THE RECENT call for 40 days prayers for Nigeria by the leadership of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) is not a bad move, if the leaders of that branch of cosmetic Christianity will be honest with the choice of prayer points. No doubt we have reached a juncture where it is clear to us that our problems are beyond what mere ingenuity of the canal person can resolve. We need God!
If our laws were to be working, we may not need the intervention of God. Our laws do not punish the corrupt elites. Our laws are made to genuflect before them. The laws protect the elites against the agitations of the common masses. There is no crime that our leaders cannot commit and get away with it. Justice is fully monetised and only the corruptly rich elites can afford it. It is as a result of this that Prof. Niyi Osundare asked: “My Lord, where do I keep your bribe?”
Despite the combined efforts of armed forces and police, kidnapping, banditry, rituals killings, robbery, corruption and looting of public funds are not abating. Monies meant for development are disappearing into private pockets of politicians and public servants. After 25 years of unbroken democratic governance, there is no positive development. Governance has become a motionless exercise as nothing of value comes from the dizzying calisthenics of deceitful, manipulative misanthropes and perfidious elements that rule our land.
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It is pertinent to make it clear that our problems are man-made, they are not metaphysical. Nigeria is highly blessed by nature. Our climate is good, our vegetation is excellent. Almost every crop can be grown here. We are blessed with abundant natural resources. Sunshine and rain are in abundance. We have petroleum, gold, tin, bauxite, iron, and many more. There are no incidences of earthquake, cyclone, typhoon or volcanic eruption, etc. All our problems, before and after our political independence are man-made!
We have abundance of very corrupt, wicked and unpatriotic leaders and they have been responsible for our reverse development. I believe that an honest and patriotic PFN leadership will be looking at just one prayer point – that God may divinely touch all the leaders and people destroying this nation in manner that will define true justice.
The Rev. Wale Oke-led PFN should remember that for the people of Israel to leave Egypt, the land of suffering and slavery, pharaoh and his people were dealt with. PFN should pray that God should bring His judgment on people holding Nigeria down in perpetual slavery. I doubt if Rev. Wale Oke and his men will be godly enough to perform this duty the way it is expected. We know that religion occupies the hypocrisy department of government; at least feudal history has it on record.
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In Nigeria our ugly and corrupt leaders are affiliated to one religious group or the other. In fact, we are now in the season of thanksgiving, when first class General Overseers are invited to lead state thanksgiving sessions. It is a time for the men of God to be appreciated for their role of servicing the hope of ordinary people in the face of nothing. The bible makes it clear that down through the ages, a real man of God has always been a rebel. He will never accept the ugly status quo. Today, he is a man of enjoyment. Moses was a great rebel in the eyes of pharaoh, John the Baptist was a thorn in the flesh of Herodias, just to mention but a few.
We have been divinely rescued before, and I believe that God can still help us. What I found worrisome is that PFN seems to have woken up very late, or do I say that PFN just switched tactics. Few years back, its members, majority of whom are from South West geopolitical zone, were only casting aspersions and pouring biblical invective on the government of Dr Ebele Jonathan. Today its tactics has changed, because the serving president, Ahmed Tinubu, is from South West geopolitical zone. Nevertheless, I believe that if PFN’s intention is not hypocritical, God will still answer and rescue us. He has done it before!
If our laws were to be working, we may not need the intervention of God. Our laws do not punish the corrupt elites. Our laws are made to genuflect before them. The laws protect the elites against the agitations of the common masses. There is no crime that our leaders cannot commit and get away with it. Justice is fully monetised and only the corruptly rich elites can afford it. It is as a result of this that Prof. Niyi Osundare asked: “My Lord, where do I keep your bribe?”
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PFN should pray that all corrupt judges, lawyers and judicial officers should receive the wrathful judgment of God. They should not forget the merchants of death and blood, who specialises in kidnapping for rituals and ransom. The elites who sponsor cultists and militancy.
PFN should not forget to pray against those who make fair and peaceful political transitions impossible; godfathers, ballot box snatchers, people who write results before votes are cast. People who orchestrate technical glitches at very critical points in voting process and create artificial challenges just to ensure that an anointed candidate win. They should not forget to pray against traditional rulers who throw caution to the winds in their expressions of partisanship, thereby creating tension in the land.
PFN should also pray against itself: against fake prophets and bishops, who give commercialised spiritual support to politicians and corrupt elites to the shame of Christendom; against prophets who say what they never heard or saw, thereby heating up the system with cacophony of prophesies of who the next president or governor may be.
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Looking at how unscrupulous some PFN members have become in the past twenty-five years since the return of democracy, it reminds me of the work of John Fletcher, a 16th century English playwright and poet, in his work, “Upon An Honest Man’s Fortune”. Please, read that poem before the prayers start; it will definitely guide your conducts, if you are real. The poem was a reaction to the spiritual misdemeanours of his time. Like Shakespeare said, “The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
We have been divinely rescued before, and I believe that God can still help us. What I found worrisome is that PFN seems to have woken up very late, or do I say that PFN just switched tactics. Few years back, its members, majority of whom are from South West geopolitical zone, were only casting aspersions and pouring biblical invective on the government of Dr Ebele Jonathan. Today its tactics has changed, because the serving president, Ahmed Tinubu, is from South West geopolitical zone. Nevertheless, I believe that if PFN’s intention is not hypocritical, God will still answer and rescue us. He has done it before!
