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This is the passage in the first of the 13 Books of Apostle Paul in the New Testament, where he told the Romans to subject themselves to ‘higher powers,’ because God ordained them for the position. And that those who do not submit to them are condemned before the Lord. Given this, like those who assume all that happens in a person’s life are matters of destiny, many a Nigerian Christian, especially the politicians, believe becoming president, governor, legislator or any position were ordained by the Heavenly Father.
It does not matter if they got to the position fraudulently or undeservingly. Or if a politician bribed electoral officers and security men, used thugs to hijack balllot boxes or killed opponents to get declared the winner of an election.
The reason for this is that such people read Romans Chapter 13 from the Good News Bible and others which have it that Apostle Paul was advising Christians in Rome to obey state authorities, that is monarchs or political leaders. This is unlike the King James’ Version which shows that Paul was talking of the ministers of God, that is the bishops and other clerics.
Those who had read the history of the Roman Empire would have known that Apostle Paul could not have been referring to state authorities because the rulers at the time, 33-67 were pagans and one of them, Emperor Nero was the one who got Apostles Paul and Peter executed in 67 AD.
So, Paul could not have been telling Christians that God ordained idol worshipping emperors who were persecuting and killing them and should therefore obey them. It was not until 312, more than 200 years later, when Emperor Constatine l The Great converted that the empire started having Christian rulers and political leaders.
The pity of it all is that when a president, governor and other politicians come to the church to do thanksgiving pastors too cite Romans 13 as evidence that God was behind their being declared the winner of the election and people should accept their victory. Some priests even urge their opponents not to go to court or tribunal to challenge their ‘victory’.
Of course, God will punish anyone who got something unjustly. It is only that human beings may not be aware of the particular misbehaviour responsible for an unfortunate thing that happened to such people. Since the Bible in Psalm 75:4-9 and 2 Peter 2:4-10 have it that there is a Day of Judgment that means the person will also be punished in the Hereafter. Because as the Lord once told me and as it is in Psalm 56:8 and Revelation 13:8 there i a Book of Life in which the sins people committed on earth are recorded for trial after death.
Why Professor (Mrs) Osofisan Deserves National Award
I am not writing this because Adenike(nee Adedipe) is my sister. I am doing so because she justifiably deserves it as a result of her academic accomplishments. Which make her this generation’s heir to late Lady Deborah Jibowu, the first female graduate in Nigeria and Professor (Mrs) Grace Alele-Williams, the pioneer female mathematics graduate in the country.
Recommending people for national honours is what l have been doing for 40 years now. I was the person who in a news analysis article published in the National Concord in March 1980 suggested that President Shehu Shagari should give national awards and houses to members of the Green Eagles (now Super Eagles) when they won the African Cup of Nations for the country for the first time.
I made the point this was the right thing to do, because when the Shooting Stars of Ibadan won the African Cup for clubs in the continent the Government of the Western State rewarded each of the players with a Volkswagen car in 1976. I recommended a national award and houses for each of the players because they were permanent rewards, unlike a car which can only last a few years, can be stolen or damaged in an accident. Since then, the Federal Government had been rewarding footballers in senior and junior teams and athletes in other sports when they won continental or global tournaments.
It is also on record that in my column of May 17, 2017 that I recommend that President Buhari should give national award to Dr. Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo who died in 2003 for his services to the nation. I suggested that if people are honoured posthumously that the president should take steps to get the National and State Houses of Assembly to amend the constitution to this effect. The death of Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh in 2018 should have made the president to appreciate the need for this.
She was a medical practitioner who contracted ebola when she physically held back a Liberian who had the disease so that he would not spread it.
On September 18, last year l also recommended that the President Buhari should honour Barrister Allen Onyema and Mikel John Obi with national awards.
