Gospel singer Osinachi Nwachukwu’s death, reported to be a consequence of domestic violence, brought the issue of divorce to the fore. Expectedly, defenders of the oppressive patriarchal order have been mouthing one of the few verses of the scripture they have managed to master: God hates divorce! It does not matter to them if marriage becomes a maximum-security prison; they want people to remain in it so that their misery can entertain these Bible-wielders.

Like the part of the Bible that speaks on wives submitting to their husbands, their use (and abuse) of Malachi 2:16 is mere proof-texting by cunning folks seeking to oppress fellow humans. Truly, God was recorded to have said he hates divorce but God was also speaking to the menfolk who exploited the lax marital laws to casually divorce their wife, thereby jeopardising her social status. Such admonitions are not timeless. It spoke to the reality of biblical times when marriage laws barely protected women. That same verse in the Bible enjoined men not to be unfaithful to their wives. Those who bellow “God hates divorce!” do not read that other part loud because they want to eat their “Bible” and still have it. God does not hate divorce. What God hates and which that verse in the Bible states—if read entirely and sincerely—is bad faith.

When I have confronted men who like to beat everyone on the head about God’s hatred of divorce with the contextual interpretation of that verse, they reach for another line of defence: our “African culture” does not support divorce. They morph into truthless historians and start relating how their mothers were so satisfied with their marital lot that divorce was unheard of in their time. Then they go on to lament that today’s women are no longer like their mothers because the influences of feminism and Westernism have made them impatient and that is why they opt for divorce cheaply. It does not take much to see that their claims about the rising divorce cases are about their gut instinct, not because they are working with factual data. Their assumptions do not square with history.

As a society, our history is far more nuanced. Divorce did not start yesterday, and feminism is not to blame, at least not how these critics present it. While, universally, divorce must have been rare at some point, some historical records show that the late 19th century, well into the early 20th century, had high rates. For Yorubaland especially, the colonial era brought economic opportunities for women. Pursuing those potentials entailed their self-extrication from the burdens of marriage. In 1903, Captain Cyril Hammond Elgee, a colonial administrator resident in Ibadan, noted that wives, no longer afraid of the old penalties, ran away from their husbands with impunity. Laray Denzer, a historian who has written on the lives of African women, also recorded, By 1920, divorce cases…had so swamped the Native Court that the (British) administration had to set up a second court solely to deal with the overflow. Between 1939 and 1947, the number of divorce cases in the native courts of Ibadan Division rose from 7, 035 to 12,176. Unless any of those who blame “feminism” for corrupting contemporary marriages can show similar examples of a 73 per cent rise in incidences of divorce in the present era, we can preemptively conclude that all the hoopla about the rising incidences of divorce is mere moral panic. None of these things are new. When people do not read their own history, they confuse signs for wonders.

Rather than bellyache about contemporary attitudes towards marriage, we should wonder—given the similar conditions of loosened punitive social systems that Captain Elgee identified almost 120 years ago—why women like Nwachukwu still stay in abusive marriages? Many of the women, unfortunately, have—or they think they have—poor options. Our society shames women without a husband, not because of any collective virtue that we are sacrificing her to preserve but because a woman that can live without a man threatens the patriarchal order. People routinely shame women’s inability “to keep a man” as if men are a piece of land in Eko Atlantic.

For a gospel singer like Nwachukwu, who plies her trade in churches, maintaining a façade of “family values” was also vital to her career stability. Who knows, maybe her pain had become part of what makes her songs so melodious and she thought freeing herself from it would detract from the authenticity of her music. Any which way, she should have walked. Even if the churches rejected her because she no longer had a “crown on her head,” she would at least have lived. She would also have proven her faith beyond the standard prescriptions of morality. If someone walks out of an abusive marriage, they are not doing what God hates. What they would have ultimately demonstrated to the discerning is how much they value the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for them to have a more abundant life and that they refuse to waste such grace inside a marriage that denigrates their humanity. It would be up to religionists to catch up to the logic of their self-affirmation.

It has been heartening to note that some prominent female pastors have warned people, especially the womenfolk, not to die in an abusive marriage simply to prove their virtues. Many people are stuck in denigrating relationships because they worry too much about what the world will say of their actions. Unfortunately, they forget theirs is only one out of the many topics with which that world frequently rinses its mouth. Once you are dead, they move on. Nwachukwu had not been dead for 48 hours before people around her started exonerating themselves from the culpability. They said her pastor was unaware of her plight and it turned out that her neighbours knew more about her situation than even her family members. For Nwachukwu to be a prominent member of her church and still suffer the degree of abuse the media reported, it means she was not being pastored. Surrounded by a community of people who, despite her suffering, did not see anything or thought it was enough for them to intervene, it is no surprise how she died. The poor woman was surrounded by a multitude but was alone.

At this stage, Nigeria should be talking about laws to fight domestic abuse outside the traditional modes of resolving marital crises. When someone assaults their spouse, it should not be treated as “family matter” that village elders can resolve but as grounds for prosecution whether the victim agrees or not.

Please recall that in 2020, a Dr Ifeyinwa Angbo went viral when she made a video of herself. In the video, she alleged she had been battered by her husband, Pius Angbo, Benue State Correspondent for Channels Television. She said she had just had her baby just four weeks earlier. In a sane society, the husband would have been arrested and the case investigated. Instead, the State Governor, Samuel Ortom, decided to “resolve” the issue. By jumping into a matter meant for the police to take up, Governor Ortom handed a victim back to her abuser. His intervention more or less used the gravitas of his position to blackmail her into staying with an abuser. A whole governor openly aided and abetted a crime.

Many people out there are like that too. They are dying in instalments but they will not walk out of their abusive marriages. Some women especially, cannot afford to give up their titles of “Mrs Somebody” because their whole idea of their social respectability is planked on being married. Those are women who tell they are suffering because God hates divorce when, in fact, God is waiting for them to free themselves. If those kinds of women cannot muster the willpower to save themselves, the law should step in and save them from abuse. Thankfully, Nwachukwu’s husband is being investigated. Women Affairs Minister, Dame Pauline Tallen, has promised justice and that her children would be supported. I am happy that Nwachukwu did not, at least, die in vain. I hope her death counts towards creating structures to help those still alive and suffering. We should not have to wait until the victim is famous and dead before we save them from their own selves.

FOR seven years Professor Yemi Osinbajo has occupied the position of Vice President to the President and Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). But on Monday, Osinbajo came out of the looming shadows of his principal, announcing to his supporters that he wants to succeed his boss whose term ends next year. The pastor-preacher now joins at least four other candidates in his All Progressives Congress ruling party who want exactly what he wants. I will be dissecting Osinbajo’s chances via this medium some other day. But in this week’s treatise, I am taking a dip into history.

Robert Heinlein was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Heinlein was known as the “dean of science fiction writers’’ and he once made this non-fiction statement about history: “A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” I agree with Heinlein. We have to knock on the door of history to be able to open the floodgate into the future. Every path into the future burrows through the abounding bowels of history. History teaches us that in Nigeria, no vice president, through elections, has ever risen to succeed a living president. In other nations around the world, it’s also been a rare occurrence.

Assigned men who become deputies to others do so out of their own choosing. They see a path to service and they run with the challenges that come with governance. As they serve, they learn. As they run other people’s dreams, their personal dreams stay alive inside of them. In the trenches of service, their hopes blossom. They hope to see the day they too will be served as they have done for others with diligence. For men and women, who occupy positions of deputy, these hopes are more moiling and Augean.

The position of a deputy is a foretaste and foreshadow of the full power that may never come to the holder of the slot. The more proximate a man is to the seat of power, the more intense the desideratum for greater power. Deputies daily sniff the aroma of authority. They meet with kings and dine with queens. At the snap of a finger, people in their small world stand still at their beck and call. And they hope that one day, it will be their turn to command from the topmost position. Power is sweet in the mouth of him that tastes it. In obedience to the inexorable natural law of aspiration and ambition, vice presidents aspire to become presidents. It is also the most difficult political pedestal to ride to the presidency.

In over 300 years of American independence, only fourteen of the former vice presidents became presidents. More than half of them did after their presidents had died. Twice in American history have sitting vice presidents been elected to the presidency. In 1837, Vice President Martin Van Buren succeeded Andrew Jackson and in 1989, Vice President George Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan. Why is it so herculean for a man who has understudied a president for a number of years to ascend the presidential throne?

Let’s take a quick broach at Nigerian history. In the Second Republic that began October 1, 1979; Doctor Alex Ekwueme was deputy to Alhaji Shehu Shagari before military goons with guns truncated the democratic rule in 1983. Would Ekwueme have become president? We have no way of ascertaining where the tide of that time would have spun the humble man from Anambra State as he served his boss with diligence and candour. Ekwueme, who is now late, never became president even after a few attempts. May his soul rest in peace.

Abubakar Atiku was Olusegun Obasanjo’s deputy from 1999 to 2007. He served for eight years under a man who watched him up-close with suspicions. Atiku wielded a lot of influence and power. Without a doubt, he was the most powerful vice president in Nigeria’s history. Atiku is a politician with understandable ambition. The intrigues of power got him rubbing his boss the wrong way. Obasanjo was later set to leave the stage. He handed over to a dark-horse Umoru Musa Yar’adua who never had the aspiration to become Nigeria’s president but contested and won the election. Atiku’s struggle to become president continues in the battlefield of politics till today.

Goodluck Jonathan was governor of oil-rich Bayelsa before he was tapped to be vice presidential candidate to Yar’adua in 2007. Obnoxious experiences Jonathan had as VP came like an onrushing boisterous wind. This woke him up to the rude reality of the temerity that comes with being a deputy in a country like Nigeria. The difference between the offices of the president and vice president is a yawning gulf. It is like the 90 million miles distance between the sun and the earth. Jonathan was subjected to ridicules, insults, put-downs and drag-downs. I got wind of some slights he had to endure. There were places he reportedly couldn’t access, meetings he was never invited and people he couldn’t command. And he was vice president. The gap between the presidency and the deputy in Nigeria is monstrous. Every vice president serves at the pleasure of the president. A deputy who wields too much power and influence treads on a slippery slope. This kind may never become president.

In 2010, Jonathan became the first in Nigeria to ascend the presidency in a democracy due to the death of President Yar’adua. Even with the clarity of the language of the constitution, furtive moves to delay or totally scuttle his rise to the presidency were made by men who wanted to be relevant in the piazza of power. Many deputies will go to any length to cut down, slice up, mangle up and even snuff life out of their principals to realise their dreams. That was not the story of Jonathan. He hung on till the end as deputy until an act of God shot out of the blues and put him on the presidential seat. Acts of God do not have to come through the demise of humans. God has a way of miraculously spinning the wheels in whatever direction He pleases anytime there is a special assignment to be carried out in a nation. I believe every rising to the next level in all endeavours of life is an act of God. The headwinds we all fight to attain higher positions in life are boisterous. Is it possible that one day, a Nigerian sitting vice president will contest an election and succeed the man he has served loyally? Will it begin with Osinbajo even if history doesn’t back it up? If a vice president will succeed a living and breathing president who has run out his terms as spelt out by the constitution, it must be an act of God. Am I wrong? History lends some weight to my assertion.

I expressed at the beginning of this opinion that we have to knock on the door of history to be able to open the floodgate into the future. Every path into the future burrows through the abounding bowels of history. Oftentimes, however, happenings in the future may not lay supine in sync with history. It is not impossible that tomorrow may detour completely from the tracks of yesterday. If that happens to Osinbajo in 2023, that too will be history. Will Osinbajo become the first VP in Nigeria to rise to the presidency through an election? Time will tell. The fog will clear up in about 45 days. But I am always reminded by God’s word that no man can receive anything (including a nation’s presidency) except given him by God of Heaven (JOHN 3:27). In these words, I hang my resolute belief.

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It is crucial at the beginning of this submission to indicate some facts and disclaimers to set precedence for my arguments herein.

I am not a member of Nigeria’s ruling APC, neither am I a member of any of Nigeria’s several opposition parties. I write from my position of a tax-paying, youthful, objective, and perhaps most importantly, from a logical position.

Nigerians have never elected a perfect leader. And for the despots who forcefully seized power from elected leaders, no arguments can be made to defend their perfection or integrity by the singular reason that they unconstitutionally and forcefully ascended to the Presidency. It is a matter of opinion (and data) to point out the extent to which this country is far off where it ought to be in terms of its development and prosperity. It is equally up to our differing opinions (and data) to agree the extent to which each leader, from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to Muhammadu Buhari, have contributed to the country’s present ‘sorry’ state. The present leadership led by Muhammadu Buhari and deputized by Yemi Osinbajo is taking the stick for all failures directly and indirectly caused by them, and rightly so.

Central to these failures are the provision of security and working on the economy, which were top of the agendas they promised to work on, and are visibly struggling with after 7 years. To remind us about the extent of how bad things were in 2015, though, the current leadership defeated a sitting President who was seeking re-election.

With 2023 approaching and with most of the aspiring candidates known, I strongly believe that Professor Yemi Osinbajo, (yes, the Vice President) is the most suitable for this seat, and is in fact, the man the job needs due to current exigencies.

You will agree with me that Nigeria must have learned its lesson in the expectations it tends to place on its aspiring leaders, vis-a-vis the campaign promises of the candidates. First of all, there is no such thing as a perfect messiah when it comes to a leader. President Buhari never was and those who believed so must be shocked at the level of their gullibility. Nigeria’s problems are as complex as they are numerous. We cannot and should not believe anybody who claims he wants to solve them or ‘reset’ this country if elected.

Prof. Osinbajo, in his declaration speech admits that these challenges remain and he will strive to ‘complete’ what they started with President Buhari. I know this part of his address is not popular. But it is true, and I will explain why. The infrastructure development drive of the administration through its investment rail-way and air transport is perhaps only a quarter-way down. The Vice President needs to continue with this. We have taken one loan too many to even consider abandoning them or delaying their completion. This (abandonment) is something an ‘alien’ President could most likely do.

The social investment programs of the current administrations are, in paper, a perfect blueprint for poverty alleviation. In practice however, they have failed to live up to expectations, to say the least. The VP should know this as much as anyone, and would be best suited to handle and give it the needed tweaks to make it reach the expected beneficiary faster and more effectively.

The vice President, even though a team member in this administration, still answers to the President not as an equal. And even though he may have several reservations as to how he expects the country to be run, he can only get the chance prove his own initiative if he is given the same position as his principal.

His declaration speech, in all its wordings are indicative of a man who remains loyal to his principal. Even though it would have been much easier to please an angry mob of critics by admitting to viewers that the administration had failed, he argued that the country was a work in progress and he would work hard to complete the good works of the administration. Loyalty.

The nature of Prof Osinbajo’s declaration is unprecedented. Being the IT enthusiast that he is, the VP pre-recorded and posted his speech on his social media handles, for the whole world to hear. Digitization is aimed at making hitherto tasks easier, cost-saving and more convenient for all and the VP’s digitally posted address did just that. We are in for a true digitally-minded, futuristic President, should he get the opportunity to serve. Imagine the cost implication of organizing a live declaration event in which millions of Naira would have to be spent in addition to the logistical cost.

The VP has even ticked the boxes for the zoning enthusiasts, being a Christian and a Southerner, in addition to the above.

Prof. Osinbajo is not perfect and is far from being a magician or messiah. He is part of the mistake that led us to where we are. But then, so also are all the handful of the other aspirants. One can write a book explaining their imperfections and he or she would be correct. The vice President, however, stands out for one major reason. He is pragmatic! He never claims to have all the solutions, because nobody can have them. He never promised to solve all the problems, but promises to tackle them as best as he can. He admits that we are far from being a united country, but promised to do his best to unite us.

Perhaps most importantly, the VP has proven to be extremely intelligent and adaptable. These are the traits we need for now, and for the future. He has adapted to President Buhari’s ‘style’ of leadership, hasn’t he?

Gospel Singer Osinachi Nwachukwu was martyred by a wicked husband; she accepted martyrdom to free Christian women from oppressive, repressive and wicked husbands.

For long, church women in Nigeria including Pastors, Bishops, General Overseers wives have been oppressed, dehumanized, brutalized and some I know have died in the process due to maltreatment by their ‘Men of God’ husbands. Osinachi Nwachukwu’s case is not an isolated case.

I cannot recount many wives of pastors I have counseled over time, since joining ministry close to three decades ago.. I cannot recount many pastors I have had time to rebuke, including friends and colleagues, on account of tumultuous relationships with their wives. I have conducted burial or attended burial for a few whose lives were so snuffed out untimely, therefore Osinachi Nwchukwu’s death is not an exception.

The church has been built on lots of hypocrisy. Lots of lies, lots of exaggeration of the Wonders of God abound, to the point that the congregation is prevented from taking responsibility for their lives. Again, Osinachi Nwachukwu’s case is not isolation.

Dr Paul Enenche , knows that there is a beast called a husband who is maltreating a most virtuous lead singer in his church. This beast is also a pastor whom she erroneously married ‘In The Name of the Lord’

I was told three years ago, during the maiden Gospel Ministers Conference of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, in that Osinachi Nwchukwu’s marriage is under stress. I was told later that Pastor Enenche has tried to reconcile the couple, but the reconciliation is still shaky. This information I got three years ago from reliable pastors within the system. I was also told that Dr Enenche repeatedly told the late singer to believe that ‘God will intervene someday’.

God actually intervened someday, and took Osinachi Nwachukwu to heaven. The first section of my treatise has ended, and the second aspect begins

Pastor Enenche in my prophetic opinion, is The Apostle of Destiny Discovery and Recovery. I discussed his ministry ten years ago in the famous piece ‘Pastor Series 3: Paul Enenche: Apostle of Destiny Discovery and Recovery’ where I started the piece by stating that:

“Paul Enenche, the founder of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Abuja has exhibited tendencies which clearly certify him as an apostle on assignment to help people discover, rediscover and recover their destinies”. However, in this case, a destiny he helped discover and nurture was snuffed out by another man in the same church. May God give him grace at this trying time.

Osinachi Nwachukwu was not fully encouraged to leave the bestial house. She was encouraged to stay on and Hope for God’s Intervention. God has intervened and she is now dead.
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Osinachi Nwchukwu paid the Supreme Price for many Christian and Church Women, including Pastors, Bishops wives who are living in marital bondage of domestic violence, to break free into freedom . Osinachi died a Saint in the mould of Rev Fr Iwene Tansi, Pastor Afe Babalola, Pa Akindewunmi, and Rev JMJ Emesin.

Rev Fr Iwene Tansi from Aguleri, is the first Catholic Priest in Nigeria to be on the road to official sainthood in the order of the Catholic Church.

Fr Tansi was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church in 1937, but instead shunned the prestigious priesthood luxury life of then, and as a priest preferred to be identified with the poor. He fought against the oppression and maltreatment of women in Igboland, and lived in mud houses instead of well laid Parish Houses. He contributed immensely to the rooting of the Catholic Church in Igbo lands and converted millions to Christianity even across the Niger. When it was nearing time for him to succeed the then Bishop, he left for Mount St Bernard Monastery in England in 1950, lived a monk, prayed for the growth of the church in Nigeria until he died in 1964. Today, he is being revered as Blessed by Catholic Faithful’s.

Pastor Joseph Babalola was one of the three founders of Christ Apostolic Church. This man from Odo Awa in Kwara State , was baptized an Anglican before venturing into evangelistic expeditions with massive healing and miraculous tendencies. He is reputed to have turned many fetish villages to Christ at a time when it takes courage to challenge occultic and ritualistic tendencies.. He lived exceptional holy life but had a wife who openly repudiated, maltreated and mocked him. He bore all these for the sake of the gospel, and left a legacy of Christian tenacity, prayer and sacrifice. He died in 1959, and unlike many Pentecostal churches that dies with the founders, CAC has continued to grow till date.

Pa Josiah Akindayomi is the founder of The Glory of God Fellowship, which later changed name to The Redeemed Christian Church of God RCCG, the largest Pentecostal church worldwide. Pa Akindayomi transformed from Anglican Church to Cherubim and Seraphim before God told him to start a new church, and scribbled the name of the church for him. Pa Akindayomi, despite pressures, followed the voice of God and handed the leadership of his church to Pastor Enoch Adeboye, despite temptations to retain it in his family. Today he is revered among Pentecostals and Ebvangelicals as a saint. He died in 1980.

Rev JMJ Emesin is the Father of Igbo Pentecostal, Revivalist and Evangelistic Movement. Until his death on December 7, 2015, Rev Dr Emesin trained about eighty percent of notable gospel ministers from the South East before and after the civil war and his input was instrumental to the famous Pentecostal Revival which broke out in Igbo lands in the early seventies when preaching with Bible was a taboo in the area. This Pentecostal revival later spread to Lagos and environs. Rev Dr Emesin was the rallying point of the young generation of vibrant, tongue talking young men and women who abandoned the world and sought for Jesus as though there will be rapture the next day. During his burial in 2015, over 56 Bishops and thousands of clerics were there to pay last respect to the saint.

Osinchi Nwachukwu has joined the fray. She knew that death was coming. Any saint about to die will have a hint. Death does not take them unawares. She forgave the evil husband who maltreated her for many years, prayed for her church, followers and brethren and gave up the ghost.

For many days, I have been seeing her Spirit in a State of Peace. I still Saw Her Yesterday Smiling, Happy that She Has Made it to Heaven. Happy that She Has Escaped This Wicked, Deceitful World, into the Realms of Glory. Somehow, her smiling Spirit is still hovering, sending coded message to loved ones from the realms of glory. I will not reveal more than this. Since I started seeing her in that realm of peace and glory, I have ceased to be angry at her demise. I had the understanding that a martyr had gone home.

The blood of Martyrs had always led to the deliverance of people all through church history. The death of Osinachi has become a fertilizing blood to free millions of Christian Women and Church Women from abusive, domestic marriage. Today they have a voice, their ordeal is appreciated, and public sympathy will stop many bestial men from taking their craft too far.

Therefore, there is no more excuse for any Christian Woman to continue in domestic violence. The Answer is Here! The Heaven is Open! Freedom has Come! Heaven is Open to Deliver Anyone, Especially Church Women who are under bondage!

However, women under domestic violence should still enquire from God on steps to take in their respective individual cases, and follow the promptings of the Spirit. If the Spirit Say ‘Stay on’ then there is assurance of resolution. If the Spirit of God says ‘Flee’, let no ‘Man of God’ goad you to stay on.

The blood of a martyr and saint, Osinachi Nwachukwu, has been spilled; no Christian Woman is entitled to remain under the clutches of domestic violence. Rev Obinna Akukwe is asking all oppressed Christian women to make use of this opportunity of a soul that offered to die to help others, and ask God for freedom from individual cases of domestic violence.

Obinna Akukwe is a Cleric, Columnist, profetobinna2@yahoo.com, facebook/twitter @obinnaakukwe

Immediately after Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State was sworn-in and after he read his maiden speech, the Master of Ceremony pronounced him a philosopher-king that combined political skills with deep philosophical knowledge.

Italian Cesare Borgia, a Cardinal, was the skilled statesman that inspired “The Prince,” Nicollo Machiavelli’s treatise on the acquisition and use of political power. Francois Leclerc Tremblay, a friar, was counsellor to Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu, better known as (Catholic) Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister to the infant King Louis XIII of France.

Mordecai, who some believed is Prophet Malachi, was a counsellor to his niece, Hadassah, better known as Queen Esther. He succeeded his traducer, Haman, as vizier to Esther’s husband, King Ahasuerus, otherwise known as King Xerxes 1, ruler of more than one hundred Persian provinces.

Pastor E.A. Adeboye, General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, recently displayed the attributes of a man of God, who is also a man of war, showing that he knew more than worshipping God.

If you remember that King David, a man after the heart of God, was both a great worshipper and a man of war, you will understand the military parallel drawn with the submissions of Pastor Adeboye.

Though he may not have been appointed a prophet to the Nigerian nation, many view him as Nigeria’s national prophet. There is hardly any clergyman, in any of the prominent religions of Nigeria, with his stature and following.

There is no doubt that Pastor Adeboye, a man of muscular faith and leader in Christendom, is one of God’s greatest generals of all time.

Because he serves a God that has been described as a Man of War, you shouldn’t be too surprised that he read more into recent repeated military assaults by terrorists against Kaduna State, the seat of Nigeria’s most strategic military facilities.

These military facilities include Nigeria’s most prestigious military school, Nigeria Defence Academy, from where a Major of the Nigerian Army was recently abducted and others were killed.

Some other military facilities in Kaduna State are Nigeria Air Force Training School, Nigeria Police College, Nigeria Navy School of Armament, a Nigeria Army operational base, a Nigeria Army depot, Nigeria Army School of Artillery and Armed Forces Command and Staff College.

Kaduna State has recently witnessed severe assaults against its security: The major transportation nodes of the state (the Abuja-Kaduna highway, Abuja-Kaduna railway line and Kaduna Airport) were attacked in recent times.

Fear is on the faces of practically all residents of the state, including their Governor, Nasir el Rufai, as rising terrorism caused Global Terror Index to designate Nigeria as the third most terrorised country in the world, after Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pastor Adeboye lamented, “You can’t go to Kaduna (State) by train. You can’t go to Kaduna by air. They can attack you at the airport,” he then asked, “Why Kaduna (State)? Who is trying to isolate Kaduna? Why? After Kaduna, which (state) is next?”

You may agree that Pastor Adeboye is asking strategic military questions that, in turn, lead to many ifs: If an enemy seizes the entire Kaduna State with its military arsenal, wouldn’t you say that such an enemy has taken over the Nigerian state and can enslave all citizens of Nigeria? That would mean disaster for the nation’s sovereignty.

If Kaduna State is seized by non-state actors that were not voted into office by the electorate in a constitutionally conducted election, could Nigeria’s entire security infrastructure be in the hands of enemies of the people of Nigeria who could use such power for inimical purposes?

It could be worse if the insurrectionists are foreigners from across the West African sub-region as some security experts are already insinuating. That means Nigeria could fall into the hands of renegade foreign soldiers of fortune.

You must realise and understand that if anyone acquires the military hardware of Nigeria by any action of stealth, what he has achieved will be more than a gunboat hold on the entire territory called Nigeria. That would amount to a surrender of the richest and most populated country in Africa to anarchy.

If you go by the classic definition of a state as the supreme, final, absolute coercive power in a political realm, you can imagine the potential danger to the Nigerian political wellbeing if military power falls into the hands of the wrong people.

If those who run Nigeria’s military infrastructure—the men, the materials and the logistics—are in cahoots and share the same principles, ideologies and sympathies with insurgents and terrorists, Nigeria’s future is endangered.

You may recall that after the United States of America, led by President Joe Biden, withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the dreaded Taliban, assisted by their friends, overran the capital city, Kabul, and seized the Afghanistan government.

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, is already thinking that if care is not taken, renegades from across the Sahel may soon take over some Nigerian state houses.

After taking over the government, the Taliban introduced some extremist religious policies that are clearly anti-women, anti-progressive and anti-modernity, if not completely in Luddite tendency.

How do you explain discrimination against women’s education, minority rights and the destruction of android telephones, if not that Afghanistan has boarded a time machine and returned to the Dark Ages, a time before the Stone Age?

The next point that Pastor Adeboye raised is that more than 70 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue from petroleum is stolen, whereas the Federal Government is perennially borrowing money to sustain governance. He added that reports indicate that more than 90 per cent of the revenue earned is used to service debt!

If pilfering of Nigeria’s commonwealth is not military action against the sovereignty of Nigeria, what else could it be? Those diverting Nigeria’s commonwealth into private coffers (or using most of Nigeria’s revenue to service debts) are doing two very dangerous damages to the country.

Nigerians should be concerned that after the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo got Nigeria’s debt written off by its creditors, subsequent governments are stockpiling debt up to N38 trillion as of September 2021.

Firstly, they are diverting money that Nigeria could use to finance its development programmes and buy arms and ammunition to equip its military against insurgents, terrorists and other criminals elements.

The Bible says that money is a defence and it answers all things. When an individual, organisation or country amasses a huge cache of money, it is sometimes said to have acquired a war chest. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of strategic potency that the Nigerian state is losing.

Secondly, Nigeria’s enemies may be using Nigeria’s stolen commonwealth to acquire arms to fight the Nigerian state. As you know, ransoms paid to kidnappers are used to buy weapons and logistics equipment to continue the siege against Nigeria.

Don’t you think that the €35 billion that European Union countries admit to having paid to import gas from Russia may have gone into funding Russia’s war against Ukraine?

You should want to know where the 400 suspects that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, claimed are sponsoring Boko Haram are getting their money from.

Visuals and video footage of insurgents, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers wielding sophisticated rifles and driving expensive vehicles demonstrate how money can translate into dangerous weapons.

– Twitter: @lekansote1