The Bible Society Of Nigeria 2022 Leadership Summit On 10/03/2022

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SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE BIBLE SOCIETY OF NIGERIA 2022 LEADERSHIP SUMMIT THEMED: THE HOLY BIBLE: OUR RELIABLE FOUNDATION FOR MAXIMISING PERSONAL AND NATIONAL WELL-BEING, IN LAGOS ON THE 10TH OF MARCH, 2022

 

 

PROTOCOLS

 

Let me start by acknowledging the great work that has been done by Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) since its inception in 1966 under the pioneering efforts of the late Dr. Francis Ezeogo Akanu Ibiam, the first indigenous Governor of the defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria.

 

The translation of the Full Bible into 26 Nigerian languages with 10 ongoing translation projects, the New Testament has been translated into 60 local languages, while some individual books of the bible have been translated into 98 languages.

 

The BSN is the first Bible Society in Africa to build a deaf translation centre and that centre has already translated 145 stories of the Bible into Nigerian Sign language. We are told the centre is very active and has been doing a lot of great work. The Bible Society of Nigeria, we are told, is the highest distributor of the English Bible in all the United Bible Societies.

 

The translation of the Igala Language Bible in 11 years accorded you the honour of being the fastest translation Society among the United Bible Societies, but as we have heard, in 2021, you broke your own record on the Igala Bible Translation by completing the Okun language Bible Translation in 6years.

 

But perhaps most importantly, the BSN provides effective church support through the outreach programmes for the people in the hinterlands and Bible resources needed for evangelism. This is the most important work that is done.

 

These are impressive achievements indeed but as we have heard from several leaders of the Bible Society, there is still much ground to cover. With over five hundred (500) languages and dialects in Nigeria, it is still only a fraction of this number and currently, most people do not have the complete Bible in their local tongues.

 

More than half of these languages have not had a single verse of Scripture translated for them. This automatically places the Scriptures out of reach for a large percentage of Nigerians who do not possess formal education.

 

Now, if so many of our people do not have direct and easy access to the Scriptures, how will they derive maximum benefit from their salvation?  And there is great benefit in the Word of God, which leads to the theme of this meeting: “The Holy Bible: Our Reliable Foundation for Maximising Personal and National Well-Being.”

 

I must say that this is a most audacious assertion but the good thing is that it is true, the gospel is the reliable structure on which personal and National development can truly be founded. There is no developed civilization that has not benefitted from the gospel of Jesus’ Christ in its development. Recent history shows how the gospel of Jesus Christ has transformed societies.

 

The Protestant Reformation shows us that when believers like you and me, those in Europe, America and later Asia, changed their world by observing the principles of Scripture in their everyday lives. Some of the best writers of the subject like T.S Ashton, Max Weber, for example, all agree that the industrial revolution and the prosperity of the west benefitted greatly from the observance of the principles of the gospel, especially through the way the puritans preached and practised the gospel – the strict observance of gospel principles especially righteous behaviour was so crucial. Proverbs 14:34 says “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”

 

 

The principle was applied to the individual because when you hear righteousness exalts a nation, we are thinking in terms of multitudes of people but a nation is actually a person. God speaking to Abraham in Genesis 12.2(a) said “I will make you a great nation.”

 

For those who practised these principles like the Puritans, for instance, integrity was crucial in all things. Matthew 5:37 says “let your yes be yes, and your no be no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”

 

Honesty, forthrightness and trustworthiness in business and our social interactions in business, respect for credit and obligations was key. If you borrowed you had to repay. After all, the scripture in Psalm 37.21 says “the wicked borrows and does not repay.” The diligence with which believers worked in factories and offices led to the description of hard work, diligence, service and integrity as the puritanical work ethic. There is much to be said of the impact the gospel of Jesus Christ made in transforming those societies.

 

The principle of the gospel in relation to service is that the greatest leader is actually the servant. The leader must be prepared to be the servant of all. Mark 10:43-45 says: “Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

 

The example of Jesus Christ in Scripture is that of a servant leader – the one who came to die for us all. The concept of servant leadership was and has always been a major pillar of Christian teachings on leadership and was crucial in developing the notions of responsibility in governance in many societies.

 

The influence of the gospel transformed Europe and America but also Asia. When you look at history, it was evident that something incredible was happening in the West, and the Asians were looking at what was happening there. Don’t forget that Asian civilizations were long established before Western civilizations. All of a sudden, especially after the Protestant Reformation, it became clear that the Asians were stagnating and the West was developing at a rapid pace.

 

Alex de Tocqueville, the French philosopher, who captured what he saw in America said “sought for the greatness in her (America) fertile fields and boundless prairies, and was not there; in her rich mines and vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”

 

It was so evident to someone like him (Tocqueville) that the impact of the Word of God on society could only be discovered when he went to the churches and heard the full gospel of Jesus Christ being preached.

 

But it is important to remember that these same principles influenced the development of older civilizations whose growth had stagnated and who then watched Western societies overtake them.

 

Let me explain how Emperor Meiji of Japan in 1871, (within three years of the Meiji restoration) having observed the phenomenal progress of the West, decided to send a mission to the UK and America to discover how they did it.

 

The mission became known as the Iwakura mission and it was led by Prince Iwakura Tomomi. It was a team of statesmen, scholars, administrators and students totalling 108, including 50 students. Many were left behind to study. They studied these principles that made Western societies so great within such a short time frame and the Japanese copied and applied those principles (righteousness, integrity, diligence) in their own societies. Later, the Chinese copied them too.

 

The Japanese did not take all of the principles of the gospel because if they did, they would also have taken salvation. Don’t forget that there are two aspects of the gospel; one is the gospel can transform societies just by following the principles but the second and most important part of the gospel is salvation by grace which assures us of eternal life.

 

This is why the command to us as Christians is so crucial in Matthew 28:18-20 “Go ye therefore and (teach) make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age.” This is why the Bible Society of Nigeria is so crucial because you cannot teach or spread the Word of God without the Word of God! That’s why we have to have the Bible in every possible translation.

 

But the gospel is not a great book of philosophy or sound wisdom nor is it meant to present a religion. Religion is a belief system usually undergirded by rules and regulations and approved systems of worship.

 

The gospel is the message of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, taking upon Himself the sins of the world, substituting His own sinlessness for our own sinfulness and giving us His righteousness so that we can then be acceptable to a Holy God, and we can then become true children of God who inherit eternal life.

 

It really is a gospel of love and at the heart of the gospel is the love of everybody which is why the gospel is somewhat contrarian. It tells you to do the opposite of what your flesh or human senses tell you to do. The most fundamental, love your enemies- Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (This can be difficult especially when you find practical demonstrations of hatred in society).

 

But that is what the Word of God is and that is what we are called upon to present to the world – a world that is full of division and conflicts of various kinds, we are meant to present a gospel that says we must love our enemies and pray for those who curse us because that is the essence of Jesus Christ.

 

I would want to urge us, especially in preaching the Word of God in our society, we must get to the heart of the matter because the only thing that separates us from many other belief systems is that there is a plan for salvation and that is by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Because of that sacrifice, you and I need not pay anything else. It has given us grace and we will get to heaven not by personal effort, not by anything we have done or we will do but just by accepting Christ as our personal Lord and saviour.

 

I think it is important that we keep emphasizing that the Word of God is not about religion but it is about the love of Jesus Christ.

 

I would want to add to all that has been said so far, this Word of God must find its way into the hearts of men but it must do so first by finding its way into their hands. We must be able to get the Bible across to people all over the world and that is up to us.

 

We must actively and aggressively find the resources for the printing and distribution of the Word of God.

 

Technology will be a great help, and we can crowdfund. The Bible Society’s website can have a page dedicated to those who want to contribute towards printing and the translation of the Bible. We can even have an app, do a competition, you wouldn’t believe the number of young men and women who are writing all sorts of apps. If we are to tell young people that there’s a big competition to translate the Bible from English to a particular language, you would not believe what is possible. Today with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, I’m sure that we can do these translations in less than 6 years, maybe less than a year or 2 years.

 

I certainly look forward to a partnership with the Bible Society of Nigeria and I hope that in the coming years, we would move faster than we have moved in the past 100 years or so.

 

Thank you so much and God bless you.