Today, 1st of January
2012 is the first New Year since the May
election when Dr. Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan was given the mandate by the
Nigerian people to rule them for the
next four years. We have had enough time
to access how well or how poorly he had
performed. This article is not a score
card for him but rather to follow up on
my previous two articles (the 1st 100
days of Jonathan, and the state of the
nation).
You will agree with me, that Nigeria has
her peculiar problems different from
other nations developed or developing.
Therefore, it is fair to say that she
must look for her peculiar answers.
General Olusegun Obasanjo, the past
President once said that, “if Jesus
Christ should come down to rule Nigeria,
He cannot solve the corruption problem
of Nigeria”. A lot of Christian leaders
took an issue with the ex-President,
seeing the statement as an insult to our
Lord Jesus Christ. I beg to differ. That
statement is like a taxi driver in a
hectic traffic jam on a Lagos busy
highway telling a non-Yoruba man, “oko
asewo”. The non-Yoruba man took it
literally, to mean “the husband of a
prostitute”. But that is not what the
taxi driver meant, the taxi driver meant
that this man is a prostitute and all
the prostitutes out there are his wives
and not his real wife at home. Somebody,
have to be the President of Nigeria.
Nigeria belongs to all of us; we must
all join hands to find solutions to her
problems.
After my article on the state of the
nation on October 1, the STV today’s
show invited me to their early morning
program. One of the questions they asked
me was, what are the religious leaders
doing about the problems of this country
especially corruption and security? They
pointed out to me that I am one of the
religious leaders in this country, that
most Nigerians belong to one religion or
the other. Just before that encounter,
there was a debate on the Facebook
social network, when a Facebook friend
asked me why religious leaders in
Nigeria should not go on hunger strike
like a minister in India to bring the
attention of people to the perennial
problem of corruption in Nigeria.
Lately, when the AASU went on strike,
there was also an argument on the
Facebook social network that AASU do not
need any increase in salaries and one of
the reasons given was the corruption
among lecturers which students refer to
as “sorting”.
I therefore like to take the issue of
corruption especially the role of the
religious leaders in this write up. It
is certain that the root cause of
insecurity and every other problem in
Nigeria is corruption. If there is a
mosquito in a house, and the residence
decides to get rid of the mosquito, if
they go inside to kill every mosquito in
the house, such can’t get rid of the
mosquitoes because they will find out
that mosquitoes will continue to
multiply. If they go outside the house
and begin to drain all the water port
holes and containers in the premises and
then come inside to kill the mosquitoes
they will discover that will have gotten
rid of the mosquitoes in that
neighborhood. With all the good
intentions of the government to fight
corruption in this Nation, all they have
done, the actions of the EFCC etc.
inclusive, are purely cosmetic. That was
why it had never worked. Corruption must
be eliminated from the root, the source,
and its origin. I intend to prescribe in
this article what shall root out
corruption completely from Nigeria.
When revolution began from France in
Europe, it would have no doubt spread
into England but for John Wesley who
began the prayer cells in England and
with that, Britain was spared from that
revolution.
Nigeria is the most blessed country that
I know. God loves this country so much
that He deposited every known mineral in
commercial quantity in Nigeria. No
Nation can boast of that. Of course, we
all see how these minerals; oil for
example, has become the main source of
the menace of corruption, the enemy of
our progress, the demon behind our
insecurity and the threat that is trying
to divide the nation even since the
discovery of oil. I like to remind
everyone that, these problems did not
exist before oil was discovered in
Nigeria. Oil was a blessing from God,
one wonders if we can say truly that
it’s a blessing today? We must not
forget that it was this mineral resource
that turned Nigeria to civil war and
nearly broke the nation into two but for
God. Every other problem since the
discovery of oil in this nation:
military coups, political instability
the “wild wild west of the 60’s”,
activism, killing of Ken Sarowiwa,
militancy and now Boko Haram, were all
caused by greed of the
military/political class which is the
real cause of corruption.
This made politics the most lucrative
job in Nigeria today. Do or die politics
became the order of the day and military
generals will use all the knowledge
acquired in their military schools to
truncate democracy by rigging, killing,
maiming, you name it. No wonder, to
Nigerian politicians, an election is
free and fair only when their party
wins. At the eleventh hour at the last
May presidential campaign, a retired
military General who was a presidential
candidate wept, and his cronies said
that he was weeping for the youths of
Nigeria.
I was quick to point out at that time,
that he saw the writing of his defeat on
the wall that was why he was weeping. If
not, how can youths of Boko Haram become
suicide bombers and die such shameful
suicidal deaths, not to talk of other
innocent bloods of our youths being shed
by this same Boko Haram in churches,
united nations buildings etc. This very
retired General did not weep, because he
saw these coming, but rather, that
democracy seemed to be working! This
unrepentant solider had not accepted
defeat even after the Supreme Court had
confirmed the victory of the legitimate
winner. Can someone remind him the
attitude of Al Gore in United States
when the Supreme Court of America gave
the election that the whole Americans
believed that Al Gore won to his
opponent? Even this General’s running
mate who is a lawyer and a man of God is
yet to accept the ruling of the Supreme
Court as of today!
Corruption is not limited to the
military and political class. It has
eaten deep into the Nigerian cradle. I
don’t need to remind you about our
police force, immigration, customs and
other paramilitaries or should I talk
about the sorting among our lecturers?
Or is it the church or other religious
establishments that I should mention?
Maybe, even the motor parks and among
the touts? The students and their
leaders, or the judges and the legal
system as a whole cannot be spared in
this. Even the press who is supposed to
be the watch dog for the people is not
free from this evil. Most of them will
not print even an article like this
without some remuneration. This is why
you will not find this kind of articles
in most papers because I strongly
believe that any editor who will not
jump on this kind of honest contribution
to the growth of our democracy is not
worth his salt. Only God can save
Nigeria from Nigeria.
I saw the face of God from the first
confrontation I received on this issue,
because the people believed that
religious leaders have failed this
nation woefully and that the nation is
paying dearly for it as evidence from
all that is happening around us.
I can therefore conclude that what we
are seeing now is just a warning. The
same pattern of warnings that were
obvious in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory
Coast, Egypt, Libya, Niger republic,
Sudan is brewing here in Nigeria today!
I will be quick to point out as part of
the religious leaders of this nation
that we are guilty as charged. If not,
how can “a servant of God” turn out as
one of the richest in the land? This
happens in other nations especially in
America, where today such wealthy
Ministers of God, are being assessed to
pay heavy taxes like other wealthy
people in America. Riches, ought to be a
privilege a Minister has to transfer the
wealth to their congregation. I
challenge the government to assess the
wealth of every Minister in this country
and begin to collect taxes as it is done
in other nations. While it is not in my
position to judge anybody, I will
admonish that all of us who are
privileged to be called of God to serve
the people should henceforth distribute
the blessing that God has given unto us
for the people the reason for which God
gave it to us in the first place.
We have no justification to preach
integrity, morality, holiness or love if
we are just as greedy and corrupt as any
retired general, or politicians. It is
sincerely unimaginable for an example if
God gives us a school to educate our
people that the cost of such schools
should be more than what our members can
afford. I believe and very strongly too
that the only reason God will give us a
school if we are his servant, is to be
able to train our members. Otherwise,
why should God give us a school? To make
money? Money for what? A friend of mine,
not a clergy that owns one of the most
expensive universities in Nigeria once
told me in the course of our discussion
how much scholarship he gives out to
students in this same university
annually. It was huge and evenly
distributed through all the geographic
regions of the nation. This is a
business man and really not obliged to
do this. How much more, those of us who
are called to serve these people as
servants of the Most High God! The
missionaries who brought education to
this country, the kind of schools many
of us went to, they established the
schools for the people. They were not
even Nigerians but they came to Nigeria
to serve us. It was not their personal
property, it was the church property.
The cost was not beyond what an average
member of their congregation could pay.
The school was nearly an evangelical
tool. I may humbly also point out, that
our own church once had a nursery and
primary school for many years. We made
sure that we charged the least school
fees in the neighborhood, we made sure
that every child of every member of our
church who could afford to pay was given
half tuition scholarship, and any member
who could not afford to pay for his or
her children had automatic full
scholarship. Not only that, for every
minister of God of any denomination who
brought their children to the school had
half tuition scholarship. I may also
like to inform us that my two sons went
to the same school and I opted to pay
full tuition for them because I could
afford it. I made sure they went to that
school so that the standard must be up
to any other standard. So that my
children and other children can have the
same standard if not higher standard of
learning than other more expensive
schools around us. Many of these
students are grownups today and they and
their parents are witnesses to my claim.
I am not saying this to say I have done
anything; it was the church that did it.
Perhaps it was because of this
generosity, this uncommon spirit that
caused people to see to it that the
school was closed down. It was because
of the corruption epidemic that the
school had to close down, when I
inevitably had to run abroad, to escape
the hunting, and harassments of then
military dictators. They so assaulted me
and tried to put me out of circulation
at all cost, that I had to run. It was
then the government officials came and
withdrew the approval of the school for
no just cause and yet they refuse to
return this approval upon my arrival. So
we had no choice than to shut down the
school rather than operate illegally.
What the powers that be did to me is
being used to chase many bank executives
today. They are the same people, same
style, same approach, and they want
Nigeria to believe that they will come
back to rule this country! Eight banks
were axed in 2009, and till today, three
years after and running, the economy has
remained comatose, and Nigerians cannot
read between the lines, because they are
wearing the toga of anti-corruption
crusaders, while they are knee and neck
deep in the evil of economic assault on
these former bank owners. They are
pulling us slowly and surely to the
precipice and we are happy listening to
their evil songs. They want Islamic bank
installed, they are apostles for the
removal of oil subsidy, all to deceive
the simple minded, all their moves is to
make this country ungovernable leading
us by the day nearer to imminent
disaster by spreading hardship, hunger
and penury!
By the nature of our work, and the
teaching of our master Jesus Christ,
people bring gifts to us in gratitude
for what God does in their lives through
us. There are certain things that are
necessities of life. A man of God should
not do without such things. There are
things that could be luxury to an
ordinary person but a necessity to a man
of God. That is why Paul the apostle
said and rightfully so and that is what
it ought to be “not that I speak in
respect of want, but I have learnt, in
whatever state I am therein to be
content, I know both how to be abased,
and I know how to abound: everywhere and
in all things I am instructed both to be
full and to be humble, both to abound
and to suffer need”. It is therefore
very unfair, ungodly and even a sin to
condemn a man of God for a necessity,
e.g. Jet. If a man of God is in Nairobi
right now for a revival and he has to be
in London in say 6 hours later, and
there is no flight scheduled to leave
for London in the airports, how is he
supposed to get there? And yet, even for
the salvation of one soul, the whole of
Heaven will rejoice. Not to talk of
healing and other goods that may be
awaiting him in London. No amount of
money can pay for such.
The ministers that are not so well to do
should also take heed for this warning
is also for them because they have
refused to allow God to bless them by
their actions and they now go about
behaving even worse than unbelievers
doing everything to acquire money which
they can never have until they repent
and change. They like to live like
ministers who have being rewarded for
their labor and have more than enough.
It is only in uprightness that God
blesses his servant. It is only in
obedience to His word that God blesses
His servants. When we preach prosperity
and cause others to go and steal to give
to us, such cannot last. It is only God
that gives and does not add sorrow unto
it.
In this year 2012, the judgment of God
shall begin in Churches. Except the
ministers repent, many churches will
fold up and calamities will happen in
places and to people we least expect.
This will happen to small and big
churches that refuse to repent. Men and
women of God read my lips. This is a
warning from God. Whoever ignores this
ignores it to his or her peril. Do not
say you are not warned.
Today, I make a clarion call to all
Christians in this country: the Bible in
2 Chronicles 7:14, says “If my people,
which are called by my name, shall
humble themselves, and pray, and seek my
face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will
forgive their sin, and will heal their
land”. Let us make ourselves worthy to
stand in gap for this nation. Like
Abraham did when Sodom and Gomorrah were
to be destroyed and he asked God if he
would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah even if
there were ten righteous people in it
and God promised to spare both the
righteous and the wicked for the sake of
the ten righteous people. God is about
to visit Nigeria. There are over 150
million people according to the National
population commission. Therefore, I
appeal to Christians of this nation to
enroll and commit themselves to pray
with me for this country that God will
have mercy upon us. Ten percent of 150
million is 15 million. To be exact, I
was told that the figure was 165
million, so therefore let us estimate
the population for 200 million. Ten
percent of 200 million is 20 million. O
compatriots, if God can find 20 million
righteous people in Nigeria, He will
surely spare our lives. In order that we
will not go the way France went during
the French revolution or the way Sodom
and Gomorrah went during Gods
visitation, let everyone that believe in
the redeeming power of the blood of
Jesus Christ enroll into this clarion
call. Please enroll in the Facebook and
join in the war against corruption,
terrorism, and all other vices in our
land. HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Bishop (Dr) Olushola A. Olukolade
Prelate, Southern Nigeria Ecclesiastical
Jurisdiction
Church of God in Christ
386 Herbert Macaulay Way
Yaba Lagos, Nigeria
23418935398, 08185796773, 08056633155
Published
January 4th, 2012
