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Mike Adenuga is truly a hero and a man of courage for the audacious things he does.  Is he interested in politics?  Let him vie and I will vote for him.  A man like him can transform Nigeria from the terrible state it is today.  Bishop Utip, 08021395299

I am saying amen to all your prayers.  My prayer is that God will continue to strengthen our heroes and also raise more heroes in our country.  I am joining you to wish the Globacom Guru a 60th happy birthday.  Mrs. Nneka, Ilorin, 08039094785

Otunba Mike Adenuga is a philanthropist par excellence.  He is a man who spread his wealth among the people.  He is a man God sent to help mankind.  His wealth and fame has spread beyond Nigeria.  I wish him happy more years.   Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State, 08062887535

Dr. Mike Adenuga is a hero indeed but he has refused to employ HND holders even with good grades.  He has forgotten that all can’t have a university degree. I wish him many happy returns.  Adeniyi Temitayo, Abeokuta, 08133725258

For God’s sake, help me to get any of Mike Adenuga’s telephone number or connect me with him.  I am Prophet T.Y. Aika, Glory Church of Christ.  By the grace of the Almighty God, I am the man God used to pray for the Super Eagles to win the African Cup of Nations in South Africa.  I have my proof and records.  Thanks.  08055063992

I wish Otunba Dr. Mike Adenuga (GCON) a happy 60th birthday.  Hip, hip, hip, hooray…!!!  Long life and prosperity to a prosperous man.  Rufus Agohziem, Akure, 08053418550

Your message on Dr. Mike Adenuga’s 60th birthday shows that you are even a better preacher than a writer.  It was a masterpiece.  Keep it up.  And wishing Dr. Adenuga a happy birthday and long life.  Hon. Chinedu Udeagwu.   08033223858

How can I get the book, Profile in Courage which you mentioned in your write-up on Dr. Mike Adenuga’s 60th birthday?  Samuel Ezema, Nsukka, 08077771616

Thank you for celebrating the hero of our time, Dr. Mike Adenuga.  May the Lord give you the courage and the wisdom to publish corrupt politicians and khaki boys who had been a bad influence to our teeming youths.  Idris, Kano, 08023352632

Thank you for your celebration of Mike Adenuga, a philanthropist, a detribalized Nigerian, a patriot, a giver and lover of people, especially the underprivileged.  I have met him one on one and the impression is unforgettable.  I wish him happy birthday.  Paul Torty, 08079309478

Is it those who claimed they know God and lead a different life or he who claimed there is no God but lead a life of selfless service to humanity that is an atheist?  A faithful atheist, Tai Solarin wrestled with those who mouth God and denied humanity. Moses Sunday Ajehson(Abuja)

The only problem I have with Tai Solarin is that he was an atheist.  And so you Pastor Mike of all people should not eulogize him.  Here was a man who excluded religious studies from school curriculum of the school he superintended.  Otherwise, he was a great man.  Pastor Tony, Kaduna, 08175417036

Thank you, Pastor Mike for making us to know a little about this great man Tai Solarin.  I used to hear about the man but didn’t know who he was or what he stood for.  Now, I know and I feel that we have lost a real hero.  May his soul rest in peace.  Can we have somebody like Tai Solarin in Nigeria again who will fight for the masses in a country where things are falling apart? 08066574865

The piece on Tai Solarin was wonderful.  Solarin was as plain as “the plain” way he dressed.  07069363540

Thanks for all the praises you showered on Tai Solarin but no matter how good he was on earth, without Jesus, he would be far away from heaven.  Uzomba Kanu, Calabar

I had the opportunity of being a student of Mayflower School between 1991 and 1996.  Tai Solarin lived what he preached: education for self-reliance within a communal setting with no man indispensable.  Even though he never believed in God, he showed love to us all.  He believed so much in education as the most important way of liberating the human soul.  To Uncle Tai, as we used to call him, “education makes people easy to lead but difficult to ride, easy to govern but difficult to enslave.”  Olumide Soyemi, 08171704442

Anyone, including you, who fail to acknowledge God in this world that God created for His own pleasure should not expect to be acknowledged.  No amount of dead bodies collected by the late Tai Solarin should catapult him into a hero.  Emma. 08072774834

Among those who idolize Tai Solarin is a bishop!  Bishop Mike Okwonkwo in an interview some years ago declared that of all men he knows, Tai Solarin remained his only role model, his being an atheist notwithstanding.  A good man who lives with the fear of God and maintained a righteous life will be favoured by God far ahead of all the religious zealots who sleep or keep awake all night in churches.  Anthony Williams Offor, 07038327168

Thank you for your write-up on Tai Solarin, a true Nigerian hero who did his best for this country.  Can you also recognise in your column General Benjamin Adekunle, one of the heroes who fought for Nigeria but is today forgotten.  Ayodeji Amos, 08086351989

Sir, I need to read your piece, May Your Road Be Rough.  How do I get it?  Obiseed. 08037570699

As you keep the flag of journalism flying high with your innovations, I pray that God will continue to bless you with good health and wisdom.  Sincerely, I enjoyed your piece on 100 Nigeria’s Centennial Heroes, featuring Dr. Tai Solarin.  You made me to remember your classic piece, May Your Road Be Rough published many years ago in the Weekend Concord.  I have been your fan from those days.  May your days be long, I pray, Pastor Mike.  Samuel Ekundayo, Badagry, 08085738581

“God is a soporific phantom tossed by people who have nothing to do,” he once wrote, causing shock and outrage all over Nigeria, a religiously sensitive country.

As the principal of Molusi College, he sensationally banned church services and confiscated hymn books and Songs of Praise.  Yet I cannot judge Tai Solarin, who in my opinion was still far, far a better man and more righteous than most people proclaiming God, God, and stealing in the name of the Lord in Nigeria today.

Dressed humbly in his famous khaki shorts and shirt, Tai Solarin was a symbol, a national icon that generations of Nigerians should know and revere.  For, here was a man indeed.  A man for all seasons and for all reasons.  A man who devoted all his life defending the defenceless, the hopeless, the homeless and even the dead.  He picked corpses from the street when he was alive.  This true champion of the oppressed man.  The chairman of the poor man’s bank.

The man who devoted all his life to fighting for wrongs to be righted. In today’s Nigeria where everything is going wrong and corruption is enthroned everywhere on our political landscape, we miss him.  We miss all the men of conscience, like Tai Solarin and Gani Fawehinmi.  We miss this Nigerian hero who was the scourge of bad rulers whom he battled to a standstill.  He was never afraid to die for the good of Nigeria.  He was the voice of Nigeria, the conscience of the nation, the one-man opposition army who confronted the army of the establishment who threw him in and out jail.  When General Gowon was tempted to elongate his tenure in office, Solarin wrote an essay titled, “The Beginning of the End” explaining the foolishness of hanging on to power.  It landed him in trouble.  And when Gowon was celebrating a big, lavish state wedding when the Nigerian Civil War was raging and people were dying, “Prophet” Solarin came out crying out loud like John the Baptist.  Again, it landed him in trouble.

Nigeria’s military President Ibrahim Babangida too wouldn’t forget Solarin, even though Babangida was smart enough to tempt Solarin with the post of the Chairman of the People Bank which he fell for.

Many years ago as a young pioneer editor of the Weekend Concord, there was the “Ebony Magazine” controversy where it was rumoured that the magazine had done an expose on Babangida’s wealth.  Nobody had seen the story but Solarin led those who believed in the rumour and was even brought live on NTA where he was quizzed by State Security  Service officials.  It was a big story in those troubled days.  I wrote a piece then entitled “May Your Road Be Rough,” a satiric piece on Tai Solarin, borrowing from his famous essay of the same title.  I remember receiving an avalanche of letters, where I was attacked by some Nigerians who read my satire upside down and wanted me crucified for “cursing” this Nigerian hero, this man of the people.  Mercifully, those who understood my satire came to my defence, blasting those who criticised me and pointing out how educational standards have deteriorated in Nigeria to the level that people couldn’t decode a simply satire that obviously wasn’t too simple.

Today, as I present my 100 Famous Nigerian Heroes, I invite my senior colleague, the celebrated journalist, Ray Ekpu, to pay homage to Tai Solarin, who happens to be Ekpu’s “No.1 Nigerian hero.”

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Tai Solarin is my quintessential Nigerian hero.   He is a very diligent and practical person.  Down to earth, he is not really a Nigerian in the conventional sense.  He was so dedicated to causes Nigerians don’t believe in.  I didn’t have the opportunity of sending any of my children to his Mayflower School.  I would have loved to do that.  I didn’t think twice in picking in him as my Nigerian hero.  It came from the top of my head.  He has contributed to education, to journalism, to literature, to general development.  His contributions are monumental.  I haven’t seen anyone like him after his death.  I have not seen anyone that approximates Tai Solarin in terms of ideals, in terms of commitment to this nation.  I can’t find one.

I remember the “Ebony story” during the era of Gen. Babangida, Nigeria’s military President.  The fact that the story was not in Ebony does not detract from the greatness of the man.  Everybody makes mistakes.  He was a man who devoted his life as a crusader to the uplift of Nigeria, to the enhancement of public good.  If he made a mistake, it’s just a mistake, I don’t care about that sort of mistake.  It’s a mistake that anybody could have made in the course of pursuing a project that he was dedicated to.  And for him, he was absolutely dedicated to the good of Nigeria.

He paved the path to the kind of education that Nigeria ought to have: practical education.  Any kid who went to Tai Solarin’s Mayflower School came out a better Nigerian.  He was not just a theoretician. He had knowledge. He also could use his hands.  He enhanced the dignity of labour.  He taught the kids that it was good to work.  For him, work was a logical necessity.  That was what he imparted to those kids.  That kind of education, you don’t have it in many parts of Nigeria where children come out of school and they are able to do things with themselves, instead of joining the unemployment queue.  If you went to Mayflower School, you could be creative, you would be self-reliant.

He wasn’t a journalist.  He was an essayist and a great commentator.  Any time he wrote his article, he did a lot of research.  He piled facts and figures to convince whoever was going to read his article, that this is his position.  He taught a lot of people the art of writing well, using available information, going to the ends of the earth to get your facts and your figures in order to portray your viewpoint.

For me, a hero is somebody whose virtues, whose values you share and you respect—values that ennobles the society.  A hero is someone you wish to be like.  A hero is someone who sets examples for society.  Good examples.  Without heroes, it would mean that you don’t have something to look forward to.

When a man like Tai Solarin dies, he leaves a vacuum.  And I haven’t seen someone yet who has risen to fill the vacuum.  Solarin was a selfless man.  He was ready to make sacrifices.  A man who goes out in the street and pick corpses of people he doesn’t know and goes to bury, because society has neglected its own functions.  No decent society would leave corpses lying around the streets.  Because it is a disservice to the rest of people alive.  It can decompose and cause an epidemic.  A man like that went out of his way to do things that the society didn’t want to do.

He was ready to suffer for his views, he stood by those views and they couldn’t even convict him because a lot of Nigerians shared those views.  He spent a lot of his time working for Nigeria.  I remember when I was tried by the Uwaifo Tribunal that handled the Shagari case.  And the tribunal fined me N20.  He was the first to bring out the money and paid.  He did what he believed was good for society.

As you know, 60 years in this sinful and dangerous world is not a walk in the park. I can testify to that as a member of the club of the 60-year-olds. Brethren, let us thank God and let us shout 60 Hallelujahs across the length and breadth of our beloved nation, as we celebrate the life and times of this great man. A man, who was once shot and nearly lost his life but for the grace and the mercy of God who wanted to use him for a greater purpose. But God was with him. Heroically, amid blood and gunshot wounds, he drove himself all the way to the Military Hospital, where bullets were removed from his legs that were almost shattered. I know the story, because I have been a follower, student and a chronicler for the last 10 years of this quintessential Nigerian hero. To God be the glory that his life was preserved for the good of Nigeria and Africa.

Our sermon today is on heroism. I have been reading a book about heroism entitled Profiles in Courage, a 1957 Pulitzer-winning biography of eight distinguished American senators who displayed courage and integrity by crossing party lines to do unpopular things, which they were convinced were right. It was written by John F. Kennedy when he was not yet President. He was just a young senator, striving to find a voice, looking for heroes to celebrate and emulate. He picked his heroes and profiled them in this rare book that has inspired me to write my own book of “100 Nigeria’s Centennial Heroes,” which I will kick-start as sermons in this Saturday virtual church.

So, who is a hero? For me, a hero is a man or woman who has done extraordinary things that have positive impact on humanity. A hero is a man or woman of courage who goes “where angels fear to tread”— to quote the poet Alexander Pope. By the way, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to find my good, old friend, the Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, profiled in TIME magazine’s 100 INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! It is not just Queen Omotola but also a victory for the whole of Nollywood — a Nigerian art form that is taking the world by storm. All over the world today, Nigeria is better known and better projected through the art of home video.

I was in Trinidad and Tobago not long ago and everybody there knows more about Nigeria through our movies. In Trinidad and the Caribbean, the heroes of Nigeria are not politicians but Nigerian actors and actresses, like the diminutive “twins” Aki and Pawpaw, a star tag-team who reminds me of Mike Awoyinfa and his “twin brother,” Dimgba Igwe. Beloved, whatever talent God gives you, use it well. Let your light shine so that the world will see it to the glory of your Father in heaven.

My Nigerian hero today is chosen from the field of business. And who do I pick other than my friend and hero, Dr. Mike Adenuga? A man who is a lesson in faith and a profile in courage. A man who is the epitome of the Nigerian Dream. The dream that it is possible to succeed in this country, if you work hard, if you have a vision, if you don’t give up, if you are tenacious and above all, if God blesses you.

Dr. Adenuga is a man blessed by God. Right from the day he left Pace University, New York, a university with the motto: Opportunitas, a Latin word meaning opportunity, he chose to come home to start small as an entrepreneur and to look for opportunities here in Nigeria. Today, his dream is more than fulfilled. From a small businessman, he has grown big and gone global like the Ambani business family of India who are Asia’s richest men. Indeed, he fits into any profile in courage. It takes courage to get an oil licence and not to sell it off to the multinationals like most wealthy Nigerians did at the time, but to go single-handed into oil exploration and to hit oil and sell to the world in commercial quantities. It takes courage to be denied telecoms licence but to forge ahead until you get it back and to create the big, Nigerian brand Glo that caused a paradigm shift in the Nigerian telecoms industry. Like a mountaineer, he has climbed to the summit of all the three major sectors, which are the drivers of our economy namely oil, telecoms and banking. And he has had his hands in all the different pies of Nigerian business.

For our sermon on heroism, let’s read from Hebrews Chapter 11— a chapter that speaks of heroism anchored on faith: “Without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The Book of Hebrews lists the “Heroes of Faith.” They include Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the harlot Rahab, who “perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”

Beloved, a life without faith is meaningless. Faith is what drives success. Faith is what made Mike Adenuga the success story that he is today. Faith is: believing in what you have not seen: “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

My dear reader, may you not live this life in vain without any achievement to your name. May your life be filled with faith and heroic achievements in Jesus’ name.

Now, let us pray. Let us pray for our brother, who has quietly supported this church and other churches without making noise about it. Let us pray for God to give him more wisdom, good health and long life to continue to contribute more and more to this nation, to Africa and to the world at large. Jehovah God, we bless you and thank you for our brother and your son who has done marvelous things in your eyes and in the eyes of the world. It is no one’s doing but your doing. You, the God of the universe. You, the author and the finisher of our faith. You, the Alpha, the Omega, He who knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. The God of small things and the God of big things. The God of all things wonderful, all things beautiful, all things glorious. The God in whose lexicon there is no impossibility but opportunities unlimited. The God of opened doors. The God of riches clothed in humility. We bless your Holy name. We thank you Jehovah for our brother, Mike Adeniyi Adenuga, he whom you have blessed to be a blessing to his nation, to his continent and to his generation. He whom you created and blessed like Solomon with wisdom, riches and compassion. He whom you have protected for the last 60 years.

Sixty years in your eyes is like a second, like a blink of an eye. Thank you for keeping your eyes on him, you mighty God. God of the rich and the poor alike. To you we owe the honour and glory. Father we ask that you teach him to number his days that he may continue to apply his heart with wisdom as the Psalmist prayed. More than anything, we ask that you draw him closer to you, let him know you and let him do your will and draw closer to you all the days of his life. Above all, we ask that you grant him life’s most precious gift—the blessing of long life and good health. Teach him to pause and to rest too, for our body is God’s most precious and irreplaceable gifts! Thank you once again for answered prayers, for in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen and amen!

Your letters:

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Sorry about your accident.  Despite you looking not so good, you still made me laugh while reading it.  Rita.  08033379509.

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Switching off light in an unfamiliar room without a simple torchlight in your hand is bad.  Don’t try it again.  Henry Okezie, Surulere, 08078689647.

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My G.O., I join other members of PCPC to thank Almighty Father for your life.  Devil will continue to lose over us as the year progresses.  Olu Aluko, Agege, 07036090333.

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I would have been devastated to read your obituary.  Victor Umeh, Abuja, 07037367181.

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You shall not die but live to win more souls for God through your paper sermon that touches the heart.  08038396064.

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Kudos to the Angels of Golden Tulip and others that rendered help.  Robert.  08111813041.

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The devil cannot do anything to those that fear God.  May God continue to preserve you and your friend, Dimgba Igwe.  Mrs. Uche, 08053504084.

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This is not funny.  I thank God for your life.  Clem.  Lagos, 08034747898.

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Thank God for saving your life.  My prayer is that you will not experience accident in your life again.  Lilly, Ilorin, 08039094785.

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Your guardian angel was with you that night at Golden Tulip. Judith. 08136986203.

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The devil has failed again.  You will live long, insha Allah.  Tunde Abdul, 08083731582.

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Your father in heaven is not asleep.  That was the reason idiotic devil lost the fight.  Wishing you quick recovery.  Peter Ogwuma, 08036061691.

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Little things matter.  The glass that caused the domestic accident should be kept in its rightful place.  Blessed Teddy Knorr.  08055800032.

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I cherish you, Dimgba Igwe and Femi Adesina like I cherish myself.  I pray God to protect you from unnecessary accidental occurrences.  Itorobong Umoh, Port Harcourt.

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Bishop Mike, I thank God for sparing your life.  You shall live to be giving us more sermons from Press Clips Pentecostal Church.  I bind every plan of the devil in your life.  Obinna Ukaize, 08033819918.

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Thank God the accident happened in a private hotel.  If it were a government-owned hotel, you would have been left to die in the pool of your blood.  Otozieze Ezillo, 08077528043.

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Always take precautions.  A glass on the ground is a recipe for disaster. Also, a bed switch would have eliminated the need to grope in the dark.  In all, the devil has failed woefully.  Dr. Daniel Egbule, 08068658950.

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Sorry about the Golden Tulip experience and thank God.  Read Isaiah 45 v 7.  Eno, 08037024985.

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Our mentor and boss, I thank God for seeing you through.  You shall not die before your time.  Holy Ghost fire would pursue accident and the devil’s plans away from you.  Nsibiet John, Uyo, 07030721441.

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Truly, the Lord is using your ministry in the PCPC to help me and millions of other suffering and smiling Nigerians to overcome stress, high blood pressure and premature death.  Therefore, He will not abort your ministry.  To God be the glory.  Rev. Uche Promise Nwode, Afikpo, 08034733914.

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Thank God the accident wasn’t too bad.  However,  I wish to advise you check your blood sugar level to rule out diabetes before the accident becomes one too many.  Mrs. Dayo. 0805422844.

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I buy The Sun newspapers at the weekend because of you and Madam Funke.  The devil is a liar for any attempt to make you stop writing.  God will keep you for us to read you for a very long time to come.  08077774091.

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Awwww, just read about your accident now and I must confess I laughed but thank God for your life.  Barrister Chioma, 08036727930.

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Your pathetic and gory narrative reminds me of Michael Jackson’s song, Blood on the Dance floor.  Maybe you will soon release an article called Blood on the Hotel Floor.  Skopio, Nnewi, 08060794482.

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You still have 70 good years to spend on earth with good health.  Henry, 07030964741.

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To all the staff of Golden Tulip you mentioned, God bless you for saving our Press Clips preacher.  Indeed, to God be the glory.  I bind and cast any form of accident in your life.  08025668832.

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May it not happen that a golden journalist like you died in Golden Tulip.  The devil is a liar.  Ajibulu Austin Ayo, 07010020888.

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It is not everything that we should blame the devil for.  It was your carelessness.  Why should you be groping in the dark?  Are you a cat?  Hope you enjoyed the childlike adventure.  Chief Akpobari Nwiyor, Bori Ogoni, 08033004395.

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The devil can plan, plot, conceive or dream anything to hurt you, but I am assuring you that the sun shall not strike you by day, neither the moon by night.  You shall live to fulfill God’s promises in your life.  Kindly accept my sympathies and take good care of yourself.  Ezemuoka Ifeanyi, Onitsha, 08063470959.

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Sorry for the accident.  I pray God to always guide and protect you.  I enjoy your Press Clips.  Please, keep it up.  Noble 08063548233.

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Peace be upon you.  How is work?  I am deaf, by name Abdulbaki.  I don’t have work.  Please, can you help me?  Sorry for your accident, sir.  Abdulbaki, Abuja 08184590848.

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Remember your job exposes you to Satan.  Please, don’t joke with your prayers while your hand is busy with your pen.  Nath, Aba, 08034042968.

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Congrats, sir.  Just reading your testimony and how God saved you from untimely death.  You will live and not die to show forth the glory of God.  May God continue to be with you.  Supo Atobatele, 08023032147.

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Thank God for sparing your life.  I am a member of PCPC.  H.I. Olayemi, 0803602409.

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I thank God you did not bleed to death.  Your ‘twin brother,’ Dimgba Igwe, would have been in trouble by now.  And members of PCPC would have lost their mentor.  God forbid.  Marcus Umunnakwe, Aboh Mbaise, Imo State, 08034091975.

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Even though you walketh through the valley of shadow of death, fear no evil, for God is always by your side.  Emeka Obasi, 08036008817.

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Thank God you are telling this story yourself.  The Good Lord will continue to guard and guide you for you to tell us more soul-searching stories.  Atta, 08052797350.

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If you had died, they would have said: “Ashewo kill you run with your money.”  May God forbid.  After all, the dead don’t talk.  Praise the Lord.  Chief JJ Ibeka, Festac, 07065773998.

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Mike, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.  Thank God for your deliverance.  You will not die but live to fulfill your mission on earth to God and humanity.  Congrats.  PST.  08079733221

The book titled Era of Errors is a letter to the Christian Church in Nigeria where the author points out what he considers ungodly and unchristian practices that are destroying the Christian faith in Nigeria and the whole of the African continent.

“The church is now invaded by false brethren who are armed to the teeth, with falsehood and lies,” he writes.  “Day by day they gain boldness, and break fresh grounds.  They make mockery of the gospel.  Their goal is to make the true word of God scarce.  What would be the fate of the church if the nefarious activities of these people continue?”

In the opinion of Erumaka, the peaceful faith propounded by Jesus has been turned into a wartime religion where the Holy Spirit is now a missile fired to kill and burn perceived enemies. Rather than the religion of love and forgiveness that true Christianity is, what we have today is a religion where the Holy Spirit is sent on a mission to assassinate.  When people go to church to pray, the prayer turns out to be war where the Holy Spirit is incited to go and kill!  But Erumaka says in his Era of Errors that this is an erroneous act that should be stopped.

In a chapter titled “Holy Ghost is not an assassin,” he writes: “The use of ‘Holy Ghost fire’ as a conjecture in prayer has become a great concern to me.  The insult is so grave that the Holy Ghost is sent to do all kinds of dirty jobs in the lives of every perceive enemy.  Some make statements like: ‘Holy Ghost, I permit you to shatter their brains’; ‘Holy Ghost, I command you to destroy them.’  What a command!”

The author continues: “As I travel round the world, I observe that these statements are prevalent in Africa.  But it is gradually spreading as the proponents are planting churches all over the world.”

Beloved members of Press Clips Pentecostal Church (PCPC), today I bring you snippets from Bishop Erumaka’s latest book, “Era of Errors: Rumbling in the Temple” which will be launched on April 9 at Muson Centre, Agip Hall, Lagos.

“The fire-for-fire, and eye-for-eye phenomenon is now the norm.  Forgiveness is eschewed during back-to-sender vigils of hate and acrimony.  The number of tyrants grow in the name of churches.  Here, everybody is considered a suspect.  The older ones are considered witches or wizards outright.

“Laptops-carrying native doctors in designers’ wears are fast taking over the pulpit.  Ex-robbers have exchanged guns for the Bible.  They raise huge money with lying tongues and divide their loot without a modicum of remorse.  At this stage of insanity, one needs to attempt an epistle to institute sanity into Christendom else we shall be swallowed up a sea of wrong doctrines and unfathomable fables.  Where there are no elders, the children eat vulture as chicken.

“As a teaching Apostle, I believe that the next generations of Christians should receive a baton from our present priesthood.  If not better, but a remnant of what the scripture union revival handed over to us from the Holy Spirit.”

Era of Dangerous Prayer

“We are in the era dangerous prayer pattern.  The typical warring stance of Christians contradicts the beatitude, Jesus’ message to us, which represents a model for our behavior, spiritual and relational activities.  This prayer trend has in recent times dominated the psyche and sense of reasoning of Christians.  God’s precept has been jettisoned.  Today, Christianity is practised with incredible hatred and palpable suspicion.  It has stained and saturated our pure hearts with murderous tendencies against those that offend us.  Is forgiveness still part of our Christian virtue?

“This book is just an attempt to address some anomalies in the church.  Therefore, it is not a fix-it-all piece but my modest epistle to the African church.  It is a call to stop the madness to quit money gospel and the wrong map to the incoming generations.”

“The African church today is so much in error with doctrines that promote hatred, cursing and revenge instead of the Christian charity which Christ and the foundation Apostles of our faith taught.  These doctrines have magnified demons, enemies, and have also enhanced suspicion.  It is such that everybody is a now declared a suspect and treated like one.  It is daily being heated up with murderous tendencies such that Christ’s teachings of the beatitudes otherwise called ‘The beautiful attitudes’ as a virtue of Christian living is now considered a weak gospel.  If your emphasis is not on massive and instant destruction of all your enemies via an outpour of imaginary cascading avalanche of ‘Holy Ghost Fire’, you are not considered powerful.

“If you are not insightful in tracing ancestral origins of curses and hindrances, you are considered a weak minister of the gospel.  It is a pitiable gospel of bondage that we now preach.  Such made Paul ask the Galatian brethren, ‘Who bewitched you to have started in the spirit but ended up in the flesh.’  If my freedom will only be gained by how many times I pay and send a liberation team to my village compound, paternal grandparents, and even in-laws homes for my deliverance, then Christ died for nothing.”

Prayer Warriors?

“It is now fashionable to call some people ‘prayer warriors’ based on the assumption that they pray much longer and louder than others.  But, oftentimes, their dispositions do not affirm this impression.  Some of them are irritable, quick-tempered, loquacious, selfish, hateful, self-opinionated, to say the least.  In the religious pride, they extol themselves too highly above others.  These traits are in contrast to what happens in the lives of the holy people who pray.

“People are supposed to be broken at the altar of prayer.  But in the era of error, prayer warriors appear aggressive in all things.  They approach prayer point with a war-like attitude of ‘kill and bury’.  To them, everything is war, no love and no human relational character.  Having observed this anomaly over a period of time, I reached a conclusion that heaven now needs more intercessors than prayer warriors.”

There is nothing like Holy Ghost Fire

Today, Christians “now focus on ‘Holy Ghost Fire’ as a weapon of destruction.  This is an error.  There is nothing like ‘Holy Ghost Fire’ in the Bible let alone its wrong application as per using it for destructive assignments.”

“When Jesus sits at the right hand of the father and looks at the church for whom he died, his heart bleeds because of the state of the believers’ servitude and ignorance.  He sees us fighting a fresh battle and living like refugees in our own land of freedom.  He sees us doing something extra in pursuit of our freedom for which he had paid the price from a foe he defeated and had placed under our feet by virtue of where we are sitting with him in high places.

“Instead of devoting 12 hours of prayer on Satan-related issues, develop your prayer life towards the sound knowledge of God.  It is time to put on the whole armour of God and stand on the liberty wherein Christ has set you free…Beloved, stand and give no place to the devil.”

Conclusion

“This book does not in any way condemn prayer and fasting because I too pray and fast with the right knowledge and motive.  I am not anti-deliverance.  But I lay emphasis on the word that delivers.”  Turn your Bible to Philippians 4:8.

Much as I love Chinua Achebe and his lucid, simple, straightforward and easy to grasp style of narrative; much as I adore him as a literary hero; much as I share his humility and all the values he stood for, I will still not want to die and have the news of my death reported on the day the world is mourning this great man.  There will be time to write my Achebe story, but for now, let me write my own story, how God saved me from a near-fatal accident that could have even been interpreted as suicide in a hotel room.

One look at the deep wound and my doctor, Dr. Balogun of Shefi Hospital, shook his head and said: “You are very lucky.  God has given you a second chance.  If this glass had cut your throat and cut one of the big blood vessels, you would have bled to death.  In 10 minutes, you would have passed out.  And from the way it happened, people would have said you committed suicide.  And the news media would be feasting on your story.”

God forbid!

Me commit suicide?  What for?  I love this life so much that nothing can ever make me commit suicide.  Suicide is for cowards.  I am not a coward.  No matter what is the problem, I believe I have a God who has solution to all problems.  No matter what is the problem, I am ready to wrestle and overcome it.

On his part, my friend, brother and business partner, Dimgba Igwe, shook his head and said: “They would have said I am the one that killed you because there is no way anybody could have understood that this was an accident, freak accident. They would have said I killed you to corner a business.  They would have looked for a conspiracy theory to explain your death.  I know Nigerians.”  Poor Dimgba Igwe!  Poor pastor!

Now the story—what happened, where it happened and how it happened.  Of course, you know who it happened to.  Me!

It was Dimgba Igwe’s idea that we should check into a good hotel, a cozy place we can hide and work hard to complete our project—the biography of a “wonder kid” who will be 50 this year, to cut down on distractions.  To be able to focus on it, avoid distractions and meet our deadline, Dimgba suggested we move into Golden Tulip—a hotel tucked away in Amuwo Odofin in an expansive land, facing Festac, beside a river, which runs through Mile Two into the Atlantic Ocean.  The hotel that used to be called Durbar Hotel, until it was bought over by UAC and transformed into Golden Tulip.  Fine hotel by international and local standards.  True to their motto, which is: “international standards, local flavour.”

For a writer, it’s a near-perfect place to be.  So serene and conducive for anyone to think and write.  We had checked in for one week, from Monday to Sunday, to experiment and see if it was a better option than working at home or office.  I had prayed to God to give me the inspiration to write.  And the anointing was flowing.  But then, the devil struck!  Because the devil doesn’t want anything good.  Because the devil doesn’t want you to prosper.  Because the devil is a cog in the wheel of progress.  Because the devil is the devil is the devil.

On the night of tragedy, I had been writing till about 1a.m.  Not that I was tired.  I just felt I needed to catch sleep to be able to continue writing during the day.  I had drawn the window curtains to shield off rays of light to guarantee I slept well in pitch darkness.  After switching off the light from the entrance to my room, I was finding my way to the bed like a blind man.  I was groping in the dark.  Isn’t writing itself an act of groping in the dark in search of truth?

Like a child, I was enjoying the whole adventure of trying to figure my way to the bed in that total darkness.  But this was not my room.  At least I am familiar with the geography of my room.  This was an unfamiliar territory.  And I paid the price of my misadventure.  All of a sudden, in a split second, I tumbled and went down the ground to hit my head on a hard object.  By the time I got up and went on to switch on the light, I saw a deep cut on my lips and a deeper cut on my jaw which revealed a red guava-like mass of flesh laced with blood.

This is it!  My worst nightmare was unfolding before my eyes.  I wasn’t dreaming.  I wasn’t sleepwalking.  No alcohol.  A glass of water was the last thing I drank before going to be.  Then it happened.    A real-life nightmare!  The kind of thing that makes you daily to recite the Lord’s Prayer to say: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…”

Beloved, I saw blood flowing at the speed of a racing car.  Blood falling like a waterfall.  Blood flowing from my own body, my own vessel.  I was shedding my own blood for my own sins, for my own foolishness.  And Good Friday (and Easter) was just a week away.  I tried to suppress the cut, to stem the blood flow with one of the immaculate white towels in the bathroom.  In the mirror, I was seeing myself in a life-threatening drama of the absurd.  I saw a ghost of myself, my pyjamas splashed in red, red, red blood of a terrible domestic accident.  Towel after towel was soaked in blood.  I went to the scene of the self-inflicted crime and saw a broken glass that must have done the damage.  There it was on the ground, the glass I had previously used in drinking water.  Now, this beautifully crafted glass had turned into a weapon, into a dagger with broken, jagged mouths that almost finished me off.  On the floor was blood, on the bed was blood.  It looked like a perfect murder scene.

It was around 1a.m.  I wanted to hold on till morning when I would go see my doctor.  But the blood kept dripping.  I knew I was playing with death.  I had to dial the hotel’s emergency and they responded instantly like Good Samaritans.  It was so un-Nigerian!  I had to wake my friend Dimgba Igwe, calling his room number and saying: “Ogbeni, it has happened again.”  The last time it happened was when I tripped and fell on the street of Paris, along Champs Elysee, with the same friend, as we returned to our abode then, Hotel Sophitel.  I came home and wrote a piece, “Down and Out in Paris.”  I have had enough accidents in my lifetime to write a book.  But I won’t write that kind of book now.  Not now.  As you read this piece, I pray that you will never have accident of any form in Jesus name.  Whether it is domestic accident or highway accident or air accident or robbery accident, accident is of the devil who has come steal, to kill and to maim.

Beloved, I had been minding my own business not looking for Mr. Devil’s trouble, but he came after me in an unprovoked attack.  I know that accident is not of God, it is of the devil.  Like the new Pope, I ask that you pray for me.  I think I need deliverance from all these accidental attacks from Mr. Devil.  It could have been worse but to God be the glory.

I thank God for sending the Angels of Golden Tulip to the rescue.  They came right at the nick of time to transport me to hospital.  One look at the wound and the nurse, Katherine O. said: “We cannot leave him here till daybreak.  This wound is so deep.  We must take him to hospital for stitching.”  It was 3am, dangerous time to move in the night, but the hotel provided armed security escort. And they took me to Safehands Hospital, the very hospital where Steve Nwosu, the editor of Daily Sun was taken when he was shot in the head by armed robbers who waylaid him on the road and took the money he had just cashed from the bank.  We thank God for life.

I thank the heroic nurse Katherine and her decisiveness that day.  I thank Chief Matron of Golden Tulip, Mrs. O. F. Adewunmi and the whole nursing team who kept checking my blood pressure every time, throughout my stay in the hotel—since I decided to continue my writing and not to bow to the devil’s evil intentions.  I thank John Imafidon, the Chief Security Officer who followed me that night with the two-armed policemen to accompany us.  I thank the Night Manager, Greg, who acted like a good night manager in an emergency.  I thank the general manager, Shousha Mohsen under whose watch these great Nigerians performed their duties nobly and acted as Good Samaritans and Good Nigerians.  I thank my friend, Dimgba Igwe for all the troubles I give him.  Above everything, I thank God for giving me another chance to fulfill my mission on earth.  To God be the glory.

Something tells me you are still around.  I don’t know what is the thing, but I have the sneaky feeling that you are there, somewhere, down there.  In search of you, I went down there where you are supposed to be in Melbourne where the finals of the Australian Opens was taking place, where the two tennis gladiators and archrivals, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic were slugging it out in a titanic struggle in which Djokovic came from behind to beat Murray 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.

On that night in Melbourne, there were fireworks in the night sky.  And I knew it was for you.  Because when heroes die, comets are seen.  You were a hero of our profession.  A hero of journalism.  Sports journalism.  I never believed you were dead, so like that character in Amos Tutuola’s Palm Wine Drinkards, I went out in search of you in the world down under.

Somehow, I was searching for you in the crowd at Melbourne.  I spotted one empty seat there and it reminded me of you.  Perhaps that was your empty seat.  And my mind went to I Samuel 20: 18 where Jonathan said to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty.”

Today, Ayo Ositelu is missed and will always be missed among sports writers and readers alike.  His seat can never be filled.  Because no one reports the way he does.  No sports reporter in Nigeria today reports with the kind of passion Ositelu exhibits in his reporting.  No reporter takes you there to the scene of action as Ositelu would.  He was the eyes and ears of his readers.  And his readers would miss him badly.  I am missing him now.  We both love tennis, boxing and football.  He was a generalist and generalissimo in sports reporting.

But tennis was his niche.  It was his forte.  Nobody loves tennis like he does.  And nobody writes and reports tennis with so much detail, so much colour and so much flair.  Any time there is a new moon and a tennis festival is going on, Ositelu would surely be missed.  He was the last of the great reporters who lived and die to cover the story.

His last major event before his death was when the William Sisters visited Nigeria and he was the compere of one of the shows.  In Ayo’s face you could see joy.  The joy of being with the legendary sisters of tennis.  That is one picture that would forever remain with me as I think about Ayo Ositelu, a legend in his own right.  A journalism legend.  A man who served God and tennis with his heart and soul.  May God find a nice arena for Deacon Ayo ‘Arena’ Ositelu in heaven.  And if they play tennis in heaven, he would be very useful there reporting it just as he reported it on earth.  Didn’t the Good Book say whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven?

Dying Stars

Now, why are all the stars in our firmament dying one after the other?  Why are the stars that made us happy now make us unhappy with their sudden exit?  Why?  It was the young show business lady Goldie, now it’s the old veteran Justus Esiri.  Who next?  I pray that this cycle of death would depart from us.  I pray that our stars would stop dying young.  Shortly after Esiri’s death, I twitted these lines: “All the world is a stage.  And Justus has said his last words and bowed out in the last act that ends the series for Esiri.”

10 Commandments from

Man to Woman

In the days when we were young students at Sekondi College in Ghana, every Saturday night, we used to hit the dance floor.  One of the big hits of those days was a tune by Prince Buster called the 10 Commandments, from Man to Woman.  I was surfing the web shortly after Oscar Pistorious shot his girlfriend when I saw the lyrics of the 10 Commandments. It brought back fond memories of days gone by. Here are the words of the 10 Commandments. And have a lovely weekend:

The ten commandments from man

Given to woman

Through the inspiration of I, Prince Buster

One,

Thou shall have no other man but me

Two,

Though shall not encourage no man to make love to you

Neither kiss or caress you

For I am your man, a very jealous man

And is ready to lay low any other man who may intrude on our love

Three,

Remember to kiss and caress me

Honour and obey me, in my every whim and fancy

Seven days a week and twice on Sundays

Because at no time will I ever be tired 0f I-T “it”

Four,

Honour my name, so that every other woman may honour it also

Five,

Thou shall not provoke me to anger

Or my wrath will descend upon you heavily

Commandment Six,

Thou shall not search my pockets at night

Or annoy me with your hearsays

Commandment Seven,

Thou shall not shout my name in the streets

If I am walking with another woman

But wait intelligently until I come home

Then we can both have it out decently

For I am your man, a funny man

And detest a scandal in public places

Commandment Eight,

Thou shall not drink, or smoke

Nor use profane language

For those bad habits I will not stand for

Nine,

Thou shall not commit adultery

For the world will not hold me guilty if I commit murder

Ten,

Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s dress

Nor her shoes, nor her bureau, nor her bed, nor her hat

Nor anything that’s hers

Neither shall thou call my attention to anything that may be for sale

In any stores, for I will not give thee anything

But what you actually need for your purpose

These are the ten commandments from man

Given to woman

By me, Prince Buster

Green-white-green.  The tri-colours of Nigeria, my country.  The colours of victory.  A victory that has taken so long and so far to come.  A victory that has kept us waiting and waiting.  Heartbreak after heartbreak.  One coach after the other coming and going in quick succession.  Coaches of many colours.  Foreign coaches and local coaches, all changing and interchanging.  Yet no good result.  No victory.  Nothing.

After 19 years of solitude in soccer wilderness, the giant is back again to reclaim our lost throne, to restore our lost title, to regain our lost Paradise, to be the kings of African soccer once again.

Oh, thank you Almighty God, the Father of victory, He in whom we can do all things, because He strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13).  He of whom the Good Book says in Deuteronomy 20:4: “For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against the enemies to give you victory.”

By your divine blessing, Nigeria is back once again and the enemies are green with envy.  They are wondering: How did they do it?  How did they reclaim that which they lost all these years?  Where did they get all these new boys playing as if they are from Brazil?  Where are their old soldiers who used to misfire and we used to beat?

My beloved reader, as you read this piece, my prayer is that you will regain everything that you have lost.  Just as your country has regained its lost glory in soccer, so will you regain you own faded glories in whatever field of endeavour you play in.  Whether it is in business or in marriage or in your education or your health or in any area you have suffered failure, restoration and victory will be yours again, right now in Jesus’ name.  Like the Super Eagles, you will soar once again.  You will fly again.  You will rise again.  You will shine again.  Your name will be heard once again.  Rich men will remember you.  They will reward you.  The Mike Adenugas and the Aliko Dangotes of this world will shower you with dollars in millions, just as they remembered and compensated the Super Eagles for winning the African Nations Cup for Nigeria.

Beloved members of Press Clips Pentecostal Church (PCPC), there is nothing like success.  There is nothing like victory.  You will be victorious today and forever more!  You will never remain hopeless and helpless!  You will never be called useless and good for nothing!  As long as you live, you will do something positive for country for which you will amply be rewarded and honoured with national awards.

Here was a team we never gave any hope of victory.  Not many of us believed that Nigeria of today can win in a competition where there is Cote d’Ivoire, a team of skillful and nimble Elephants led by their fearful captain, a goal-scoring Goliath called Didier Drogba?  But then we have in our camp the God of victory.  He changed our story.  He gave us victory.  Now, we swim in glory!  Somebody shout Hallelujah!

Beloved, there is nothing as sweet as the sound of victory.  That is why I am singing this “Ode to Victory.”  In the world we live in, victory is all that matters.  Victory in all its ramifications.  When you are victorious, the whole world would shout your name and sing your praise.  When you are victorious, people would be jealous of you.  Turn your Bible to I Samuel 18: 6-9.  There is the story of the young David when he slew Goliath and the women of Israel went about singing, dancing, chanting his praises, saying: “Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands.”

And Saul naturally went green with envy, wondering: How can these women ascribe to David tens of thousands but to me they have ascribed only thousands?  That is victory for you!  Thank God, Saul, in his envy and madness, didn’t line up all those women for slaughter!

So, what is victory?  Victory is a goal scored.  Victory is a mission accomplished.  Victory is success.  Victory is prayers answered.  It is overcoming your problems.  It is conquering your enemies.  It is coming out strong and healthy from a very bad situation.  It is passing your exams.  To be victorious is to win, to score, to conquer, to subdue, to accomplish, to pass an examination.  You will be victorious today in Jesus’ name.

Our great man of God Joel Osteen, the Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church, Houston, says victory doesn’t just drop from the sky.  You need to work for it.  You need to plan for it.  “You cannot expect victory and plan for defeat,” he says on Twitter.

After planning, you have to practise and practise and practise.  Practice, they say, makes perfect.  Chris Bradford in The Way of the Warrior puts it this way: “Tomorrow’s victory is today’s practice.”

To be victorious, you need to take some risk, just like Coach Stephen Keshi audaciously went to war with a new set of Super Eagles, featuring home-based players such as Sunday Mba, the striker and the revelation of the African Cup of Nations, the lad whose vital goals gave Nigeria the sweetest victory that is sending us all crazy now.

“Great victory requires great risk,” says Rick Riordan in The Lost Hero.

In a world we live in, nobody associates with failure.  The great American President John F. Kennedy says: “Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan.”

From the accolades heaped on the Super Eagles everywhere, you can see that everybody loves success, everybody wants to be on the winning side, everybody wants to be your father when you are victorious.  Your children will never be orphans to failure in Jesus’ name.

For Winston Churchill, Britain’s war-time leader, victory is a task that must be accomplish at all costs and by all means.  When his country was at the point of annihilation by an evil force called Adolf Hitler, he inspired his countrymen with a speech at the House of Commons in May 13, 1940 saying: “Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.”

Beloved, no matter how rough and tough the battle for survival is, don’t give up, don’t give in.  Don’t surrender to the enemy called failure.  Fight it with all your power and everything in you.  Fight it spiritually, with prayers and fasting.  And with God on your side, you will emerge victorious.

Sometimes you need a strong enemy to motivate you into getting a victory.  In celebrating our victory today as Africa’s soccer champions, we must remember to thank Didier Drogba and the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire in general.  Without a strong opposition that brings you fear and causes you to work extra hard, you cannot attain victory.  A strong opposition is good for you.  It wakes you from your lethargy and complacency.  The bigger the enemy, the harder you work.  Jarod Kintz says: “In a victory speech, I like to thank the opposition, because without their help, I couldn’t have won.”

Beloved countrymen, now that we have found victory once again, what are we going to do with it?  Are we going to guard it and build on it?  Or are we simply going to sleep and let it slip away again?  As we all know, reaching the top is the easiest part.  The toughest part is how to continue to remain at the top.  As the champion, everybody wants your title.  From now on, everybody will be aiming at Nigeria.  Every small team will wake up when playing Nigeria.  We have experienced this before in the last 19 years when we lost our title.  Now that we are kings once again, let us learn from the mistakes of the past that sent us to Siberia and removed us from the top ranks of soccer’s world powers.

Let me end this sermon with a message I tweeted within the week: Green is the colour of victory and the colour of dollars rolling for our jackpot Super Eagles.  Let it roll on!

You can follow me on Twitter @mikeawoyinfa

Against the Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire, I suddenly saw a“new Jerusalem,” a new phoenix emerging from its ashes, a new Super Eagles playing a different brand of soccer that is a delight to watch.

They were taking the ball to Cote D’Ivoire. They were in full control of the field. They were so attack-minded, dictating the pace of the game and forcing the Ivoriens to play their game—the Eagles game I mean.

The Super Eagles in the first half were playing superbly. But I had to exercise caution—what in diplomatic language is called “cautious optimism.” A part of me was telling me Nigeria would win. The other part of me was saying: “This is initial gra gra. It is just a matter of time. Didier Drogba would score and the Elephants would go on rampage, destroying the farm fields of Nigeria.”

But before our very eyes, Nigeria had scored the first goal. Nigeria had done what we thought couldn’t be done. Emenike who had earlier missed a good chance to score the opening goal had redeemed himself with an Exocet missile of a shot that in full flight nearly beheaded Barry, the Ivorien goalkeeper who was wise enough to dodge it, to preserve his life.

Not since Sunday Oliseh’s ballistic missile in the World Cup have I seen a Nigerian goal of this magnitude, with the ball racing at a high velocity, moving at the speed of light, bending and defying the rules of gravity as it entered the empty net of the enemy.

Brethren, as you read this piece, so shall your goals enter your enemy’s net. You will score against all your problems. You will score in the morning. You will score in the evening. You will score even in bed at night when sleeping in the comfort of your room, if you are the type looking for the fruit of the womb. Whatever is your problem, you will score today in Jesus’ name.

Emenike’s goal was one goal that brought me so much joy that I could feel blood gushing into my brain. It is true that football can kill. Whether it is your team scoring or the opponent scoring against your team, football can give you high blood pressure. But I thank God, I don’t suffer from all those Egyptian diseases that cause people to die while watching football.

Beloved, I pray that you will not suffer cardiac arrest while watching the Super Eagles play or while watching football in general. Death in the name of football is not your portion. Football will not kill you. It will not kill your children. Football will not make you faint. It will not make you weary. I know some Nigerians that nearly fainted when Drogba made that swivelling move with a spot kick that earned Cote D’Ivoire an equalizer.

From that point on, Cote D’Ivoire started to dominate. Again, I knew it was a matter of time that Cote D’Ivoire would come to devour Nigeria but happily God proved Himself to be on the side of Nigeria as the home-based boy Sunday Mba netted an impressive goal that nailed the coffin of Cote D’Ivoire.

I feel so happy for Nigeria. I feel very proud for these young men who were initially underrated. Suddenly, the Ivoriens who were sure bets to win the Cup this time round couldn’t find their feet. Thanks to our boys who have proved that in football, statistics don’t win, big names don’t win. The match against Cote D’Ivoire was truly the finals before the finals.

Having subdued the Goliath, the Super Eagles were now confident that they can beat every team that comes their way.

Riding on the crest of optimism, they were served with Mali. And they devoured Mali,“mali-ciously.” One. Two. Three. Four. And the Malians were down with 4 goals to 1.

I feel sorry for the Malians. On one battlefield, Nigeria has sent troops to go and help Mali to recover part of their country from Touareg terrorists. On another battlefield, the same Nigerians are mercilessly walloping the Malians mali-ciously!

Oh, of late, I have never seen the Super Eagles play so good. Under Stephen Keshi, they keep improving and waxing strong as world beaters. The sweetest victory was watching the Eagles overwhelm Cote D’Ivoire with their speed, skill, aggressiveness and pace. Our boys were simply in another galaxy. They brought back the reminiscences of the glory days of the Super Eagles that once ruled Africa as the continent’s No.1 Soccer Giant.

And these were the boys we all didn’t give any chance. These were the boys we underrated. The good thing however is, it is better to have underrated our boys than to overrate them. It is the underrating that obviously propelled them to prove to the doubting Thomases that we all are, that they are good. If underrating the Super Eagles would make them win, then so be it! May we continue to underrate them. As long as it would motivate them to win.

Tomorrow, we would be served with Burkina Faso, a Cinderalla team that has already set a record by reaching the finals of the African Cup of Nations for the first time. For them, they are coming in as underdogs. And that is when the Super Eagles get into trouble—playing a perceived weaker team. Burkina Faso has been impressive in this tournament. Truly, there are no longer minnows in African football. They can spring surprise and cause an upset. In football, anything is possible. That is why football is the beautiful game. Will Nigeria win?

As long as the Eagles remain focused and sustain the momentum that has taken them so far, they would overcome Burkina Faso. Something tells me Nigeria will win tomorrow. And I will stick to that faith. But in football, impossible is nothing!

Watching the Super Eagles beat Cote D’Ivoire was bliss. Watching them maul the Malians was heaven. Now, tomorrow night, the Super Eagles are set to take us to the Seventh Heaven when they win the coveted African Cup far away from home as we did in Tunisia in 1994. We pray that God will hear our prayers and make everything go right for us on Sunday night for us to emerge victorious.

For a change, this country needs good news. We have so long been buffeted and bombarded with bad news every day, every time. We need something to keep us happy as a nation and to inspire us to score higher goals in every field of our national endeavour. Enough of the depression of being scored against all the time.

Stephen Keshi

Tomorrow, if Nigeria wins, it would be double joy for Stephen Keshi, who would have won the African Cup of Nations both as a player and a coach. Keshi has definitely paid his dues as the former coach of Mali and Togo. And it has paid off for him as we all can see. Using his insider knowledge of Mali, it was easy for Nigeria to plan against Mali and win by such a huge margin.

My prayer is that Stephen Keshi will be left alone to do his job without the sword of Damocles hanging around his neck. He is definitely a good coach. Otherwise, we won’t be where we are today. Win or lose tomorrow, I will vote for Keshi to continue in fashioning the new Super Eagles that will lead us to the World Cup in Brazil.

I am happy that Keshi has not allowed pride to sneak into his cranium. When asked whether his new Super Eagles are better than the Super Eagles of 1994, Keshi sounded very diplomatically modest. According to him, the Super Eagles of 1994 were not built overnight. It took about five years to build the team. This is just a brand new team which is in its formative stage. A lot of addition and subtraction still has to be done to arrive at the Dream Team.

Thank you Mr. Keshi for your courage in experimenting with the local lads. Sunday Mba’s goal should be dedicated to you. I am impressed with your leadership style. I am proud of what you have done so far in reshaping the Eagles.

It is good to hear that pride is not taking over Keshi. After all, pride, the Bible says, goes before a fall.

In the beginning, there was the Group of Death. And all those in the group have fallen to death, in the name of pride. But thank God, Nigeria is still alive in the Group of Life.

On Sunday, the Super Eagles would keep our dream alive, as they soar in the night skies, playing good football, scoring good goals and making Nigerians to believe once more in themselves and in their country.