All the three politicians the Lord sent me to as His candidate in a presidential election since it started 28 years ago were Muslims. For the 1993 poll it was Chief Moshood Abiola, it was General Ibrahim Babangida’s turn for the 2003 one and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for the voting exercise in 2019.
Abiola and Atiku who responded positively to the message had no objection to providing the money to buy the cows needed for the fasting and prayer assignment for them for 41 days and 61 days respectively. The reason was that they were aware that animal sacrifice began with Abraham the father of mankind when God provided him with a ram to slaughter instead of his son as He had earlier instructed him to do. In the Qur’an the male child is given as Ishmael.
Christians too are aware of the animal sacrifice God told Abraham to carry out because the story is in Genesis 22:1 – 19 but with Isaac as the son he was told to slaughter. But if the Ancient of Days will have a candidate for the 2023 presidential election and he or she is a Christian the person may not accept to provide cows for the spiritual exercise to make him or her win. This is because of the wrong opinion most Christians have that the slaughtering of an animal for spiritual purposes is sinful.
To them, the shedding of blood on the cross of crucifixion by Jesus Christ had made the practice unnecessary. But this is a misconception because what the death of Jesus put an end to was animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins as ordered by God in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus Chapters 5, 6 and 7. But the death of Jesus did not extend to the slaughtering of an animal for other spiritual purposes.
It was because the death of Jesus brought an end to animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins that such a thing was not carried out in the New Testament. This was what the author of Hebrews wrote about in Chapter 9 verses 23 – 28 of the Book on Christ’s sacrifice taking away the sins of those who believe in him as their Saviour, follow his teachings and obey the laws of God.
Indeed, apart from the forgiveness of sins animal sacrifice continued for other purposes during the time of Jesus Christ. This is evident in Matthew 8: 1 – 4 where Jesus sent the man he cured of a dreaded skin disease (leprosy), to go to the priest for ritual purification. He also sent the ten men he healed of the same disease to do likewise.
As stated in Leviticus 14: 1 – 32 the sacrifice the priests performed for those cured of a dreaded skin disease or leprosy was for the person to provide two birds for the first stage of the spiritual cleansing and on the eighth day two lambs, but one for a man or woman who was poor. Jesus sent those he cured of leprosy to perform purification ritual because as he made it plain in the Bible he came to fulfill and uphold the laws of God not to break them. This was because it was only those who were cured of leprosy that were required to carry out the spiritual exercise.
There was no animal sacrifice in the New Testament after the death of Jesus because his disciples and Apostle Paul did not cure anyone with a dreaded skin disease. If they had healed people with leprosy as Jesus did, they too would have sent them for purification ritual. The miracles of cure performed by Apostle Peter were making a lame man walk (Acts 3:1 – 10), doing the same for Aeneas, a man who was paralyzed for eight years (Acts 9:32 – 35), healing sick people and casting out evil spirits from others (Acts 5: 12 – 16).
These three – types of miracles were also those performed by Apostle Philip in Acts 8: 4 – 8. While Apostle Paul on his part made a man in Lystra crippled from birth to walk (Acts 14: 8 – 13), commanded evil spirit to come out of a slave girl (Acts 16: 16 – 22) and bestowed some people in Ephesus with the Holy Spirit (Acts 19: 1 – 17).
As I revealed in this column three years ago, God makes anyone He would discuss and explain issues in the Holy Bible and Qur’an with to provide a white cow for slaughtering by His Spiritual Guide to the person. It was after I did this that the Lord gave me permission to start asking Him questions on statements and stories in the Holy Books of the Christians and Muslims. This further confirms that although Almighty God does not permit animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, He allows it for other purposes.
To be continued on Wednesday next week
Eternal rest Chief Fola Alade
In Nigeria many important people are close to the Editor of a newspaper but once the person leaves the office they stay away from him or her transferring their friendship and close association to the successor who they now need to carry their stories and photographs in his or her newspaper when the need arises. I too had the experience after I left office.
The shocking aspect of it was that it was by a man whose appointment as a Minister in the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida I facilitated in 1991 through my cousin His Royal Highness Olu Falae, who then the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The man is now late, so I do not want to name him, because he is not alive to respond to my statement on him.
I will also not tell his town or state of origin or his ministerial portfolio because this will give him away. The only thing I will reveal about him is that he was of the Yoruba ethnic group. The man was at the meeting when I suggested his name, so he was an eyewitness to what I did for him.
But Chief Fola Alade was a different person. Although I met him when I was the Editor of the Sunday Concord (March 4, 1984 – May 29, 1989) he still remained close to me after I left the office. When I was the President of the Rotary Club of Agege (1987 – 88) during my tenure as Editor he honoured my invitation to be my guest in one of our functions. He did not just do this alone on his initiative he also got his bosom friend Justice Kayode Eso of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to be the Guest Speaker at the occasion.
Chief Alade felt such a high – profile personality was the one needed at such a gathering because of the caliber of those invited. It was at the ceremony that I met Justice Eso for the first time. The second occasion was when I went to his office at the Supreme Court some days after the ceremony to thank him for honouring my invitation.
Fifteen years after I left office as the Editor of the Sunday Concord and ten years after I retired from the company and active practice of journalism I invited Chief Alade in September 2004 to be one of the special guests at the launch of a book I wrote titled: Nigeria Set Aside by God for greatness and the untold story of June 12 annulment.
While some of those who attended the functions I invited them to when I was the Editor of the Sunday Concord stayed away, Chief Alade and Prince Tony Momoh, a former Minister of Information and Culture honoured my invitation. This showed they were genuine older friends as well as reliable men of integrity, dignity and role models.
Next week: The footprints he left on the sands of architecture in Nigeria in the buildings he designed and the projects he executed for the Federal Government in the country and abroad.
10 topmost Immigrant Lagosians candido Da Rocha, of Ijesa ancestry
Chief Candido Joao Da Rocha (1860 – Wednesday, March 11, 1959) who died at the age of 99 is reputed to be the first millionaire in Nigeria. His father Esan Joah Da Rocha was captured in 1840 when he was about 10 years old and sold into slavery in the Bahia region of Brazil.
It looks his family’s original surname was Esan and the Joao Da Rocha was acquired from the Brazilian man he was sold to. The same with Herbert Macaulay, the son of Ojo Oriare and Thomas Randle, the grandfather of J.K. Randle who were both from Oyo. They bore English names because they were sold to English men whose names they adopted. They were lucky that they were in Freetown, Sierra Leone when the slave trade was abolished and so it was easier and earlier for them to return to Nigeria than people like Esan Joao Da Rocha and Hilario Campos who were taken to Bahia in Brazil and Havana in Cuba respectively.
For continuation next week