Olukoya and ill-logics of the Pentecostal Republic -By Festus Adedayo

General Overseer, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Pastor Daniel Olukoya, polluted Nigeria’s religio-political waters last week. Apparently swimming in the pool of what my friend, Ebenezer Obadare, labeled Nigeria’s incestuous interplay of religion and politics in what he tags a Nigerian Pentecostal Republic, the pastor took liberty on the pulpit to spew illogicalities that have become the preserve of so-called men of God.

The Olukoya epistle contained so many other cants. Speaking under the immunity of this Pentecostal Republic and a narrative from the pulpit that Nigerian politicians must have operated under a demonic spell, Olukoya highlighted what made Awolowo one of the most unique minds of the last century. From his prosecution of the war with zero borrowing as Yakubu Gowon’s Minister of Finance, to his ascetic lifestyle and how he mesmerized the Gowon cabinet with “Simple Primary Economics,” Awolowo, in the words of Olukoya, was simply a genius.

 “And when they were going to do FESTAC ‘77, they asked for Awo’s opinion. Awo said, ‘This Festac ’77 is a show of our primitivity and that the white man will be quite happy to see us exhibit our primitivity.’ He said that the money that would be used for Festac ’77 should be spent on technology for education, for things that will move people forward, not going back to the idols that dragged us to where we were, and the man had this uncanny attribute of being right,” said Olukoya.

However, rather than those alluring superlatives being held as qualifications for eternal life, both in the hearts of the people and the Kingdom of God which admits only the purest of hearts, Olukoya punctured all those attributes he ascribed to Awolowo with what I call the irreverent logic of the pulpit. It is a logic which Pentecostal overlords have deployed to hoodwink their congregants and the public.

Olukoya then magisterially proclaimed that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo never fulfilled his destiny because he did not give his life to Christ. Despite Awolowo’s greatness and exploits on the political scene, Olukoya said the sage denied Christ even against the prodding of great Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, who allegedly once visited his house.

Some writers have brought out the lie of that Babalola reference so it won’t detain me here. It however occurred to me that Olukoya, as said earlier, must have been operating under that general and global belief of politicians being evil and their Nigerian variants, archetype of the thief  on the left  cross, totally submerged in evil. It was that global tar-brush that the Pentecostal overlord apparently applied on Immortal Awo. This narrative won’t wash with Awolowo.

In the history of Nigerian politics, not many of the political elite approximate Christlike attributes as Awolowo did. If the refrain in Christendom is for worshippers to fervently yearn to be like Christ, in character and humility, virtually all politicians since Awolowo’s earthly departure, pray to be like him in forthrightness and devotion to humanity. Awolowo made life and living worthwhile for the people of Western region, through his developmental strides.

Methinks Olukoya and his Pentecostal overlords have over the years sunk into the arbitrariness zBorn Again-ism as a classification, mis-perceiving it as literal. Born Again, in my reading, isn’t only, or isn’t strictly, a mouth confession to be like Christ. “Born Again” is found in the philosophy of humanism which Awolowo epitomized. Humanism isn’t all about the metaphysics of religion or the physical service to God since no one can see Him. To be born again is to put humanity first in any earthly engagement. That was Awo’s creed and it supersedes any metaphysics of religion or in Born Again-ism which Pentecostal pastors have deployed for ages to mesmerize their congregants, preparatory to erecting drain pipes into their hearts which then mint cash into their pockets.

It was that same literal interpretation that Christ disdained in Mathew 25: 35:  “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.”  When asked when they did these to him, He replied, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”

Awolowo, in serving humanity, served God affectionately.