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Politicians will never stop fouling the air. That seems to be the way they are. Last Sunday, April 23, 2023, was to be a day of prayer in Umuahia, the Abia State capital. The prayer rally did not eventually happen. Courtesy of Nigeria Prays, the national inter-denominational supplicatory initiative of former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, the planned prayer in Umuahia was to be another edition in the series of periodic pleas to God on behalf of Nigeria.
General Gowon and his group of prayer warriors are known to mount their holy rallies at different locations and periods, depending, obviously, on where and when they establish that their supplication is needed. Nigeria Prays is not an obtrusive entity. The group, very much like its promoter, can easily be forgotten, only to be discovered the next moment around the corner with prayers in their mouth.
The impact of prayers is, of course, not empirically measurable. Such is the lot of Nigeria Prays. The exact result or efficacy of their efforts will never be known. Even at that, one thing nobody who lives or knows Nigeria will contest is that the country needs prayer. Tons of it. Indeed, the realization that the country’s self-inflicted problems and existential challenges are well beyond what normal human capacity can handle motivated the retired General to bring the inter-denominational prayer programme into existence in 1996.
Gowon is in a very good position to know about the troubles of Nigeria. He was, as a matter of fact, a key contributor to the problems. It speaks well of him that in the winter of his life, having lived long enough by God’s grace to see the disastrous import of some of his personal and group decisions, he is humble enough to run back to God for help. Is God listening to General Gowon’s prayers? That is a question for God. He is a merciful God though. He did assure that “if my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray…and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
It may be largely anecdotal that way back in 1998, while Gowon and his Nigeria Prays were in Ekiti State, praying to God to spare Nigeria once more from one of its crises, General Sani Abacha dropped dead, literally out of the blues. Understandably, Nigeria Prays does not want credit for such earthquake. Anyway, 27 years after it came into being to intercede for Nigeria, Gowon’s Nigeria Prays continues to pray.
Last weekend, Sunday, April 23, Gowon and his praying team were to be at Master’s Vessel Church, Umuahia, for a prayer rally that had the theme “When the Righteous Are in Authority.” Although the prayer rally was said to be independently organized, it was aligned to pre-inauguration activities of the newly elected Labour Party governor of Abia State, the banker, Alex Otti. It is not known whether Gowon and his prayer group have plans to mount similar prayer in other states, especially those that encourage them to so do.
Even if there were no such plans, the politicisation of the scheduled prayer rally in Abia took a turn that reeked of mindlessness, the type only politicians can brew. The actual motive of the vicious attack on both Gowon and the prayer rally, by the elements said to be from the exiting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in Abia, remains perplexing. Was the target the incoming governor, who PDP have every reason to be unhappy with, for trumping them at the polls? Or was the target truly General Gowon?
In its excoriating criticism of the planned programme, the face of the opponents of the prayer, Mr. Uzoma Okoro, said to be a chieftain of the PDP, took offense at General Gowon being invited to Abia to pray. This, he said, is “a man who is yet to right the wrongs of the civil war.” Okoro wondered whether there is no other man of God in the neighbourhood to invite for prayers by the governor-elect, instead of Gowon?
If there was an iota of convincing evidence that Mr. Okoro’s vehemence was informed by genuine bitterness over General Gowon’s role in the uncivil war of 1967-70 or the incidents that preceded the war, his pain could easily have struck a chord. But there remains no such conviction.
It is true that most Nigerian governments have grossly failed to purge themselves of the destructive mindset that engendered the war, in spite of opportunities to make amends. But then, the Igbo, have, to the best of their ability, re-integrated themselves into Nigeria and moved on, in spite of enormous odds and partisan provocations.
Okoro and whatever interests he represents, cannot successfully justify a stance that isolates Gowon, by insisting that he must “right the wrongs of the civil war”, when they have been relating, as compatriots, with other individuals and entities who were equally active parties to the 1967-70 hostilities. There is manifest contradiction there.
Clearly, the bitter protestation of the Abia PDP over the scheduled Nigeria Prays rally in Abia was politically-motivated. The target obviously, was the incoming Labour Party leadership in the state. The slated theme of the prayer; “When the Righteous Are in Authority”, must have rankled the PDP side that lost control of Abia State.
Unfortunately, politicians always couch their self-serving agenda in phoney altruism, hence the sudden ultra-Igbo sentiment by elements in Abia PDP. Uzoma Okoro and his PDP associates in Abia, were not and cannot be speaking for Igbo people in this instance. Yakubu Gowon may not be highly admired in Igboland, by dint of the role he played during the war against the Igbo. Through various overtures, however, including his praying initiative, he has made himself more amenable to genuine reconciliation than many other actors on the same side with him during the war. Whatever the case against Gowon’s prayer initiative may be, it reflects a positive disposition, far better than the unapologetic sectarian mindset that still inhabit some of those on the same federal side with him during the hostilities.
Interestingly, as it turned out, the Labour Party governor-elect, Dr. Otti, who was being pilloried by the Abia PDP for inviting General Gowon to pray for Abia State, was not the host but an invited guest at the event. The prayer rally was said to be an independent programme of Gowon’s Nigeria Prays in Abia State. In other words, Gowon was not an invitee, per se. He was a host of sorts. However, with a theme like “When the Righteous Are in Authority,” the PDP was not convinced that the programme was not organized by the incoming governor to rub it in. Surely, the righteous in reference could not be the outgoing Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
Poor Yakubu Gowon. Now, he knows with his praying group, that even praying has its risky sides. When next they plan to go for prayer in a state where a ruling party recently lost an election, they should be sensitive to the theme their local coordinators pick.
It is regrettable that the planned prayer for Abia and its incoming governor had to be cancelled, due to local politics. The parting words of the former Head of State was encouraging; “We will continue to pray and strive for peace and unity of Nigeria, especially Abia State”.
Gowon and his praying group should not despair. The value and impact of their effort may not easily be quantified, but then, without their supplications, who knows where Nigeria would have been?
