Follow Us on Google
Last week’s piece was on proving that the Heavenly Father speaks one – to – one with me. And I did this with the non – denial of my story by Dr. Ore Falomo, the personal physician of late Chief Moshood Abiola, that the Lord on Saturday, September 24 during a spiritual retreat in Ado – Ekiti, told him and I that He caused the June 12, 1993 presidential poll won by his patient to be annulled. It was the fifth or sixth time I wrote on the issue unchallenged in nine years.
Today, I am proceeding to provide evidence that if the Ancient of Days did not tell me that Christians and Muslims worship Him, that I would not have dared to write about it. In 2011, I told the story in a series in this column, and which I had repeated twice or so in the last five years, of how the Most High was angry with me and two others on Saturday, January 13, 2007.
This was when we pleaded that it was 13 years that He had a covenant to bless us as He did with Noah, Abraham and King David in the Old Testament in the Holy Bible. And that it was long a time for Him to fulfill His promise to us. The covenant story on Noah is in Genesis 9:1 – 17, that of Abraham in Genesis 15: 1 – 21 and that of King David in 2 Samuel 7: 1 – 16.
The Supreme Being who is normally soft – spoken in a deep – sounding voice typical of old men was so annoyed that He dressed us down in a high – pitched frightening vibrating tone. The stream – bank ground on which we knelt started ruffling as if there was going to be tremor, with soldier ants (ijalo in Yoruba) suddenly swarming and biting our hands and legs. One doesn’t wear shoes, slippers or cap when talking with the Supreme Being and Creator of Heaven and Earth.
The Lord blasted us for our effrontery, saying that as Christians who had read the Bible we ought to know that it is He who makes promises to people who fulfills them and at His own appointed time. He asked us what was our 13 years compared with the 25 years it took Him to give Abraham the covenant son (Isaac) He promised him? (See Genesis 18: 1 – 15 and 21: 1 – 8).
The Ancient of Days also asked us what our 13 years was to the 30 years the ordeal of Job lasted. This was how we got to know of this information which is not revealed anywhere in the 42 chapters in the Book of Job. And it was ten years after I had asked Him the question that He provided the answer. He had told me in 1997 that He would disclose it to me one day. But I did not know this was the way it would come.
The Lord also asked if any of us was as old as Abraham who was 75 when He first spoke with him and his hard times began (Genesis 12: 1 – 9). I was then 63 years old another one was 62 while the third person was 54. The Most High started speaking with me in February 1969 when I was 24 years and five months old, and eight months after I graduated from the University of Ibadan with a B.A. Honours Second Class Lower degree in History.
The Heavenly Father went on to ask if any of us had lost property or a child compared with Job who had all his animals (7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 1,000 cattle and 500 donkeys) destroyed and all his seven sons and three daughters killed? The stories are in Job 1:13 – 22 and 42: 12 – 16.
We were tremulous and our faces were heavily covered with fast dripping sweat from our heads. Our hands and feet were also wet, making us fear that our mistake might cause the Lord not to fulfill His promises to us again. We just kept on apologizing and begging for forgiveness throughout the 20 minutes or so the worrisome experience lasted. In the end, He penalized us with a nine – day fasting and prayer effort for the reprieve of our sinful act and a stern warning that we should not make Him angry again.
Twelve years after the 2007 incident, our trial of faith is still on, 25 years after it began in March 1994. Mine is for 28 years, having started in December 1991. Four years after our error on the covenant, I who came up with the idea to raise the issue with the Lord, led the team and was the spokesman, lost my second son and the last – born of my four children named Oluwatobiloba, a Yoruba word which means God is a great king. He passed on Friday, February 19, 2011, four months to his 22nd birth anniversary.
With the way the Ancient of Days scolded us in 2007 and the demise of my son in 2011, will I be so foolish as to have come out to say that He told me that Christians and Muslims worship Him, if He did not?
To be continued next Wednesday
Gasali’s ridiculous criticism of my column (3)
After Times International magazine (1974 – 78), the Sunday Concord (1984 – 89), the third journal I wrote a column for was the Weekend Concord (1998 – 2000). And it was at the invitation of the Editor, Mike Awoyinfa, who was an Assistant Editor at the Sunday Concord when I was the weekly’s Editor from March 5, 1984 – May 27, 1989.
Here are the first two of his three – paragraph letter of invitation to me dated Sunday, June 14, 1998: “My Editor, how’s life with you? Let me thank you for being part of my success in journalism. I owe a lot to the things you taught us. At the onset it was as if you were driving us too hard. But today, I tell my reporters that you gave us that training of being able to look for news in every situation.
“It’s an honour having you to write for us because I believe there is nothing like experience. We all have a lot to learn from your analytical skill and perspective.”
He ended the letter with: “Kindly make your script to fit into half – page of our newspaper so that it can be properly displayed. Greetings to your family. And thanks again for yesterday.” He was referring to yesteryears, not the day before he wrote the note.
It is good that Mike did not invite me orally to write for the Weekend Concord, but through a letter which I am now able to reproduce. As seen in the first article in this series two weeks ago, his reasons for wanting me to write for his weekly were the same Dr. Omotoso Ogunniyi, the Director of Manpower Development of the Daily Times, gave when he approached me in 1974 to join the Times International magazine of their company.
With Mike’s 1998 letter of invitation to write for the Weekend Concord, is it a surprise that I am a columnist of the Daily Sun, when he was the pioneer Managing Director/Editor – in – Chief of Sun Publishing Limited, established in 2003? But instead of him, it was late Dimgba Igwe, his friend and deputy in both positions, who invited me to write for the Daily Sun. Dimgba was a senior reporter in the Sunday Concord in my time as the Editor.
But it took three years before I honoured the invitation in December 2007. So, Nurudeen Gasali can see that I did not creep into writing this column for the Daily Sun. I was invited based on my reputation as a high – quality and respected columnist of 30 years standing in 2004 when I was approached.
More to come next week
