Remarks At The Student Christian Movement National Biennial Conference In Enugu

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT NATIONAL BIENNIAL CONFERENCE, ENUGU ON 11TH AUGUST, 2018

PROTOCOLS

I was actually invited to speak on a topic that is slightly different from the theme, the theme is: “The High Way of Holiness”, but I was asked to speak on – The Role of the Youth in Nation Building, I think that they are somewhat connected. One of the things I would like to point out is that this conference, the SCM convention, is an important one, an important coming together of young Christians and the coming together is not one to just dance and to enjoy, but one to reflect and to reflect on very important subjects.

I want to congratulate you, just as Dr. Emmanuel did, that your coming together and what it signifies, is very important indeed, all of the various reasons why this coming together is particularly important and I will not go over them.

The other thing I want to say about the Student Christian Movement is that for many of us, it was formative in bringing us to an understanding of what our role should be as Christians. Just as my Lord has said, I was a member of SCM in secondary school at the Igbobi College Yaba Lagos, and I believe that there are so many who might have been members then in secondary school, some later became members in the University.

But it’s important we keep the tradition of the Student Christian Movement, because it is a point where the light of the gospel comes to us in a way that enables us not just to understand, but to propagate it, especially among the most vibrant section of our populace, the young people.

So I will just be speaking for a few minutes on the role of the youth in nation building with a slight twist to it. Let me begin by correcting two wrong or erroneous perspectives; the first is that nation-building is solely the business of political leaders, of course, it’s not.

The second thereon is that young people are leaders of tomorrow and that their role is futuristic. It is clear to me that young people are the leaders of today, not the future, and I do not say that to flatter you, in any event, every day we see that the future is already here in our country.

We see over 60 percent of the population are young people, and in the next few years, we will have under 25, almost 65 percent of our population, how can anyone say that the leadership role of 60 percent is postponed to the future? It is clearly illogical the reason why we make that mistake. It is because we assume that leadership means only political leadership, which is the reason why we make the mistake.

This is a misconception, political leaders in all of our states put together, all of them including political leaders elected and appointed, the Executive and the Legislative, are not up to five thousand persons all across the country, and we have two hundred million people.

So it is very clear that five thousand people cannot lay any claim, certainly not an exclusive claim, to leadership or to being responsible for nation-building. All young people, every young person who is here, every person that has come to a cognitive position, who is capable of understanding, and capable of expressing themselves, is already in a leadership role and must play that leadership role.

There is no excuse for any young person to say that I am waiting to be a leader in the future, already you are a leader now, and the simple reason why you are already a leader is that you already have all that is required. You may not be a political leader, but you are a leader in your own way, as a matter of fact, even our choice of becoming a Christian, your choice of even attending a conference such as this, already means that you are able to take decisions that will not only impact you, but impact your generation, so you are indeed leaders.

The fourth preliminary point that I would like to make is that all young people have a role to play in nation building and this is the most important of all, there is a special role for young Christians, there is a special distinct role for young people who are Christians, they have a special role in transforming the nation.

Young people like yourselves who are Christians, have a role that is superior to the role of any other young person, to transform your nation and to transform this nation.

Let me explain, the great nations of the world were transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, all of the great nations of the world were transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I will explain that.

Historically, we understand that it was the Protestant Reformation that brought about born again Christians. Christians of the period, Christians who were saved, were the ones that brought about the reformation described in history as the Protestant Reformation.

And it is the Protestant Reformation that was responsible for what we know as the Industrial Revolution and the great changes that began to take place after that. So for example, in Europe with the coming of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, everything changed. In fact, if you read about some of the great historians or some of the political economies of the period, if you read philosophers such as Webber or Ashton, they will tell you that it was with the coming of the gospel of Jesus Christ that industrial growth began on the trajectory that from then, on from Europe and later on to America to the prime position that they occupy today.

So we find that there was something about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that transformed nations, so in Europe – England, Germany, Italy and various other countries, there was growth that was experienced with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will explain why it was, would you believe that when the Gospel was taken to American, off course it was taken from England, when it got to America, it was also responsible for transforming that nation, from the coming of the pilgrim fathers to all the iterations of the Evangelical gospel, America was also transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Indeed there was a philosopher called Alex, a French Philosopher, he said something which was quite interesting. He went to America in 1830 and he said: “I went around looking for the new reason why this nation was so great”, he said: “I went everywhere, I looked at their large harbours, I looked at their large roads, I looked everywhere, I couldn’t find a reason until I went to their churches and I heard what was been preached from their pulpits, that was when I recognized why America was a truly great country and why it was great.”

This was not even a Christian, so there is something about the gospel of Jesus Christ that makes a difference in the lives of nations. If the gospel is preached correctly if people understand the gospel correctly if what is preached on the pulpit is the correct gospel of Jesus Christ, it transforms nations, it transforms people and it makes a difference.

Japan was a civilization far ahead of Europe and America, but suddenly Europe and America overtook Japan. The Emperor in 1870 saw what was going on, he sent a mission of 1800 of his best minds to tour Europe and America over a period of 18 months. It was led by a gentleman called Iwakura, you can google that up, it was called the Iwakura Mission, it was made up of Japanese minds who went to Europe and America in search of the reason why Europe and America suddenly had overtaken Japan in terms of development and economic growth.

It was found out that it was the principles of the gospel that was being preached there; ethics, righteousness, integrity, trustworthiness and those principles were emphasized, those principles were taught from the pulpit, not a gospel of mere prosperity, it was not a gospel that tickled peoples’ imagination, it was not a gospel that tickled the fanciness of people, it was a gospel that insisted on self-sacrifice to be made, it was a gospel that insisted that righteousness exalts a nation and that a nation first and foremost, is an individual.

That was the gospel that was being preached which transformed those countries, of course, nobody copies like the Japanese. They copied the principles of the gospel and took the principles back and transformed their own nation by staying adherent to those principles.

Now let’s understand this very clearly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is in two parts; the first part is the eternal life by the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the most important part. But it’s also possible for you to simply adopt the principles of the gospel without even adopting the question of salvation by grace which leads to eternal life. If you adopt the principles, and I will show you in a moment why those principles have worked for every nation if you adopt those principles, the nation would be successful, but if you don’t adopt the eternal life, you would go to hell.

Do you understand that it is entirely possible for a nation to be successful based purely on the observance of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but then for people to fail in the test of eternal life, going by the scriptures.

There is no country of the world today that is successful without adopting the principles contained in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is none whatsoever. Regardless of whatever they say, it is those same principles that are applied everywhere you have successful countries.

When you hear that the gospel is preached, only the gospel of Jesus Christ in the first place, says that it is capable of renewing the mind of the person, of changing a person. So you see in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, where he says – “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things have become new.”

In Romans 12:2, we are told that – “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in order that you may prove what is that good and what is that acceptable and perfect will of God.” So the scriptures show us clearly that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that transforms the minds of people. It is possible for a renewal of the minds of people when they hear the truth of the gospel preached correctly, the mind can be renewed, that is what the gospel tells us.

The second thing about the gospel is that it contains a mandate, a commission, a command to you and me, and to young people in particular because all of the evangelicals of old were very young people including Jesus Christ himself and that principle is contained in Matthew 28:18-20.

I am sure all of us are familiar with this scripture – it says “all power in heaven and on earth have been given to me, go ye therefore and baptize all of the people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all of the things that I have taught you. Know I am with you until the end of the age.” So clearly, there is a command in scripture – Matthew 28:18-20 is a command that we “must go and disciple the nations”. So you and I, the young people must be disciples, and a disciple means to train or coach your community, to coach your people, people around you, we are mandated by scripture to coach, to train, to disciple our communities.

The other mandate is contained in Genesis 1:28, where we were told we must be fruitful, we must multiply, we must subdue the earth, we must have dominion. That is what is contained there, it’s a five-fold mandate contained in Genesis 1: 28, so we must be fruitful but fruitful doesn’t mean just having children, no it is fruitful out of the work of creation, it is innovation, it is technology, it is using what God has given us to multiply, using what God has given us to create within and create more things, to make furniture out of the tree God has created, to think out of the box. That is our mandate, it’s a mandate that we have been given. We have so many of those principles, I’m sure many of us are so familiar with them. I just want to go over it.

In Romans 8:19, we are told that the earnest expectations of the creation await eagerly the revealing of the sons of God. In other words, all of creation is waiting eagerly for you to reveal yourself. The scripture says in Matthew 5:13 – 14, it says that you and I are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world.

That is important, we have been equipped spiritually to transform our nation, and we have been equipped spiritually to change the dynamics of our nation. There is no excitement in anyone telling us that we are leaders because we have been mandated spiritually, we have been given the unction to lead because we are the light, we are the salt in small quantities. As salt, we will make a difference and that’s not because we are special, we are just human, but it is because of what God is, Christ is in us, so He has made us so completely different.

So it is impossible for a child of God to be in a place and not make a difference unless he is not a child of God. Nobody needs to tell a child of God he is a leader, because that is what the scriptures say concerning you, you are already a leader.

The last point I want to make about the gospel is that the scripture tells us that the church as represented by the leadership, as represented by you and I, because the church of the Lord Jesus Christ for you and I today is not just about leaders of the church, but what is called the priesthood of the believer. Today, all of us are priests and this is a new testament.

We are told that the church is the pillar and foundation of truth, 1st Timothy 3:15, the pillar and foundation of truth that is what the church is. So it is for the church to make declarations and rulings, because we have been told that we are the pillar and we are the foundation of truth, which is what the church is.

When you are told you are the pillar and foundation of truth, you must be discerning, you must know what the truth is and you must be anxious at all times to understand the truth. We cannot be misled by what is being said we can’t be misled by social media, it is our duty as Christians, to find out what the real truth is – that is because we are the pillar and foundation of truth.

People expect to hear from us, declarations of the truth, the truth sometimes doesn’t accord with what we like to hear, or what sounds popular that may not be the truth. What sounds many times popular, may not be the truth if you investigate the truth.

So these are some of the principles, but I want to say to you that the reason why the gospel of Jesus Christ transformed nations is because of the principles that the gospel has, but many of those principles are contrarian principles.

And I want you to remember the word “Contrarian”. The word contrarian suggests that the gospel does not accord with your flesh, it doesn’t agree on how you like things to be, it is in fact, exactly opposite to how you want it to be, so how your flesh wants to be is different from what the gospel says.

The reason why the gospel is different from any other religion is because of that contrarian nature. The foolishness of God is wiser than men’s. Scripture says “your ways are not my ways, neither are your thoughts my thoughts, as far as the heaven is from the earth, so are his graces far from yours, so are his thoughts far from yours.”

So the gospel is contrarian, it is completely contrary to the flesh. The scripture says in Galatians 5:17 – “for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.” They are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish, in other words, if you read the gospel and understand the gospel, it must fight your flesh, it must fight how you want to behave, and it is completely different from how you want it to behave.

Let’s take one of the most important principles of the gospel – righteousness. Scripture says righteousness exalts a nation, scripture says, our yes must be yes and our no must be no. We must be men and women of integrity, but look at this question of righteousness well, if you remember the scripture in 2nd Corinthians 7:14, we quote all the time – “if my people who are called by my name, would humble themselves and pray and seek my face”, if you stop there, you would find out that very often, we can pray, we can fast, we can humble ourselves, we can seek the Lord’s face, but one thing we don’t like to do is to go away from the wicked ways! People don’t like turning away from their wicked ways, people don’t like turning away from their sins, they want to behave exactly in the same way and they want to get the rewards.

So the gospel contradicts everything you and I want to be, it says it’s the opposite, so when the scripture says for example, that we must die so that we can live in John 12:23-25, where he speaks about the seed, the seed cannot germinate, cannot bear fruit unless it dies first. There is a dying to the flesh, a painful process of dying through the flesh in order that we must become fruitful as Christians. There is a humbling first, there is a painful self-sacrificial process first, but that as I said, is the nature of the gospel, it is contrarian.

Look at another principle of the gospel, it says that the greatest of us must be the servant of all. It says that in order to be exalted, you must humble yourself. It says you must humble yourself in Matthew 18:4, so there is a process of humbling one’s self-contrary to everything that your flesh agrees with. What our flesh tells us and what we are told, is that we must be assertive, we must be pushed, we must be out there, and that is what we are told. But scripture says that the greatest of us must first be the servant of all, that the greatest of us must first humble himself or herself so that they will be exalted.

Matthew 23:12 also tells us the same thing, whoever exalts himself would be humbled and he who humbles himself, would be exalted. Look at another scripture completely contrarian, it tells us that – “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things would be added.”

So it is not seek first the comfort, it is not seek first the good things of life, it is seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness before everything else would be added. In other words, we are not even supposed to seek things. Today, instead of being fishers of men, we have become fishers of things. When we pray today, it is praying for something that we wish for; a job, a house, a car, some money, plenty of money, those are the things we wish for. But scripture says those are the things that would be added up, the things we are supposed to pursue after is the kingdom and his righteousness, so the gospel is so contrarian.

What can be worse than the gospel that says you must pray for your enemies? In fact, those who persecute you, you must bless them. What can be more contrarian than that? So, what the gospel is saying is that a man at the point of persecution who is being killed, or a person who has watched his family killed, the scripture says you cannot revenge it. It says that you must pray for those enemies, it says that you must bless them.

If you recall, when Stephen was being stoned, in that company was a man called Paul, he was called Saul then, scripture says he was the one who kept the clothes of those who were being stoned, and clothes of all of those engaged in the act, but he was also the one who facilitated it as we were told by himself.

He facilitated this killing of those people by torture of the worse kind. They didn’t know what they were doing. If Stephen had cursed them, God would have honoured that curse, if Stephen had said, God every person that is here, kill them all, God would have honoured the curse, but he would have killed Paul because Paul was there too. But then, Paul was the writer of two-thirds of the New Testament.

Obeying God is contrarian, it’s not a comfortable thing at all. If I am told to carry arms and kill those who are persecuting me that agrees with me, it agrees with my flesh and that is what I would rather do. If someone has killed my brother, I would rather kill him or if I can’t kill him, I will pray that someone else would kill him, that’s what will agree with my flesh.

But the gospel is contrarian, it doesn’t depend on your anger, it doesn’t depend on your anguish, it doesn’t depend on anything that you and I feel, it depends on the power, the anointing that comes with the one who died for all sinners, and who resurrected, and who is God forever more.

That is the reason why the gospel has that power that it has. Let me tell you as I close that everything that the gospel teaches is very difficult, very very difficult. The reason why our nation today remains in a difficult position where we are fighting between good and evil all the time is because righteousness is not evident.

We are not even preaching righteousness, our pulpits are not preaching righteousness. Very rarely do you hear from our pulpit, the condemnation of corruption, very rarely do you hear that corruption is being called out? It’s very rare to see that corrupt people are called out, that they are ostracized even in our churches, very rare, yet it is righteousness that will exalt a nation, if a nation is not righteous, we can argue from here till eternity.

Nothing will change the principles of scriptures, they are irrevocable, completely irrevocable so, when a nation carries on systemic corruption the way that Nigeria accepts systemic corruption, the reason why we say corruption is systemic is because that is the rule in our land, corruption is systemic, it is everywhere, in every institution, so if you challenge corruption, as you must, because that is what you are called to do, that is why you are called the salt and the light, if you challenge it, you will be in the minority, you will be swimming against the current.

That is why the gospel is contrarian, if you cannot challenge corruption and you young people, if I don’t see you up on social media condemning those who are stealing or those who have stolen the resources of the state, standing up to say I condemn you, then you are not going to change anything. You can call yourselves leaders from now till eternity, nothing will change, you will have the same country as you have today.

We can make a difference and you young people can make a difference, you can make a world of difference, but it must be the true gospel, a gospel that is contrarian, a gospel that challenges you, not a gospel that feeds your fancy, not the one that feeds the way you feel, no! Not an exciting gospel, it’s a gospel that calls for sacrifice. I was saying earlier on in the day that in our country today, we have been fighting against corruption, all we have been able to resolve is what is called Grand Corruption.

Grand corruption is when the President or somebody in authority, signs off and takes money directly from the treasury, takes money directly from the Central Bank and shares it and spends it that is grand corruption. Someone takes 100 billion, 60 billion, several millions of dollars and shares it that is grand corruption. That was what was taking place in this country, they didn’t do anything, so it was difficult even when we were earning large sums of money, for us to do anything because large sums of money were stolen.

We have not even come to the point of tackling corruption at the level of contracts, all we are dealing with at the moment is grand corruption, stealing directly from the treasury. So that is why if you deal with corruption, you’re at least able to save resources to invest more in capital spending. We have invested the highest in capital spending more than ever been invested in the history of the country despite earning 60 percent less. The future of our country depends on whether you and I, regardless of political party affiliation, and I’m talking to young people, but you and I recognize that our role first and foremost as Christians in order that we preserve this nation for ourselves, and for generations yet to come, to check the impurity of stealing the resources of the Land. If we are not able to do so, then we have lost it.

We have completely lost it no matter what they say, but if you young people, rise up to your position as leaders, and say, we will not tolerate the stealing of resources because that is the major problem our country, everything else is affected by it. Don’t be misled, there are those who would say it’s a problem between Muslims and Christians, don’t believe any of that. The church is the pillar and foundation of truth, understand truth first, it’s not about Muslims and Christians.

Let me explain why that is not the case, every day I read a charge sheet of persons who have stolen resources – charge sheet is where the counts against somebody who has stolen money or done something bad, I have never come across one where there were only Muslims, I have never come across one where there were only Christians, you would find one Christian, two Muslims, one Muslim, two Christians, that is how you will find it, equal representation, that is what you will get.

I am talking about Federal Government, where not only Christians were stealing or where not only Muslims were stealing, they all worked together. They work together as brothers and sisters, there is complete unity amongst them and let me tell you what it’s not, it’s not about ethnicity; it’s not about South-south, Southeast, forget that. When people are stealing the resources, you will find equal representation, you will find one man from the Northwest, one from Southeast, one from Northcentral that is what you will find. And they work closely together, you will never find them arguing, and they pray for each other even so that their enterprise will be successful, that is what you get.

Don’t ever let anybody mislead you, young people you must understand the truth, don’t let anybody mislead you about ethnicity. Our problem is not ethnicity, the common man in Nigeria today has the same problem everywhere – it is a problem of hunger, it’s a problem of food on the table, it’s a problem of being able to educate our children that is a common man’s problem.

Whether the common man is in Daura or he is here in Enugu, the problems are the same, but there is an elite in our country, they cut across everywhere and they will steal the resources of a country when they want to be elected into office. They start reminding everybody, it’s the turn of the Southwest, it’s the turn of Southeast and all of that, don’t ever be deceived by that, it is not the story of our country at all, and I can tell you from experience, I know that’s not the story of our country.

The story of our country is a struggle between good and evil, there are evil men everywhere, and there are good people everywhere. You find good people in the Northwest, good people in the Southeast, you will find good people everywhere and then you will find terrible people as well, and all of them work together, let the good people work together, you guys who are gathered here from across the nation.

Don’t let anyone divide us on basis of ethnicity, let us come together for the good of this nation, that is what the gospel teaches us, that neither Greek nor Jew, nor slave nor free man amongst us, let us recognize unity for what it is. Someone may challenge you that the Student Christian Movement must be a movement for righteousness, it must be a movement to move this country forward, do not allow yourselves to be dragged into the kind of funny tricks of people who are deceiving the nation.

Understand clearly that our country can be delivered by people like you and it doesn’t take everybody, which is why you are the salt. Scripture says you are the salt of the earth, small numbers can make a huge difference!

God bless you all, thank you.