Nigeria: Is Winners Chapel Losing Respect?

Our culture of cults

Pastor-bashing has almost become a pastime in Nigeria just as much as the churches they have founded have become the objects of much opprobrium. Worse still are attendees of such establishments who by their attitudes have subscribed to the cult of personality and have enslaved themselves to systems that operate no better than shamanist grottos.

We must not however allow the pall of injustice to hang over a demonstrably untenable situation without comment; there comes a time where religious adherents need to cast off the apparent dumbness of sheep that goes for community and fellowship returning to the excitement of using their God-given intellect to review the circumstances they are in.

The basics of the story [1] are: Parents leave twins at church crèche, obtain tags as proof, return to find one of the twins missing, church apparently doesn’t aid investigation, church allegedly interfering with the process, child not found one year on.

Facts of life anywhere

Rather than attempt to rehash elements of the story, I will address some very fundamental points we all need to be aware of.

A religious environment or meeting place despite the atmosphere of piety and solemnity or even feigned holiness in some cases is still a gathering point of people from all strata of society – some good and others not so good with all sorts of motives – there is a possibility that people will let down their guard in such settings when they are to be vigilant – like in society, crimes do happen in churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and grottos too.

Many religious establishments depend on volunteers to function effectively, people generous with their time and means are to be commended but each function and activity comes with a modicum of responsibility even though we work in the implicit trust that within an religious establishment people exercise the best of conduct as if they are licensed and regulated in the functions they perform.

Once volunteers have taken on responsibilities they are responsible for activities entrusted to their care, there greater the responsibility the better the standards of control and supervision must be – in the case of caring for children, it is paramount just as one would not expect sloppily prepared food and drinks to be served endangering the health of patrons, if I may, of the religious establishment.

Ordinary people make communities

A religious establishment will usually have hierarchies, rules and structures to deal with internal issues but when crimes are committed or criminal activity is suspected, it is not the place of that religious establishment to replace the state in the dispatch of police responsibilities for investigation, questioning of suspects and witnesses, securing the crime scene for forensic analysis and prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law those issues that have been identified to require that level of scrutiny.

Much as a religious establishment brings together many strands of society, it is not in and of itself beyond its primary function a police station, a court, a hospital, a school, a restaurant or a shop if it has not exclusively applied to operate as any of those establishments and so the abuse of any of those function must always devolve to civic authorities.

Persons who are found to be professionally skilled in all these areas might take on advisory role or even assume immediate responsibility until such a time that qualified persons not conflicted by affiliation can ensure that adequate and due civil process is followed.

Religious organisations are subject to civil authorities

The Catholic Church presents one of the poorest examples of the separation of Church and State when on having cases of child sexual abuse reported to the senior clergy they attempted to contain the matter rather than hand the cases over to the authorities – the embarrassment they were trying to avoid as well as the people they tried to protect has snowballed into an almost insurmountable crisis.

The case that inspired this blog pertains to Winners Chapel, a sprawling Pentecostal religious organisation that includes businesses and schools with the head of the organisation having gained notoriety for being the richest Nigerian pastor and the having delivered that legendary stinging slap in front of the congregation – this new development appears to compound what from a secular perspective is chronicling a catalogue of abuses.

Cajoled by religious behemoths

On the side of the parents, too many issues need addressing in general. That it took a whole year for the news of a missing child from the Children’s Department of a church to make the headlines is beyond the pale but my second paragraph already shows that people find it difficult, terrifying and sometimes impossible to challenge religious authority on civil matters.

The news story suggests that the church has been actively interfering with the investigation with regards to the police; such that the handlers of the children have not been interviewed to ascertain how a child under their care went missing, they seem to have polluted the narrative to suggest the child did not go missing in the care of the church volunteers, fed false information to the investigation teams and they have intimidated the parents so much that it has taken all this time for the parents to muster the courage to come out against the machinery of a behemoth organisation like Winners Chapel.

Humanity and justice are paramount

If any of the detail in news story bears any semblance of truth, nothing can justify the actions of the church in trying to cover up this case much as the parents are deserving of some sanction for not speaking up the more about this much earlier and forcefully.

In matters like this, victims after reporting matters to the religious leaders of their commune must immediately see that they case is handed over to the civil authorities whilst they engage counsel and advice outside of the structure of their religious settings to see the matter through to its conclusion.

I will continually say that the purpose of religion is for the service of the people, where that purpose is lost, whatever that religious situation is has become irrelevant and with the handling of the case of this missing child purpose and relevance are being lost for expediency.

I am disappointed in all parties involved in this case and most especially the church for not being a better force for justice, for fairness and for right – if people and children cannot feel safe there; the world is indeed a very dangerous place.

Actively seeking the missing child and to be seen to be doing everything to help the police, the parents and every concerned party is the great sense of justice that is required and it is the least one should expect of a religious establishment and most especially if that establishment is Winners Chapel.

Source

[1] Winners Chapel covers-up case of missing child | Daily Times Nigeria

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Opinion: Invisible Children & Joseph Kony

This is an opinion piece unlike my usual blogs, I have simply expressed a whole range of views and posted no links within the text. Thank you.

The numbers are big

Nine days on, the legendary #Kony2012 video has had over 78,000,000 views, 1,329,774 likes, 95,942 dislikes – that statistic alone shows the interest, the passion and impressions conveyed – I expect the numbers to retain this basic ratio.

Now, I will not attempt to rehash the issues here, a simple Google search will reveal opposing arguments for and against the video apart from the attacks that Invisible Children has suffered in the last week.

A striker without a team

In my view Invisible Children must feel like a striker in a home football match that got the ball, dribbled the visiting team until he was left with just the goalkeeper, kicking the ball right into the net scoring a goal.

Meanwhile, his team mates stayed on their side of field, retreating towards their own goal in disgust that the striker had scored, the prospect of winning the game being so repulsive that neither the striker nor the team could celebrate, the referee being on the verge of disallowing the goal for the fact it looked like there were three teams instead of two on the football pitch.

That is a somewhat extreme analogy but it so clearly represents the state of affairs today.

It’s not unusual

Invisible Children is an advocacy group that mainly informs and engages people in the work towards helping communities that have been destroyed by the menacing antics of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Their fund-raising activities are not so entirely unique; for decades we have had pop concerts staged for the enjoyment and entertainment of more comfortable parts of the globe to help disadvantaged groups and countries buckling under the weight of all sorts of disasters. Tickets, T-shirts, bracelets, bangles, packs are all means of exchange with the hope that the profits will end up helping the unfortunate.

Another interesting narrative was that of the White Saviour Industrial Complex where the white man comes from afar as Messiah to helpless and hapless ethnic populations. I cannot subscribe to this notion with regards to Invisible Children, the principals could easily have been happy-go-lucky filmmakers travelling around the globe taking snapshots of poverty and suffering but they got involved, got engaged and developed strong relationships in the spirit of compassion and humanity.

It may not have been obvious to some, but the 6-year old son had knowledge though maybe not fully understanding what his father did in Africa, he recognised the people his father had brought to their home and for his little mind had a clear sense of the need for justice.

That White Saviour Crap

A better and extreme example of the White Saviour Industrial Complex is illustrated in the recent game-hunting trip of Donald Trump’s sons to Zimbabwe. Having killed a bull, an elephant and a crocodile they justified their actions by saying they donated the meat of the dead animals to apparently very grateful villagers who could be fed for up to a month.

There is no need to go into the detail of whether the locals were allowed to shoot wildlife that is under threat of extinction in their neighbourhoods but white men could come from afar shoot for thrills and rather than skin the animals for trophies, the meat is given to the hungry savage natives – even one can only be in praise of such uncommon kindness.

Making complex issues simple

Invisible Children gets accused of over-simplification, there probably is just cause in that view but this is a very complex problem and complicated problems do not get solved by relating to the problem as complex or cmplicated but by breaking the problem down into componential parts then resolving each of the simplified tasks until all the simplified tasks of that complex problem are solved, thereby, solving the problem.

In the case of the film, the complex situation had to be simplified for the consumption of a global and varied audience, situations like this will go for the lowest common denominator – simplicity – this simplicity allows for the very basic information to be conveyed and easily assimilated.

It is however incumbent on the viewer to conduct additional research if more detail is required in better understanding the problem.

As in football

Returning to football analogy, more often than not, if one has not had the opportunity to watch a match what the person needs to know is who won. One can then delve into detail as to who scored, when, how the teams played, what strategies were used, the controversies of refereeing, who the substitutes were, the number of fans in the stadium, who the commentators were and where on the league table the teams have ended up.

In other words, football is a complex interaction of commerce and sport, skill and application, conditions and aspirations, 90 minutes or more, goals, personalities, fans, moods, permutations, statistics and whatever else to raucous, volatile armchair analysis – depending on the audience you package the information to suit the ease of consumption.

Just the facts

I do not think Invisible Children is war-mongering by associating with the Ugandan army in the pursuit of Joseph Kony and the splintered remnants of the LRA scattered beyond the borders of Northern Uganda. The fact is if Joseph Kony is to be apprehended Uganda is the only country in that region with the means to go after him.

We must not forget even though there may not be recently recorded LRA atrocities that Joseph Kony is an evil man who needs to be brought to justice for his crimes against children – recruiting boys in an army with the options of death of killing one of their own and girls being co-opted into sexual slavery – there is no authority or length of time that can exculpate this absolutely rotten and despicable man.

For reconciliation

That is not to say the Ugandan regime does not have its faults, it simply calls for a kind of Truth and Reconciliation model that will allow the children who were once abused and are entering adulthood to find their places back in society as able and prosperous members of their communities and worthy ambassadors of their country against these acts. All parties involved should also be made to confess to their complicity in allowing for this untenable situation to fester for so long.

It is a hydra-headed conundrum and Invisible Children has only gone after one of the many heads, I would have hoped the momentum generated despite the other apparent failings would have had others tackle the other heads of the hydra but in ferociously attacking Invisible Children we have ended up within the context of the first football analogy of my blog.

If Invisible Children is guilty of anything, it is at worst naivety; a case of not fully understanding the problem but nevertheless doing something in the context of what they do understand and from the clamour that has ensued it has become evident that they appear to have done a lot more than those who know and understand the problem too well but have failed to act.

This Madeleine McCann thing

Disarray and confusion

I am sickened to the bone as the pendulum of events in Portimao, Portugal swings violently like that of a clock amidst the stormiest seas, if I was on a boat, I would be retching with vomit, my intestines gelatinised and ready to be expectorated.

No fervent prayer has been so silently uttered as the one that desires that the turn of events be a complete farce rather than reality.

Now, I really do not know what to think whilst I want to keep faith that Madeleine McCann was abducted on the 3^rd of May whilst her parents were out eating though checking on the kids every 30 or so minutes.

Evidently, everyone who has been touched by the little girl’s disappearance would want this case resolved, we need some sort of closure and conclusion as to what really happened and what would eventually happen.

Fearful parental conspiracy

I am still beside myself in confusion as to how the parents as accused by the Portuguese police could have accidentally killed their daughter, hid her body, gone on this extraneous cover-up charade then 25 days later taken the body in a hired car to dispose of somewhere in Portugal.

The accidental death must have been too grotesque to countenance if they have had to go through such an elaborate worldwide campaign including an audience with the Pope surreptitiously for absolution.

If there be any truth, even one iota, my faith in humanity and humankind would be seriously compromised and we would have moved up another notch in the cynicism that would make us even more inured to occurrences as this.

There are competing interests in this matter, the parents either sincerely want to find Madeleine if she indeed was abducted or they are a conniving, criminal, devious couple trying to conceal a gross misdeed, we need a Poirot, Colombo and Miss Marple to fish out the clues ever so desperately.

A police policed

The police are under the most intense scrutiny from a global audience who want to know what has been done to resolve this case conclusively. Each country like Portugal have their ways of crime resolution which works well within the confines of the country, but when exposed to external review some methods and processes would have to be adapted accordingly, the Portuguese lawmakers should be thinking up a few reforms.

One cannot say that the Portuguese police have acquitted themselves with any distinction on this case, the handling of the crime scene, the chain of custody of evidence, the management of information and the silence that feeds more speculation sometimes makes it appear they have lost the plot from the onset.

Their reputation is at stake if they have any left and every redeeming measure is at play to close this case including the plea-bargain they offered to Kate McCann to confess to killing her daughter accidentally and receive 2 years incarceration.

This would evidently put the case away though the matter of where the body was disposed of would be the next issue. It would be the height of sacrilegious irresponsibility for the parents to have killed their child and then bury the body in some non-descript foreign place, I cannot join the dots on this matter yet.

The parents however might vicariously offer themselves to any sanction for leaving their children unsupervised, but if Madeleine was abducted, they cannot yield to this convenient sacrifice.

Convenient in that the police have to do nothing more but the parents would have snuffed out any hope of seeing Madeleine again, if she is still alive.

Bad news resorts

Then the resorts in Portugal that offer family-friendly holidays have a stigma that has tourists thinking twice about taking their families there is an abductor is on the prowl. This event is seriously bad news and bad business such that everything would be done to make it go away.

No holiday resort, country or people would like to be tarred with the sobriquet of Kid-napper country and so the boos and jeers when they arrived at the police station because the wrong kind of spotlight on their region is definitely going to affected livelihoods adversely, resorts want publicity that highlights safety, security and comfort, this event does the complete opposite.

Wherefore?

Was Madeleine abducted and by whom?

Was Madeleine killed by her parents?

Is Madeleine still alive if she was abducted?

Do the police have any clues at all?

Questions are many and answers are few.

To Madeleine McCann's abductor, a millstone awaits

Madeleine McCann - See the distinctive right eye; left eye in the picture. Courtesy BBC News.

Not through my children

There is a saying in Yoruba that goes as follows: "If my enemy decides to engage me, let it not be through attacking my children". The meaning of this is very deep, having never been a parent; I cannot begin to understand the utter distress and state of discomfiture that overcomes a parent when they sense or know that a child is in danger or peril.

From observation, I have seen many literally go mad, lose objectivity and lose control; there are no words to explain the palpable emotion of that situation.

In my late teens, when I voluntarily went missing because of problems I had in my life, my mother was beside herself, that another saying was invoked, "Knowing that a child is dead is a lot better than not knowing about the child when missing".

Supposed to be family-friendly

It is in this light that I also have in mind the McCanns who went on holiday to Portugal in the "family friendly" Praia da Luz resorts only to have their daughter Madeleine McMann abducted just a few days before her 4^th birthday.

Not enough analysis can be made of the fact that the police are completely unused to child abduction crimes by reason of the lack of expertise, the indifference to previously locally reported abduction crimes and a poor understanding of prevailing human trafficking issues.

Portuguese law that prevents cases from being exposed to public access through crucial information dissemination and appeals does need reflecting upon; people move fast when it comes to kidnappings and abductions, there should be an information overload not a blackout on these matters so that the culprits can be apprehended quickly.

Usually, information leading to solving these crimes mostly involves members of the public informing the police, this is a lesson to take away from this situation, if any.

Safe but still missing

The profile of the abductors vary from someone who recently suffered the bereavement of a child to malevolent low-lives given to pederasty and peadophilia; the latter I would not countenance and I pray God that Madeleine is with the former, keeping faith with her parents that she is alive, safe and well with someone lavishing care upon her, but this person coming to the realisation that Madeleine is no orphan and she needs to be with her own and returned to the comfort of her family forthwith.

I cannot in any way blame the parents for having left their kids to go for a meal without availing themselves of childcare facilities - childcare facilities do not offer absolute safety, they only help to confer blame when something goes wrong - the whole context of "family-friendly" is lost if one cannot leave kids in a place - private hotel apartment - for an hour or two whilst the parents spend some quality time together.

And parents do need to devote time to each other without the interference of the kids which is why they did not dump the kids with minders during the day, but in the night when as it were, things were supposed to be quiet and safe.

Faith and persuasion

It is nice to know that people can still find succour and strength in their faith, the church being the rallying point of all those who have come together to pray for the safe return of Madeleine.

The additional voices and incentive for information leading to the safe return of Madeleine has hit £2.5 million about $5 million, even the culprits, if many should find a way of turning against each other and aim at this generous largesse, and I hope it does move more to act on any suspicious activity related to the little girl.

Hopefully, the time to really review policing in the tourist areas of the Southern European coasts of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece would come, however, for now, all that can be done to help the police return Madeleine to her family should be done without restraint, the police themselves know that with the eyes of world on them, not only is their reputation at stake, the whole "family-friendly" fantasy is about to go up in smoke.

My personal appeal

I personally appeal to the humanity of anyone who might have Madeleine McCann, give her up to be returned to her parents; even you will know that you cannot find rest with the harm of separation you have exacted on the girl, there can be no greater cruelty than to separate a child from its parents and there is no sterner punishment for those that commit evil against children.

Like Jesus said in Mark 9:42 - if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you'll soon wish you hadn't. You'd be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. (Message Bible)

There is no ambiguity in this statement, Jesus would care less if you drowned and it was made sure that you really did drown at the bottom of a lake; releasing the child might as well give you the redemption of swimming to safety - spare yourself the millstone.