Once again, the Jonathan administration evokes a
political malady tinged with comedy when a jet owned
by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, and loaded with $9.3 million
cash, ferried to South Africa to smuggle arms was detained
by the South African government.
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor
The Oritsejaforgate is one of the reasons why we should
engage the Nigerian Church with its spiritually dysfunctional
pastors in the difficult conversationabout their corruption,
unjust enrichment, and their collusion with the government
to oppress the poor.
Nigeria is a country that has become increasingly polarized
between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” In a country which
the “have-nots” have become pauperized, the involvement
of Pastor Oritsejafor as founding Senior Pastor of Word of
Life Bible Church and President of The Christian Association
of Nigeria (CAN) in arms smuggling and currency trafficking
reminds us how the likes of Oritsejafors stand in stark
contrast to the teachings of Jesus.
Most of the Nigerian Jet Pastors represent a ridiculous
caricature of traditional Christian thinking, teaching, and
values. The socio-economic situation of the time of Jesus is
similar to the present socio-economic structure in Nigeria.
Many of Jesus’ parables graphically illustrated were based
on the socio-economic conditions of his days. In the days of
Jesus, there was a sharply-structured class-based society
with land-owners, stewards, tenant-farmers, day laborers,
and slaves. The few rich people wore the best dress and
feast sumptuously every day.
The legion of the poor were the beggars who sat at the gates
begging for alms and fighting over crumbs. Conditions for
the poor were further aggravated by the flagrant inequalities
of the quasi-feudal society compounded by Roman
economic policy of heavy tax burden as high as 40% of an
average income aside from the extra exactions of the local
tax collectors.
Within this social set up, one could safely describe Jesus’
family as “middle-class.” The son of a skilled “carpenter,”
was a valuable integral part of the village economy. As a
self-employed, Joseph probably had apprentices and
employed some journeymen. Jesus’ closest disciples who
were fishermen with hired laborers and tax-collectors, no
doubt, belong to the same social category. To be sure, Jesus’
family were not rich, but they were not near the bottom of
the socio-economic ladder.
Against this backdrop, the stunning contrast of Jesus’ life-
style informed his ministry and his teachings. Right from the
start of his ministry, he renounced all financial security. No
job, and no permanent home. “Foxes have holes, and birds
of the air have nests,” Jesus tells his disciples, “but the Son
of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Meaning that he
expects his disciples to imitate his life style.
The disciples were to depend on their heavenly Father for
food, clothing, and other necessities as he does for the birds
and flowers. In practical terms, Jesus and his closest
disciples depended on the gifts and hospitality of well-
wishers like the household of Lazarus, Martha, Mary and
others who invited them for meals.
It’s no wonder then that Jesus was always the guest, never
the host. He sent his disciples out on their mission without
financial upkeep. They depended on hospitality. Any money
given to them was shared. Judas as the treasurer was in
charge of the purse, and it was his job to provide for the
necessities of the group. Even under this hand-to-mouth
financial state, they were able to meet the traditional Jewish
obligation of giving to the poor.
Where does Oritsejafor as a pastor and most importantly, as
CAN President fit in in his calling as a “disciple” of Jesus?
Does the life style of Oritsejafor reflects Jesus’ renunciation
of bourgeois security?
Where is the proof that he’s detached from material
accumulation and acquisition? Where is his discipleship on
communal living and open generosity to others in need as
preached and demonstrated by Jesus?
The company Jesus kept and the values he preached were
heresy to the establishment of his day. The company that
Oritsejafor keeps is a company of men in high places who
profit and thrive in wickedness.
Men who are paragons of corruption. Men who milk Nigeria
and Nigerians bone dry. Men who are purveyors of
everything antichrist. Men of no conscience, no shame, no
repentance.
That Jesus frowned on the dangers of affluence was never in
question. He vehemently condemned the dangers of
affluence and of wanting to be affluent. His slogan, “the last
will be the first and the first last,” was an inconvenient truth
to the powers that be in his days.
Jesus explains further that it is “the cares of the world, and
the delight in riches, and the desire for other things which
choke the growth of the good seed. It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God. Take heed, and beware of all
covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.”
How could Oritsejafor reconcile Jesus’ teachings and
principles with his greed for riches and his association with
Aso Rock? How could Pastor Oritsejafor as President of CAN
relate this to ferrying $9.3 million raw cash in his plane to
smuggle arms to Nigeria from South Africa?
Jesus demonstrates over and over again that materialism is
the great enemy of spirituality. Jesus’ warning on the
dangers of affluence is deafening: “No one can serve two
masters … you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon
means possessions. The phrase is used particularly for
bribes, unjust gain, and other corrupt practices.
How can Pastor Oritsejafor serve CAN and Aso
RockMammon at the same time? How much money did Aso
Rock pay for leasing his jet? Contrary to the claim by Word
of Life Bible Church congregants that the jet was a birthday
present to their pastor, many Nigerians believed it was a gift
from Mr. Jonathan bought with tax payers’ money.
Poverty-stricken Nigerians are usually the humble ones
whose trust is in God and are oppressed by the godless
including the so called pastors. Most times as Christians we
are in a fix to reconcile the oppression of the poor with the
sovereignty of God.
But our answer lies in the belief that there is blessing in
store for the oppressed poor Nigerians, but retribution
awaits our wicked leaders and pastors.
It is stating the obvious that Pastor Oritsejafor has failed
abysmally to use CAN as a platform to create sustainable
solutions through community based initiatives to the issues
Nigerians face every day: social injustice, income
inequalities, wealth disparity,economic empowerment, and
public health.
He has failed to draw strength from belief and faith in divine
power to use CAN to remedy wrongs in times of socio-
economic and political turmoil Nigerians are going through.
Unemployment in Nigeria is at a runaway double or triple
digits. The best anti-hunger and anti-poverty program is
employment. This is patently missing in the mission of CAN
under Pastor Oritsejafor.
In a country of plenty, hunger, poverty, disease,
unemployment should be the outrage. Pastor Oritsejafor
through CAN should help focus the attention of Jonathan’s
administration on investing jobs and not as government
agent in arms smuggling and currency trafficking.
CAN was formed in 1976 by five Christian blocs in Nigeria:
the Christian Council of Nigeria, the Catholic Secretariat of
Nigeria, the Pentecostal fellowship of Nigeria, Organization
of African Instituted Churches, and the Evangelical
Fellowship of West Africa.
Under the presidency of Pastor Oritsejafor, it is the first time
in the 37-year history of CAN that any of its five blocs – the
Catholic Church – would pull out over alleged poor
leadership and politicization of the association. This is not
the CAN Bishop Okogie and other venerable disciples built.
In a signed letter by Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, President,
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBNC), dated
September 24, 2012, he said his group was suspending
“participation in CAN meetings at the national level until
such a time the leadership of CAN reverse back to the
original vision, mission, and objectives of CAN.
CAN is being dragged into partisan politics thereby
compromising the ability to play its true role as conscience
of the nation and the voice of the voiceless.”
Pastor Oritsejafor has often been accused of being divisive
in the way he is running the association, often making
comments in support of PDP led federal government and
President Jonathan.
You’re judged by the company you keep. The latest incident
makes Pastor Oritsejafor guilty by association with Mr.
Jonathan. This is the beginning of the volcanic meltdown of
Pastor Oritsejafor’s CAN Presidency.
…And Paranoid Ranting of Femi Fani-Kayode
Now, to the son of Fani Power. The article by Femi Fani-
Kayode the new addition to Interpreters of Maladies at Aso
Rock, in defense of Pastor Oritsejafor and Mr. Jonathan, is at
best a distastefully cynical demagoguery.
Fani-Kayode always insinuates conspiracy behind every
criticism of the Jonathan administration. His lengthy empty
response reads like a paranoid ranting of a silver-tongued,
narcissistic demagogue.
No one should be surprised by his zealous distortion of the
facts in the aborted illegal arms smuggling and currency
trafficking. I refuse to dignify his statement by trying to sift
through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from his
mouth or mind.
It is too soon to forget his primitive past with insatiable
appetite for corruption and malfeasance that form the
epitaph of his tenure as minister of aviation under Obasanjo
administration. We don’t need a Femi Fani-Kayode to
indoctrinate our civilized and informed minds with his
defective intelligence and filthy rancor concerning the facts
and personalities surrounding the illegal transaction.
The fires of divine truth will expose and extinguish his lies
sooner than later.
Source:http://www.saharareporters.com/2014/09/24/gospel-arms-and-mammon-pastor-ayo-oritsejafor…-and-paranoid-ranting-femi-fani-kayode-bayo

Difficult to read. Poor page format.

Should we fold our hand and watch BH do more evil to nigeria?