Rightly or wrongly, the Pulpit in Nigeria has been elevated to the point of infallibility. Over the years the words of the Clergy in the Church or Mosque have come to carry more weight than the words of a Governor or President. Some clergymen have known to have become reliable sources of knowing what the future will be like. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of every year, people throng to these clergymen to know what the year holds for them and the nation. Prophet Elijah in the Bible was known to guide Kings in his times on how to run their kingdoms.
This is why some Men of God command cult-like followership and attention that even a Governor of a State cannot command. In some Christian denominations, when the General Overseers (GO) call for general meetings of the workforce of the churches, you can be sure of a good attendance, same with the other religion. As a matter of fact, whenever some denominations hold their general meeting, traffic management agencies always have their hands full managing the traffic on the road leading to those denominations. Such is the hold of religion upon Nigerians. We are fast becoming the most religious people on earth. Whether our level of religiosity has any effect on our moral standard and living is another matter entirely!

It is therefore not surprising that Nigerians believe the words of their pastors or imams more than the budget or economic blueprint of the State or Federal Government. After all, government are known to always renege on their promise once they ascend to power, so their promises are often taken for a pinch of salt.  Of course, quite a number of opportunists have entered into the fold to take advantage of the believing followers.

One of the times Nigerians look up to Clergymen to know the mind of God is during elections. Rev. Father Mbaka was known to have prophesied correctly the defeat of immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan and this earned him no little recognition and fame. Pastor Tunde Bakare was also reported to have prophesied that SDP will fail, NRC will lose before the June 12, 1993 election that was annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Truly SDP won but never tasted power due to the annulment. There have been quite a number of prophesies like these which have come to pass and some that didn’t hit the mark.

Do the Clergymen hear from God on matters like elections? Yes, I think they do. If God can speak concerning their members and church or mosque, why can’t He speak about the nation or its leader? Do they hear correctly all the time? No. Just as it is possible not to hear what someone tells you in a room clearly, there exists the chance that Clergymen may miss it sometimes. After all they are men with blood flowing in their veins too. 

It is however dangerous when the following scenarios begin to happen. One, when we begin to equate clergymen with God and hold them infallible. At such stage, we are setting them up for big-time failure, because God is God and clergymen are just His servants. Their ability to hear well at any point in time is a function of their relationship with God at such time. Two, when clergymen begin to mix their minds with the voice of God. It only leads to confusion and disgrace. Three, when clergymen begin to believe they are infallible and tries to justifies the non-fulfilment of their prophecies. When a prophecy is proven wrong, the clergy is to go back to God and find out why, or check to see that it was not a self-produced prophecy ab initio. 

On the background of the recent US Election and how President-Elect Donald Trump defied all odds and prophecies to defeat aspirant Hilary Clinton, it is appalling that a clergyman who predicted a Hilary victory in a video before the election has pulled down the video from the church website after the prophecy was proved wrong. Nigerians have been reacting to the failed prophecies and the pulling down of the video from the church’s website. This action is unfortunate and embarrassing to the body of Christ. Why pull down the video? Is this the first failed prophecy from the clergyman? Who is deceiving who here? Even CNN Poll of Polls failed in its prediction, CNN has not brought down its site for that matter! Political pundits all over the world, except for a few, missed it this time around, so why try to prove infallible! It is quite ‘unman-of-godly’, if you ask me.

The lesson here is that prophecies from the Pulpit concerning the Podium must be proven for their authenticity before being made public. And when a Clergy is speaking his mind he should not call it prophecy, because everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion. It is this rampant act of mixing the mind of men with the mind of God that is responsible for many of the unfulfilled prophecies, plus even God changes his mind when people pray. He changed his mind about Nineveh despite Jonah’s prophecies, so why can’t He change his mind concerning Trump?

Adewumi Oni

Independent Newspaper 

13th November 2016

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The magnitude of the unchecked corruption that took place in Nigeria under the previous administrations of the ousted People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to be fully comprehended by Nigerians, especially the wanton and unbridled dip into the nation’s treasury that took place under the auspices of former President Goodluck Jonathan. 

Amidst an unprecedented economic recession occasioned by drop in oil price and low savings of past administrations, we have been hit by another news of return of cash by the former Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko. He was reported to have returned about =N=1bn cash out of the =N=40bn reportedly diverted under his watch between August 2009 and August 2015. Given that the refund may have been in tranches, yet we are talking about an individual refunding =N=1bn!

As if that wasn’t enough, former Minister Musiliu Obanikoro was also reported to have returned =N=100m, even though EFCC rejected it, obviously feeling it was too small an amount compared to what Obanikoro got as part of the ‘Dasuki missing $2bn’. It has been tales of refund since this administration took over. We have become a nation of ‘refunders’, where past public officers are now returning a fraction of their loots after they have been discovered. 

Yet, our former President Goodluck Jonathan unashamedly attempted to downplay the allegations against Dasuki and the corruption under his administration. This he did right in the presence of ‘Oyinbo’ people in Oxford. Wonder what he was trying to do, re-launder his image? Of course, the former President’s fantastic comment earned him fantastic rebukes from Nigerians!

Dikko’s refund is like the proverbial case of ‘we have not finished delivering the prophecies of Ifa Oracle and they are already playing out’. Former President Jonathan spoke in defense of his administration barely two weeks ago, yet another evidence of his maladministration just played out. It is such a shame what we have turned to and how greed has eaten deep into the fabric of our society. 

To the thrust of this piece, given the unending cases of refunds and returns that have been reported since the inception of this administration, I am beginning to wonder whether our judiciary system still have the  moral justification or ‘locus classicus’ to continue to try and jail petty thieves and robbers who steal to survive. It appears that stealing big is encouraged while petty thieves are treated like poisons. If petty thieves are deserving of the kind of jail terms judges slam on them, then these looting public officers should not just be made to refund but also put behind the bars for life.

Our sense of justice seems to have become warped individually and collectively. If someone is caught stealing a Nokia set or snatching purse, he will likely be beaten to pulp and then set ablaze, yet when we see those who are looting our public resources we hail them and even accord them right of priority in everything. Just last week, Prof Pius Adesanmi  wrote about a Canadian Minister who had to refund $3700 to the government coffers after she was mollified by Canadians of overspending on limousine shuttles, and how in comparison, Nigerians protect their Chief Looters. Little wonder former President Goodluck deemed it fit to bestow National Honour on the late Alamiesegha. For a man to whom stealing is not corruption, even a Dasuki deserves royal treatment. 

The combined of stealing of the likes of Oyenuga, Lawrence Anini, Monday Osunbor and co is nothing compared to the looting that has taken place in Nigeria during the last administration. Did these people deserve the death sentence slammed on them? Sure they did. But if they were deserving of firing squad, these public looters deserve more than firing squads, they deserve total obliteration! Agreed that those notorious robbers took so many lives before they were caught, but these ‘refunders’ have taken the livelihoods of millions of Nigerians! They have stolen both the present and the future of both living and yet unborn Nigerian children. Public funds that should have formed part of our foreign reserves, which should have been used in protecting the lives of our children in the North, in providing good educational facilities for our children all over the nation, in building state of the art hospitals across the nation, and in putting our roads in passable condition, have been stolen by few elites and all they get is some days in EFCC cell and a refund of some fractions. When they are charged to Court, they used part of the rest of the loot to frustrate the trial process. If they are ever found guilty, all they get is NEGOTIATED JUDGEMENT. This is the tale of our corrupt system. This is our story!

Woe unto those who continue to celebrate and recommend thieves for public positions. Woe to those who benefit from the negotiation of true justice. When justice becomes negotiable, the law has surely lost its sting.

Adewumi Oni

Mowe, Ogun State