NIGERIA NEEDS REPENTANCE NOT PRAYER

NIGERIA NEEDS REPENTANCE NOT PRAYER

by Moses Oludele Idowu

“And it ought to be more carefully considered, that all men promiscuously do homage to God, but, very few truly reverence him. On all hands there is abundance of ostentatious ceremonies, but sincerity of heart is rare.”

“For properly speaking we cannot say that God is known where there is no religion or piety.”
– John Calvin (1509-1564) ( “Institutes of Christian Religion” p.40)

The Nigerian Church currently suffers from two or three major debilities the worst of which is her chronic theological poverty. This poverty has bred a virus that has infected most Nigerians. Nigerians now suffer from a poverty of the mind, a poverty of logic and this poverty is widespread, cutting across all religions, denominations and groups. Even Muslims are not better. They too think very poorly just like their Christian counterparts and other Nigerians.
It is for this reason I have prefaced this essay with the words of John Calvin, one of the greatest theologians of the Reformation and even of all time.

This last week has been noisy and heavy in Nigeria. The wind has been blowing and Nigeria on the high seas in the midst of storms. If there is any proof that Nigeria is now drifting this week offers the proof. If there is any need for a proof that Nigerian rulers are at their wit ends, we now have a clue. Because we know that natural men only resort to prayers when they have exhausted all possibilities and all their options and are at their wit ends. No natural man asks for prayer for what he knows he can do comfortably.

Just this week news came of a proposed ” national prayer” to be held in Abuja at all mosques and also at the Ecumenical Centre by both Christians and Muslims. This prayer session will be led by the First Lady, pastor and politician, Oluremi Tinubu and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser. According to one Chief Segun Balogun it was being spearheaded by a National Prayer Forum.
During this session 313 clerics or individuals will recite verses from the Quran for 7 days making a total of 2,192 times and Christians too will gather for 7 days at the Ecumenical Centre led by “prayer warriors” from various denominations. The object of the prayers is “seeking the intervention of God in Nigeria Affairs.”

Few days later too the Sultan of Sokoto and head of all Nigerian Muslims lent his voice and also spoke asking for prayers for our leaders. Then just yesterday I saw the declaration of a 40-day fast by the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.
The import of all these is we should pray and fast for our nation to overcome hardship and adversities.

The call to prayer by leadership at critical times is good but there is something we are missing. There is a fundamental truth this nation and its corrupt and effete political leadership needs badly to hear. This morning I will tell this nation the truth it badly needs to hear.

For years and years various leadership have called for prayers in this nation. Men have been mobilized to distant lands in the Middle East to pray for Nigeria and even men at home to pray. Yet our problems are worse today than before.

Why?

Two years ago Zamfara State Government sent 97 clerics to Saudi Arabia to pray against banditry. Has banditry stopped now in Zamfara? It is now worse.

Just in January this year the Federal Government sent 152 clerics to Saudi Arabia, “the largest number of clerics to Hajj” by any government to pray for Nigeria. 96 billion naira or more was used in subsidy as part of this. Now has our problems solved? If they have why do we need another national prayer now?
This is the deception, the falsehood that my heart is struggling to combat among Nigerians. This is the poverty of intellect bred by theological poverty that afflicts most Nigerians and the leadership too.

There is now a lucrative prayer industry made up of marabouts, alfas and prayer contractors and pastors. And the more we prayed the more the problem compounds. Only one thing is certain about Nigeria today: the uncertainty of tomorrow.

It ought to be clear by now but for intellectual laziness and theological poverty that prayer alone won’t solve our problems. This is where theology matters and where theology can help us. Theology, true theology does not contradict sound logic.

Prayer, on its own and in itself, is not meritorious. Any theologian knows that. Prayer has nothing in itself to crown your desires into fulfillment. Prayer is only as strong as other contending factors – truth, humility, contrition, repentance for evil deeds, equity, righteousness, love, worth, justice, mercy etc. These are the powers that lift prayers, that give wings to our petitions and bring them before God for special attention. Prayer on its own and devoid of these qualities is useless and worse than useless. This is the mystery behind Nigerian poverty and worsening adversities amidst constant prayers. Because they refused to change or turn a new leaf. It is your life and the quality of your life that gives power to your prayers before God.

Nigeria does not need prayers now; Nigeria needs repentance even more. Please stop wasting public funds on organizing empty religious jamboree without any spiritual content or truth. Until Nigerians change and become better, – better wives, better husbands, better teachers, better citizens, responsible parents, honest labourers, merciful employers, obedient children, God- fearing leaders… Nothing will change about Nigeria even if you send men to the moon or crescent to pray.

In the same nation that is praying and calling for prayers there is so much evil, so much wickedness and murders and hypocrisy. And no one is talking of repenting of these and turning a new life. Only prayers to bribe God and turn away adversities as if He was the author of the adversities. [He hasn’t even started yet with Nigeria with His judgements. When He begins you won’t even be able to talk because everyone will be too stunned to silence.] The adversities are those caused by the misrule of our leaders; the disasters we are going through presently are those occasioned by the human disasters that have been at the corridors of power in the last two decades. They are not from God.

In this nation today there are ritualists who sell human parts and they have rich clients who patronize them. In the same nation that is soliciting for “God’s intervention” there is double standard even in the application of Law. The same nation that wants God to intervene practices two- tier system in his justice, one àfor the poor and the other for the rich. How long has Yahaya Bello been evading arrest of EFCC accused of stealing 80 billion naira and he is still walking free but the EFCC can swoop and descend on students and arrest them even without evidence. There is always one standard for the rich and another for the poor in Nigeria.
Terrorists and kidnappers make phone calls and operate bank accounts and the security agents don’t know them. But they can intercept phone calls of protesters and block their bank accounts.

There are dens of ritualists in most of Nigerian cities today. There are ritual club houses where men and women dance naked, commit immorality and bestiality even with animals. And rich men, an elite class void of honour and culture with more money than sense patronize them.
All forms of unutterable vileness go on in this nation today. Is it not a shame that Sodom and Gomorrah had a better justice system than Nigeria according to the books of antiquity?

And we offer prayers to a thrice – holy God rather than reform these. Of what use is the prayer of a wicked man or woman to God? Your prayers insult Him because Nigerians have refused to change for the better.

There is hunger in this land today and much sufferings across board. Children will sleep this night crying in many homes because their parents lack even simple things to give them to eat. Even with all the blessings God has deposited in this land we are in want because some people, a segment of people stole the commonwealth – the same people who are always the first to call us to prayers.

This kind of hypocrisy angers God. He does not need that kind of prayer. Wicked people are always the first to solicit and ask for prayers. That is why Nigerian rulers are always putting pressure on the people to pray. Because prayers give them the opportunity to escape scrutiny and allow them to shift their responsibilities to God. That way when they failed they can turn to the people that their prayers were not enough. Or they can, like that ineffectual Fulani hegemonist from Daura, resort to fatalism and the fatalistic worldview that it was the wish of Allah.

Do you need prayers to construct roads, pay living wages, feed the hungry, uphold justice, punish the guilty, educate the populace, alleviate sufferings, refurbish the universities, render services, provide good leadership…? Do you need any supplication to do these if you are not mischievous?

But rather than do these we resort to prayer because it helps someone to escape his responsibility and shift the duty on God. You heard the Sultan asking Nigerians to leave the leaders alone and complain or turn to God. Another General Overseer said similar thing previously. It is a game and NIgeria is the biggest game.
But God did not elect a leader for Nigeria, Nigerians did. When the leaders wanted power they didn’t go to God to vote them; they came to the people. And if Nigerians elect their leaders why would they complain to God and not to the leaders they chose – assuming they actually chose them?

Let no one misunderstand me or the position being canvassed here. I believe in prayer and I know the power and efficacy of prayer. I am a student of History and of Church and Christian History in particular and I know the great accomplishments of prayers throughout history. But I do not know of a single instance throughout more than 4000 years of Judeo- Christian History where national prayer became efficacious without being preceded by first a moral reformation and genuine national repentance among the populace. I stand to be corrected and I am willing to enter into debate with anyone on this subject.

Prayer is not magic wand. It does not change God and cannot change Him. It cannot even change His Mind. But prayers can change the one offering the prayers instilling a sense of humility, contrition, repentance that would make God bestow the blessings that otherwise would not have been bestowed. That is prayer’s highest purpose: to change the heart of man to become better. Where this does not happen prayer has failed in its essential purpose and it’s worse than useless. This is the reason why the more prayers Nigerians are doing the worse their situations are becoming. Because we refused to change.

A national prayer must first be preceded by genuine national repentance for evil deeds. There is so much evils in this nation today and it is getting worse.

Nigeria needs a national repentance now more than anything. Not prayers. Nigerians need to turn from their wicked ways and enthrone justice, equity, righteousness, rule of law, impartiality, fairness, truth..

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
(2 Chronicles 7:14)

Most Christian Nigerians know this passage in the Bible but few know its implications. I am sure the PFN and CAN and the organisers will quote this passage at the events without realizing that it actually works against their position. Take note of three things mentioned in the passage there: humility, prayer, turn from wicked ways (repentance). Notice that God did not request prayer before humility. Notice also that in between humility and repentance is prayer. In essence any national prayer that is not foregrounded on humility or anchored on genuine repentance and turning from wicked ways is a wasted exercise. We won’t even need as much prayers if there is truth, fairness, justice, equity in this land. That is the reason that nations that do not pray are making progress because they have justice, equity, truth, honesty, hardwork, due process.
Throw a stone at a church building in Egypt and you will go to jail. But you can kill a human being here for his religion and you are free just like the murderers of Deborah Samuel.
Have sexual relations with a girl less than 16 even if you are a cleric and you will be jailed in Turkey; but a pedophile can lead prayers here.

Do you see what I am saying? NIgeria is not even qualified to pray to God yet. It lacks what the old- time Pentecostals call “prayers manners” or praying ground. On what basis will you pray when there is no justice or equity in your land to a God Whose very Eyes cannot behold sin?

UAE sent names of terrorists and sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria to our Federal Government, then headed by that “unreconstructed fascist”, and what did he do? Nothing. The “general conquered by terrorists.” But with misdirected zeal he pursued peaceful ethnic agitators while leaving agents of terror to roam. Has Nigeria repented of this before God?

Is Nigeria ready to change? Are Nigerians ready to repent and become better citizens? Are Nigerian politicians ready to stop election stealing, falsification and rigging, corruption, looting of the treasury, occultism and wicked practices?
Are Nigerian men and women ready to stop their immoralities, sexual perversions, dishonesty, sorceries, witchcrafts and adulteries? Is Nollywood, that open sesame of wanton immorality, cesspool of extra- marital sex and moral filth and debaucheries corrupting the moral fibre of a nation ready to repent? Are Nigerian youths and students ready to change from their wicked ways – sexual immoralities, yahoo, rampant disobedience?

This is what we need now much more than prayer. Without these reformations first taking place prayer won’t do us any good as a nation. On the other hand it can do positive harm.

Hear the prophet Amos:

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

“Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

“Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” ( Amos 5: 21-24)

And here is Prophet Isaiah in agreement:

“Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom (Abuja?); give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah( Nigeria?).

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

“When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

“Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

“Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

“And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil

“Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
( Isaiah 1: 10 -17)

“When ye make many prayers I will not hear.” God is speaking to us but we are not hearing.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. Amos is the first witness. Isaiah is the second and I am the third. *NIgeria needs repentance not prayers.*

That is where Nigeria now is. Let us stop wasting scarce national resources on profitless ventures and meaningless prayers that didn’t work yesterday and won’t work today because they are not supported by corresponding actions.
Nigeria does not need prayers; she needs repentance.

Thank you patient reader, for your patience.

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©️ Moses Oludele Idowu
November 8, 2024
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