From: The Preacher
5. Nigeria’s Date with Destiny
A year ago, during our national prayers, concerns were expressed about May 29th, the date designated as Nigeria’s Democracy Day, as bestowed upon the nation by General Abdulsalami Abukakar who was handing over to the civilian government of Olusegun Obasanjo on that date in 1999. Since then, successive presidents and many governors have had their inaugurations on that date, although in 2019 President Muhamadu Buhari had announced the change of Democracy Day from May 29th to June 12th, commemorating when Abiola’s victory at the presidential election had been annulled by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. So, Democracy Day has changed on the calendar, but not the date for inaugurating Nigeria’s successive leaders.
What is the matter with that date? What’s in a date, after all? To answer that, I shall appeal elaborately to Pastor Bosun Emmanuel’s June 1, 2022 letter to the Church in Nigeria. That letter, entitled “Kidnap of Methodist Prelate and Other Christian Leaders: How Did We Get to this Point?” had been largely informed by concerns over the abduction, a few days before, of the head of a foremost church in the history of Christianity in Nigeria, the Prelate of the Methodist Church.
In his epistle, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel saw an ominous significance in the abduction of the Prelate by Islamist terrorists, and in the fact that the church was forced to pay N100,000,000 (a hundred million naira) as a surreptitious jizya – the tax that ‘heathens,’ technically considered second-class citizens in Islamic societies, would usually pay to ‘buy’ their lives in those societies. Most importantly, the writer saw a significance in the date of the abduction of that icon of the Church, on the 29th day of May, that year. He stated as follows: “Those who kidnapped the Methodist Prelate knew what they were doing. They did not pick people at random off the streets. It is not impossible that their diviners had guided them, aided by their unfortunate collaborators in the compromised national security outfits.” He pointed out further that
“The 29th day of May is regarded as the ‘Day of Victory’ in Islam because on that date in 1453, the forces of the Caliphate, under Sultan Mehmed, conquered the city of Constantinople which was at the time considered the capital of Christianity in the East. They then turned Haggia Sophia, the largest Christian Cathedral in the world at that time, into a mosque. That was how Turkey became an Islamic nation.”
Pastor Emmanuel proceeded to show an impressive application to Nigeria’s history:
“In the polity of Nigeria, 29th May has marked very important milestones. It is no accident of calendar. I will mention a few:
“• 29th May 1962 – a state of emergency was declared in the Western Region
• 29th May 1966 – the pogrom against Ibos in northern Nigeria commenced
• 29th May 1999 – the infamous 1999 Constitution was launched
• Nigerians have been made curiously to celebrate 29th May for many years as ‘Democracy Day’
• 29th May 2022 – The Prelate of the foundational Christian denomination in Nigeria was abducted by Fulani jihadists and made to pay jizya before his release.”
Finally, the writer asks, “Could all these have been mere coincidences?” From looking at Herod and Haman, my answer is, No. There comes the perplexing drama that God is working out in the present electoral process and calendar of Nigeria. God has assured us so firmly so often of a New Nigeria, and He is not about to build the new on the cunning time-foundations of the old. He is not about to put His new wine into the old bottles of Haman’s curious dates. Thanks to prayers, thanks to God: May 29th has ceased to be Nigeria’s Democracy Day. It will also be erased as the Inauguration Day for Nigeria’s leaders. That is part of the mystery of the present drama that has fraudulently announced a different person as ‘president-elect,’ who will approach the day but never be, as recurrent prophecies have insisted. Rejoice then, O land. David is coming. There shall be no oil on the head of whom the hand of Ishmael has raised. And he shall go with Haman on Haman’s date, as we look indeed to our historic Independence Day a couple months after. Amen.
Nigeria, watch your Passover in 2023. May it be seven watchful days of fasting and penitence, that Haman’s dates might turn in his own face; that he shall hang in his own gallows on his evil dates during Easter 2023. Amen.
https://everyday.ng/2023/03/whats-in-a-date/
https://everyday.ng/2023/03/whats-in-a-date-2/
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