Guest Column

NigerianNews

Prof Ayodele O Mobolurin
Dept Of Management Information System
Howard University
Washington DC
USA
 

I will pray, maybe not necessarily the prayer that the Vice President expects, but that God will give us wisdom, which is sorely lacking, so that we can see our horrible situation for what it is, and the wisdom (at least for enough of us) to desire and develop a change of attitude and have the moral fortitude to take repentant actions that will bring us out of this wilderness experience and into the land of promised that I hope we are genuinely looking for.  This is a prayer I believe we can expect God to answer if we are genuine.

Just A Thought About Praying for Nigerian Leadership and the Need for Repentance
by Prof. Ayodele O Mobolurin

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Niger Delta / Sectarian Strife: Nigerian Leadership Needs Prayers Not Blames - Jonathan   was a headline in one of the Nigerian Dailies that got me thinking. I also read the following quote attributed to the Vice President.

“Today the nation is in a moment desirous of prayers not only from men of God like our dear father in the Lord, Pastor Enock Adeboye, but also the entire nation in spite of your religious callings and individual beliefs must as a matter of patriotism, pray for the nation and its leadership for it to lead the nation with the fear of God.

‘ The unfortunate sectarian violence in the north as well as the restiveness in the Niger Delta region, which until Mr. President’s desire to evolve a foundation for a lasting solution are issues of worry that only prayer and fervent prayers can remove from our society”, the VP Goodluck Jonathan.

Nigeria is a religious country with many religions in the public space. Therefore I can understand the Vice President calling for prayers.  In this discuss I will attempt to be general without losing moral clarity. I take my quotes from the Bible, I hope all will agree that the passages have a universal application regardless of your religious beliefs. I will also premise my discussion by saying that in our current situation, patriotism calls for brutal frankness. So forgive me if I give no quarter in a brief analysis of our conundrum.

My mind went to the a wise saying in the book of Psalms by King David in Bible.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: Psalm  66:18

King David knew the situation in his country and he was very concerned, that is the responsibility of leadership. He showed honesty and integrity in leadership.  I will therefore commend Vice President Jonathan for calling for prayers for God-fearing leadership. However, actions that demonstrate integrity of purpose are demanded of leadership for leadership to command moral authority, that inspires the populace to follow.  If our leadership in Nigeria is demonstrating such integrity, then the level of transparency need to be increased such that all of us will see it.  Let the sunshine into the deliberations, the purpose of every action of any government from the Federal to the local councils. Let the populace see accountability for every Naira spent and see results that it was spent as promised in the budget. Let us make a honest budget with no deliberate loop holes to tempt those susceptible moral weaknesses. If there is any mistake, let the leadership acknowledge the mistake and fix it.

Another quality of King David worth emulating by our leaders, and the rest of us, is his sense of and commitment to justice.  He was indignant about injustice in his kingdom regardless of the position of the perpetrator.  This is an absolute quality expected of a God-fearing leadership and those who aspire to leadership. This is an example of a moral foundation on which a nation can be established.  King David was an example. He knew his people were prone to sinning against God and their fellow man. He obviously was not without sin himself. He even committed the grievous sin of murder.  He however did not justify himself because he was the king and because of the clever trick he used to cover his actions and his culpability for the murder. His kingdom was not a constitutional monarchy. He has absolute authority over every facet of life, except in one area, the religious aspect of life, but even in this he showed an admirable example expected of a leader. 

When King David was told by the prophet Nathan that he was guilty of murder (II Samuel 12) and that he could not cover up his sins.  He did not kill the messenger.  He did not banish the messenger from the kingdom.  He did not refuse to listen or ignore the messenger  as not worth listening to. He did not take the attitude "I de kampe".. Instead he acknowledge his sins.  He knew God sees every action and that  he was in trouble and his kingdom was in trouble and his people will suffer as a result of his actions.  He wept bitterly seeking forgiveness from God.  God forgave him, but David did not escape the consequences of his sinful actions.  That is God-fearing leadership.

Now about Nigeria, the Nigerian leadership ought to face the brutal truth.  It seems Leadership is a failure in Nigeria, but I am open to correction.  Injustice seems to be the foundation on which the nation is built, also I am open to correction.  How else can one account for the level of violence, the level of distrust of the populace in the honesty and integrity of the leadership, the evil ostentatious display of wealth by a few, without any level of confidence by the society and no transparency that the wealth was gained through contribution to society's well-being (creating wealth through providing the sorely needed products, services and employment) and not just appropriating the resources of the nation for individual benefit through all kinds of "clever" schemes.

Praying for Nigeria will not achieve anything, without the acknowledgement of the sin, the injustice and the corruption which is so apparent to the whole world. We need prophets with the moral integrity of Prophet Nathan, who can speak Truth to power, not just when it is convenient.  We need prophets who will not bless what they know in their hearts that God will not approve, whether their family members or kinsmen are involved.  And obviously not because they individually or their religious organizations stand to benefit.

There are millions who claim to be Christians and there are millions  who claim to be Muslims, there are other millions who follow traditional religions. All these religions I believe will agree with the simple moral Golden Rule:  "Do unto others as you would like them to do to your".  I am not here to get into a religious dispute. I am addressing a civil matter obviously with religious and moral implications, since we are so religious.  God is not amused by any antics purporting to be prayer.  God does not bless iniquity or wickedness.  As King David admonished God will not listen. David learnt of God's ways from experience. I believe it will be better if the leadership from the President down to the lowliest Nigerian stop, reflect, acknowledge the corruption, the wickedness that is so rampant in the nation and take honest action,  face the brutal truth without flinching, commit to repentance and asked for forgiveness.  That is the prayer God will listen to.  Then may be God will have mercy.  Then we can get to work in fixing the country.  We obviously cannot escape the consequences of all the decades of damage, but we can stop the rot and begin to climb out of the hole we dug ourselves into.

Closing thoughts:

But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not [reverently] fear and worship God.. Ecclesiastes 8: 13 (King Solomon the wise)

My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.. ... Psalm 51: 17 (Prayer and a song of a repentant King David).

The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent.. ... Psalm 34:18 (a song of King David extolling the mercy of God).

Nigeria as a nation need to take these admonitions to heart if we expect God to come to our rescue.  We ought to become more humble in our claim leadership in Africa and put our house in order. Otherwise we can continue in our merry way and reap the consequences.  I know there may be some who like the way things are. They don't think there is anything grievously wrong. They are content to have their house stand next to the foulest gutter, on a foundation that is sand, because it is beautiful sand and they are deluded into thinking that the good times will always roll.  May be they think the evil day of reckoning won't come in our life-time, our children will have to deal with that when it comes. Forgive the cliché: Doing the same thing over and over  (in our case for over 40 years) and expecting a different result is madness.

I will pray, maybe not necessarily the prayer that the Vice President expects, but that God will give us wisdom, which is sorely lacking, so that we can see our horrible situation for what it is, and the wisdom (at least for enough of us) to desire and develop a change of attitude and have the moral fortitude to take repentant actions that will bring us out of this wilderness experience and into the land of promised that I hope we are genuinely looking for.  This is a prayer I believe we can expect God to answer if we are genuine.