1. Over the past one week, I have quietly listened to the voice of the younger generation. It has become clear to everyone that the Youths in Nigeria have found their voice and activated their energy for massive social reforms in Nigeria.
2. Their bravery, commitment and the leadership they have shown with a high degree of accountability shows these are serious minded and a very intelligent group of people.
3. Let me start with my personal experience with the SARs group also. Sometime last year I got a call from my wife that she had been arrested and taken to the Police station.
4. I was heading for a service somewhere when I had to rush to where she was. I found what the officer said quite flimsy and to date don't understand it.
5. Things were worked out easily because on appearing at the place there was personal recognition as people were greeting me "pastor welcome."
6. Thinking back, if I didn't have that social capital, things would have been quite rough. So I do understand what a young person may have to face regularly from such encounters. It can be dehumanising not to talk about stories of people who say they were dispossessed of money
7. The Government may have in an unprecedented manner come out to verbally assent to the request of the movement, but what the government needs to realise is what they ask for now is action. Definite steps taken to show commitment to their words.
8. They have been here before they say, they have seen promises broken, they want actual reform. They ask that simple steps be taken to show it is different this time.
9. Things like bringing to book the officers who allegedly shot at the peaceful protesters should have happened. They say there are peaceful protesters who are still locked up. They need actual movement not words.
10. At the heart of this is that this generation is tired of being led this way. Those in leadership must know this generation requires a more accountable system of leadership which are consistent with the ideals of a democratic government.
11. It is a highly-networked generation and they see and have experienced how other nations are being governed. To them this is no rocket science.
12. Even smaller nations are beginning to leap frog over Nigeria in development and progress by providing basic infrastructure and amenities with a more accountable form of leadership.
13. It is actually fundamental. There needs to be a change in our approach to leadership because this generation can actually no longer be led this way.
Once people believe they are confronting an external existential threat, they get into a protective mode tolerati g everything going on within thinking what will destroy us is external. You then get paranoid believing every action taken by others is being done "against" you.
You make excuses for all the vices developing within believing that the ultimate enemy is actually without. Things like unforgiveness, lack of integrity, moral defects are overlooked because the existential threat is now seen to be without. There is this imagined enemy without.
We must understand that God's people have always had external enemies & on no occasion were they defeated by the external except when they walked in disobedience to God in their private lives. If they walked in fellowship, history shows every external threat led to multiplication
Loyalty doesn't mean you nod at the decision of a leader even when you know from your personal exposure or expertise that this opinion may be wrong. To be loyal you must know you are planted by God to give the leader the full view and wealth of your expertise.
After you have contributed your thoughts clearly explaining your position backed either by the scriptures or through inductive reasoning which compares past experiences to find established patterns, you allow for a decision to be taken. Once a decision is made you maintain unity.
Except it is a case where your fundamental beliefs or you are being asked to do something which is illegal or morally bankrupt, which in that case you are at liberty to walk from the group. Keeping silent without making your thoughts known is not humility, it is timidity.
In the movie the Godfather part 1, Veto Corleone was shot. To a casual observer it will appear it was because his son Fredo who was to protect him on the said day fell asleep. It was however deeper than that. There is a lesson to be learnt about relationships.
Veto Corleone was shot shortly after a meeting where he turned down the offer to bank roll and offer cover for the drug business in Newyork. However in that meeting his son who was heir apparent publicly disagreed with his father which sent a signal to the opposition.
They knew if they took the Godfather out they would probably get a deal. Veto Corleone called his son after the meeting to caution him about publicly disclosing thoughts that show a crack. He was troubled after the meeting and sent his hit man to find out more details.
God is all of his greatness having declared in Gen 1:26 Let us make man in our own image...." still came down in Gen 2:7 to mold that man from the ground. He got his hands dirty so that his declarations could have a point of entry into the earth. The Almighty God used his hands.
Where did we get this concept that since I am a faith man and making powerful declarations, I will be exempted from work? Why do we think some form of work is beneath us if that will be our point of entry for our words then to bring about rapid growth?
I hear young ministers castigate older ministers for not giving them opportunities in ministry. What they are really saying is "They didn't get off their pulpits to allow me preach and show what I know" If you are truly interested in ministering, the streets are full of people.
God said if the first covenant had been faultless no place will have been sought for the second but finding fault with them he said.... The fault of the first covenant was evident in the people that lived under it. When a system is wrong it always produces faulty products.
We sometimes don't look at issues from a deeper perspective. The problem may largely rest on the system in place that lacks the power to produce perfection. If we really want to have a reformation in the Church we must first 're examine the doctrines we have embraced as the truth
A doctrine can be defined as a system through which one lives. The accuracy of the doctrine can be seen in the life style of those who have embraced it. Until we examine these doctrines we will not make progress. Respect of persons is the reason we are refusing to 're examine.
When our "dependence" on God goes wrong. Was in a discussion and someone said something to the effect that the capacity of a person who intends to be in leadership doesn't really matter because God qualifies those he chooses. As much as it sounded right in a religious sense,
It kind of shifted responsibility on God in a way not clearly stipulated in scripture. What we need to understand is that God has always set out a criteria for any position of leadership and given us the power to choose based on the standard he asks us to look out for in a person
He has never given the impression "I will qualify the person when he gets into leadership." When he chooses a person from the womb, he "qualifies" the individual so that those qualities to shine so bright that men recognise that something is going on here and select the person.