Late Fr Peter Akogu, a well-educated Reverend Father and a kinsman( he had two PhDs!) wrote a book. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the title of the book but the core of its message was that the Bible should not have ‘died’ with the Apostles because subsequent generations, including ours, have done enough mighty works :witnessing for the Lord, suffering martyrdom, spreading the Gospel to hitherto unimaginable places and recording numerous accounts of their evangelical works. Anyway he is dead and I do not know the extent to which his ideas were bought in Christendom or even in ‘Catholicdom’. My younger brother, Nonso, usually complains that it is abnormal to mention St Peter or St Paul while ignoring our own native saints. So, he usually includes Umenne, Udoye , Muoemenam and Ezeamaluchi as ancestors(his own ‘saints’) to whom we should send supplications.
Whereas I do not fully buy the ideas of the aforementioned persons, I believe that there are some senses in their theses and I want to showcase this my belief by unveiling one of the ‘Gospellers’ of this generation in the person of Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who was hitherto known and addressed as a comrade. However before delving into his Gospelling capabilities, I wish to state unequivocally that he fits well with some characters in the Bible. Without being specific, he fits with the Characters referred to in the Bible as Pharisees, Scribes and Elders . This is because of his acute Phariseesm.
As a ‘labourer’ (they said he won an award as a ‘dua-dua’ man ), he was an action-man! He spoke for the masses and his simple, khaki dressing (which he probably made himself as a former tailor) evidences his austere tendencies . Despite being close to the ground, God gave him a gift of unparalleled eloquence, such that even spirits bowed to his voice. Then, he was a labour economist, arguing in support of import-substitution: to save foreign exchange, boost industrialisation and create local jobs. But two things rubbished his pro-people claims in this sphere. First, he imported a foreign woman as his wife, despite all the beautiful ladies, which Nigeria had in abundance. He thus wasted scarce foreign exchange and the usual resource-flow between in-laws, was diverted to a foreign country, thereby denying some Nigerian families the benefits of his ‘ inlawship’. Furthermore, he built a private house in a space that is more than the land housing OOU, one of the largest’ landed’ universities in Nigeria. I don’t know how being a masseur to another imported woman in a private jet fits into his image as a pro-people ‘labourer’. He even claimed that it was an AI affair until the lady in question spoke up and the discussion went into voicemail. We should also not forget that the troubles we are going through in this world was caused by his elder name sake who ate the forbidden fruit from the tree at the center of the garden!
One more thing before I go to his gospels. Adam’s fought godfatherism to a standstill and crowned himself as the David that slew the Goliaths of Nigerian Politics. Basking in that victory, he also swore not to godfather anybody in this world or hereafter. However, he became a failed godfather when he fought a ‘bloody battle’ to pocket his stubborn successor, when the falcon refused to hear the falconer. But he did not surrender; he did an encore and is currently the ‘governor’ of Edo State, even though the constitution does not allow a third term. He succeeded in imposing on Edo State, somebody who could not read the budget he prepared, who could not pronounce GCFR properly, who does not understand the cause-effect dynamics ( as Obi caused power challenges in Edo state) and whose signature is regularly irregular, which is adversely affecting the smooth administration of the C-of-O regime in his state . We now move on to his gospel.
Gospel, simply means good-news preached to those who have not yet believed. It is aimed at bringing them to repentance so as to receive the grace to partake in the salvific mission of Christ on earth. While Peter led the gospel to the Jews, Saul/Paul, took Charge of the Gentiles, who are the spiritual ancestors of Oshiomhole. Oshiomhole has also specialized in political sins, leaving financial, forgery and thugery sins to other ‘gospellers’! He also works in tandem with Christ, who came for sinners and not for the righteous (Mark,2:17 and Matthew,9:13). His ‘gospelling’, is also as the spirit directs; it is not done in churches or crusade grounds, it is done whenever the spirit propels him and whenever there is a preponderance of political sinners .
Our sense of shame quotient has fallen so low that while those who do evil things do not come to the light because they do not want their evil deeds to be seen (John 3:22-23), Nigerian evil doers covet the light and dance brazenly in the market square because they know that nothing will happen as those who can make something to happen either have corpses in their cupboards, or they worship in the same alter. At worse, the person will decamp from one party to another and immediately, old things become anew( 2 Cor,5:17)
That was the situation of things before Oshiomhole, a man who is close to the ground and has a way with words propounded his first gospel (or theory). As he received some PDP decampees at the APC Presidential campaign in Benin on Thursday 17/1/19, Oshiomhole declared unabashedly that ‘once you join the APC, your sins are forgiven’; Once you vote them out in the next four years, you will see the difference between the 16 years of APC and Buhari’s 8 years’ . As the National Chairman of APC, he knew what he was talking about, especially as he knew the integrity-overload weighing down those members jumping in from PDP. And the APC faithful,( including EFCC operatives) even after they threw Oshiomhole under the bus, had kept faith with that gospel. Of course, there were some exceptions as the case of Okorocha! The ‘truth’ of this gospel is obvious as in the cases of Reno Omokri, Daniel Bwala and even Keyamo, who had sued Ahmed Tinbu in the days of yore. There are also other seriouser cases. Akpabio was arrested first on 16/10/15 over N108bn ‘petty fraud’ when he was in PDP . He then decamped, became Minister of the Niger Delta affairs where he did mightier deeds than before and it is still pending. The EFCC invited him in April 2023 over multiple fraud cases and his lawyer replied that he had gone to treat pneumonia overseas and would respond when he returned from medical tourism and the rest is history. By that time the Oshiomhole gospel had become operational. What of Beta Edu and her predecessor in the ‘Misery’ of Humanitarian Affairs? The case of Hidi Sirika who hoodwinked the whole world with Nigeria Air; who had the wizardry to compromise Ethiopian Airlines, a world-class organization, is still‘on’. Maybe he stepped on the wrong toes but the APC government of which he was a part saw nothing wrong with that. As for Abubakar Malami whose children suddenly became the biggest entrepreneurs in Nigeria from nowhere, the gospel applied but he decided to worship on a competing alter and therefore became a contrary spirit! How about all the accused who are in this BATified government, including Metawale, who is also accused of being a Bokoharamist? Their sins have been forgiven! Why is it that EFCC never looked in the direction of oil subsidy, turn around maintenance and oil theft? Why is it that beyond Emefiele nobody has been held over Buhari’s willful destruction of Nigeria Economy? It is the Oshiomhole gospel at work; there sins have been washed away and all things became anew
You all remember the case of the youthful Yahaya Bello. He was originally accused of causing the magical disappearance of N80-somthing billion. They went to arrest him and he literally vanished. The amount in question eventually became higher than N110bn and he walked into the EFCC, walked away and the EFCC then started pursing him. The same EFCC that jumped in through the roof like a thief in the night to arrest the smooth-talking Okorocha could not seize a fellow who came to their office? He eventually asked the President to intervene and later, his son-Governor led some 15 other governors to challenge the legality of EFCC. Of course, EFCC has had a lot of legal issues including that it started operation before the law was passed and the Ibrahim Magu was the greatest actor in the Nigerian public service as he acted for 5 years despite being rejected by the Senate. Anway, the then new EFCC boss had sworn never to rest until Bello was fully caged. Well, Bello’s case is still on and he has been granted leave o compassionate ground, to perform the hajj. What a religious fellow!
Anyway, just like some Jews ‘countermoted’ Christ, as fellow APCian Tony Okocha has contradicted Oshiomhole by reminding him that Sim is still standing on a perpetually dangling, unstable rope, despite joining APC. The second leg of his gospel has also fallen flat on his face: PMBs era was not better than PDP years and as for the current APC government, the game is still on but since Thursday is a precursor of what the weekend would be… we are watching.
The second Chapter of the Gospel according to Adams Oshiomhole was unveiled on 3/3/26, at APC Edo Congress, in the same Benin. Responding to an appeal for forgiveness from the newly elected APC state chairman of APC, Jarret Tenebe, Oshiomhole declared divinely that ‘political sins cannot lead anybody to hellfire ’ adding that ‘politicians are bound to err but such missteps are part of the political process. Jarret has said that all his sins should be forgiven… he who does not sin does not belong to this planet earth. Political sinners do not need to go to hellfire. Political sins can grow around a moment and then just dissolve. Jarret you are brand new, like a mint
Well, what do we say of this gospel? While the fist gospel could be proved or disproved by mere observation, this one has ventured in the hereafter and cannot be validated until we get yonder. However, Nigerian political sinners cannot go into the hell that is lot of majority of the poor, hungry, and unemployed Nigerians or the citizens of IDP camps.
And then I have a question for him: how does this his gospel apply when a new sheriff comes to town? After all, the PDP, the largest party in Africa, which assured that they would lead us for 60 years collapsed after 16 years, not because they failed, but because they were ‘soft’. Will his gospel, prophecies or theories hold when APC collapses as it surely will or when the current APCians decamp to another ‘ruining’ party? Time will tell!!!
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