ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP VERSUS RESTRUCTURING. 

By Pastor Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre. 

Stephen Ubimago: As Pastor E.A. Adeboye incisively suggested, restructuring should not be seen as a threat to progress and security: rather it's a flexible instrumentality put in place by a listening, responsible leadership to bring forth meaningful development and productivity beneficial to the citizens. 

In other words, restructuring is friendly to a flexible governance. Because when stagnation, poverty, marginalisation shackles a place due to defective administrative setups, revolt or outright rebellion cannot be ruled out. 

Clearly history bears out the position of the revered Christian leader. Trying to demonize him for speaking out on the issue is a misleading gambit that can only produce bad fruits.

 Having said that, I have heard or learned nothing to shift my position that what Nigeria needs NOW is godly leadership, not restructuring. Would  that in any way suggest restructuring is not URGENT? I dare not say that as the urgent need for restructuring is glaring. 

Still the URGENCY for godly leadership to step forward to the plate, and take a RESOLVED stand on governance issues is greater than restructuring.  

Let me make it plain. It'd take only a godly leadership to restructure Nigeria without a BLOODBATH. Other than that, prepare to welcome another season of anomie.  

All the usual perfunctory, angry outbursts staged in the name of press conferences by Southern political leaders, including their latter day allies from the Middle Belt; and the isolated editorials on restructuring would have no where to go but disappear into thin air. Political leaders, under the aegis of Pandef, Afenifere, Ohaneze, Middle Belt forum etc  imagine themselves to be pressure groups capable of persuading Buhari to restructure Nigeria by appealing  to his moral conscience. They are in for a rude shock. 

The earlier these leaders change strategy the better in order not to attract contempt and opprobrium unto themselves. 

Can these political leaders honestly tell themselves they speak for the indigenous peoples of the South and Middle Belt in their appeals to Buhari? 

They say they speak  the minds of the people. But are they? They are not. I dare say without equivocation they REPRESENT themselves. I'd rather align myself with the Central government which sees these UNELECTED political leaders as OPPORTUNISTS. 

Under a military regime, the strategy of these political leaders might be permissible and tolerable. But not under a supposed democracy that we operate today.  

PMB is not a Pharaoh that has enslaved the peoples of the South/Middle Belt without their consent. So no self-appointed Moses has a valid platform to say: "Buhari, let my people go. Free my people..." 

We should stop feeding the false notion that Buhari 

has a PATERNALISTIC hold over Nigeria. The man is only the CHIEF SERVANT of Nigeria, bound to do what the citizens want. He's not the father of Nigeria. We should stop placing the burden of fatherhood on his fragile shoulders. 

The only people recognized by the President as being capable to speak and handle the weighty issue of restructuring are the ELECTED POLITICIANS from the South. These include the governors, the senators, the House of representatives members, State houses of Assembly, local government officers. As President of the Central government, Buhari is constitutionally inclined to listen to these ELECTED politicians on the matter of restructuring, despite his personal view or choice. 

With that in mind, Pandef, Afenifere etc including other lone activists should leave Buhari alone, and turn their fire on the ELECTED politicians from their regions.  

If the governors, senators, hon.Reps etc from the South and Middle Belt, across party lines, are not sounding off, and pushing openly their articulated and resolved position on  the matter, then RESTRUCTURING is not an issue in the South worthy of consideration. In that case, we need a break from all this noise-making on restructuring. 

Let me emphasize this point: Appealing to Buhari to restructure Nigeria is a TIME-WASTER. 

Elected politicians from the South should be prodded to bear the burden of enlightened leadership, and positively change the game. That's the  only way restructuring of Nigeria can be achieved peacefully.  

Enlightened or godly leadership is FEARLESS, BOLD, RESOLVED and PASSIONATE. They don't back down until their objective is achieved.  

All this not because they trust in the force of arms or the psychology of violence but because they trust in the living God, the  Master of Creation who gives them spiritual WEAPONS to wage wars for the pulling down of strongholds...

WHY I SAY RELIGION IS NOT NIGERIA'S PROBLEM BUT A LAZY, FEARFUL INTELLECTUAL CLASS.

 WHY I SAY RELIGION IS NOT NIGERIA'S PROBLEM BUT A LAZY, FEARFUL INTELLECTUAL CLASS.

By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre. 

...Until Nigerian Christians organize themselves with an objective to capture political power and form government over Nigeria, they can never realise the power of the Holy Spirit. We should quit the arresting illusion that the Holy Spirit is ever going to back or facilitate our self-serving aspirations or agendas with His power. Never. That's not going to happen.  

It's only by exercising political power to form a central government that Nigerian Christians can prepare themselves to receive the divine personage, Christ, whom they call their Lord at His anticipated Last Coming to judge and cast the children of perdition including the False Prophet along with their father, Satan, into the Lake of fire and  brimstone. 

Right now, Nigerian Christians are bumbling neophytes, confused, conflicted, ignorant  and irresolute when it comes to political engagement of national affairs. 

As 'salt of the earth, and light of the world,' Nigerian Christians should never deny or apologise for their divine responsibility of providing political leadership for the country.  

Asking that Christians sponsor and vote only political leaders with shared  Christian values is not bigotry, but godly wisdom and spiritual discipline...

The above is extracted from one of my unpublished articles. It's articulated from my reading of the same Bible available to you and I. 

If eventually it is published, I would not be surprised if you, my dear brother,  join the ranks of those trashing it as unreasonable and unrealistic. They would not hesitate to call it the ranting of a fanatic.  

Having become a Christian convert, it didn't take long for me to realise that many of the things we regarded as fundamental Christian practices were dead wrong, conflicting with inexorable scriptures. So what do I do? Backing away from my faith as a Christian was never an option. I had seen enough to realise it was folly to question my understanding of the awesome personage of Jesus Christ. 

Biblical scriptures are divinely inspired. This is not debatable. Mine is not blind conviction but enlightened understanding. Some Christians think they can cherry pick their way through the Bible, or parse the scriptures to fit their modern philosophical conveniences. I have no time for these lots. 

Why this preamble? Because I'm a Christian. That's my spiritual constituency as a member of the body of Christ.  An Urhobo nationalist,  citizen of Nigeria. 

As a Christian, I'm trained to look out for only solutions, and avoid complaining or blame games.  

So constantly I asked how my adversity as a Nigerian face up to my scriptural revelations. How can my revelations wipe out my adversity as a Nigerian? 

I say Nigerian intellectuals are lazy and fearful because they fail to realise the POWER OF IDEAS, and the FIGHT IT TAKES TO IMPLEMENT IDEAS.

Historically, the men who bear rule in human society are always terrified and suspicious of new ideas. Expectedly, to implement any new idea entails a change of the status quo. An old order will die, a new one will emerge.  

 So it's not surprising that squelching new ideas can be a preoccupation with those who hold power.  

A university professor who belongs to a church is never prevented from exploring and expanding his understanding of his discipline. Nobody stops him from coming out with a new invention  or publishing a barrier-breaking book on thought-leadership.

A Nigerian professor who is a Christian running for a political office is more likely to adopt  Machiavelli as playbook instead of his Bible. Is religion his problem and not his hypocrisy? 

A Nigerian Christian would prefer to castigate me for saying we must bring our Christian leadership values into politics because he is afraid that would alienate Muslim voters. 

He forgets that Muslims are greatly politically organized to entrench their religious persuasion, having captured political office. I say that's all well and good. 

Christians should do same, or perish in hypocrisy.  

Let atheists organize politically too, and stop trying to deceive Christians to remove the "religious card" from the political game.

Before you know it, they would come up with a bogeyman of someone trying to establish a "THEOCRACY". 

Yet in the Bible that I know, the Master of Creation, God, is only interested in PROMOTING DEMOCRACY as a means of godly people providing political leadership for the nations. 

Why do I know this while others are blind to it? 

Is it religion that is preventing people from searching the Bible in order to come into precise knowledge of the truth ? No, people are simply caught up by their selfish ambitions. 

America is a deeply religious society.  It doesn't stop the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of this world from doing their thing.  

Let Nigerians stop being busy bodies, and concentrate on their assignments. No more excuses.  People should stay on their lanes, and work their fields.