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By Bolanle Bolawole
The foreword to this book is written by no less a distinguished personality than Dr. Yemi Farounbi. In just one paragraph, he summarized what this book is all about: “Excerpts from the synod charges delivered by the author,” from 1999 to 2021 “containing analyses of (Nigeria’s) problems (as well as the) pragmatic steps that should be taken by both the government and the governed, a kind of compass to navigate the country into safe harbours.”
Coming immediately before that, Farounbi had also described the author as a “patriotic and God-fearing Nigerian (who) has been speaking to the authorities and the people on perceived inequities and how to right the wrongs. His contributions are candid, straight to the point and, if taken and implemented, can bring about a Nigeria in which every component part will be happy to belong and work assiduously for its development.”
Not only did the above summation whet my appetite as I prepared to read the book, it also alerted me to get ready to meet possibly a liberation theologist on the pages of “Waste of Grace.” As an enthusiast of the Latin American Liberation Theology movement, this was a tonic that energized me to voraciously run through the pages.
For those who may not be familiar with it, Liberation Theology was a religious movement arising in the late 20th Century Roman Catholicism and centred in Latin America. It sought to apply religious faith by aiding the poor and oppressed through involvement in political and civic affairs.
Some clarifications before we proceed: Liberation Theology was made popular in Latin America by Catholic priests in the period under review but the author here is an Anglican clergyman. The themes of poverty, lack, deprivation, oppression, suffering, love, hatred, good or bad governance, and life made more meaningful are universal and are not susceptible to race, creed, colour, religious or political persuasions.
All are equally impacted across political and religious lines and across borders. Inequities, which the author railed against in this book – in the same way the Latin American liberation theologists did – are caste, colour and creed-blind. Besides, the preaching and examples of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Himself and of the other apostles, not least of all Apostle Paul, leave no one in doubt that the clergy must minister to both the spiritual and physical needs of the congregation as well as speak out against injustice, immorality and oppression of all hues.
The poor, the powerless, and the voiceless must be given a voice and be encouraged by those who carry the cross of Christ, for it is only in doing so that they can truly qualify to be called Christ-like. Truth must be spoken to power, no matter the cost and regardless of whose ox is gored, for that exactly is the example that Jesus and His disciples set for us.
It is a cause for which they lived and died, paying the supreme sacrifice in diverse ways that were gory to behold. The charge of scripture is clear, unambiguous and cannot be mistaken – except we deliberately choose to ignore or gloss it over. Amos 5:24 charges: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
We shall soon return to that.
Since Farounbi has told us that this book is made up of “excerpts” of speeches made at synods by the author, the question that a layman will ask is: what is synod? My professional colleague, Ademola Afolabi, provided an answer in the preface to this book when he said that “in the Anglican fold, synod is a very important annual event to evaluate the progress of the church and strategize on how to achieve better results.” He went on to explain that a synod “is broken into three sessions, with a session holding each year; thus, each synod lasts three years.”
According to him, synods provide “an opportunity for the House of Bishops, House of Clergy, and the House of Laity to come together and brainstorm on issues affecting the church, the people and the nation at large and proffer workable and achievable solutions to perceived problems.”
With the above background information from both Farounbi and Afolabi on the Anglican Communion, the origin and raison d’etre for this book as well as the elaborate introduction of the author, his distinguished career, which spanned many decades (and recording many firsts), a first-timer is adequately prepared to savour – and devour – the delectable dishes served in “Waste of Grace.” Biblical Samuel, the son of Hannah, received the call at age six; our author, the focus of attention here today, “received the call when he was only eight years old,” to quote Farounbi.
That is not a bad record at all! Be it in the biblical stories of Esau and Jacob, Samuel or David, Bathsheba/Solomon, mothers are usually very instrumental in their children’s life.
The case of Archbishop Olusegun Adebola Okubadejo is not different. Just as three-year-old Samuel did not recognize the voice of God when he first heard it and had to run to his master and mentor, Eli, the author, as an eight-year-old, also did not have a full understanding that he had received the call but for “his mother” who, according to Farounbi, “told him that on return from church every Sunday, he (Adebola) would put on the baby sister’s band on his neck to form a preaching scarf and recapitulate the sermon preached by the Vicar.” Only God can tell the impact of that seemingly innocuous information from Mama in shaping our author into what he is today. Information is power! Never underestimate the power of information!
Time and space constraints will not allow us to dwell on each of the 24 chapters of this book. Besides, a book review properly so-called is meant to whet the appetite and give us an irresistible urge to grab a copy of the book and read. That way, the message of the author is carried far and wide and his job is done.
The business angle of the promoters of this venture is also served when copies are bought and revenues cascade in to meet the cost of production as well as yield respectable return on investment. A book review that reveals it all becomes a disincentive to would-be buyers and short-changes both the author and the promoters. It’s like a newspaper review done every morning by radio and television houses. At first, newspaper houses struggled for attention and even rushed their copies to the stations so they could be reviewed.
After a while, however, we discovered at The Punch where I was the editor at the time that the newspaper reviews had begun to negatively affect sales because of the exhaustive reviews being done by many of the stations concerned. After getting all the required information from newspaper reviews, what further incentive do many would-be buyers have to go to the newsstand to buy copies?
So, I will not “spoil market”, as they say, with an exhaustive review but will only give snippets of the thoughts of the author in “Waste of Grace”. This book is prophetic. Whether I say “this book” or “the author” means the same thing. In the very first page of Chapter One titled “March of faith into the next millennium”, the author said: “Every business takes an inventory periodically and submits its records for an audit. This more or less has to do with the physical.
The governance of any nation is a sacred and spiritual thing, and we have all along missed this point in Nigeria. It is a pity that most of those who had participated, most of those who are the participants now, and most of those who hope to participate in the governance of this nation come May 29, 1999 have never conducted a spiritual inventory and made a spiritual audit of their lives…Regular spiritual audit of our lives will awaken us to a spiritual battle against corruption and other clouds of sins and vices that cover and veil us like a mantle”
This was the Bishop’s charge delivered to the first session of the first synod of the Diocese of Ibadan North on Monday, March 8, 1999, some 22 years ago and months before the present experience at civilian rule, called the Fourth Republic, began. And how prophetic!
Has the author’s prediction about the disaster that will accompany leadership without spiritual content come to pass or not? Is this country bedeviled today with more “corruption and other clouds of sins and vices that cover and veil us like a mantle” than we were 22 years ago? True or false: Are we better off today than we were 22 years ago?
In Chapter Three titled “The struggle goes on”, the author asked pertinent questions that demand and deserve honest and forthright answers not just from those in the corridors of power but also from you and me: “One year and 10 months of democratic rule, is there anything to show for it? Is the new dispensation yielding any dividends, positive or negative as the case may be? These and many more are the questions on the lips of Nigerians” That was the Bishop’s charge delivered to the third session of the first synod of the Diocese of Ibadan North on March 6, 2001, some 20 years ago.
With the benefit of another 20 years and four different presidents, where are the democracy dividends? Do things get better here or do they get worse? In the same chapter, the author demonstrated his visionary gift as he made a plea for an upgrade of the St. Andrew’s College, Oyo into a university. Four years later, precisely on January 7, 2005, the Bishop Ajayi Crowther University was licensed to operate by the authorities.
This author not only speaks truth to power; he is also audacious and forthright enough to interrogate so-called established “truths”.
In Chapter Four titled ”I am the way”, he said: The song is being sung everyday that the minds of our children must be qualitatively liberated through a solid and up-to-date educational system…As much as I would want to agree with this submission, this is coming at a time when a great number of our young people are asking the pertinent question – What is the need for this education liberation when the knowledge gained or acquired will soon perish with you for lack of utilization?”
The skyrocketing rate of unemployment is worrisome, especially among the youths. The author made his observations on Monday, March 4, 2002 during the Bishop’s charge to the first session of the second synod of the Diocese of Ibadan North.
Twenty years down the road, the unemployment situation has worsened. Youth restiveness was demonstrated for all to see at last year’s #ENDSARS. This year, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 32.5 percent and this figure is further projected to increase in 2022.
Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose constantly in the past many years. One out of every three able-bodied Nigerian is without a job. Since an idle hand is the devil’s workshop, expect crime rates to be on the upswing.
I wish I could comment on this book chapter by chapter but, like I said earlier, time and space constraints will not allow it. However, there is no way we can do justice to this task without touching on the author’s remarks on the vexed issue of Islamization of Nigeria.
In Chapter 13 titled “The task of the Church discipleship” under the sub-title “The Church and other faiths: The challenge of Islam”, the author posited thus: “Let us not be under any illusion; the desire is very rife in some people wanting to give Islam more space and this is not peculiar to Northern Nigeria, it is already making major incursions into the South-east and South-south of Nigeria.
“Let us not wait until we plunge ourselves into religious war which can destroy and spell doom for the whole of Nigeria as a nation…Let us call a National Conference to settle our differences once and for all. Those who have ears; let them hear what the Spirit is saying to His people.”
Restructuring may have become a much-abused and much-maligned term, some innocently misconstruing it but others deliberately mangling it for selfish reasons. For the author, however, it may as well be the stone which the builder rejected but which, in the final analysis, became the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118: 22 – 23; Matthew 21:42).
This book review is already running well over 2000 words and I must bring it to a close but not until I have reviewed the author’s position on the vexed issue of insecurity and the welfare of the poor, whose well-being Jesus, in preaching and in practice, committed into the hands of his followers.
In Chapter 21 titled, “We are more than conquerors”, the author has this to say:”The Nigerian state has now become a theater of bloodbath. It has become a country that eats up her people. Boko Haram insurgency has been going on for almost 10 years; the killer-herdsmen have joined to worsen the case.
The excesses of the terrorist groups have resulted in the loss of lives of innocent people across the country, especially in the North-East, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, etc. If the government is truly incapacitated to deal with the situation, help should be sought from countries with capacity to deal with the situation on hand” I am sure you know that the statement “if the government is truly incapacitated to deal with the situation…” is pregnant with meaning!
For months, pressure had to be mounted on the Presidency before it reluctantly succumbed to have the bandits that have become even more vicious than Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen declared as terrorists. This Bishop’s address was delivered to the second session of the seventh synod held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Yemetu, Ibadan on Monday, 21st May, 2018. Since then, the mass kidnapping of hundreds of innocent and hapless schoolchildren for ransom, has become the order of the day.
Many of such students have lost their life in the process, throwing their families into anguish, sorrow and suffering. Nigeria, to all intents and purposes, approximates Niccolo Machiavelli’s state of nature – of the war of one against all, where human life was ”solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
Jeremy Bentham of the Utilitarian school of thought posited that promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of citizens is the main duty of government. The author seems to agree in that he pleads passionately for the implementation of the National Minimum wage to alleviate the suffering of the masses; he also made suggestions that will reduce the ever-ballooning cost of governance (such as making the Legislature part-time) while also urging the government to find other sources of funds generation to meet its ever-increasing financial challenges.
“Why have we become tired Christians?” was the pointed question the author asked in Chapter Twenty-three, which was the Bishop’s charge delivered to the first session of the eighth synod held at St. Matthias Anglican Church, Orogun, Ibadan on Monday, 20th July,2020, in which the vexed issue of unity in the body of Christ was addressed. “To the flock of Christ, we admonish you as Paul did – Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3)” As they say, united we stand, divided we fall!
May we not fall either physically or spiritually in Jesus’ mighty name! I have penned over 2600 words already; yet, I have only managed to touch the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, it is incumbent on anyone who wants to savour more from the fountain of knowledge, wisdom and inspiration from above that propelled Archbishop Olusegun Adebola Okubadejo as he delivered the sermons encapsulated here over a period of two decades, to grab a copy of “Waste of Grace.”
I must, however, sign off with Chapter 11 titled “Grace Alone”, being the Bishop’s charge delivered to the second session of the fourth synod held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Yemetu Archdeaconry on Monday, 25th May, 2009, Ibadan chronicling God’s avalanche of grace upon Nigeria but all of which, regrettably, continues to be wasted. May we not mirror Nigeria in our individual life! And may the good Lord deliver Nigeria and turn again its captivity! (Psalm 126: 1 – 6).
