Opinion: Oiling Diezani's prison wagon

Oiling the wheels of hedonism

I had previously passed commentary on Twitter about the case of the erstwhile Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.

In a statement released by the US Department of Justice last week, they are after the recovery and forfeiture of $144 million in assets that are proceeds of corruption and money laundering conducted within the jurisdiction of the United States of America. [DOJ]

Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, both of whose Wikipedia pages are urgently in need of an update because the colourful profiles therein are anything but, they apparently conspired with others to bribe Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke with gifts including property and furniture to win lucrative oil contracts in Nigeria.

Oiling global scrutiny

Kola Aluko for instance, owns the luxury super-yacht, Galactica Star, it is the world´s largest fast displacement yacht [Wikipedia]. It is valued at about $65 million and it gained a rather high social profile when it was hired by Jay-Z and Beyoncé for her 32^nd birthday. [Business Insider]

Basically, Aluko and Omokore seem to have gotten their hands on lots of money from their nefarious activities and have not been reticent about living high profile lives of acquisitive hedonistic eye-watering ostentation.

In any case, let’s look at an aspect of this matter that does not seem to be dawning on Nigerians of power and influence yet. The fact that no one has the resources to completely control the narrative anymore. The power you wield in Nigeria that could be overwhelming in that locality is paltry in global terms, Nigerian smarts do not essentially suggest you are smart about things, you might well be stupid when taken out of that setting.

Oiling the sheen of stupidity

It brings me to a few trivial, yet interesting conclusions about Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke who we deign to call Diezani.

Diezani, has been both stupid and smart, smart in her involvement with her co-conspirators in crime to have recorded conversations of their wanton thievery and yet stupid enough to allow those recordings to become key evidence for indictment, because she somehow failed to sequester the material far from reach, it’s like being caught in the act, red-handed.

Smart to express a sense of proportion in admonishing the men about their hedonism whilst stupid enough in her cant to exhibit the same characteristic in accepting $4 million worth of furniture for her many properties. [Premium Times]

Smart to find ready patrons lacking in integrity and character to probably insulate her from the corrupt enterprise she presided over, but that itself was stupid because whilst she apparently got away with it in Nigeria, she could not in the UK and the US. [Newsweek]

Oiling the arm of the law

Carrying on the previous thought, smart to have absconded Nigeria since 2015 where she has escaped the hounding of ineffectual law enforcement and prosecution, but stupid enough to think they could not only provide influence but add value to the investigations and indictments instigated abroad.

To reiterate an earlier thought, invariably, what we stupidly assume as smart in the Nigerian context could very well be exposed as stupid in the global scheme of things. Everyone forgets that in our global village, that nothing of note in a secret local grotto is entirely isolated from the global klieg lights.

Opinion: Lagos to London: Britain’s New Super-Rich

And so

I really had no intention of writing anything about the mockumentary that was shown on Channel 4 last night titled, Lagos to London: Britain’s New Super-Rich, but I was asked about it at work this morning.

There are a lot of Nigerians in the UK, my association with the UK was borne of the fact that my parents were here as students in the 1960s and I came along, born in the UK, but of Nigerian heritage and I am proud of that mix and makeup of my life.

Now, the Nigerians that appeared on that programme are rich, wealthy, educated in some of the best English schools, but somehow seemed to have missed a quality of educational finesse that combines the understated with sophistication.

They had cash, they were brash, they had lots to flash and very little class. It goes without saying that that essential component of comportment seems to have evaded their sensibilities by a country mile.

Of sensible Nigerians

There are Nigerians who graft it here daily to make ends meet, there are other Nigerians who are professionals of high repute with exemplary accolades and dare I say, probably the majority of the unseen Nigerians have more sense than money and I think that is a good thing.

The best education I got from my parents is one of contentment, this gives me the perspective and grounding to live my life successfully and happily without the encumbrance of trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Looking at some of the commentary on Twitter last night, some people were carried away with the acquisitive hedonism, the ostentatious show of wealth that has people groomed for appearance with little or no substance. Life has a lot more to it than that.

Indeed, we would all love to have the means to do anything we liked, yet we have a self-awareness, a sense of responsibility, considerable consideration, discipline and perspective to what we do that is a function of our stability and salvation from depression borne of envy, jealousy or covetousness.

The butler comes

Now, of the people who were showcased on this meat rack of vulgarity, one can commend Alexander Amosu for rising from a council estate to hobnob with the outrageously rich and he has apparently cornered a market to feed the constant one-upmanship that consumes people of that ilk.

Yet, with all that association, the minutiae of essence that comes with knowing was evident, limousine, chauffeur, sharp suits, gleaming cuff links and the ultimate faux pas; a matching tie and pocket square. Class is probably passed down and there is only so much finishing school can do.

Kids on the skids

On the matter of the daughters of the billionaire oil tycoon and the twins with a law degree from some midrange university, whoever sent them to public school should be asking for a refund with interest, none of the English norms seemed to have rubbed off on them, they spoke like silver spoon braggarts.

Many of us would rather keep our inflective Nigerian-English accents than to decline to a South or East London accent, especially after that kind of education. Come think of it, I seem to have gotten more out of my Nigerian-based multi-cultural education than they did from public schools in England. Their spoken English was quite below par as to be somewhat appalling.

The Daily Mail had a spread on the girls and one look at the comments shows they would always be celebutantes of the Kardashian or The Only Way Is Essex genre of trashy reality television until they find a vocation that is of service rather than self-serving.

The twins who spewed philosophy like it was going out of fashion, were planning on making their mark as lawyers, I won’t scoff, but whilst they looked good for a posse, looks do not a respected advocate make. Much privilege and given to spoilage, one might aver.

Beyond the zoo

Like I said before, there are a lot of people of Nigerian heritage in the UK, very few of us would like to be paraded as vacuous showpieces of opulence bringing on disgust. It was a mockery of the uncultured without a filter for self-restraint.

They do not represent the, as it were, sensible Nigerian, not in any way. That show was a zoo and one visit to see the animals was enough.

Prince said it about style, there was much on show and nothing that resembled style.

Style is not something that comes in a bottle
Style is more like Jackie O. when she was doin' Aristotle
Style is not a logo that sticks 2 the roof of one's ass
Style is like a second cousin 2 class.

Style – Emancipation (1996) – Lyrics

Nigeria: Some Truths About The Bride Price App

Love abroad

A good friend of mine started a long-distance relationship between Europe and Africa where they for over a year communicated over the phone, via email and many other means professing love for each other.

I was wary, simply because my friend had spent more than half his life in Europe; fundamentally there was no cultural affinity between them apart from a geographical space. Outlooks had changed due to his integration into another culture, community and society, but who knows?

When it appeared things might not work out, I thought he had invested too much in that relationship that the least he could do was go and meet with the family of his love interest and make up his mind after that.

Checking in

We went shopping for gifts and all sorts of arrangements for an introduction and he travelled over to meet the family. When he met the father, they appreciated his interest, took the gifts without as much as a thank you and then gave his companion a printed wedding list that read like greed of the world in objects and payments that baffled the mind.

There was nothing I could do but seek the wisdom of my mother, she sounded a very cautionary tone, to the effect that there was nothing in that relationship than an opportunity to milk and bilk my friend, in the end he cut his losses and ran – the event was scripted in 6 blogs that I titled, “Opening the mouth of the Father.”

Breaking the bank

The wedding list had that one item that caught my eye amongst that many other ridiculous things that I distributed in a narrative of derision and incredulity. My friend at the wedding ceremony would only be able to get the father of the bride to speak by shelling out 50,000 Naira, whilst the whole list came to over half a million Naira and that did not include the cost of the wedding ceremony and the bride price.

Blog - Opening the mouth of the father – Part 1

Blog - Opening the mouth of the father – Part 2

Blog - Opening the mouth of the father – Part 3

Blog - Opening the mouth of the father – Part 4

Blog - Opening the mouth of the father – Part 5

Blog - Opening the mouth of the father – Part 6

The Bride Price App

Which brings me to the topic of the Bride Price, because yesterday I came upon a web-based application that claimed to calculate the Bride Price of a prospective wife based on a number of attributes, achievements, looks, diction and status of the lady.

Bride Price Calculator

When I first clicked through the application, I commented on Twitter that it spoke to the ridiculousness of the things we place value on.

However, as people discussed the issue, it got to a point where there was a broad spectrum from views from the misogynist, sexist and objectification of women through to risible levity maintaining no seriousness to it apart from jocularity and laughter.

A friend then engaged me in private conversation on Twitter about the Bride Price Calculator and then persuaded me to consider putting my thoughts in a blog. Which started as the following Direct Messages on Twitter.

My views

Asking about my views on the Bride Price App, he said, “I've seen it being misrepresented as sexist and objectifying women. Be honest, is this true?”

I answered back as follows:

“There are many angles to this, looking at it with Western eyes it is sexist and objectifying women, however, not in Nigerian eyes.”

The point I am making here is the danger of conflating different cultures and then using an unrefined standard to assess another culture without first accepting there is an issue to be properly reviewed before making comparisons.

“The fact is the bride price is an unscripted reality in Nigeria that borders on greed and the ridiculous.” As evinced by my introduction to this blog.

The Bride Price App simply put online what in many cases people think when giving away their daughters and the cultural construct that feeds into making those demands without second thoughts. To see the bride price so illustrated in almost an atrociously vulgar manner was upsetting but not divorced from Nigerian reality.

“We must have an honest discussion as to how the cost of marriage harms the institution of marriage in the name of tradition.”

The question is what really determines the bride price traditionally and how have things changed to accommodate not only modernity, but the need to keep up with the Joneses and attempt to outdo others?

“However, many of these traditions have no cultural significance they are new fads of hedonism and ostentation.”

This feeds into the previous comment, we have to ask whether paying up for the bride and the wedding is of greater significance or giving the newly married a firmer foundation on which to build their marriage

“The Bride Price App is a mirror on ridiculous female statuses we use to place value on women is as marketplace objects bought for marriage.”

If we are to be honest with ourselves, a number of the options in that App have informed how the bride price is determined and what kind of wedding is planned for.

Unintended consequences

The dilemma of the bride price is summed up in Part 2 of Opening the mouth of the father, “It appeared I was to be sold a woman for a slave rather than being given a lady for a bride.”

The unintended consequence of a high bride price makes the pain of cost dampen the required utility of love in a marriage, a certain threshold can be breached where cost begins to determine ownership when love should mature partnership – I would not even delve into what might result from the former.

Critically, we must have an open honest discussion on the issue of the bride price, the wedding and most importantly the marriage, the first two are easy, usually a question of means; marriage requires work, patience, love, perseverance and with it would come joy, pain, happiness, sadness, togetherness, distance and whilst many would be at the wedding, only two can really be in a marriage.

You make it work or make it fail, hopefully not because of the cost of the bride price or the ostentation of the wedding, if you want the marriage, you probably can make it work against all odds. The Queen celebrated her diamond wedding anniversary on the 20^th of November 2007.

Decade Blogs - Dupe Killa - The Broken Ones

Decade Blogs

Dupe Killa runs a familial posse of sisterly and maternal oversight on Twitter, and I first encountered her in one of those affectionate exchanges with her wards, I could not help but be engaged.

Besides, there are many times I have written blogs that pertain to the deepest things of the heart that she has commented on to commiserate, comfort and empathise.

It is on the basis of this that I asked her to contribute to my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging which she willingly acceded to.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Dupe Killa in The Broken Ones laments how we have lost our way, to pursuits of the ephemeral, in incessant self-aggrandisement and selfish acquisition of material things at the expense of purposeful and useful lives.

On Twitter, she is friend, sister, mum, follower and followed by the handle @dupekilla – Enjoy …

The Broken Ones…

How does one start to calibrate the damage of materialism and the emptiness it brings in the multitude of acquired ‘stuff’? Is it by the darkness of the void created by the blind pursuit of ‘things’? Or is it by measuring the reverberation of the sound of emptiness where reason (cold, deep and track-able) should have been loud, clear and objective?

Before our eyes, the pursuit of happiness has been blatantly reduced to nothingness. Nowadays, if you cannot touch it, use it, spend it, then it cannot be contributory to happiness. Under our watch, we eroded the time-tested methods of self-improvement and the uplift of humanity. We did not only move backwards, we stepped away entirely from the tracks of human progression.

We are broken.

The Sea and Broken Wings by LuneBleu

Maybe it is just me but run a system check on yourself too, please. How many people in your circle can build a car? Or a phone? How many can fix a broken device…any device? How many have created something new? Something different? Do you have anyone in your orbit who can create a flying object? Do you know anyone that still flies kites? Does anyone collect anything? Stones, shells, anything? Is anyone in your network a gardener? Do they dream of creating flower hybrids or new plants? Do they ponder with you, the quandary of creating seedless fruits? No?

Okay, turn the other cheek. Are your families and friends big shoppers? Label and brand hunters? Are you all ‘early arrivals’ to the latest gadgets’ markets? Do you find yourself gasping for the ‘next thing’ just after acquiring the current best thing? Do you keep questing, thirsting for more? Are you beset by a feeling of inexplicable dissatisfaction with your life as you know it even after ‘counting all your blessings’? Do you ponder for long moments the question: ‘what is this life’ and yet have no answers?

Are we not broken?

When technology over-dosed, we gorged and are now suffering the consequences. The world shrunk, everything became available without notice or manual. The choices we had were endless and it was always going to be tough making the right call. We inevitably made the wrong calls no thanks to Sod’s law. The simple life was too mainstream, so off that went. Why fix things when you can get a new one? So off went incremental knowledge too. What we forgot is that in fixing, we learn the whys, the hows and the ‘never-agains’

The biggest tragedy however has to be the wholesale monetisation of emotions. We want it and we want it now, flunk delayed gratification. We are broke… and broken. Saliently or otherwise, we have tacitly agreed that ‘everyone has a price tag’. The evidence of that lies in the fact that the very best of us simply asks that the price be high. What a tragedy that we all can actually be bought. What a degree of brokenness…

If perchance you find some recognition or truth in any of the above and want to make an effort to fix it, it is possible. You can try and fix yourself and then focus on ensuring the next generation are not beset by your ‘brokenness’ either genetically or socially. Focus on the little things: eat and drink sensibly… give rather than receive where possible… fix it if it is broken, don’t bin it… find some simple, yet special endeavour and dedicate yourself to it.

Ask how stuff works and see if you can replicate or improve it however crude your tools and methods. Create your tools. Consciously be at one with nature from time to time. Question everything in a progressive way. Pledge on behalf of the next generation: Never Again.

Life broke us. Can you fix you?

Broken pieces by www.JaqueWatkins.com

Decade Blogs - Ayo Oyalowo - What exactly are we looking for?

Decade Blogs

I feared this, that in my various introductions to the blogs posted to commemorate my Decade of Blogging there would be someone with whom I have a relationship and yet I would draw a blank as to what particularly brought us together.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Suffice it to say that Ayo Oyalowo and I have followed each other on Twitter for a long time and there is much that has transpired between us and so many topics from Nigeria to the issues of life. His incisive articles and analysis of Nigerian political issues on various forums shared on Twitter are very engaging and thought-provoking.

In the piece that he writes for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series, he asks questions about the rat race we call life and how to live from day to day in times of satisfaction, contentment, hedonism, keeping up with the Joneses and then come back to our stark reality.

I guess I have over the last few years written a lot about these issues too and for that reason, I think this blog allows us to reflect deeply and hopefully learn some lessons about putting a better perspective on the particular and the general.

Ayo Oyalowo has interests in many life issues, he works as a financial analyst, but comments on politics and life generally. He tweets with the Twitter handle @Ayourb.

What exactly are we looking for?

It is that season again. Christmas is in the air, you can feel it, can't you? We all can feel it and almost touch it. Harmattan, dust, hazy weather and dryness all over. Our own version of white Christmas is the white fine dust blowing all over us. The children are ready to join in as the schools are on holidays. Gifts must be purchased, new dresses for the children, toys, amusement parks etc.

Christmas is a great time of the year that almost everybody looks forward to. But as I move around in Lagos I ask myself “to what end and intent is our daily toil and struggles?” The average Lagosian will bear witness to the hellish traffic we've been experiencing in the past few weeks. A journey of 30 minutes could end up becoming a 3-hour torturous ride or more. Especially going to the Island (Lagos or Victoria Islands) during the day or returning in the evenings. Terribly long lines of vehicles of every shapes and sizes meandering through the ubiquitous dusty Lagos roads, with commuters looking forlorn and worn-out. It is a rat race.

Added to the traffic is the upsurge in violent crime. I have a credible report of people who have been and are daily being mugged inside their vehicles or otherwise as they are trapped in the regular but infamous traffic and are mere sitting ducks. We've been trained to wind up our glasses and pin down our car doors, but I have it on good authority that the boys at Apapa don't bother looking for a careless motorist who forgot to wind up their side window, they simply break your side window and "obtain" you.

These set of crooks are those who have not arrived during the year but must travel to their various villages and towns in December to show there folks that "I don hammer" a slang for have not made it financially. Meanwhile in our usual ways, nobody bothers to ask how they "hammer". As long as they are generous. Most of the stolen money will be spent on riotous and irresponsible living for about two weeks until the first week of the New Year when they all arrive back to Lagos from their various villages and towns to begin another 11 months struggle, and the cycle continues.

I also consider the rest of us who are not necessarily petty criminals and violent robbers. I see people struggling to be who they are not. Many planning expensive getaways outside the shores of our land so that they can display pictures and mementoes to their less fortunate neighbours and acquaintances. After all, we are Nigerians, and we are the happiest people even if you can't see any tangible reasons why we are such pronounced.

Ah! Christmas is a great time to reflect and plan for the incoming year after taking stock of the outgoing year. Let us ensure to spend wisely and within limits. Remember the children resume schools in the second week of January and schools fees... yeah that small matter of school fees payments, DSTV subscription, house rents renewal, annual street dues, and several other bills.

Life's good isn't it…  Enjoy your Christmas holidays, but reflect on my rants ... while at it, ask yourself, to what intent and purpose is our various life's struggles?

This is to celebrate Mr. Akin Akintayo's ten years in blogging, wishing you many more years of blogging and positive contribution to humanity. A great man I must add and also be ready to host me next year when I visit the UK. Have a blast people.

Why Ask Why Do Poor People 'Waste' Money On Luxury Goods?

A very good question

From Facebook, I came upon this controversial headline, Why Do Poor People 'Waste' Money On Luxury Goods? It is in my view one of the best-written commentaries on the sociology of hedonism and consumption.

I will not attempt to rewrite the article here, I suggest you click on the link and read; however, there some interesting points that the person raised that are good for discourse.

Respecting others in how we present ourselves

The issue of balancing means with acquisition in pursuit of keeping up with the Joneses or putting up a façade is something I have opined about that I think plagues one of the cultures of my ancestry.

Besides, a very robust exchange on Twitter about appearance and respect went along the lines of a lady taking offence at being approached by a man in sagging trousers.

I could understand what she meant, I opined about how appearance is a function of comportment, and the way people might react to us.

Presentable is not exactly acceptable

In this, I see the conflict or the confusion between presentable and acceptable. The article takes a stab at it with this, “Presentable is the bare minimum of social civility. It means being clean, not smelling, wearing shirts and shoes for service and the like. Presentable as a sufficient condition for gainful, dignified work or successful social interactions is a privilege.”

“In contrast, ‘acceptable’ is about gaining access to a limited set of rewards granted upon group membership. I cannot know exactly how often my presentation of acceptable has helped me but I have enough feedback to know it is not inconsequential.”

I have found that there are elements of presentable that ease the way for being acceptable, but one should know the difference between sophisticated and ostentatious, just as the subtlety of understated compares to the vulgar to the Englishman in me.

I believe these matters of presentable and acceptable reach beyond goods and things to personality, the names we bear or the ones we dare to give our children, the way we engage friends and strangers, and it is a function of comportment.

Keeping up with the Joneses

However, we return to the question that highlights another aspect of character, the earn-and-spend culture that means we have nothing in store for the future and exemplified in the immediate gratification of acquiring for status instead of status being the determinant of acquisition.

None of which is entirely healthy regardless of status, if the need to have is to satisfy a vacuous want to be seen having something to be able to belong or show-off.

Yet, there is a market for this type of person because the virtue of contentment and the wisdom that informs better choices for deciding what is presentable and hopefully acceptable is different from what drives the acquisition of things.

What our presentable should do

What we do in striving for the presentable is to allow the gatekeepers open the doors to where we can be acceptable, it requires we either know the defaults of presentable or acquire the Shibboleth of acceptable.

This is quite different from self-aggrandisement, the luxury good from underwear through designer wear, accessories and expensive toys in the quest to belong. Thereby presenting a public face of plenty underpinned by a private penury.

Penny-wise, pound-foolish

We all have our stories, but I tried to sum it up in this tweet that I posted earlier, “The context of presentable and acceptable in terms of the decisions we make and how we spend can be the difference between foolish and wise.”

Back to the article, if you have not yet read it, Why Do Poor People 'Waste' Money On Luxury Goods? – A very good question with a long backstory.

The Career Activist: Raising Public Causes for Private Purses

Porn for our times

Snippets of information gathered from sources so varied and diverse and woven in a yarn of a nightmare too bizarre for words that one reels with shock.

As the century turned there came those whose sophistry opened the purse strings of funding for projects that were to attend to pressing needs of people dying of a disease that had defied cure but not the management of it.

Collection tins were shaken in the streets of rich countries tugging at the heartstrings of a public that could only spare little but augmented with international aid budgets you had a pool of resource ready to be plundered by the savvy.

As our screens are filled with famine porn, disease porn, malnutrition porn, disaster porn, war porn and whatever pornography that engages the mind and excites altruistic activists to demonstrate, protest and agitate for more action, the money mountains piled up to be doled out to frontmen, spokespersons, activists and espousers of causes we all seem to hold dear in lands afar.

Black holes of aid

Closer to the needy, there are activists who are doing a lot with very little, their resources stretched to the limit and still they are coping with the situation whilst they are insulated from the real funding they need by middlemen elite who have become professional panhandlers with access to international organisations and influential persons.

With the urgency to act at what has always been a crisis exploited by some who had assumed the role of activist, spokesperson and head of some organisation – be it a non-governmental organisation (NGO) or a community based organisation (CBO) with a cause that is at best a guzzler of dollars for the leaders and a dispenser of cents to the led, money has flooded into named projects and selected hands to do what has generated much paperwork activity but no fulfilling result.

The rain is not getting to the ground, that is why the crops have failed and yet more clouds gather for a monsoon – that is the metaphor for the snippets of stories that have accompanied aid activism for many projects to do with family planning, alleviating poverty, addressing diseases as malaria, tuberculosis and most especially HIV/AIDS.

Squandered on self

Suites at conferences where the footmen invited can barely get a place that they literally lie in slave ship formation on some benevolent floor, as the elite select choice persons for sensual pleasure, living the life of oil sheiks to hedonistic for polite phrasing, they have danced on the graves of the many who suffered needlessly as funds were diverted to acquisitive ostentatious living with unconscionable impunity – Woe betide the ones that remain in this activity even as some are long dead.

The money made available for these causes was unbelievably too much and as they shared the largesse amongst themselves, fights broke out and with those fights some light came into what they were up to but whatever is known is just the tip of the iceberg of schemes hatched in minds so reprobate and rotten beyond redemption.

Sadly, as the love of money is the root of all evil, the dissenters and whistle-blowers have run the risk of loss as great as the loss of support, the loss of influence and even the loss of life (assassinations portrayed as armed robbery murders), the corrupt enterprise built on aid activism that appeals to wealthy donors cannot be allowed to suffer the scrutiny necessary to ensure that funds allocated reach the projects advocated.

Lavish lifestyle

Accountability in the evil enterprise of the aid industrial complex peopled by career activists is of the utmost urgency, auditors have to follow the money from the hand-out for things to be done to the handoff of things completed.

It is contemptible that aid is somewhat now intricately linked with lavish lifestyles because of the lack of transparency and accountability; the altruistic activist is rare, many have joined a cause for the money and the lifestyle than for the purpose and the project.

As Imran Khan observed about aid in this June 2013 interview with the New Statesman, “the ruling elite use aid to finance their lavish lifestyle.”

10 years before, Senator Grassley reported, “Over the years, we've seen incidents in which federal funds for HIV/AIDS have been squandered through overcharges for medicines and laboratories, embezzlement of program funds to support lavish lifestyles, or even diversion of AIDS funds to finance political campaigns.”

The great shame

This is not a problem specific to Pakistan or the United States, it is pervasive and the snippets could well involve Nigerians; a story that is in need of telling as more aid and support flows into fences dressed as NGOs with activists jetting around the globe from conference to conference, peddling influence and living large with no care in the world for anyone but themselves.

The greatest tragedy of this abuse of aids funds which might well be found in many countries and it has had its run in Nigeria too is in these words by Senator Grassley, “It’s tragic if people die because the funds they need to survive are being diverted, misspent, or wasted.”

The fact is the funds did come but they were diverted and people died – for this alone, there must be accountability and justice, it is criminal that people have gotten away with this and risen up the ranks as if this is insignificant and of no consequence – it is a shame, a great shame.

Nigeria: Nigerian Religious Junk and Hedonist's Constitution

Nigerian Religious Junk

As I rode my bicycle home this evening I began to turn over in my mind the article I read earlier in the about a perversion of the Christian Gospel that a Zambian Baptist pastor termed Nigerian Religious Junk.

Conrad Mbewe wrote Nigerian Religious Junk! [1] in February but I came about it through a tweet that led to a whole scale dump of that blog on the NairaLand community forum.

The pastor addressed some well-defined themes that appear to be common to evangelical or more particularly Pentecostal church branches exported out of Nigeria in what he called a personal-to-holder construct.

Witch doctors in the shrine

He noted most of these establishments had become personality cults to the founders with church taking second place to the conglomerate of the ministry with the moniker “International” appearing to give those arrangements more credence.

Interestingly, he showed similarities between the African witchdoctor in animist religions with that of pastors whose related activity was to offer deliverance, the articles of ritual were not too dissimilar with money being common.

Then he lamented the suspension of reason and intellect of followers who in adulation and subjugation to the leader who appears to be answerable to no one as a Sangoma holds power to the dread of the people.

By the time he ends the piece, he has addressed the obsession with titles, the milking of the flock, the tolerance of corruption, the hedonism of the “clergy”, the absence of the gospel and no grounded Christian teaching.

The hedonism of religious leaders

Now, as he said, this was not to say that all Nigerian missionaries were planting churches of this perverted ilk of the gospel, but a trend and pattern had emerged that was being copied by those with connections to Nigeria.

A few days ago, I wrote a blog titled Nigeria: The spectacular gospel of Mammon [2] which pertained to a documentary on The Making Of … Nigeria’s Millionaire Preachers [3] aired on Channel 4 in the UK about Dr Sign Fireman whose mesmerising services mimicking a form of Shamanism featured his outlandishly ostentatious tastes leading a people that appeared vulnerable rich pickings to make the leader rich.

At one point, ladies of the “shrine” since church would be too generous an artistic license danced to welcome him as he cruised in with his Yellow Hummer calling him “Daddy” where it was clear that he probably was closer to their son – now, there is nothing wrong in according religious leaders respect and reverence but fawning obsequiously in the display of false humility and hyper-respect has to be altogether sinful.

The Hedonist’s Constitution

However, the more concerning part of this matter is the underlying fundamental that drives these movements called the Prosperity Gospel though it is closer to the Hedonist’s Constitution which carries the refrain that Jesus Christ was a rich man, he had a treasurer, he wore special clothes and all other contrived interpretations to support this call to wanton ostentation.

So, as I meditated on my way home, I decided to check every reference in the Gospels where Jesus Christ used “rich” in His utterances just to see if there was any alignment with what teachings we have today.

Jesus and the rich

There are 18 occurrences of “rich” in the Gospels, 3 in Matthew, 2 in Mark, 13 in Luke and none in John, off all these, using the red letter edition of the King James (Authorised) Version, Jesus uttered “rich” in 13 verses all of which appear below. My comments are in parenthesis.

Mat_19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat_19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

[Here, Jesus expressed the view that the rich will have difficulties towing the Christian path, there must have been reason why He felt he should repeat Himself on this topic.]

Mat_27:57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:

[This was after the Jesus was taken down from the cross, this rich man provided the burial place for the body of the crucified Jesus Christ.]

Roping a camel to a beam

Mar_10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

[This common saying does have certain scholars in dispute about the translation from Aramaic which was the tongue of Jesus Christ in His day, the Aramaic word gamla means camel, a large rope and a beam – contextually, it would appear rope is the more appropriate thing to go through the eye of a needle. Study]

Mar_12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

[This was Jesus observing the offertory just before the widow put in a mite, which was all she had and in context, Jesus suggested she had given more than all.]

Luk_1:53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

[This was the Virgin Mary prophesying when she visited Elizabeth, her cousin and the mother of John the Baptist.]

The rich in earth and in hell

Luk_6:24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

[Here, Jesus suggests the rich seem to have no need for consolation.]

Luk_12:16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

Luk_12:21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

[In this parable, Jesus talked of how a rich man had schemed out things for his life only to be told he will die that night.]

Luk_14:12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.

[Doing good deeds for the rich is not seen as selfless or generous.]

Luk_16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

[The power of the rich to endow, reward and punish on earth was illustrated in this parable.]

Luk_16:19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

Luk_16:21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

Luk_16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

[Jesus uses this parable to illustrate the realities of heaven and hell, indicating the poor man went to heaven and the rich man went to hell.]

The rich and charity

Luk_18:23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

[When Jesus advised a rich man to sell all his goods and become a disciple, but it showed how attached to his riches and status, this gave rise to the statement Jesus made about it being easier for a camel to go through the needle’s eye.]

Luk_18:25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Luk_19:2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

[Jesus went to dine at Zacchaeus’ house, he give up half his goods to the poor and offered to restitute fourfold those he might have defrauded.]

Luk_21:1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

[This was just before the widow cast her mite in the treasury]

Jesus had sufficiency

From the foregoing, it appears the labour to be rich is a distraction from following the Gospel, they find it hard to part with their riches and because they are more mindful of money matters that Jesus called Mammon, some never lived to enjoy their riches and some died and ended up in hell.

There is no doubt that the rich are comfortable and powerful in life, in the case of Jesus Christ, I believe He had sufficiency with contentment. As an itinerant preacher and prophet there were people who would have supported his ministry; so it would have been necessary to retain one of the disciples as a holder of the bag that just happened to be Judas Iscariot.

2Co_3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; [That aligns with the real prosperity concept.]

2Co_9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: [Sufficiency is there for us to distribute not hoard for show.]

The love of money

Is it any wonder than the guy in charge of the money was the same that was ready to take a bribe to betray Jesus – but it is pertinent to note that it is not money that is the root of all evil, rather it is the love of money that is the root of all evil.

1Ti_6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. [Being driven by the love of money, people have erred from the faith and the gospel and encountered many misfortunes in the process.]

The need to return to the tenets of the Gospel is pertinent, there is a pervasive perversion out there and many are being led down the path of great error. I am sure we all have the discernment to see if these are issues in our religious communities and we should have the courage to divorce ourselves from such settings and seek teachers of the true gospel.

Sources

[1] Nigerian Religious Junk! Conrad Mbewe

[2] Nigeria: The spectacular gospel of Mammon

[3] The Making Of … Nigeria’s Millionaire Preachers