OBASANJO’S SPIRITUALIZED POLITICS AT 87 AND ADEBOYE’S POLITICALIZED SPIRITUALITY AT 82—Contrasting Political Albatross of the Angel in Devil’s clothing and the Devil in Angel’s Clothing (Part 2)

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD

Odogwu of Ibusa

President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN)

Visit us at https://icac-gen.org        Email: [email protected]  / [email protected]

 

A man of intimidating legacies in professional and human development; in military terms President Olusegun Obasanjo was a General of the Nigerian Armed Forces with intrepid footsteps of celebrated gallantry and the ingenuity of the famous ancient Roman General Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus who turned the tides of the second Punic War against the Hannibal-led Carthaginian army. On the traditional military wing, he holds the traditional war-chieftaincy title of Balogun (General) of Owu Kingdom.

In politics, he excelled profoundly to the utmost pinnacle of political power—military Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, democratically elected President and Commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed forces, and Chairperson, African Union. In terms of business enterprise, he proved his mettle and shrewdness through the sustained operational viability of his Ota Farm; and within the realm of intellectual development he has created more profound impacts than not just his contemporaries, but more than most professors within the Nigerian academic system.

In continuation of his avid taste for an all-encompassing intellectual development, Olusegun Obasanjo did what no other President in the world did in his lifetime—the self-immortalizing Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, a state-of-the-art center of excellence fashioned after Presidential Libraries of American Presidents. Most Presidents who had the privilege of having such institutions named after them had waited to die and allow their cronies name them in their memories; or if alive, allow Government funds to be channeled into their establishments. In the case of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo however, he personally conceived the idea and went ahead to put it into practical existence while out of office as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Who can beat this?

Not only that he conceived and built a Presidential Library, President Olusegun Obasanjo is by right of his cerebral ingenuity a human library and encyclopedia ad infinitum of more than professorial carriage. He has published more books than historians and other writers had written on him. In matters of intellectual inquiry, he is a man who can go at any length below his status to acquire knowledge and information regarding his specific area of intellectual inquiry. For those who attempted to ridicule his quest for the exalted post of United Nations Secretary General in 1992, it was a case of misguided stance borne out reprehensible ignorance of President Obasanjo’s intellectual celebrity, which no past or even the present United Nations Secretary could match, going by extant records.

The international online bibliographer Goodreads.com credits 31 books to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s authorship, even though the General of the Nigerian armed forces has more than such number and still on his ink and pen. Among his books are:

1. My Watch Volume 1: Early Life and Military
2. My Watch Volume 2: Political and Public Affairs
3. My Watch Volume 3: Now and Then
4. The Challenges of Agricultural Production and Food Security in Africa (ed.)
5. Guides to effective prayer
6. This Animal Called Man
7. Not My Will
8. Africa Embattled

1. Elements of Development edited with Prof Akin Mabogunje
2. Elements of Democracy edited with Prof Akin Mabogunje

11. Challenges of Leadership in African Development (ed.)
12. The Impact of Europe in Nineteen Ninety-Two on West Africa edited with Hans D’Orville
13. Addressing Africa’s Youth Employment and Food Security Crisis: The Role of African Agriculture in Job Creation
14. Africa embattled: Selected essays on contemporary African development
15. Constitution For National Integration And Development
16. Women of virtue: Stories of outstanding women in the Bible
17. Hope for Africa: Selected speeches of Olusegun Obasanjo
18. The Head of State’s Broadcast to the Nation, Wednesday, 29th March, 1978, Embodying the Land Use Decree No. 6 of 1978

1. Sermon from the Prison
2. A New Dawn
3. I See Hope
4. Exemplary Youth in a Difficult World

23. Forging a Compact in U.S.-African Relations: The Fifth David M. Abshire Endow Ed Lecture, December 15, 1987 (CSIS Significant Issues Series)
24. Nzeogwu
25. Africa in perspective: Myths and realities
26. Africa: Rise to the Challenge (edited with Felix Mosha)
27. My Command
28. A March of Progress: collected speeches of His Excellency Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo
29. Call to duty
30. Nigeria and international Trade: Address
31. L’Afrique en Marche: Un manuel pour la réussite économique with Greg Mills, Dickie Davis and Jeffrey Herbst
32. The Asian Aspiration: Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia — and What It Should Avoid with Greg Mills, Emily Van der Merwe and Hailemariam Desalegn
33. Making Africa Work: A Handbook with Greg Mills, Jeffrey Herbst and Dickie Davis
34. The Thabo Mbeki I know edited with Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu with contributions by Miranda Strydom, Barney Afako and Brigalia Ntombemhlophe Bam
35. The Asian Aspiration: Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia with Greg Mills, Hailemariam Desalegn and Emily Van der Merwe
36. Democracy Works: Rewiring Politics to Africa’s Advantage with Greg Mills, and Tendai Biti

If in the future President Olusegun Obasanjo decides to take up the position of a Professor in a university as a parting contribution to the Nigerian nation, will Nigerians not deem him best qualified?

A man of innumerable intellectual and political accolades beyond the comprehension of many Nigerians; President Olusegun Obasanjo in addition to his traditional Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), holds honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University, Washington DC USA, University of Ibadan, University of Namibia, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria, and Bowen University Nigeria.

Awarded the prestigious German Friedrich Ebert Human Rights Price in 1996, General Olusegun Obasanjo had another privilege of being the first and only Nigerian to receive the prestigious Indira Gandhi Peace Prize. A frequent Guest lecturer of many high-profile international lecture series, he was the Guest lecturer to the American Council of Foreign Relations Leffingwell in 1987. This was followed with the privilege of delivering the Second W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture at the New School of Social Research, New York. In 2007, he was the guest of American Congressional Black Caucus where he diligently delivered the 2007 Foreign Affairs Brain Trust Lecture.

It is important to state without the least equivocation that the body known today as Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was conceived and pushed into existence by no other person than President Olusegun Obasanjo. There is therefore no debating the fact that the unity of the Nigerian Christendom which Nigerian Christians enjoy today under the aegis of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and which unfortunately the like of Pastor Enoch Adeboye and his religious minions are now abusing with reckless abandon was the sole brainchild of Olusegun Obasanjo as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

How did it happen? Before General Olusegun Obasanjo entered the Dodan Barracks as Head of State, Nigerian Christians were like orphans without guardians. They were roaming aimlessly like chicken without mother-hen. There was no single voice for the scattered flocks of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Nigeria. Christian unity was defined through the shallow spiritual conduits of ethnic bigotry and denominational bigotry. All these changed with the single act of one man who, in the likeness of the biblical King David, stands to be perfectly described as a man after God’s heart. You can even notice from his carriage that like David President Olusegun Obasanjo not only knows how to manage the intricate business of political power but loves beautiful things as well.

Like David also, his rise to power could only have been nothing but an act of divine commission. In his two episodes of rise to political power he never attained through calculated self-centeredness and inordinate ambition. Like David he knows he was on divine commission to serve and protect his endangered people from the wicked pangs of the Philistines and Amalekites, defined in the present context as the Fulani jihadists and their Bandit, Boko Haram and ISWAP brothers. In fact, had God not dramatically eliminated the Goliath called General Murtala Mohammed to enthrone General Olusegun Obasanjo, the fate of Nigerian Christians could have been a different story today.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was officially founded on 27^th August, 1976 and, the credit of its formation goes to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who, as Head of State had invited various Nigerian Religious leaders to Dodan Barracks for a meeting on the state of the nation. After the meeting, General Olusegun Obasanjo told the Christian leaders to stay behind for a brief meeting. Marching them into a separate room in Dodan Barraks in a military fashion, he warned them that that day would be the last time they would attend his meetings as separate Christian entities and subsequently ordered them in yet another military command style to immediately constitute themselves into a broad national Christian Association.

After his marching orders, the Christian leaders moved to the Roman Catholic Secretariat which was not very far from Dodan Barracks to formally constitute what is now known as Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). The first Constitution of CAN was adopted on 20^th April, 1977, while the Organization was incorporated on December 19^th, 1986. The Head of the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria then, His Eminence Cardinal Ekandem was subsequently elected the first President of CAN, an office he held for ten years (1976 – 1986). He was followed by Cardinal Anthony Okogie who reigned for first two years on acting capacity and eight years on substantive capacity. In sum therefore, the Catholic Secretariat led CAN in her first twenty years, and since there was no permanent Secretariat at the time it was formal for the two Presidents to use their official office to run the affairs of the Association.

CAN on its formation in 1976 was constituted into three denominational Blocs namely: Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Christian Council of Nigeria, and Other Denominational Groups. This was later expanded to the present five Blocs—Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Christian Council of Nigeria, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Organization of African Instituted Churches, and TEKAN-ECWA. Both the President and Vice President are elected from the heads of the five Blocs. The present CAN President Most Reverend Daniel Chukwudumebi Okoh is from the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC).

Only TEKAN-ECWA—the Northern Protestant flagship group of Churches is yet to present a CAN President. This was the only fundamental mistake made by my own beloved Father in the Lord and struggles Papa Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor when he played into the hands of some Yoruba Protestant bigots to front the worst ever indolent and catastrophically spiritually bankrupt CAN President, Rev.  Dr. Samson Olasupo A. Ayokunle; who went around miserably hawking Christian beatitudes to even Muslim State Governors for Esau-style mess of porridge, a dismal spiritual engagement that led to the untimely death under questionable circumstances of the astute General Secretary of CAN, Rev. Dr. Musa Asake, for daring to oppose Rev. Ayokunle’s ogreish Philistine mentality.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has a cardinal objective which only General Olusegun Obasanjo and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor understand better than every other Christian leader in Nigeria. May be we can add the likes of Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, Bishop David Abioye, and Prophet Isa el-Buba  among those who as well strongly understand this critical objective of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

General Obasanjo’s cardinal objective for creating a unifying Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was not centered on the spiritual regeneration of the Nigerian Christians, because each denomination has its own respective independent liturgical framework which it guards jealously. So Christian Association of Nigeria is not a spiritual but a political emancipation organ.

The fundamental objective behind the establishment of CAN was therefore predicated on a common political consciousness founded on the unity of one body in Christ in defense of collective political interests of Nigerian Christians. It is based on a unity constructed on the fundamental objective of countering the Jihad schemes of Sokoto Caliphate and nothing more. Any other contraption of the Christian Association of Nigeria outside this fundamental focus is null and void. The Northern Christian body practically continued to experience this obvious danger during the Premiership of Sardauna of Sokoto, which came to climax in 1964. The result was the formation of the Northern Christian Association (NCA) which was later renamed Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Northern Zone on the emergence of CAN.

The Sardauna Jihad scheme was powered by Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) founded in 1962 by Sir Ahmadu Bello, which was led by Sheikh Abubakar Mahmoud Gumi, the father of the present Ambassador to Muslim Bandits and Kidnappers in Nigeria, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, from its inception to 1970. In 1973, Sheikh Gumi conscripted other Muslim leaders to found the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) with the objective of extending the work of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) to Southern Nigeria. These were the two Islamic organizations that discreetly inspired the Murtala Mohammed coup against General Yakubu Gowon in 1975. General Olusegun Obasanjo who was Murtala Mohammed’s second-in-command and later successor knew about this conspiracy very well, hence his equally discreet decision to forge a common Christian front to act as a political wedge against these two Muslim jihad outfits.

Only Pastor Oritsejafor of all past and present Presidents of Christian Association of Nigeria fully understands this core objective of the Christian Association of Nigeria; and this fully explains why he readily became the victim of heinous blackmail by Sokoto Caliphate and its Christian hirelings. Pastor Joseph Ayodele Oritsejafor stands out as an indisputable epitome of visionary Christian leadership, principled in character, objective in judgment, fearless in dispositions, and regal in carriage to the distaste of those who hate justice, equity and fair play. His tenure witnessed the apogee of mutual respect, and equality of status between the Caliphate and the Nigerian Christendom.

Today CAN without Oritsejafor has relapsed into the pitied state of beggarly tradition, with its succeeding Presidents moving with the drunken steps of disconsolate spiritual mendicants. Under the watch of the present leadership of CAN, Nigerian Christians haplesslyg watched as they were ridiculed, intimidated, cajoled and even bribed into accepting the eternal woe of a disgusting Muslim President and a terrorist-sponsor Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The crop of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) leadership ignominiously stood akimbo as Christians are slaughtered and continued to be slaughtered with reckless abandon in a manner that would never be acceptable to the Muslim Fulani for their cows; a sharp humiliating contrast of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cardinal objective for causing the establishment of the organization.

To the like of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, so long as the blood-stained bribe from Bola Ahmed Tinubu through his political-pastor wife Oluremi continues to flow, and the poor and rich continue to drop their offerings and tithes to his ignoble offertory plates under the spell of his ignoble doctrinal enchantment, it would not matter to the like of Pastor Enoch Adeboye if Christians are being slaughtered on daily basis and the fortunate ones kidnapped with ridiculous ransoms placed on their heads.

Is not a shame to Nigerian Christian leaders that while the President and Vice President of Nigeria were breaking Ramadan fast, the woman who prepares the Ramadan meal is the same person overseeing the Aso Villa Chapel? It has also been revealed that Bola Ahmed Tinubu forced Christian Governors to attend his breaking of Ramadan fast. What a humiliation? Are Nigerian Christians not in the worse state of religious bondage than the children of Israel under Pharaoh? The jihad is now in full force and the jihadist are already operating with full force in the hearts of the Nigerian nation under the guise of Armed Fulani herdsmen, and Bandits, killing and kidnapping our people unhindered.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu being a Yoruba Muslim cannot extricate him from this devious jihad objectives, rather it provides the jihadists the protective cover of ethnic bigotry against such spiritually bankrupt Christian leaders as Pastor Enoch Adeboye; after all the same Fulani jihadists use Afonja to conquer Yorubaland; used Akintola to destroy Chief Awolowo’s political base; used Abiola to disrupt Yoruba unity and are now using Tinubu to destroy Nigeria.

As a student of the history of the 1789 French Revolution, I had posed this intractable and confounding moral question to myself in the light of Psalm 105: 15 explicitly states, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm?”: Why did Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre’s foot-soldiers slaughter over three thousand Catholic Priests, including Bishops in the course of the revolution?

Looking at the words and deeds of Pastor Enoch Adeboye within the context of the exercise of his powers and influence as an anointed man of God in relation to the present state of Christian persecution in Nigeria, it became obvious to me that Robespierre’s men might indeed be right in their action. After all Judas Iscariot was once an anointed man of God, in the same way King Saul was anointed as King.

It is against this background that we are going to look at Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s legacies as an ordained Pastor of the Church of Christ for both the “redeemed” and the “non-redeemed.”

To be continued.

 

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