By Toby Chuks
Onitsha based journalist, author and gospel mover, Evangelist Theo Rays Ejikeme who is the Convener of Divine Illumination Global Outreach, has identified wrong ways of spending money by Nigerians as the major cause of the challenges facing the world most populous black nation christened giant of Africa. Speaking to journalists in Onitsha during the presentation of his Agenda to mobilise 5000 people mostly the Youth in each of the 5 States of the Southeast geopolitical zone totalling 25,000 as “solution providers” in the zone, Ejikeme observed that Nigerians misuse money on gigantic political, social and religious projects and programs that have no security and economic values and end up heaping blame on government for not solving their problems.
Ejikeme identified the wrong ways spending money to include running the largest political parties in Africa, running a bogus government functionaries, running the largest religious auditoriums in the world on the side of Christians, going to school in foreign countries, travelling abroad for pilgrimage, shopping and medical treatment, expensive private life, lavishing money on ceremonies like wedding, burial, birthdays, anniversary celebration, acquisition of property and material things including private jets, lavish flamboyant lifestyle and seeking fun in very expensive ways to mention but a few. The cleric however blamed the issue of wrong spending among Nigerians to lack of good understanding of the roles of government and religious organisations noting that people believe that government and religious organisations are separate blocs with separate roles and that is wrong.
According to him, “People separate government and religion and thus believe that it is the responsibility of the government alone to solve problem while religious organisations do their own things. This is wrong because government and religion are like twins and a dual carriage way that leads to same destination. Yeah, two of them have the same purpose of controlling and utilising people and money to ensure security, food availability, shelter, jobs, roads, power and everything needed to yield for overall welfare of the people with Religion taking up more wider roles as the father, the background, the foundation, the builder, the head master saddled with disciplinary services, watch dog services, guiding supporter, enhancer, enabler, changer, transformer and nourisher of Government roles in particular and the entire system in general.
He asked “What is Government and what is Religion? Are they not packs of human beings that need security, food, shelter, jobs, roads, power and welfare, so why separate their roles? And if you look at it from the Biblical angle, you will find out that Religion is to take up the role of the father because God is the foundation that covers all human services and all needs. What I am saying is that it is absolutely wrong to separate government roles from religious roles. The attendant ill consequently is that the benefits of religion are misplaced to the detriment of government and the people in general. Take the Christian fold as a case in point. Christian Churches separate theirs roles from Government and consequently deny the system the benefits of religion to the point that people as Christians cannot muster religious virtues. Christians of various Church denominations are at the centre of corruption in Nigeria because they limit their religious roles to going to Church and contributing money to the Church with a view to receive miracles, healing and blessing of material things”
He continued “”Let me say this to Nigerians in general and to Ndigbo in particular, in Ecclesiast 10:19 the Bible says that money answers everything, so money is key to finding solution to problems ahead of leadership, government, authority and power, so if you are spending your money wrongly and expecting leadership, government, authority and power to solve problems you might end up wasting your time. So what I am saying is that people mostly the religious leaders should channel money at solutions oriented projects and programs such as public spiritual works as calling for repentance, praying publicly against criminal ties, corruption and lawlessness and then invest money and man power on agriculture, sport, technology, media and others. I can assure you that hunger and jobless will drastically reduce in the Nigeria in two years if the Churches unleash their money and man power into food production and sport development”
He went further “It is wrong on the side of Churches to understand their work as gathering people for God and building worship centres because the coming of Jesus Christ moved God from the temple to human body and then to the field. Check it out, none of the works of Jesus Christ such as turning water to wine, healing the sick, the blind, the crippled, feeding people with fish and bread, walking on water, calming the weather storm among others did not take place in the temple, they all happened in the field. And again the coming of Jesus Christ also moved people from the hands of the priests in the temple to the Holy Spirit and the Truth. In John 4:23-24 the Bible says that this is the time when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, so why waste money on building gigantic cathedrals”
He said it is time to reverse the understanding of the roles of religious organisations in other to derive maximum benefits of massive believe among Nigerians adding that a situation where religious denominations are consuming much without producing results is not doing the system any good. Hear him further. In Onitsha, some people now spend more money and time working in their Church than working at home. The irony is that, instead of using the Churches to build individuals, families, villages and towns, they are using individuals, families, the villages and towns to build Churches. Instead of using the Churches to build Ndigbo they are using Ndigbo to build the Churches. As rich as Ndigbo might be they don’t have food but they have churches everywhere. The point is that, Christians have failed to offer anything differently and
While placing Religion in front of government, he called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and State governors to seek divine intervention in a more universal way bearing in mind that God covers all human needs and human works. He told Mr President and governors that God is not about gathering people in worship centres nor travelling for pilgrimage, God is all about everything that humans needs and everything that can help human beings, therefore let them explore more divine measures as being evolved by Divine Illumination with a view to attract divine intervention in the affairs of Nigeria for solution purpose. He said the 25,000 being mobilised will be used to expand socio-religious and economic/business works good enough to deal with challenges facing individuals, families, villages, towns, cities, tribes and regions calling on governors in other regions to enact the same measure
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