Chris Okotie: A Divorced Pastor Marries A “Widow”
August 9, 2008 by 
Che Oyimnatumba · 4 Comments
Wanting to trap Jesus by hearing him contradict the Torah, the Pharisees asked him if it is right for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus among other replies said whosoever marries a divorcee, commits adultery (Matthew 12 Vs. 3-6). The above passage in the holy book popped up when I heard about the wedding ceremony between Pastor Chris Okotie and once married with two children Miss Stephanie Henshaw. The thanks giving takes place on Sunday 10th August 2008.
Informed source have it that Miss Henshaw’s first husband was Okotie’s friend while they were in the University. The first husband died and the woman became a live in lover with a man. For those accusing the Pastor of adultery, should be sure that the new man in Miss Henshaw’s life didn’t marry her. But what a careful observer cannot help but see, is that Pastor Okotie, a Pop musician turned pastor, have been having a dog fight with his wife of over sixteen years. The cat and mouse game ended between Okotie and Tina in 1998 via a divorce, making the man of God a divorcee.
By the Bible Pastor Okotie preaches his status qualifies him as an adulterer and unfit to be a pastor of the Household of God. It should be remembered that there was the war of the Chris, over a visit to T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue of All Nations.
Pastor Chris Okotie accused Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of receiving powers to heal the sick from a dubious source as T.B. Joshua. The umbrella body of Pentecostals took sides and in the infighting, miracle crusades where banned from being telecast on Nigerian TV. With this direct violation of the Bible, I hope Bishop Ayo Oritsejafor will have the courage to excommunicate Pastor Chris Okotie from the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN). A Pastor cannot live in sin and the nation won’t suffer if the watchmen refuse to denounce him. I guess we are getting to the root of backwardness of Nigeria, despite the speedily mushrooming churches in the land.
Pastor Chris is not the only “man of God” to have fallen for the flesh while yielding to the calling of the Lord. Kathryn Kuhlman, the fire brand miracle worker, could not hold herself and took to a divorcee and her ministry suffered for it. When she finally left the relationship, the quantum of anointing was no longer the same. The Anglican Communion is still battling the issue of ordination of Gays. I have always had problem with the modernist interpretation of the Bible and the doctrine of once saved always saved.
Also in the Bible, the almighty Samson compromised and was shaved on the laps of Delilah, there by terminating a promising Judge of Israel.
Whichever way the coin of this Okotie’s marriage this weekend is viewed, Okotie has lost it. Not only will his female members feel betrayed, what advise will he give those having difficulties in their marriages? (1st Timothy 3; Titus 1 Vs.6)
With this marriage, the requiem of the bombastic, big grammar speaking pastor has gone to stanza two. Stanza one, was when he insisted in 2003 that the Lord spoke to him and told him he will be the next president of Nigeria. This gave birth to Fresh Party. I have no problem with men of God being patrician, as it is an indicator that their Sunday Sermons have not groomed the right men to take up political posts.
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Ekiti State Assembly Crisis: African Science To The Rescue
July 31, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
Of the 36 states House of Assembly, Ekiti State is the only one where the membership is evenly distributed. The ruling party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 13 members while the opposition, Action Congress (AC), has equal footing. As a result of this balanced force, legislative duties have been slow, as every motion had to be scrutinized and the collaboration of at least one “black sheep” is needed to get majority vote to pass whatever bill.
But on July 9th, three “black sheep” from PDP defected and a group calling herself the G18, moved a motion to impeach the PDP speaker Hon. Femi Bamisile. Since this historic motion, the state has been in akimbo, with all manner of pressure brought to bear on the G18, to rethink their stand. The traditional rulers were thrown into the fray and a safe landing was found for the impeached ex-speaker. This soft landing among other things was that the ex-speaker will not be prosecuted for the alleged theft he committed while a student in Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, and other sundry offences. He was also allowed to preside over a valedictory season, which took place on Tuesday July 29th behind closed door.
When the door was opened, Hon. Matthew Olatunji Odeyemi emerged with the full paraphernalia of the office of the speaker. But the virgin speaker, refused to take his seat till it was sanctified by the Alaaye of Efon, Oba Emmanuel Aladejare. The traditional monarch, did not only counter-anoint the vacant speakers seat but went ahead to cleanse the whole legislative seats, believed to have been “anointed” by African reassurance talisman during the tussle. The Oba saying incantations dusted each seat with his cow tail fan, while the legislatures stood in awe and said “Amen”, whenever the Oba was audible enough. It is interesting that these legislatures, who drew their right of impeachment from the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, will allow such act in the hallowed chambers! (The 1999 Nigerian Constitution claims to be secular but has a controversial section protecting Shari a law).
I guess these Ekiti legislators want to make a case for African Traditional Religion (ATR) This superstitious believe in supernatural intervention in the affairs of man, especially Nigerian politicians, is one of the reasons why commonest solvable problems are dumped at the feet of one god or the other. This cacophony of mixed allegiance surely will cause confusion as one is at sea as to which god is answering prayers or causing more harm. To rule a state, Ngigi had to go to a ATR shrine armed with a Christian Bible, instead of presenting his party’s manifesto or go to the grass roots to acquaint himself with the plight of unemployment and erosion eating up the people of Anambra.
The former president Olusegun Obasanjo has been reported as telling Nigerians that only “God” can solve the power problem in Nigeria. Bunkum. I hope he is not waiting for a thunder and a Jim Jones or John Momoh (MD Channels TV) voice shout let their be light, and the rusty industrial wheels in Nigeria will be belching out steel and refined crude from Warri and Kaduna refineries. Nigeria is not alone in this plague. You need to recast your mind to Jacob Zuma of South Africa and his Zulu rituals during his rape trial.
What is wrong with African politicians? Religion is a private thing and has no place in public life. In public life, which is based on social contract, there are all manner of believes, so why should any be imposed as a state’s? The constitution is the Ifa, the Bible, and Koran of legislative business. If these Ekiti legislators have no faith in the constitution to guide them in the discharge of their duties, they should move a motion to the effect that the offending/impotent sections be expunged from the constitution and ATR be enacted as the official Ekiti State religion. In an era when the West is going to Mars, African politicians are still bringing fetishism to bear in legislative duties.
In most cases, a legislative business, begins with a prayer to one of the gods of the Jew and their half brother, the Arabs, yet such invocation of ‘god’ does not stop them from looting the country blind, or resulting to underhand, unconstitutional means to reap off the masses, whose mandate they claim they are defending. Can some one call Nigerian politicians to order? Our salvation to being a member in the comity of 21st century nations is to jettison public display of religious idiosyncrasies and find the part of industrialization and upward movement to the moon.
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Lambert Conference 2008 Opens Without Nigeria
July 16, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
The decadal conference of the Anglican Church’s bishops opens today at Canterbury in the United Kingdom. This year’s conference ran into troubled waters due to the many waters that have passed under the bridge since the last conference in 1998. The most minds bugging for the church, is the ordination of gay (homosexual) bishop. Before this ordination saga, the Anglican Bishop of Boston USA, came out of his closet and refused to excommunicate himself. Peter Cowell and David Lord both Anglican Priests got married on May 31st 2008. This handshake has gone well beyond the elbow and the restless young deacons are asking for ordination of homosexuals.
The African Anglican Bishops led by the Archbishop of Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Bishop Peter Akinola, held an apparel conference where they took a position not to attend this year’s Lambert. Amarachi Umah, a member of St Peter’s Anglican Church Irete Owerri, Imo State, told us that this boycott, is hinged on Romans 2 Vs. 27 & 32 “likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of women, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful…that those who practice such things are deserving death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them”
The Anglican communicants in Nigeria welcome the boycott but want the Church Of Nigeria Anglican Communion to go further in Africanising the Church and cease relationship with the parent church in England. Basing their argument on the Biblical injunction that a little leaven leavens the whole lump and Amos 3 Vs. 3 “Can two walk together except they agree?”
Furthermore, they want the Church of Nigeria, to remove the name Anglican from their identity claiming that the origin of Anglicanism is adulterous (- the Pope had refused to grant divorce to King Edward). Another area the communicants want the Akinola led rebel group to seriously look into, if they want to break from the mother church, is to revise the Book of Common Prayer, especially the prayer that asks the faithful to pray for the Queen of England.
A Nigerian I spoke with on the streets of Abuja, question why the African Bishops are bothering themselves with European headache when in Africa, these Bishops wine and dine with politicians who stole the people’s mandate? Has the Church spoken out against the judicial rascality making wave in the electoral tribunals across Nigeria?This Nigerian wants to know what the Nigerian Bishops have done about the man-made poverty ravaging Africa. The Nigerian Bishops live in opulence while their parishioners live in abject poverty, dying of preventable and curable diseases. If homosexuality wants to crumble the western civilization, so be it. What business has the vulture in a barbers’ conference?
Be that as the divided opinions are, the communicants earnestly await the outcome of the Lambert Conference, whether they will speak against homosexuality or berate their African brothers.
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NACOMYO Attacks Soyinka
April 17, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
The National Council of Muslim Youths Organisation (NACOMYO) has castigated Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka over a comment credited to the Nobel Laureate. Soyinka was credited to have called the Islamic hijab (worn by Muslim women) a Muslim masquerade.
According to a statement by NACOMYO in Abeokuta denouncing Soyinka, signed by the national secretary Alhaji Kamal’ddin Akintunde, Soyinka’s derogatory comment was made at the Colloquium on 2008 International Festival of Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
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Seasons of Pessimism and Optimism
February 27, 2008 by OCI · Leave a Comment
These states of the mind are perversive amongst Nigerians today, having emerged from the high’s and lo’s of the tribunal rulings both at the state and national levels recently. Indeed, one’s mind remain the last bastion that the law courts cannot rule for or against; at least its independence to an extent is still intact.
In this season, one can decide to be a pessimist or an optimist about the way forward for Nigeria; even both feeling/state of mind can exist depending on the issue and its perspective. Whatever your feelings are, we have got a country to rescue and your fatherland needs you. However, you may choose to feel is your right but you have a duty to transform that feeling into something positive for Nigeria.
Whether you are a pessimist or an optimist, here is a heath check for you:
- Characteristics of a Pessimist and an Optimist
“Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one sees the stars.”- Frederick Langbridge, A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts
If you’ve placed second in a writing contest, will you jump for joy and push for better results the next time or will you be discouraged and find an excuse not to join again?
In life, you are always filled with choices. You may opt to have a pessimist’s view and live a self-defeated life or you may decide to take the optimist’s route and take a challenging and fulfilling life.
So why nurture an optimist’s point of view? And why now?
Well, optimism has been linked to positive mood and good morale; to academic, athletic, military, occupational and political success; to popularity; to good health and even to long life and freedom from trauma.
On the other hand, the rates of depression and pessimism have never been higher. It affects middle-aged adults the same way it hits younger people. The mean age of onset has gone from 30 to 15. It is no longer a middle-aged housewife’s disorder but also a teenager’s disorder’ as well.
Here’s how optimists are in action and researches that back up why it really pays to be an optimist:
Optimists expect the best
The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe bad events, which will last a long time and undermine everything they do, are their own fault.
The truth is optimists are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world. What differs is the way they explain their misfortune—it’s the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case.
Optimists tend to focus on and plan for the ‘problem’ at hand. They use ‘positive reinterpretation.’ In other words, they most likely reinterpret a negative experience in a way that helps them learn and grow. Such people are unfazed by bad situation, they perceive it is a challenge and try harder.
They won’t say “things will never get better,” “If I failed once, it will happen again” and “If I experience misfortune in one part of my life, then it will happen in my whole life.”
Positive expectancies of optimists also predict better reactions during transitions to new environments, sudden tragedies and unlikely turn of events. If they fall, they will stand up. They see opportunities instead of obstacles.
People respond positively to optimists
Optimists are proactive and less dependent on others for their happiness. They find no need to control or manipulate people. They usually draw people towards them. Their optimistic view of the world can be contagious and influence those they are with.
Optimism seems a socially desirable trait in all communities. Those who share optimism are generally accepted while those who spread gloom, panic and hysteria are treated unfavorably.
In life, these people often win elections; get voted most congenial and sought for advice.
When the going gets tough, optimists get tougher
Optimists typically maintain higher levels of subjective well-being during times of stress than do people who are less optimistic. In contrast, pessimists are likely to react to stressful events by denying that they exist or by avoiding dealing with problems. Pessimists are more likely to quit trying when difficulties arise.
They persevere. They just don’t give up easily, they are also known for their patience. Inching their way a step closer to that goal or elusive dream.
Optimists are healthier and live longer
Medical research has justified that simple pleasures and a positive outlook can cause a measurable increase in the body’s ability to fight disease.
Optimists’ health is unusually good. They age well, much freer than most people from the usual physical ills of middle age. And they get to outlive those prone to negative thoughts.
So why not be an optimist today? And think positively towards a more fulfilled life.
Why not look forward to success in all your endeavors? Why not be resilient? Like everybody else you are bound to hit lows sometimes but don’t just stay there. Carry yourself out of the mud and improve your chances of getting back on the right track. And why not inspire others to remove their dark-colored glasses and see life in the bright side?
Courtesy: Sulamita Berrezi
It is not just about your life, it is also about the life of Nigeria as a nation with a people. Let us all think positively for a better Nigeria; while looking forward to it success and greatness when this season passes-over.
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Religion has Shaped Politics in South Africa and Nigeria
January 29, 2008 by OCI · Leave a Comment
Written By: Prof. Ali Mazrui is Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture, Kenya
A major contrast between Nigeria and South Africa is the role of religion in their respective politics. The era of apartheid in South Africa was also the era of a de facto theocracy.
The Dutch Reformed Church was virtually a state-religion, and much of the ideology of racial separation was legitimised in Biblical terms about the curse of Cain on Black people.
Paradoxically, the first Christian winners of the Nobel Prize for Peace in Africa were Blacks from South Africa. The first was Albert Luthuli, the President of the African National Congress (1952-1960) and was committed to Christian non-violence. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1960.
The second African Nobel Peace Laureate was a professional cleric, a Bishop of the Church of England; Bishop (later Archbishop) Desmond Tutu won the Prize in 1984. The racial version of Christianity embodied in the doctrine of apartheid, was rapidly outweighed by a more tolerant version of the Christian gospel.
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