“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.
