Founder of Remnant Christian Network (RCN) headquartered in Makurdi, Benue State, Pastor Osayi Arome has recounted how he was exposed to a monthly temptation of about 75,000 dollars while working as a regulator in one of the regulatory agencies in the oil sector.
He disclosed this in one of his recent sermons monitored online by Church Times.
Arome said the whole temptation assailed him when he was posted to Lagos by the organisation.
The level of graft in the oil sector from his description was so frightening that bribes were offered at every single level of operations in the sector.
The temptation
Osayi said workers in the agency were well paid because of the kind of temptation they were exposed to.
Recounting his experience, he said, “I became a supervisor at some point in Lagos. My capacity as supervisor gave me oversight duty over three depots in Lagos. Each of these depots brings in an average of five vessels in one month making it 15 vessels per month for the three of the depots.”
He said that just to be informed that a vessel has berthed the handlers will pay a graft of 100,000 just to buy the conscience of the regulator. “If that 100,000 finds relevance in your hands, it means you want to do something,” Arome said.
He said however that he did not fall into the temptation of collecting the 100,000. He did not indicate whether it was 100,000 naira or dollars.
He said, “ I would tell them, I don’t need your 100,000. The money the government is paying me is enough for me and my family. So the first set of people came, and I gave them that response. The second set came, and I gave them that response.
“They now went back to inform the rest that one man does not collect bribes.”
The lure in the kitchen
The cleric said by the time a regulator collects the 100,000 he would be taken to the kitchen where he will be served with all sorts of delicacies. “You have fried rice, coconut rice, chicken fish, tuna fish roasted with ketchup and onion. It’s always brown and red. You have vegetables and all kinds of stuff.”
He said the fridge in the kitchen is also stuffed with all kinds of foreign drinks. “You will not see any soft drink sold in Nigeria there. Not one. he said.
Arome said it is that kitchen they bring in the papers for the regulator to sign. So rather than verify the quantity of what is being signed for, they will ask the regulator to sign without verifying because he has been given 100,000.
“And when you check the person asking you to do this, the person is an elder, a deacon. But he lacks depth because he did not surrender to the process through which God made men”
After the regulator has taken the 100,000, they will show him the real figures, but ask him to sign for different figure
ANOTHER LEVEL OF GRAFT
Arome said the incentive if you agree to another level of the deal is 5,000 USD for each of the vessels that berthed. “Guess how many vessels I am to sign, 15. That means I would be collecting 75,000 USD. At the current rate that is about N70 million naira that will be available to me every month. You don’t even need to touch your salary.
“It does not matter the car any governor drives, you can drive a better car. People will call you mad if you avoid such corruption. If you are still considered to be normal, you have compromised. It means somewhere along the line, you find a skillful way of avoiding the tribulation Jesus talked about.”
Arome said he earned the name Chuka because he saw N70 million every month but rejected it.
He said because of the strategic position he occupied, the status car he and his colleagues were given was the Honda car known as End of Discussion. That was two years after the vehicle was introduced to the market.
Unfortunately, when he came to Lagos according to him his vehicle was stolen and he had to go to work by public transport though he could afford to buy another car.
He said, “For seven years God did not allow me to buy a car though my one-month salary could buy one. Half of my salary could pay my annual rent. God gave gave me a scripture, that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of what he has.”
While insisting that it is not head knowledge the Christian needs but experiential knowledge, he said, “Anything that does not affect your heart cannot change your life. Knowledge has to be processed through dealings for it to become an ever-present reality that is sustained in your life. If by any means you escape the tribulation, you become fake.”
He declared that God had helped him to die to material things.
The value of tribulation
Arome reasoned that “many preachers are half-baked because they are yet to understand that tribulation is part of the crucible that has been ordained by God to qualify us to enter into the glory of our calling. Tribulation is an antidote to several tendencies of the flesh so that that the flesh is no longer that entity calls the shots in your life. You can decide to ignore the suggestions of the flesh.
“We have the rise of a generation that has escaped the process that God uses to make men. They have been pampered to believe that the goal of the Christian life is measured by houses and money. It is a subtle influence that is altogether colonising the house of God”
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