FROM THE PREACHER"S LENSES

Sam AwedaSunday, April 22, 2018
[email protected]
Lagos, Nigeria

THE HOPE OF NIGERIA; SENATOR MANTU IS AT THE LEAD

he prayer of any man, made in earnest, not for ulterior motive or selfish gain, God will surely answer.

My faith does not waver any day that the reproach of Nigeria would be over.

I always believe that because of the remnants in Nigeria, who are earnestly seeking the face of God; God will be merciful.

My faith never waver any day that because of the suffering masses of Nigeria who remain faithful to God, who bear with pain the corruption, bad behavior, wickedness etc that is prevalent in the nation but refuse to participate, God will over turn our evil days..

To see these happen is what we occupy ourselves with in our Ministry and Church

Of course I must confess that on many occasions, watching how evil escalates in spite of all the prayers of men of God, I get discouraged and wondered when my desire for a glorious Nigeria will come to pass.

But God never fails, at such times, He revives my soul again with faith and courage.

I was yet to complete a four series sermon, which I was preaching with the topic "It is not Late for Nigeria" when the light shined in the tunnel. Senator Ibrahim Mantu lit the light of hope.

So today, the topic of my sermon is "The Hope of Nigeria; Senator Mantu is at the Lead.

And we shall pray for the Senator for God to empower him to be steadfast on his new path to set things right in Nigeria and for him to be a beacon of light for other Senators and the bigwigs in our politics; to infect them with the desire to build a virile nation where every citizen is taken care of rather than some people playing gods with our money, which they have stolen.

In the meantime let us commit this hour into the hands of God.

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The Hope of Nigeria; Senator Mantu is at the Lead. Often, when people call me or meet me on the street, the usual complementary comment is "Well done, may God make the people who need to hear your message to redeem the country listen" I know they are referring to the people at the corridor of power. They hardly consider that every citizen has a role to play in order to make Nigeria a better place for us all.

Anyway, God has heard your prayers. One bigwig politician, has now seen the need to work for the good of the masses rather than them alone living in surplus.

Another bigwig politician we should pray that God uphold is Dr. Usman Bugaje who in 2007 voiced out a message of understanding. I will come to this later. God is at work, no doubt.

Pray that God causes a volcanic spiritual eruption in the minds of those who can turn things around for the good of the masses of Nigeria who are meanwhile suffering.

The recent story of Senator Ibrahim Mantu is not new to people on Social Media.

For those who have not heard him, it is important that I give the background.

Senator Mantu was on Channel TV on Friday March 30 2018 where he confessed to giving financial inducement to Electoral Officers and Security Officers in order to favour his party in the past elections.

He now regrets his action with a feeling of discomfort of how the outside world perceives us.

He now wants the images of Nigeria to be repaired.

He will also want to see a government committed to her citizens, where no one will be a beggar in his own country. "This must change" he said as he believes that the Nation has the resources to take care of every citizen.

Hear Him:

"I am now confessing the truth. What do I mean? I didn't have to go and change election but you provide money. You give money to INEC boys to help; that is, if they see any chance they should try and favour you. You provide money for the security. All our elections in the past, I've been in the game for about 20 years-----------------------------"

"What we used to do before, we make provision for INEC, we make provision for security, we make provision for even agents of other parties so that they would not raise any objection to what we are able to get. Whether I rig myself or not, but when I provide those resources to the officials, I am rigging election"

Let me shed more light into their activities. I am told that the power broker of the party in the states obtains Identification cards of Security Agents for his party agents. Remember that movements are restricted for all citizens on the days of elections but not for Security Agents. But since these Party agents carry IDs of Security Agents, they can move freely to all voting centres and upturn votes into the favour of their master's party and carry out all other kinds of atrocities.

Let us hear Senator Mantu further:

"You didn't even ask me why 'am I thinking this way" "

"I am tired of being seen as a criminal on the street of the world because you are a Nigerian.

You assume that everybody is an innocent human being until being proven otherwise but whilst you are outside this country with a green passport and they see that you are a Nigerian, even if you are a pastor or an imam they will assume that you are criminally minded or you have criminal tendencies just because of where you come from. That must change,"

"I am tired of living in poverty in the midst of plenty. Even how much you have, you see people coming to you every day, my wife has given birth, my relation is in the hospital. Every day.

But if everybody has enough to take care of his or herself, they won't come bordering you saying give me this, give me that.

We have the resources that people can live decent lives without being beggars to those who have.

Just because we haven't gotten our own governance system right.

So, we need good governance, good governance can only be provided by good people, good people who are truly repentant, who are actually there to serve the people, who are concerned about the well-being of the people being the primary concern.

If we have such leaders, then I can tell you they would judiciously and prudently use our resources for the common good of everybody.

May God bless Senator Mantu. It is the Spirit of God who wants to liberate the people of Nigeria from poverty, that is working in Him. Let us all pray for Senator Mantu for courage and strength to be able to stir up the minds of other Political bigwigs to follow his new discovered path.

Senator Ibrahim Mantu's confession and repentance is answer to the prayer, efforts and sacrifice of those of us in the "Jesus for the World Revival Mission" also known as 'Peoples' Church' and our sister partner "Inter-Religious Organization for the Rehabilitation of Nigeria through Righteousness"

For a long time, I have been very worried that Nigerians live a sub-standard life, which shouldn't be.

Nigeria has nothing to do with poverty if our leaders have been upright and dedicated to the people they vow to serve.

A member of our Mission living in Colorado, US, in excitement posted the clip of Senator's confession to me on Saturday 03.31. 2018 saying these are exactly what we have been preaching, coming from the mouth of one of the people who can act on them. Our prayers and efforts are already blessed.

Mantu's statements are just the summary of our campaign, seeking for a Nigeria where no citizen has to play sycophancy to anyone in order to eat, where no one citizen has to leave his father land to play servitude in another man's country but where every citizen has access to the commonwealth, provided with the opportunity to live a godly life, whereby temptation to sin due to poverty will be minimized and they can be accommodated in heaven after this their earthly tents are pulled down (death).

I preached a sermon, some years ago titled "Position of Authority, Who Does the Shoes Fit?

I pointed to us in the sermon, what the Bible in the book of Proverbs 29: 1-2 says "When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice but when the wicked are in power, the people groan"

We now know the reason why we have been groaning. It is because we have been enthroning evil people.

Hear what Senator Ibrahim Mantu now says;

"So, we need good governance, good governance can only be provided by good people, good people who are truly repentant, who are actually there to serve the people, who are concerned about the well-being of the people being the primary concern-----"

I am telling you, the Lord is at work. Our suffering is almost over.

When the Senator said "I am tired of living in poverty in the midst of plenty, actually, what he ought to say is "I am tired of living in plenty when the majority are living in poverty" because he further said that he was tired of people coming to him everyday seeking for one help or the other. He then said that they should make governance responsible to the people in a way that everyone has enough to take care of themselves, without having to parade the gardens of those who stole their wealth.

These have been my message over the years, which has consumed me and consumed all resources God gave me. I have said it a million times that I do not understand how anyone can be comfortable seeing the suffering, which the people of this country are going through while they continue to revel and gloat in luxury except the hearts, that are over taken by Satan.

In the first part of my just concluded four series sermon titled "It is not late for Nigeria, I wrote:

"I do not understand the joy or the self-importance there is, in me having a crowd of people parading my house endlessly seeking for one help or the other.

If it is money acquired with my sweat, it may be understandable but if it is public money, it is deplorable.

Bill Gate is the second richest man in the world. He acquires his wealth with his sweat, but then no one parades his house? Yet millions of people all over the world benefit from his wealth, without even knowing who their benefactor is.

Certainly, many of our big men in Nigeria must have their heads examined at Aro.

Senator Mantu said that he was tired of people looking at him as a criminal at the outside world simply because he is a Nigerian.

Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye having a medical practice in Texas has performed a surgery, which I have heard no one ever done. He took out a fetus from his mother's womb, removed the tumors in in the fetus and planted the fetus back into the womb of the mother and the baby was eventually born normally at the due time.

You will be mistaken to think that this wonderful Paediatric Surgeon will be accorded any respect at any immigration border if he carries a Nigerian passport.

The fact as Mantu has rightly put it, is that every Nigerian is seen as someone with criminal tendencies.

And have our fathers not put it rightly that it is only one person who is blind in a certain town when the whole town is labeled as a town of blind people.

Does anyone remember how Sometimes in 2008 some of our big men were ridiculed and humiliated in South Africa by a common South African woman Immigration Officer. The News agency of Nigeria described the treatment as "ignominious". We are talking of personalities involving a former High Commissioner to the same South Africa and two other serving Senators. The intervention of the serving Consul-General of Nigeria in Johannesburg and other top Nigerian personalities of our Embassy could not help matters.

Nigerians are executed abroad without reference to the Government at home.

Something that will never happen to citizens of countries that command respect.

The fact is that Nigeria has no respect anywhere in the world.

Why?

The reason is that they see our leaders as irresponsible people who live in extreme affluence, buying mansions all over the world, having expensive aircrafts while the people they govern live in squalor and their well educated citizens do menial jobs in Diaspora.

Go and ask our flamboyant Fela Durotoye. After Fela's experience, he wrote profoundly:

  1. "Ordinary citizen of a great nation shall forever be treated better than a successful citizen of a failed nation.

  2. Individual success in the midst of collective failure will always be despised.

In the year 2000, I published a book titled "Except the Nation Prosper, Individual Prosperity is Short lived, Won't last"

The same book is titled "The Prosperity of the Nation, Answer to Individual Lasting Prosperity" (ISBN-978-35657-3-7)

May God allow our leaders to have this understanding and work towards it.

I remember that I once wrote in one of my articles under "Preacher's Lenses" in the nigeriaworld.com that the stigma of carrying a Nigeria passport is enough for me such that I can not in any way be persuaded to carry a Nigerian Diplomatic Passport. I will refuse it because it is the identity of "Chief of Barawo Bansa"

Unfortunately people in all arms of our Government see it as a class of status to carry it, not caring how the outside world perceive them because they have no pride for themselves nor the nation.

We in our Mission, see Senator Mantu's "Born again" confession as an answer to our prayers, with thanks to God that our campaign or gospel is now reaching those that can turn things around.

It is God's delight that any sinner repents, turns away from his sins, restitutes and starts to do good. So, this development does not call for prosecution as a number of people are canvassing or which party is free of what Mr. Mantu confessed to? What ought to actually happen is to rejoice and welcome the development and pray that all other politicians also come to repentance and start to put the nation first. I encourage Senator Mantu to work on all other senators and politicians, to turn their hearts to the right.

I do not forget another bigwig politician, Dr. Usman Bugaje. It was at the day of honour in respect of a late political juggernaut at Abuja on Thursday 29 November 2007.

Dr. Bugaje stood up to voice out one thing that always bothered him and which he was never shy to put across to their late leader in the Arewa Consultative forum.

He said that hardly would there be any weekend when there would not be a gathering of who is who in the North for one ceremony or the other; be it wedding, naming of a new born, funeral, birthday etc involving spending lots of cash, yet there would be one person, somewhere in the North who will need only N1000.00 for medication in order to live but will not have it and will die.

What a decent voice! The likes of Mantu and Bugaje are the Nehemiahs we pray for and may the righteous God give us thousands of them. Amen.

I plead with Senator Mantu and Dr. Usman Bugaje to infect other bigwigs in the Nigerian politics with their conviction, so that Nigeria leaders will start being responsible to her citizens and get Nigeria erased from the list of 'Pariah' nations. I believe that Prof. Senator Sola Adeyeye will gladly join them in the upheaval for the good of the nation. After all a little yeast make the whole dough to rise.

Let us pray.

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