By Dr. Ayo Akerele
In December 2005, I enlisted in a small group of tourists who visited the city of Kimberly, South Africa in the wake of a political turmoil that rocked the boat of the ANC, in South African leading political party. Our tour guide, a local, escorted us round some very impressive monuments that replicated the memory that many South Africans held very dearly of their famous heroes.
Kimberley is a prospecting City famous for its quality diamonds, being the largest man-made excavation in the World and impressive variety of tourists’ attractions. It is the Capital City of the Northern Cape and surrounded by five of South Africa’s big rivers, two of them being the Orange and Vaal Rivers.
Thus, we reached a small bungalow that stood in the center of the city square. Unknown to us, this had been scheduled by our tour guide as part of the historical monuments we must experience. As we proceeded into the house, we found a small room, a conference-like section of the house where about six to eight chairs were arranged around a large rectangular table. “What in the world are we doing in this room” was the thought that held me bound. That was when the tour guide said something that has refused to leave me for the past sixteen years. He said and I quote, “right in this room sat the eight people who decided the fate of the nation of Zimbabwe”. What? Yes, you heard me right, said the tour guide. On a particular day in history, some men, eight in number, sat in this room, to fashion out the destiny of tens of millions of people in the nation of Zimbabwe. Given this preceding analogy, let me now tell us where we are;
WHERE WE ARE?
After this experience in Kimberly, South Africa, the “engineer” in me quickly constructed a bridge between this Kimberly experience and the narratives of present-day Nigeria, where a nation filled with some of the most brilliant human beings on earth has been traumatized and transformed into a butt of jokes in the committee of great nations by a handful of vultures and predators. With a palpable nepotism in the land, occasioned by the advent of a ferocious Fulani hegemony, all men of conscience, men who once pretended to be men, have all gone on AWOL, and the remnants of the once glorious Nigeria are now designated as the world’s poverty capital, the country with the fourth most deadly terrorist group, and the third most terrorized country on earth, next only to Afghanistan and Syria, in that order.
The truth is, the walls of Nigeria have completely broken down. See Nehemiah 1-3. The walls of a nation stand for the defense systems of that nation. Without an iota of doubt, we all can see the way things have become in Nigeria in terms of defense and security. This nation is being massively rocked by terrorism, armed banditry, police brutality, foreign invasion and just name it. These are all signposts that the wall of the nation has collapsed, and has broken down.
Second, the gates of Nigeria are burnt by fire (See Nehemiah 1:3 again). The gates of a nation stand for the “spiritual authority” of such nation. In every nation, the church is the spiritual authority. When there is crises and the church speak, God must hear, and solutions must come. Sadly, we all can see how many years we have been praying for Nigeria. We thank God for some things he has done, because were it not because of the prayers of the church, Nigeria would have become history.
However, the spiritual authority of the Nigerian church that should be at the cutting edge of impact and positive influence has been significantly weakened. Consequently, evil people have taken over our nation with reckless abandon. Corrupt and evil politicians are cutting the shots and they seem to be growing bolder by the day. The truth is, the gates of Nigeria have been burnt. What is the overall consequence of these two crises? The glory of Nigeria has been weakened.
WHY ARE WE HERE?
Nigeria is at this crossroad of darkness because at all levels, in the church and outside of the church, righteousness has taken a flight out of the nation. The church that should be the light of the world has shifted position. The world is now the light of the church. It is so bad now that many among the church leaders in Nigeria have forsaken their first love totally, and are now wining and dining with mammon, while a lot of pastors, including some of our church leaders are actually involved with unbelievable dimension of occultic practices, rituals and sacrifices, that millions of Nigerian Christians have always failed to accept as reality. Thus, Nigeria is where it is today because evil and wickedness have eaten deep into the fabrics of the church and the society at large.
In July 2020, I woke up from a frightening night vision about Nigeria. I saw a stretch of neighbourhood in Nigeria looking desolate. It was a scene reminiscent of the war-ravaged city of Mogadishu. Shops and businesses were emptied; roads were waterlogged, refuse-littered, dirty, smelly, stinking and messy. Some roads leading to major streets were flooded with human blood. Buildings were rickety and ram-shackled; and the surviving people standing aloof on streets stood in panic moods. There was no food or drink to buy or eat, as I combed building to building, and shop to shop. It was a terrible sight. For the evil our sins have brought upon the land, we now need to know where are going, and what we must do to get there, and to avoid the coming holocaust.
WHERE WE ARE GOING?
The lord has asked me to announce to Nigerians that, a new wave of glory is coming. The Mohammadu Buhari led government was a cane of judgement released upon Nigeria, and it is supposed to last for seven years (2015-2022). During this period, the Lord told me that the nation would experience unprecedented poverty and desolation that no government policy would be able to resolve. I do not know what will happen after 2022. But the year 2022 is a prophetic turning point for Nigeria that we must not miss. Something major will happen in Nigerian in 2022 that will shake the nation to her roots.
The Lord has given me this scripture in Haggai 2:9: “The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former, and in Nigeria will the Lord bring peace”. There is a coming glory that will strengthen our walls and sharpen our gates. But we’ve got a responsibility. We’ve got to rise up and work. It is time to forget the past and face the future and work. God is asking me to tell every Nigerian youth and adult that the coming glory will be triggered by hard work. Now, whether Nigeria breaks up or not is not the issue here. The issue is: “even if Nigeria breaks up, each of the emerging nations must still do the following works, otherwise they would end up as pathetic as the present Nigeria. But since we do not have the luxury of the timeline of Nigeria’s breakup, if it would ever break up, we must still come together to work hard. If we work hard on the present caricature, the glory of the present Nigeria will still break out. What type of works will help us out?
Works of righteousness
The church must repent. All church leaders, pastors and ministers and Christians who have gone after mammon and occultism must repent. There must be a conscious desire to change and turn from wickedness and evil in the church.
Works of Unity
The church must unite. I am of RCCG, I am of Deeper life is a recipe for disaster. Fathers and church leaders must humble themselves and receive corrections from one another to build bridges of unity and collaboration
Work of Intercession
There is no scientific solution that can confront Satan when he is in charge of a territory. Nigeria’s present problems have far reaching demonic altars sustaining them, and these altars only bow to the forces of ferocious intercession. There is presently in Nigeria, several occultic altars that are being serviced by blood, and except by the mercies of God that only prayers can release, these altars will continue to grow stronger, and when these happen, the nation would continue to fall into pieces. Therefore, the church must wake up and church leaders must prioritize around solid intercessions at all times and in all their church programs.
Works of Love
The church must become kingdom minded. The resources in the church must be used to change the lives of the poor among us, and this must also be taken further into the larger society.
Works of Governance
The church must unite and deploy all available resources to create new socio-political movements that will create enabling environments for credible technocrats and experts in the church to contest for political offices nationally.
The desperate need of the hour in Nigeria, across all racial and religious boundaries is the enthronement of righteousness and it must start in the church.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people” Proverbs 14:34
Ayo Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist and minister of the word holds a doctorate degree in employee turnover and human capital development from the prestigious Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is based in Canada and can be reached at: ayoakerele2012@gmail.com
