*√MONDAY MORNING MEDITATION: Why Listening to Motivational Speakers and Miracle Prophets Isn’t Enough for Such Times As These*

_Copyrights © 2017 By Ogbo Awoke Ogbo_

*_“Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes.”_* ~ Isaiah 30:20 NLT

¶A few days ago, I saw this message on Whatsapp:

“On judgment day, I’ll just hold up the Nigerian flag so that God knows I’ve been through hell already! I can’t afford to face hell twice.”

You want to laugh but then the eeriness of the hidden reality freezes your lips.

Buying power is at its all time low. People can no longer pay house rent. Many tenants owe upwards of two year rent or even more.

Same with school fees. Last year, hundreds of parents recalled their children studying abroad because the Naira no longer opens its mouth when other currencies talk. Paying dollar school fees from Naira savings isn’t a joke.

Private schools are heaving under the burden of cash flow. I understand that in a big school with an enrollment of 700 only 200 could pay. Some private schools, for the first time in their history, are struggling to pay teacher’s salaries. And you know what happens when you don’t pay teachers. Everything comes to a standstill.

Entrepreneurs are not finding it funny trying to keep up margin while warding off killer bank loans and government tax agents.

••• I cannot keep up with the requests for jobs, financial help, for food and other basic necessities. The few who still work carry the burden of unemployed friends, relations, extended family, church members and so on.

Nigeria is a case study of how little foxes of injustice, neglect of the youth, oppression of the poor, and demonic greed can bring down the mightiest of nations. The country is undoubtedly on its knees. And there is one and only one instrument perpetuating all the ills we collectively suffer today - the 1999 Constitution. The 1999 Constitution is an evolution of the manipulations, trickery, subjugation and wickedness laid by the British in 1914.

••• Ikoli Harcourt Whyte was a prolific Kalabari legend little known in this generation. Yet, he was not only the father of Igbo gospel music but regarded in some quarters as the Handel of Africa.

He was born in 1905 at Abonema and his destiny took a defining turn when, at 14, he was diagnosed with leprosy! Back then, leprosy was a huge curse. Many people took their own lives than live with the stigma.

Harcourt Whyte suffered the disease for 34 years until the cure was discovered. In spite of his condition, he composed more than 600 hymns and songs in Igbo language before he was sadly wasted by a motor accident! Perhaps the most popular recording of his work was by the Choir of the Uzuakoli Leper Colony conducted by Nnamdi Olebara.

I still remember the booming of Olebara’s gripping narratives as the black discs rotated on the mysterious gramophone of those days.

••• One person said that each time he listened to the narrative that preceded “Obu Onye Kere Uwa Nkea,” he felt like committing suicide. I think I understand the feeling. Harcourt was a modern Job, but his faith in God, like that of Job, was unshakable.

Here’s my best translation of the narrative in question:

In my next life, I’ll be a vulture
My humanity is a curse
In my next life, I won’t be a hen -
A family maker that has no family of her own
I won’t be a dog - eater of his own vomits
I won’t be a domestic animal
Loved by the owner
But on the day of festival slaughtered for party
There is no love in this world

In my next life, I’ll be a vulture
Lord of the market square
I’ll be freer than humans
I’ll perch wherever I choose -
Be it mud hut or palatial mansion
I won’t be afraid of anyone

I will eat what I want, when I want
I’ll travel like a boss - wherever I wish
And no one would dare kill me
In my next life I’ll be a vulture
No friend, no foe.

••• Harcourt’s Whyte’s hymns were food for the Easterners after the Civil War. I remember that no day passed without a Harcourt Whyte song on radio, in church or along the road. My father was choirmaster. I joined the church choir from about age six or seven and learnt many of the songs by “soh-fah”

••• Last week, I reread Benjamin Franklin’s _“The Way of Wealth”_ written in 1758. Boy, was I shocked that in 1758, people were having EXACTLY the same conversations currently going on in Nigeria. Here’s a direct lift from the book:

“They were conversing on the badness of the times, and one
of the company called to a plain clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Won't these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?"

They were complaining about bad times, oppressive taxes, wicked banking policies and bad government!

So, I realized, as some sage said, that in history, the players may change but the game remains the same. Which is why I love the Scripture - “the anchor that keeps the soul safe and secure while the billows roll!”

••• If you pick up a Nigerian newspaper of the 1950s, the stories would be exactly the same. The names would be different - like Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Anthony Enahoro. Today, you may roughly substitute those newspaper names with Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Nwodo and maybe Saraki and the stories would match. Same game, different players!

But here’s where it gets interesting: History is NOT waiting for you. While the game plays, you’ll have to eat. You’ll have to get married and raise a family. You’ll have to pay school fees. You’ll have to save your business from death. You’ll have to pursue service to humanity.

I have discovered, just like in Benjamin Franklin’s time, that the greatest need for people today is practical guidance, not just motivational speaking. Not just hope. Those are good start but not enough. You need action!

You can listen to all the motivational talks you want but if you do not know how to make sound decisions and take strategic actions, you’re dinner for the gods.

••• Civilization took a leap when the “Early Man” started making tools. Tools gave him leverage over his environment and enabled him to extract great value. Same today. If you do not have the right and tested tools to extract value from this complex world of ours, you’re biscuit for the gods.

You don’t have to wait to be a vulture in your “next life.” God calls you to walk with Him and live a fulfilling life - in spite of the happenings and inevitable changes coming upon our country. In the midst of the confusion, political upheavals, hate speeches and fear of calamity, look up to Him and be at peace. God calls us to love still.

PS.

_<<<From this month (July 2017), I will start a monthly, (and later on, weekly) *Facebook Live* to share with you practical tools, systems, skills, habits and rituals that can support your personal growth._

_The Program will be called “My Mentor and Me.” I’m going through the same challenges as you. The first live cast will happen on Saturday morning of July 8. In consultation with my team, I will announce the time and theme within the week. Keep your calendar open in the morning.>>>_

Until then, I love you. Be healthy, wealthy and wise!

*√MONDAY MORNING MEDITATION: Is The Devil an African Resident? (Part 1)*

_Copyrights © 2017 by Ogbo Awoke Ogbo_

*“For with God nothing shall be impossible.”* ~Luke 1:37, KJV

¶Is the Devil Africa’s Number One problem? The answer is, surprisingly, a resounding, “No!”

Contrary to today’s numerous prophets and prayer contractors, the devil isn’t quite my or your worst enemy. The devil, with his trillion hordes of demons, is a formidable foe. No doubt. The Lord expressly prayed for our protection from “the evil one” in John 17. King David sought refuge in God from the snares of “the fowler” who comes to "steal, kill and destroy."

And how could I forget Paul’s hair-raising revelation of the unseen realms in Ephesians 6:12?

••• Still, your worst enemy isn’t the devil, your uncle, aunt, mother-in-law, step mother, colleague at work or landlord. If you defeat your Number One enemy, the devil and his cohorts are a work-over job.

Do you want to know your deadliest enemy? Can you handle it if I told you? In a few minutes, I’ll show you who your worst enemy is, although, I sense that the Holy Spirit has already given you some hint.

••• Nevertheless, today, I’m focusing on the tortured widow called Africa.

Since my birth, no verse of Scripture has cast such baffle on my heart as the mind-boggling claim of Archangel Gabriel in Luke 1:37 which is repeated by Jesus throughout the New Testament.

_Really? Are all things possible with God? When I desperately needed $2 million to fund my business, why didn’t I wake up to find it under my bed? If all things were possible, why haven’t I been able to build my $7 billion dollar company?_

Nevertheless, I won’t be a liar or an ingrate toward the Most High! Because I have experienced a few inexplicable fortunes of Luke 1:37.

••• Once, I arranged an agreement with a radio station in Enugu for “My Mentor and Me” broadcast that would cover 8 - 12 states in Nigeria. I boldly told them I would pay for the first 13 weeks in two or three days then. I hadn’t the slightest idea where the money would come from. I wouldn’t also claim that I was full of faith that it would happen - that would be stretching it.

The day after the meeting, I received a mysterious deposit alert in my bank! The narration for the deposit was bizarre and gibberish. It was a combination of consonants that made no sense at all.

I asked everyone connected with that business account if they made any deposit and for what. They all gave me the not-me shrug. I waited a couple of days to see if it would be reversed or the bank would call and apologize. Nothing.

When I sensed that the money was divinely provided for the radio program that was to bless millions of listeners, I went ahead and issued the cheque. That was four years ago. Call me crazy but now I believe that angels do make deposits in the bank. It hasn't happened thrice to me.

••• At another time, I was running mad under the pressure of unpaid school fees and overdue rent. It was usually in such circumstances that Luke 1:37 annoyed me. How could all things be possible and my children were being withdrawn from school for unpaid fees?

Again, the totally inexplicable stepped in. While in meditation one morning, I received a very suspicious call from someone claiming to be from my previous employer about some payment due me.

I thought it was one of those “419” (advance fee fraud) calls. But alas! I received a huge sum in millions - nearly two years after I had completely exited the Company. Up till today, I do not know what it was for but who cares? The caller simply said that his Manager reprimanded him for having kept the money for so long and instructed him to pay the money expressly! Rationalize that if you can!

A couple other times, anonymous people have paid some of my overdue obligations directly to the client with very strict instruction not to be named. If I walked by those people in the mall, I would never know.

These are just a few of the inexplicable mercies in my feeble walk with God. I wonder what your own stories might be! We all have these angelic encounters. I’m awed by the desperate yearning of our Heavenly Father to bless the sons of men! Not because we are righteous but because Christ completely paid for it already!

••• So, maybe, after all, all things could be possible with God. Maybe Angel Gabriel was right.

_I am becoming a believer in the impossible. I am becoming an apostle of impossible ideas. I am beginning to trade the currency of grace. I’m beginning to believe the Risen Christ for greater things._

As a result, in recent years, I have asked myself, ‘Since all things are indeed possible with God, what one impossible problem would I like to tackle before I die?’

That’s the connection to today’s meditation. If there’s one impossible thing I’d love to engage, it’s to break the deadly, parasitic, iron grip that Europe (or the West in general) has on Africa’s neck. Europe is the tapeworm in Africa’s belly.

••• The West, not the devil, is Africa’s Enemy Numero Uno! Millions have died trying to challenge the stomach churning wickedness of Europe in Africa since the infamous Scramble in the late 19th century.

By the West, I’m not referring to individuals. Some of the world's most beautiful, kindhearted, peace loving and ethical humans are from Europe and North America. Some of my best friends are from the West. No, I am referring to the system, the ideology, the policies, the media shaping, the sinister manipulations and subjugation of a people and the deliberate creation of opioid dependency.

In all his wasted years in office, Obama's major interest and legacy in Africa was the promotion of the homosexual agenda! The people of Africa collectively said, "We respect your own culture. Please respect ours. This is not our culture." Obama replied, "Then you must make it your culture or I'll use my POTUS might and punish you!" And he kept his promise.

*_••• Behind every misfortune in Africa, behind every political crisis, behind every war (including the costliest of them all - the Biafran genocide), behind the poverty due to trade imbalance, behind the ethnic clashes and intertribal hatred, behind the pillaging of Africa’s natural resources, behind the economic wars and hunger in Africa, is Europe!_*

Do you remember the song that anywhere Jesus went He was doing good? Can you say the same thing about any African country the International Monetary Fund visited?

Was I shocked last month to learn from a well educated Francophone friend that the French countries in Africa still pay tributes and taxes to their colonial master, France! Go figure!

••• No despot would rule Africa unless the West sanctioned him or her. Every African political leader is a stooge of the West. Not one exception other than Robert Mugabe - which is why they have hated him and punished Zimbabwe like hell. Maybe Nelson Mandela. Maybe the late Muammar Gaddafi.

All of the Nigerian leaders since “Independence” from Britain have been zombies of the British Empire. Abacha tried to spite his master and promptly ate a delicious apple.

Africa’s enemy is stronger than the devil! I can easily cast out the devil. The devil is defeated. The cross put paid his loser destiny.

••• Not so for the West’s stranglehold in Africa. You cannot win any election anywhere in Africa if the string-pulling masters have not sanctioned. Obama, Hilary and Kerry would rather impose an illiterate Buhari on us than care about the destiny of 200 million in their slave camp called Nigeria. They knew he won’t perform but that was exactly the profile they wanted - one easy to manipulate and push over. One who didn’t possess the guts or intellectual presence to resist them.

Nigeria, the largest slave camp, has reached its inflection point of not return. The hypnosis of 1914 has worn off. The western media has now mustered its deadliest arsenal of propaganda to sabotage the yearning of the people for their right to determine their own destiny. Britain, the Project Owner, says, "The slave camp must not be disrupted. The structure of the camp is not negotiable!"

The struggle to free Africa from the stranglehold of the West is not a war of guns and bombs. But with God ALL things are possible. That would be the subject of the second part next week, Deo volente.

••• Until then, answer this question for yourself, *_“If all things were possible with God what big problems will I solve?”_*

_And in case you’re still trying to figure out your own worst enemy, follow this simple instruction: Find a mirror of any size. Enter the bathroom and shut the door tightly behind you. Make sure no one knows what you want to do. After you have secured the bathroom door, take out the mirror and hold in front of you! There s/he is!_

*I love you! Be healthy, wealthy and wise!*

*√MONDAY MORNING MEDITATION: Is The Devil an African Resident? (Part 2)*

_Copyrights © 2017 by Ogbo Awoke Ogbo_

*_“••• to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?”_* ~Isaiah 58:6 KJV

¶Yesterday, in Ozubulu, Anambra State of Nigeria, gunmen stormed a church and murdered worshippers. And got away with it. As usual in Nigeria. _C’est la vie en Afrique ces jours-ci._ But it was not so before the advent of “European civilization.”

Also, I saw an alarming video interview of some Nigerian university students freely discussing their sexual activities like it was a normal part of growing up. Like it was their "human right" to have indiscriminate premarital sex. That's civilization.

••• I still can’t explain this. There was nothing diabolic or fetish involved. But as a little boy in the 70’s I watched the spirit of the land convict people who committed adultery! It was called “iru ani” - polluting the land. If you polluted the land through adultery, oppressing the widow or murder, the land punished you!

Usually, whenever the land visited with justice, the adulterer would start swaying strangely until he or she fell to the ground. It was usually in the marketplace or along the road. Usually public.

The villagers instantly recognized the adultery sway. They would begin booing at the adulterer as she swayed and fell. That thing, whatever it was, would almost strangle her to death! While on the ground she would start confessing. _“I did it with such and such a person.”_ _“It was on an Eke market day at the farm…”_ _“We only did it once…”_

It was only after the full confession that the land left her alone. But he or she would live with that stigma for the rest of her life. Because of that, you would think seven times before unzipping.

I wasn’t told these things. I saw them as a child. Our land cleansed itself.

Then now! The killings. The immorality. The drugs. The terrorism. The male crises. The rapes! The divorces. The domestic violence! The “democracy!” Plenty nonsense - in the name of civilization.

••• In the African community I grew up in, people told the truth. People worked hard on their farms. Stealing was almost zero-which was why our houses had no fencing and doors had no keys. Honor was earned. The elderly was revered. Women and children were protected by men.

Tribes co-existed by covenant. Once a covenant was sealed between neighboring clans or tribes, it was impossible for them to fight or maltreat each other. And believe it or not, people who violated the covenant through hurting the other paid a spiritual price.

Western democracy has not worked in Africa. Will not work. It is foreign to our design. That is why it is messing us up big time. No one single country in Africa can be described as a successful democracy.

••• It’s not that we shouldn’t learn from other cultures. For instance, the part that got rid of the killing of twins was good. God bless Mary Slessor! The part that got rid of idol worship and eating food sacrificed to idols was good. That was purely the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I always separate the missionaries who came to serve Jesus Christ from the imperial agents who came to exploit and enslave the natives.

But we threw away all we had, good and bad. Today, we’re neither here nor there.

••• As it stands, there is only one question that would ever matter to the 1.2 billion inhabitants of Africa: *“What are Africans going to do about Africa?”*

The question, “What are Africans going to do about Africa?” is the gold standard by which every son or daughter of this continent will be judged in life and in death. You were not born in this continent for nothing.

I did not choose where I was born. Neither did you. Did not choose my parents. Neither did you. I could have been born in Yugoslavia or New Zealand. I could have been German or Canadian. But the infinite wisdom of God placed me in this great continent … for a purpose. His purpose.

And His purpose for you, for me is “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke.”

••• God allowed Africa to come under yoke so that He would manifest His power through us in undoing our heavy burden.

We would be fooling ourselves waiting for the West or the United Nations or World Bank (instruments of the West) to relieve us of our intractable burdens. We would be fooling ourselves believing that the west-funded NGO’s will solve our wicked problems.

Apart from genuine missionary and discipleship work, any gift from the West to Africa is what the late gospel singer, Patty Obasi, called _“mamiwota gift”_ - bring a human head and I’ll give you a human head.

God, how I detest all those TBN images of American TV preachers who show the most despicable images of Africa in the bid to con their donors into giving them millions of dollars “for dying Africa!” They show horrible pictures of starving children with flies around their mouth. Evil! This is manipulation. That’s not the true picture of Africa. And I feel saddened that TBN and similar “Christian TV” stations propagate those wicked images to beg for Africa.

Meanwhile, 98% of Americans think Africa is one country! I wouldn’t have believed it if I were only told.

••• That brings me to the most important work in undoing the heavy burden of Africa. We must begin by changing the narrative the West has scripted about us. We must begin by changing the story we tell ourselves. Then, changing the story the west tells about us.

TBN preachers, stop showing the world what Africa is not - a land of starving beggars who will “die tonight unless you (our donors) give $10 each.” Show them my picture and pictures of thousands of Africans like me who overcame extreme obstacles to earn their own food WITHOUT the dollars you begged for on TV!

Show them our gold, bauxite, diamond and a thousand other precious stones that lie under our soil. Then show them how your people and Chinese, in connivance with our thieving politicians, take advantage of us and cart our wealth away everyday while we watch helplessly.

There’s a lot bubbling in my spirit this morning. But the palm wine tapper does not say everything he sees from the top of a tree, for good reason. Here are some closing thoughts:

>> Politicians will not and cannot save Africa. African politicians at best, are serfs of the western powers - installed to protect their exploitative channels and keep the peasants subdued.

I have hope in innovators and entrepreneurs. I have more hope in the emerging leaders and youth of Africa.

Yet, I have most hope in Spirit-filled believers in Christ who will yield themselves to God *_”to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke.”_*

It's not by power nor by might …

*I love you. Be healthy, wealthy and wise!*