures.

    Nigerian idols seek the exaggerated safety and coziness of fortresses they build around themselves to protect their ill-gotten wealth and ostentatious lifestyles, soon after their election into public office. Suddenly, it becomes taboo for them to hobnob with the working class. It becomes abominable for their wives, daughters and cooks to visit the same grocer or shop in the same market as the masses.

    They loot public coffers without inhibition and in response, we celebrate them and grovel at their feet for crumbs of what is rightfully ours. Whenever they intrude our world, they leave behind pungent memories and pains. Whenever they come to town, we must be kept in traffic for them to move freely. Whenever they are ‘guests of honour’ at our functions, we are treated with little or no honour. Apology to Kayode Oteniya.

    The chief quality of a true leader is the apparent sincerity in his manners. The speeches he makes are never mere platitudinous enterprise and his developmental programmes are never extraordinary elephant projects; his politics and humanity are not only heard but concretely seen and felt.

    Really, there is prime merit in everything about him, and his life generally, radiates truth. His life is what we may call a great sober sincerity. A sort of temperate authenticity that is not only blunt but uncompromising.

    His fervor is undomesticated, bordering on the wild and forever wrestling naked with the elements that be, for the love of the good and the truth of things. In that sense, there is something of the savage yet humane in him like all great men.

    He is one in whom one still finds human substance. He relishes no opportunity to tell any colourful story of himself anywhere; usually, he stands bare and grapples like a giant, face to face, heart to heart, with the naked truth of things.  ‘That, after all,” according to Thomas Carlyle “is the sort of man for one.”

    And such is the type of man we should value above all others. He is the man who as American writer, Norman Mailer, puts it, would argue with gods and awaken devils to contest his vision. When he dies, his death would be felt nationwide as something more than a historic calamity; women would weep and men would fight back tears as if they had heard of the death of a very dear friend or Saint.

    The creation of such honorable man and god would be our noblest work. But we seem incapable yet of such honorable task. We could start by stripping ourselves of the greater vanities and contradictions. Unhappy the land that has no heroes, says Andrea; No, unhappy the land that needs heroes, responds Galileo in Bertolt Brecht, late German playwright and poet’s “The Life of Galileo.” Regrettably, the meaning is lost on all.

  • Gossips of the gods

    Gossips of the gods

    Title: Ehianuka (God heard the Gossips)
    Author: Lucy Jonah
    No of Pages : 382
    Reviewer: Yetunde Oladeinde
    Publisher: Oracle Books Limited

    Ehianuka  (God heard the Gossips) is a simple autobiographical account by a woman who has had to travel from point zero, to a more reassuring destination in her life.

    The prologue actually sets the tone for this moving story that inspires and motivates the reader. “At the time I was going through my trials, I never knew I would live to tell my story but thanks be to God that I am not only alive , I have been through so much and that is why I have a story to tell”.

    Jonah goes on to stress the fact that she has had little or no typical childhood, Neither father nor mother stood by to offer the sweet little things of life. And from a very early stage, the amazon learnt that to survive  means to struggle and so life had been a continuous struggle till date.

    Apart from the bitter memories from childhood, the author’s experience with marriage wasn’t also palatable. “My mother was unhappy in marriage, my eldest half sister had an unfulfilled marriage and died having a child, all the women around me had nothing good to say about marriage, yet they must endure it.”

    Interestingly, in spite of all the bickering about the challenges in marriage, she became skeptical but just had to get into it. “Rather than give me fulfillment,, it brought me humiliation , pain, anguish, depression and outright brutality”.

    What the she presents is more than an ordinary tale of triumphs and thanksgiving but a work of literary merit, with enchanting episodes as well as penetrating insights into the social anthropology of Nigerian life, and the place of the girl child in the society.

    The book is a true life story that goes beyond the self to motivate and encourage to share experiences and the usefulness of hard work, persistence and a sense of self worth.

    It also depicts the author’s inner freedom and courage to tell one’s story even as it exposes the ugly and painful past, without minding ‘what people would say” made the story even more exciting.

    In addition, the message is so rich with lessons and mysteries that every reader would surely be challenged to wander about the rare stuff  that the author is made of.

    Infidelity and the way the cheating game brought pain to her are some of the issues that are discussed in a subtle way and the author creates scenarios that are quite vivid to illustrate this. “ Most evenings, Felix would take me along with him to Zaria, drop me in the house of his family friend and go visiting his girlfriends. At first, I used to wonder why I could not go with him all the way and I heard from the grape vine that it was his girlfriends that he went to see’.

    Added to this burden was the dilemma of infertility that brought her face to face with another sad part of life. “ As my search for the fruit of the womb continued, I still kept on going to the sickbay with all manner of complaints’.

    In chapter 19, the author takes us through what she calls , “Another gift, a new life. Memorable and here she gave birth to her second child and son, Okuose (What God says).

    “A day after the naming ceremony, my son’s biological father came to visit. ….He was so insensitive to my feelings and the situation I was in that he did not understand that real reason for the tears. My tears were tears of shame and disillusionment at having to relate with a man so selfish that he thought only of himself’.

  • Are the gods angry with PDP?

    What’s gwam is the title of a song by the Nigerian reggae artist Ras Kimonos released some years ago. The message it conveyed when the musician first used the word was unmistakable: something wrong of alarming proportion in the air- real apprehension everywhere in the land.

    That is how I see the rapidly sinking fortune of the PDP- a once beautiful and powerful political party but now sick, pale, weak, disorganized, powerless, disoriented and seems on the path to disintegration. What a pity! It once held high hope for real national unity, meaningful development and prosperity and thus commanded the respect, love and support of many citizens. This was largely because of its national spread.

    Now it is no longer in that position of grandiose power and favour having fallen from the graceful high-horse of authority to the plebeian grass land of ordinariness. Today the party is ridden by a seeming unending self-generated crisis and self-imposed conflicts. The internal strife is deep and well entrenched and it is fuelled by well endowed, wealthy rivalry groups of elite within the party and outside it as some have suspected.

    In a way, the ambition of some Nigerian elite is really the problem and greatest source of threat to the party. Political wars are elite’s game and it could be very bloody because each party has the wherewithal to test the will of the other. However, as the Bible teaches, everything on earth has its season. In politics every party has its turn and in a democracy, the voters determine whose turn it is to be in power.  This sure is the season of woes for the People’s Democratic Party in Nigeria.

    For 16 years it ruled the country unchallenged and unchallengeable. One way or the other, it was the ‘choice’ of the people, the acclaimed ‘darling’ party of the voters- with the immediate plan to rule for the first 60 years from 1999. But today, things have changed for the worse for the party. It is no longer in power. Since 2015 when it lost the presidential elections, its fortunes had rapidly sunk deeply into the troubled sea of confusion, treachery and death. It has not been able to manage failure- to get up to its feet since its fall from power.

    From all indications, it looks it is going to take some long time to retrieve it from the danger zone.  The reports from the war zone are depressing and disappointing. Attempts to mend fences had continually failed. A good example was the peace meeting called in April by former President Goodluck Jonathan which again failed to achieve the desired result as one the key gladiators –Ali Modu Sherriff – the party’s court certified chairman walked out of the talks. Consequently an important member of the party-Governor Ayodele Fayose chairman PDP Governors Forum vowed never to discuss with Sherriff on the matter again. These are bad enough for a patient on oxygen at the intensive care unit.

    Already there are signs of wide blisters from a freezing cold winter and it promises to be a long nasty season for the party. It has been observed that those that the gods want to punish, they first make mad and there are grounds to wonder if the gods are perpetually angry with the PDP.  It can be said that in democracy, the political parties the voters want to punish, they first make to lose power. Ever since 2015 when Nigerian voters showed the PDP the red  card, the party has never known  peace.  It has been behaving like mad person and jumping from one crisis to another without resolution. Internal strife, leadership crisis and disunity had been its lot.

    When the feuding parties went to court, I thought the end of the crisis was near in sight. Alas, I was wrong.  When judgement was made in favour of Sherriff, some interested party big wigs to the feud refused to accept the court’s judgement. The crisis has thus continued to the detriment of our institutions. For many reasons, many patriots are no longer at ease. How can they feel easy when there is fire in the next house gutting it down?

    I think the court actually offered some windows of opportunity to resolve the party’s crisis. There is the need to respect the judgement, appeal if necessary… But first thing first: the respect for the rule of law is the first principle of representative democracy. This is playing by the rules of the game – rules set before the game- and not during or after the game.  Without respect for laws, we are in the wild jungles where only the fittest survives.

    Not long ago President Trump just after being sworn in as President of the USA issued some orders concerning visits to the U.S. It was challenged in a court and the court made a ruling that was not in favour of the president. Eventually the American President complied even as he seeks other ways to achieve the same goal. The judiciary was strengthened, the American institutions were better off.

    Methinks the PDP should get all parties to the feud to respect the court ruling and use other legal means to redeem the party from its avoidable path to perdition. Men erect and nurture institutions by words and actions. A disdainful attitude to national institutions is not the way to build and strengthen them. Let the Nigerian elite learn to respect our public institutions. It is the best way forward.

    There is nothing wrong with a party losing an election. The greater strength is in its ability to learn and reorganize for the next contest with the hope of winning it. The PDP has found this very hard to do. But this is usually easier for a party with strong ideological foundation. From what we see, it is clear that the People’s Democratic Party lacks a noble and binding ideology beyond the personal greed for power and wealth by some individuals.

    Other than the greed for political power and wealth for selfish reasons, the party had no sound philosophy to bond members together under the rain or in the sun, no party sentiment and discipline to cause attachment and deference to it.  The party’s interest was subjugated to interest of many individual members.  In a word it was a hollow party of many money bags bereft of noble political ideals.

    The negative effect is too obvious to be ignored today.  The PDP is down and in very bad shape and thus it can hardly be counted on as alternate power- party. Yet, the country needs a strong opposition to avoid the baneful effect one party dictatorship. Thus it is in our collective interest that the PDP is saved from crashing. I believe in two party system and a place for strong opposition party. And the PDP initially held that prospect until it went into disarray. Now with very serious internal strife rocking it since its fall from power, it has lost the steam to play well the opposition role.

    The political elite are adept here but we must all do our best to nurture the growing positive culture of two party system. The PDP must be saved from self- destruction in the national interest.

     

    • Dr. Abhuere is of Centre for Child care and Youth Development, Abuja.

  • Are the gods angry?

    Who is safe in the country today? With what is happening nationwide, it seems nobody is safe except those in power. Even at that how safe are they? Most of them move about with a busload of security men, carrying guns and bombs when we are not at war. Those who can afford it hire private guards and arm them to the teeth. With their money, they secure their lives, yet they are not safe too. They are not safe because they cannot move about freely like you and I . They know the consequences of trying to walk on the streets alone.

    They cannot engage in the leisure of a stroll. To take a stroll could amount to ending up in the lair of kidnappers. For every Nigerian, whether young or old, rich or poor these are not the best of times. These are times that try the souls of men. Every day we are confronted with evil not only at night but also in the day time. The evil doers no longer strike under the cover of darkness; they have become so daring that they strike under the brightness of the sun. To them, there is no difference between sunshine and darkness.

    It was in days past that daylight frightened evil doers; these days, it emboldens them because they control the instrument of fear – arms. It was the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe that said only a mad man will argue with the man with a gun. How true. Only God knows where they get the guns from. The worrisome thing is that those carrying these guns are teenagers, young boys barely out of school, but who have chosen the world of crime. Under the guise of unemployment, they have turned themselves into criminals. They engage in everything evil, believing that, that is the easiest way to wealth. Unfortunately, many of them are graduates. Instead of using their knowledge for the betterment of society, they are using it to kill, maim, rape and kidnap.

    There is no part of the country where they are not found and they go by all sorts of fanciful names to instil fear in people. ‘’Fear’’, the legendary novelist James Hardly Chase said, ‘’is the key that opens the wallet of the rich’’. Fear no longer only opens the wallet of the rich but also of the poor. These young marauders do not distinguish between the rich and the poor when they strike. To them, everybody is fair game. It is after they have struck that they look at the size of their victims’ purses. May we not walk on the day the road is famished. This is the prayer we all say daily before leaving home. But the thing is evil no longer waits for people on the road, it stalks them at home.

    The other day at Arepo in Ogun State, a family was having a quiet time at home when its generator suddenly went off. The father asked the son to go and see what happened. The next thing he saw was his boy being led back into the house by some gunmen. They fled with the poor man through the river behind his house. The abductors were said to have called to demand N10 million ransom from the family. I cannot say if the family was able to raise the money, but it has been over four weeks since the incident happened at the Orange Estate. Since then, a combined team of soldiers and riot policemen has been deployed in Arepo. With their presence there has been some respite in the community, but for how long will we know peace before the hoodlums return?

    We used to be troubled by pipeline vandals before kidnappers and assassins took over. Some weeks before the aforesaid kidnap, a man was killed as he returned home from vigil. In Ondo State, a monarch was kidnapped last month in his palace. Last Monday, the paramount ruler of Bokkos in Plateau State was killed by hoodlums. Things that were unheard of in the past are now happening across the country. Monarchs that are deified by the people have become easy prey to kidnappers. It is taboo to speak ill of traditional rulers not to talk of snatching them from their palaces. All these are now in the past as these scoundrels are no respecter of persons and institutions. To them, there is no difference between a monarch and a serf. They give them the same treatment without giving a hoot about the status of the monarch. Are they not inviting a curse on their heads with their own hands? Do they really care? I do not think they do because if they did, they would not be snatching monarchs from their palaces.

    Last Saturday night, they struck at Iba and took away the Oniba, Oba Yushau Goriola Oseni, from his palace. The monarch was in his room with his wife when they arrived. Their noise attracted him and the olori and when he came out to see what was amiss, they bundled him away. They fled through the bush path behind the palace. His family has been waiting to hear from the abductors to know what they want. But they have kept the family in suspense. They are playing the waiting game; they know that the family will be anxious to hear from the kabiyesi and also from them, especially on what they want. What will they want if not money? Why don’t they just come out and make their demand and put the family’s mind at rest?

    Why is all this happening? Did we offend the gods? According to the sage, when a child trips, he walks on; but when an elder stumbles, he turns back to ascertain what is wrong.  Why are the gods angry with us? What will they take to forgive us? We need to make propitiation to stop these sacrilegious acts happening across the country.

    For how long will we be under the mercy of hoodlums who have made our lives miserable? If they can go into palaces to kidnap kings, what becomes of those of us who are not royalty? It is sad that these boys breach our security at will. At times, they strike right under the nose of security men and get away. This is why they have become terror in the land and believe that they can take out their target at anytime without coming to harm. It is in a society where there is no law that there is no crime. In a society full of laws like ours, criminals should have no place. So, Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris has a herculean task to rid society of these boys.

    Idris’ job is cut out for him. He cannot be in office and hoodlums will be terrorising the people of the country he is mandated to secure. It is not an easy job, but it is one that he must discharge so that the hoodlums will know that there cannot be two masters in a ship. The new sheriff in town must prove to these hoodlums that he is equal to the task. As the IGP, our safety lies in Idris’ hands. Will he watch and allow hoodlums to finish us off?

  • Community moves against its gods

    Community moves against its gods

    Thousands have gathered in an Anambra State community to neutralise the perceived influence of their once revered idols, reports NWANOSIKE ONU

    It would have been unthinkable once upon a time to move against the community’s deities. It was the tradition. Every family had their gods and shrines to which sacrifices were periodically offered. It was their life, their faith.

    Now, that is changing in Umuchu, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. Some residents have jettisoned the community’s spiritual beliefs and have mounted a counter-spiritual offensive to neutralise what they believe is the negative influence of the idols on their people.

    They gathered at the Nkwo triangle market to seek God’s intervention in this anti-idols offensive. The prayer session was headed by the Anglican Bishop of Amichi in Nnewi South, Most Rev Ephraim Ikeakor.

    Indeed, the intervention has become a yearly ritual in the sleepy community.

    Before now, the prayer session had dwelt on flushing out idol worship, believing that they impeded the growth of the area. But since the last prayer session in the area, some of the youths who claimed they were caged by the community’s deities, said the gate of progress had been opened to them.

    A crowd of over 7,000 people from all walks of life consisting especially of citizens of the community assembled again at the village to step up the offensive. This time around the session focused on eradicating the spirit of idolatry, which the cleric said had held the people back.

    The cleric who equally hails from the community chose the topic “Refusing and resisting shame” in his sermon. According to him, there is shame of poverty, shame of untimely death, shame of dependence on parents, late marriages and unprecedented cases of divorce in Umuchu. These issues Bishop Ikeakor blamed on idolatrous lifestyle of some of the people in the community.

    Drawing his sermon from the book of Joel 2:16-27, Ikeakor observed that God, who commanded Joel to forgive Israel their sins, could still show the same mercy to the area.

    He said some people, despite the presence of God in the community, are still paying deaf ears to the issue of idolatry, adding that idolatry and adultery are the two major weapons the devil uses to push people to shame.

    Heaid, “It pains me that no Umuchu-born citizen has been a governor, commissioner, permanent secretary or head of any Federal Government agency or parastatal in this generation but I want to assure you that God manifests His miracle during difficulty and abnormal situations.

    “In this land, God will raise people that will use their contacts and influence to change the fortunes of the people. Our youths will prosper and parents will reap the fruit of their labour.”

    The programme is sponsored annually by one of the community illustrious indigenes, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo.

    Mr. Ezinna Samuel Ezeudo said the programme had been an immense help to most of the youths in the community.

    Also, Mr. Dona Agupusi, a native of the community but based in Lagos, praised the organisers of the annual programme, which he said had lifted the area.

    For Mr. Dominic Ottih, another Lagos-based businessman, God had been using the clergy to salvage the community from occultists. He  called for its sustenance until the land was totally cleansed of evil deeds, adding that God’s powers supersede other powers.

    The sponsor of the programme, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, told The Nation that the prayer session had really transformed the community and many lives.

     

  • These gods are man-made

    Think continuously of those who are truly great, men and women who by their deeds fight for fairness and the good of all; think of those who wear on their hearts’ sleeve and domicile in the inner recesses of their souls, irrepressible zeal to make our lives better and worthy of our dreams …there are no such men and women alive, are there? For if there are, Nigeria would be 21st   century version of Eden or Al Jannah; and men and women on whose watch our country so evolves and appreciate would be everything and even gods.

    Our people are quite inane, they wouldn’t know how to create a heaven or sustain the like of it but they create gods by the dozen. I do not speak of divinity that manifests only in far-fetched miracles and dreams; I speak of men and women, boys and girls that we quite desperately and misguidedly deify as our vanities dictate.

    Being rich is the closest you get to being god in Nigeria. Add an impressive root and very intimidating academic record to the mix and you have yourself a 21st century hero or god. Of what calibre are our idols? Who really is the Nigerian god? Who is an example of a quintessential idol? Allison-Maduekwe? Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu? President Muhammadu Buhari? Former President Goodluck Jonathan? Reuben Abati? Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala? Do their deeds make them worthy of hero-worship or blind deification?

    To what would these individuals owe our reverence of them? Some would say it is their brilliance and extraordinary achievements in their chosen callings. Anyone could be brilliant from time to time but intelligence is what we have to affect all of the time. How intelligent are our ruling class? How intelligent is President Goodluck Jonathan? How intelligent is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala? How intelligent is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi? How intelligent are they and every other character we continue to endure in the Nigerian ruling class?

    The answer lies as much in their utterances as their deeds. Alas! Transcendent moments and heroic acts are rather deeds of an exalted intelligence, something which Nigeria’s incumbent ruling class pitifully lacks. But despite its protests and dissatisfaction with the status quo, the Nigerian citizenry equally lacks that towering immensity of intellect and strength of character that remains prime requirements in the constitution of a progressive race.

    Our lust for heroes and gods illustrates a fable; it is not of latent strength but disintegration rather it reveals the weakness and shallowness of the Nigerian adult’s awfully preadolescent mind. It reiterates a very shrill cry for help that’s at once selfish, infantile and retrogressive. Put precisely, we are incapable of creating such super humans or elements worthy of being called gods of unconditional love and compassion. All we are capable of are gods of impoverishment and gods of war.

    If we are to be judged by what Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, deems the human measure of all things, shall we fare excellently or not? Things have gone on decadently for too long; that is why idiots as fragile as clay toys have evolved into outsized heroes and gods, on our watch.

    The Nigerian hero is a human sound bite. He is essentially a half-formed mammal, animal to be precise. Take for instance gods and goddesses we have created as our ruling class; they are no longer exclusively Nigerian or humane. Rather they have been turned upside-down and inside-out; they have been scrambled, corrupted and fertilized by ghastly manifestations of self love, tribalism, wantonness, perverted education and sense of worth.

    This abnormality is accentuated by the citizenry’s lack of courage and inclination to dither when the situation calls for decisiveness and fearlessness in determining the course of our affairs. “All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours,” says Aldous Huxley, English writer.

    Truly; the manner in which the Nigerian electorate worships its ruling class and celebrates its mediocrity makes it impossible for the latter to affect the necessary humaneness, tact and humility that are prime requirements of occupants of exalted public offices. Having made super humans of them, they begin to delude that they are untouchable and unquestionable. They begin to parade themselves as gods and see the electorate on whose strength they ascended to their exalted positions as lesser creatures.

    They seek the exaggerated safety and coziness of fortresses they build around themselves to protect their ill-gotten wealth and ostentatious lifestyles. Suddenly it becomes taboo for them to hobnob with the working class. It becomes abominable for their wives, daughters and cooks to visit the same grocer or shop in the same market as the masses.

    Shamelessly, they clear our public coffers of our collective fund without any inhibition and in response; we celebrate them and grovel at their feet for crumbs of what is rightfully ours. Whenever they intrude our world, they leave behind pungent memories and pains. Whenever they come to town, we must be kept in traffic for them to move freely; whenever they are ‘guests of honour’ at our functions, we are treated with little or no honour. Apology to Kayode Oteniya.

    The chief quality of a true leader is the apparent sincerity in his manners. The speeches he makes are never mere platitudinous enterprise and his developmental programmes are never extraordinary elephant projects; his politics and humanity are not only heard but concretely seen and felt.

    Really there is prime merit in everything about him, and his life generally, radiates truth. His life is what we may call a great sober sincerity. A sort of temperate authenticity that is not only blunt but uncompromising. His fervor is undomesticated, bordering on the wild and forever wrestling naked with the elements that be for the love of the good and the truth of things. In that sense, there is something of the savage yet humane in him like all great men.

    He is one in whom one still finds human substance. He relishes no opportunity to tell any colourful story of himself anywhere; usually, he stands bare and grapples like a giant, face to face, heart to heart, with the naked truth of things.  ‘That, after all,” according to Thomas Carlyle “is the sort of man for one.”

    And such is the type of man we should value above all others. He is the man who as Norman Mailer, an American writer, puts it, would argue with gods and awaken devils to contest his vision. When he dies, his death would be felt nationwide as something more than a historic calamity; women would weep and men would fight back tears as if they had heard of the death of a very dear friend or Saint.

    The creation of such honorable man and god would be our noblest work. But we seem incapable yet of such honorable task. We could start by stripping ourselves of the greater vanities and portentous contradictions. Unhappy the land that has no heroes, says Andrea; No, unhappy the land that needs heroes, responds Galileo in Bertolt Brecht, late German playwright and poet’s “The Life of Galileo.” Regrettably, the meaning is lost on us all.

  • gods and other soundbites

    Think continuously of those who are truly great, men and women who by their deeds fight for fairness and the good of all; think of those who wear on their hearts’ sleeve and domicile in the inner recesses of their souls, irrepressible zeal to make our lives better and worthy of our dreams …there are no such men and women alive, are there? For if there are, Nigeria would be 21st   century version of Eden or Al Jannah and men and women on whose watch our country so evolve would be everything and anything, even gods.

    Our people are quite derisible, they wouldn’t know how to create a heaven or sustain the like of it but they create gods by the dozen. I do not speak of divinity that manifests only in far-fetched miracles and dreams; I speak of individuals that we desperately and misguidedly deify as our vanities dictate.

    Being rich is the closest you get to being god in Nigeria. Add an impressive root and very intimidating academic record to the mix and you have yourself a 21st century hero or god. Of what calibre are our idols? Who really, is the Nigerian god? Who is an example of a quintessential idol? Allison-Maduekwe? President Goodluck Jonathan? Godswill Akpabio? Reuben Abati, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala or the rampaging governor-elect of Rivers State? Do their deeds make them worthy of hero-worship or blind deification?

    To what would these individuals owe our reverence of them? Some would say it is their brilliance and extraordinary achievements in their chosen callings. Anyone could be brilliant from time to time but intelligence is what we have to affect all of the time. How intelligent are our ruling class? How intelligent are President Goodluck Jonathan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Godwin Emefiele? How intelligent are other members of the Nigerian ruling class?

    By their citizenship, do they provide the pathways to empowering the Nigerian youth…the disillusioned school drop outs of Umukegwu, Akokwa, Urualla, Apongbon, Idumota, Agege, Agbor, Sankwala, to mention a few? Do they teach the youth particularly, to evolve beyond the greed, selfishness and idiosyncrasies of their generation? Do they teach us to accept truths we cannot change, like the fact that we collectively make our world as gory and burdensome as it is by turning a blind eye to their tedious politics? Do they teach us to make peace with our guilt and conquer our riotous demons? Do they teach us that at the end, we get to choose what to make of our own lives and our own world?

    The answer lies as much in their utterances as their deeds. Alas! Transcendent moments and heroic acts are rather deeds of an exalted intelligence, something which Nigeria’s incumbent ruling class pitifully lacks. But despite its protests and dissatisfaction with the status quo, the Nigerian citizenry equally lacks that towering immensity of intellect and strength of character that remains prime requirements in the constitution of a progressive race.

    Our lust for heroes and gods illustrates a fable; it is not of latent strength but disintegration, it reveals the weakness and shallowness of the Nigerian adult’s awfully preadolescent mind. Such mind is inherently incapable of creating leaders worthy of being deified as gods of unconditional love and compassion. All we are capable of creating today are gods of impoverishment and gods of war.

    The Nigerian hero is a human sound bite. He is essentially a half-formed mammal, animal to be precise. Take for instance gods and goddesses we have created as our ruling class; they are no longer exclusively Nigerian or humane. Rather they have been turned upside-down and inside-out; they have been scrambled, corrupted and fertilized by ghastly manifestations of self love, tribalism, wantonness, perverted education and sense of worth.

    “All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours,” says Aldous Huxley, English writer. However, the manner in which the Nigerian electorate worships its ruling class and celebrates its bestiality makes it impossible for the latter to affect the necessary humaneness, tact and humility that are prime requirements of occupants of exalted public office. Having made super humans of them, they begin to delude that they are untouchable and unquestionable. They begin to parade themselves as gods and see the electorate on whose strength they ascended to their exalted positions as lesser creatures.

    They seek the exaggerated safety and coziness of fortresses they build around themselves to protect their ill-gotten wealth and ostentatious lifestyles. Suddenly it becomes taboo for them to hobnob with the working class. It becomes abominable for their wives, daughters and cooks to visit the same grocer or shop in the same market as the masses.

    Shamelessly, they clear our public coffers of our collective fund without any inhibition and in response; we celebrate them and grovel at their feet for crumbs of what is rightfully ours. Whenever they intrude our world, they leave behind pungent memories and pains. Whenever they come to town, we must be kept in traffic for them to move freely; whenever they are ‘guests of honour’ at our functions, we are treated with little or no honour. Apology to Kayode Oteniya.

    The chief quality of a true leader is the apparent sincerity in his manners. The speeches he makes are never mere platitudinous enterprise and his developmental programmes are never extraordinary elephant projects; his politics and humanity are not only heard but concretely seen and felt.

    Really there is prime merit in everything about him, and his life generally, radiates truth. His life is what we may call a great sober sincerity. A sort of temperate authenticity that is not only blunt but uncompromising. His fervor is undomesticated, bordering on the wild and forever wrestling naked with the elements that be for the love of the good and the truth of things. In that sense, there is something of the savage yet humane in him like all great men.

    He is one in whom one still finds human substance. He relishes no opportunity to tell any colourful story of himself anywhere; usually, he stands bare and grapples like a giant, face to face, heart to heart, with the naked truth of things.  ‘That, after all,” according to Thomas Carlyle “is the sort of man for one.”

    And such is the type of man we should value above all others. He is the man who as American writer, Norman Mailer, puts it, would argue with gods and awaken devils to contest his vision. When he dies, his death would be felt nationwide as something more than a historic calamity; women would weep and men would fight back tears as if they had heard of the death of a very dear friend or Saint.

    The creation of such honorable man and god would be our noblest work. But we seem incapable yet of such honorable task. We could start by stripping ourselves of the greater vanities and portentous contradictions. Unhappy the land that has no heroes, says Andrea; No, unhappy the land that needs heroes, responds Galileo in Bertolt Brecht, late German playwright and poet’s “The Life of Galileo.” Regrettably, the meaning is lost on all.

  • God’s Own State

    God’s Own State

    SIR: I believe it was Sidney N. Bremer that said that “the greatest discovery of this century is not the harnessing of the atom, nor will it be in space exploration; it will be man’s discovery of himself. What matters is not the height you’ve attained sofar in your ladder but if your ladder is leaning on the right wall.

    The greatest ‘oil well’ in Abia State is located in its commercial capital, Aba. That oil well resides in the resilience of the citizens of this great city. Since human capital is the greatest asset of any nation, Aba could become world’s number one city, if its human capital is well-harnessed.

    In my childhood days, while on holiday in Aba, I still remember vividly thedefinition a fellow commuter in a bus gave to the name Aba: the city that people move to in order to grow rich. That definition never left my mind till today. It still stands. My position may appear somewhat strange, if you have visited Aba in recent times, due to the basic infrastructural challenges the city is currently facing. Well, great cities undergo such experience from time to time. Even the great Motor City of America, Detroit, is still recovering from sameexperience.

    The best shoes I have ever worn in my life were made in Aba.. If one out of every 100 persons on the face of planet earth wears made in Aba shoes, do you know that Aba would become tomorrow’s Singapore?

    Aba could move from being the commercial capital of God’s Own State to world’s shoe capital today. But, the Elephant city needs you. What can the Elephant do without its trunks?

    All we need is a change in our mind-set. Remember what Shakespeare said: “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. You can become the opportunity Aba is looking for today.

    Remember: the worst thing you can do is to do nothing. Become the change you want to see! Every nation is great that is greatly led. Singapore sings today because someone wrote their song yesterday.

     

    • Goodluck Ede

    Port Harcourt.

     

  • Experiencing the wonders in God’s word!

    I welcome you to the month of August. It shall be a month of new beginnings for you! Whatever you missed last month, you will, this August, collect them in many folds! This is why the teaching this month is unique- The Wonders in God’s Word!

    Recognize that God’s Word is loaded with wonders. Until your eyes are opened, you cannot access them. No wonder, God’s Word says: Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law (Psalm 119:18). Revelation has the power to change the story of any man supernaturally (Isaiah 60:1-3,8,22).

    God’s Word is pregnant with wonders and this is why all miracles, signs and wonders are direct confirmations of the Word (Mark 16:20).

    But what does it take to Access the Wonders in the Word?

    • One must be born again: Wonders here connote mysteries. But mysteries are God’s secrets behind biblical stories. Everyone can understand the stories of scriptures, but only the redeemed can access the mysteries thereof. The stories are made up of letters, but the mysteries are made up of Spirit and life (Mark 4:11/ John 6: 63).
    • We must be filled with the Holy Ghost: The Holy Ghost is our access to the mysteries in the Word, and we are limited in access without Him. The Holy Spirit brings us into realms of unlimited access to the deep things of God (John 16:12-13; John 14:26; 1Corinthians 2:10).
    • We must be Spiritual: It is one thing to be filled with the Holy Ghost, but it is yet another to be spiritual. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit and still be carnal. For instance, the Corinthians church was not behind in the gifts of the spirit, yet they were carnal. It is therefore important to be spiritual, because a natural man cannot understand the things of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The more spiritual we are, the greater our access to the deep things of God  (1Corinthians 1:7; 1Corinthians 3:1-3; 1Corinthians 2:14).
    • We must walk in the Spirit: It is written, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard…”It takes a man of the spirit to hear from heaven. It is not enough to be born again, filled with the Holy Spirit and be spiritual, we must be men and women that walk in the spirit. This is because God can choose to speak to us at any time. If we are not in the spirit, we are sure to miss His directives and thereby continue with our struggles in life. Therefore, we must mind the associations we keep, because carnal men are sure to corrupt our spirituality (Revelation 1:10; Romans 8:6; 1Corinthians 15:23).
    • We must desire more Revelation: More often than not, when things are not working, it is because our insight is inadequate. As we are all aware, we don’t fail exams because we don’t know anything; we fail because we don’t know enough. However, we know that God hates waste and that is why He only unveils treasures to those who are truly thirsty for revelation. As it is written, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry land.” Revelation answers only to the thirsty; it is therefore our crave to know, that opens the door to revelation – Isaiah 44:3/ 1Corinthians 8:2.
    • We must engage in the study of the Word: We must get addicted to the study of the Word and make it our lifestyle, by feeding on the Word daily in order to stay alive and well. The Bible admonishes that we meditate on the Word day and night; then, we will make our way prosperous and have good success (2Timothy 2:15; Jeremiah 15:16; Joshua 1:8).

    Friend, the power and grace to access the wonders in the Word of God, are the preserve of those who are children of God. Are you a child of God? You become a child of God, by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. You can be God’s child now, if you haven’t been, by saying this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. I cannot help myself. 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, for saving me! Now, I know I am born again!”

    I will continue with this teaching next week. Exceeding Grace and the Unspeakable Gifts of God are your portion this month!

    Every exploit in life is a product of knowledge. For further reading, please get my books: The Force Of Freedom, Walking In Dominion and All You Need To Have All Your Needs Met.

    I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. respectively.

    I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org