When a nation misuses God (2), By Ayo Akerele

…rescuing Nigeria is predicated on two recommendations…in which a sizeable population from the people across all the six geo-political zones would, for once, unite, damn the consequences, and ground the current system in a peaceful revolution that enforces the re-writing of the current constitution; leads to the amendment of the current electoral laws to prevent election rigging at local, state and federal levels; enables the change of the economic policies…

Religion, not Christ, is Nigeria’s greatest problem, and it is certainly the most effective weapon of manipulation and gaslighting in the hands of Nigeria’s past and current leaders, whether religious or political. God has been, is being, and is about to be misused again. Our present situation in Nigeria can be captured as this, “God in the hands of captured Nigerians.”

RJ Rushdoony once said, “whoever is in charge of your law is your god, for behind every law is the god of the law.” Rushdoony went further, “If the source of law is an individual, then the individual is the god of that system.” No wonder that our current leaders have built a nation where individuals are stronger than institutions, so that our laws can be subject to individuals, rather than individuals being subject to laws.

It is therefore impossible for the current breed of leaders and politicians in Nigeria to shoot themselves in the foot; they cannot build a better Nigeria. The betterment of Nigeria is the impoverishment of the current state actors. Nigeria, fundamentally, is not designed to prosper its citizens. It is a parasitic and cannibalistic system, powerfully backed by foreign actors whose vested interests in the commonwealth of Nigerians make them wiling collaborators in the destruction and ruin of the country.

On the 1st of September 2024, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel, who was once a victim of power play in the church, but who has now been helped by God to pioneer a very effective and thriving prayer movement in the Northern part of Nigeria, sent me an article he wrote about the state of our youths within the Nigerian space. If I had the resources, I would print and share this article very widely across Nigeria. Below is an excerpt from the heart-rending article.

“Christianity in Nigeria is reeking with the foul odour of hypocrisy. Churches are filled on Sundays yet Christ-like character can hardly be found in government, in educational institutions, and in our legal system. A few weeks ago, we published a prayer call in which we asked, “Where are the men?” The men with integrity, like Jesus Christ, who could say, “the prince of this world cometh, but he has nothing in me.” Where are the men with a perfect heart towards God, like David? Where are the men like Daniel, who refused to defile himself with the king’s meat? Where are the men worthy to be called “Christian men”? Today, we agonise in Nigeria over the dismal condition of the youths. All manner of perversions are common amongst them: sexual immorality, drug addiction, cultism, ritual killings, cybercrime, armed robbery, insolence, etc. The very painful part of the malaise is that most of those youths are from Christian homes. The question has therefore been asked repeatedly, “What is happening to Christian families?”

Generally, children learn by imitation. “Do as I say, not as I do” does not work with them. They will do as their parents, or the elders around them, do. Therefore, if the problem of rebellion among youths is going to be solved, it is necessary to look beyond them to their foundations. How children are brought up, and by whom, become critical questions to be answered. In this generation, nearly all the structures and institutions that should guide a decent society have collapsed; a collapse not caused by the youths but their parents. The youths are not the ones running the country, neither do they head critical institutions. Their fathers do. Most of those fathers are Christians. Every Sunday, they report in church and piously worship. On Monday, they return to work to supervise the collapse of the economy and the compromise of moral values.

There are Christian fathers in INEC when it supervises election rigging. There are Christian fathers in the judiciary when their “lordships” pervert judgment to favour the highest bidder. There are Christian fathers in the universities, where lecturers demand sex for grades; in the civil service, where they share budgetary allocations at the expense of public projects; and in Customs, where fathers return home every month with millions of naira received from smugglers. The same can be said of the Police, the Army, and, of course, the National Assembly and the Presidency.

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In every critical institution in Nigeria, in the public and private sectors, there are Christian fathers and mothers, men and women called by the holy name of the holy God, but their characters are of the devil. At the slightest opportunity, they would throw their religion in your face, but their deeds belie the faith they profess. In all of these, the children are watching, and unfortunately, learning how to be hypocrites.”

Someone would ask me, is there any hope in the current system we are running? My answer is no.

No, in the sense that the present system is hopelessly hopeless for delivering the future and the dream of greatness that every right-thinking Nigeria desperately desires. The solutions to this quagmire are in two folds — first, Nigeria either goes through a peaceful revolution in which citizens peacefully and unyieldingly demand for a complete change of governance, systems, structures, and the constitution or secondly, the country is divided into different regional or ethnic blocs. Either option is not in the best interest of the current “dealers” and the Western imperialists, but will certainly change the direction to which the current ship is headed.

The first option requires a united front that cuts across racial and religious lines. The dealers understand the power of the people, and would fight to balkanise them to prevent this united front. The second option is going to reposition Nigeria into three to four different ethnic states. The Fulanis will be in one nation, the Hausas will make up another nation, the Yorubas will be in the third nation, and the Igbos will make up the fourth nation.

The hunger in the land has reached an extreme level, which is spiking the scale and scope of criminality in the land. Something must be done to avert this. Prayers won’t stop it. Prayers don’t cure hunger. What cures hunger is food. Food security is triggered by national security. National security is driven by many socio-economic and political factors that are largely determined and controlled by the current breed of dealers in government, together with their foreign collaborators.

My final thesis for rescuing Nigeria is predicated on two recommendations, as proposed above, the most preferred choice being the first option, in which a sizeable population from the people across all the six geo-political zones would, for once, unite, damn the consequences, and ground the current system in a peaceful revolution that enforces the re-writing of the current constitution; leads to the amendment of the current electoral laws to prevent election rigging at local, state and federal levels; enables the change of the economic policies; and strengthens all arms of the current judicial system, or we remain the way we are forever.

Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through [email protected]