In recent times, I have heard many counsels and advices requesting believers and Christians in general to pray for their government and political leaders instead of criticise their activities. The base is that all government are of God. One would not want to argue the importance of that request to pray.
However, I need cover in this article that prayers are enhanced by the commitment of a government to do the right thing. That is what you might call “Faith without works is dead.” Do we so quickly forget that we read a bible where God kicked off leaders (Kings of Nations) for failing to do what was right? Did God ask his people to pray for kings like Herod, and that wicked Pharaoh? One would have argued, therefore, that continuous prayers for those leaders should have been the case. Albeit, we shall not abuse the need to pray. God does not give us ambiguous information. We need to pray, but each political leader deserving of our prayers must align himself with the demands of faith and our prayers to create the needed results. I seek in these next few paragraphs to cover this need.
PRIORITIES
What are the priorities of kings? Today, we call them presidents, governors or politicians, in general. What are their priorities? Is it just in taking over power, or do they have a program; do they have purpose? No matter how hard we pray, when a government sets wrong priorities for itself, it is going to fail. Men like Daniel, and the three Hebrew children were with Nebuchadnezzar when he failed and fell from glory to grass (literally eating it like a beast). Not even the power prayers of Daniel saved Belshazzar after the writing on the wall. Was it that prayers were not offered for Saul, the first king of Israel? Prayers where. He even had a prophet that watched over him named Samuel. Why did these leaders fail/fall despite their spiritual covers and prayers offered? The reason is their priority and purpose. What do they focus on? What do they present before themselves as their key objectives?
In reading 1 Timothy 2:1-2, the bible demands: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority…” Therefore, the need to pray cannot be discarded completely. Christians should learn to study and understand scriptures within the proper context. How do we figure out the biblical priorities that leaders should work on? They are contained in what the believer was asked to pray for. In continuance, we read verse 2 of the same scripture: “…that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” This is very clear for us all to understand. Let me explain it better.
The priorities of leaders should be to have nations that are quiet and peaceful. Next group after these are nations built on godliness and honesty. So let’s bring this home to our country and figure that if these apply? The reason we are to pray is that we all might be in countries that operates in peace and honesty. Do we have these in our country? Do our leaders priorities these? Do they have hearts opened to see this come to play in reality? If they do not, then we could as well pray as much as we want and the destruction might still come.
PEACE AND QUIET
Every true leaders that comes to power should first seek how to unite people. The need to bring people of different ethnicity and tribes together cannot be overemphasized. A leader has a great burden when the country he leads is divided across religious lines. It is therefore, the place of the leader to work hard enough to ensure that there is peace. In true leadership, no group of people within a country should carry a sense of betrayal and rejection. A leader seeks to create a balance as much as possible. You do not appear on media broadcast to rubbish any group of people despite their agitations. As a leader, you guard your utterances, especially in public. Your words has to show respect and regard for all groups of people. Being macho does not mean that you should be mean. You seek to ensure that you create a conducive environment that even agitators would quit their struggles and find a place in the government.
Long before Former President Goodluck Jonathan took over power, there had been a Biafra struggle. The question I had asked is why did the people who demanded for the split of the country stay “quiet” in his government? It seems that he did a few things to make them feel that life was going to be good and balance for them in Nigeria. Today, we have a different case. Rather than have the quietness that we should enjoy in the country, we are having protest that have led to the loss of lives. Even the lives of innocent protestors. The more lives that people lose, the more they resolve to keep up with a struggle. The more the struggle, the more unstable a nation would be for a leader. People are not often easily intimidated – no, not by guns. If you gun down one and another would rise in his place. A governor in the Nigeria did say, “Fulanis have a long memory for revenging killings”. That sounded intelligent to him, but he failed to realize that there might be other groups of people with even longer memories. Should leaders support actions that divided and side-lines another group? Should people in Kaduna South for example live their victims in their own states?
My desire is to see the government work towards realistic peace. What we see today seems to be tilted towards pleasing a certain group of people. The Fulanis have more of the advantages. Rumors of them killing people are almost everywhere on the Social Media with photos flying around. Hardly you hear of investigations like they have the warrant to do just about anything. Hardly you see victims visited. Hardly you hear these issues addressed? In a few cases, the victims are even the ones to be arrested. Agatu just experienced a massacre and some bags of rice delivered with a jet would never be enough to pacify those people. One might think they too do not have a long memory good enough for revenge? You cannot tell. The Shiites do not seem to be well integrated. The south-south have their grouse. The opposition party believe they are being haunted in the much acclaimed anti-corruption fights (obviously, the ruling party is not investigating its members). The biggest challenge of leadership like in the case of Nigeria is truly building a peaceful country. A country where groups like Boko Haram are not bent on killing innocent Nigerians only to go get amnesty and be fed fat with taxpayers money. Wealth made possible by people they have spent years killing. When a country is peaceful, almost any initiative can succeed. People would work together and build a nation. People would not see themselves as the negative targets of every good move.
HONESTY
I see that efforts are made in trying to build a united country, but we cannot do this on illusions. We cannot allow anti-graft agencies to jail people without charging them to court. We cannot have a country where court orders are being disregarded by a group of leaders that swore to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We cannot build a honesty country when politicians renege on promises that they made during electioneering seasons and break their words without remorse. We cannot build a truly honest country one tells you he is poor, but is later discovered to be spending more than people we believed were richer than he was. He even testifies that he can afford it. We cannot build an honest country with lies flying all around the place in the name of media reportage. Honesty has to become a priority.
We could grind our knees all we want praying for leaders who have no resolve to work towards peace and honesty and get little or no results. Saul was bent on killing David. He was fixed on that purpose. A misplaced priority. He chased David everywhere until he destroyed himself and almost destroyed Israel with him. He chased David until his son Jonathan had nothing to inherit as regarding the throne. He wasn’t fair to David who investment his energy and might to serve him with good music. It was David that reduced Saul’s stress. It was him that got rid of Saul’s troubling demons. One who battled the Goliath of the time and gave the King and his people some rest. It was the very same David, instead of being commended, that was hunted and chased around. What good did Saul speak concerning David?
Nigerians have also not been fair with President Goodluck Jonathan. The Goliaths of our economy and the challenges that came with him were put to flight by the efforts of these people. At least we know they did not give us a paradise, but they left the country better than they met it. It is not too hard to say, “thanks for the time spent in service. Let’s take it from here and make it even better.” We as a country prefer to sit and abuse past leaders. Blame them for all that happened and did not happen. When we do blame, we do it selectively ignoring the truth of when our problems actually begun – when democracy was truncated by people not meant to be political leaders. We only continue to divide the country into more groups with falsehood. Ethnic groups, religious groups, political groups, etc never make us better as they widen. That split, does us no good as a country. There must always be a time when people sheath their swords and come together and the leaders must champion this course.
The embarrassment we now witness with our budget is a clear sign of dishonesty and the absence of integrity in our system meant to be fight corruption. Everyone is blaming the other, and the media is playing the middle game fanning the embers of hate and disunity. Each twisted news is reported and the rights of Nigerians are abused with ease. Let us call it whatever name we wish to call it. If leaders do not get their priorities right, Have a million Prophet Samuel praying for you. In fact, summon the dead ones out of the grave – as Saul did – and the end would still be terrible. We must make the decision today to lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty
SALVATION
Having pointed out the above. I shall conclude by saying that a true encounter with God would make all these possible and would bring us all to that realization that God can work with us and within us. Time is up for some self-righteous pretences. We do not need artificial integrity. We must have a leadership that is truly saved and redeemed. We need leaders that their yeah would be yeah and their nay, nay. We need leaders who would tell us things the way they are so our prayers for them would make sense. Prayer should go with purpose and priorities. We cannot continue to pray for people who are bent on working with wrong priorities. My prayer is: “God, let these leaders be truly saved and born again”. I am tired of religious people with no inner encounter with God. It only gives birth to the kind of deception we see today. I am tired with leadership that goes the wrong direction most of the time because the leaders won’t submit themselves enough to learn.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
KNOWLEDGE
Leaders deserving of our prayers should be leaders that are knowledgeable or at least ready to learn. And what they must know should be the truth. Leaders who seem to have a highly inflated ego only talk big and never deliver. Come to the knowledge of the truth and speak the TRUTH. Come to knowledge; come to Truth. When our leaders are ready to be honest, they would immediate come to terms with the realities of our economy. They would tell us the truth for what it is. They would cease trying to use every mess and mistakes of theirs to rubbish a political opponent. They would sue for peace and not create it using propaganda. The continuous abuse of priorities has to end somehow, someday. We need a country. We are ready to pray. Before then, our leaders must be ready to key into our prayers by setting their priorities right.
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