Spiritual Rebirth Or Revolution?

Last week, Prophet Awolowo talked about “exorcism” which I call “spiritual rebirth” or revolution. Nigerians have to make a choice, and quickly too. Let me share the reactions of some Nigerians.

Femi Ogbontiba from Ibadan wrote to say “Awo predicted many things including staggered elections which the rulings of elections tribunals are preparing grounds for. Awo spoke about Niger Delta. Nobody listened, now we can see. Above all, the sage warned that revolution is inevitable, if the enemies of Nigeria keep Nigerians under subjugation. Many fearful events in Nigeria include unemployment and the collapse of power are likely to let Awo’s prediction come true. Those who made it impossible for Awo to rule Nigeria will certainly push the country into trouble. And in the end, they shall take their seats at the hottest part of hell. Please keep on warning through your column. Maybe the expected better days shall come through the revolution predicted by Awo. The Lord is your strength.

Amos Ejimonye from Kaduna: “Bourgeois historians do not see the masses as the real heroes. The truth is that the people write their history when they have built a new society where man’s inhumanity to man has been abolished, and the yoke of imperialism has fallen to rise no more. Now, history kowtows to the bourgeoisie.”

From Calgary, Canada, Adebayo Adejuwon wrote “Thanks for your article titled ‘Prophecies of Awolowo’. God bless you. I have just read it online faraway in Canada, and as a Nigerian I was touched. Well, I am inclined to believe that the last of the three prophecies is about to be fulfilled. I think that we are at the threshing floor as a nation at this point in our political history.”

And from Very Rev. Deji Okegbile of the Methodist Church is this long contribution. Your Saturday column and that of Bamidele Aturu, my former student leader at Adeyemi College, Ondo, always bring to my memory the late Bola Ige’s corner in the Sunday Tribune of the 1980s. Uncle, Nigeria’s story is God’s story of a blessed nation flowing with milk and honey for the total well-being of Nigerians. The people you called eminent are enemies, faceless persons of decadence who, like the prodigal son, wasted God’s grace to lead and because of greed became looters and originators of the on-going national bleeding. Uncle, do not blame these looters for lack of humility, blame the priests and Imams who sing their praises. Humility is out of place among liars and covenant-breakers.

I don’t blame them because Yoruba will say that, ‘nilu afoju, olojukan lo njoba.” I blame the churches and mosques in Nigeria. They must be ready to equip and release Nigerians to know and demand their rights and privileges as citizens of a blessed nation. Nigerians must be set free from spiritual and denominational captivities. Must we ask God for light or petroleum when God has already supplied us the raw materials to reproduce them in abundance? Nigeria is blessed and the blessing can provide the entire population of 150 millions with a good standard of living. The national prosperity, rights and privileges of the citizenry are the holistic prosperity God ordained for us as a prosperous nation.

The emergence of the Niger Delta militants issue is not a one year problem. Let us ask the present authors and writers of Nigerian history what happened to the oil windfall from the gulf crisis of late 1990 and early 1991? Let them tell us who killed Dele Giwa and why? What happened to Christopher Kolade’s panel report on the awards of contracts during the tenure of one of the new writers of our national history? Are not the empires and estates owned by our present ‘erudite’ of Nigerian history built with the oil money? Their evil ingenuity will soon find them out. When Nigerians know the truth, we shall be set free from the greedy enemies, faceless persons of decadence rewriting our national history, including the legislators who are afraid to approve the Freedom of Information bill. Are we slaves? Nigerians are entitled to the right to information as information becomes a basis of the world’s economy.

Let the churches, mosques and media arise and liberate Nigerians from the callous writers, leaders and politicians who have no regard for human life. Let Nigerian Christians and Muslims reflect on Jesus’ revolutionary and missional role against those who turned the temple into a stock exchange centre. Nigerians are God’s temples and images, let us tell the people the truth about the new authors of Nigerian history, politicians that are selling and mortgaging our national future. They cast lots and traded on the energy sector and today Nigeria is in electrical and technological darkness, our rail and steel industries are dead; Lagos-Ibadan, Ore-Onisha and other roads are death traps. Imagine how those valiant soldiers from Sudan perished because of potholes on the roads. If these looters will not repent through prayers and teaching, revolution is inevitable. God who answers by fire will cast them out. The knowledge of the truth will usher in the longed-for national revolution. Let us enter into the mission field of Nigerian society and turn the table upside down for holistic prosperity.

Uncle, to visit our country sides and villages mean to weep over the level of poverty, sickness and emotional frustration. Our villages need attention. To me, political leadership should be the God fearing human management of the Lord’s creation for the welfare of people and not for self advancement or looting. Let the new writers of our history and politicians rejuvenate our once vibrant agricultural prosperity. Let us give Lagos, Abuja and other state capitals breathing space. Enough is enough of media advertisements and propaganda that add no value and meaning to the common human style of living. The gap between the rich and the poor that widens each day makes revolution inevitable. The poverty, hunger and frustration of the poor will deny the rich their sound sleep and secured empires.

As Hensley wrote in Methodist hymn book, “May God’s kingdom come in Nigeria and break with his iron rod the tyrannies of sin and looters. May Nigeria’s promised time come, when war, oppression, lust, pride and wolves that devour our history and destiny shall flee. Nigeria is coming alive. I love Nigeria. Nigeria is blessed, not cursed.” I cannot agree more. In our decadence, Nigeria and her leaders must either have a spiritual renewal or rebirth, or face an inevitable revolution; it is a choice Nigerians must make today. Tomorrow may be too late.