I had a talk with a Pastor friend and his wife yesterday.
It was their son's 12th birthday, so I paid them a visit.

The talk naturally got to God & the Nigerian Presidential Election.
Like a lot of Nigerian Pastors, they supported Peter Obi, so Tinubu's victory upset them... I asked them some salient questions the average Nigerian Christian doesn't like to hear:
Do you KNOW the Will of God concerning the election?
Yes?
No?

They admitted that they don't really know, but they don't think God's Will could be Tinubu.

I asked why they don't think so...

Some years ago, Chelsea won the Champions League.
Their fans held a Thanksgiving Service in a Church (not like Arsenal Fans who held theirs BEFORE winning the Premiership! 😁)

They wore their Chelsea jerseys to Church that day.
Many Christians were ANGRY when they saw the video!

https://twitter.com/MrOdanz/status/1662776508111372295

I asked, "why are you angry?"
"This is WRONG! They are desecrating the House of God!"
I just laughed.
It's the "Temple Mentality" at work in them.
I asked, "would you feel better if they had held the Thanksgiving Service OUTSIDE?

If they had moved the chairs out...

On March 30, 1981, the US President Ronald Reagan was shot & wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton.
He had won the Presidential Election on the Republican Party platform... He was rushed to the nearby George Washington University Hospital & was stabilized in the emergency room; he then underwent emergency exploratory surgery.
He recovered & was released from the hospital on April 11.

In the operating room, Reagan removed his oxygen mask to joke:

He had about 30 people working for him in his Construction Company including drivers, one of which was deployed to his home to drive his wife.

One day, wife was upset with the driver & she slapped him.
He slapped her back REAL HARD!

Wife called husband: "the driver slapped me!" Husband immediately deployed another driver to report to the house the next morning & asked the other driver to leave.

A month later, wife came to the office & saw the other driver who she had the altercation with!
Woah!

She told the husband, "I thought you sacked him!"

HOW TO BE A NIGERIAN CHRISTIAN.

1) You MUST understand Church Politics & hypocrisy.
You MUST learn eye service too.
You must be loyal to your Church & her programs.
If you don't attend any service, you must have a reasonable excuse or else, Pastor will be VERY upset with you!
😡 2) You must know how to speak Christianese.
If you're asked, "how are you", don't answer "I'm fine, thank you" as lesser mortals do: you answer "we than God".
If you're asked further, "how is your family", you reply, "we bless God".

Christianese is the Naija Christian Lingo!
😁

One common thing I hear when young folks come to me for advice:
"Uncle Harry, they said if you go to..."

When they're done, I ask, "Who EXACTLY said this?"
"You've never heard it, Uncle?"
"Wrong answer! Who did YOU hear it from?"

Most times they don't know where they heard it! But the statement by faceless people is giving them concerns.
Young folks are too concerned about people's opinions & external validation.

A 17 year old girl asked a boy of same age they meet at the mall for 9pm.
He told her, "My parents say I have to be home by 7pm!"

In Section 134 of the Constitution of Nigeria, the sentence "...not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja" is the bone of contention here... A lot of people have interpreted this to mean the winner of the election MUST get not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja also, apart from getting same in 24 States out of the 36 (two-thirds).

Here is the thing...

As an undergraduate in Zaria, I used to go swimming often.
One day, my roommate and I got talking and the gist got to swimming.
He had never been to the pool before, he said.
"Ah! You don't know how to swim!" I replied.
"I didn't say that! I said I've never been to the pool!" I didn't understand.
"You mean you know how to swim, you've just never been to the pool to swim? Do you swim in rivers then? I don't get it!"
"No, I don't swim in rivers!"
"Ok, where then do you swim?"
"I've never gone swimming before!"
"So, you don't know how to swim, bro!"

The Bauhaus is one of the best Schools of Architecture on the Planet.
The School was founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany by architect Walter Gropius.

One of the Professors I trained under at ABU Zaria, Professor Schwertfeger (a German) was a student in the school... He told us how he got into the school.
In those days, all young men who wanted to study art or architecture in Germany applied to the school.
He also did.
And you can imagine his excitement when he was invited for an entrance examination!

He studied very hard for it, he said...

When I was in Architecture School, ABU Zaria, I was a member of the Rhema Chapel Campus Fellowship.
We once organised a program & invited Rev'd Sam Adeyemi @sam_adeyemi as the Guest Minister.

I was given the task to make banners for the programme.
I came up with a catch phrase: "EXPERIENCE THE RHEMATIC ANOINTING!"

So I got down to work, bought the white sheets, paints & cardboard sheets for the stencils.
Just before I started dabbing the paint on the cloth, a friend, Kareem walked by.
He said, "Hey, Harry! There's a mistake in your spelling!"

Woah!

I absolutely LOVE Nigerian Politics!
I've been having so much fun discussing (never argued!) with people who are of a different political persuasion.

I know so many folks who are uncomfortable with my support for ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU.

They talked before the Election... They've been screaming since after the Election (or "Selection" as some of them call it).
Earlier today, I had another round of talks with 3 of these folks.
They asked my take on the Guinean Citizenship of ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU.
I simply told them I have no take on it!
☺️

The question is, WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE?
You watch football, some believers say it's wrong.
You wear jeans, some are offended.
You swim, they're angered.
You go to the cinema, you're worldly.
You wear a wig, someone has issues with it.
You braid your hair, wahala...

https://twitter.com/Tracy_Kesh/status/1651552613018611712

During the COVID lockdown, I was home for several days.
I didn't shave, my beard grew out.
My wife said, "I think I like you better with a full beard!"
So I started keeping it.
Church folks saw me with a beard, they are offended!

Seriously, WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE???

Ok.
I just wonder where you draw the line.
If you love swimming and your church sisters frown at it, will you stop?
Or do it in secret?
If you wear trousers and some sisters feel it's wrong, will you stop?
Or do it privately?

I'll tell you a story, let me know your thoughts...

https://twitter.com/Tracy_Kesh/status/1650945283998601219

A friend went to Jerusalem on pilgrimage with the Plateau State contingent some years ago.
Everybody basically wore jeans and t-shirts there.
My friend brought out his iPad to take pictures of some women who were his Church members back in Jos.
They told him, "wait a minute!"

We interpret Scripture with our biases, ma'am.
That's why we would condemn a lady wearing trousers and quote Deuteronomy 22:5. "A woman must not wear men’s clothes..." to justify our stance.

But going further in the same chapter, Scripture also says in verse 11:

https://twitter.com/naijama/status/1650990240494960640

"You must not wear clothes made by weaving together wool and linen".
You'd expect those who hound women who were trousers to also enforce this verse, but they ignore it!
A lot of them don't even know it exists. I usually bring it to their notice and challenge their theology.

A Pastor friend came visiting.
He met me drinking a glass of wine.
He asked, "Is it alcoholic?"
"Yes, it is", I responded.
"Brother Harry! So you drink alcohol!"
"Yes, I do", I answered.
He kept quiet.
He had expected me to start defending myself, but I owned up to it... Then he said, "But you know it's wrong!"
"No I don't", I replied, sipping my Blossom Hill wine.
"How could drinking this AMAZING wine be WRONG? Come on, Bro!"
"You're a Christian: you should NOT drink alcohol!"
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Because it's WRONG!"
"How so?"
"It's just WRONG!"

This reminds me of an event when I was a university student (1986).
I had a camera that had a problem.
So I took it to the repairer.
He opened it, looked at it for a few seconds...
Then he took his precision screwdriver and turned something inside.
The camera was fixed!
Yaaaay!!!

https://twitter.com/OshioQuake/status/1650490569884303360

Then he gave me my bill: N10 (this was in the days we ate a meal in the campus cafeteria for 50kobo).
I protested!
"But you didn't do much nau! You just turned something inside!"
The repairer responded calmly: "then you should have turned it yourself if it was that simple..."

When Atiku Abubakar was The Main Opposition, he was very active on Twitter.

Whenever any disaster happens anywhere in the country or abroad where Nigerians are involved, he would quickly post a thread about it:
"I am saddened at the happenings in Ukraine. The FG should..." And he would end with, "My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims".

But do you notice we don't see such tweets from him anymore?
This election was his last chance for the Office of the President (he's 76).
He won't be contesting at 80, so he's given up...

Self deceit is a human trait.
We always try to hold onto what we hope for, no matter what the facts and trajectory show.
We build an illusion and we choose to BELIEVE it.

I remember in 1994, Nigeria played in the Round of 16 in the World Cup in the US against Italy... We drew 1-1 in regulation time, but Italy won 2-1 after extra time.
Naturally, Nigerians were downcast.
We didn't want to accept the defeat: it was so painful!
So, self deceit came in.

Someone concocted a story that spread round the Country like wild fire in the harmattan:

And this is just POLITICS.
You can imagine how kids are also influenced to hate people of a different RELIGION and TRIBE.

In 1999, I lived in a block of flats in Lagos where you hear kids in a flat refer to a family in another flat as "those noisy Yoruba people!"

https://twitter.com/Anthropos1Logos/status/1650033036967149569

Apparently, that was how they heard their parents call that family at home.
The irony was, their dad would meet the dad of the "noisy Yoruba people" in the compound and they exchange pleasantries like best friends!

The hypocrisy used to annoy me (I was much younger then)!

I took 4 boys out for a fishing expedition today, aged 9-12.

They had mad fun, digging for worms, using them as bait on the hooks, catching fish.

I used to fish at their age, I learned how to as a Scout (do they still exist?).

But something struck me about these kids today... They are very impressionable!
They talked about practically everything: from their favorite Premiership Clubs to favorite cartoons...
And the discussion got to politics!

"I hate Tinubu!" the 12 year old said.
I asked why.
"He stole the election from Peter Obi!" he replied...

December 2007, I was in London with a friend for Christmas.
He was (& still is!) a Chelsea Fan.
It was his first time in the UK, so he wanted to use the opportunity to watch a Live Match at Stamford Bridge.

And luckily for us, there was a match on the 27th of December... It was a match between Chelsea & Newcastle United.
In those days, Mikel Obi played for Chelsea, Obafemi Martins played for Newcastle United.
We would see 2 Nigerians play: we were excited!
So we got 2 tickets at the Black Market & went to West London to watch the match...