•Pastor ITUAH IGHODALO Tells City People About It
Several months back, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo the Head Pastor Of the Trinity House Church, Lagos was part of the eminent Nigerians who were concerned about the situation of the country as we approached the 2023 General Elections. He was concerned along with the likes of Dr. Pat Utomi and other distinguished Nigerians. There was a group called The big Tent which was meant to be a coalition of groups which wanted to create a Third Force to produce a candidate who will serve as an alternative candidate to the 2 major presidential candidates.
Pastor Ituah was one of those prime movers behind that idea. But after a while, not much was heard about the group and Pastor Ituah was silent about their plans. A few days ago, City People asked Pastor Ituah to reveal what happened and why he has been off the scene, politically, leaving politicians to do their thing.
“Yes, you are right that months back a few of us were worried about the situation of things in the country I have always been a bit anxious about Nigeria, very concerned at the direction we are going, very concerned about the inappropriate leadership that we have. And I have found out that the main problem with the leadership in Nigeria is that they show very little concern for the real development of Nigeria. And most of the time, its about the quest for power, control, dominion, and for them to live their own kinds of lifestyle.
I was also not satisfied with the performance of both parties. By that I mean the PDP and the APC. When the PDP was ruling, most of whom were also my friend, they didn’t do well. They could have done much better. So, we were part of the Vanguard that said ok, let us try APC. Let us give Muhammadu Buhari a chance. He came in, with APC and they seem to have even done worse than the PDP did.” For example, the PDP left our Naira at N150/N200 to 1 dollar. The same naira has gone to N750/N800 to 1 dollar. The Universities were shut for 8 months, nothing was happening. The Economy was not moving at all. Everywhere was stifled. What was most disturbing was that we didn’t even know who was in control of the government, because a lot of the time, our President seemed a little bit aloof or absent. It was a great source of concern. Having 20 million children out of school and nobody seemed to be bothered. And then the huge insecurity, all over the place, bandits, Fulani, Herdsmen, Boko Haram, Chibok Girls not being released. It was as if the country was drifting.”
“I then said to myself that maybe we needed a fresh set of leaders completely, neither of this 2 traditional parties. And see if it was possible to have a group of Nigerians come together and offer themselves to genuinely lead Nigeria as a Third Force or a Big Tent as Pat Utomi calls it. And so, Pat Utomi & I came together and we started discussing and we started talking and consulting widely, with a lot of people, both the elderly Nigerians, the young ones, the ones of our generation, one thing kept on ringing clear, a lot of them were wriggling their hands, they did not seem to know what to do. The 2nd thing was that very few of them could unite and come together and speak with one voice. The 3rd was that a lot of people were afraid of Government, and ruffling the feathers of whoever was ain Government, preferring to just mind their business and face their businesses and not have an option.
What was most disturbing was the amount of selfishness and average self-centredness of Nigerians. And even those who were trying to run for offices didn’t want to combine. Everybody wanted to be President. Everybody wanted to be Governor. Everybody wanted to take a position. And these people you can see clearly, they may have the intelligence and the capacity that is needed. But they don’t have the resources, they don’t have the network. They don’t have the footprint on the ground. And some don’t have the experience. But everybody wants to be President. How can you have about 18 people who all want to be the President of Nigeria. Most of the parties are very small. The footpage is very small.
At a time, we wondered why can’t these people to come together but they said No. Most of them said we would run our race. We would do it by ourselves. And if these people don’t unite, and face a common issue, and our enemy in Nigeria is the economy. It is Insecurity. It is the leadership that is not doing what it should do. But here, everybody wants to be President. Everybody cannot be President. So that made me to be a little bit concerned. It was like chasing a shadow. And therefore I decided to be more introspect and to think deeper, and I realised that the problem with Nigeria is not really the Leadership, the problem with Nigeria is the average Nigerian.
The selfishness. The Greed. The corrupt tendencies of the average Nigerian.
The same Nigerians that are complaining about the APC and PDP, if you give them half a chance at power, once they get there, they behave even worse, because that innate desire to acquire and be all important and powerful has not been eroded out of their mind. So it took me to Romans Chapter 12:1-3. So, I then kept quiet because I realise that Nigeria’s problem was deeper than just simple change of leadership, that the average Nigerian, with his present state of mind, if he comes to leadership he would do almost the same as others are doing”.
“So, we needed to go back to the drawing board. When Peter Obi then emerged, it bothered me a little that Peter Obi emerged by sheer will and force and determination, on his own part, not by a group of people sitting together and thinking, that who really should we approach to come and lead Nigeria?
In 2nd Kings: Chapter 5 tells me that the whole of Isreal gathered together and searched and said David should be King because of his credentials, because of what he had done in the past, because of his background and because of what they considered to be his capacity and they didn’t make a mistake.
Nigerians should come together and agree that maybe Seye Kehinde will be good as the next President, maybe Emeka should be the next President, or maybe Abdullahi should be the next President because we have observed him, we have seen his antecedants and we think he is capable. Instead of this, they will all want to be President. They will all want to run their race. And development cannot be established like that. We should be narrowing down our choices. Surely in this country out of the 200 million of us, maybe 1 million have the capacity.
If you water down that 1 million you can get down to the best 1,000. From there reduce the list to the best 100, and reduce to the next 5, and then take a decision and have your criteria of who will be a good leader – Visionary, Physically Strong, Mentally Capable, Honest, Corruption Free, Experienced, Determined, Hardworking, Loves Nigeria, Passionate about people. The Bible says that Jesus Christ went about doing good because he had compassion for the people.
If you look at Leadership array, and then, very few of them have compassion for the people. You can’t be a good leader if you are not compassionate. How can you lead a set of people if you are not compassionate about them, if you don’t care about them. Its not going to work.
Of course, when Peter Obi emerged he looked to me like the best of the array. I now said, well now that we are not able to sit down and look at the critical and scientific analysis of choosing a leader, maybe in the interim, (stop gap), we can try Peter Obi. He seems to be the right age. He seems to be the least corrupt. He seems to be hardworking. He seems to be trustworthy.
So, I gave him my support.
And the elections turned out as it turned out. It was a big dissapointment that INEC could not keep its word, at the minimum, the immediate loading of the BVAS on to the IREV. So, the failure of INEC to keep to their word has now made the outcome of the 2 elections, a little bit not as dependable as you would have liked it. So, for me, this is now a time for serious introspection. Can we really solve the problem of Nigeria? Can we really come together as Nigerians to work hard, to make our Leadership choices, that will ensure that we move the country forward. Can we do it? Are we even ready to do it? Are we willing to do it? Or do we all just want to go to our tents and mind our business.
We cannot do that. But the country will not run itself. And one day it will run to a stop. Nigeria is like an old woman who is constantly being raped. And because she is still breathing and she is still producing some small milk, the rapist think that is okay. They do not know, that consistent raping will eventually lead to death.
Babangida said, Nigeria defies explanantion. But no country can continue the way Nigeria is going, especially a country that has so much potentials in terms of physical resource and all the gifts. It is all wasting away. One day, if we don’t arrest it, it will come to a natural stop by itself. So, we are concerned. And I am thinking very deeply, what role to play in Nigeria. What to do to help Nigeria. How to appeal to Nigerians to help themselves.
Is there even a Nigeria? Because most people now say, I am first of all an Edo man, before being a Nigerian. I am first of all a Yoruba man before I am a Nigerian. I am first of a Fulani man, Ibira man, or Hausa man or Benin man, before being a Nigerian. You can’t build a Nigeria like that. We first of all have to be Nigerians, who come from a stock and live somewhere. Everywhere in Nigeria belongs to us.
We need to build a nation. So the 1st discussion amongst us Nigerians is that do we want to build a nation? That is why we still talk about Restructuring because we still don’t want to build a nation. We want to go back to our regions and just have a loose association. That can’t be real.
And if you want to build a nation, on what basis do you want to build a nation? For me, Restructuring is not necessarily everybody going back to their Geography.
It is every area of Nigeria, being properly economically developed, benefitting from its resources and contributing reasonably to the centre. And not the centre owning everything. It’s like what they do in the US, where California is about Agriculture, Entertainment and New York is about Banking, Finance, and Las Vegas where they do Gambling, which is an industry and so on and so forth. Everybody is standing and generating income and contributing to the federation. That is what Nigeria needs. That is what we should strive towards.
And we need to now change the thinking of a Nigerian to know what is right from wrong.
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