Thursday, October 29, 2020

NEW NIGERIA EMERGING: A TIME TO NOT FOLD HANDS

 


“The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh” Eccl. 4:5

 “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:..” – Prov 24:33

“…he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.”   – Prov. 10:5

 

 

Church Arise! watched with utter dismay the brazen hijack of a two-week peaceful protest organized by Nigerian youths, culminating in their being mowed down both at the Lekki toll gate and several other locations around the country.  By government’s own admission,  69 Nigerian lives were lost in the fracas instigated by hoodlums caught on camera being strategically deployed by government’s own security operatives.  (See here for a more thorough assessment of the fatalities associated with the #EndSARS protest).   It is incredible that government’s gaslighting team believes so much in their craft that they think they can so blatantly change the narrative of events witnessed live by a global audience!

 

While the #EndSARS leaders retire to lick their wound, and revise their strategy for engendering a new Nigeria, a new similarly amorphous and spontaneous movement is springing up.  Powered again mostly by youths, this time not the ones with the “fresh and interesting” appearances who have been the prime target of the notorious SARS police operatives, but the hunger-driven ones at the other end of the same frustrated generation.  From looting of government warehouses where billions-naira worth of essential materials and foodstuffs meant to serve as palliatives at the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns were kept, the rampage moved to homes of politicians, then shopping malls, and at the present time, government offices and Departments. Outposts of the Customs and Excise Department nationwide seem to be a particularly attractive honeycomb for the looters at the moment.

 

It is of course difficult to justify such actions, especially when looters swoop on warehouses and businesses of innocent citizens, ruining enterprises that had taken decades of sweat and grit to build. But it has been argued that such condemnations shouldn’t be coming from politicians who, for decades, have proven themselves to be the shameless “Looter Kings” of the nation’s commonwealth.

 

Understanding the Times

 

Church Arise! is called primarily to serve the Church –  the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Nigeria.  We not only remind the children of God what times we are, in God’s eternal agenda, we attempt to point out what “Israel ought to be doing”. (1 Chr 12:32).

It seems pretty obvious to us that all the unfolding developments cannot be divorced from the extensive prayers that had preceded the 60th independence anniversary of Nigeria on October 1. There were groups within and outside the country that fasted and prayed for up to 40 days, some 60 days, and others even much longer – all asking that the LORD would do something new in Nigeria come October. The first EndSARS street protest took off precisely a week after the independence anniversary.

 

In our understanding, one of the chief gains of all these upheavals, (which we perceive as meant to shake and clear away the existing rotten foundation so the new could emerge), is that people are now sensitive and outraged about atrocities they had previously accommodated benumbed, over the past five years in the country. Suddenly people seem to be realizing how outrageously demeaning and dangerous to the country it is for a regime to fill the top hierarchy of all sensitive government departments (including every arms-bearing authority) by people of the same religion and from only one section of the country. Similarly, the current outcry at youths being shot and killed at the Lekki bridge by supposedly “unknown soldiers”, is remarkable. Why, quite similar scenarios have been playing out, ad infinitum, in scores of communities in northern Nigeria, with hardly more than mere whining from the general public (see here for our short tally for the first half of 2020 alone).  In the particularly outrageous case of the abduction and video-taped beheading of Rev Lawan Andimi, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Michika LGA, Adamawa, a few courageous Church leaders actually took to the streets to protest  That at least provoked some response from the government: government graciously concurred that there were indeed security challenges in the nation, but quickly warned that no miracles should be expected given the prevailing situation government has found itself. Meanwhile the rest of the citizenry (including the vast majority of Church members) yawned, and followed the news bemusedly.  And soon it was back to business as usual!

 

To further highlight this serious matter, we point out that at this very present moment, there are at least some three million Nigerians languishing in several IDP camps in the North Eastern corridor of the country.  While the supposedly “ghost forces” that had come to sack them from their ancestral land had promptly “vanished” without trails after each massacre, their homes and farms are currently occupied by Fulani people imported from outside Nigeria!  Yet people in charge of the over-centralized national security (who all happen to be of the same ethnicity and religion as the new occupiers) insist they had no leads to follow!

 

Portals to the New Nigeria: Judicial Inquiries and Restructuring

 

We earnestly look forward to the judicial inquiries government has acceded to at the behest of the EndSARS movement; and now with heightened attention from all and sundry across the nation and beyond, we hope the inevitable restructuring that would usher in the new Nigeria of our dream can commence at last. These judicial inquiries promise not only to heal wounds as the truth emerges; with our prayers, they could also expose the enemy’s long-hatched plans.  For instance, it is now clear that men with military training and who have access to military fatigues, vehicles, arms and ammunition could be deployed to shoot Nigerians on Nigeria soil at an event being monitored globally. And that the official military authorities could declare they are totally ignorant of such deployment!  Furthermore, with Governor Sanwo-Olu now confirming that the Nigerian military was indeed present at Lekki toll gate, where the street lights were switched off and live bullets fired into thousands of protesters, it would be interesting to see what dirty secrets and ungodly covenants begin to unravel as the Judicial Panel interrogates all these. Readers can check here for links to follow live proceedings of the Lagos Judicial Panel.

 

In summarizing the major achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan as he gracefully conceded defeat to then candidate Buhari after the 2015 election primarily to save Nigerian lives, we at Church Arise! had applauded his commitment to restructure Nigeria as well as end the politics of “winner-takes-it-all” to which end he had convened a National Conference We were persuaded that irrespective of whoever operate the contraption called 1999 constitution, utter frustration and abysmal failure are the guaranteed outcomes.   The same consideration informed our statement urging Nigerians to vote out President Buhari in 2019.  This position has been vindicated as we now see key actors in the current regime desperately promoting the very same policies they had taken to the streets to protest when they were the opposition!  This clearly indicates that Nigeria’s politicians are mere pawns in the hands of some puppeteers, our real enemies hiding out there in plain sight.

 

Since these same forces are already maneuvering to again find a footing in the ongoing developments and continue with their satanic manipulation of our destiny, it is necessary we point them out here without any equivocation.  They include chiefly, key agencies of the British government (see Harold Smith’s expose here) and their collaborating competitors from other industrialized nations, (both West and East - listen to Howard Nicholas here).  These have concluded that they cannot maintain their current standard of living unless we are kept perpetually destabilized and constrained to remain nothing more than suppliers of raw materials, without any capacity to add value to these God-endowed natural resources. Their major pawn at the present time are the gullible elements within the Fulani leadership cadre, who have been sold the dummy that their greatness could only come by their importing Fulanis from all over West Africa to come repress the other indigenous nationalities in Nigeria.

 

There are also those "friendly foes" operating under the general banner of the New Sexuality Movement - pushing LGBT-Q, values,  legalized unrestricted abortion, prostitution, GMO in foods, earth worship and new age spirituality, and the likes.  These are mainly from North America.  Together with their other allied forces masquerading as pious philanthropists, these vermin have entrenched themselves in virtually every sector of our national life where they instigate conflicting policies meant to perpetually keep our nation under. It is time we wised up to these hordes of hell, and their desperate schemes to scuttle Nigeria’s forthcoming glorious destiny.  Exposing and resisting them will be the core of our present battle to birth a new Nigeria.

 

It was apt that the post-independence anniversary protests should start with the call for police reforms.  By our evaluation, this simple element could be the single most important starting point to effectively re-structure Nigeria.  Ahead of resource control, equitable representation in federal government structure and other key issues, security surely takes the lead!  We are persuaded that with policing devolved to the regions, and the concomitant transfer of the huge and currently abused “security votes” in each state to a transparently managed fund to support the emerging new Police departments, peace, accountability, and the rule of law would return to the regions. And with that coupled with the grace of God, it should not take long for the enterprising Nigerian spirit, both at home and in the diaspora,  to bring forth the glorious enviable nation Satan has so far desperately resisted.

 

All that is needed now is for Nigerians to ensure they maintain KEEN interests in these developments and keep the subject alive no matter the distractions that the Enemy will repeatedly try to introduce.

 

We particularly remind all those who name the name of Christ that the issues at hand are beyond party politics or ethnicity.  It is the almighty God who sets both geographical and temporal boundaries for nations (Acts 17:26); and He most certainly has his endtime purpose for the largest black nation on earth endowed with undeniably rich human, and natural resources.  Men of God, including non-Nigerians such as Pa S.G. Elton, Reinhard Bonnke, and Lance Lambert  have consistently declared that God is set on making Nigeria a praise and blessing to the nations at the endtimes. 

 

Of course we can’t be part of any lootings or violence in the name of birthing a new nation.  As children of God, we are guided in our actions knowing that we cannot “do evil so that good may come” (Rom 3:8). In the words of Prov 11:3-6, righteousness must literally guide our steps.

 

Nevertheless, we recognize that our God is the LORD of Hosts who commands not only all the hosts in heaven but also those in hell!  He very well could move any hosts anywhere to implement His agenda.  While the forces of light joyfully obey their King, the forces of darkness are compelled to do so, often imagining (until it becomes too late) that they were actually hurting the LORD.  [Scriptural examples abound: Pharaoh (Exo 14:4), the joint forces against Jehosaphath (2 Chr. 20:23), the “princes of this world” who crucified the Lord, (1 Cor. 2:8), and the coming One world government (Rev 17:17)].  We believe the LORD is moving simultaneously on several fronts, and the devil’s nightmare is trying to figure out which move is significant, and which might only be a decoy, or at best a side move! The LORD God almighty, and He alone, holds all the aces.

 

Introducing the Christian Leaders Assembly in Nigeria

 

We seize the opportunity to introduce one of the several divinely orchestrated nation-building tools, the LORD is bringing up in Nigeria these thrilling times. Birthed at the very same time the EndSARS protest was booting on October 8, the Christian Leaders Assembly targets the problem of chronic underdevelopment in Africa with the understanding that the problem is fundamentally rooted in the wicked covenants upon which many of our cities and societies were founded.  In other words, the endemic corruption and chaos which are so obviously decimating our nations are only inevitable fruits of evil foundations arising from covenants cut with evil forces. The way out is then to confront these unrighteous foundations with the superior covenant of blessings provided through Abraham and perfected through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Such confrontation is best effected one city/culture at a time taking into cognizance inherent peculiarities.  The initiative was conceived by a Nigerian in South Africa and is already taking shape in a few cities/cultures out there.  Pioneering the move in Nigeria (following a six-year gestation!) is the Christian Leaders Assembly - Yorubaland (CLAY) which convened for two days, beginning on that fateful Thursday October 8.  We enjoin readers to check details of how they could be part of the move at https://clay.ng.

 

Church Arise! strongly believes that it is a network of God-breathed initiatives such as the CLAY, spanning various regions and sectors of Nigeria, that would usher in the new Nigeria the LORD has promised. There is a role for every child of God to play as a labourer bringing in the harvest in our country at this most auspicious period (Mat. 9:37).  This is not the time to play siddon-look. Child of the Most High God, hands to the plough!

 

Shalom.

Church Arise!

Ile-Ife, 29th October, 2020.