Matters Arising – Illuminare

Demonstrate your righteousness in our midst tonight O God.

Confirm your covenant with your people.

Guide the nations unto you, in the name of Jesus.

I am going to have a heart to heart talk with you this evening because there are matters arising. Indeed the title of my lecture is, Matters Arising. I begin my homily with a quote from Prophet Isaiah. I quote verse 6 of chapter 62 of the eponymous book of Isaiah:

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem,

Which shall never hold their peace day nor night:

Ye that make mention of the Lord,

Keep not silence,

And give him no rest,

Till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

(Isaiah 62:6)

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We are in the beginning of the 6^th wave of the dispensational move of God in Nigeria.

The 1^st wave began when the early missionaries birthed on our primordial shores and began the evangelical work that would be the foundation of what would become Nigeria. These unheralded missionaries, heralds nonetheless of the good news of the gospel saw beyond a limited understanding of proselytization. They saw a nation in their peripheral vision. They understood that if the glory of the Lord would penetrate the dense foliage of darkness that was our fatherland, the Word must not only be preached, it must be institutionalized.

To do this, they progressed the gospel of Christ into practical and institutional realities.

And so these missionaries not only converted our forebears to the Gospel of our Savior, they proceeded to set up schools, hospitals and churches. These are veritable institutions of national development. And so was established the Methodist Church, the Anglican Church, the Baptist Church and the Catholic Church, (we call them denominations today), as well as schools like Igbobi College, St. Gregory’s College, St. Finbarr’s College, Birch Freeman High School, Methodist Girls High School, Methodist Boys High School, St. Theresa’s College, Our Lady of Apostles, Church Missionary Society (CMS) Grammar School, Baptist Academy, etc.

So powerful was this vision that by the time that wave of the move of God was over, they had laid the foundation for modern Nigeria. They not only impacted the health and educational sectors, they influenced the judiciary and civil service, and determined our socio-cultural mores. They taught us to read and write, and worked assiduously to abrogate abominable practices like the killing of twins. Can we, and should we ever forget the labour of our heroes past – Mary Slessor, Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman, Rev. Henry Townsend, Rev. David Hinderer, Rev. Thomas Bowen and other labourers in God’s vineyard. Today we have edited these men and women out of the history books of our nation but could Nigeria have been without their efforts? Thank God they remain indelible in God’s Book of Life. We must also remember Bishop Dr. Ajayi Crowther. He translated the Bible into Yoruba language and created the primer for other languages. A former slave, he obtained a Ph.D. from Oxford University and served God in his generation. His grandson, Herbert Macauley became a foremost nationalist who fought against the colonialists. Neither must we forget Bishop Jugwell, Dr. Miller, Mr. Burgin, Rev. Dudley Rider and Rev. Richardson. These missionaries established the first church in northern Nigeria, as well as a school and hospital in 1929. The hospital, St. Luke Anglican Hospital is the second prominent hospital in Zaria after Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH).

It was the missionaries that created Nigeria, it was not the politicians. Indeed those politicians were educated and trained by the missionaries. A whole generation of leaders, and many of the people sitting in this auditorium this evening came from mission schools. The future of our fatherland was incubated by missionaries.

The 2^nd wave of the move of God in Nigeria was the takeover of the local administration of churches and missions post-independence era by indigenous personnel. It was a gradual transmission. As our people began to gain confidence to stand before God in the sanctuary and to minister to God’s people, administration was transferred to them. That was the first generational shift but it wasn’t so apparent. It would be the beginning of a pattern that God would replicate over and over again, until this day.

Indigenous denominations soon arose and the word “African” became a prefix of church labeling. It must be noted that Christ Apostolic Church came into major reckoning about this era with the great works of Apostle Babalola. He was a forerunner who exercised the powers of the ages to come.

These African churches arose because the people wanted to understand God within their cultural context. The work of God at this time was mainly evangelical. ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa) began to spread its tentacles, as well as the United Mission Church Society (UMCS). That was the second wave of the move of God in Nigeria.

The foundation for the 3^rd wave was quietly laid in Ile-Ife with the work of a little known Englishman called Pa Elton. He died some years ago. He is credited with introducing the baptism of the Holy Spirit to Nigeria and that was as early as 1960. It was the beginning of the modern generational shift as God began to target undergraduates and graduates of educational institutions for recruitment. Education was going to play a major role in the work of God. God clearly recognized that without higher education, His work would be limited. These well-educated recruits would become famed in establishing and expanding the frontiers of the Pentecostal movement. Notable among them are Pastor Enoch Adeboye, and Pastor Kumuyi of The Deeper Life fame. It is to be noted that the two were Mathematics lecturers. Adeboye held a Ph.D. They represented the second generational shift. The Assemblies of God would gain ascendance in the East as a Pentecostal denomination whilst the CAC (Christ Apostolic Church) would wax strong in the West. These ministries were focused on holiness and power.

The 4^th wave of the move of God was the liberalization phase. The Word of Faith movement was gaining ascendance in America. With regard to Nigeria, the notable ministries at this time were the Kenneth Hagin Ministries, the ministries of Oral Roberts, Rev. Joel Osteen, Rev. Schamback, Kenneth Copeland and Fred Price. These were very strong ministries. It would later be revealed that some of them shipped books and materials to Nigeria free of charge. That made the books and tapes accessible. More instructively, there was no import duty on religious materials at this time. And so the Word of God flooded the land. Government policy has a great bearing on the propagation of the gospel. But we jump ahead of ourselves.

A new generation of university students whose parents were products of the 1^st wave of the move of God began to seek God and His ways. They could not relate to orthodoxy. They wanted God in a fresh and living way. There was a generational disconnect between the old and the new.

The holiness movement had also become a stricture because it could not reconcile itself to the dynamics of modern society. It had rejected television as the devil’s box and enacted strict rules of fashion, in some cases accompanied with measurements.

About this time, a young medical student at the University of Lagos was quietly ordained by the Assemblies of God. He was the first of his kind as far as we know. His name is Tunde Joda, later Dr. Tunde Joda. He had keyed into the Word of Faith movement in America. He had no intention whatsoever of practicing medicine. He would be used mightily of God to liberalize the gospel. He was an apostle to his generation. He soon established Christ Chapel. It must be said that Christ Chapel was a fodder for weekend newspapers and gossip magazines. They focused on the hem of the garments of the female congregants. They were blind to the move of God. Christ Chapel would go on to incubate many of the well-known ministers we have today. The faith movement had begun in earnest. It was embraced by hordes of youths. The moderates among them would embrace the Four Square Gospel Church.

The orthodox generation failed to understand the thirst for spiritualism in the hearts of the youths. Some installed jazz sets in church hoping to draw the youths in with modern music. It was a demonstration of a lack of understanding of the plan of God for Nigeria.

A new generation of Pentecostal ministers emerged from the faith movement. These were well-educated professionals. Pastor Olubi Johnson of Scripture Pasture Christian Church (SPCC) did great work in Ibadan at this time, while Dr. David Oyedepo held the Kaduna axis. The Movement was concentrated on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, healing and prosperity. The nation caught fire.

Then came the fifth wave of the move of God. This was the era of the apostolic work of the professional generation. The new ministers were doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, bankers, computer scientists, etcetera. They occupied the rank and file of the corporate world. The Word had fully germinated at this time and it produced unimaginable harvest. Hundreds of churches were planted, and Nigeria became a gospel-exporting nation. The most notable explosion was in the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Following the directive from Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Dr. Tony Rapu and other men of God did incredible work in this regard. Many professionals were ordained into ministry. The ordination of these ministers dramatically increased the capacity of the Church. And a new terminology entered the lexicon of Christianity – “model parishes.” And so the Redeemed Christian Church of God expanded into every nook and cranny in Nigeria. The fifth mainstream denomination was born.

I regret to announce to you this evening that this era is coming to an end. The wave has matured. There are stirrings of the 6^th wave of the move of God in Nigeria. God is beginning to do a new thing. As sons of Issachar, we must discern the signs of the time.

Chapter 2

The emergence of social media as a community platform has created a new world order. We are in the era of people power. Governments have been toppled, dictators are fighting for dear life, and the unimaginable has become reality. There is an inversion of the order of power. The old order was like a TV broadcast. From one man, signals were beamed to many. In the new world order, from many, signals are sent to the man in authority. We got a glimpse of this inversion of world order with the petrol subsidy protests. Government, not aware of the emergence of a new world order increased the pump price of fuel surreptitiously. And the people revolted. That wasn’t the work of politicians however politicians on both sides of the divide like to spin it. It was the people as a consciousness.

A people movement is going to emerge in the Body of Christ – activist Christians who will demand a say concerning their nation. They will not accept the old order. They will question and challenge things. The new spiritual order will be lay apostles.

A similar thing occurred during the era of Reformation when the book emerged as a media. It overturned the world order and liberated the preaching of the Word of God. We tend to forget that what we typically call “the Bible” is not the Word of God. It is just a medium of data storage and transmission. Book is a medium. Today the Word of God is increasingly stored on phones and iPads. The Word of God is now registered in bits and bytes, not printer’s ink.

With the emergence of the book as a media during the era of Reformation, Truth went out into the world. That truth would bring an end to what is historically referred to as the dark ages. The light penetrated the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.

Just like in the time of Reformation the role of the pastor will change. He will become a coordinating Bishop of lay apostles, a motivator and enabler. The people will do the work of the ministry as envisaged by God. The pastor will become a shepherd not just of souls, but of initiatives. A pan-church movement will emerge. People will cluster online around interests and initiatives, not denominations. It won’t matter which denomination you belong to.

Every generation has a mandate from God. We serve God in our generation when we key into the generational mandate as individuals and play our assigned roles. The mandate of this present generation is the salvation of souls and the establishment of Pentecostalism as a social institution. The emergent generation will be focused on the salvation of nations. But this generation must lay the foundation. That’s how it’s always been.

Let me put things in context, especially as regards Nigeria.

There are two nations operating within the geographical expression we call Nigeria today.

The first is the apparent nation to which we all belong through subscription to the Nigerian constitution. It is made up of the constituent tribes – over 250 in all. When you hear about communal clashes, it is the fault lines in the symmetry of these tribes manifesting.

But there is a second nation. It is made up of a peculiar generation of people, a nation of priests-kings. It is often referred to as the holy nation. Nigerians who are members of this nation hold dual citizenship. Their primary function is to do the work of salinization for the physical space they occupy. They are the salt of the earth after all. They have often mistaken this function to mean moralization and this has colourated their work with condemnatory injunctions. There is a difference between morality and righteousness.

We know from our narrative of the waves of the move of God in Nigeria that it was the holy nation that facilitated the emergence and functioning of the nationstate called Nigeria. The missionaries created the educational system, they created the healthcare system, they created the workforce for the civil service, the judiciary as well as the police force – which was called the constabulary service in those days. These missionaries determined the values of generations and the socio-cultural mores through their educational and religious institutions. They created an eco-system of institutions that fed off each other and reinforced each other. The reverberative effect of the work of these missionaries created personnel for the working of the new nation and empowered generations long after the missionaries were gone. Ordinarily the work undertaken by the missionaries should have been undertaken by the State but there was no State. And the colonial masters were less inclined to improving the lot of the people without a selfish agenda.

In other words, the other nation, the holy nation played the role of government until the secular state emerged. The State picked up where the Church stopped. It has always been the intention of God that the Church should provide leadership to the State. It cannot and should not be the other way round. The blind cannot lead the partially sighted.

The Church needs a strategic rethink of its role in society. Nigeria came to be because the Church played a creative and contributive role. The Church cannot leave Nigeria alone. It wasn’t politicians that created Nigeria, it was the Church! Nobody gives birth to a child and abandons it! Worse that we’re turning ourselves into Nigeria’s prayer nannies. The mother is becoming the nanny just like the mother of Moses, Jochebed became a nanny to her own son! The Church has become Jochebed.

Righteousness exalts a nation, the Bible says. If righteousness exalts a nation, then clearly this righteousness that exalts nations is political! There are three types of righteousness enumerated in scriptures:

The first is the righteousness that comes from personal effort. It is the righteousness of good works. It has its place but it cannot book a ticket to Heaven.

Then there is the righteousness that is a gift of salvation. Let’s call it Gifted righteousness. You can’t work for it. It is the righteousness of Christ. It is the visa to Heaven.

The third is the righteousness that exalts nations. This is policy righteousness.

Clearly it is God’s intention for the Church to direct the affairs of State. If the Church is not meant to get involved in the affairs of State, why would God put instruction about the exaltation of nations in the Bible?

What is policy righteousness? Simply put, it means doing right by the people. The primary purpose of government is to secure AND enhance the life, property and welfare of the people. Any nation that does right by its people, be it a Moslem nation like the United Arab Emirates, or Buddhist nation like India, or communist nation like China, or a nation fermented in the era of Reformation like Switzerland, will be exalted. Nigeria will be exalted when we get our policies and priorities right, when those policies are people centric. Prayers don’t exalt nations. Policy righteousness does. We’ve been employing the wrong tool to try and turn the nation around. That is not to say that prayers have no place in politics or governance after all the heart of the king is in God’s hand. But prayer is not the primary weapon for the progression of a state. Policy righteousness is! The Church must pay close attention to policy formulation in Nigeria. We must focus on governance.

Issues for consideration in our policy intervention include:

The effectiveness of our political system
Our educational system including the quality of our universities
Our legal framework
Security
Macro economic policy
Power and other infrastructure
Transportation
Availability of skilled labour
Communication
The Quality of our financial system and capital markets
The complexity and humaneness of our tax code
Protection of physical and intellectual property rights
Context for entrepreneurship
Innovation infrastructure, and so on.

I have heard the anecdote that even though churches are increasing in the country yet Nigeria remains what it is. The ills of the country seem to multiply proportionally to the expansion of the Church population. The simple truth is that even if you double the number of churches in Nigeria, things will not change significantly. The tool of national development is policy righteousness, not personal righteousness. When we evangelise and plant churches we are increasing the statistics of personal righteousness, not policy righteousness. Personal righteousness exalts individuals in the sight of God. Policy righteousness exalts nations!

The consequences of the abdication of our role in the national arena are obvious: Boko Haram, infrastructural derelicts, lack of electricity, an illiterate educational system with collapsed standards, restive youths, ethno nationalism and jingoism, slumdog millionaires, absence of strategic thinking in the national arena, bloated budgetary allocations, fiscal deficits, inverse proportion of capital expenditure to recurrent expenditure, low standard of living, systemic corruption, lack of jobs for our youths, bad country image… Even South Africa for whose liberation we paid a huge price and are still paying is spitting on us. The reason you have visa difficulties today is because Britain took retaliatory measures after the nationalization of BP. It was the nationalization of BP that broke the camel’s back and made Britain buckle in its support of the apartheid regime. How bad must things get before the Church rises up? Nothing signifies the trajectory of our decline as a nation than the view from the declining altitude of aeroplanes as they prepare to land in Lagos. As you look down, heavily rusted corrugated iron sheets stare back at you in silent despair from the roofs of miles of houses. The roads connecting these houses are coated red in clay, dusty like the powder cake of extreme poverty. You know there are a few hundreds of thousands of people living down there and you wonder, aren’t these the people Jesus died for? They live in a land flowing with milk and honey yet the only milk some will ever know is the dribble of malnutrition from their mother’s breasts. At night there is swath of blackness – the infinitesimal abyss of want and neglect. Your sadness is compounded if you’re flying in from a place like Dubai.

A society is a laboratory. We create our own horrors when we breed children in abject poverty. When children have no education, hope is diminished. When you take away the possibility of hope from the hopeless what have they got to lose? You cannot fight a man who wants to die.

Surely a nation with 70% of its population under the age of 35 will pay close attention to education. It will prioritise education!

Strangely, we have a pathological habit of comparing ourselves with the lowest common denominator; we never compare ourselves to the developed nations of the world. We are only the giant of Africa insofar as we compare ourselves to the wretched of the Earth – the poor and beggarly nations.

If the secular nation is pathologically blind, must the holy nation be blind as well? As it is written:

Who is blind, but my servant?

Or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?

Who is blind as he that is perfect,

And blind as the Lord’s servant?

Seeing many things, but thou observes not;

Opening the ears, but he heareth not.

(Isaiah 42: 19)

The Church is distracted. We’re so caught up with material pursuit we can’t see the danger ahead. Let me say this loud and clear: When the State is imperiled, faith is imperiled.

If Nigeria must survive, we must enthrone policy righteousness – a policy formulation that proceeds from the philosophical bedrock of our faith. We must deploy sanctified intelligence to translate the philosophy of our King into practical realities.

The concept of freedom is central to Christianity for example. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed, the scriptures declare. Freedom of worship and freedom of association are natural progressions of the liberty proclaimed in the gospel. The challenge for the Church has been the progression of the principles of our faith. We have not escaped the literalist clutch yet the letter killeth but the intendment giveth life. We must understand the heart of God.

The truth is God will rather set up good hospitals than heal a few sick people at crusades. At some level it’s a more efficient approach. Medicine is of God. Laughter doeth good like medicine the Bible says. Therefore medicine doeth good, and since all good and perfect gifts proceed from God the Father, medical institutions are from God. Please don’t get me wrong. I am not against supernatural healing. I cannot be. I was cured of an incurable ailment as a very young graduate. But my healing proceeded from gifted righteousness not policy righteousness. We have not explored in full the gift righteousness. There’s still policy righteousness to explore. If the people are not healthy there will be no workforce to develop the nation. The nation cannot be exalted. Policy righteousness sets up good hospitals for the masses. Let us set up good hospitals to take care of what man can take care of and leave the impossible cases to God to sort out at healing crusades.

We must explore and derive principles from the attributes and personage of our Savior to chart policy directions for our dear country:

If Jesus is the light of the world, surely the people must have electricity.

If Jesus has come to give life and life more abundantly, surely the people must live in abundance and prosperity.

If Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil, then the people must have good hospitals and healthcare facilities.

If Jesus is the righteous judge, then we must have a just and equitable judicial system where judgments are not bought in the night and injustice is not perpetrated through unconscionable delays.

If Jesus has come to set us free, then the people must have chartered liberties in reality. Fundamental rights must be protected.

If Jesus taught with business case studies like the Parable of the Talents, surely God values entrepreneurship. We must encourage entrepreneurship and create venture capital. The Parable of the Talents is a venture capital case study.

If Jesus fed the multitude and gathered baskets thereafter, then we must create food baskets for our nation.

If Jesus fought oppression of the poor, how much more should we oppose the oppressive acts of some LASTMA agents and preying police officers.

If Jesus forgave tax collectors, surely that is indicative that our tax regime must not be punitive. The average business pays a thousand and four taxes.

If Jesus directed the rich to give to the poor, surely we must advocate compassionate capitalism and reward CSR (corporate social responsibility).

If Jesus says to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s, why is my tithe not tax deductible?

If the people travelled great distances to listen to Jesus, surely we must create an effective transportation system for our people such that distances are no barriers to church attendance.

These are progressions of policy righteousness. it demands that a value be placed on the lives of the people.

If we put a value on the lives of our people, they will not be taking “pure water”! Aren’t they totally debased in that survival ritual? You can’t go lower than pure water. Beyond that is a health catastrophe. How does a nation celebrate the purity of water by private dispensation as a mark of development? Should our people be drinking from polypropylene sachets?!

The alternative to a progressive Nigeria is not a choice we want to contemplate. That is the end of civil liberties for our people. It is the death knell of Christianity.

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There is a little known scripture with great relevance to our topic of discussion this evening. It’s in the Book of Samuel – 2 Samuel 7:23. In that passage David shows us the political responsibility that arises from the spiritual donation of a nationstate.

This is what he said:

“And what one nation is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land…”

Now even though this passage is historically about Israel, yet we know it applies to us because we are members of the commonwealth of Israel. We are sons of Abraham through faith in Christ Jesus. Since scriptures are not for private interpretation, this passage is applicable to us.

The passage lists our bi-polar responsibility as a people of God:

Responsibility to God
Responsibility to the State

According to the passage, apart from making a name for Himself and burnishing His reputation, the reason God went out of his way to redeem us is for us to do great and terrible things for our land. The doing of great and terrible things for Nigeria is one of the great responsibilities of redemption.

In other words the responsibility we have towards Nigeria is not just the saving of souls or the setting of moral standards; it includes the enablement of policy righteousness that the land may be exalted. How else are we going to do great and terrible things for God for His land?

There is the place for prayer like we pointed out earlier. But even this points towards policy righteousness. We must pray for those in authority, the scriptures enjoin, so that there may be peace in the land and so that the gospel may be preached (I Timothy 2: 1-4). If leadership is selfish, or greedy, or ignorant, or mentally deficient, or morally incapacitated and lacking strategic skill sets, there will be no peace in the land. Peace is not just the absence of external aggression; it is the absence of internal aggression as well. Peace entails social equity. In other words, our evangelistic work will be ineffectual if we don’t sort out the economy, if our youths are not enabled to fend for themselves, if the judiciary is inequitable, if the masses are neglected, and our children are not educated. Leadership is critical to a nation. That’s why God wants us to pray for those in authority. Without peace, even the Prince of Peace cannot reign.

I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly, Jesus declares. Jesus is all about life, but we have so gotten used to death in Nigeria that when the newspapers report that over 2,000 people have died from the menace of Boko Haram, it’s just another statistic. What is 2,000 out of 150 million? Precious in the sight of God is the death of his saints. How about the 42 saints who died last but one Sunday in Church from bomb blast? The blood of Jesus has been spilled. There should be no more bloodshed of the saints.

When the military began execution on beaches they scarred a whole generation. Typically life is celebrated on beaches with picnics. But we celebrated death on our beaches with execution. We even called it Bar Beach Show.

Because we do not accord worth to human life, our infant mortality rate is high. Our best and brightest die daily in accidents on dangerous roads. There are no warning signs on our roads. Broken down trailers just pack up for the night. By morning, cars have rammed into them. There are no street lights on our highways. Our byways are full of robbers. We hardly have a fire brigade. We struggle with the provision of good hospitals.

That our Lord abandoned 99 sheep to go after one lost one should give us an idea of the value of one life. You can’t redeem it with all the wealth in the world the Bible says. America may be on a moral decline but policy righteousness still upholds the nation. America’s policy righteousness dictates that if Somali pirates abduct one American, three Somali lives must be exchanged for that one American life. And the scriptures were fulfilled:

Since thou wast precious in my sight,

Thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee:

Therefore will I give men for thee,

And people for thy life.

(Isaiah 43.3)

And in another place it saith:

Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,

And the prey of the terrible shall be delivered;

For I will contend with him that contended with thee

And I will save thy children

(Isaiah 49.25)

Our work of righteousness is cut out for us. We must move the nation closer to Biblical ideals.

Without a doubt, the nation has problems. The transformation of Nigeria will require a radical vision. It will require strategic planning. It will require intellectual assets. We cannot continue to wallow in existential governance. We demand more from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). We demand more from Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN)!

A Dubai is not created by accident. It is created by radical vision, thoughtful planning and determined execution.

Today, Nigeria is no man’s land. Anything goes! I read in the newspapers that some people have business cards that read, “Friend of the Governor” or “Friend of the President”. I can’t begrudge friendship with a governor or President as a profession, but what disturbs me is that the business cards bear Nigeria’s coat of arms! How can these things be?! Shouldn’t such people be prosecuted? They have appropriated the symbol of State, our collective patrimony for morally doubtful ends, yet nobody talks. Is there nobody watching out for God’s inheritance? Where are the watchmen?

To redeem Nigeria, we must create a culture of excellence. We are surrounded by so much ugliness we have been inoculated with ugliness. We have no consciousness of ugly again. Our houses are even painted dirty brown so we can avoid future painting. How can we incubate our children in ugly and expect them to have a rarified sense of aesthetics?!

Do you know that ugly cars are not allowed in Dubai. Your car will not be re-registered if it is considered old, and old by Dubai standards can be anything from 4 years old. The Sheikh hates ugly! Ugly cars are exported to neighbouring countries.

Our airport cannot be a graveyard for comatose fuselages and dead ATM machines. Even the facing panels of the makeshift air-conditioners at the airport are carelessly tossed aside after servicing and no one cares? Where are the watchmen? I ask again.

Arise, O compatriots! Nigeria needs you. Nigeria needs me. But more importantly, God needs all of us.

Thank you and God bless!

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Delivered at The Redeemed Christian Church,Olive Tree Parish, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos
Tuesday, March 20, 2012