Olabayo, 2023 and Related Matters

EDIFYING ELUCIDATIONS BY Okey Ikechukwu

Is Primate Olabayo of the Evangelical Church of Yahweh talking again about what the future portends for all of us here in Nigeria, especially for our leaders, as we inch forward towards the 2023 general elections? The answer is a resounding YES! “Tremble, Nigerian leaders, for you will soon be overtaken by the judgment of God”, he says. Some two months ago, in June, The Trumpet Newspaper reported him as saying that the blind ambition of our leaders is not allowing them to see “the catastrophic danger” that lies ahead, and of how “innocent blood is crying for vengeance”. He said, then, that he was praying that “God have mercy on our leaders and our land”.

He was also reported, on the same occasion, to have further lamented that “..all these people, who call themselves politicians don’t know about the heavy wrath of God that awaits them. If some of them get to know the great tribulations that await them, some of them might drop their political ambition and look for something else to do. Nigeria has bled enough, due to the recklessness and inhuman activities of most of our political leaders. God is about to punish them now and their collaborators. Sadly, they will be made to pay with so much pain, with some members of their immediate and extended families”.

But that was in June, some months ago. The two questions to ask here, and now, are: (1) Have things changed for the better, since his last pronouncements? And (2) Are the earlier-mentioned cascade of calamities still likely? It would seem that the answer to these questions is, sadly, a yes. Things do not seem to have changed for the better. Matters do not seem to be looking up at all. Have we, particularly our leaders, learnt any lessons and changed in such a way that the feared misfortunes will still be averted? Apparently not.

And Primate Olabayo has spoken again, just a few days ago; this time more pointedly more alarmingly and with greater insistence on the inevitability of what is to come. His latest warmings and predictions revolve around (1) Great confusion and mass unrest that will very likely be occasioned by the bitter suffering of the people and the insensitivity and impunity of the political class; (2) The likelihood of assassinations, particularly political assassinations, sundry acts of murder and deeds of madness due to the ungodly desperation of some politicians; (3) The fact that the 2023 presidential elections may not hold as planned; (4) The possibility that, should the elections hold at all, the winner of that election may  not become president; (5) Insecurity will not abate, as hunger and irresponsible leadership will drive most people into acts of criminality; (6) That Nigeria’s Big Men/Women may soon have no place to hide from what is coming; as it would be extreme exposure for them; (7) That neither the protected neighbourhoods nor even the villages and kindreds will hide anyone who has a hand in what Nigeria is facing today; and, finally, (8) That a genuine leader, who shall truly lead in righteousness and with a firm and just hand, will arise from all of this.

Scary, right? Yes indeed! But should we believe any of these things? Are there reasons why these predictions should be taken seriously, looking around us and the way things are at the moment? In short, does it all sound likely, believable and probably unavoidable? To answer the above questions, let us take recourse to the scriptural injunction: “Come Let us Reason Together”.

It is true that we are all warming up for the 2023 general elections. But will this much-talked-about elections actually hold? If yes, how will the interesting, amusing and, at once, alarming permutations we are seeing everywhere play out? The two major political parties, PDP and APC, are determined to clinch the ticket. This may be at all costs. But, besides clinching the ticket, what is it that they are really offering Nigerians? Hope? Security? New ideas on how to address the suffering of the masses and put the nation on the path to true development? National unity? Equity? What?

And the nascent Labour Party? It has assumed a life of its own in public consciousness. Its commendable people-based visibility is not enough. No; it is not! That political party should endeavour to become a little more organized and projected a clearer, soloution-laden narrative on all key issues. Yes, it has become a movement within and outside the country, but it needs greater cohesion and focus than is apparent at the moment. But back to the broader picture!

All things considered, the general perception today is that the 2023 elections will be a Make-or-Mar election for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And Olabayo, in his latest predictions, fortunately says that we are not likely to have a civil war. That it is in the midst of the variegated gyrations of the Nigerian people, as they come to their wit’s end and can take no more nonsense, that a true leader will emerge. But, back to “reasoning together”.

Will the elections actually hold, including voting in IDPs et al? Will this coming election tender credible outcomes, now that we may find ourselves migrating, inexplicably, from BVAS to manual counting of votes? Assuming that the elections do hold as planned, and a winner emerges, will the person garner the necessary leverage and political firepower to be sworn in and be allowed to rule as president? Can we really answer any of the above questions with certainty? I think not.

Which brings me back to Primate Olabayo and another issue, both of which were discussed on this page on Feb. 14, 2020. The issues in question then were: (1) The prophetic pronouncements and reputation of Primate Theophilus Olabayo and (2) Prophesies in general. The piece under reference was titled “Olabayo and His Enemies”. That article ended thus: “Primate Olabayo has no real enemies, or even detractors. Those who pick on him out of ignorance cannot distract him, or detract from whatever guided pronouncements he is urged to make from time to time. The nation has now travelled too far on the wrong road and does not have enough time to turn back; hence the coming events. Enough said”.

Presumption, one might say, concerning the above paragraph, right? But let us continue. In the above article, the reader’s attention was drawn to the fact that it was Primate Olabayo’s who predicted the imminent demise of the military maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, within days of the incident. As said then: “Theophilus Olabayo granted a newspaper interview on the State of the Nation at the peak of national confusion regarding the way forward. He was so direct and so specific on Abacha’s imminent, immediate and inevitable end that the media owners, fearing for their safety and survival under the repressive regime, simply kept the script aside after the interview.”

Well, they “…rushed to press when, a few days later, Abacha died and was buried. They blazoned the aforementioned headline, explaining in the process that it would have been foolhardy of them to test the will of a government that shuts down newspaper houses at will. That was how readers became aware that Olabayo had made his comments and predictions some 48 hours before Abacha’s last moments.”

The Primate’s many correct predictions over the years are well known. Take, for instance, his correct prediction regarding the June 12 election. He first told the late Chief MKO Abiola not to bother contesting the election, if he valued his life. Reports from various sources still speak of him warning Abiola not to waste his time and enormous wealth on an election that will not give him anything good whatsoever. “You will surely win the election, but you will never be president”, Olabayo is now widely known to have told the business man turned politician.

Lest anyone should now prance forward to say, in protest, that we are engaging in some questionable endeavour here today, listen to what was said here about both predictions and Olabayo generally in the aforementioned article of two years ago: “Some of his detractors, particularly political office holders, have sometimes called him a prophet of doom, based on some predictions they found unpalatable. But many of them get these things terribly wrong. A weatherman who says what the clouds and their portents mean cannot be blamed for a wet village square. A doctor who warns the people to do something to avoid an outbreak of malaria in a water-logged and mosquito-infested area is not, by that very fact, a prophet of doom or a purveyor of bad omens”.

In simple words, prophesies, or insights into what the future portends, based on what people are doing at any particular time, or what they have been doing consistently for a long time, is not new. It is a fact of life, a fact of science, and a fact of history. But, again, it sometimes depends on the scope of one’s understanding of what falls under the term “science”, in the strict and proper sense. Every known science is absolute mystery to those who know nothing, or not enough, about it. Thus, prophesies are real, to the extent that one understands that human capabilities, especially in spiritual matters, are not limited to the banalities of academic learning. But predictions are not always inevitabilities.

As this column said, back then: “Predictions become inevitabilities only when those to whom it is sent as a warning refuse to listen to the warning and mend their ways. Another problem would be if the person, or people, for whom the guidance is intended ignored it until it was too late to avert a disaster. If you are warned about the likely outbreak of malaria and you do not do the needful on time, you will face the “too late.” That is how an avoidable health problem could become an inevitability for you.” Again, enough said!