“If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, if My people called by My Name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” -II Chronicles 7:13-14, KJV.
There is no gain saying the fact that Nigeria is currently sick. Here is a nation that the looting spree of its officials has gone bizarre to the extent that some of these officials are reportedly hiding cash in empty over-head water tanks, soakaway, farm lands and in exotic cars tucked away inside forests, yet the vast majority of 200 million populace lives in penury.
Here is a nation where 86 cars and 2 mansions were allegedly recovered from a federal director and a strange snake reportedly swallowed N36million from another agency of the federal government. Here is a nation with the lowest minimum wage being paid to its workers and at the same time paying the highest salaries/ allowances to members of its National Assembly.
Nigeria has been an oil producing country for more than 5 decades and still remains a high importer of the refined product for its local consumption.
This is a nation which man-power is a blessing to the international community and yet lacks the facilities and conducive environment for these professionals to practice optimally at home. Above all, here is a nation blessed with one of the best climatic conditions in the world with a vast arable land and water resources that should guarantee an enviable position as a leading exporter of agro-allied products, yet hunger remains an issue.
Some political analysts have indeed recommended psychiatrists tests for some of our leaders and those aspiring to political offices in this country to be double sure of their mental state because of their insatiable quests to amass wealth at the expense of the nation’s infrastructural and over all development.
If not, in an administration whose major cardinal point is to fight corruption, the issue of corruption should not be traced to the door-steps of its officials and key players. In fact, the true health and state of our nation is aptly captured in the scriptures:“ From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores, they have not been closed neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fi re, your land strangers devour it in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers”. -Isaiah 1:6-7, KJV. About three weeks ago, a former Chief of Naval Staff under President Olusegun Obasanjo how herdsmen torched about 20 hectares of his farmland in Kwara state, on three occasions. The same scenario is playing out in some parts of the country.
That is another trace of madness or mental disorder. It is against the background of these socio-economic and political maladies that have pervaded the land that a National Prayer Summit was convened in Lagos on February 13, 2018 at the Redemption Camp, Lagos by Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
It was an interdenominational prayer conference that was well attended and televised live on Dove TV. While President Olusegun Obasanjo’s clarion call through his open letter is for the formation of Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) to address the political drifts and security issues in the land, Pastor Adeboye and other Church leaders deemed it fit to hand over the battle for the redemption of this country to the Lord by obeying the Biblical injunctions in II Chronicles 7:13- 14, KJV already quoted above.
There is no doubt that both men are directly or indirectly instrumental to the emergence of the new political order in our land. And when the goodwill that brought the administration to power is fast depleting as attested to by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in its recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, the midwives who took the delivery of this administration should feel concerned. They cannot aff ord to keep mum and maintain a “siddon” look while the roof of the house of which they are the lead architects is leaking.
This nation is not poor by any standard or economic indices. Our major problem is waste of our abundant resources through poor leadership and corruption.
And this fact was attested to by Dr. Christopher Kolade, a well respected technocrat and an octogenarian who led one of the prayer sessions at the just concluded prayer summit. While leading the congregation to thank God for blessing this nation with good weather/climatic conditions, Kolade observed that some people in this country are dying of starvation.
He said that 40% of our agricultural produce are lost during post-harvesting due to lack of good storage facilities or good roads to ensure that the produce get to the markets.
Other highlights of the summit include prayers for the success of 2019 general elections. The military and other security agencies were also prayed for to remain patriotic during the elections.
Prayers were also offered for the economy, youth, social strata/family and Nigerians in Diaspora. Of a particular interest was a female cleric who led prayers against kidnapping, ritual killings, cultism, armed robbery and nepotism before the convener, Adeboye capped sessions with prayers for the Church.
Heavens, indeed, came down and some of us who are witnesses of God’s intervention in the political evolution of this nation, especially from the early 1990s, can testify to God’s faithfulness.
As a result, we are assured that the only Potentate who rules in the aff airs of all men and who can answer prayers has heard our petitions.
And we shall marvel and be filled with joy when the answers begin to manifest in line with God’s will for our land, in Jesus name. For this is the confidence that we have in Him that when we pray in line with His will, He will answer us
