As I do when it happens, I am starting with apologies for the non – publication of this column last week. Especially to Mr. T. Ekpeyong who phoned from Abuja on Wednesday and His Grace Archbishop Christopher Umane, the head of the Orthodox Anglican Communion in Benin City, who rang on Thursday to express their disappointment for missing a column they have always eagerly looked forward to reading for years now. I thank the two of them for their interest and appreciation of Pabulum.

I am writing on today’s topic because of the readers who called or sent text messages that they were expecting me to do a piece on a religious issue last week, today and up to early next month as I did last year and in some previous years. In fact, it was as way back in October that an admirer of this column who has been reaching out to me since Saturday, December 20, 2008 sent a text message that he keenly awaits the religious issue I will treat during this year’s Christmas.

I do not have a policy to write on religious or scriptural topics in December because it is Yule – tide season. I only do so when a pastor, prophet or scholar of national standing makes false statements on issues in the Holy Bible or that Jesus Christ was not born on December 25 when Christians celebrate his birthday. I began doing so in November 2008 when a famous General Overseer of a popular Pentecostal Church claimed that God created only Eve as the wife of Adam because He wanted a man to marry one spouse.

It was an issue I raised with the Heavenly Father in 2003 and from His reply I wrote a three – part article published in the last week of September that year in the Daily Sun with the title: The Church, not God is against polygamy. Indeed, there are facts in the Holy Bible that the Lord did not decree monogamy for a man. Otherwise He would not have said in Exodus 21:10 – 11 that if a man takes a second wife, he must treat her and the first one equally.

Nor would He have put a curse in Deuteronomy 27:20 on anyone who has intercourse with any of his father’s wives. It is also instructive that during the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus only spoke on adultery and divorce and said nothing about monogamy. If God wanted a man to marry one spouse would Christ not have preached against polygamy? And would God not have had it in the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20: 1 – 17 and the other laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy? Till today, the General Overseer has not countered the submission on the references I made in the Bible on the issue.

The second time I wrote on religion was in 2011 and 2013 when the leaders of the God’s Kingdom Society (GKS) said they celebrate the birthday of Jesus in October and not December 25 because the Lord told the founder of their sect that that was the time Christ was born, not the date Christians mark the anniversary. It was an issue I raised with the Ancient of Days in 2010 and which I wrote on in this column in December of that year with the caption: God confirms Jesus was truly born on December 25.

Of course, long – time readers of this column know it is a fact that I have the grace of speaking one – to – one or directly with the Supreme Being in Heaven. Because in 2010 I wrote in this column that on Saturday, September 24, 1994 during a retreat in Ado – Ekiti, that the Lord told me and Dr. Ore Falomo, the personal physician of late Chief Moshood Abiola, that He caused the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by his patient to be annulled. Because he said his money and popularity were responsible for his victory, not the 41 – day fasting and prayer exercise carried out by the 41 clerics He raised for him. Up till now Falomo has not come out to challenge my story.

To be sure, it was not God who told the founder of the GKS sect that Jesus was born in the month of October and not on December 25. He came up with the lie based on the report in Luke Chapter 2 verses 8 – 20 that the shepherds who visited when Jesus was born were in the fields in that part of the country, taking care of their flock when an angel of God broke the news of his birth to them. With this the GKS leader said Jesus could not have been born in December when winter is always at its severest. And therefore came up with the October date in the autumn period of the year when he thinks the weather was favourable for the shepherds to have been out in the fields.

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•To be continued next week

The mistake the GKS founder made is that he thought the herdsmen were like those in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa who roam about for miles and days to feed their animals. Whereas what happened to the shepherds in the Bible was that they were camped in a field for the whole period of winter tending their animals until the spring time when the weather would be good for them to place them outside in the field.

To be continued next week


8 history-making juju bandleaders (11)

I continue the narration on late Orlando Owoh, the eighth legendary juju music icon which began two weeks ago, with the information on the trail blazing feat of his band being the first to play juju music with highlife beat and flavour, to produce what became known as juju – highlife. Or Afro – juju as Sir Sina Peters calls his own brand of it. Orlando Owoh was also the first juju musician to wax a record with the mixture of Yoruba and pidgin English lyrics when he came out with the scintillating and memorable album titled: “E get as e be,” which translates as: there is a reason for what happened. Which was an account of his arrest and detention experience at the Alagbon Close Police Station in Ikoyi, Lagos in the late 1980s for the possession and smoking of marijuana, also known as Indian hemp or cannabis. But he was not charged to court and his song showed the police had no strong evidence for his trial, hence they had to release him unconditionally.

Next week: The other two history – making juju bandleaders, a man and a woman, whose names didn’t come to my mind when I decided to do the series.

I hereby pray that we all outlive 2016 and have a happy, healthy and glorious 2017.