By Moses Oludele Idowu
“I urge you all to have a plan B and start making moves on how to leave this country. I know you have faith. I have faith too but I have a plan B.
“With technology, I can speak to you from anywhere in the world.
” Get yourself a plan B. Whether that on OKada to Cameroon or flying boat to Seme Border. Do whatever you can to see you leave this country.”
Those are not my words. They belong to one of the notable votaries of modern Christian religion in Nigeria today. And one of the best.
Pastor Paul Adefarasin is a man I like and who I believe carried a special unction. I was invited once to a Dinner at Sheraton Hotels where he was Guest Speaker. It was my first and only time I heard him and I had a favorable impression of him. He really impressed me. Somehow I used to consider him probably one of the best pastors we have until I read the words of the epigraph.
Now it appears even the best need to be taught. Now I see why Nigeria is going nowhere and why the church seems stranded In this nation. Now I see why Leonald Ravenhill, the author of WHY REVIVAL TARRIES says that “before revival can come to a place a prophet must first preach to pastors”.
I am troubled, greatly troubled by those words. Since when I read them I have not been able to shut them out of my mind. I have always known that Nigerian pastors are weak in the knowledge of History what I did not know is that that weakness encompasses a whole gamut of knowledge systems which also include even Theology, Logic, and Philosophy.
I am troubled that a man who speaks to thousands of parishioners weekly is asking them to get ready to bolt away before the boat capsizes with everyone on board. But what if like Jonah’s boat it fails to capsize? After throwing Jonah overboard?
I am troubled that a man who is supposed to be a stakeholder in the NIGERIAN Project and a beneficiary from Nigeria, son of a High Court Judge is the one encouraging his admirers not to stay to salvage Nigeria but to leave by the next available flight in the event of failure or war.
I am amazed that a man who has built a multi-billion naira project as a church building with sweat and labour of the people is ready to leave all as a Plan B, leaving his congregation behind to their fate. Of what use is a Gospel that cannot survive or encounter a crisis? Is that a Gospel?
Paul encouraged his Ephesian congregants to “stand firm, immovable and resist all wiles of the devil” and they faced worse hostility in Asia Minor against CHRISTIANITY then. But our own bearer of that name, our own imitation of Paul is asking all his congregation to have a plan B so that in the event that God does not answer prayers, they can leave Nigeria
Leave the nation to the Antichrist, Islamists, jihadists, cultists, etc.
This is where I disagree with him and with his plan B.
There is nothing wrong with making contingency plans or alternate plans. It is good and a sign of wisdom. But not in this case. On matters that are not too important, why not? On matters of job, career, income, residence, etc.
But to surrender your nation, the land of your fathers and ancestors, your birthplace and heritage to sadists, rogues, bandits, and jackals is not only contemptuous it is treason against the Gospel and the spirit of Apostolic CHRISTIANITY. Did I say treason? No, it is more than that. It is high treason.
Three things are wrong in those statements by Pastor Paul Adefarasin which I want to point out before I round up this piece.
1. The idea of running away from trouble.
[ Although he did not expressly say so this is what his counsel points to]
2. The false and ignoble idea of eating your cake and still have it. [ “With technology, I can speak to you anywhere in the world”]
3 The false ideas that Nigerian leaders are crazy or idiotic.
1 THE FUTILITY OF RUNNING AWAY
It is not always wrong to run from danger. Sometimes it is the only course left. That is understandable. The Infant Jesus and his parents have to flee to Egypt but it was at the command of God. Elijah had to leave Israel but at the direction of God. Moses had to leave Egypt his native land for rebellion and for his life. These are however different
These are individual and isolated cases that cannot be used to build doctrines upon.
It is a different thing when an entire congregation running to thousands is being asked to down tool and run from their fatherland. I cannot see this in the Bible. If a genocide is coming; is the only option available to run? If a war is coming is plan B the alternative? Why are we so sure even before the battle that we shall lose?
The American Christians are preparing for their own battle to recover their nation and fatherland not to run here or to any nation. And our own plan B is to run away? To be a burden to other people rather than to contend for the faith here by all means either by fire or by thunder?
That is why I fear Nigerian pastors. You can see why Nigeria Christians are so weak and fickle-minded. You can see why modern Nigerian Christianity is, in the words of a Ghanian critic, “1000 km wide but 1/2 inch thick.”?
History tells us that running away solves nothing, it merely postpones the evil day. What you run for will run after you and overtake you. Abraham saw famine and ran to Egypt, that singular incursion brought Hagar into his life and Ishmael and the distortion of destiny and history which we are still grappling with today.
Did the famine go away? Not at all. It came again in the days of Isaac. He too ran away to Abimelech. The famine again came in the days of Jacob and he too ran to Egypt. It came also in the days of Joseph, and Joseph confronted it manfully and technically and overcame it.
That was the end of famine for a long time. Joseph’s sons never saw famine because for once their father fought the battle and won rather than running away like his ancestors. The point is: What you run away from will one day run after you and pursue you and your children. If this is what Adefarasin wishes for his members, good luck.
With technology, I can speak to you anywhere in the world
2. The second issue is what I found very uncomfortable if not despicable. ” With technology, I can speak to you anywhere in the world” How about that? Our pastor is not only planning of running away he also wants to keep his church in one breath. If everyone runs or leaves according to his plan B who would he be speaking to back in Nigeria?
Therein is the logic of our pastors and why the wheel won’t roll. What moral authority do you have to still speak to a people after abandoning them in their hour of need? Does a pastor still have a moral right to preach to a people after running for his life even before the first shot is fired?
The unworkability of this plan B is the most worrying aspect of the whole thing. How many Nigerians can survive abroad? Many of those who are hearing this won’t make it in America with its expensive setting. Neither Britain. The economies of these Western nations are so developed that they won’t need most Nigerians with their third-rate education, for those who even have.
The African nations are becoming tired of us. Ghana no longer wants us but she is too polite to say so officially. Cameroon is not a place most Nigerians will find pleasant. Niger is no go. Chad is taboo. The Benin Republic cannot take the flood of Nigeria for it would cause its economy to snap. So you can see that plan B is not workable for all but a few.
Plan B: The leaders we have are bunch of jokers
3. The last point Adefarasin made is what I consider interesting. Hear him:
” Just get your plan B because these people are crazy. The leaders we have, they are all bunch of jokers”
[ Source : Sahara reporters online 11/5/2021]
With deep respect, I beg to disagree. There is something we are missing that is ruining us. Nigerian leaders are not crazy, Nigerians are. Nigerian leaders are not idiotic (as he was quoted somewhere else, ) it is Nigerians that are both foolish, crazy, and idiotic. Once we miss it here we shall continue to. miss it everywhere.
Nigerians put all the blame on their leaders and exonerate themselves. Was it God and angels that elected Buhari? or Nigerians? Is there anything Buhari is doing now that he did not do in his first 4 years? Yet even in spite of this Nigerians still voted for him in 2019. So who is crazy? Certainly not Buhari.
Are there no legislators? Is democracy no more a government of checks and balances? Where are the checks and balances in our own democracy, where, in the midst of all these, is our overpaid but underused absentees, the highest paid in the world. Missing in action. So our leaders are not crazy, Nigerians who sent dudes, to Abuja to represent them seem to be the craziest of the lot.
No, our leaders are not the. crazy ones it is Nigeria’ system and Nigerians that are crazy. Look at this and pay attention.
Obasanjo according to his own book and account and which Alabi-Isama confirmed lost about 1400 soldiers on his first day in battle with Biafrans. How about that? He still became a general and Head of State. Murtala Mohammed lost several too, he still became a general and a Head of State to boot.
Now look at this:
Another general who ended with far lesser casualties at the Yom Kippur War was dismissed by the Israeli Defence Force for taking wrong decisions that led other Israelis to their deaths.
That is the difference between the Nigerian system and Israel’s and between Nigerian Army and the Israeli Army. And that is why till tomorrow Israel is a terror to its enemy while Nigeria is being terrorized by its enemies.
No, our leaders are not crazy, our systems are, and Nigerians who accommodate it.
I want to now close this essay. Why is it morally reprehensible to run away from the place of your commission? For anyone to run from the place where he has been assigned by God is not right. For a soldier of Christ to run away from the zone of danger is a letdown to the Almighty. If everyone runs what happens to God’s Purpose for Nigeria? Where you are running to if they too had bolted during conflict, where would you have gone?
Do our pastors not say God called them? What happened to that calling? Does it include running away?
Paul was beaten, stoned, and sawn several times yet he would return to that same land to see the brethren. People have suffered and even died for the sake of their ideology, several BH fighters are in. the forest now fighting and suffering, killing and being killed just to institute their caliphate and implement Sharia. And to think that all we could offer our own Christ for all He has done for us is to flee and abandon His sheep in high waters for whom He died?
The very thought of it is sacrilegious. It is a letdown.
Where is the spirit of ancient CHRISTIANITY?
Watchman Nee was away when the Communists took over China, he still went back home to face them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in the West working for the World Council of Churches when Hitler and the Nazis took over. He returned home rather than stay and abandon his people. He reasoned that if he was not part of the struggle of the German people in their hour of need it would be difficult to be part of the Restoration after the war. If he did not suffer with them then he cannot have any moral authority to speak after the Conflict.
And that is the truth Pastor Adefarasin should bear in mind and all people with plan B. Once you abandon us at this time then you can’t come back again as leaders. No way. It is deceit.
Enough said.
Whoever wants to leave can leave Nigeria. Whoever is afraid lets him leave. Those of us who still believe in Nigeria and its Manifest Destiny will stay.
A Gideon and 300 is enough and more than enough for the children of the East. We are not afraid. History again will repeat itself.
Those who wish to leave can go immediately rather than weaken the hearts of others.
I choose to stay.
Nigeria is the place of my primary assignment.
Nigeria is my fatherland.
I will not leave and I will not run.
You push me, I will push you too. You hit me and I will hit you too.
Speak your words and let me speak my own and see which would prevail.
Bring out your rod and let me bring my own and let us see which rod will swallow each other and who is the apostle recognized by Heaven between us.
There is no shaking.
I am not running away.
By His Grace, I am here to stay.
© Moses Oludele Idowu
May 12, 2021
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