The Man In The Mirror

Nigeria had a president who was brought right out of prison into Aso Rock a few years ago; this man delights in telling the story of his redemption and salvation.

He said, "While I was in prison, awaiting death, I turned to God and became dedicated to Him more than ever before. I knew death could come calling at any time and I dare not joke with my eternal destiny at such a time."

When this man became the president of Nigeria, we all expected to see righteousness flowing like a river and justice enthroned all over the land. We got the opposite.

Church programmes were banned on TV, ‘Ghana must go’ bribes were introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives; we got the Halliburton Scandal, National ID scandal, Bola Ige's mysterious death, the third term agenda and so on.

The man's personal life was not tidy either. He kept chasing skirts, having children all over the country and was accused by his own children of all sorts of misadventures both in open letters and family meetings.  That's a "Christian".

We can make excuses all we want for people in terms of religion, God does not support evil when it is done by a Christian as against when it is done by an unbeliever. As Christians we must learn not to fall for the "form" without the substance.

Prophet Samuel made the same mistake when he got to the house of Jesse. He was told to go and anoint a new king for Israel but instead of turning to God for guidance he turned to the past and to sight.

When he anointed Saul, the characteristics he saw were "tall, handsome and from a good home." The man with those characteristics let him down badly. He didn't learn from it. As soon as he saw Jesse's first son, he said, "Surely, this must be the Lord's anointed." God said to him, "Man judges by sight but I judge by the heart."

I am not a religious man and I will never be one. I have seen the evil religion does to the thinking of men and how excuses are made daily by religious men to cover up such evil daily.

It is a pity that many believers still don't understand what it means to be a Christian and how a believer ought to be led. If the devil wears the garb of a priest, most of us will kneel down and receive communion from him; this is because we are all mostly spiritual illiterates but well-grounded in religion.

At this point you will assume I am making a case for the "Muslim-Muslim" ticket in the current political space in Nigeria but I AM NOT.

Islamic religion is even more evil than its Christian counterpart. On the surface, Christian values have been of better Impact to the world than those of any other religion. It allowed room for new knowledge, growth and evolution of progressive ideas which basically led to the development of the west, even if right now the west has developed to the extent where they feel God is no longer needed in their lives.

Islam on the other hand allowed room for progress in only some aspect of its evolution; in other aspects it remained as rigid and as barbaric as it was in the early days. So, I don't support either religion and I don't want to see either religion ruling over any nation.

What I desire to see is a new Nigeria. The nation spoken of as a trigger point to the development of Africa in the 70s, a nation that is buoyed by righteousness and exalted in godliness. A nation where religious bigotry leading to bloodshed in the name of a god or a prophet becomes a thing of the past. A nation where citizens are safe and able to fulfil their potentials in peace, a nation brains will drain into and not drain out of. A nation the world will turn to for safety and help in times of crisis.

I am an ardent student of the scriptures and I can say this without any doubt; ungodly men, built nations that prospered in the Bible. Cain built a nation, Esau built a nation, Moab built a nation, Nebuchadnezzar built a nation, Pharaoh built a nation, Darius built a nation. Building a nation has nothing to do with religion. When the tower of Babel was built, man had not found religion; he had only found himself.

Religion complicates everything. We have to learn from history and correct our wrong assumptions. Fashola used to visit the RCCG Camp In fact, governors from as many as 14 states used to make a habit of being seen on TV during the popular Holy Ghost Service.  To the simple, this gave a psychological feeling of godliness in a religious sense; to the wise, it was just posturing.

Gbenga Daniel was a Christian when he had a crisis with the members of the Ogun State House of Assembly over oath swearing at a shine. Religion makes hypocrites of men. The only thing it is good at is giving evil men a chance at doing their evil while laundering their image to the unsuspecting public. I have seen the evil men and women do in the name of religion.

Nigeria as a nation does not swear allegiance to any religion and should not be forced to do so through the backdoor of sentiments.  I have nothing against any of the candidates running for political office at the moment. I have never liked politics too.  The rate at which it teaches people to subvert their senses is appalling to me.

If I like a candidate, can I at least admit he is human and may fail the nation even after being elected? Am I allowed to look at his antecedents and judge him based on that? Can my candidate learn a thing or two from the candidate of the opposition party? Is my candidate of a strong character and persuasion to see Nigeria fulfil her potential? Is my candidate willing to step on toes on behalf of Nigeria and save her from her internal and external enemies? Is my candidate vibrant enough to do the needful?

We need to ask ourselves these question as a nation too.  Seeing young people making up lies about the candidates for a retweet is not a positive thing for the nation. Cursing and abusing one another on social media for our choices is not a good thing. Politics is feisty, the simple minded does not know this.

A lot of young people are crashing and burning out based on the content they are exposed to on the social media daily, some get so personal and emotional over stuff that others simply posted for fun. We are humans first; we must place humanity above all the drama.

Finally, let It be on record that many Nigerians really don't want the country to change; they talk about it and make a lot of noise about it but they really don't want it to change.

The idea of change begins with me is ridiculous to them. They want the change to be from others while they remain the same. They want to blame the government and every other entity for the ills in the society but wouldn't take a minute to shine that light of scrutiny on themselves.

If we refuse to change as a people, no political leader will be able to change us in a democracy Perhaps another system of government can force the change but a democracy will not help you unless you are willing to change.

PS: There will be readers who will jump on this and see it as political or whatever.

I always block those who can't understand my writings for their own good

-GSW-