I really dont know if this should be meant for politics section or religious section but i found the article below interesting and summarises one of the real problems we have in our society.

The source is http://www.saharareporters.com/www/article/detail/?id=885


DO NIGERIANS REALLY KNOW GOD / ALLAH? (Alternative version: DO NIGERIANS REALLY WORSHIP GOD / ALLAH ?)
Written by:
Okonkwo Paulinus N.
kiridabo@yahoo.co.uk

I have been pushed to the wall by the things happening in Nigeria and I am left with no choice than to ask this question.

Please my dear readers do not crucify me by labeling me an ‘’Anti- Christ’’, rather take a deep breath to meditate on my points. However, I do not care if I am called Anti-Christ or whatever because I have strong reasons for my views. As part of introduction, it may be necessary to give you my background details. I am a Nigerian born in the northern part of the country, my parents are from the east and I had my university education in the southwest. I am a Christian but not a fanatical one and things must be logical to make sense to me.

Above I mentioned that I have been pushed to the wall, what are the things that pushed me to the wall?

1. Does God make people leaders through election rigging? Each time criminals rig elections in Nigeria and subvert the will of the citizens, uninformed Nigerians will say that God has made the criminals leaders, hence no one should challenge the leaders, and rather one should pray for them. This belief is manifested both among Muslims and Christians. I as a Christian do not share in this belief. In the synagogue of Nazareth Jesus paraphrased His mission by quoting the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to bring deliverance to the captives, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are bruised, to announce the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19). We can see here a reference to the close relationship between the mission to preach the Good News and the necessity to be alert to the needs of our brethren relating to social and justice issues. At this point I can summarize the missionary of Jesus Christ to be ‘’Peace and Justice on earth, and Salvation hereafter’’.

Based on the Biblical backing: -

• How can one reconcile the belief that God made people leaders through rigging which involves outright filling of result sheets without voting, adding of figures behind or in front of the authentic figure as was done in Ekiti state, killing of people by using thugs and even security agents?

• How can God make somebody a leader who will later loot a state treasury?

• How can God make somebody a leader who will assassinate others if they express contrary opinions?

• How can God make somebody a leader when the person does not possess the minimum qualification specified in the constitution or electoral laws? Does it mean then that God encourages forgery?

• How can God make someone a leader when He knows that the man will bring poverty, diseases, sufferings and other afflictions to the people?

• How can God allow worst election to be held in Nigeria after people claimed to have prayed in Churches and Mosques?

2. Are the self-acclaimed men of God sincere? I wonder if anybody has ever thought why so many Nigerians claim to be religious (both Muslims and Christians) but still things are not working. I have on a given number of times asked this question and I always get same stupid answer, ‘‘it could have been worse’’. The answer is stupid in the sense that it cannot be benchmarked with any best practice. Before the advent of the so called born again syndrome and Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, the crime rate was far less than now. I will illustrate my reasoning using a mathematical model. If I superimpose two graphs: ’’ a plot of crime rate versus time ‘’ and ‘’a plot of number of churches versus time’’, to demonstrate that religion is playing any positive role, I expect to see the two plots going in opposite directions. This implies that as the number of churches increases so will the crime rate drop. However in Nigeria situation it is opposite hence the so-called religious leaders are only interested in material gains. If this conclusion is not correct why the following: -

• After the fraud in 2007 called elections, why didn’t religious leaders condemn the sham, the only exception was the Catholic Bishops conference of Nigeria.

• Pastor Enoch Adeboye explained that even though he spoke on Obasanjo’s emergence as President and his re-election, he “kept quiet on the third term,” because it ran contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. I think it is very dishonourable for a self-acclaimed man of God to keep quiet when an issue that affects the well being of the masses was being discussed. So much evil was committed in Nigeria because of Obasango’s third term. Where is the justice, which was part of the missionary of Jesus Christ?

• While the Church in South Korea has made an impact on the society, we cannot say the same of Nigeria because our ministers would rather dine and wine with corrupt government officials and stand before their parishioners to tell them how important they are and how they met with the president of honorable this and that, the very things the prophets of old condemned. Nigerian ministers would rather carve out empires, build castles and empires, ride on the latest Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) made in America; they call them Jeeps in Nigeria or take all sort of names. In fact, it is no secret now that highly placed ministers do isolate themselves, seeing themselves as supper ministers. They now call themselves apostles or the apostolic leadership meeting. Of course, we know that the real apostles were missionaries and not name seekers like we see today [Rev. Suleiman Dankano, 2007]

• Nigeria is the most religious nation but with spiritually deficient and least godly people. It was at the same Pentecostal church that their pastor, Akanni, INEC’s Director of Finance and Supplies, acquired some seven billion naira. No wonder, an American Pastor Benny Inn was defrauded and cried out that his Nigerian hosts were 419 criminals [Religious , yet ungodly].

3. What does practical manifestation of knowing God entail? I am asking this question because I have heard many people saying that Nigerians know God or worship God more than Oyibos (white people). They went further to claim that our people are even teaching the white people about God / Jesus Christ. In their judgment knowing God in Nigeria is manifested in the following ways: -

• Preaching and distribution of religious tracks on the streets.
• Praying loudly in the night and thereby disturbing your neighbours
• Pasting of religious stickers all over their cars
• Having one hundred churches in a street.
• Saying ‘’bless you’’ to whoever cares to listen
• Using religion to practice nepotism in work places or in business arena
However if I compare a given town in Nigeria with a typical town in Europe, I can come up with the following: -

• Europeans do not know God but conduct electioneering campaigns by sharing balloons and flowers while their counterparts in Nigeria use AK47 and acids
• In many places in Europe people do not have window and door protectors while in Nigeria there is even protectors on the ceilings
• Corrupt people in Europe are usually tried and jailed while in Nigeria they are given national awards and they sit in the front row in the churches provided they pay their tithes.
• Europeans who do not know God have provisions for the poor people and there are adequate provisions for the disabled people. In Nigeria the self acclaimed men of God drive SUVs while the majority of the church members are dying of hunger. This reminds of my friend who attended a church service and at the end, he had no money to transport himself home because they were asked in the church to dip their hands into their pockets and to remove anything called money. Immediately this was done, smart guys came around with polyethylene bags to collect the whole money. My friend and others were promised that God will double it hundred fold. To the best of my knowledge nothing has been doubled, talk less of hundred folds.

• In Nigeria the self acclaimed men of God use heavy security to protect themselves against people whom they have cheated or their rivals because they are in personal business. I am not sure if anybody has asked why the Catholic Bishops or Cardinals who control larger flocks compared to the Pentecostal pastors do not use security or live life of affluence? Jesus Christ or his apostles never had security.

• Europeans do not know God. Why are their countries better planned than Nigeria? Why do many self acclaimed men of God now acquire properties in Europe and spend a lot of time there to enjoy themselves because of good amenities. What have the so called men of God done to enthrone genuine democracy in Nigeria? Without genuine democracy, we cannot have a meaningful development.

4. Can God do everything for Nigeria? I am asking this question because I have observed that Nigerians ascribed everything to God. Sometime ago I went to an ATM machine belonging to GTB to cash some money and found out that the machine was not functioning. I was very annoyed and was walking away when the security man told me that God will help the machine to function the next day. I told the guy that the functioning of the machine has nothing to do with God, rather a manifestation of human failure. Also one day I took a public transport and immediately the journey took off, prayer warriors started casting and binding against frequent road accidents, which they claim were being caused by the people in secret society. I was dumb founded at their ignorance when the roads have potholes coupled with vehicles having worn out tyres. The mechanical parts of some of the vehicles are almost falling apart and once the vehicles hit major pothole, the next event is accident. Nobody is looking at this angle and I do not believe that prayer can solve this problem.

Also I do not believe that God will come down to solve our problems. In my opinion I think that God is not fair to some countries. He gave us so much that we cannot think again. God gave us so many things: - Mineral resources both solid and fluidized ones, good weather, good vegetation and energetic human resources. It is left to Nigerians to say enough is enough to bad rubbish.

Conclusion:
I will conclude this write up by saying that we should make religion to wear human face by ensuring that it brings justice and peace on earth. We should learn to ask questions about things happening around us. We should not allow selfish people to turn us to morons. In 2003 general elections, some selfish people used religion to campaign against Muhammadu Buhari claiming that Obasanjo was a born again Christian and that Buhari will Islamize us. Today we are in a mess for propagating falsehood and I hope people have learnt lessons.
Finally to achieve success we should do 90% work, then 10% prayer. Let us always ask ourselves why is Nigeria not progressing upon the amount of prayers, which people claim to be offering. We should not be complacent about Nigeria affairs, challenge your religious leaders when they go astray. During elections, let us make sure that we vote and equally protect our votes. We should challenge election riggers, praying alone cannot stop them. Let us remember that what we make Nigeria is what it will be. Do not worship money in your churches. Do not respect people who live above their income, go ahead and report them to EFCC, even if EFCC will not act upon it.

References
Pastor Adeboye, E.(2007) ‘’Obasanjo avoided me during third term bid’’ ‘’The Punch25/06/2007’’ [Online] Available from: http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20070625247159
[Religious, yet ungodly] [Online] Available from: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/columnists/onabule/2007/today-3-aug-2007.htm
[Rev. Suleiman Dankano, 2007] ‘’Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s Prophetic Fallacies’’ [Online] Available from: http://www.gamji.com/article6000/NEWS7612.htm

Written by:
Okonkwo Paulinus N.
kiridabo@yahoo.co.uk

The quote on pastor adeboye is below:

Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s Prophetic Fallacies

[b]By

Rev. Suleiman Dankano, Ph.D.

dan2kano@yahoo.com

I have been very troubled by some of the utterances of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, one of the most prominent ministers in Nigeria and worldwide. I feel a need to go to a territory where many are afraid to go in the belief that perhaps some body who is close to him might read this and call his attention to it. It is saddening to note that a minister of Pastor Adeboye’s standing will be so careless with what comes out of his mouth. I have followed Pastor Adeboye’s preaching for some time and came to have a lot of respect for him as well as praise God for what he has used him to accomplish in his kingdom here on earth. But in recent times he seems to have have fallen prey to the political correctness of our day and to the praise singers and hallelujah brethren worldwide.



It pains me to write about a humble minister and God’s anointed servant in the person of Pastor Adeboye but I also feel I will be violating God’s command if I failed to do so. Being a fellow minister and theologian I feel it is necessary to correct the error he seems to be promoting. Prophecy is no small assignment when one studies biblical and church history. I feel I must challenge him on two prophecies he has made, one in 2000 and the other just this last week. In January 2000, Pastor Enoch Adeboye prophesied that Jesus will come back by the end of this century. This couldn’t be far from the truth and contradicts Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:36 where Jesus said neither him, nor the angels in heaven but only God the Father knows that day. For Pastor Adeboye to have made such prophecy is quite out of tune with scriptures. One of the hallmarks of true biblical prophecy is that it comes to pass. Was pastor Adegboye suggesting that because none of us, at least not even children born in 2000 were not likely to be alive to verify this prophecy that was why he made it? Other wise, how could such an anointed minister of God miss such important passages on eschatology? All I can say here is that the respected man of God needs to be cautious before he comes down as one of those false prophets that are emerging. This has a great potential for destroying his ministry.



Last week, precisely Nigerian Tribune of November 10, 2007, Pastor Adeboye once more prophesied that God told him Nigeria will be the greatest nation on earth. For God’s sake, where and when did God tell you this? Were you hallucinating or receiving prophecy from God? I don’t doubt that Nigeria has the potential of being one of the greatest nations on earth but to say that is will be the greatest nation on earth is outright fallacy. It could happen but probably not in this century. Again, Pastor Adeboye ties this false prophecy to the one in 2000. Every one knows that with the way things are going in Nigeria and the corruption that is endemic with no sign of an end in sight, it will take perhaps the next two centuries for Nigeria to become the greatest nation on earth if ever, unless you are referring to being great in corruption and crime. The sad part of this is the fact that Pastor Adeboye is General Olusegun Obasanjo’s bosom friend and yet couldn’t influence this monster to do right. The true mark of a prophet is his ability to confront the king and prophesy against the sins of the King. Yet for the eight years Obasanjo was in government, we never heard such prophesy coming from Pastor Adeboye. All we heard was Obasanjo singing praise at the pastor’s 60th birthday party. The Bible clearly says, woe unto those who say thus says the Lord when the Lord has not spoken. It is no secret that General Obasnajo brought the clock of development 100 years backward is the most corrupt and brutal leader Nigeria has ever had. General Sani Abacha was a saint compared to Olusegun Obasanjo. Pastor Adeboye check for yourself the next time you organize your Holy Ghost Convention if electricity will remain constant throughout the convention. Don’t use generators and then tell us when Nigeria will be great. I have lived long enough to know and you know this too that in the 1970s to 1980s, we never thought of anything going bad in the refrigerator because power has gone out neither did we ever imagine going to the petrol station without finding petrol or knowing what it will cost. The next time you go to the petrol station, ask yourself, what Nigerians are paying for petrol and when next in Dubai; I know you have a branch of the Redeemed Church there and ask how much it costs to fill up the tank there. Compare Dubai and Lagos, your base to determine the potentials of Nigeria being the greatest country on earth. Or go to any of the Middle East countries where gasoline costs about 25 cents per liter and then compare them with Nigeria where it costs 95 cents if at all you find it a petrol station. Your bosom friend Obasanjo failed to fix the refineries so that he could import refined petrol and make more money in his pocket and so he did through his cronies including his son Gbenga. When he was leaving, he sold the refineries to himself as scraps and yet he called himself a born-again Christian. Haba, Adeboye, talk to your friend. While I cannot visit the sins of Obasanjo on you but a prophet that you claim to be should be bold enough to confront sin publicly. Where are the Nathans of our day?



While the Church in South Korea has made an impact on the society, we cannot say the same of Nigeria because our ministers would rather dine and wine with corrupt government officials and stand before their parishioners to tell them how important they are and how they met with the president of honorable this and that, the very things the prophets of old condemned. Nigerian ministers would rather carve out empires, build castles and empires, ride on the latest Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) made in America; they call them Jeeps in Nigeria or take all sort of names. In fact, it is no secret now that highly placed ministers do isolate themselves, seeing themselves as supper ministers. They now call themselves apostles or the apostolic leadership meeting. Of course, we know that the real apostles were missionaries and not name seekers like we see today.



Finally, I wish to caution here that the tendency for most “big” ministers in Nigeria to believe they are above board and cannot be corrected is real. Pride goes before destruction so the Bible says. May be a few examples in the Bible will suffice. When a vessel becomes arrogant to the extent that he/she can no longer control his/her mouth, God is no longer interested in such a vessel. Good examples abound in the Bible where people who thought they were untouchable by God lost it all. Moses whom God called the humblest of all humankind (Numbers 12:4-10) lost it all when he cursed the people of Israel and disobeyed God (Numbers 20:10-12). God is no respecter of person and this is what the likes of Adeboye and his followers must understand. Elijah, who was a firebrand prophet thinking he was the only prophet in town said to God, “ I have had enough, take my life for am not better than my ancestors. I am the only prophet left and they seek to kill me” (1 Kings 19: 4, 10-18). God said to Elijah go and anoint Hazel king and Elisha to succeed you. From that moment on, Elijah’s ministry ended. There is no body that indispensable to God.



Some readers might be saying who is this that dares to challenge Baba Adeboye? Well, for me, he is simply an ordinary sinner saved by grace and I could care less if one billion people attend his Holy Ghost Convention. God is not pleased with any minster that would open his moth carelessly to prophecy falsely. I maintain that the prophecy is false. Pastor Adeboye must be told in clear terms that he cannot continue to prophecy falsely; for doing so marks the beginning of the end of his ministry. If you love Pastor Adeboye, pass this piece to him after you’ve read it rather than be led by emotions and pray God’s curses on the writer. God is no respecter of persons. The Pentecostal shame that was unleashed to Nigerian Christians in 2006 should serve as a reminder to those who think they have arrived. Ask Benny Hinn if he would love to return to Nigeria soon and he will tell you, unless the Lord specifically directs so. I hope Nigerian “big” ministers can focus on the true Word of God rather than being led by emotions and seeking political correctness.


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Too long,

Correct me if I'm missing the point, but there is no relation between God and Politics. Politicians simply use religion to gain the sympathy of people of that faith (much like OBJ in 1999).

If you are God fearing you can never be a sucessful politician in Nigeria. Mind you, successful politicians in Nija are those allowed to officially loot the country blind, they have no moral standards and definitely have no time to serve God, the only god they respect and fear is in Okija Shrine!!