The servant-leader and visionary should demonstrate a comprehensive insight into the workings of universal democracy and acknowledge the fact of protest as the handmaiden of democracy, therefore, letting it beknown to the people that although it is the people’s right to protest, due to the fact of over-stretched resources, especially at a time of pervasive insecurity within the polity,  the needed policing support for the planned protest is highly unlikely; and the manner of presentation should display unparalleled oration, urbanity and sophistication in public communication; bringing to bear, the power of utmost persuasion at a time of national exigency such as we are in right now, instead of the current resort to bestial infantilism or rather, infantile radicalism, mindless and monstrous agberoic braggadocio.

-          JOHN ODEY ADUMA

WE ARE NOT THERE YET, BUT WE SHALL SOON ARRIVE ON EAGLE’S WINGS.

 - John Odey Aduma

Sleeping Nebuchadnezzar: Haba, Mallam! Iwolokan mo ni, eh, Alagba? Jagaban of Borgu, can’t you tarry with the Nigerian people a while?

PART TWO

 

Arise, O Compatriots
Nigeria's call obey
To serve our fatherland
With love and strength and faith
The labour of our heroes past,
shall never be in vain
To serve with heart and might,
One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.

 

40. “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests: Provided that the provisions of this section shall not derogate from the powers conferred by this Constitution on the Independent National Electoral Commission with respect to political parties to which that Commission does not accord recognition.”

 

- Chapter IV:  Fundamental Rights

Source: The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999

 

Continued from Part 1

 

As courtesy of BATtheology pioneered by WS, with an arch-BATist and supra- BATtheologian like his Holiness, Archbishop Kukah, my soul is now ‘cast down’ for having the temerity and audacity to be criticising St. Bola Ahmed Tinubu for nearly three decades gabadaya, fellow Nigerians should kindly helep beg and ask the man of God in faraway Sokoto whether I’ll will end up in hellfire, the region of hell’s hottest fire?

But what shall it profit a man who has nothing else to do in all his life, but to be criticising the ‘messiah’ of Nigeria/ECOWAS/AFRICA and all the known world, and spend his eternity in the hottest and wicked mosquito-filled region of hell?

Olorun Oba, except that I bring my pen come from my Mama belly, where I stay for the correct number of nine months pe re, unlike some fear-fear fifle wey dey spend a whole one (12 months) year inside their Mama womb.

Tell me, fellow Nigerians. if no be akoot (acute) fear of the unknown, wetin be that then?

Na fear-fear baby them dey do that kind thing, preferring their comfort zones inside their Mama belle to the multitudinous challenges and the uncertainties of the sensible realm of being.

Enter, Mama Protest-Counter Force of the TINUBULUM FRONTIER FORCE, SECTOR 1:

Aaah, Amebo, I hear pe they done appoint you as the Chairperson of the Protest Counter-Force-o, a.k.a. BOLA AHMED TINUBU BRIGADE, BAT BRIGADE (BB) for short. Make you dey enjoy your ‘$350 billion’- o, but make sure you no get caught in the crossfire-o!

Then in my sleep, I could hear PT’s revolutionary song reverberating across all the Federal Republic of Magomago:

 

Downpressor man

Where you gonna run to?

Downpressor man

Where you gonna run to?

 

Downpressor man

Where you gonna run to?

All along that day

 

You gonna run to the sea

But the sea will be boiling

 

Talking seriously, a true leader having recognised the rights of his people to protest as a clear example that democracy - whether Afro-democracy or Euro-democracy/Western or Asiatic democracy is indeed working, stressing the fact that Nigeria is a work in progress, intoning ALTHOUGH WE ARE NOT THERE YET, WE SHALL SOON ARRIVE ON EAGLE’S WINGS!

 

BEGINNING WITH COTTAGE INDUSTRY

And then reassuring the youth about his government’s programmes such as the Youth Empowerment Programmes (YEP) or the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), having as it were, the fulcrum - skills acquisition and development for young people; partnering with both local and international banks with a nationwide spread of UP-START BUSINESSES AND TECHNOLOGY INCUBATION CENTRES; cottage industry with the author’s pet slogan: START SMALL & GROW BIG; establishment of at least six Youth Centres in each LGAs; Sports Academies and Centres; community libraries or Learning Centres coming under a programme to be established, known and called Community Economic Reconstruction Programme (CERP); at least 10 stadia in each of the 774 LGAs of the nation; 10 Farm/Comprehensive clinic in each of the 774 LGAs; Recreational Parks in towns and cities’; upskilling/skills for life for graduates and the elderly - and to humour the youth, those who did not go to the street to protest, 10 girl/boyfriends for each of them as well a well done cash of $1 billion in their bank accounts to be deposited personally by Edun within a second, take that as their ANSWERED PRAYER ENVELOPES (APES), wetin concern me; each child in primary to secondary school, a football and O’BAT CHOCO; then rolling out women programmes such as women empowerment programme, and like O’BAT, decides to give each woman in we Naija orishirishi fabrics re pe te (!) for shakara, etc, etc; social security programmes for the elderly, free bus passes for the 65s upward, including wheel chairs and £1 million monthly for all senior citizens, dead and alive; kick-start the re-industrialization of Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Kano; in fact, all states capital; taking over all former industrial estates and warehouses bought up by jeun-jeun churches and mosques; free education for all at all levels; creation of 1000 mega cities in all Nigeria; free bus passes for under-18s; 60 Further education vocational academies in each of the 6 Geopolizones, 10 conventional vocational academies in each of the 774 LGAs; 10 bags of diapers and 10 bags of kulikuli for kids of ages 0-3 (whether they done get teeth or not) who refused to take part in the satanic and foreign nations-sponsored protest to topple the government of Agberos -  GOALS (Government of all louts) as against GOATS (Government of all talents); 10, 000 menstrual pads for all females from ages 0-150; arresting of that SHORT MAN DEVIL (a.k.a. Om’a je okuta ma mu omi) and locking him up without trial till 2031, as they say him sabi chop okproko and wear okrika well, well, ban the two ayi tem (items) with immediate effect; dethronement of all traditional rulers who backed the nyama-nyama-woh-woh-gwo-gwo street protests; fuel at N1.00 per litre, whilst between August 1-31^st , embark in extensive and steady distribution of mannalliatives at strategic locations throughout the country, etc, etc.

 

THE SERVANT & COMPASSIONATE LEADER: THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS

“Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

Matthew 15:32.

The servant-leader who is in charge and in control shouldn’t be jittery about an imminent protest by their own people nor panic and embark on a knee-jerk reaction such as is currently - resorting to using a fire brigade approach aimed at threatening, intimidating, bullying, harassing  innocent and law-abiding citizens; combing all the nooks and crannies of the Federation arresting imaginary enemies in the name of foreign-sponsored protests in collusion with their local collaborators, planting IED to blame organisers of the non-violent nationwide protests, including dragging politics, a fine art and science of service in the mud by wasting limited resources to employ louts who traverse the land looking for whom they will kill, maim, destroy, devour.

The servant-leader and visionary should demonstrate a comprehensive insight into the workings of universal democracy and acknowledges the fact of protest as the handmaiden of democracy, therefore, letting it beknown to the people that although it is the people’s right to protest, due to the fact of over-stretched resources, especially at a time of pervasive insecurity within the polity,  the needed policing support for the planned protest is highly unlikely; and the manner of presentation should display unparalleled oration, urbanity and sophistication in public communication; bringing to bear, the power of utmost persuasion at a time of national exigency such as we are in right now, instead of the current resort to bestial infantilism or rather, infantile radicalism, mindless and monstrous agberoic braggadocio.

And the number one antidote to the nationwide protest against mis-governance such as the one being envisaged is to meet protest/demo effect with (governmental/state non-violence effect or (state love force), food/palliative effect with hunger effect as a short term social security relief measure to cushion the effects of hunger in the land, and having as it were, short termism, mid-termism and long termism strategic plan aimed at getting our country out of the woods, whilst pursuing other avenues for short termism, and continuing with the mid and long term measures aimed at accelerated growth and nationwide (infrastructural) development, instead of the current selective ones which follow the traditional route of developing only the North and the South West to the utter disregard of other Poligeozones.

Above all, the best balmy counter-offensive by government and its agencies will be to start the strategic distribution of the so-called palliatives now, putting actual money into the accounts of the citizens as well as distributing BAToid Capsules – strategic food distribution at strategic locations in and around the country and throughout the slated days for the protests/demos and beyond, so every citizen decides whether they should be on the streets of the republic demonstrating, and afterwards returning home with nothing to eat together with their households or choose to go and queue, no matter how long it takes, and return home with BAToid Capsules – bags of rice, beans, soya beans, salt, vegetable oil. Okproko, fufu, amala, tuwo, pafu, pomo, ewedu, gbegri, etc, etc – and the choice will be each citizen's.

 

And falling into a trance, there was in that trance a fiery old school Kiltegan priest nicknamed Rev. Father Gethsemane reading the Beatifultitude/Christitude (THE BEATITUDE) with that usual baritone voice of an Irish priest, the echo of which reverberated across the Magomago Republic:

 

²¹ Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

²² Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

²³ Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

²⁴ But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

²⁵ Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

²⁶ Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

²⁷ But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you…

 

Fellow Nigerians, as I came onto myself, the Lord said I should ask the following, at a time like this, what would Esther do?

 

1.     Enoch Adejare Adeboye

2.     W.F.Kumuyi

3.     David Oyedepo

4.     Paul Eneche

5.     Johnson Suleman

6.     Ichabod Tunde Bakare

7.     Chris Oyakhilome

8.     Archbishop Mattew H. Kukah

9.     Matthew Ashimolowo

10. Ayo Oritsejafor

11. Uma Ukpai

12. Chris Okotie

13. CAN

14. John Onaiyekan.

 

Dear Holy Father, please bless and uphold Nigeria thy beloved nation despite our collective iniquities.

 

 

I’M THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE DIASPORA….

 

BROTHER JOHN ODEY ADUMA.