Apostle Suleman As A Superman!

The unprecedented insecurity ravaging Nigeria has visited almost every nook and cranny of the federation, the rich and the poor. Even the President himself had been threatened openly with abduction! The terrorists are emboldened daily by the apparent non-chalant aloof attitude of those whose responsibility it is to bring them to book. His state, Katsina, has had its fair share of insecurity and instability. Like other parts of the country, east and west, north and south, security challenges are increasing on a daily basis.

Governor Aminu Masari is overwhelmed by the resurgence of attacks against the law-abiding citizens of the state. He had cried publicly on some occasions and proffered solution of arming folks to defend themselves against terrorists and bandits on the prowl on the others. Yet what had always been missing remained the concrete solution to the insecurity question. Is it linked to poverty? Or are the terrorists ‘encouraged’ to continue because those that had surrendered their lethal weapons were treated with ‘honour’?

Would the establishment of the state police and local policing mechanism not help in taming the security challenges? Why not give it a trial and compare and contrast? Why must one super-cop, an IGP operating from Abuja who does not know where Ihiala, my beloved homeland, is located in Anambra State, command and control the police force in Nigeria?

Buhari’s presidential convoy once suffered a heinous attack in the state with casualties recorded as an advance security team headed to Daura. If the home state of a President is so threatened then what becomes of Ihiala or Otuoke in Bayelsa State? That simply tells you that no one is safe anywhere, not even those living in Abuja!

If Kuje Prison in the ‘impregnable’ federal capital territory could be attacked with thousands of inmates liberated, if a train could be attacked kidnapping many folks travelling then that tells you that Buhari has failed his primary duty of ensuring the safety of lives and properties of Nigerians.

The intractable chaos and anarchy in the land has reached a critical deadly point that a state of emergency declaration could be advocated for. The security agents are, of course, doing their best to nip the gory trend in the bud but their best is not good enough. The national security architecture ought to have been tinkered with but for a President who believes in the superiority of his Hausa/Fulani tribe nothing could justify the rejigging of the federal security departments.

Recently, the popular General Overseer of Auchi-based Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman, escaped an audacious assassination attempt on his life. He survived it by the whiskers (and the grace of God?) but no fewer than seven security personnel and aides laid dead as the smoke cleared! The attack happened on Warake Road close to Auchi, Edo State.

Before the Suleman brutal attack occurred Senator Ifeanyi Uba, travelling to his village, was nearly killed in his home state of Anambra! His aides and security details fell to the assassins’ bullet.

While his customized bullet-proof car saved him from mortal grief Suleman must have equally been saved by the same sophisticated automobile type. In a rich but poor country the elite would do anything (including buying the state-of-the-art exorbitant vehicles) to protect themselves leaving the rest of us exposed to daily massacres.

Like the Omega ‘Man of God’ Senator Uba is controversial because of his stance on Biafra. Even Suleman had once incurred the wrath of the Biafran agitators for a reckless remark he made against the Igbos. So, both men have outstanding issues to settle with the separatists. And they stand accused of manifesting certain anti-Biafra sentiments!

Yet by saying the foregoing we are not implying here that IPOB, ESN or the Biafran agitators were behind the assault on the senior citizens. Hell no! The attacks could be linked to political or pentecostal rivalries, controversies or opposition.

In Nigeria politics, much like the lucrative business of pentecostalism, the quest for the illicit acquisition of filthy lucre, could lead to delivery of low blows and criminality. The devil, (rather than God), therefore, is always in the detail! God is not involved in any controversy; He is Omnipotently anti-capitalism and pro-egalitarianism. Therefore, He cannot possibly sanction any blood-letting, corruption or mundane riches.

Apostle Suleman, following the survival of the assailants’ bullet, had been boasting of his godliness. He claimed no one could kill him because he was “a man of God”! Well, he could be one but by their fruit we shall know them, the Good Book had counselled us! Whether he is called and chosen is none of our business.

One was surprised that the arrogant Apostle never went the whole hog by naming those he claimed were behind his failed assassination. He never blamed his former mistress, Ms Stephanie Otobo, either!

One of his alleged attackers caught by the local Vigilante team was reportedly extra-judicially murdered by the police when he was handed over to them. Suleman himself was said not to have visited the families of the slain aides and security escort.

Apostle Suleman may have compared himself to a superman wittingly or unwittingly but we hold that it was not his piety or holiness or the man-of-God trash that saved him. He was lucky and smart enough to know the kind of country he is living in! Hence his acquisition of a great car capable of withstanding bullets.

If an assassin’s bullet could hit and pierce the abdomen of the late Pope John Paul 11, His Holiness, then Apostle Suleman is a nonentity to be telling us about his spiritual prowess! Like Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu who was hit multiple times by assassins but the bullets failed to penetrate his fortified body Suleman could be that invincible. But we can never know unless and until some hot bullets are pumped into his system!

Perhaps, God must have intervened to save his life. The same God is now asking the Omega Apostle to do a thorough soul-searching by learning from his ugly past and focusing more on evangelism and salvation of humanity. He must commiserate with his fallen bodyguards and aides.

Rather than regaling us about his adulterous lifestyle, his wealth and acquisition of private jets (even during the Coronavirus pandemic!) he must sit up and do the work he claimed he was called to do.

However, on a more serious note, we applaud Apostle Suleman’s superman posturing. The truth of the matter is that if he is indeed a man of God as he claimed then a spiritual intervention from the heavenly hosts (or better still, their intervention in the natural affairs of men, otherwise called miracle) would have since happened by way of answered supplications in our ruined national life.

Let the randy Apostle go down on his knees and beseech the Most High to intervene mightily and save our troubled nation from the terror whims and caprices of our tormentors. Above all, he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.

Let him, therefore, purge himself of his pseudo messianic posture. And refrain from carnal scandals and mundane controversies.

He is not a superman after all!

 

SOC Okenwa

soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr

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