BEFORE I JOIN POLITICS: a message to all NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS.

I have two confessions.

I love Politics. I am not exactly sure about the time when I took a keen interest in the Nigerian Political field, considering however that I cannot exactly remember when Dr Chuba Okadigbo was Senate President or when he was impeached but I am more familiar with Rt. Hon. Anyim Pius Anyim's tenure as Nigeria's Senate President, it would be accurate to estimate that I probably took a salient interest and became a keen observer of Nigerian politics around the year 2002/2003. I however have very fond memories of my brother and I on the pretext of going to read at the hospital library very close to our house, spending more than a half of our supposed reading time leafing through newspapers (Ok! Please don't tell Mrs O). Initially the rear sports pages of the newspapers (Vanguard, Daily Trust) were our specialty until I began to go beyond the back pages to stuff that were more political. Sometime later, the NTA Network News @ 9pm becoming a fixed schedule of my daily life, a disposition I inherited albeit by example from my father. More recently, I can still picture myself "arguing", discussing and heatedly debating with my roommates and friends on current affairs in Nigeria. So much is my love for these rigorous debates that I have had not a small number of folks tell me I should have put in to study Law or Political Sciences instead of the medical career,

which I currently pursue. This was my "official" induction into the world of politics. You might wonder, why the stories? Well, it will all soon get lucid. Now, here is my second confession.

I am an Idealist. Okay, not necessarily a philosophical one but as one who always looked out for perfection and set high standards for myself and others, I've always been an advocate of "how it should be" and not "how it is". Of course, I do not find it difficult to adapt or acclimatize to circumstances considering the Nigerian factor. An advantage, you might assert but this hasn't been all glowing. Some of my friends and colleagues have never been comfortable with this high expectations I have, especially of them and the gigantic disappointments that follow when they cannot validate the ideals I have set for them have caused many a fight with folks. I always defend myself with sayings like "you can do better than this", "I just felt you are more than this" et al.

Okay!  Nevertheless, this is not about me. It's about something more important.

I recognise politics as a tool and medium for societal development and indulgence of the ideals of a community leading to the consolidation and the endearing of the common good. It has however become a monstrosity that politics for Nigeria has not exactly been the above.

Recently, my attention was drawn to the fact that our motto as a country is "UNITY AND FAITH, PEACE AND PROGRESS". Laughable, you know, if I would speculate that it is even clear to the blind that these four principles that we vigorously lay claims to are a rarity for our today's country.

Moreover, a cursory look at the daily newspapers will give an inkling of the many atrocities being committed in the country - graft, extralegal killings, rapes, sabotage and so on. The question then beckons: What exactly is the bane of our problems as a country?

Probing me on what exactly would be the reason why our country has not been able to effectively manoeuvre the murky waters of politics with an attendant result of creating a better world for our citizens and the general populace has been an herculean task.

Growing up, I had always believed that the major factor responsible for all these ailments has been the dearth of Christians in the helm of affairs and leadership of this country. I have always held the belief, of which some of my favourite Pastors preach it too, that the believers in this country need to aspire to political offices to allow their "righteousness" to rub off on those offices as this would be the perfect recipe for the change, which we desire. I have always preached that the only reason why darkness exists is the absence of light. I do not seek to discountenance the above submissions as I still hold them as truth even as at this moment. However, there is a new light that has been dawning within me and that's exactly what I want to share with you here.

In spite of my idealism, it would be a very tall dream to anticipate that day when the believers who will then institute measures to engineer the much needed change that we so desire will occupy the leadership of this country. That day will definitely not come, or probably not soon enough. In addition, it is without gainsaying that recently, there has been an influx of the "born-agains" into political offices but the most astonishing and confounding consequence has been the lethargy with which the supposed change is coming about.

Today, as we celebrate the 53rd Anniversary of the Independence of our Great Nation, I come to propose a new creed. This is definitely, not one that you have not heard before. However, I believe that with a dogmatic practice of this creed, we might be on our way to finally realizing the ideals of the founding fathers, some of whom paid with their blood to bring this country forth.

This is my creed.

I posit to you today that while it is gracious to pray that good people will ascend to positions of authority in this country, it is far nobler to begin to effect a change from downward up. The quickest way to enact a revolution is to have a strong army of people who have an assured belief and are committed to practice what they believe (And by a revolution, the word has not always meant an overthrow of government). Have you ever tried to imagine the ripple effects it would have all around the country if all the "born agains" decide that we would neither give bribes nor take bribes in any government office that we find ourselves? Imagine the drama we would create if we all decide that we would obey all the traffic laws governing our roads. Can you envisage how our streets would be like, if we decided one day that we would not throw our refuse including the nylons of our packaged water on the streets again? It so seems like the ambience of our cities have become so filthy today that the man who decides to be different is regarded as strange or weird. How about if, we all take a decision that for the upcoming Universities Matriculation Examination (UTME), we will train our young ones not to cheat or engage in any other exam malpractice but to rely on their God-given ability and pursue honesty and integrity? Have you ever considered how magnificent it would be if we begin to input into our young men and women the dignity of work and the imperatives of exploiting their potentials to full capacity? Picture our churches taking a unanimous decision to invest more in capacity development for their congregants, leading to enhancement of our work-spaces and an increased efficiency in our offices? Imagine the difference such would make. I put it to you again. You can be the change that you so desire. You can set and lay an example for others to follow. Our Christianity is not just about leaving holy lives by "not sinning" and packaging ourselves for heaven but it must extend to obeying the rules and regulations governing the land, setting an example for others to follow and beaming our lights in our little corners. If your Pastor preaches to you on the essence of not going late to church but does not include the fact that it is also a "sin" to go late to work also, then he is definitely not preaching the total gospel to you. An end must come to staffing of government offices by believers with attendant outcomes of irresponsibility, unruliness and inefficiency. We are the light of the world. Not the light of the church! An end must come to our coming to church bringing forth our lights, and trying to outshine one another by competing on who has the "brightest light" while the world who should be the greatest beneficiary of our light wallows in thick darkness.

We cannot afford to wait for the future before doing the right thing. The future started yesterday! Each one of us must take the decision that beginning from today, we commit to do the right thing, irrespective of what others are doing around us. We are choosing not to follow the crowd. We must choose to be the "voice in the wilderness". We must choose to be that candle in the thickest darkness. Once again, I hear God saying, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes".

More importantly, for a very long time, I always felt that the only way by which God can fulfill His divine mandate over a land or a people is by putting over them a leader "after His own heart". However, I recently began to understand by inspiration that this is not exactly the whole truth. In fact, we ignorantly limit the inherent ability of God when we affirm such beliefs and pray that God would bring such a one into leadership. Throughout scriptures, examples abound about how God would boycott "human protocols" and interfere in the affairs of a supposed "gentile" government to ensure that his will and purpose is accomplished. In Ezra 1:1, we see God stirring up the heart of Cyrus, a Gentile King to mandate the people for the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. In Daniel, we see God working via a vision and dreams and setting into place circumstances that would reveal his almightiness and eventually would lead to the fulfillment of his plans and purposes in those kingdoms. Proverbs 21:1 says "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." What I'm trying to do is to show by scriptural inspiration that no matter how appalling a government is, no matter how anti-God they claim to be, God is still in the business of interfering in the affairs of man to accomplish His grand plans and designs. Little wonder Apostle Paul in I Timothy 2 was saying that it is good and acceptable when we offer prayers on the behalf of those in authorities and for Kings. I believe one salient message the Apostle was passing here is the ability of God to hold the hearts of Kings in His hands and turn it wherever he wills. Therefore, he asks that we must offer prayers on their behalf.

I believe this is vicinity that the church in Nigeria has not fully exploited yet. We must begin, as a body, not just to pray for the head of government but also to begin to lift up specific policies and strategies of government to God's hands to seek His intervention. We must begin to act not only as the conscience of the land, or as the light of the world, we must begin to function as the salt of the earth. We must begin to, by our prayers, pull down strongholds, cast down imaginations and oil the wheels of progress for our nation, Nigeria. I believe that we can establish through our prayers, policies that will set us on the wheel of progress. I believe that we can trigger an intervention in seemingly dead or intractable situations, like in the days of Daniel, which will eventually lead to a re-positioning of our best brains at the helms of parastatals and agencies that will have a direct bearing on the rapid development of our nation. I believe that we can effect a major pulsation in the land such as has never been seen before. The church has stayed for far too long in her comfort zone and it is time to assume that position of influence, that seat where wisdom will flow from the church to the rest of the world. That is the Will of God.

Once again, I offer sincere wishes with goodwill to Nigerians on our Independence Anniversary, but if you were expecting me to declare for political office, you definitely are an idealist with super-high expectations. However, don't wait for me. You need to get MAD. Yes, Make A Difference.