Former President Of Nigeria Joins In Urging Nigerians To Pray For The Country

Immediate past president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, in a church service to mark the dedication of his first grandchild, called on Nigerians to pray "for the good of the country." The grandchild in question would have been born to his daughter whose wedding caused the shutdown of Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, for the whole day, and souvenirs given to several guests included gold iphones.

The wedding was also sponsored using state funds, but the cost was of course kept under wraps. The couple received a cornucopia of gifts including houses and luxury cars from government officials and contractors all clamouring for space in the then president's good books.

There have been a rash of calls for prayers for all of Nigeria's man made problems by several prosperity preachers and even politicians, which I have written about in my last few posts, but this coming from Mr Jonathan, whose regime was so inept and corrupt, certainly is the icing on the poisonous cake of call for prayers for a dying nation. Mr Jonathan was vastly unprepared to be president after his predecessor, Mr Umaru Musa Yar'adua died in office. He was the vice president then, and became president only after very acrimonious political wrangling and the invocation of the so called "doctrine of necessity." Mr Jonathan then proceeded to oversee massive looting of the nation's treasury, most notably by paying importers of refined petroleum products what was termed "fuel subsidy" payments. It was under his watch that the nation's oil sector was exposed by the Central Bank governor for not remitting at least $20 billion, for which he (the central bank governor) was removed from office.

Mr Jonathan has no right, moral or any other, to ask Nigerians to pray for the nation. He was president for all of five years and watched helplessly as the country was continually raped by the political and religious class. He was very close to Ayo Oritsejafor, a wily prosperity preacher and president of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Mr Oritsejafor got a private jet from this lucrative relationship. Mr Jonathan also paid other prosperity preachers, including Enoch Adeboye, the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, and David Oyedepo, the president and founder of the Living Faith Ministries Inc, to campaign and pray for him during the last elections which he lost.

I will not relent in telling Nigerians that prayers do not, and will never, work. We have to be ready to do the very hard work required to build a nation worthy of its name. Nigerians are daily being deceived that the only way for Nigerian to stand on its feet is for them to be on their knees in prayers and supplication to God. The only people who will benefit from those prayers are the preachers whose coffers they contribute to in church, and the politicians who will continue to steal state funds because they are never held to account.