Posted by 9jabook.com on November 11, 2009 at 5:30am
LITTLE ENDS: What the priest did not tell Bode George
by Pius Adesanmi
Re-Written and Edited for 9jabook by Abi John Balogun
If I had my way, the priest who officiated at Bode George’s first devotional service in prison would receive twelve strokes of the cane on his bare behind for making unworkable promises on behalf of God. Here is how Daily Sun reports the matter: “Earlier on Sunday, George along with ten men, led by a priest had a devotional service in the prison.
Daily Sun gathered that the men were led into the prison patio by the priest at about 10.30 a.m. According to a source the service began at about 10:45 a.m. with a short prayer conducted by the lead priest, followed by some minutes of exhortation, enjoining the convict to hold his peace and allow God to fight for him.” The priest “enjoined the convict to hold his peace and allow God to fight for him?” Well, Bode George is welcome to hold or drop his peace. That is his business, not ours. About God, however, I’ve got bad news for the convicted thief. That coward of a priest hid something from him: God will not fight this one for Bode George.
Like the Igbo deities in Chinua Achebe’s fiction, the Christian God does not fight unjust and unfair wars of blame. He does not fight for thieves and corrupt people who deliberately violate numbers one, two, three, and eight of the Ten Commandments. What do these specific Commandments say?
(1)You shall have no other gods before me; (2) you shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments; (3) you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain; (8) you shall not steal.
To violate the 8th Commandment (you shall not steal), Bode George and members of Nigeria’s political rulership do not jump the queue. They violate every Commandment on the road to number eight, especially the first three. You shall have no other Gods before me? They transform money and material things into the only god they know and worship. You shall not make any carved image or bow down and serve them? They turn the Ghana-must-go bag into an image that they bow down to and worship. You shall not take the name of God in vain? There is no member of Nigeria’s shameless and corrupt rulership who does not drop the name of God or Allah in vain while stealing. Well, you already know what they do to number eight.
This is the scenario that Bode George’s priest ignored while enjoining him to let God fight for him.
This priest did not tell the convicted felon that God pities and pardons only repentant sinners who first admit their sins and make amends. To see the face of God, Bode George must first become contrite, stop strutting around Kirikiri like a peacock, stop holding court like Louis XIV, admit and confess his sins, return to the Nigerian people every penny he has stolen starting from his stint as Governor of Ondo state, apologise publicly to Nigerians, serve his full term, go home and sin no more.
Back to the priest who forgot to lay out this roadmap to redemption before Bode George. What he has done is to add another nail to the coffin of the Clergy in Nigeria. With the exception of Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, Archbishop John Onaiyekan, and Pastor Tunde Bakare, Nigeria’s religious leaders have been largely complicit in the corruption of the political class.
Think of our friends on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway Also our other friends from the Embassy of God right here in naija, where to get a visa you must donate all you have.The sadness of this corruption is that in 99.9percent of these churches, the corruption inherent amongst the congregation even in the churches is alarming !
They carry out Church contracts after overblowing the amounts and grant them to their own companies all in the name of Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox working in the vineyard .Why would they complain if their chief donors are Corrupt Officials ?
. They accept donations, offerings, and tithe from what they clearly know are proceeds of looting; they encourage looters to come and “sow seeds in the Lord’s vineyard”; they accept import waivers which they know are granted through nepotism; they provide front row seats and photo-ops in their churches for the most venal and corrupt characters in the land; and, above all, they are too cowardly to call our rulers in Abuja their only real name: THIEVES!
As we coast in this 11th day of the 11th month of the 2009 9+2=11 let us remember our heritage of Rebrain Naija Revolutionise 9ja with truth and Clarity Ask your pastors why is OBJ in this church and you are not talking ? ask your Imam haba haba wetin IBB dey do here kuo ? ask your babalawo Baba o kilode
kini big deal agbalagba to wa legbe ?
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