James Eze

The women of Ebenebe are the true heroines of the Anambra election which took place last Saturday. They turned down a princely N5000 bribe money, brazenly given by APC agents at a polling station. They were emphatic in their rejection of the bribe. They left no room for negotiations. They were firm and final in their approach. They are poor rural women, ravaged by wants like all rural women, but they put up extraordinary courage in the face of inducement and took the moral high ground. And that’s why I celebrate them today!

These women are remarkable. They could have taken the bribe and still voted according to their conscience. But they didn’t want a stain on their conscience. The motto of The Guardian newspaper describes conscience as an open wound which only truth can heal. The women of Ebenebe held onto truth…their healing truth.

Ebenebe is a sleepy town in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The town is not Nnewi or Ihiala or Orafite or Osumenyi where most of Anambra’s billionaires come from. But what they lack in money billionaires they obviously have in moral ones. “One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised,” says Chinua Achebe. The women of Ebenebe have bluntly refused to be compromised. That singular act, little as it seems; gives a lot of hope to Nigeria.

The true value of the symbolic courage of the Ebenebe women is that they live in the same state where a serving deputy governor had been lured away with money, a bullet proof car and assurances of meeting the president, to a rival party. They live in the same state where serving and former members of parliament had defected to another party after collecting N100 million inducement. They live in a state where the basic measure of success is how much money one has. But they have written their story in gold and their names ought to make history. They have taught us that you can live poor and still live with dignity.

The relevant NGOs and constituted authorities should seek out these Ebenebe women and make them a shining example of what Nigeria could be if we get our acts right. The symbolism of their courageous act must not be lost on us. We must act and act now!

Some times, providence offers us a beacon of light with which to illuminate the pathway to the future. But it is up to a discerning society to recognize it and use it well. Aba women did a similar thing in 1929. Their courage inspired self-belief in our founding fathers to challenge the colonial masters. Enugu Coal Miners rose against their users on November 18, 1949. Their act of defiance inspired the Zikist Movement which eventually toppled colonial rule. Can we elevate the Ebenebe Women’s act to The joke will be on us if we miss this opportunity to set a new moral tone for our society at a time when the larger population of the youths are involved in get-rich-quick-or-die-trying schemes.

The women of Ebenebe are a gift we cannot turn down!

By Tope Banso

The ancient city of Corinth was destroyed by the Romans in B.C. 146. They killed the men and enslaved the women and children. But in 44 B.C, Julius Caesar ordered the rebuilding of the city. He restored it as the capital city of the Roman province of Achaia and repopulated it with freedmen from Rome. Under the Romans, Corinth became the seat of government for Southern Greece or Achaia.

The Corinth mentioned in the New Testament was the rebuilt city, and those who eventually made up the church came from this city known for its wealth and immorality. Therefore, the Corinthian church had issues with worldly behavior in the congregation such as schism, immorality, and lawsuit against brethren.

Describing the rebuilt city of Corinth, Nelson Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary says, “The city soon became a melting pot for the approximately 500,000 people who lived there at the time of Paul’s arrival. Merchants and sailors, anxious to work the docks, migrated to Corinth. Professional gamblers and athletes, betting on the Isthmian games, took up residence. Slaves, sometimes freed but with no place to go, roamed the streets day and night. And prostitutes (both male and female) were abundant. People from Rome, the rest of Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor-indeed, all of the Mediterranean world-relished the lack of standards and freedom of thought that prevailed in the city.”

Paul first visited the city about A.D. 51 or 52 where he lodged and worked with Aquila and Priscilla, a couple who were tentmakers like him (Acts 18:1-3). Corinth had a large mixed population of Romans, Greeks, and Jews.

The city of Corinth in the Bible was rife with sexual immorality. Located there was a pagan temple, the Temple of Aphrodite (or Venus), where the goddess was worshipped. The temple was said to have employed about 1,000 women prostitutes, sacred prostitutes, on whose account the city was crowded with people and the city grew rich.

Unfortunately, the spirit of sexual immorality in the city entered the Corinthian church. Paul said of that church, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles — that a man has his father’s wife!” (1 Corinthians 5:1 New King James Version).

The Greek word translated as sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 5:1 is porneia. It refers to illicit sexual intercourse, including adultery, fornication, homosexuality, pedophilia, lesbianism, bestiality, and incest. Metaphorically, it can also refer to spiritual adultery or idolatry

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 talks of some people in the Corinthian church justifying sexual immorality, comparing their appetite for sex with an appetite for food. They said all things were lawful for them but Paul said not all things were helpful. They also said all things were lawful for them but Paul said he would not be enslaved by anything. They went as far as saying that if food was for the stomach and the stomach for food, then sex was for the body and the body for sex. These appear to be their slogans or common sayings but Paul dismissed their assertions

1 Corinthians 6:12 puts it this way: “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything” (Revised Standard Version). The New Living Translation renders it thus: “You may say, ‘I am allowed to do anything.’ But I reply, ‘Not everything is good for you.’ And even though ‘I am allowed to do anything,’ I must not become a slave to anything.” A Christian is not permitted to do everything. There are boundaries for him. He must not be a slave to anything but be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Although the Corinthians said, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” Paul declared that God would do away with both of them. He will put an end to both. Paul continued, “Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power” (1 Corinthians 6:13b New King James Version).

The body, including your body, is not for sexual immorality; it belongs to Jesus. It isn’t only your soul and spirit that are important to God; your body is also. Take note that this scripture says the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body

In verse 18, Paul said no other sin clearly affects the body as sexual immorality. It is a sin against one’s body. “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body” (New King James Version). Sexual sin is not outside the body but against the body. And the Holy Spirit dwells in your body.

You don’t belong to yourself but to God, who bought you with a high price therefore, you must honour God with your body. If you’re born again, you have no right to do whatever you like with your body. You must do what God wants. He owns your body. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 New King James Version).

If you’re a Christian, your body is part of Christ and you can’t afford to tear it from Him and get it involved in sexual immorality. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:15-17 New King James Version).

God is not against sex but against sexual immorality. Any sexual activity that is not between husband and wife is sexual immorality. Marital sex is the only God-approved sex.

Paul said, “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Corinthians 7:1-5 New King James Version).

Also, the writer of the book of Hebrews said, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4 New King James Version). The world may practise illicit sex but Christians must not. If they were indulging in sexual immorality before they were saved, there must be a changed behaviour after they have come to Christ.

The church must not condone sexual immorality. Children and youths must stop awakening love until the time is right – until they’re ready (Songs of Solomon 8:4). Acts 15:20 says those who have given their lives to Jesus should abstain from sexual immorality among other things. Repent!

Sexual immorality has serious consequences but the most important is that the sexually immoral will not enter the Kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 highlights the sins that will disqualify one from entering the Kingdom of God. Sexual immorality tops the list. We see the same thing in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. It says, “Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites …will inherit the kingdom of God” (New King James Version).   

The Bible also says in Revelation 21:8, that the sexually immoral, among others, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Jude 7 reminds us of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with sexual immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. They were destroyed by fire. They are a warning of the eternal fire that will punish all those who are evil.

The body (your body) is not for sexual immorality. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Romans 6:12 New King James Version). Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

TAKE ACTION!

If you are not born again, you need to give your life to Jesus now. I urge you to take the following steps:
▪︎Admit that you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself, and repent of your sins.
▪︎Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
▪︎Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. ▪︎Invite Jesus Christ into your life.
▪︎As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church. There they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.

Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto You today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I surrender my life to Jesus now and invite Him into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.

I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church in your area where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.

PRAYER POINTS: Father, I repent of every sin I have committed, especially the sin of sexual immorality. Father, my body is not for sexual immorality but for You. I will glorify God in my body and in my spirit because they belong to Him. Sin shall no longer reign in my mortal body, that I should obey it in its lusts, in Jesus’ name.

This is wisdom for living, and it’s worth sharing. Please share.

(For over 600 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit www.cedarministry.org).

▪︎ T. O. Banso heads Cedar Ministry International and be reached at [email protected], [email protected] 
Tel No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523   
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947

By Sonnie Ekwowusi

At long last the much-vaunted, or, if you like, the much-feared Anambra State Governorship Election has been concluded with Prof. Charles Soludo (APGA) coasting to victory. By electing Soludo, Ndi Anambra have made a big statement that a State which has been producing the best and brightest cannot be governed by a never-do-well who cannot differentiate sense from nonsense. Although the Election has come and gone it has left in its trail echoes which undoubtedly will continue to reverberate across the country for a long time. Thank God the worst did not happen during the Election as was feared. Prior to the Election there were security threats, intimidation, fear of the unknown, mutual suspicion and drum beats of war in the whole of Anambra. But thank God the Election was violence-free. No killing or maiming of human beings. Having listened to the voice of reason, IPOB called off its sit-at-home directive. IPOB did not disrupt voting or unleash any violence during the Election. The lesson here is that IPOB has a listening ear. If a meaningful peace-dialogue had been initiated and brokered with IPOB all these years the killings witnessed over these years probably would have been averted. If the Federal government could dialogue with murderous Boko Haram and bandits and even offered some of them amnesty, why can’t it dialogue with IPOB?. During the Anambra Gubernatorial Election Debate organized by ARISE TV, the trio of Andy Uba (APC), Prof Soludo (APGA) and Valentine Ozigbo (PDP) were asked what each of them would do with IPOB if voted into power. And all of them respectively answered that they would initiate dialogue with IPOB in order to find a lasting solution to the bloodshed in Anambra.

Now that Soludo has clinched victory we expect him to immediately initiate dialogue with IPOB in order to rid Anambra of violent clashes and killings. Soludo should resuscitate and strengthen the local vigilante groups in the various Anambra towns and villages. He should remedy the frosty relationship between the Anambra traditional rulers and the Willie Obiano government. Thereafter he should solicit for the assistance of the Anambra traditional rulers as well as Anambra local government chairmen and councilors in community policing of Anambra towns and villages. There should be zero tolerance for open cattle grazing in the State. To this effect, the Anambra Anti-Open Grazing law should be enforced to the letter. No compromise.

Many complain that Soludo is an arrogant, self-conceited and a proud man who believes that he knows everything. Therefore Soludo should change this wrong attitude. Nobody knows it all in this passing life. Nobody is a single verse. We all need the assistance of one another in order to get ahead in life. So we look forward to seeing a humble and self-effacing Governor Soludo who is ready to team up with others in order to restore Anambra to its glorious days. All hands should be on deck to restore Anambra to her glorious days through the implementation of the Soludo Solution. In the spirit of politics without bitterness, Soludo should quickly reach out to Andy Uba, Valentine Ozigbo and other contestants and seek their collaboration in the arduous task of rebuilding Anambra. Prof. Soludo says he will not learn on the job because he already has a baggage of public life experience. So he should bring his Central Bank experience to bear on governance. Hopefully he should deploy his World Bank and Central Bank connections in attracting several World-bank assisted projects to Anambra State provided that such World-bank assisted projects will not be tied to dirty strings or dirty conditionalities aimed at decapitating Anambra human capital. Charles, you promised during the Anambra Governorship Debate that if elected Governor you will liaise with the private sector and Anambra medical experts in the diaspora in order to establish world-class hospitals in Anambra that will be managed by these medical experts. Please do not relent on this. Primary health care system is virtually non-existent in Anambra. Soludo should not only revitalize the Anambra Health Care Centres, he should ensure that Ndi Anambra have unimpeded access to affordable primary health care services. Soludo should reinvigorate community medicine in Anambra through the establishment of rural health centers or rural medical clinics in the nooks and crannies of Anambra villages to cater for the urgent health needs of Anambra rural women and children.

In his campaign manifesto Prof. Soludo explicitly stated “our primary target is sustainable and inclusive wealth creation with jobs, and jobs. We target at least 100,000 jobs per annum in the medium term”. This is excellent. But if I may remind Prof Soludo, unlike the 20th century development economics, the 21st century economic development approach is more concerned about the welfare of the people rather than about government rhetoric. The 21st century economic approach is focused on the opportunity which the government is offering to the people to help them to use their God-given talents in order to create wealth for themselves so as to escape poverty. For example, in his classical essay entitled: A new Way of Thinking about Economic Development: The Origins of the Road to Prosperity, Marc A, Miles persuasively argues, and, I verily believe it to be true, that the goal of the 21st approach to economic development is to get the government to remove the economic barriers such as strangulating taxation, high Value Added Tax (VAT) (as the government in Nigeria is currently arbitrarily imposing on the citizenry) high import tariffs, lack of property rights, lack of rule of law, unfair trade regulations, shutting down important trade borders (as we witnessing in Nigeria at the moment) and so forth. These economic barriers inhibit people from freely using their God-given abilities to satisfy their basic human needs such as ordinary electricity supply, drinking water, shelter, ordinary hygiene, primary health and so forth. “In technical terms, writes Miles, it is not the level of poverty that is most vicious, but rather the absence of change or opportunity to escape that poverty.

Therefore, rather than trying to create jobs for many Anambrarians, Prof Soludo’s government should create the enabling environment for wealth creation in the State. He should put pressure on MTN or whoever it is to fix the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway. He should lobby for the construction of Onitsha-Lagos Rail line notwithstanding that the federal government has approved the Lagos-Calabar Railway line which hopefully will run between Port Harcourt and Lagos through Onitsha. Soludo should pressure the Federal government to complete and open the Second Niger Bridge. He should lobby for the habitual dredging of River Niger. He should turn Onitsha into the Taiwan of Nigeria. There is a time for everything under the sun. There is a time for waywardness; a time for stupidity; a time for dancing naked; a time for chasing after the wind and a time for kidnapping a sitting Governor. With the successful conclusion of the Anambra Governorship Election adjudged by many as comparatively and objectively free and fair, INEC’s lapses and inefficiencies notwithstanding, I make bold to say that Anambra has witnessed a new dawn. Now is the acceptable time in Anambra. This is the day of salvation for Ndi Anambra.

Jide Ojo

It’s another victory for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as the anti-corruption agency was able to successfully prosecute the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, for corruption. Last Monday, November 8, 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced Maina to eight years’ imprisonment for money laundering offences involving N2 billion in pension funds.

The judge, Okon Abang, jailed Maina after convicting him and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, on all the 12 counts filed against them by the EFCC. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the judge sentenced Maina to various jail terms ranging from three to eight years, which are to run concurrently beginning from October 25, 2019, the date he was arraigned. This implies Maina will spend only five years in prison. As for the Common Input Property and Investment Ltd’s punishment, the judge ordered that it should be wound up and its assets forfeited to the Federal Government. He held that Maina stole over N2 billion belonging to pensioners, “most of whom have died without reaping the fruits of their labour”. Very heartrending!

According to the judge, the prosecution, the EFCC, established that Maina purchased the property in Abuja with $1.4 million cash without passing through a financial institution. The amount, the judge said, was far above the cash transaction threshold of N5 million. He also ruled that the prosecution proved that Maina concealed his true identity as a signatory to the accounts he opened in the United Bank of Africa and Fidelity Bank by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge.

Mr Abang condemned the roles of banks in the opening of fraudulent accounts. The sums of N300 million, N500 million and N1.5 billion which, according to the judge, were stolen by Maina from pensioners, were deposited in the accounts. He said Maina could not explain the source of the money, adding that the convict, as a civil servant, could not have legitimately earned the sums of money from his salary and emoluments. According to the judge, an EFCC witness, who testified during the trial, pointed out that Maina, whose salary as a civil servant was N256, 000, could not have legitimately had such money running into billions in his accounts even if he saved all his salaries for 35 years.

Recall that last month, Maina’s son, Faisal who jumped bail was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in absentia for money laundering by the same judge who jailed his father.  Justice Abang on October 7, 2021 sentenced the convict to three counts of money laundering brought against him by the EFCC. The judge sentenced him to five years each in relation to counts one and three, and 14 years on count two, adding that the sentences are to run concurrently from the day of the judgment. He said the prosecution successfully established that Faisal operated a fictitious bank account with the United Bank for Africa through which his father, Maina, laundered N58.1 million. The judge stated that the funds deposited into the account, operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, were sequentially withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.

How are the mighty fallen?” so asked the Holy Bible in 2 Samuel 1 vs. 27. Maina who was larger than life at some point; Maina that called the bluff of several government agencies and institutions; Maina who twice jumped bail and had to be extradited back to Nigeria from the Niger Republic has finally been convicted of stealing public funds. What a tragedy!

According to an editorial in The Guardian Newspaper of November 7, 2017, “Appointed in 2010 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan to sanitise the corruption-ridden pension office, Maina, three years later, was alleged to have misappropriated pension funds to the tune of billions. A Senate committee set up to investigate the allegation, summoned him, and issued a bench warrant for his arrest, but to no avail. Whilst it is a fact that no court conclusively prosecuted him, the charge of impropriety seemed to have weighed on him hence he fled the country and was thus dismissed from the civil service and declared wanted.”

The editorial went on to say, “Despite the fact that law enforcement institutions such as the Senate, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Federal High Court, the Nigerian Police and INTERPOL had been on Maina’s trail for years to cause him to defend himself, Maina, surprisingly, still found his way into the civil service, got his job back with accelerated promotion from level 14 to level 16. He also got a backlog of salary arrears to the tune of N22 million paid by the government..” Can you beat that? That was a man allegedly declared wanted.

The aforementioned editorial characterised the convict in the following words: “Maina exemplifies the character of the typical Nigerian: one who is neither afraid nor ashamed of being a living contradiction; one who is at once a reformer and a deformer; one who flaunts impunity like a lifestyle, yet runs to the paternalistic arm of the law in order to obviate the wrath of the law; one who treats the government with disdain, yet seeks to remain part of that government. Maina is the very representation of the emboldened Nigerian conceit that emerges from the cesspool of a weakening, spent, pretentious and apparently toothless anti-corruption machinery.”

In my own opinion, Maina was given a soft landing by the court. How come his son got 14 years imprisonment for aiding and abetting his father in crime while the principal actor, Maina got only eight years? Why did the bankers and the banks who assisted him to open fictitious accounts, which he used to launder money, not get punished? I watched Maina on television after his conviction as he smiled and waved at his supporters without showing any sign of remorse.

It is very unfortunate and saddening that Maina betrayed the public trust by looting the pension fund he was meant to help secure and pay to retired civil servants. There is no doubt that Maina is an evil servant and not a civil servant. The blood of those senior citizens whom he defrauded of their entitlements will be on him and his co-travellers who abused their public office for personal aggrandisement.  I have a hunch that Maina was just a mere fall guy as he couldn’t have solely manipulated the system to his advantage. He was just chairman of a Pension Reform Task Team. Could he, as a team lead, pull off this monumental fraud all by himself without being aided by any of his colleagues in the civil service and by some of his team members? Maina indeed validated Ayi Kwei Armah’s classic book, “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”

Yobe is a small agrarian state on the path to becoming great. All those who governed it ensured this. All the past governors, one way or the other, have taken the state beyond how they met it. There have been hiccups here and there, disappointments now and then, but that’s okay; that’s human nature for you, and how anything human grows.

The current governor, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, has, since receiving the baton of the state’s leadership, been doing his best in the infrastructural development of the young, growing state that Yobe is. He is about commissioning thousands of houses built for the less privileged and, at least, five modern markets that would improve the state’s revenue generation capacity.

He has also resuscitated over 10 dormant industries, renovated and built schools, constructed some roads linking important communities, improved the health delivery capability of the state and attracted many incentives for farmers.

However, the revenue generation capacity of the state is low, as his efforts in putting in place revenue generators will only yield fruits with time.

For instance, in September this year, the state generated about N9.5 billion – a massive improvement – and got a value-added tax allocation of N20.5 billion. That’s spread over twelve months.

I was mulling over this when I dozed off and started having a sweet dream. I dreamt that God mercifully opened some unknown doors for me and I made some cool, lawful N6.5 billion. Even in the dream, I did not doubt because I know He is capable.

Well, I woke up, and it was just a dream, but it did not fade away as such dreams do. My brain – my fertile imagination – was at work. I started thinking about what to do with all that money if I had it, and an idea hit me: “Why not donate N6 billion to my state through the state government and give some suggestions?”

I know that N6 billion is money that Yobe State will gladly welcome. It can complete many ongoing projects, including a cargo airport in Damaturu, the state capital. That money can be used in renovating other schools and even building more. Without a doubt, a state-of-the-art renal diseases research institute and associated hospitals can be put in place with that amount. There is a part of the state that more than any other thing needs, nay, deserves it.

If the state desires to augment its revenue base by constructing revenue generators as it is doing now, then N6 billion can set up a soap and detergent producing industry because there are places in the state blessed with the basic ingredient for their production – potash.

The state can also become one of the highest exporters of fresh river fish. But first, the rivers around Nguru and that of Gashua have to be dredged. Typha grasses have to be controlled as well. Aside from the fact that if the Gashua River is not dredged as soon as possible, over 50 communities along its path may be lost, its dredging would enhance rice production and vegetable farming. There will be agricultural activities throughout the year because the area could become number one in the country in terms of irrigation farming. Six billion naira sunk here can go a long way to making this vision a reality. Just imagine the employment opportunities and wealth creation such a project would generate!

Education, too, can benefit immensely from N6 billion thrown at it. The Federal University in Gashua still occupies the only staff quarters inherited from the secondary school it displaced. Imagine the staff quarters N6 billion can build. Now, most staff members go back to their towns on Thursdays to return on Mondays. The university is yet to have a community of its own and be a proper citadel of learning eight years after its establishment. The compensation of some fields added to it is even yet to be paid, unfortunately.

Though some well-meaning indigenes have donated their houses to the university as a way of supporting the staff to be comfortable, still more houses are needed. Perhaps people who fortune has smiled upon and can now build better and bigger houses would not destroy the old ones to build new ones in their places. It would be good to see them donating or even hiring out the old ones to the university.

While the government has built many schools, classrooms sometimes and renovated many others, with an additional N6 billion, the remaining primary and secondary schools will get a befitting facelift. Teachers could be further trained and retrained, too.

Yobe, my state, is infested with eRats. eRats are jobless, or frustrated, youths who, for want of survival, have donned the toga of “journalists”. They survive on harassing people on behalf of political leaders who have nothing good to offer those they rule. Anyone who points out the shortcomings of such terrible leaders, or about the ills in society, is fair game to these attack dogs.

The best of these eRats cannot understand simple grammar. For instance, in talking, one may say “…to meet with the relevant people…” This has “the” as a determiner and it means the relevant people are known. When used without the “the”, it becomes a generic reference, just like saying “any person you consider being relevant.” eRats will take the latter for the former and get everything wrong. They may also not understand what the word “assuming” connotes. It is not only a poor understanding of semantics. No, it is the whole gamut. But then, that’s a lack of good education.

A small fraction of N6 billion can return such eRats to foundation schools. Since they may all be above 20 years old and hustling to survive, special classes can be built for them all over the state. They missed out on attending the type of primary and secondary schools the children of those they fight for went to. But if they are lucky this time around, after the foundation schools, their heroes may take them to the United Kingdom to study alongside their children. They may even get the type of jobs the children of their mentors get when they return to Nigeria. They can then rattle with knowledge, having become “informed senior rattling” eRats.

Talking about mentors and followers made me ponder the natural transfer of attitudes from one to the other. It is socially and psychologically normal for followers to imbibe their mentor’s worldview and copy his attitude. A mentor consumed with the narrow-mindedness of ethnicity and hate breeds the same mentality in his followers. His narrow worldview seeps down and permeates their thinking; they now view everything, every opinion from the prism of tribalism, sectionalism and hate. It is sad, but it is a reality. Conversely, a cosmopolitan mentor who sees brotherhood in humanity inculcates love, unity, justice, understanding, consideration and fairness in his followers.

Still, education lightens the mind darkened by negativity or any other atavistic tendencies. Plato, an Athenian philosopher in Ancient Greece and founder of the Platonist school of thought and The Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western World, said: “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”

Socrates, a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of western philosophy, exhorted us to “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

Therefore, I will keep to myself the balance of N500 million and be kind with it.

MARTINS OLOJA

As it is now quite clear that our present crop of leaders at all levels may have hardened their hearts about the expediency of rebuilding Nigeria at this time, I think we should begin to relive some redemption songs for those who would like to be part of the next dispensation of leadership recruitment. It appears that no one has been able to assail the assertion of the iconic Chinua Achebe since 1983 that, ‘the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership’.

I mean here that we should begin to look at some classics that didn’t fail some of our legends before civilisation kicked us in the face. Here is the thing, as we continue to grope from darkness to darkness, we need to share some values that can shape our character as a nation. I wrote here the other day on the ‘power of character’, which some icons actually say ‘is destiny’. Yes, ‘character is destiny’.

I have tested some of the classics and I have found them profoundly powerful enough to shape and even fulfil our destiny as the most populous black nation on earth.

Coming to the brass tacks, I mean we should begin to share with our leaders and managers of our enterprises that there are some simple but significant things and ‘magic words’ they need to embrace to calm frayed nerves in and out of seasons, in good and bad times. It is a time to tell our leaders that at such a time as this, they need to swallow their pride and vanity and imbibe a habit of apologising to the people they lead or manage. And here is why.

It is now getting clearer every day that our nation can’t make progress if we continue to retain the crop of leaders we have been recycling since 1999. Our leaders hardly understand the most important sentence in the constitution that: ‘The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government…’

Most of our leaders care only about their security votes as ‘slush funds’ to take care of their future including wining elections and re-elections. They hurt the people every day. Through their callous acts, they hurt all the families, old and young. They hardly pay salaries and pensions in most states and local governments. Our leaders whose recklessness has triggered import-dependent economy hardly reflect on the consequences of high prices of food items and (consumer) essential goods at this time.

As I was saying (in the last two weeks), our leaders are also using dubious means to extort even poor motorbike riders by collecting multiple taxes from them every day even in Lagos and Abuja. They don’t care about what happens to the poor and vulnerable, Frantz Fanon calls “the wretched of the earth”.

Our leaders violate even our organic laws to the extent that the Supreme Court claimed last week that our leaders are ‘taking impunity too far’. In Africa’s most populous nation, the Senate can reject a president’s nominee but the president can call the bluff of the upper house and allow the rejected candidate to begin work and complete some tenure of even five years in office.

This is Nigeria where the Chief Justice can be removed by a non-judicial officer and head of an administrative tribunal who doesn’t need to have recourse to the constitutional provisions on how a CJN can be removed. This is a country where leaders continue to borrow for consumption and they explain such recklessness with curious simplicity without recourse to the effects of the debt management on extant budgets. This is a place where our leaders don’t have to build or equip hospitals and schools for the people as long as they and family members can obtain visa to be treated and educated abroad. This is a nation where leaders who come fourth even in a governorship election can become the winner by the power of some curious electoral justice system.

This is a jurisdiction where the elite hardly pay taxes and the same elite collect multiple taxes from poor market women and hungry taxi drivers every day. This is an economy where the federal legislators individually earn higher than the president, vice president, and the ministers of even the richest countries in the world and there is no strong institution to ask why. This is Nigeria, which harbours an economic capital that has been classified as the second most stressful city in the world, second only to Mumbai in India.

This is a unique country where soldiers are deployed for internal security for which they die almost every day when its police operatives are deployed to the roads to extort citizens and secure big men at home. This is a place where Supreme Court’s Justices homes can be raided and even doors brought down in the night with no one to take responsibility when no piece of evidence is tendered during trials of such justices. This is a jurisdiction with a complex diversity where a leader can defy constitutional provisions for federal character and appoint all the public officers from his or her own region of the country and there will be no question about consequences for such recklessness. Here is a country where regional leaders can appoint their family members as tax collectors for states at very high rates of reward for the collectors and there is no institution strong enough to ask questions about financial impropriety.

There is therefore a sense in which we the people can claim that most of our leaders at all levels have sinned and come short of the glory of God and man. They have mismanaged our economy to the extent that they can’t provide welfare for the people.

There is double ‘wahala’ (tragedy) for the same people as the state cannot provide security for residents of even the capital of the unfortunate federation.

That is why I feel that our leaders should seek the face of God by asking for His grace to understand the power of expediency of apologising to the people at this time. There is tension in the land. There is hunger in the land. There is unbearable inflation in this place. There is insufferable level of corruption they promised to eliminate since 2015. What is worse, it seems to the people that rampaging corruption is fuelling rising insecurity nurtured by terrorism they want us to call banditry.

There is therefore no doubt, our leaders need to understand that they should repent from their increasingly unbearable wickedness. They need to realise the power of apologising to the people at this time. Here again are the reasons:

‘SAYING I AM SORRY’

Saying you’re sorry is called apologising. When you apologise, you’re telling someone that you’re sorry for the hurt you caused, even if you didn’t do it deliberately. An apology is a statement that has two key elements: it shows your remorse over your actions and an acknowledgement of the hurt that your actions have caused to someone else.

Col. Sanjeet Sirohi, an Indian motivational speaker and soft skill trainer says, ‘I am sorry’ is the most powerful sentence in the world.

‘Why should we apologise?’

There are many reasons we should make a sincere apology when we have hurt someone unnecessarily, or have made a mistake.

First, an apology opens a dialogue between yourself and the other person you seem to have hurt. Second, when we apologise, we also acknowledge that we engaged in unacceptable behaviour. This helps us rebuild trust and re-establish our relationship with the other person. Third, what’s more, when we admit that the situation was our fault, we restore dignity to the person we hurt.

In the main, a sincere apology shows that we are taking responsibility for our actions.

‘Why apologies can be difficult’

Despite all these positive reasons, why do some people still find it difficult to apologise? In the first place, it takes courage to apologise. When you admit that you were wrong, it puts you in a vulnerable position, which can open you up to attack or blame. According to Sirobi, you may be so full of shame and embarrassment over your actions that you can’t bring yourself to face the other person.

What is more, you may find yourself following some advice that, “never apologise, never explain.” It’s up to you if you want to be arrogant and damn some consequences.
This has been proven: even if what happened was an accident or you did something you didn’t mean to do, you would probably still feel sorry if you knew the other person’s feelings were hurt. This happens when you have a strong conscience. After apologising, you might feel a little better (the other person probably will, too).
You may ask somehow if apologising can fix everything. This is another feeling but saying ‘I’m sorry’ when you need to is the right thing to do. It does a lot of good. But by itself, it might not be enough to make everything all better again. Sometimes along with an apology, a person needs to fix the mistake or promise to do better. Sirobi agrees with this line of thought.

In my journey through life, I have seen family members refusing to talk to each other for years after an argument just because neither side wants to be the first to let go of their pride and “break down and apologise.” But who decided apologising was a sign of weakness? We need to reflect on our sense of pride and vanity and sometimes realise that we have reached a day and age where showing emotional vulnerability can be viewed as a positive rather than a negative quality.

People are becoming more aware of ideas like empathy and sensitivity, and everywhere we are being encouraged to talk about our feelings, to seek help, and to connect with others.
Gone are the days of keeping everything bottled up inside to suffer alone.

As we move forward in this time of self-knowledge and self-discovery, it’s vital to acquire the ability to recognise our own mistakes.

People in authority in Nigeria need to be told to realise that nobody is perfect and so they are not perfect. They need to realise at this juncture that they cause emotional pain to citizens of this country every day. The trouble, however, lies in their refusal or failure to acknowledge that they have done the people some wrong.

This is therefore a time to tell our leaders in Nigeria that they need to apologise to us as they have hurt us a great deal through poor leadership to the citizens and indeed the black race.

Our leaders should swallow their pride and vanity for them to realise that even national apologies can be a big deal. When they offer that, they acknowledge the past to help move everyone forward. We may need to explore more about this context (when nations apologise. But Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami should apologise first to Justice Mary Odili and the nation on the recent despicable raid on her residence. That apology can be a significant balm to heal some wounds at this time.

Fellow Nigerians, the terrible day, Monday, November 1, 2021, started for me like all of my regular days. It was very quickly to become the stuff of permanent nightmares. Just the day before, I had departed Abuja after the PDP National Convention. My Sunday evening was spent at the birthday dinner-cum-book launch of television star, Ms Kikelomo Atanda-Owo. I left the classy party looking forward to a long blissful night as I planned to be in bed till minimum 12 noon on Monday before attending the climate change event at the Italian Consulate on Victoria Island. Unknown to me, this meticulously planned schedule was not to be

I was getting ready to go out when a massive explosion, like a fiendish hurricane raised to the power of thousands, suddenly occurred. This evil explosion was so thunderous that it shook our six-storey building to its foundation and seemed to reverberate forever. To say that I was scared is to put it very mildly.

I dialogued with my feet and started galloping away like an antelope. I kept screaming at my wife: “Bolaji, earthquake, earthquake, let’s move before the building collapses on all of us.” My wife, who seems to be of much stronger stock than I in these conditions, was already by the window scanning our compound. “Ajani (her pet name for me) our residents are out of their apartments…” Then she looked skyward and straight across the most imposing edifice in our neighbourhood, a gargantuan edifice that bestrides the landscape of the busy Gerrard Road, that we normally see from our windows, but it was nowhere to be found. “Ajani, Fourscore’s building has disappeared!” my wife screamed… “What is this woman saying?” I soliloquized? Then fearfully and with great trepidation, I peeped out myself and saw the void. I screamed and started speeding out of the building. Plenty questions but no answers.

My wife was already way ahead of me as I waited for my younger friend, Gbenga Olunloyo to join me. Gbenga immediately made a call to a structural Engineer to come and check if the “earthquake” had damaged or weakened our building. Along the streets, we ran into my neighbour, Mr Olu Akpata, the affable President of the Nigerian Bar Association. He was busy working the phone making calls to the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and all The Who is Who in Lagos State. He was truly effective and impressive. We also saw Mrs Olukemi Aderemi, and her daughter, Adekepemi, whose maternal grandfather, Chief Obafemi Awolowo (SAN), hailed from the same township of Ikenne, in Ogun State, as Mr Femi Osibona, the owner of the collapsed skyscraper on Gerard Road, Ikoyi. It was Femi or Fourscore, as myself and many others called him, who had sold our Penthouse Flats to Myself and my best friend, Damola Aderemi, whilst he lived across us in another of the four penthouses in the mini-Estate. Mrs Aderemi kept us fully apprised of the situation with the updates.

The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, was soon sighted and I walked up to him. He looked visibly shaken and rattled. Suddenly, a young driver joined us from seemingly out of nowhere and he gave us the rudest shocker of our lives. Looking straight into my eyes, the young man said “Sir, I brought your son, Wale Bob (Wale Bob Oseni) here some minutes ago on our way to the airport and now I can’t find him. He was in the building when it collapsed. “Holy Jesus!”, I screamed, helplessly. The crowd of spectators, first responders, security personnel and others were swelling up in a jiffy. I told the Deputy Governor he would have to seek more security and get a rescue team on to the site immediately. However, in his haste, he had left his phones in the car. He hurriedly left to make some quick calls. We waited with bated breath for excavators to arrive. We were soon told one had been located not too far away. But the minutes were ticking away, and we were all getting agitated and crestfallen.

We were told the Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was also coordinating things from yonder and he had immediately promised to return home to supervise things himself. I’ve always known Governor Sanwo-Olu to be hands on contrary to what critics were saying. He had ordered the closure of the premises once, and even got Femi Osibona arrested during an altercation with the agents of the State. Before Femi was released, the Governor sought guarantees from Femi and his friends that Femi will henceforth cooperate fully with agencies of government in the monitoring and supervision of the massive construction and Femi did so till the very end. I will return to this shortly.

After what seemed an eternity, one excavator rolled and roared in like a Russian tank. First the gate leading to the monumental edifice had to be mowed down. In no time, this was achieved. But some brave and energetic guys with hefty muscles had taken charge of rescuing some of those in the rubbles. Some of the victims were either dead or alive with various degrees of bruises or burns. More police and soldiers soon joined. The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, came fully ready to ensure maximum security. The crowd was getting restive as darkness fell. Too many stories of heroism, and good fortune to be told, like the two fortunate employees who went to buy water for one of the engineers only to return to see the building crumpling before their very eyes or Fourscore’s young lawyer, Seun, who missed being in the building by a heartbeat because he needed to replace tyres on his car and arrived just as the building collapsed in a heap.

Then sadly and most distressingly, the gossip writers took over the cyberspace spinning all manner of tales by moonlight. One of them said authoritatively and categorically that my wife, Mrs Mobolaji Momodu was seen on the top floor with Femi just before the collapse and reached the conclusion that she might be under the ruins. An irresponsible man wrote in a WhatsApp group that Dele Momodu won’t speak up because Femi had gifted me the penthouse in which we live in Ikoyi, such arrant nonsense. This man who I’m told lives in America would have been more useful to society if he was writing novels. My best friend, Adedamola Aderemi, and I had bought our separate apartments from Femi over four years ago and we spent many months renovating the penthouses. The Prince of Ile-Ife had told me about the property and once I heard it was owned by Femi Fourscore, I was more than pleased and comfortable to buy.

I had known Femi for over 20 years in London as an extremely gifted marketer. Femi’s tongue was honey-coated, and it was impossible not to like him. He used to fly to America to bring in Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren shirts and suits and was ever willing to sell on credit to special clients like me. He was such a charming gentleman who adopted me as his big Brother. “Egbon mi, Olorun Oba ngbo, I’m selling these shirts to you much cheaper to you but please don’t tell anyone o!” We even went to Germany on April 22, 1998, with Damola Aderemi and a few other friends to watch the Green Eagles play an International Friendly against Germany in preparation for the World Cup. We became almost inseparable while I was in exile under the Abacha military junta.

We lost touch after I ended exile and returned to Africa, but he soon traced me to Ghana, and he came visiting. He was so happy to reunite with me. He told me how God had blessed him mightily and had made him veer into real estate in London. Femi was a genius who made stupendous gains from regenerating ghetto neighbourhoods in East London. He regaled me with tales of his exploits in the property business: “Egbon mi, Olorun ngbo bi eni pe Eniyan n s’eso ni (My Senior Brother, God hears me and knows, the property business is like voodoo money). He was extremely prayerful and belonged to the Celestial arm of white garment churches. His knowledge of the Bible was outstandingly remarkable. He was a great preacher who was well sort after.

He told Prince Damola Aderemi and I most of his big dreams and confided more in my friend, being a very brilliant Lawyer who advised him and did some legal work on this Gerrard Project. Fourscore used some of the best legal brains in the business including his Ikenne kinsman, Segun Odubela SAN of blessed memory, Lawal Pedro SAN and A. U. Mustapha SAN. When he bought the Gerrard Road land, he was over the moon. He promised to build the classiest residential apartments in Africa. He said he was out to prove there was nothing the multinational construction companies were doing that his company can’t do. I have never seen such level of audacity, determination and tenacity. Fourscore was a visionary and a missionary when it came to seeking to excel and do as well as his international counterparts at home and abroad. He had competed in their space in their countries before, with moderate successes and did not see any reason why he could not replicate the same and attain loftier heights in his home country. If he made any mistakes, it was probably that he overstretched himself, but he was such an ambitious man, full of faith. And certainly not the greedy avaricious person that his traducers now suggest he is. In our country, mistakes are never excused, forgiven or forgotten. When you fail, you’re a villain and outcast. When you succeed, you’re a hero, genius and superstar. As I told Uncle Fola Adeola when he called me days ago: “Failure is a learning process. When the Americans started going to the moon, they failed spectacularly and lost many lives. They were described as being reckless and seeking to challenge the work of God but one day, it all changed and the dream of landing on the moon was achieved.” Out of the failing of Femi Fourscore would arise a Nigerian Neil Armstrong who will make building on the Sea seem like strolling to the next street. That I believe is Femi Fourscore’s legacy, challenging us to believe that what may seem impossible is indeed possible by dint of hard work and if at first you do not succeed, keep trying, because your time will come.

I will never give excuses for Femi. He tried but he couldn’t unfortunately deliver on the tall and tough target he set for himself. I am pretty sure that it was not because he was cutting corners or taking risks. The Block that fell was the one he intended to live in. No man would be prepared to be a kamikaze pilot in such a situation.

It is not in my place to second guess the outcome of the Inquest and the Investigation which has been ordered. These must be done diligently. It must not be hurried. It must be painstaking and thorough. Such investigations cannot last thirty days as being directed by the government. I foresee that any credible inquiry must take months of arduous diligent work. Various possibilities including negligence, sabotage and even natural or human causes such as the over-dredging occurring in that vicinity must be considered. Dead men tell no tales. They cannot defend themselves, but records and logic abound. Those making claims and allegations which are easily rumpled will soon be exposed. I’d known that In February 2020 the third block was at the beginning of the Foundation stage and the other two blocks were merely a few storeys gone. It is interesting that nobody who had any misgivings reported such to the Regulators. I say no more, other than that it is always convenient to cast aspersions when it seems there is no potential for reply.

What I know is Fourscore was a self-made man who depended on no godfather. Despite being a cousin of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, he was too proud and self-reliant to approach the Vice President or anybody else for favours of that kind. He never sought for, or got, any government contracts. He relied on his own ability, marketing skills and funds. It has been most painful reading how some people reduced Femi’s epic struggles and vision to fronting for the Vice President. For me, this is one of the tragedies of this unfortunate saga. The worst of them would be the number of innocent casualties buried in the debris with Femi. The young ladies, Nifemi, his PA, Oyinye and Oyin, Corpers and others on IT who wanted to be part of a transformational project. The story of Wale Bob-Oseni, my dear beloved Ile-Ife born protégé, would haunt all those who knew him for the rest of our lives, undoubtedly. He was on his way back home to America to celebrate his 50th Birthday. A surprise party awaited him on 24 November. What about Samuel “Sammy” Iwelu, Femi’s young friend who had come from England to attend a wedding in Abuja and was returning later that day? It is my hope and expectation that we as observers, participants and government learn immense lessons from this tragedy including how to respond to large scale calamities like this. I commend Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in this regard. He has shown again that he is a Star. He listened and reacted positively to the complaints and wishes of relatives. A truly compassionate leader.

The ultimate tragedy is the fact that we may never be able resolve the jigsaw of this extraordinary disaster since the main man who might have been able tell us what went wrong is no longer with us. Even that might have been a daunting task for him.

I pray for swift healing for the survivors. They and their families must be comforted and counselled lest this traumatic experience become a mental health challenge for them.

Iku d’oro o mu awon eni ire lo. Death has consumed too many good people. May we not be found on the road the day it is famished. May we not be eaten alive while looking for what to eat. May all the souls of the victims rest in peace. I pray that God consoles and comforts the families, loved ones and friends they left behind.

He rarely speaks on things that do not have to do with the work of the Kingdom, which he is completely sold out to, and has been engrossed in for over 50 years. In fact, he exemplifies the words of the prophet that “he shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.”But someone stuck his fingers in the mouth of Pastor William Folorunsho Kumuyi, General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, recently, and the man had to speak. He didn’t cry or strive, and “a bruised reed he did not break,” smoking flax he did not quench. But the cleric gave some home truths on what the attitude of a true Christian should be to secular government, particularly of his own country.This was how it all happened. Professor Dapo Asaju, a cleric and academic, former Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, had called out Pastor Kumuyi, and Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), telling them that it was not enough to just concentrate on their massive congregations, but that they must seek to meet President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation, and tell him “enough is enough.”Prof Asaju added: “All ministers of God must speak out…I (am) looking forward to Baba (Kumuyi) addressing a World Conference, with Baba Adeboye seated beside him. Let them call people and say enough is enough. They need to lead other people to convene a high-powered meeting with the President.” As if the two men of God had not met with the President at different times, where they counseled him, and prayed for the nation. They equally lead their congregations to do so, almost weekly.If you read between the lines, the respected academic was vexed and exasperated with the security situation in the country, and its concomitant spin-offs. Who is not? Who will not be? Are things normal? Far from it. But is the government up and doing to turn things around for the people? Very much so. Then, is a subtle sponsoring of insurrection by ministers of God the next thing to do? Far from it. At least, for those who know the purpose of their call, and how they should comport themselves in a troubled polity. Like our Master, “a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.” (Matthew 12:20).Pastor Kumuyi last weekend responded to Prof Asaju through a statement titled ‘The Church and the Challenges of a Nation,’ which I recommend that all Christians should read, and which is also very instructive to non-Christians.What is the purport and summary of what the Deeper Life G.S said? He noted that the concerns of Prof Asaju could not be dismissed, and the man must be seen as a patriot, but “at Deeper Christian Life Ministry, we are far more aware of the existential crossroads than many perceive.“We present the Word of God as delivered in the Holy Bible, alright, but we warn that in the long run, the Lord is interested in a fusion of obedience to His Word and relating amicably with fellow human beings, regardless of class, color, caste (religion) or culture. We teach that if you genuinely believe in Christ, you wouldn’t hate your neighbor. Nor would you disdain those in power because they appear not to be delivering on electoral pledges such that you would go on the rampage, destroying government property or pilfering the public till. We teach a linear life of Christian walk: you can’t be a saint on Sunday and a monster on Monday.”Profound. Earnest. Well said. Deep as in Deeper Life. Pastor Kumuyi, where have you been all our lives? Thank you, thank you for speaking out now. “If you genuinely believe in Christ, you wouldn’t hate your neighbor. Nor would you disdain those in power because they appear not to be delivering on electoral pledges such that you would go on the rampage, destroying government property…”Profound, again I say, profound. But this is not what we hear from most preachers today. What we rather see is the pulpit being turned to a soapbox, where hatred is preached, where fake news is spread week after week, and where congregants are instigated against the leadership of the country. And I know what I am saying. I used to attend a church in Abuja from 2015 to 2018, till the pastor began to see himself as someone who must bring the Buhari government down. Sunday after Sunday, it was all sorts of criticism from the pulpit. But I endured, since it was branch of a church I had attended for over 30 years. Till one day, he overdid it. The Dapchi girls were abducted, and there was no name the pastor did not call President Buhari that Sunday. It was horrendous that such things could come from the pulpit. But I suffered long, and sat through the sermon, or rather, what was supposed to be a sermon. I then went home, wondering what the church of God was turning to.If you recall, the Dapchi girls were recovered within a week, except for Leah Sharibu, and a few others. Awful, quite sad, but still there was cause for one to be thankful to God. So, the following Sunday, I went to that church, waiting to hear what the pastor would say, having excoriated and flagellated the government so badly the week before. I was dazed, nay, stunned. Throughout the sermon, not a word, not even a whisper about the recovered Dapchi girls. Bad faith. “If you are a genuine believer in Christ, you wouldn’t hate your neighbor. Nor would you disdain those in power…”Pastor Kumuyi also says if you are a true believer in Christ, you wouldn’t go on the rampage, destroying government property…. But that was not what we saw in the country in October last year. The country was almost burned down under the subterfuge of EndSARS. And sadly, they were encouraged by pastors and preachers, who simply hate the fact that a Fulani man is their President. Many of them are on record as having encouraged the protesters, till things went ugly, turned awry. And the pastors vanished into the thin air. Not a word of caution or restraint as the cities were burning, and policemen were being killed, and even eaten up. “If you are a genuine believer in Christ, you wouldn’t…go on the rampage, destroying government property.”Irrespective of the titles they bear, I hear Bishops, Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Evangelists, cursing the government, and issuing doomsday notices. One even said publicly that the Buhari administration was over, before the 2019 elections. But the man won handsomely, and that preacher still struts and frets on the pulpit every week, not repenting in sackcloth and ashes. “If you are a genuine believer in Christ, you wouldn’t hate your neighbor. Nor would you disdain those in power…” Thank you, Pastor Kumuyi.Without sitting in judgment over anybody, I just believe that majority of our preachers need to be born again again. If what we hear them preach and teach is anything to go by, they need to be born again again. Otherwise, Heaven seems to be very far away. May God help us all. Amen.In his reply to Professor Asaju (please get the full text, and read) Pastor Kumuyi gave many instances on how God has intervened in the situations and circumstances of humanity through the works of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, both within and outside the country. He then concluded: “I see more of the Lord’s focus on attending to the challenges of our nation and the countries of the world. I see Him containing the conflicts confronting His people as we pray in the name of Jesus.”And I say amen. A resounding amen. That is the balanced perspective, the approach of a true man of God. That is the ancient landmark, which we must not shift or remove. We must “earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude, verse 3). But some would say Kumuyi is of the old school. And I say yes, the old school is the real school, and remains ever faithful, ever sure.*Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity