The Manna In Education -By Rev. Fr. John Oluoma

The urge to gloat about Arsenal’s weekend EPL victory over Tottenham Hotspur obstinately seduced my thoughts. I was really floating in that fleeting euphoria when she barged into my office like a rent raving landlord.

Of course a priest must not only appear gentle, but must learn the art of efficient pretension to be cool in the midst of nasty provocation. Pleasantries exchanged, she got down to the narration of her ordeal.

She is a mother of two, her business was crumbling and worst still, she’s a chartered accountant and still couldn’t get a job.
Her diagnosis shows its a spiritual attack.🤪🤪I’ve learnt to giggle clandestinely over such stereotypical explanations.

So she came to me for prayers to destroy those spiritual kidnappers of her destiny and blessings 😲😲.
In Nigeria, we have a sheikh who negotiates with murderous kidnappers that seem invisible and invincible to our security forces😢😢
For a moment I wished I could negotiate with these “destiny and blessings kidnappers” to release my beloved “client’s” blessings. 🙄🙄
The problem is that these destiny kidnappers are truly invisible😧

Anyways, I counselled and prayed and she left “enlightened” and encouraged.

My mind kept racing back to the part where she said even First Class graduates in her family are jobless, and this is definitely caused by demonic forces.

I thought I was done explaining to folks that economic problems of our time can scarcely be traced to demons.
There is nothing spiritual about a graduate being jobless, especially in Nigeria. In fact, I dare to say that education, especially the Nigerian breed, is a major factor of poverty and joblessness, second only to incompetent and corrupt politicians 🤦🏾‍♂🤦🏾‍♂

Education is not synonymous with industry, innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity( real factors of economic prosperity)
The most important function of education and it’s legitimacy must be to midwife or birth innovation, industry, entrepreneurship and creativity. These are the things that create jobs and wealth.

Joblessness in Nigeria is not spiritual attack. Same with delay in marriage. The educational system in Nigeria causes more joblessness and delay in marriage than evil spirits(if at all they do)

Yeah. Before formal education existed, a boy of 12 years old was either farming or fishing or hunting or doing some other thing. By 16 or so he’s already married. He built his own house and practically did almost everything he needed for survival.

A girl of 14 was already a mother, whether happily or sadly married🥴. Delay in marriage wasn’t a big issue then, not minding the presence of evil spirits and absence of “deliverance ministries”

Today, by the age of 25 some people are still in school learning. This is education conveniently keeping you “jobless and single” at an age when your ancestral age mate was already settled in his own house with wife(ves) and kids.

Then you graduate and the Nigerian system ensures you waste another donkey years looking for jobs that are non existent or extinct and spouses that are unprepared or not ready for marriage. When these happen, guess what’s the convenient explanation? Spiritual attacks🤷

Joshua 5:11-12 said “the moment the people of Israel ate food grown in Canaan: roasted grain and bread made without yeast, manna stopped falling. From that moment they ate food grown in Canaan”.

In the Promised land, manna doesn’t fall, you eat what you cultivate. Spiritual attacks don’t stop the land from producing when you plant.

Education without industry, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship will lead to more frustration and joblessness. Isn’t it a joke on us that our illiterate ancestors created their own jobs and survived while we are perishing with our literacy and educational pomposity 🤔

Education is like the Promised land. Your acquisition of the land alone doesn’t put food on the table or make you wealthy. You gotta till and cultivate it.

The other demons that make education almost useless are our politicians and public servants. These demons are very peculiar to Africa. The next time any man of God tells you that a demon is responsible for your joblessness or poverty, tell him to go and cast them out of our government houses and offices.🙏🏼🙏🏼

May Nigeria succeed and prosper. Amen.