Re- Satanic Leadership and Nigeria’s Boiling Point (Open Letter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo)
Cornelius Hamelberg
Re- Satanic Leadership and Nigeria’s Boiling Point (Open Letter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo)
https://groups.google.com/g/usaafricadialogue/c/twv6mlPUJ14/m/KpFv-K_IAQAJ
Dear Salihu Moh. Lukman,
I’m posting this separately and not under your thread because I think that this your latest piece needs more attention from Nigerians and Pan-Africanists alike, needs even separate attention.
That was / is indeed a strong letter from you to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is now a practising Christian pastor with a PhD in theology. I wonder if he is going to show some appreciation and acknowledge your existence. Mention his name and the first thing that springs to mind is what any innocent listener would have assumed was a heartfelt public statement from him about his former running mate and vice President, Atiku Abubakar (1999 - 2007) when he (former President Olusegun Obasanjo) said, in August 2018, at a time when Atiku was vying to be elected Nigeria’s next President elect: "God will never forgive me if I support Atiku for president"
( Can anyone imagine Obama saying “God will never forgive me if I support Joe Biden for President”? Or Biden saying “ God will never forgive me if I support Kamala for president” ( In the case of the latter, the saying is that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”)
True, at some time or other Salihu Moh. Lukman may have been feeling oppressed and he may have even been suffering for a long time, suffering and not smiling, since the elites too may be said to be suffering, even if they are also, at the same time ”enjoying”, some of them said to be “enjoying the fruits of office” whereas the truly marginalised, oppressed and downtrodden have been forever suffering , and when not prone to rebellion, continue Shuffering and Shmiling and on the protest march may be chanting Chimes of Freedom
Before I read through the contents of your great letter , this is how I reacted to the title, the beginnings of a tentative response based on so many presumptions about the direction that I assumed your vitriolic ballistic missile was going to take, and its ultimate target…so, it was on my mind to write that in my book (ethics, etiquette, proprietary, decency, sanity, motor park philosophy), no matter the ensuing contents of your epistle, it’s an unpardonable affront to preface your open letter to the former President of Nigeria with this unbecoming title : Satanic Leadership and Nigeria’s Boiling Point : Open Letter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
If it was an Oyibo writing like that, in unison, we would say that he was a racist - and in some quarters that was precisely the reaction when for example in 2006, at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, Special Prosecutor David Crane said that “The devil is alive and he lives in West Africa" - so please understand that just the idea of “Satanic Leadership” got me going linking that combination with “The devil is alive and he lives in West Africa”, but now that I have read through the entire contents of your letter, I know better, and daresay that I’m inclined to mostly synchronise and agree with you about your sense of outrage. I’m also sympathetic to the political and theological points that you make.
Given some of our African leaders' sense of entitlement and austere rule, they all but invoke notions such as “ The Divine Right of Kings “ and “ God’s Shadow on Earth “ - the human ultimate of ”Do you know who I am?” , although, when it comes to the Divine, of course it is “No man sees My face and lives” -just as the bard crooned, One says to the other, no man sees my face and lives .and as the Pharaoh said to Joseph , the very last time that they met (Shemot / Exodus 10 : 28) :”Pharaoh said to him, "Go away from me! Beware! You shall no longer see my face, for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!"
(to be continued)
Cornelius Hamelberg
Salihu Moh. Lukman’s open letter to former President Obasanjo on Satanic Leadership is multilayered, nicely tuned, finely textured, rich, deserves several visits.I had best start my own diatribe by a headlong collision with this statement by Pastor Obasanjo the theologian, the repented ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo turned pastor, now waxing holier-than-thou, and as he looks back and reflects on the past, on his stewardship he wants us to believe that he is now sincerely on an anti-corruption crusade, so he throws down the gauntlet with this challenge : “The best way of fighting corruption is starting from the head, that is where corruption has to be fought from”, he chimes, and I’m sure that without exception, those who know him are all saying “Look who's talking”
The best way of fighting corruption
is starting from the head,
“That is what the stewpot said
– at your age licking my bottom?
But she was tickled just the same”
If only we could
This is it would go:
“So we bring it to a stop
Then we take it from the top,
We let it settle on down softly
Like your gently falling snow
Or let it tumble down and topple
Like the temple long ago.”
James Taylor : Let It All Fall Down
( To be continued
Cornelius Hamelberg
Why is he only saying this now?
If Brer Obasanjo had leadership
by example in mind, then surely,
this is what he should have said,
when he was serving as the head:
“The best way of fighting
corruption is starting from the head,
that is where corruption has to be fought from”
Talk is cheap.
Next stage, in the name of Transparency International
without any further delay, he would have
a) declared his assets on day one of taking office
b) requested that some honest citizens set up
( To be continued
Cornelius Hamelberg
Turning to Salihu Moh. Lukman’s letter proper ( Satanic Leadership and Nigeria’s Boiling Point ) he says that he was “inspired” to write to His Excellency, and of course, for His Excellency, the highest kind of inspiration can only come from The Holy Spirit , about Whom we should all be very careful, because from a very Christian point of view, all sins can and may be forgiven but blasphemy against The Holy Spirit will not be forgiven
The tenor of Salihu Moh. Lukman’s letter suggests that he was provoked into writing to His Excellency in response to what’s reported here : Full Statement by Obasanjo : leader made by Satan is bound to fail, while God’s chosen one will thrive’.
Isn’t this a good example of begging the question ?
Indeed, Sir,
“Some songs were done by chosen men
Some from men, insane” ( Marvin Gaye : Life is for Learning)
It would be interesting if Baba Obasanjo would draw up his own list of Nigerian leaders, as we would all be very interested in knowing those he believes are or were anointed by the Almighty and those who were chosen by Satan the accursed who according to Baba Obasanjo is the one who promotes Satanic Leadership.
Of course, the interviewer did not have the audacity/ impudence / impertinence or temerity to ask to which of the two categories does Baba Obasanjo himself belong.
In the final analysis, it would seem that only the Almighty knows those( if any) that He has anointed as Nigerian Leaders - as Jesus said “Many are called but few are chosen”
Interesting too, to hear Baba Obasanjo expatriate a little more on “ Democracy in Nigeria” on “Nigerian Elections” and how he would weigh in on the topic,” We get the leaders that we deserve”
Once upon a time, the Israelites cried to the Almighty that they wanted to be like other nations, that they also wanted to have a king - when in fact the Almighty is the King of Kings of Israel -so they got Saul…King Saul
“Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labour in vain on it;
unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman keeps vigil in vain.” ( Tehillim / Psalm 127)
To quote Jacob Neusner :
“When I accept the yoke of the commandments of the Torah and do them, I accept God’s rule. I live in the kingdom of God, which is to say, in the dominion of Heaven, here on earth. That is what it means to live a holy life : to live by the will of God in the here and now.”
There are of course Islamic perspectives and Islamic dimensions to what Pastor Obasanjo is saying, for example there’s wilayat e faqih
But beyond the mere title “ Satanic Leadership” , truly inspired, first to get to the nitty-gritty of each and every item that the letter takes up , so rationally, as it progresses…
(To be continued )
Cornelius Hamelberg
Correction : Interesting too, to hear Baba Obasanjo expatiate a little more on “ Democracy in Nigeria” on “Nigerian Elections” and how he would weigh in on the topic,” We get the leaders that we deserve”
He has probably done so in his books