₦airaland Forum

Charlie Kirk and September 11

By: Deji Yesufu

It has been a very hectic one-week period for our world. Tuesday, September 8th, 2025, two gunmen enter a public bus on the outskirts of Jerusalem and kill six Israelis in obvious retaliation for Israel’s military actions in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East. The leadership of Hamas claimed responsibility for this attack. The following day, September 9th, Israeli fighter jets invaded the sovereign nation of Qatar and killed five leaders of Hamas who were discussing the terms of releasing hostages from Gaza to bring an end to the war. Israel explains that the attack was retaliation for the killings the previous day on their land. We were still reeling from all these news, only to wake up to hear that an American conservative speaker, Charlie Kirk, had been gunned down by an unknown shooter midafternoon of the 10th of September. Kirk was holding his usual speaking engagement with students at a university in Utah. The media describes Kirk as “right-wing” and might be suggesting that his political views may have been what had instigated his assassination. There is still a manhunt for his killer as I write this. Today, following all these events, is the 24th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

All of these came on the backdrop of a provocative article I had written, which I titled “Israel is Fighting a Just War”. I have gotten two very interesting responses to that article. The first person is a Christian who claimed to have been a member of the Christ Embassy Church, but who no longer associates with the church. He explained that my article was ill-informed and stated that I reached conclusions that were regrettable. The second person is a Muslim. He took umbrage with me on the fact that I dared to identify with a genocidal regime (Israel). He said that America is the leading exporter of terrorists to the world, and whatever America gets, America deserves. I tried to explain to the two men that the real issue here is militant Islam. I tried to show them that at the root of Islam is a deep-rooted antisemitism and that even if the Jews were to do nothing in reaction to all the terrorist attacks on their country, they would still be unsafe. The two men tried to convince me that modern Jews are not the biblical Jews. They said that the Jews are just as anti-Christian as any other religious group that opposes Christians. Therefore, it is a waste of valuable time trying to stand in defense of the Jews and whatever they may be doing. I want to use the death of Charlie Kirk to explain what is at the heart of a true progressive, modern, and civilized society, and why certain ideologies are antithetical to what has made our world what it is today. What I share with the Jews may not be a common faith, but a commitment to these ideals of a civilized society.

Charlie Kirk was killed because he not only hold certain political and religious views, but he also proclaimed those views without fear. Whether our world appreciates it or not, we must understand that the United States of America is the biggest influence on world culture and politics today. What America believes will inform what the rest of the world holds dear. In the last thirty years, a certain anti-religious idea began to pervade the American landscape, and this idea thrived on America’s greatest strength – freedom. America holds the position that every man has a right to freedom of ideas, religion, and conscience. This philosophy of freedom is what has given rise to the flourishing of a marketplace of ideas, where the best ideas reign. American ideas are also closely connected to the political atmosphere of that country. It means that the political party in power and the person at the seat of government will decide what the majority of the American people will believe. America will allow you to share your thoughts, and it will give liberty to people to hold those ideas. In the past twenty years, however, something began to happen. A leftist anti-Christian idea began to reign in the United States. It was promoted by Barack Obama, and it took a permanent seat in the days of Joe Biden. The problem was not with the holding of these ideas – remember that America permits all kinds of ideas to reign. The problem was that these leftists began to prohibit everyone who opposed their ideas from speaking. It is what brought about the cancel culture that began to reign on Twitter before Elon Musk bought that social media space. The left lost the battle with Donald Trump coming to power, but their penchant to silence opposing views is what made one of them attempt a near-assassination of President Trump. And it is this very mentality that has led to the killing of Charlie Kirk yesterday.

What do all these have to do with September 11? On September 11, 2001, exactly twenty-four years ago, the world came face to face with militant Islam. It will interest many to know that militant Islam and militant leftists are bedfellows. They have a common enemy, and that enemy is freedom. They have a rabid fear of people expressing opinions other than theirs, and they will do everything to silence all opposing views. Their silencing of the opposition could range from personal attacks, criticism, death threats, and, in some cases, assassinations. They believe that if people are given the freedom to choose what views they might wish to espouse, these people will take the wrong path. They forget that God, our creator, has given every man a will and we all have the liberty to use that will whichever way we please. Even many Christian traditions have not been able to appreciate the liberty that the Christian message has given to men. Jesus Christ calls all men to listen to the truth and to make informed decisions regarding what they wish to do with the information they have. The blessing of adult life is that you and I will make decisions today, and we must live with the consequences of those decisions tomorrow. It is bondage to insist that grown men must do what you command them to do. This might have been permitted under the feudal system of the past, but in the days of civilization and modernity, all men must decide what they wish to use their lives for. The best we can do is to go to the marketplace of ideas and sell our ideas to all men, and we must rest content with allowing the best ideas to win. This is what has made America a great country, and this is the future of the modern world.

Charlie Kirk was just thirty-one years old. His wife is also very young, and the oldest of his two children would be about three years old. He was one of the biggest supporters of President Trump, and one news commentary claimed that he practically won the state of Arizona for Donald Trump. He was supposed to have been given an office in the cabinet of Trump, but they concluded that his work with the “Turning Point USA” was more important than any work he could do at the White House. Kirk will go into American Universities and debate leftist ideologies. In the process, he had helped to change many students’ mindset and helped them to appreciate a more conservative worldview and even consider the Christian message. Kirk was in the middle of answering a question on transgenderism – pointing at the fact that his Christian worldview abhors such thinking, when he was suddenly shot in the neck. He died a little less than two hours after that time.

When I write that “Israel is Fighting a Just War”, I am positing the idea that modern civilization thrives in an atmosphere of freedom. As we raise our children, one of the best gifts we can give them is the freedom to be themselves and to think for themselves. We must help our children to appreciate the fact that what they hold as beliefs will inform what they do in life, and what they do in life comes with consequences. Similarly, every person in our world must have the liberty to listen to ideas – to accept or reject them. When the state begins to force on people what religion or political ideology they must espouse, you have bondage. And where there is bondage, there can’t be a marketplace for ideas, and the best ideas will not flourish. This will bring regression to society instead of civilization and progress.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

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MrPresident1:
VBCampaign, the emboldened below, is it a mistake? If it is not a mistake but it is deliberate on your part, then know this now, the Israelis are not the Israelites of the Bible.

The real Israelites will be regathered by Jesus Christ himself when he returns. Any purported return before Jesus Christ is a deep fake. Anything that is fake does not solve any problem, it only aggravates existing challenges or disfunction

The Israeli are not the Israelites of the Bible

It is near impossible to engage your points. But they noted nonetheless

MaxineDHouse

What you have written is Pacifism. You cannot be a pacifist in a world of sin.

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain[b][/b]: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

God has given every civil government powers to bear the sword. The aim is to punish evil, and protect good. So that evil doesn't overrun society.

Many preached Pacifism in the middle ages when Islam encroached on Europe. They quickly jettisoned that idea when they realised the Mohammedians were taking over their land.

MaxInDHouse:
The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love VIOLENCE, he HATES with a passion. ‭Psalms 11:5 NIV‬

So let all believers in Christ stay away from violence!

While at the same time we must recognise the concept of a just war...

Israel is Fighting a Just War

By: Deji Yesufu

A little over a week ago, I was in Oyo Town to minister for a brother who is trying to plant a reformed mission in that part of the country. Two other ministers accompanied us to the conference. One morning, over breakfast, our discussion turned to happenings in the Middle East. One of the ministers then asked why Israel is trying to take over Gaza. As far as he was concerned, Israel may be fighting a just war, but they should not overstep their boundaries and take over a land that belongs to another people. I replied by saying that Israel is not trying to take over Gaza. I then went on to explain what I believe the issues were in the Middle East and why the military actions the nation of Israel is carrying out against Palestinians must be brought to a logical conclusion. I will use the remainder of this essay to shed further light on the response I gave to the minister.

The idea of penning this article has been in my mind for months now, but the possible reaction to it has held me back. While I vouch for myself to be a fearless writer, I also know my limits. One of such limits is Islam. In the 1960s, even the inimitable Obafemi Awolowo advised the Nigerian government and public commentators to stay clear of happenings in the Middle East. There is no way you will comment on the crisis there without offending Muslims in this country. Now, while this country could remain mum with regard to happenings between the Palestinians and Israelites in the 1960s, the fact that militant Islam has become a national malaise for us in this country today means that we can no longer remain quiet on the subject anymore. As Boko Haram rages in the North East of Nigeria, and bandits hold sway in the North West, Israel is also fighting militant Islam on their borders and within their country. As I pen this piece this evening, two Palestinian terrorists entered an Israeli public bus and opened fire on innocent commuters. Fifteen people were critically injured, and six of those are now dead. The terrorists were killed, and Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack. Why then do I say that Israel is fighting a just war? It is nearly impossible to start the story of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the beginning, but I will start from somewhere.

Historically, the land that the nation of Israel presently occupies belongs to the Jews. It was on that land that Jesus Christ walked. It was there he was crucified, and it was there he rose from the dead. In AD 70, the Romans ransacked the land of Israel in retaliation for a number of uprisings among the Jews that had led to the killing of Roman soldiers. The result was the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the killing of thousands of Jews, while a whole lot of them were dispersed into the diaspora. When you look at the map of Israel, you will see that it is a country that is located in a little corner of the Middle East, sandwiched between countries like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. So, when the Jews were dispersed two thousand years ago, they went into all these countries. Some even went as far as Western Europe, and others went to Russia. The Jews, however, retain their heritage, particularly their belief in the One God who created the heavens and the earth, and their commitment to the Old Testament – Genesis to Malachi.

In the 19th century, the land that is presently occupied by the nation of Israel was a vastly unoccupied piece of space. There were a few Jews who lived there, but the land had come to be mostly occupied by Arabs – most of them from the neighboring countries of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. These people were Muslim, and they coexisted peacefully with the Jews. About that time, a Zionist movement began in Europe that began to encourage Jews to return to their fatherland and help build it up. It was going to be a daunting task, because, besides overcoming the challenge of developing an arid land, there were the Jews’ Muslim neighbors who had a particular hatred for them. What is little known about Islam is that the Muslim scripture is fundamentally antisemitic. There are portions of the Quran that teach that Muslims and Christians are the worst of all creatures, and that Jews should be destroyed at all costs (Quran 98:6). Like many scriptures in our holy books, these portions of the Quran are open to wide interpretations. There are, therefore, many militant Muslim groups that take these scriptures in their literal form and are committed to the destruction of all Jews.

It was within these climates that the holocaust of the Second World War occurred, which led to the United Nations compensating the Jews with their forefathers’ land of Israel in 1948. For close to a century now, Israel has waged different wars to preserve their right to live in that territorial space. Many of their Muslim neighbors have come to accept the fact that Israel has a right to live in that space, except for a few radical militant Muslim countries and persons. Shi’ite Islam is not as accommodating to Jews as Sunni Islam. The Shi’ite-led government of Iran had committed itself to sponsoring a terrorist group against Israel. There is the Hamas government in Gaza that is fighting Israel to the East of the country; there is the Hezbollah group in Lebanon that is waging war on Israel from the North of the country. Everything was supposed to come to a head in October 2023. Four terrorist groups were supposed to launch an attack on Israel’s sovereignty at the same time. But the Hamas people, operating in Gaza, were too excited about the plan; they launched their attack a day before, culminating in the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel that resulted in the death of no less than 1,200 Israelis. Since that day, Israel has launched coordinated attacks on all its neighbors. In an unprecedented manner, Israel had decimated the ranks and file of the nation of Iran, leaving the country today vulnerable to a possible regime change. Israel has destroyed Hezbollah, killing all its top operatives in one single operation. They have also destroyed the Houthis in Yemen. And presently, they are in Gaza trying to recover a few hostages they are convinced are still alive; hostages taken after the October 7th attack on their territory.

Why is this war then a just war? It is because the war Israel is waging is an ideological war. Many Israelis compare the war against Hamas as something akin to what happened in the Second World War. The Second World War was not just a war that was fought over land and territorial supremacy; it was an ideological war. Adolf Hitler had posited a doctrine that said that the German people were the most exalted species of persons in the world. They taught that the Jews were scum. They believed that black men were animals. Etc. They then tried to overrun most of Europe and Russia, and then use the resources they got from those places to colonize the whole world. Japan and Italy joined Hitler in this hateful ideology, and the world was plunged into a just war that claimed the lives of no less than 75 million people. In the same manner, the war Hamas and other militant Muslim groups are waging against Israel is an ideological war. It is not just a war over land. The basic idea that many militant Muslims hold is that the Jews are an evil lot, and the Muslim world cannot permit their existence in the Middle East. The only way to end the crisis in the Middle East is to reorient the fundamental ideas that rule the minds of the people of that region of the world. Militant Islam must be understood for what it is, and it must be rejected in the modern world in all its facets. Atheistic, liberal, and agnostic thinkers, who reject Christianity, cannot continue to provide cover for militant Islam to carry out their barbaric actions. Similarly, moderate Muslims must separate themselves from the ideas and actions of militant Islam.

Now, practically speaking, it would be nearly impossible to rid the Middle East of all militant Muslims who hate Jews. Already, Israel has identified many wealthy Qataris and other Muslim persons around the world who fund terrorist operations against the Jews. What Israel plans to do with the Gaza Strip is to simply remove every militant Islamic group from that space and repopulate the place with Palestinians who do not hate Jews. These Palestinians, and there are thousands of them both in Palestine now and in the diaspora, wish to have their country back from Hamas, who are the present government in that place. There are many Palestinians who live peacefully within Israel, and who have come to regard the Jews as friends. In fact, while the war against Hamas rages on, Israel continues to provide the people of Gaza with food, water, and shelter. While at the same time warning the people against going to areas where they could be caught in the war between Israeli forces and Hamas.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict must be discussed in Nigeria and understood because Nigeria is also in the grip of militant Islam. Despite their vaunted claim to rid the country of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups like them, northern Nigeria continues to suffer from the influence of these militant Muslim groups because many Muslims in the North offer Boko Haram and other terrorist groups like them tacit support. For many Muslims in the North, religion comes first before loyalty to the country. When a militant Islamic group emerges and begins to teach people to take up arms against the constituted government, the ordinary people offer sympathy to this group with the hope that they could overrun the government and institute full Islamic jurisprudence over where they live. It is the same thing that has happened in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East where the Palestinians live. Someone has called this a clash of civilizations. Islam is trying to come of age in a world where certain core tenets of their religion cannot stand the test of time. The earlier this happens, the earlier the nations of the world know peace.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

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Rexymania:
I think he copied and pasted it.

Anyway, it's good he created some awareness

How... please. One wonders at the kind of individuals on this forum these days

When a Driver Kills His Employer: Socio-Economic Implications of Unemployment in Nigeria

By: Deji Yesufu

I was visiting a friend in Lagos recently. The plan was for me to meet up with him at home. The estate where he lives has security guards who would usually conduct light searches on persons entering the Estate. But that day, things were different. The security men at the gate demanded that I get my host to call them and ascertain that I am indeed a visitor. After I had gained entry, my friend sent me a text: there was a murder in the estate a few weeks back. A driver had killed his boss and stolen his car. I did a quick search online for this story, and it revealed that the name of the victim was Kola Adun, a middle-aged man who lived alone in his house in the estate, while his wife and children lived abroad. The driver and murderer, Ayomide Oluwadamilare, had been alone with his boss one faithful day in June 2025, when he had suddenly descended on his boss and stabbed him to death in his room. He then acquired the keys to the man’s Toyota Camry vehicle and drove it out. He shut the dead man inside the house, shut the gate, and fled. Weeks later, he approached a car dealer in Ikorodu, who immediately suspected that the vehicle was stolen. It was the car dealer who alerted the police, who then arrested the thief and murderer. Ayomide confessed to the crime of killing his boss and led the police to the house. By this time, neighbors had been complaining of a foul smell enveloping the area. The police broke into the house to meet the decaying corpse of Wale Adun.

Society reacts to crime in different ways. The estate, where Adun lived, has now beefed-up security. Other people, particularly those employing house-helps and drivers, will begin to make efforts to ensure that the histories of their employees are well known. My friend said that the same driver who killed Adun, had left the same job some months back. He then returned to work and carried out the dastardly act. My friend suggested that perhaps it is better never to take back an employee who had once deserted you. The solutions to such actions will continue until we remember that our society is not the first society that occupied planet Earth. Nigerian cities are not the first cities to exist in our world. Crimes are not peculiar to Nigeria. The wickedness of men’s hearts is not unique to Nigerians alone. Disloyalty, hate, and murder is not a unique Nigerian preserve. These issues have long existed, and many theories have been propounded to deal with them. I hope to share just one of them in this article. Some of my readers are getting tired of my often-quoting Obafemi Awolowo. Well, until my reading list moves to another person’s work and life, you will have to bear with me for now.

When Awolowo was sent to prison in 1963, he was determined to make the best use of his ten-year prison term. He decided to write three books: “Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution”, “The People’s Republic of Nigeria”, and “The Strategy and Tactics of the People’s Republic of Nigeria”. In the last book just mentioned, Obafemi Awolowo suggested a few things that our nation can do to achieve its aims and goals of making this country a prosperous and progressive nation. He listed 15 strategies for achieving this. The first on that list was “Full and Gainful Employment” for every Nigerian. The sage argued in that book that it is the duty of Nigerian governments at all levels to ensure that every Nigerian who is fit and able to work has a job to do. He also argued that the government must ensure that there is a minimum wage that all employers of labor adhere to in the country. He said that the only way there can be peace and harmony in a kennel is if six bones are available for the six dogs in that kennel. If four bones are provided for six dogs, there will not be peace and quiet in that space. The socialists add to Awolowo’s point by saying that when the poor have nothing else to eat, they will eat the rich. A society is breeding crime when they do not allow its fit and able young men to be gainfully employed.

A few years ago, I wrote an article where I decried the modern slave camps that bestride the Oluyole industrial estate in Ibadan. I brought it to the attention of the state government that many of the Lebanese owners of these companies are not paying attention to modern employment laws. Nigerians are employed in these companies as contract workers, without any health securities or benefits, and they are made to work from 8 am to 4pm, standing on their feet, with only as much as a break of half an hour. Those whose health fail, are summarily sacked and quickly replaced from the pool of an army of unemployed youths that bestride the Nigerian landscape. I was reliably informed that my article got to the table of the Oyo State Governor. Still, nothing has been done to improve the situation of workers in that section of Ibadan. Contract workers are still being used in Nigeria, and we expect for us to have peace in our societies? You employ a driver and pay him N50,000 a month. You employ a cook and house-help, and pay them N55,000 a month. And you expect these people to be pleased with you? They watch you spend that same amount of money on one meal with your friends, while these people struggle to keep their own families fed and sheltered for a month. These people are human beings too, and some of them do not have the fortitude to bear with such injustice. A society becomes functional when every working individual earns a living wage – it does not matter what they do. If you employ somebody to abandon all he is doing and commit his time and energy to you for a month, you must be able to pay him or her something that will make it possible for him not to go begging before the next month begins. If this is not the case, crimes like the one that took the life of Wale Adun will not diminish in society. I have not said that Adun mistreated his driver. I am only reminding the rich that when the poor have nothing else to eat, they will usually descend on the rich. It is what brought about the French Revolution in the eighteenth century, and if we are not careful in this country, we will see a similar societal upheaval. What is the way forward?

First. Nigerians must cease talking and begin doing. There are no ends to sociological theories for peaceful existence in this country. There is such a course in Nigerian universities called “Peace and Conflict Resolution”. We continue to talk in this country, and we do not do. People love the sound of their own voices; some of us opinion writers revel in the idea of being referred to as “eggheads”, “professors”, etc. We love the sound of our own voice, but we are not intent on carrying out actions to solve societal problems. The Nigerian society will continue to produce unemployed youths. One day, this country will reach a tipping point, and those young people will put actions to words. They will solve their own problems themselves, however violent means they employ in the process. Before that happens, it behoove this country to begin to implement the hundreds of ideas either stockpiled in our universities to solve these country’s problems.

Second. The government must commit to doing certain minimums within society that will allow for its smooth running and progress. Obafemi Awolowo identified two of these: they are education and health. When government invests in securing the health of its people, it gives the workforce vitality and the ability to produce, thereby ensuring the overall prosperity of the country. When government invests in education, it builds the minds of the people up, such that these same people can proffer ideas for the overall good of society. What we usually see coming from the stable of many governments in Nigeria is a commitment to building infrastructure or paying salaries – things that will usually put the government in a positive light. They do not realize that it is possible to pay salaries, build infrastructures, and also invest in long-term benefits to society like health and education. It is said that an investment in educating a child will usually yield no less than twentyfold down the years.

Third. Nigeria must return to agriculture. It is a truism that a people that refuse to work their land so that it might give them food, will flee that land to other countries that work their own land. It is called japa. State governments in this country, along with their various local government counterparts, must begin to invest in agriculture in scientific and sustainable ways. They could go as far as even [quote]paying the youths to farm the lands that are given to them. Something has to be done. In the same book quoted above, Awolowo said that it is better to employ people to carry out white elephant jobs like the building of pyramids than not to have them do anything at all. It is idle hands that become the devil’s tool. In the case of agriculture, when the young people are employed in this manner and also paid for it, the government is getting them to use their time and energy productively, and at the same time, they can earn money from the products that the land yields to them. The mass migration of young people from rural areas to the cities, who then end up becoming miscreants to city dwellers, can be curtailed by the government, through the local government, by gainfully employing these young people on the farm lands.

I believe that the Nigerian societal challenges are yet to reach their peak. We are still discussing these issues in little-known blog articles like mine because incidents like those of Wale Adun are still quite rare in our society. I hope that they do not become more commonplace before we give the attention that these matters require.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at newdejix@gmail.com

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milkywaves:
Yes! indeed he sets a sterling example worthy of emulation.

Yeah... I enjoyed his court sessions a great deal. He will be greatly missed.

Caught in Providence

by: Deji Yesufu

(This article was first published in November, 2025. Judge Frank Caprio died Yesterday)

While the cost of a lot things is on the increase in Nigeria, for some reasons I find the cost of internet data reducing. So much so that I can now freely watch videos on YouTube – something I never could attempt in the past. My venture into YouTube might also have come as a result of a piece of counsel I received from my immediate younger brother, Wale. He said that YouTube is a world of its own and you can learn practically anything on that forum. So in my free hours, and when I do not have any new videos from channels that I have subscribed to, I just browse YouTube and watch videos that appeal to me: thankfully the owners of that medium have enough morality to censure illicit contents.

It was while watching YouTube one day that I encountered “Caught in Providence“. Caught in Providence are short video clips of the court session of a judge – Justice Frank Caprio, who is the chief Judge of the Municipal Court of Providence . The court is situated in Providence, Rhode Island, and I think the idea is that since most of the people that come before the judge are sometimes guilty of an offence, the label “caught” is therefore inserted in the title of the show. While “Providence” is the name of the city where the whole drama occurs. I was drawn to the videos by a couple of things but the very fist thing that caught my attention was the word: providence.

Providence is a theological word and it is one of the most comforting and gracious words in theology that describes the nature of God. On watching the show, however, I discovered that there is no mention of God in it.

Providence, in theology, is a description of God’s gracious provision to his people. When Jesus told his disciples, in Matthew 6, not to take a thought as to what to eat or drink, our Lord was describing the gracious providence of God. Providence also extends to God’s gracious hands extended to all humanity, including men and women, who despise God. The mere fact that a human being is made in the image of God warrants God’s gracious provision of food, drink, health, rain, and so on, on them. God’s providence is also extended to all of creation. God provides for the plants, the trees, the animals and everything that is on earth and in our universe. It is God’s providence that works the issues of our lives out such that a human being who once despised God, comes to understand his grace and bows his head to him in repentance and faith, and becomes a born again Christian.

Providence is such a gracious word and I think residents of that city in Rhode Island are very blessed indeed. I am convinced that if the history of the name of that town is traced, it would be traced back to the Puritans that came from England and the staunch Christian values they brought with them. It is only such a worldview that can birth such a name.

Justice Caprio is a lot of fun to watch. His court proceedings are done with so much graciousness – it reminds me of the grace of God. As the ultimate judge in his court, Caprio often writes off the bills of many offenders – many of whom might be too poor to pay their debt. At other times, he would often reduce the charges slammed on individuals. In a recent video, he told a gentleman that rather than paying off his debt so quickly, if he had come to court to argue his case on a certain charge the city had placed on him, the court could have either written off the whole thing or reduced it. Caprio is of Italian descent and he always wants everyone to know that. His father had come to America from Italy during the 1920/30s and the man provided for his family from the meager amount he earned from distributing milk to the community. He however believed in education and ensured that his children were educated. One of them would one of day become a judge in that town. On a particular episode, Justice Caprio was brought close to tears when one woman, who had come before the court, told the Justice that her mother told her that if she was ever before Caprio, she should tell him that his Dad used to supply them milk.

As touching as Caught in Providence is, I find myself sometimes uncomfortable watching it. Wikipedia lists Justice Caprio as a committed Democrat and the leftist worldview of his political leaning is strewn all over the show. Yesterday, a woman and her wife (misnomer?) appeared before the judge to pay a certain fine she had acquired. Caprio had no reaction when this lady suddenly announced that her wife was in court and would like to speak to the judge. Their lesbianism was considered normal. Besides, the very thing that catches viewers’ attention, the goodness of the judge, is the thing that acts as an impediment at seeing the all round goodness of the Judge of the whole earth.

There is something particularly wrong about a society that espouses morality but leaves out the name and person of the God who is the source and foundation of all morality. Without the Bible, without the ten commandment, it is not possible for humanity to know good from bad. The errors of our age is in people deciding to choose the standard of good, while at the same time despising or disregarding the Person who brought about morality. The atheist argue that morality does not require a worldview that includes God in it. They say the standard of good and bad is imbedded in nature and in all of us.

The theist, on the other hand, ask the question: who put these standards there? The natural answer is God; an answer that the atheist or agnostic must reject or all their worldview comes falling apart. Justice Caprio and all those behind the production of Caught in Providence have succeeded in rewarding good and punishing evil, without regard to the Ultimate Person who will judge all humanity one day. It is actually not the fault of Caprio – he is simply reflecting the worldview that pervades most of the West today. I hope that Caprio and all of his viewers will realize some day that the drama in his court is also a drama that will one day play before the Judge of all the Earth. The only difference is that in the life after now, there will be no grace: all that will be left will be judgement. God must punish every rebellion against him.

With this in mind, I must return to the scenes in Justice Caprio’s courts. I enjoy watching Caprio show mercy to the poor. I love to watch him hug children. I see him use the money sent in by anonymous donors to pay off the debt of people who normally will be unable to pay. As I watch these scenes, I see the Christian gospel play out. God, as Judge of all the Earth, will punish every sin and every sinner. But one day, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to the earth and died for the sins of all men. So that when the sinner enters the courts of God’s justice and that sinner names the name of Christ, God looks on him, like Caprio often looks at folks before him in court, and say: because my son has paid the debt of your sin, I hereby discharge and acquit you of every sin. You are redeemed; you are justified; you are free; and your sins can no longer damn you.

This is the Christian message and, friends, it plays out practically daily in Justice Caprio’s courtroom in Providence.

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Feudalism is a real problem in Nigeria body polity

Feudalism

by: Deji Yesufu

On August 9, 1967, Brigadier Victor Banjo led Biafran soldiers into the Midwestern region of Nigeria. The Nigerian Civil War had commenced earlier in June 1967, but there was a gentleman’s agreement that the Midwest was to remain neutral in the conflict. For this reason, Nigerian soldiers had to access Eastern Nigeria through the then Benue province, and emerge into Nsukka to quell what she called Col. Emeka Ojukwu’s rebellion. Biafra, however, broke this gentleman’s agreement and decided to take Lagos by going through the Midwest. Banjo was the man Ojukwu sent to lead that expedition. The opening of the Midwest during the war ushered in a new phase of the war – a topic I cannot delve into at this time. Five days after what has now been historically termed the “Midwest Invasion”, Banjo gave a radio broadcast to Nigeria, which the BBC picked up and subsequently transmitted to the world. Among many things, he said:

“…There is now an army at the disposal of the feudal North, an army that has lost all traditions, discipline, and standards of a responsible army. There is now a government of a federation that is sustained by violence and is therefore tied to the ambition of the Northern Feudalists. There has been a considerable amount of bloodshed, chaos, and tribal bitterness among such people…”

Victor Banjo proceeded to explain that the army that he was leading was not a “Biafran Army” but a “Liberation Army”. The aim was to liberate Western Nigeria from the feudalist northerners, who at the time were operating in Lagos. He then appealed to the people of Western Nigeria to permit him to do his job and not hinder his mission. It is not likely that Emeka Ojukwu agreed with Banjo to make that broadcast. Ojukwu would have preferred that Banjo invade Western Nigeria and use the element of surprise to chase out the Feudalists in government there. Banjo did not think this was practical, and he was certain that it would only jeopardize the ragtag army he was leading at that time. If the West could join him in his pursuit, chasing out the feudalist would be a little challenge. The two men were in the middle of this disagreement when the Nigerian Army recovered from the surprise downfall of the Midwest and launched an attack on Banjo that led to the flushing out of the rebels from that region of the country. Banjo and three others were summarily executed by the Ojukwu government for this. In this article, I want to examine the meaning of the word “feudalism” and explain why it has been at the root of our problems as a country since the British put the northern and southern protectorates together in the Amalgamation of 1914.

Feudalism is a system that operates in a society where human beings are mostly stratified. In a typical feudal community, you will have the nobles born, the middle class, and then the working class. Europe, for many years, operated a feudal system of society. Even till date, feudalism is still operational in England. Anywhere a person’s intrinsic worth is measured by his place of birth, parentage, or class, that system is feudalist. Since the late 18th century, particularly after the French Revolution, feudalism began to suffer greatly in our world. People came to understand that it was not enough that an individual should be of noble birth. They realized that a person’s intrinsic worth should be traced more to what value he can add to society, rather than what family he originated from, or the people he knows in society. Therefore, when systems of government was being developed throughout the 19th century, feudalism took a back burner. People came to understand that many people who are of noble birth usually do not add much to society. They are born rich, so they do not possess the kind of hunger to strive for excellence and development, such as will add to society and will make them successful individuals of their own worth. On the other hand, people who are born either in the working class or the middle class possess a hunger to make it in life. And their striving for success is what ultimately adds to society and makes society better. I now return to Nigeria.

Three individuals were the leading political personalities in Nigeria as the country headed to independence in 1960. The three of them were the Premiers of the three regions. Sir Ahmadu Bello of Northern Nigeria; Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Eastern Nigeria; and Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Western Nigeria. Ahmadu Bello was a descendant of Uthman Dan Fodio, the man who brought Islam to northern Nigeria. Bello was a first-class aristocrat, and with the limited education he had, he had risen to be the leader of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). Bello did not just benefit from the feudalist system he grew up in; he was a man of considerable intelligence, and he exhumed royalty wherever he was. The kind of government he led in Northern Nigeria was not the type that permitted opposition. Bello’s words on any matter were final. Bello and others did not hide their feudalism, and they also did not hide their hatred of the liberal democracy that was being practiced in Western Nigeria. On the other hand, there was Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who, though of noble birth, with the loss of his father at the age of eleven years old, had to struggle through life and, with the grace of God, along with hard work, rose to become Premier of Western Nigeria. Awolowo’s politics was one that believed in the triumph of the best ideas. He did not believe that he should be made leader of a people merely because of the nature of his birth, but purely on the strength of his ideas. This is why he encouraged a great deal of debate among his political associates, and they only arrived at a consensus when they were all sure that the best idea, not the person who proffered the idea, had been reached. This was the secret behind the success of his eight-year stint in government from 1952 to 1959. And it was the clash between Awolowo’s liberal democracy and Ahmadu Bello’s feudalism that led to the Nigerian civil war. Again, a discussion that must be had another day. Now, is feudalism still an issue in Nigeria? I think it is, and this is the reason for this essay.

I suspect that the reason Nigeria jettisoned the parliamentary system of government for a presidential one, where a President is almost always immune to criticism from the opposition, unlike in the parliament, where the Prime Minister must defend his policies before an opposition leader, is that Nigeria’s democracy could not handle constructive criticism. Nigerians are essentially feudalist in worldview. While the whole idea behind noble birth has largely been jettisoned in our communities, there is still the existence of feudalist groups, what has now been generally accepted as “cabals”, form themselves into oligarchs that determine the direction that a certain system will go. So, you go to a university and you find out that it is not the best ideas that run a department, but rather a certain individual and his cronies. The same goes for the church, mosque, and practically every system that is run within the country. It is the reason why “who do you know?” is a very important question in an average Nigerian system. I am aware that many people’s existence is owing mostly to the deference they must give to another person. It is the reason why grown men will kneel or bow to other men. It is a terrible thing.

I have the privilege of working within two systems today. I am the missionary pastor of a local church we are trying to plant in Ibadan, and I am laboring to discourage feudalism within the church I lead. Some of the greatest blessings that I have received as a pastor have been God giving me the opportunity to listen to people that others might term inconsequential in the congregation, and hearing God bring worthy ideas through them. I also have the opportunity of working closely with Prof. Ibiwari Erekosim as the secretary of the board of the Reformed Theological Seminary Foundation in Portharcourt. I have watched how this man leads the board of trustees as Chairman, and I can see how he discourages feudalism within the board. Every board member, regardless of age, status, or qualification, is equal. What triumphs in our board meetings are the best ideas. When the best ideas triumph in a system, the inherent worth of people will be revealed to all, and those ideas can be implemented to build society up to the benefit of all. When, however, feudalism is the order of the day, we only see one man or the system of oligarchy he has built around himself.

Feudalism can be a thing of the past in our body politic. But one way to deal with it is to recognize it not just in the systems we operate in, but also within ourselves. When we make the effort to rid ourselves of these worldviews, we will begin to operate in a world where worthy ideas triumph.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

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jesusjnr2020:
I agree with you.

The gospel of prosperity is antichrist hence no surprises with the consequent heresies and blunders being made by her preachers including Biodun Fatoyinbo.

It is bound to continue unless they divorce from that antichrist gospel, so merely apologising for their errors as he and some others have done isn't enough.

God bless.

Thank you

Ideyontop:
Did I just read this? : “Let us make it very clear: the gospel of prosperity is a message of hell.“


Pls read the Bible sir. You lied. If you have not come to understand why Jesus came then let’s study more and ask God for revelation. The coming of Jesus to take our place was not just a death drama, it came with real blessings. Let’s study more!

Start with 2 Cor 8:9

Sons and daughters of Biodun Fatoyinbo... the article is written for you

Biodun Fatoyinbo and the Gospel of Prosperity

By: Deji Yesufu

Biodun Fatoyinbo has been largely out of the national news for several years now. The last time I saw a picture of him, he was recovering from a health challenge – a possible stroke. It appears he is fully recovered now and also rebounded back to preaching the faulty, erroneous, and heretical Prosperity Message he has long been known to preach. In my theological tradition, Reformed Baptist, when a person is visited with a hard providence, such as an accident, an illness, or a loss of some kind, it is an opportunity to reflect on one’s life and reform one’s ways and message. It appears to me that Biodun Fatoyinbo learnt nothing from that brush with death.

Nigeria is a nation I like to call “One week, one drama”. We had just recovered from IbomAir-Gate when social media became inundated by a rejoinder from the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) media team. They had a reply for Pastor Fatoyinbo. In a clip that had been circulated on social media, Mr. Fatoyinbo is seen extolling the ministry of the late Evangelist Ayo Babalola. Babalola is a foremost missionary with the CAC, and he is still regarded as one of the greatest influences on Christianity in South-West Nigeria. Fatoyinbo said essentially that despite all the anointing Babalola possessed, he did not have money. He added that if Babalola had money, his children would be prominent people in Nigeria. But because their patriarch left them no money, no one knows them today. The CAC rejoinder made it clear that their church is not a prosperity preaching and seeking a local assembly. They also said that Babalola’s children are well and alive, serving in the various congregations God has put them in. To save face, Fatoyinbo published a statement yesterday, where he apologized for his words.

It is not likely that this generation will appreciate the damage that the message that has rightly been termed the “Prosperity Gospel” is causing in Nigeria. I hope that historians and sociologists will someday document it, and help us to see how much harm this message is doing to the average Nigerian mind. But until this is done, some of us will continue to remind the reading public of the evil of the gospel of prosperity. Occasions like these also afford us the opportunity to tell the public what this message is, and to warn people to separate themselves from it.

The gospel of prosperity is a message that teaches that Jesus Christ died to make Christians healthy and wealthy. The orthodox Christian message teaches that Jesus Christ died to save people from their sins alone (Matthew 1:21, Luke 24:46-47, Ephesians 1:7). The word “alone” is important to this definition because it is the distinguishing mark between sound and false doctrine. My Christian tradition loves to extol the stories of the 16th-century reformers. Martin Luther, a German Monk, while translating the Greek New Testament to German, added the word “alone” to Romans 1:16-17, where scripture had said that “the Just shall live by faith”. Luther concluded that sentence with “alone”, to emphasize the facts emerging from the reformation that right standing with God could not come through fidelity to church traditions and works. In a similar vein, the word “alone” must be employed to separate orthodox Christianity from prosperity Christianity.

As we labor to provide a definition of the Prosperity Gospel, we should also remind readers of the reach of this very perverse message. It is surprising that the Christ Apostolic Church will make a public rebuke of Biodun Fatoyinbo. One would think that the code of silence that many Pentecostals employ in dealing with disagreements would have been employed here. But, alas, it appears that when a revered personality in their tradition was touched, they felt duty-bound to defend him. Because I had always felt that there was little or no difference between what Christ Apostolic Church teaches and what Fatoyinbo espouses. At the root of Pentecostal theology is this: Jesus can make your life better. Ayo Babalola is revered today among CAC folks because of their many testimonies of healing that followed his ministry. Fatoyinbo has only continued this “better life” Christianity, except that he has only chosen to emphasize another aspect of it: wealth. The earlier the better, the Christian churches realize that Jesus Christ did not die to make people healthy and wealthy, the earlier we begin to make a gospel impact upon our land and people.

As we appreciate the errors in the gospel of prosperity, we need to return to examine its overall impact on the Nigerian nation. A few days ago, another video emerged of Rev. Isaac Omolehin, where he was lamenting the fact that of the ten richest pastors in the world, there are five Nigerian men there. But of the ten richest churches in the world, there are no Nigerian churches. In other words, Nigerian pastors, through the false gospel of prosperity, have succeeded in cornering church finances into their pockets. What should belong to the organization, the local churches, these men have succeeded in directing to their bank accounts. It is their sons and daughters who are today telling us that to be a Christian who will make an impact in your day, your bank account must be brimming with money. Another impact that we must keep in mind with regard to the effect of the prosperity gospel in Nigeria is that while the pastors grow richer, the congregation grows poorer. Not just that, the social impact of the gospel of prosperity is not felt on the streets in Nigeria. Nigerians are still poor, and they are still sick. When we point these things out to the prosperity preachers, they tell us that they are not the government. When you ask them how the messages they preach from their pulpit have compelled the government to do the right thing? They become numb with silence.

Let us make it very clear: the gospel of prosperity is a message of hell. When the Reformation hit Europe, it brought about the enlightenment and then the industrial revolution, which has led up to the modern times, with the internet age, etc. The true gospel revolutionizes society. It makes society better. It was the Reformation and the thinking that came with it, that brought an end to monarchies in our world and introduced us to constitutional governments. If a message has been preached in Nigeria for fifty years, and only the preachers get richer, while the people get poorer, that message is not a message from Jesus. Biblically, Christian ministry is not the place to go and make money. Ayo Babalola and other pioneers of Pentecostalism in the mid-20th century understood this. Everything changed with Benson Idahosa, David Oyedepo, and Enoch Adeboye in the late 1970s and 1980s – a discussion for another day. For now, please understand that the message that Biodun Fatoyinbo preaches is not a message from Jesus Christ.

Be blessed.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at newdejix@gmail.com

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salem1996:
I read it word to word. So insightful, inspiring and thought provocative.

Thank you 😊

flexyrule:
Let me confess that want of authority and want of humility are all offspring of a want of morality. Yet, I think that the question of a society deficient in morals is still worth talking about.

Very true


Hopefully we can build a society of young people with morals

Lessons from a Scuffle on a Plane (The Wants of Our Time)

by: Deji Yesufu

Nigerians woke up to a spectacle yesterday. Social media was inundated with videos of a young lady being dragged off an airline. In the scuffle, her blouse was torn open, revealing her breasts to the camera. Judging by what we saw and what might have occasioned the debacle, this young lady had assaulted the airline hostess, and she was being prevented from leaving the plane until airport security arrived to arrest her. The security did arrive, and the next thing that greeted the nation was a semi-X-rated play. If that young woman had had the decency of wearing a bra, in the same manner that she wore trousers, perhaps I would not be writing this essay. Other reports emerging from the story reveal that the girl was indeed arrested and has been remanded in Kirikiri prison, where the authorities plan to charge her for public disturbance. Another twist to the story, however, explains that the girl might have been set up by the airline authorities. Someone who was on that flight explained on a social media post that the girl indeed complied with the directive to have her phone switched to “flight mode” and that, for reasons best known to the airline, they decided to prevent her from leaving the plane. It was her protest that led to the drama that greeted the country yesterday.

As a public commentator, I have long been concerned with the way and manner in which Nigerians conduct themselves in public. I have written about the phenomenon I call Nigerian Bigmanism before – the attitude of pride that many Nigerians wear in public, which makes it nearly impossible for us to keep social norms. But besides this, it appears that Nigerians do not understand social etiquette of any kind. Simple things like saying “excuse me”, “please”, or even “I am sorry” appear to be something alien to our vocabulary. A senior friend pointed out to me that when I send emails to international bodies, in the name of an organization I work for, I should use “please” and “kindly” profusely. He told me that no one owes me anything; the mere fact that people will even give you their emails and open a line of communication with you is a favour you should not take for granted. Now, none of us was born to know everything. But as one associates with people, particularly people who are successful, you want to watch how they do things, and you want to imitate them. It is this that has led me to consider writing on some wants in the Nigerian psyche. I am sure there are other wants you can list along with these, but I will be writing on the want of authority, humility, and morality in the average Nigerian.

Want of Authority

My mother of blessed memory will tell my siblings and me: “What you fail to learn at home, you will learn outside”. It is both a positive and a negative remark. Positive in the sense that parents are not likely to know everything, and they can’t teach a child everything that the child should know. Whatever might be lacking in the lessons we learn from home, we learn the rest outside the house. But in a negative context, it means this: if parents have laboured over children, teaching them all that they need to know, and still the children do not learn these social norms, society will teach them. It could be so bad that society will not just teach them, society could snuff life out of them. Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Kennedy dead in 1964. There have been all kinds of conspiracy theories that have followed that assassination. But a recent documentary by the People’s Profile revealed that the young man was an unstable person whom the mother failed to correct or discipline. Two days after Kennedy was killed, a man called Jack Ruby approached Oswald and shot him dead while he was being paraded before the press. When Ruby was questioned, he explained that he was not sent by anyone; he just could not understand why the earth should still harbour a scum like Oswald.

There is a serious lack of a sense of authority in the average Nigerian mind – particularly our young people. It is an epidemic. I see a lot of young people who have never been under the authority of a father, and who despise authority. I work in the civil service, and I see a total lack of comprehension of order and authority. I see how people despise the concept of seniority in the office, and how they think that they are their own boss within the system. I see young people tear down the structure God has put within a church system; how they people pay little attention to counsel and advice from pastors and elders. I see people launch into life, making very important decisions, while paying very little attention to advice from people with more experience in life. It was the attitude of despising authority that led that young woman in the video yesterday to pay little regard to the instructions coming from the airline hostess for that flight. It plays out in everything our young people do, and I cannot imagine what the future of this country will be with a mass of young people who have no regard for authority.

Want of Humility

My children are thirteen and eleven. I find that the hardest lesson for them to grasp, in all the years their mother and I have raised them, is learning to say “Good Morning” each day to their parent. They simply forget to do it, and every day I remind them. It is an important lesson on humility that I hope they will grasp one day. I am indeed their parent, and it is my responsibility to house, feed, and clothe them. But another fact is that I could choose not to carry out that responsibility. Yes, the world will call me an irresponsible father. So, for choosing to be a responsible father, I deserve a “good morning” each day. It is also an opportunity to teach the children to regard people around them. I did not live with my maternal grandmother that much, but the little time I spent with her on holidays showed me that the woman had regard for her neighbours. Early in the morning, as we headed to some outing, grandma would greet everybody on our street before we hit the road to take public transport. I don’t do that today; I do not have the time and energy. But, perhaps, it is a culture that “civilisation” has stolen from us.

There is a biblical concept that Jesus taught himself. He said that when you come into a public gathering, don’t just go and sit in the place for distinguished guests. Even if you are such a person, humble yourself and sit at a lowly place. Allow the people who think you are worth the seat to invite you to sit there. He said that if you go and sit somewhere that is not meant for you, you will not be able to handle the embarrassment that comes with being told to vacate that seat. It is a lesson in humility that all of us can learn. It means that while you and I know our intrinsic worth, we don’t shove it at people’s faces. It is the reason why I never seek anything for myself. I don’t seek interviews; I don’t seek jobs; I don’t ask people for favours; etc. I understand that I carry intrinsic value, and if people do not see that value today, they will see it tomorrow. And if they never see it, perhaps I need to work on increasing my worth. I must ensure that I never make myself more than what I am. It is better to think lowly of oneself, and to allow others to praise you. Pictures are emerging on social media and revealing that the girl in the video yesterday might be a slot. Many of her pictures were those in which she was wearing revealing outfits. Like they say, the empty things are the ones that make the loudest noise. You lose nothing by being humble.

Want of Morality

Let me confess that want of authority and want of humility are all offspring of a want of morality. Yet, I think that the question of a society deficient in morals is still worth talking about. The big irony with Nigeria is that this country is so religious, and yet its people are so deficient in morals. I watched a video of an older Nigerian man who lives in the United Kingdom. He explained that he had no plans of returning to Nigeria to retire. He said that all his friends who have tried it returned with stories of woe. He said everyone appears to be a thief in Nigeria. It is called “gbajue” – see my video on the same subject in that link. A culture where it appears that everyone is trying to cheat the system. We have exalted money so much that we pay little premium to doing the right thing, contentment, delayed gratification, hard work, and loyalty. Everyone appears to be in a hurry to nowhere. There is a death of a sense of doing the right thing in this country. When you fly in a plane, the first thing that is done is that the air host/hostess will come to the front and explain a few things to you, especially with regards to emergencies on the plane. People who have flown a lot do not pay attention to these instructions because they are used to them. But no matter how many times I have flown in a plane, I pay attention to those instructions – simply because it is the right thing to do.

Life is like taking a path through a maze. At each juncture in life, you are required to decide on issues. A person who is steeped in morals will have a sense of knowing what to do at each juncture. As a pastor, people often come to me with questions of “who should I marry?”; “what job should I take?”; etc. Just two days ago, I was invited to speak on the subject of whether a Christian sister should marry a Muslim man. The truth of the matter is that life is all about decision-making. If you and I have learnt to make decisions to do the right things with regard to simple matters, when the hard questions of life come, you will not find it difficult to make those decisions. And even when you still cannot find the right answers, with prayers and in the multitude of right counsellors, you will make the right decision. If, however, you have lived a life of rebellion, a life where you despise authority, and where you think you are above everyone, the hard questions of life will hit you, and you will have no answers for them.

Conclusion

At the university, we did a course titled “Moral Philosophy”. It was one of those courses I rushed through: where I simply depended on a handout and past questions to prepare for, and then ensure I had a pass mark on. Perhaps it is one of the reasons why our society is so bereft of sound morals – we rush through important points of life, and fail to learn the lessons we ought to learn from them. Before the story of that girl surfaced yesterday, the great Fuji maestro, KWAM 1, was almost run over by a plane, too. He was doing “bigmanism” and refused to surrender a drink he had with him on the plane. He was deboarded, and Nigerians were greeted with that unsaintly sight.

There is a deep lack of social etiquette among Nigerians, and it is the reason why our people are becoming pariahs in other nations. Presently, xenophobia has resumed in South Africa. South Africans are demanding that Nigerians leave their country. They are going to the point of denying Nigerians health care in that country. The same goes with Ghana also. While xenophobia must be condemned, perhaps we have made ourselves odious to other nations because we simply lack social skills. Sincerely, this problem is not the other person; this problem of great want in the social mannerisms of Nigerians is something that all of us are guilty of. The young woman in yesterday’s video only reminded us all of ourselves.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

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The Hearts of Men

By: Deji Yesufu

“… The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, and try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings…” – Jeremiah 17:9-10

I am very sure that when the history of the period between 1980 and the year 2000 will be written, two musicians will be mentioned who had a great influence on the minds of young men all around the world – including me. The two of them are Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. Both men were killed in 1996 and 1997, respectively, in the same way – drive-by shootings; and one can look back now and understand that they reaped the reward of the fruit of their mouths and ways. Notorious BIG inspired my article “Ready to Die”; Tupac inspired this one. To write this article, I had to listen to the lyrics of the song “The Heartz of Men” by Tupac, and I cannot fathom the number of expletives I had to endure to listen to it. But I needed to listen to it because I felt there was something he was saying, beyond the expletives, that could explain the point I want to make in this article. He was saying essentially that no one can be trusted. Some people call you their friends, who in real life are your enemies; and some people might look like your enemies, but in real life, they wish the best for you. No one knows the deepest intent of men’s hearts, and since it is impossible not to associate with people in this life, you enter into every association in faith.

As wide apart as their life and ideologies were, Jeremiah the prophet agrees with Tupac Amaru Shakur. Jeremiah wrote that the hearts of men are desperately wicked. Then he asked: “Who can know it?” I have heard a lot of people quote this verse, and I wonder if they understand the point the prophet was trying to make. When you hear a person say “…the hearts of men are desperately wicked…”, it is usually concerning some bad experience that person might have had with other people. He had trusted somebody and had been disappointed, and to explain the situation, he refers to the biblical reference to the wickedness of the hearts of men. If this is the context in which one is making such a reference, they are not wrong.

Except that when Jeremiah wrote those words, he was not thinking of the wickedness of other people’s hearts alone – he was thinking of the wickedness of his own heart, inclusive. He must have thought about situations where he also had to make decisions to justify his ways, even when it was apparent he was betraying the course of someone who had trusted him. He must have been thinking that God would be so kind to entrust him with such a gracious ministry, of being a prophet to a nation, even though his imaginations run wild from time to time. I understand that this would certainly have been Jeremiah’s train of thought because the New Testament tells us that when it comes to the subject of sin and the wickedness of men’s hearts, all of us are guilty.

Therefore, when we enter into association with other men, we must make that little allowance for disappointment. We must understand that people are coming into business with you not because they care a hoot about you, but because they have something in that association to gain from. And that as long as you can give them what they want, they will remain with you. But the moment you cease to be relevant in their lives, they will ditch you. It is usually only one’s parents who give unconditionally to a child. But the children reach a certain age when the parents tell them to go and fend for themselves, too.

I have been thinking more and more about the state and condition of the hearts of men. I find myself between two epochs. The first epoch is the very life that I am living. I am a Nigerian in my middle age, with a sound education and a skill, I am sure that if I export to other countries, I will make a lot more money than I am making now. I confess to you that the Japa phenomenon appeals to me. Nevertheless, I love Nigeria. I know in my heart that I am called to serve this country.

I know that this wilderness situation we have found ourselves in as a nation is only temporary; God will save this country eventually. I will also be happy to be among those who will welcome Nigerians back from the nations where they had gone to seek economic asylum when Nigeria gets better. I must also juxtapose this epoch with another epoch where the hearts of men were revealed, and which forms the foundation on which this country was laid. The time I want to talk about is between 1944 and 1966. It is the story of Obafemi Awolowo, and the points I will be making in this part of the essay are meant to corroborate God’s response to Jeremiah in verse ten of the scripture quoted above.

Sometimes in 1963, Obafemi Awolowo, as brilliant as he was, came to a painful realisation. He said that his biggest undoing in politics was that he trusted Samuel Ladoke Akintola for too long. There was very little reason why Awolowo should not have trusted Akintola. 1944 was the year Obafemi Awolowo left Nigeria to study law in the United Kingdom. Awolowo and Akintola were young men struggling to survive in Nigeria in those colonial times. In 1937, Nnamdi Azikiwe returned to Nigeria from the United States of America with a PhD. Zik was only four years older than Awolowo, yet his social profile was a lot higher than his because he was a lot more educated than he was. Awolowo knew that if he were to gain the social standing to speak in Nigeria and for men to listen to him, he would have to get a law degree. In those days, Awolowo and Akintola were both newspapermen.

Akintola was the editor of the Daily Service. In 1946, Awolowo wrote an article where he analysed the John Macpherson Constitution that had just been published that year. Akintola published that article and got his employers to pay for the bloc that carried Awolowo’s face. That was the first time Awolowo would have his photograph in a newspaper. So, when people kept coming to Awolowo and warning him about the possibility of Akintola betraying his loyalty, Awolowo did not take any action. By the time he sought to deal with the matter, Akintola had grown into a monster. In January 1963, Obafemi Awolowo found himself in prison, and Samuel Akintola was restored to the seat of Premiership of the Western Region by the Tafawa Balewa government. In the days to come, I will tell the public what followed afterwards.

As Jeremiah thought on the state of the hearts of men, God spoke to him. He said: “I the Lord search the heart, and try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings…” God is saying that while all hearts are sinful and wicked, there are degrees of wickedness in men’s hearts. God searches the hearts of men and knows the deepest intent of men’s hearts, and then he returns to reward everyone for the condition of their hearts via the outcomes of their lives. What this means is that the state of every person’s life is a culmination of their thoughts and actions. Rather than going to a prayer meeting and spending all your waking moments in vigils, find time to know the state of your heart. Repent of your sins.

Endeavour to reform your life. Make choices for good and not for evil. Join worthy causes. Separate yourself from evil men and their evil machinations. Defend the poor. Heal the sick. Help the needy. Speak truth to power. Stand by what is right, and separate yourself from what is wrong. You may not know the condition of your neighbour’s heart, but you must know the condition of your own heart. When you see wickedness in your heart, separate yourself from it. You will not be perfect in your ways, but endeavour, as much as you have strength within your will, to do the right things always. The fruit of your heart and your ways will determine whether you will have a good life to enjoy, or you will spend the rest of your life struggling.

When I became a Christian in 1998, I stopped listening to gangster rap. It was not because the songs were no longer appealing to me; I just knew that it was something God would no longer want me to do again. It matters what you watch, read, and listen to. A few years ago, I was watching “Blood Diamond” – a movie starring Leonardo De Caprio. It was the story of how the Sierra Leone crisis of the late 1990s was fueled by white men who pitched communities in that country against themselves, as they tried to mine diamonds illegally. Thousands were killed, and many others were maimed. In one of the scenes in the movie, a group of violent men were going to a community to raid.

As they headed to kill and maim other people, they were playing Tupac Shakur in their trucks. In other words, as they sought to kill people, they needed someone to inspire them towards violence. I then understood why God wanted me to have a clean end to those destructive songs. What you read, watch, or listen to will inspire your thoughts and actions. Your thoughts and actions will inspire the outcomes of your life. If you will have life, you want to work on the content of your heart. You may not be able to determine what is in the heart of other men, but you can ensure that your own heart honours God and wishes the best for people. God, who knows the hearts of all men, will then reward all men according to their ways.

A good man will reap good in this life. And the wicked person will continue to struggle. I hope this inspires you. Thank you for reading.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

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MrPresident1:
Eskiss Sah! What is Nigeria's problem?

The Nigerian leadership and its people.

geoworldedu:
Kemi Badenoch is saying the truth and the truth will prevail

Agreed

Truth would prevail is also a worthy prayer

Kemi Badenoch is not Nigeria’s Problem

By: Deji Yesufu

Kemi Badenoch is in the news again. This time it is regarding a statement she made on CNN as a guest of Fareed Zakaria. While trying to explain the immigration policies of her party, the Conservative Party in the UK, which she leads, she stated that in Nigeria, which is her country of birth, she cannot automatically pass on citizen rights to her children because she is a woman. This was a blunder because this is not so. The Nigerian constitution automatically grants citizenship rights to children of all Nigerians, regardless of whether the person is male or female. If Mrs. Badenoch had done her research, she probably would have known this. She may have never even sought to obtain Nigerian citizenship for her children, and this is why she does not know this; it is also possible that maybe she overheard this lurid foreign policy of Nigeria from someone, but never took the time to ascertain its veracity.

After making that statement, Nigerians went for the jugular of Mrs. Badenoch. The Yorubas have a proverb that goes something like this: “… there is that fellow that people wish to burn alive but who makes it his preoccupation to continually douse himself with fuel”. In other words, Kemi Badenoch is not liked by Nigerians, both at home and abroad, but she continually puts herself in a position where she can be attacked by Nigerians. Since Kemi Badenoch became leader of the opposition in the United Kingdom last October, she has continually been at loggerheads with Nigerians. She has made it clear to Nigerians both home and abroad that she did not come into that office to launder the image of Nigeria. Kemi’s perception of Nigeria is that of her late father. Her father, Dr. Femi Adegoke, was an ultra-Yoruba nationalist. He was one of those people who holds the belief that northern Nigeria is a burden to the Nigerian state and that if this country is to move forward, it would have to let go of that dead weight. This is Kemi Badenoch’s position also. Therefore, on a personal level, she is extremely critical of the bad governance in Nigeria, and she continually uses Nigeria as an example of what a country should not be. On this latter note, Kemi Badenoch and I are completely on the same page.

My focus in this essay is to help Nigerians appreciate a few things about Mrs. Badenoch and to point out the fact that her criticism of Nigeria on the international stage might be the best thing that has happened to this country in decades. It is not Kemi Badenoch’s job description to put Nigeria in a positive light in the international sphere. That job belongs to the Nigerian foreign office, her plethora of embassies all around the world, and the way and manner its citizens behave both within the Nigerian nation and overseas. Some people have said that Kemi is not the first foreigner to lead the Conservative Party. They tell us that Rishi Sunak was not only the leader of the party, but he also became Prime Minister. And that throughout his time in office, he did not denigrate India, his country of birth. This is true. Except that we may want to ask: Has India ever been described as a shit-hole country by anyone? Is institutional corruption at the same level in India as we have it in Nigeria? Are Indian youths spending all their time learning Yahoo-Yahoo? Is there Boko Haram in India, and how has India solved the issues of insrugency in their country? Do Indians practice the kind of money politics that Nigeria practices?

Someone suggested that when we make comparisons, we should not compare apples with oranges. Nigeria is not India. In fact, in the committee of nations, without Kemi Badenoch’s commentaries, Nigeria remains a big disappointment. What other nation on earth has earned so much from petroleum exports, yet its people live in abject poverty; its graduates have no jobs; its professionals are fleeing the country in large numbers, etc? Kemi Badenoch is not the problem in Nigeria.

Another criticism of Mrs. Badenoch is that she is trying to burn the bridge that she used to cross into the United Kingdom. Nigerians say Kemi is selfish. I think this is one of the most puerile criticisms one hears of Kemi. First, let us understand how Kemi Badenoch gained English citizenship. Kemi Badenoch was born in 1980. As of that time, Nigeria was just emerging from the false hope that the oil boom of the 1970s had given the country. Things were not that bad for the country then, but her parents could see that Nigeria was not a country they would wish their children to grow up in. In 1979, the country went to the polls and Nigerians chose the simpleton Shehu Shagari over and above the erudite Obafemi Awolowo. Kemi’s mother flew to the United Kingdom and had her in that country, and then Kemi was given citizenship. Birthright citizenship was abolished in 1983 in the United Kingdom. Kemi was brought back to Nigeria and was raised on the University campus of UNILAG. When she concluded her secondary school in 1996, her parents decided to send her back to England – with the hope that she could get a good tertiary education there.

While in the UK, Kemi joined the Conservative Party at the age of twenty-five and became a committed member. She met her husband at that party and married him. He discovered that she was very gifted in politics, and so took a backstep in the party and supported her rise through the ranks until she became leader of the Conservative Party. Now, Kemi Badenoch cannot be a spokesperson for Nigeria because Nigeria did practically nothing for her. Kemi speaks boldly for the Conservative Party’s course because that is what she genuinely believes in. Kemi married a British person, and she is completely committed to helping her nation get better. Unfortunately, because she has Nigerian citizenship, she knows a lot that is wrong with Nigeria, and she never stops warning the British not to take the Nigerian way of descent to hell. Let me conclude by suggesting to Nigerians what our problems are and also proffering a few ways out of them.

First, the Nigerian problem is leadership. Pure and simple. The day this country finds visionary, altruistic, and selfless leadership is the day all our problems will end. Today, Nigerian politics is not dictated by any ideology. At the centre of our politics is money. The person who gains political leverage in this country is the person who can buy up everyone. Politicians come to a community to canvass for votes, and in return, Nigerians begin to ask this person for money. The politicians who have the money simply buy themselves into office. Many of them enter office in their geriatric years; they spend eight years in Aso Rock as a retirement sojourn there; and then die a few years after they have left office. They do not have the youth, vigour, and vitality that leadership in the 21st century should have. The day Nigerians decide to vote in visionary leadership, that day their problems will begin to end.

Second, the Nigerian problem is its people. The same people who spend all their time on social media venting their spleen against Kemi Badenoch – who is labouring to fix her own adopted country – do nothing for Nigeria. Nigerians hate Kemi Badenoch because she is making it increasingly difficult for Nigerians to get British citizenship. The question I ask these people is simple: if your country were good, would you go outside the country and be looking for foreign citizenship? Nigerians rose in the 1940s/50s and asked the British to leave; they said they could govern themselves – they did not want colonial rule. The question is simple: can we govern ourselves? If every Nigerian, particularly those of us who are elites, will make the commitment to better the little corner that he lives in, this country will begin to thrive. Instead, Nigerians cheat the system and then head to the church and mosque and pray that the country will get better. God will not answer stupid prayers. If Japa will stop, and Nigerians realise that life is short and the person who has lived well is the one who has endeavoured to better the lot of society around him, not the person who lives in wealth abroad, the country will begin to get better. When we realise this, we will stay back and help this country grow. Then you will understand that Mrs. Badenoch is your ally and not your enemy. Kemi is pushing policies in the United Kingdom that will make it difficult for foreigners to access different government aids, without adding anything to their society. Kem is saying that those who will be given citizenship should be contributing a healthy sum to the overall productivity of the country – especially through taxes. This makes perfect sense. But since many Nigerians do not even know what it means to pay taxes – everything in this country is done by the government – they cannot understand what the woman is saying.

I pray that Mrs. Kemi Badenoch will not only succeed as the leader of the Conservative Party, but that she will become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I pray that the conservative movement in the United States of America, through Trump and that of the UK, through Kemi, will gain such a foothold that they will ensure that many Nigerians who are not adding value to those countries will be deported. I pray that it will open the eyes of Nigerians to the realities of life: it is people who make countries great. If you want your children to enjoy a great life, make the sacrifices and commitment today. Kemi’s parents had seen that Nigeria was not a serious country way back in the late 1970s, and through vision, they ensured that their children had foreign citizenship. If you and I make certain decisions and a few sacrifices, we may bequeath a better country to our children. Kemi Badenoch is not Nigeria’s problem.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

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Image123:
Deji Deji, asking God for help or blessing is different from redemption and forgiveness of sins.

Ok

ThothHermes:
Mr Deji Yesufu is grossly mistaken. I don't know about Jerry Eze but Arome Osayi does not preach the prosperity gospel. In fact, there is propably no preacher who rails against such teachings as Apostle Arome. He doesn't run a YouTube prayer platform (I challenge you to post a link of his YouTube prayer channel), doesn't preach breakthroughs or testimonies as you have alleged.
I don't want to call you a liar but you've grossly misrepresented Arome Osayi and that is borderline wickedness.
Arome Osayi is among the most sincere and soundest gospel teachers of his generation. Do your own research.

Ok

MrPresident1:
Daniel 8:11-12
King James Version
11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down.
12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

Identify Rome and this passage will make sense. Is it not Rome that magnified itself against Jesus Christ? Is it not Rome that took the daily sacrifice away, and cast down the place of the sanctuary in 70AD?

Who gave Christianity to the world? And From whence is Roman Catholicism?

Has the Bible not told us that Rome will practise and prosper until its time is over?

Rome did not disappear, it only morphed.

Yeah

MrPresident1:
Rome will prosper in it's falsehoods until the time alloyed for it is over. Emperor Constantine claimed that he saw a sign in the skoes and some voice told him 'by this sign, conquer'. Then he syncretized roman pagan beliefs with some doctrines of the Bible, and boom, Christianity was created. There is no such thing as Christianity in the Bible, it is a Roman creation.

Daniel 8:11-13
King James Version
11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down.
12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

This is Rome. Rome magnified itself against the prince of the host, Jesus Christ, by Rome, the daily sacrifice in Jerusalem was taken away an Jerusalem was conquered. It was because of Judah's transgressions that Rome was empowered against it, and Rome cast the truth to the ground and has practised and prospered till date!

Then Daniel hears a voice asking how long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down?

We are still in this epoch, the host is still dispersed and the sanctuary is still being trodden down- by the most grievous of the heathen, where they do regular gay parades.

Always fun reading you

The Damnable Errors of Arome Osayi and Jerry Eze

By: Deji Yesufu

I am a civil servant. For the past fifteen years, my morning revolves around preparing children for school; dropping them off early to make their school assembly; and then reporting to the office before 8 am which is the official resumption date for workers in many Nigerian institutions. This particular morning, I complete the circuit early enough and then I drove into our parking lot around twenty minutes past seven. Because I had forty minutes to spare, I wound down the car glasses and tried to inhale and exhale the morning cold breeze. As I did this, somehow my attention was drawn to the two vehicles to my right and left. There were two ladies in these cars, who had the windows of their vehicles wound up. They were praying. As I watched the motion of their mouths, they were obviously listening to prayer session emitting from their phones. I could tell that they were both listening to the same prayer channel from one of these YouTube prayer pastors – either Jerry Eze or Arome Osayi. I found it strange and fortuitous that in a public place, two women who do not know themselves, will be tuned to the same prayer channel, and will be uttering the same “amen” in the same location thousands of kilometers from the individual leading the prayer. I considered it both the magic of the internet and the deception of the prosperity gospel. It is the errors behind the latter that I wish to shed light on in this article.

I do not know Arome Osayi and Jerry Eze in person and it will be impossible for me to comment on who these men are. I draw my judgement on them simply from the content of their preaching and prayers which is all over the internet. I would also naturally not have responded to these men, except that I find their content in the public space, and since I am a religious public commentator, I felt I should share my thoughts with the public too. It might help one or two persons. I will be writing on three essential points about these men: their false prosperity gospel; their endless and meaningless tales; and their “many” deceived followers.

Theologically, there are a few errors that Christians peddle that one cannot consider as damnable. Some of these errors are products of traditional practices in a place that might have influenced the teaching of the Bible in those places; there are other errors that exhume from a faulty interpretation of the scripture. For example, I consider the practice of “speaking in tongues” among Pentecostals as an error but it is not a damnable error. I think that one can be speaking in tongues and still be a conscientious Christian who does not deny the tenets of the Christian faith. The trouble however with these endless prayer sessions, led by the likes of Arome Osayi and Jerry Eze, is that at the root of it is the damnable heresy of the prosperity gospel. The reason why the adherents of these teaching spend morning, afternoon, and night praying, is so that God might bring them into some prosperity and blessing, and so that they might have some liberation from a health challenge. This is not the Christian gospel.

As I write this, the local church that I am pastoring is looking at the life of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels of John. In chapter eighteen of that book, Jesus Christ is brough before Pilate and the Jews are recommending to the Roman leader that Jesus should be executed. Pilate is confused. He makes it clear to the Jews that he finds no faults in Jesus. In fact, by the turn of the next chapter, the Jews begin to recommend that Jesus be crucified. And Pilate is wondering why the Jews will recommend a capital punishment to a man who had done no offence. When he enquired further from the Jews who this Jesus really was, they respond and said that Jesus had called himself the Son of God. Pilate, a bullish Roman warrior, was scared. He asked Jesus “who are you?” Jesus did not respond. The heart of my point here is however in the final verses of Chapter eighteen, Pilate gives the Jews an option: take Jesus or take Barrabas – Barrabas was an insurrectionist and a murderer. The Jews took Barrabas. In other words, since Jesus did not have an offence, they took the sins of Barrabas and put it on Jesus, while they declared Barrabas free. That, my friends, is the gospel.

The gospel is about God’s gracious work in Christ Jesus – where he took the sins of the world and put it on his Son. Then God brought the whole gamut of his wrath on his Son, and killed him on the cross because of the weight of the sin of the elect that Christ bore. The story did not end there. Jesus, however, rose from the dead after three days. In other words, while the wages of sin is death – Christ defeated death by rising from the dead. Therefore, whoever believes in Jesus, they can trust that Christ has taken away their sin; Christ have forgiven their sins; and Christ has brought them into newness of life in the Holy Spirit. Our duty as Christians, is not to spend the rest of our lives, looking for breakthroughs of prosperity and deliverance from demonic influences; but to simply repent of our sins, believe in Christ as Saviour, and then live the rest of our lives bringing the positive influences of the gospel on our societies. The pastor continues to remind his community of the gospel, and press gospel demands on sinners to repent; the civil servants bringing the effects of the gospel to his community – serving the civil populace at work; the Christian politician bringing gospel light to leadership – showing the world that there are still Daniels and Josephs in our day and time; etc. There is simply nothing Christian in what Arome Osayi, Jerry Eze, and the likes are doing on the internet!

The doctrine that underlines these men’s preaching is called the prosperity gospel, and I can say with biblical authority that anyone who believes their message will not go to heaven. The prosperity gospel is damnable heresy because it teaches that Jesus Christ died to make us healthy and wealthy. It has gone a little further in the Nigerian animist environment, where there is an ingrained belief that there are forces of good and evil forever at war in the “spiritual realm”. They then teach their followers that those who can pray enough; fast enough; give to church enough; etc, are those who will possess the powers to defeat the devil and all of his evil machinations in the spiritual realm. They reduce Christianity to give and take. The whole element of grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is lost. Everything is contingent on what you do. If you want results, do the things that these men are asking you to do and you will see results. This is why these prayer sessions are inundated with “testimony sessions”. The testimonies lend credence to the fact that what the man is preaching is true. Osayi and Eze have simply taken over from the false gospel that their fathers in the faith, the like of Oyedepo, Adeboye, and the late Benson Idahosa have taught for years now. They are the new kids on the Charismatic bloc, and they are reaping a fortune in the process.

Again, these men’s “products” are in the public space and no one is using my money to purchase their rubbish. But the time comes when it becomes necessary to put a word of caution for all to read. There is one word that concerns me when it comes to deception in the religious communities. That word is “many”. Jesus used it in Matthew 24 when he spoke about the signs of the end, and what will happen when he is about to return. He said “many” will be deceived by false teachers and false prophets. Similarly, Peter used the same word in his second epistle – the second chapter. He talked about how many false teachers will deceive many in those days. The days when “many” will be deceived is today. And Nigeria has so cultured the environment to allow for these deceivers to flourish in our day and time.

For those who may still have ears to hear, let me say it again: there is no redemption in what Arome Osayi and Jerry Eze are teaching. They are simply repackaging an old heresy: it is the teaching of Balaam who was deceived by the gains he sought to get from ministry. Jesus Christ did not die for anyone to be healthy and wealthy. Jesus died to save you and I from our sins. When we repent of our sins, and trust Jesus as Lord and Saviour, he begins to bring the fruit of righteousness to bear on all that we do. It might please God to make a Christian wealthy. Such a person should understand that God demands that he uses his wealth to further kingdom purposes. It might please God to give you and I a lengthy and healthy life. We should understand that God will demand from us what we used every moment of our health for. For some other Christian, they may never know wealth or enjoy good health all their days. For such, the Lord has given them little and the Lord will still demand to know what they do with the little that they had. Please renounce the gospel of prosperity. Stop listening to Arome Osayi, Jerry Eze, and their likes. I know that my words will fall on “many” deaf ears. But if one person has ability to hear the warning in these words, the effort in writing all these would have been worth it.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached on naijareformed@gmail.com

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izombie:
I said it before the last election that if tinubu were to win that he would do the same thing he did in lagos to Nigeria. Now it's happening. Naija don become his toy

There is sufficient reason to be concerned with the state of democracy in Nigeria

[quote author=Greenback post=136101490][/quote]Dictionary will help

Quandary: noun.

a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation.

"Kate was in a quandary"

^^^ Google

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀

By: 𝗗𝗲𝗷𝗶 𝗬𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗳𝘂

It was Edmund Obilo, the Ibadan radio broadcaster, who first drew my attention to the matter of “state capture” within Nigerian politics. Obilo suggested that the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, might be seeking to capture the Nigerian state. What that means is that Tinubu is looking at becoming a maximum ruler, a dictator of some sort, or, at the very least, Tinubu might be looking at possessing more powers in his government beyond what he is constitutionally entitled to. Those who fear Bola Tinubu capturing the Nigerian state point at what is happening in Lagos State. Since he left the seat of the Governorship of that state in 2007, Tinubu has dictated who leads that state and who doesn’t. If that is not “state capture” in its literal sense, then the phrase means nothing.

My concern in my essays revolves around the question of morality. As a minister of the gospel, one of the outcomes that I hope to see following my preaching is that the moral compass of members of my congregation increases. I do not expect them to become perfect – I am not perfect either. I, however, expect that they are labouring in their little corners to be better people–better husbands; better wives; better children; better workers; better citizens of the country, etc. Since I write for a nation to read, I expect that the moral compass of my readers will improve. I expect Nigerians to be better people. I expect to see less corruption in public office. I expect the fear of God to dictate the motives behind people’s actions, and not money. Unfortunately, I do not see these things. It appears that the moral compass of Nigerians deteriorates each day. The people of this country have succeeded in making good out of evil and turning evil to good. I will explain with some anecdotes.

Someone told me recently that his civil servant friend is looking forward to the 2027 general elections. He explained that this guy, in the last election, 2023, cashed out big time. He happened to have manned some sensitive departments during the elections and was influential in doctoring certain figures. This civil servant guy is now looking forward to the 2027 elections, where he hopes that he can man those offices again and enjoy some pecuniary advantage like he did the last time. I have heard that money changes hands in some of these electoral collection centres, but I did not know that it has become this endemic. One person said that a political party offered his friend $50,000 to change the figures in favour of another party in a recent election in this country. I was in Portharcourt in 2023, a few months after the elections, and I saw that the state government still had police vans manning sensitive facilities around the State INEC office. It is alleged that the voting was so rigged in Rivers State that the government ensured that the police were still on duty long after the elections had been concluded. This was to forestall any possible uprising or protest.

As I think on the moral quandary in Nigerian politics, and how every sense of right and wrong has been exchanged in this country, I remember our founding fathers. I have been reading a lot of Obafemi Awolowo’s essays in recent times, and I cannot help but see two opposing realities in the sage’s writing. Awolowo believed two things: that a people deserve to be at liberty and never to be colonised by a foreign nation. Second. Awolowo believed that Nigerians could govern themselves. I dare to say that the sage was right on one and wrong on the other. Yes, every nation deserves to have liberty, but the testimony that has greeted the Nigerian reality since independence is that it appears Nigerians cannot govern themselves. If we can, I do not know why we are unable to produce worthy leadership in this country.

State capture is possible when two things happen in a society: when money becomes the controlling factor in that society, and one man possesses that money. What will happen is that that man will buy up all the institutions in the country, and the people in those institutions will pave the way for him to capture the state. This man will have the judiciary, the legislators, the police, the army, the press, and all opposition in his payroll, and he will do and undo. He could even champion the process of changing the constitution to allow him to have not just a third term in office, but also for him to be president for life. When money is lord in a society, the man who possesses these resources becomes the one whom everyone worships. There, the state has been captured.

In 1958, Obafemi Awolowo delivered a lecture to a gathering of people in the Nigerian Union of Journalists. There, he traced the history of journalism and explained how journalists began to be called the fourth estate of the nation. He also mentioned in that lecture that Napoleon Bonaparte said that he feared the media way more than the guns his enemies could bring against him at war. What does that mean? It means this: even when a society has been captured by one man using his wealth, men of goodwill can still withstand his hegemony. The way it is done is through public opinion, which is often provided by the media.

When Awolowo made these statements, the main media in those days were the print media. Today, we have social media, electronic media, print media, etc. If anyone captures the Nigerian state today with his money, all of us should blame ourselves for it. We have no excuse for allowing it. Wisdom, carefully written in a text and published for the wider community to read, is sufficient to burst the authoritarian hold of anyone seeking to capture the state. The reason why a military coup is near impossible in Nigeria today is beyond whether the coup could be successful or not; it is mainly because public opinion is heavily against military rule in Nigeria. And if the soldiers dare truncate our democracy again, they will not survive a week in office.

I write all these essays because I am convinced that righteousness can exalt Nigeria. This country is beautiful. We still have people who fear God in this country. There are people in this country who pray for Nigeria daily, and God will answer that prayer. When he does answer that prayer, one of the things that we will see happen to our society is that the moral compass of our people will improve. Money will no longer be the determining factor for how society must run; the rich man will no longer be the one who dictates happenings in our society; wisdom will triumph over wealth; and Nigeria will get better. What gives me hope concerning this country is that God sees this nation; he has preserved this country, and Nigeria will fulfil a great destiny God has prepared for her. Perhaps, the day will come when nations will rush to Nigeria to find out how we have become so successful. Nigeria can be a Singapore – nay, Nigeria can be greater than Singapore.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed@gmail.com

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/the-moral-quandary-in-nigerian-politics/