Only truth‘ll set Nigeria free – Osinbajo

Our federal system most prodigal – Falana

By Chizoba Ogbeche
with agencies

For Nigeria to get out of the multifarious challenges it currently faces in the economic and security fronts among others, the people must always stand by the truth in their daily activities, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has advised.
Osinbajo gave the charge in a sermon he delivered yesterday to the congregation at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), Jesus House, Silverbird Entertainment Centre, Central Area, Abuja.
In the sermon, titled: “The Image of Gold’’, the acting president noted that a decision to stand by the truth always entails a level of discomfort or even outright persecution, but that God will always show up to justify the righteous.

Taking his text from the Book of Daniel, Chapter 3 verses 1 to 29, the acting president, a pastor of the RCCG, recalled the story of Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego who refused to bow to the golden image of the idol as ordered by Nebuchadnezzar, the then king of the Babylon empire, according to the bible.
He said the three Jewish young men, who were then being held in captivity in Babylon, refused to bow to that golden image as a result of which they were hauled into the pit of fire.
Osinbajo said the captives survived the fiery fire because God was with them in the fire, adding that God honoured His word in their situation as He promised in the Book of Isaiah 43: 2.

“When God showed up in the fire through His Son, it was the first direct appearance of God in the Old Testament. If they had chosen to bow to the golden image and thereafter seek to make amends through prayer and fasting, it would not have helped them.
“It is when you are passing through fire that you make a choice for God to honour Him. God said He will show up then,’’ the acting president said.
Osinbajo also said, in every circumstance of life, people, especially Christians, must stand up for what is right and just.
“God is asking us to stand and stand up for something, be it against corruption, dishonesty, stealing or fraud in our offices etc. If we do not, we are bowing to that image of gold. We should stand for what we believe in as the three Jews did.

“Every time we look at the scripture, God is saying: `Stand for something. You cannot afford to stand for nothing. Stand for Christ. The choice that faced the three Jews is still before us today. We face it every day and we must stand for Christ, especially Christians.
“Are you going to bow to the image of gold or take a chance with God and expect Him to show up? If you stand for Him, He will surely show up. God wants us to trust Him and to believe Him.
“Are you going to bow to the image of gold or trust God to show up when you are thrown to the fiery fire? There are certain things that honouring God can do which fasting and praying cannot do.

“Praying and fasting is good but it is better to honour God in all that we do to provoke His intervention in our situations.
“The image of Nebuchadnezzar is alive and well today – it exists. That image of gold stands before us every day and everywhere. We must choose God. Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon had represented the system of the world, the corrupt system of the world governed by the devil.
“Nebuchadnezzar was the king of that world system representing Lucifer, the Satan. So Nebuchadnezzar is saying to the people of all nations that Satan rules there. So you have to choose whether to serve the living God or bow to the image of the devil.
“You must choose God. That is a decision which you and I make face every day,’’ Osinbajo declared.

In a related development, a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Barrister Femi Falana, has described the Nigeria’s Federal system of government operational in the country as most prodigal in all the nations of the world.
The constitutional lawyer said this while delivering a lecture titled; ‘Whither Nigerian Nation’ to commemorate the 65th birthday of a former member of the National Assembly, Senator Adegbenga Kaka, held at Adebambo Court, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun state.
The legal luminary noted that the country needed both political and economic restructuring to salvage all the challenges confronting it.

He advocated that states of the nation should be allowed to manage their resources for all round development, as against what is being practised from Independence till date.
The fiery lawyer described the present federal system of Nigeria as a “peculiar” one because of how her resources were being managed.
“Nigeria federal system is the most prodigal in the world; our system is peculiar and cannot be compared to any nation in the world. In the 1963 Constitution, derivation was 50 per cent for any state with resources, but today, the federal government keeps 52 per cent of the  revenue and 48 per cent is shared by the states and the local governments.

“This is the reason governors go to Abuja every month to collect rent from the Niger Delta, instead of them to be allowed to manage their resources. This is not federalism in real sense, but a skewed arrangement by few Nigerians to corner our common wealth,” Falana said.
The human rights lawyer told the audience, which had in attendance the Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who was represented by his Deputy, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga, one of the disciples Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Pa. Ayo Adebanjo, the state commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, former Minister of Youths and Sports, Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi, that the country would remain backward if the cost of governance and capital expenditure takes larger percentage of the budget against human capital development.

He faulted the medical trip of President Muhammadu Buhari to London, describing such step as shameful, saying the country could boast of well over 30,000 doctors overseas as a result of poor medical facilities.
“It is a shame for a president of the most populous black nations in the world to travel abroad for medical treatment. Nigeria boasts of over 30,000 medical doctors abroad as a result of our poor medical facilities. Cuba which has only sugarcane and tobacco as means of foreign exchange, has one of the best doctors and medical facilities in the world.

“Fidelis Castro, who was a former president of the country, was sick for about a decade and had major surgeries performed on him, yet, he never left Cuba. While the tiny country has conquered malaria, typhoid fever, meningitis cholera and other tropical diseases, Nigeria loses nothing less than N2b annually to medical tourism”.
Falana described the former deputy governor of Ogun state as a true defender of the masses, a man of honour and integrity.
Adebanjo, who was the chairman of the occasion, said Kaka never disrespects what he called the concept of seniority while he held sway as deputy governor in the administration of Chief Olusegun Osoba.

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