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If not for the NN24
presidential debate, one would never have known just how much of a
president the Kano State governor is capable of being. He spoke and
answered questions well, backed with empirical evidence; and dished out
information that showed he probably did or has been doing a bit of
homework to pass his April exams.

This debate
brouhaha just confirms one thing: damned if you do, damned if you
don’t! Suddenly, debates have come to stay and any aspirant must now
seriously consider whether elective office is truly for them,
especially if they doubt their ability to participate in a public
debate. It’s probably okay if one is mildly cerebral, not stupid and
able to put one’s opinions across succinctly. But if one is not
academically strong, a doer rather than a talker, it may be a bit of a
struggle. Hence, it is a decision one must reach after mature
deliberation: to debate or not.

The down side to
not debate is that many will think the unwilling candidate is not
capable, has nothing vibrant to say, lacks a certain charismatic appeal
a la Obama and is so lacking in all ramifications that he/she would not
want these foibles to be revealed to the world. Thank God the president
has agreed to participate in ONE debate at least, before it becomes an
albatross on his campaign.

Nigerians were not
thrilled at his absence during the NN24 presidential debates. In
addition, the excuses proffered for his absence did nothing to assuage
one’s feelings. All candidates and especially the president must be
seen to grab EVERY opportunity they have to convince Nigerians that
they have the capacity. If campaigns had been planned before the debate
was finalised, it merely calls for prioritisation by the candidate.

What do the people
consider as the most effective way for candidates to show what plans
they have for the electorate: televised debate between candidates or
campaign at a stadium? We all know what happens at these stadium
campaigns: they hold at venues which will NEVER be available to the
opposition for their own campaigns; they are crowded with people who
will NEVER have an opportunity to ask ONE simple question of the
candidate; the candidate merely spews out what he THINKS he’ll do from
a speech, probably not written by him, and with no chance to question
the rationale behind his plans. The speech will be full of meaningless
clichés, which even the maker has repeated monotonously without emotion
forever.

Yes, as a
candidate, please don’t debate if you know you’ll fail; rather, rely on
making the rounds of every stadium, park and square in Nigeria. While
your colleagues are shifting misconceptions or confirming conceptions
about themselves, and making a great impression on the electorate a la
NN24-Shekarau-style, you can hope that one-on-one interaction is
overrated and at your own peril.

With a society that
thrives on gist, you will never live down not participating, but who
cares? Jokes will be made about how you demanded ‘EXPO’, didn’t get it
and withdrew. In fact, all your achievements in life, academically and
otherwise will be certified the result of ‘EXPO’. If/when you finally
agree to debate, people will then doubt the integrity of the medium you
choose. You know how it is, this integrity-doubting process: YOU become
the debate.

People will forever
question why you chose to do one and not the other? Is government
organising the one you are taking part in? Furthermore, focus on and
scrutiny of the questions put to you will be divertive: mild, the
questioner is dead meat; tough, with great answers, you saw ‘EXPO’. If
you don’t do well in the debate, you’ll be dead meat. Everyone will
criticize your sense of judgment, asking what type of president you
would be, when, knowing your inadequacy, you went ahead to participate
in a process that would embarrass, humiliate or ridicule? Is this how,
in spite of his and our limitations, he’ll embarrass, humiliate and
ridicule country and us?

Last count: Lagos
governor has participated in at least three debates with other
contenders. Every time they’ve appeared, people get a fresh chance to
continuously decide whom they want for governor. Some changed their
minds; some have not. But they got their opportunity to decide. If you
are a candidate and decide not to debate, you are within your rights to
not be rushed into doing something that you know you can’t excel at. At
least, if you did not write the exam, no one will really be able to
tell if you would have passed or not!

Few men or women can defy the fury of Lagos bus conductors – truly a breed apart. They are often compared to the Matanga, their brothers in Nairobi who rule over buses called Matatu – a rambunctious bunch, frequently drunk on changa’a, a poisonous local brew mixed with chemicals, more virulent than our paraga or shepe. But there the comparison ends.

Where our conductor leaves the Kenyan in the shade is in his limitless vocabulary for abuse, his complete disregard for passengers, his volcanic mood swings.

The matatu is not a comfortable means of travel by any means, but it is not a danfo or molue. The Kenyan buses usually have tickets and bus numbers; sometimes have arrival and departure times; fixed number of passengers and well defined routes and bus stops. Another thing, the matanga is polite to his passengers.

The Lagos bus conductor enjoys fighting his passengers. And veterans of such battles sometimes have symptoms akin to post traumatic stress disorder; like soldiers after a war. They look dazed long after the encounter; walking and talking to themselves, hardly conscious as they cross the road.

I have seen nice women turn ugly with rage within minutes with a conductor, and gentlemen act like thugs. Yes, Lagos conductors do bring out the worst in us. So, most people run away from the experience, guarding their brittle self-esteem from the ferocious attack of those who seem to have lost theirs.

But, occasionally, one comes across people who really don’t mind the roforofo fight. At Lekki, the other day, I took a bus going to CMS, when a young man in sparkling orange long-sleeved shirt and earphones, came on. “CMS na N100,” said the conductor.

Moments later, the youth brought out ₦70 and gave the conductor, who promptly rejected the money. “You no hear me when I say ₦100?” he hissed. The young man unplugged his ears. “What are you bitching about now?” he asked.

“Your money is ₦100,” spat the conductor.

“But why didn’t you tell me that before I entered?” demanded the passenger.

The conductor turned to the rest of the bus. “Una dey help me see trouble? I no talk am say na ₦100 for any drop?” Nobody answered.

The young man vigorously denied hearing anything like that. “Why would I have entered for a hundred? Am I crazy?”

The conductor screamed, “How you go hear when you put that thing for ear?” The guy shouted back, ‘’Bone that thing. I am not paying you ₦100!”

The driver had taken a detour through Oniru, to avoid traffic. But we kept hitting these bumps and when we hit a particularly bad patch and the bus jumped so high, the woman beside me screamed, “Driver, no commot my belle o, I take God beg you,” the driver chuckled, “Madam, no worry, oga go put another one back.”

“You no well,” she said.

One man asked, “So are you going to pay her husband for all the work then?” The driver smiled, “How I go pay another man for enjoying his own wife?” he asked.

One man was, however, not amused by the driving. He wore a torn shirt and a gaunt face and his voice was loud. “Oga this is the last time you go hit my head for this bus,” he said, rubbing his brow. “No try am again. If I wound, when I come down, I go wound you!”

As soon as we reached the bus stop, the young man with the earphone jumped down. The conductor immediately grabbed him. ‘’You wan go with my money?” he asked.

The young man warned, “If I count three and your hand is still holding my shirt, I will cut it off!” The conductor discarded his slippers and stood bare feet on the hot asphalt. “Make I help you count am?” he said, and went, “One, two, three… Oya now!” The passenger pocketed his earphone and calmly began to fold the sleeves of his shirt.

The driver came down. “Collect the money,” he said to the conductor. “For, surely, there will always be temptations like this. But we don’t have to fall.”

The conductor snatched the money and turned to him. “This one wey you don turn pastor so,” he said.

In the evening hours, at the National Stadium in Abuja, Samson Siasia, the Super Eagles manager, will lead his players out in a crucial 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia, his first competitive match since taking charge of the team in December.

Unsurprisingly, the Eagles’ performance in that game will be the topic of choice for football’s chattering classes, considering their parlous state since last year’s World Cup disaster and the country’s desperate desire to see the team return to the flamboyant form of yesteryear.

But besides hoping, of course, that they earn the needed win, the team’s ‘exile’ to that overpriced concrete contraption called a stadium in Abuja, a place without a football culture, ethos and soul, evokes deep and bitter feelings in me.

Any genuine connoisseur of our game knows the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, criminally neglected by our federal government – as its decrepit, ugly form hauntingly reminds us – is our real theatre of dreams and Nigerian football’s spiritual home.

Who can forget the pleasurable and anguished moments on its hallowed but now patchy, miserable looking turf?

It staged our first Africa Cup of Nations triumph in 1980, when, to the delight of over 60,000 fans, Green Eagles captain Christian Chukwu proudly walked up to the arena’s state box to lift the Cup of Unity.

And who can forget August 12, 1989, when, amongst thousands of other fans in the terraces, I unknowingly watched midfielder Samuel Okwaraji convulse, collapse and die on its turf, in that unforgettable, tragic 1990 World Cup qualifier against Angola.

Or how Nigeria’s painful failure to win the 2000 Nations Cup final – after Victor Ikpeba’s penalty goal against Cameroun that never was – made captain Sunday Oliseh weep like a newborn baby?

“I cannot begin to recall all the important moments of my life, and in the lives of many great footballers, that took place in that stadium. That the ground is in its current state leaves me with nothing to say,” says former Nigeria captain Segun Odegbami.

And the dilapidated state of the stadium is made all the more poignant by its healthier, smaller next door neighbour – Teslim Balogun Stadium, the only decent football ground in Nigeria’s largest city.

After the Eagles’ unbelievable eight-year absence from the city, the recent friendly game against Sierra Leone, at the Balogun ground, served as a timely reminder, at least to me, of how the national team’s return to Lagos is the key to reviving its dwindling fortunes.

Given a bad rap

Rather than mollycoddle the present set of Eagles, some of whom are risk-averse and have to be pampered into doing their very minimum for the country – and hoping that they can get away with it in Abuja, where the crowd is quite temperate, putting the players feet to the searing Lagos fire will certainly improve the team’s work ethic.

Given a bad rap by previous FAs for their refusal to ‘blindly’ support the national team whilst playing at Sports City, as the National Stadium is nicknamed, Lagos fans are, unfairly, being given the proverbial bad name in order to ‘hang’ them.

The unadorned truth is that whilst a bit unruly at times, Lagos fans demand top draw performances from those wearing the colours of our country and are intolerant of sloppiness or an obvious lack of commitment. Lagos fans, at least most of them, can tell the difference between a national team that loses gallantly, after giving everything they’ve got and one that just couldn’t be bothered to deliver.

Why should their loyalty and support of the Super Eagles not come at the price of excellence and diligence?

The nauseating state of the National Stadium continues to offer an excuse for the Nigerian Football Federation, which points to the artificial turf at Teslim Balogun, admittedly not as good as a natural surface, as a reason not to stage competitive games in Lagos.

Cell phones have become such a major part of our existence and for most people, our telephone bills have become a large monthly expense.

Have you ever returned from abroad to find a shocking mobile phone bill awaiting you? When you use your phone abroad, as soon as it is detected on a roaming partners network, expensive international roaming rates and charges kick in.

Roaming costs have tarnished the wonderful memories of many vacations, but fortunately, there are practical steps you can take to stay in control of your phone bill and still stay connected with family, friends, and business associates.

Know before you go

Do you know what you are being charged for? Before you leave your country, ask your service provider about roaming fees for both phone and data use so that you have at least a rough idea of the cost of using your phone abroad.

When travelling internationally, you are typically charged both for receiving as well as making calls, for sending text messages, accessing e-mails, voice mail messages, surfing the web, and downloading videos, music, and images in the countries you are visiting.

What services do you really need?

Do you need to be able to make and receive calls? Do you need real time Internet access, or other data services on your device? Do you really need to check your e-mail instantly? This will determine how you should use your device on your trip.

Send and receive text messages

It is free to receive texts abroad, but there are significant charges to receive calls, so if you are having regular conversations with people in Nigeria, try to encourage them to make your interaction text based.

Use Skype

By using a web-based phone service, you can keep your bills down. Service providers such as Google and Skype, offer free calling at relatively low rates on international calls.

If you are travelling with your laptop, you can use Skype at any wireless hotspot or from your hotel room.

Be careful of your voice mail

Even if you are careful with your mobile phone use and avoid making unnecessary calls, do you know that if someone leaves a message on your voicemail, you are billed as though you were receiving an international call? Even worse, you will be charged again to listen to those messages.

Buy a local SIM card

Buying a local SIM card can be the cheapest way of using your mobile abroad, particularly if you plan to spend an extended period in the same country. Replace the SIM card in your phone or buy a cheap GSM-enabled phone as an alternate phone.

Switch data roaming off

The new-generation smart phones such as the iPhone and the Blackberry have become hugely popular devices providing access to your emails and the Internet, a world of shopping, and social networking applications just a touch away. We thus unwittingly leave ourselves open to international roaming charges on our smart phones as soon as we switch them on.

The continuous activity utilizes data bandwidth and this leads to constant charging and huge bills in accidental roaming fees. If you do not need data services on your trip and can’t resist the temptation to sneak a quick e-mail check on your smart phone, then turn off the data service when you are roaming.

The good thing about smart phones is there are options and you can choose which services to cut off. After disabling data services, you will still be able to make and receive calls and text messages. In addition, you can turn this feature on and off at will so you can still check your emails periodically.

Use wi-fi

If you will have access to wi-fi hotspots, business centres, or Internet cafes at your destination, you won’t have to use your mobile phone all the time and can use your laptop.

However, be cautious and only connect to wi-fi hotspots that you feel you can trust. Use ‘free’ hotspots with extreme caution; they may be convenient but are not always safe as there is always a danger of hacking or snooping.

To at least reduce your vulnerability, use strong passwords and install some security software. Wi-fi access, whilst it may not be free, is usually much cheaper than paying data roaming costs.

As a mobile phone user, you must take some responsibility for staying informed of the cost of services that you subscribe to.

It is also important that mobile phone operators are more proactive about providing cost information for users rather than for subscribers having to stumble on information after a bad experience. Much of the information on the service provider websites is confusing and not that easy to understand.

Clearly, what subscribers want, need, and deserve is more transparency, so that they can confidently use data services when roaming, as well as some sort of control mechanism to ensure they do not incur excessively large bills when roaming and without even realising it.

Write to personalfinance@234next.com with your questions and comments. We would love to hear from you. All letters will be considered for publication, and if selected, may be edited.

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered… And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne… And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” Revelation 12:1-11.

As mentioned in last weeks’ article, the process of birthing the sons of God described in the vision of John involves the sun, moon and stars. We established that the language employed here is symbolic of the activity of The Word of God and The Holy spirit working in the souls of men to bring forth divine life.

We showed that in Psalms 19, David gives us spiritual understanding of the roles of the sun and moon in this regard.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork, Day unto day uttereth speech and Night unto night showeth knowledge, their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world, In them has he set a tabernacle for the sun which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strongman to run a race…The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple, the statues of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the lord is pure enlightening the eyes…” Psalm 19:1-8.

David said that the heavens declare divine truths by day and night and he compared it to the law and commandments of the lord which converts the soul and enlightens the eyes. He means here that the heavens (meaning the sun, moon and stars) are a type of revelation that reaches into the spiritual eyes of man, not just the mind.

David says the sun represents a bridegroom which is the source of light and life. This corresponds to what John sees as the virgin-church being “clothed” or covered by the sun. The life giving power of the sun here is a type of the spirit of God that overshadowed Virgin Mary when she gave birth to Christ. In like manner there is a divine overshadowing that is currently happening since we are in the day of the Lord in order to complete the divine gestation process within the womb of the church.

The fact we are going to church and claiming that we are Christians does not mean we are also experiencing this because John says that this vision is taking place in the heavenlies. This is symbolic of the Holy Place within the tabernacle or better explained as a spiritual height, where we are nourished by direct fellowship with God without which this union is impossible.

The moon has no light of her own but receives light from the sun therefore it is like the bride which takes seed from the groom. Therefore, the moon is a type of the word of God that receives light of revelation correct interpretation from the Spirit of God.

Nature shows that it is the activity of the sun and moon that brings forth fruit in the Earth on a yearly basis. As it is in the natural so is it also in the spiritual because all truth is parallel. This is why Paul says that the natural precedes the spiritual.

“Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” 1 Corinthians 15:46-47.

It is, therefore, the spiritual Christian that is in the position to bring forth this divine reality within their souls, not the carnal believers. Nevertheless we all start as carnal people with the word in our souls before divine insemination of the word takes place as we overcome the flesh and begin our ascension from the earthly to the heavenly realm of Christian living.

The monthly cycle of fruit-bearing suggested by the moon here is about the tree of life for it produces divine fruit every month (Revelation 22:2). Of course a month in spiritual terms is symbolic of the time it takes for divine fruit to mature within man. This describes the divine cycle through which the divine life grows into fullness in man.

David counsels that when God speaks once, we should hear him twice (Ps 62:11). That does not mean twice literally, but several times. Similarly, Jesus maintains we must forgive our brothers seventy times seven times (Mt 18:22). That does not mean four hundred and ninety times, but indefinitely. Therefore, when God speaks, we should review what he says again and again.

Because we have listened to God as we do to men, we have missed a lot of what he has been saying. God does not think like men, and he does not speak like men. His thoughts are not our thoughts; his ways are not our ways (Isa 55:8-9). Therefore, when he says something, we must be careful to make sure we understand exactly what he is saying.

Fishing men

Jesus says to his disciples: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). We have heard about this and talked about it. We have been singing about being fishers of men since we were little children in Sunday school. But should we not pause for a moment and ask what Jesus means by saying he will make us fishers of men? Is it wise to jump to the conclusion that he wants to turn us into exceptional evangelists and mega-pastors using combine-harvesters to bring men into the kingdom of God?

We know who fishermen are. They are fishers, not of men, but of fish. But now Jesus is talking of fishers, not of fish, but of men. So to start with, we need to determine what it means to fish men. How does a man fish other men? What does he do with the men he “catches?”

God as fisherman

Once we look to the bible for answers to these questions, we are in for a rude awakening. In quick order, we discover to our surprise that when God fished men in the scriptures, it was never for salvation. “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them” (Jer 16:16). “Behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you away with fishhooks, and your posterity with fishhooks” (Amos 4:2).

The net was a weapon of warfare which gladiators used to hamstring their opponents in combat. Therefore, to be a fisher of men biblically is to be an instrument of God’s judgment. God says of disobedient Ephraimites: “Wherever they go, I will spread my net on them” (Hos 7:12). Solomon echoes him: “Like fish taken in a cruel net, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time” (Eccl 9:12).

Once caught, fishes end up in the frying-pan and eventually in someone’s dinner-table. The same applies to men with regard to the gospel. As fishes are taken unexpectedly in a net, so sinners are taken by the gospel. The prophetic design in preaching the gospel is that it will lead far more people to condemnation than to salvation (Mt 13:47-50).

Rejection of the gospel

Hear and understand: God has designed the gospel in such a way that sons of God will receive it but men will reject it. Jesus tells his disciples: “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Mt 13:11). Isaiah says: “The word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught” (Isa 28:13).

The same person who sends us to preach the gospel also tells us beforehand that men will not accept it. God said to Isaiah: “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive'” (Isa 6:9). This scripture is repeated more times in the bible than any other scripture. John says: “They could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn- and I would heal them” (Jn 12:39-40).

The true gospel empties the churches (Jn 6:60-66). It is preached as a testimony against men (Mk 6:11). Jesus says: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (Jn 15:22). Through the gospel, ALL MEN are fished to condemnation; but SONS OF GOD are saved. The word of God that men reject is precisely what will judge them on the last day (Jn 12:48).

articleoffaith@234next.com

“Verily We create Man in the best conformation; and thereafter We reduce him to the lowest of the low, excepting only such as attain to faith and do good works: and theirs shall be a reward unending” [Quran 95: 4-6]

To reflect on humanity is to contemplate the great paradox of Man, who is created in the “best conformation” (Quran 95:4) but is also quite capable of sinking to the lowest depths. In Charles Le Gai Eaton’s case, the spiritual trajectory is reversed but its wondrous nature is not. How is it, one marvels, that a man whose very life started as a lie- a complex, multi-layered web of misinformation, deception and half-truths – became one of the most eloquent and passionate pilgrims on the path of the Ultimate Truth?

Attempting to describe Charles Le Gai Eaton, aka Hassan Abdul Hakeem, is no mean feat because he didn’t fit into the neat little boxes or labels we have so become accustomed to in recent years. His genius was that he ticked too many boxes: Writer, Intellectual, Humanist, Sufi, Orthodox, Traditional, Progressive, British… and above all, Muslim.

A searching soul

Gai Eaton was born in Switzerland in 1921 to a stubbornly agnostic mother and a man he thought, for sixteen years, was his uncle. His mother was mistress to a married and when she fell pregnant, concocted an elaborate deception that included inventing a husband (“Charles Eaton” – named after a Canadian department store) who died young and introducing Gai’s real father – Francis Errington – as his uncle. Even after Gai Eaton learned the truth when he was 16 and his mother married his real father, the charade continued as Gai Eaton didn’t let on to his father that he knew the truth.

Educated at the best schools, his quick, inquiring mind and searching soul led him to philosophy and the usual suspects – Nietzsche, Kant, Hegel – with whom he soon became disillusioned because “they were just speculating” and couldn’t provide him with the certainty for which he yearned. He moved on to Christian mysticism and from there to Eastern religions. Inspired by his experience and readings he published a book on the universality of spiritual revelation, called The Richest Vein in 1949. In 1951, he found his certainty in Islam and formally became a Muslim; but it wasn’t until several years later that Islam became more than just a nominal aspect of his life.

Islam and the destiny of Muslims

Gai Eaton was attracted to Islam’s embodiment of the Ultimate Truth and became Muslim, only to discover that Muslims, under onslaught from Secularism, Consumerism and a host of other modern and/or Western maladies, were fast abandoning the very same values and spiritual truths that would save them. This doesn’t mean that Eaton was a naïve convert who romanticized Muslims and longed for the bygone “Golden Age” of Islam; on the contrary he was extremely practical and probably more realistic than most on the challenges the Muslim community faced and the long, hard slog required to put us back on track.

What I find so remarkable about Eaton was his unwavering commitment to learn, to practice, to teach, to understand, to discover and to ultimately to live Islam in the best way that he could; without many of the distractions and pitfalls to which many of us become prey. He managed to avoid the temptation to “go native” and “Arabicize” himself in a bid for authenticity. He recognized, and rightfully so, that the beauty and strength of Islam came from its ability to encompass and integrate varied cultures and viewpoints and still retain its distinctive nature.

He gave voice to Muslim converts, who struggled to forge an identity that was both Islamic and true to their (usually) Western origin. He asked the questions that all Muslims, native or new, have asked and are asking at every turn and he did it so eruditely, so passionately and yet so humbly, that we could not but listen. Eaton showed us that Islam need not be an abstract ideology or social discourse.

Eaton’s books reveal an Islam that is a far cry from the totalitarian, hardline strain that is so attractive to young, impressionable Muslims struggling to define themselves and their faith in a hostile world. His works bring all of us back from whatever brink we find ourselves, and gently but inexorably remind us that Islam is first and foremost, a spiritual transformation that starts with the self.

Eaton’s rich legacy of works include Islam and the Destiny of Man, “Remembering God: Reflections on Islam” and his last, published just before his death on February 26 2010, “A Bad Beginning and the Path to Islam”.

“God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is, as it were, that of a niche containing a lamp; the lamp is [enclosed] in glass, the glass [shining] like a radiant star: [a lamp] lit from a blessed tree – an olive-tree that is neither of the east nor of the west; the oil whereof [is so bright that it] would well-nigh give light [off itself] even though fire had not touched it: light upon light! God guides unto His light unto him that wills [to be guided]; and [to this end] God propounds parables unto men, since God [alone] has full knowledge of all things.” Quran [24:35]

God’s light touched Charles Hassan Abdul Hakeem Le Gai Eaton, who in turn nurtured the spiritual glow in more hearts than anyone would ever know. Eaton may well have had a “bad beginning” but oh, what a glorious end it was!

Many of us came into the church fleeing a life of sin and seeking to turn to a life of righteousness. However many years down the line not much has changed except that we are frequent church goers, avid bible and Christian-book readers, church workers and ordained ministers.

When we felt the need to turn from sin, we came to church where we are told to recite the sinner’s prayer. Once we’ve said this prayer, the church tells us that we’re saved because we have believed in our heart and confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and Saviour. From this point our sins are wiped clean and all is well. Here is where the problem starts. This is the point where the new convert should have continued his journey to God which he began when the spirit of God started to convict him of sin before he came to church. It is not the beginning that we have been lied to that it is. At this time the new convert already knows that he wants to turn away from sin. But he doesn’t know nor understand the full implication of his desire for godliness.

The arrest

Unfortunately for most of us, we are never allowed to personally meet and stay with God so that He can introduce us to His own requirements for inheriting His kingdom. Instead the new convert is arrested on his way to God and set on a path of supposed guidance by the pastor. He goes through a standard baptism class, joins a standard workers training group and is very soon a ‘committed’ worker. Because this new convert has just come supposedly to Christ, he is told that it is pastor who has the vision from God and so he submits himself to pastor’s Sunday-Sunday interpretation of the scriptures.

The new convert is guided by the pastor on how and when to pray, fast, and how to receive God’s blessings. The heart condition of this new convert is not on the agenda anymore. The journey that he started that was supposed to lead him to holiness, righteousness and a personal relationship with God has been cut short. The inner remorse and repulsion towards the world that caused him to begin to seek God is doused as plentiful church activity takes over. He has been told that all is well when the congregation clapped as he said the sinner’s prayer. From this point he stops thinking of himself as a sinner in need of the Saviour, and he is told that he is saved and in need to God’s blessings. This is the beginning of the end of the salvation walk that this new ‘convert’ started. He had started on a one-on-one journey, contemplating the evil of sin in his heart, the holy spirit of God pricking and prodding; now all that he has is the voice of men telling him that he is already saved. He is kept busy going and coming from church, praying for fish, fasting for bread and using God as his problem solving magic wand. According to Jesus, years later, he is worse of that when he first started feeling the strings of godliness pulling at his heart pulling him away from sin – Matt23:13,15.

To Christ we must go

Even Jesus did not keep his disciples subject to Him for long. Before he went to the cross he had sent out the seventy-two, and after 3 years he left them all and sent the Holy Spirit. Not today, the pastor has taken the place of the Holy Spirit and it is as he directs that congregants follow. Shame! On our way to God, we were arrested by pastor and his church and have been serving there ever since. The Pastor should have told us told us to repent, turn away from sin and the way this world, love God with all our hearts and, go and tell others about the kingdom. As we went with God’s Holy Spirit still tugging at our hearts and guiding us, we would have gone to Jesus ourselves who would have himself explained that to gain eternal life we would have to lose this life. We would have stopped at this point and considered the implication and made a true decision to follow or to return to the world. The Pastor has held us captive for long enough and we are afraid to leave his church. It is time to truly personally know God and let the Holy Spirit do the his work and lead us to our Father in heaven. Jesus came to set the captives free; are you free?

All those on the receiving end of our publication of WikiLeaks documents –
mortified, embarrassed, angry, frustrated – can take comfort that they were not
alone in having their private conversations with US diplomats subjected to the
blinding light of the noonday sun.

I feel your pain. I am a victim too, as we publish in detail today in this
newspaper and on 234NEXT.com.

We at NEXT have set the chattering classes aflutter in the past couple of
weeks, with our comprehensive revelations regarding behind-the-scenes events
and conversations of the most powerful people in the land, as told to US
diplomats over the course of the past few years.

These gems, some of them eye-popping revelatory, some merely embarrassing
and others just titillating, have added up to give the public an unusually
intimate access to the thoughts and actions of the members of our benighted
elite.

We had a state governor, Adams Oshiomhole tattling to US diplomats about the
then vice president voting four times in a single election in 2007. We had
Speaker Dimeji Bankole asserting that he had proof that our Supreme Court
justices sold their decisions to the highest bidder. We had cabinet secretary
Yayale Ahmed telling the Americans that then President Umaru Yar’Adua, skipping
the country to attend to terminal health issues, handed over the presidency to
him instead of to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, thus unwittingly revealing
the crude violation of the succession provisions in our constitution.

Government officials also were busy paying ransom to kidnappers – in one
case ₦20 million to get US and British hostages released – all the while
telling the public the opposite. We had former Delta governor James Ibori
offering to in effect set aside stolen money for charitable work, in exchange
for saving his hide. Patricia Etteh, the former hairdresser installed in 2007
by Olusegun Obasanjo as our House Speaker, fourth in line to the presidency,
was named by the Americans as being Obasanjo’s “romantic interest.”
Of course, when our reporters contacted her, Ms. Etteh defiantly pronounced
that “I am free to romance anybody.” So now we know.

One of my favourites was the diplomatic cable that detailed how Ojo
Maduekwe, then the foreign minister, attempted to trick US ambassador Robin
Sanders into a lunch meeting with the EFCC chairman, Farida Waziri. Ms. Sanders
insisted that Ms. Waziri be walked out before she’d agree to dine with the
hapless foreign minister, who promptly complied, assigning the unpleasant task
to his wife and then sheepishly telling the US ambassador, in effect, that he could
be expected to behave in such an undignified manner because he was, after all,
“a rascal.”

We also have had a parade of boastful politicians, apologetic activists,
self-aggrandizing businessmen, and incompetent policemen. We have no intention
of publishing every possible story individually, but as a public service we are
shortly to release the entire transcript in all its glory for the bedtime
reading benefit of the public.

All those offended or embarrassed or angry, or all of the above, would be
pleased to know that I also feel acutely embarrassed that I have shown up in
the WikiLeaks documents concerning South Africa. Those documents are not yet
available to the public, but I have decided to publish the part pertaining to
me so as to demonstrate to all that there was nothing personal at all about our
decision to bring the public in on these secret conversations of the people who
rule over them.

On November 16, 2007, I had lunch in Johannesburg with a political officer
from the US embassy in Pretoria. He wanted to know what I thought the likely
outcome of the bitter political struggle within the ruling African National
Congress, pitting President Thabo Mbeki against his erstwhile friend and
deputy, Jacob Zuma.

It was not unusual that my views should be sought. I occasionally provided
commentary on current affairs in South Africa’s leading newspapers and on TV.
And it was no secret that I maintained close friendships with important members
of the country’s political and business elite, particularly those at that time
close to Mr. Mbeki.

After a source made available a few weeks ago the Wiki cable in which my
lunch conversation was reported back to Washington by the US diplomat, I was
struck by two things:

1. I was 100 per cent wrong in flatly predicting that Mr. Mbeki would easily
defeat Mr. Zuma. In fact, Mr. Mbeki was soundly thrashed and subsequently
hounded out of the presidency, paving the way for Mr. Zuma. So much for the
well-informed, well-connected analyst.

2. The US diplomat faithfully reported the substance of our conversation,
and with such a high degree of accuracy that I would have been delighted to
hire him as a reporter for this newspaper.

I must confess here that my initial reaction was deep embarrassment at how
wrong I was. But then I realized that this was in fact not such a bad or
abnormal thing, that most of us make judgments based on information then
available to us, colored often by our prejudices and our social networks, and
our wishes and hopes and fears. It occurred to me that it might be useful to
subject myself to the same scrutiny that the characters in our WikiLeaks
revelations have experienced.

We have learned since the series became public that we have angered the
president, made an enemy of the Speaker, failed to recommend ourselves highly
to our most senior justices, ensured that Farida Waziri is not a fan, and of
course Mr. Maduekwe, who used to call me his “in-law” (the term being
very broadly and extravagantly defined,) probably will never speak to me again
as long as he lives.

To all of them and more, I know how you feel. It’s not personal, as you can
see from the complete transcript of the cable reporting my conversation with
the US political officer that we have now posted on 234NEXT.com. It is amazing
that even a journalist, whose stock in trade it is to reveal the well-hidden,
never assumed that a private conversation would become public knowledge.

Good thing the guy paid for lunch.

WIKILEAKS CABLES: Olojede comments on South Africa’s politics