Re-election hoax

It is now official. PMB will not be running for re-elections in 2019 because of his failing health, the ailing economy of the country, and being a man of extreme integrity. The President will be reneging on his word on one term election if he did otherwise. I’m kidding. Contrarily, the President has declared his intention to waste another four years of our time as part of his own retirement severance package, that we all sadly have to pay for. For effects, the president has picked the four years anniversary of missing Chibok girls to make the announcement.Very timely.

Rather than react to this, the youths are being distracted by the insulting comments purportedly delivered by our frail President  in UK at the meeting of nations beleaguered with common poverty at the commonwealth meetings. According to news report monitored, youths are beefing the president for washing their dirty linen in public and not just because the linen is dirty in the first place. Our leaders are the most insulted, yet they carry on looting us with clarity of purpose refusing to be distracted. When you do not have a sense of purpose, you react to all trivialities with burning energy that should have been channeled into positive challenges like voting the present administration out of power.

It will almost be impossible for anyone that has been part of this Nigerian debacle to also be part of the solution; that will be like putting tooth paste back into the tube. In other words, a reasonable percentage of Nigerians are already disqualified because of their involvement in not just this administration but also past administrations that have cumulatively succeeded in putting this nation in to this present predicament. And anything short of mass revolution will just be another stop gap measure into finding an elusive resolution.

And talking of resolution, I do not mean this Sowore inspired student like demonstrations. As commendable and refreshing as his entrance into the confused foray is, it can only serve a cosmetic purpose that cannot dent our deeply entrenched problem. I wait to see how he is going to mobilize ignorant and brainwashed youths from the North, materialistic youths from the East, online distracted youths from the West and oil bunkering youths of the South.

Here is the thing, it is a general scientific consensus that we all boil, but at different degrees. The truth however Is that among other factors that drive revolution are two ideologues that are currently missing in our polity today; discontent with the level of suffering and deliverance from the authority of the spiritual leaders. Until we have a culmination of both, and have a mass revolution that will produce a radical leader,we will keep embracing every person with a microphone that speaks flawless English language as a potential leader that cannot sift the noise from the message.

Home Grown Gospel

The General Overseers of Nigerian churches have continued to show by carnal examples how better they are in the art of human and financial resource management than our selected political leaders. Though, they are neither selected nor elected but have by providence and our gullibility found themselves in charge of what is left of our collective destinies. Still in doubt? Follow me not into the scriptures but the streets.

With prayers, reasonably priced anointing oil and car stickers, the church leadership has been able to protect her own from attacks of the devil like kidnapping, terrorism, robbery- both armed and pen and other societal menaces that have shamed the Nigerian government and her standing army. Though, the G.Os have rightly not put their trust in chariots and horses but in the friendly Nigerian Police who at the moment serve as escorts while the pew is left by faith  under the wings of the Almighty.

In the absence of crude oil and its curse, and with the decline in tithes and offerings from the pew, the church leadership have unlike the government of the day embraced investment diversion and focus on multiple streams of income as their budgetary sources. The church is now wisely into banking, agriculture, printing and prosperity evangelism. It is only a matter of time before the church outdoes the government in labour empowerment and economic influence.

Apart from ferrying the President abroad for ear infection treatment, it is on record that the incumbent government have understandably not been able to start and complete any developmental or infrastructural project since it came to power. This may not be unconnected with the dour cabinet that remained largely unchanged since the inception of the government. The church however has made tremendous progress in this regard. We now have a church with the largest auditorium in Africa, another one with most branches and some with more land mass than Dangote cement factory. And this again,is all due to the fact that church leadership mentality is not that of average old testament missionary but a 20th century Harvard inspired manager.

Though, some(including modern day Pharisees) have argued that the Church has not been able to consistently be the light of the world. They don't have to be. That is the responsibility of PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria). Unlike PHCN, the reasons are that the church is morally obese even though it fasts, and that the church leadership lacks the spiritual strength to cast the first stone in cases of corruption. They, especially those that pay miserly offerings,also have the effontery to question the church’s transparency and accountability knowing fully well that the leadership is only accountable to God who appointed them. It may seem dictatorial, but remember they do not owe their exalted office to any electoral process and they do not have to worry about second term since their office exists in eternity.

Nevertheless, Christ the author and finisher of our faith is selfless, humble, simple and charitable. So also was the Nigerian Church, in the early 1960s. Over the years however, the church just like other earthly institutions have evolved and the material success is a testimony to the leadership style and the advanced management principles that have successfully turned teeming spiritually hungry congregation into a subdued sheep that feed on instant gratification and multidimensional miracles.

Lastly, Christ has built his church but while we glory in the ambitious and fanciful buildings, there are two or three truths the political leadership can learn from the Bible. The leadership( I mean political leadership, the church leadership already know). Namely, espouse the truth, hold itself accountable and must not do unto us as they want others to do to them! Because, at the moment, Nigerians wish above all things that…….