VP Osinbajo Attends Rev. Konyin Ajayi’s Book Launch Titled: “Musings By A Precant” At Terra Kulture, Lagos On 18/12/2022

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE BOOK LAUNCH OF REV. KONYIN AJAYI, SAN, TITLED “MUSINGS OF A PRECANT” AT TERRA CULTURE, LAGOS ON THE 18TH OF DECEMBER, 2022

 

 

PROTOCOLS

 

 

God has a sense of humour and He must find each and every one of us very amusing in our different ways, after-all he sees the beginning from the end so He already knows everything.

 

When the apostle Paul was studying law and jurisprudence under Gamaliel, (one of the best-known teachers of his generation), and later became one of the best-known expositors of Jewish doctrine and laws, and later its most famous enforcer, and a persecutor of all those perceived to oppose Jewish laws and doctrines, little did he know then that he was being prepared not just to be a great scholar of Judaism, but he was to become the most prolific purveyor of the gospel of Jesus Christ, writer of 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament.

 

So it was that when Konyin was going through the elite education he had first at Ife, top of his class in the Faculty of Law, then Harvard -LLM and a PhD from Cambridge studying law, then partner in one of the foremost legal practices in Nigeria, becoming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and then a Professor of Law, writing several learned articles and books. In fact, he started writing law books early, he was probably under 25 when he wrote his first legal text, and he and I collaborated on a number of legal academic works years ago.

 

Like Paul, God knew all along, that with all his great legal knowledge, great writing skills, great power of expression and the deployment of faultless logic, he was preparing him to propagate the gospel by the writing of important theological works.

 

But even more interestingly, little did he know that he would be operating under the prophetic command of Jesus Christ in John 14:12 where he said “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

 

In other words, Christ was saying that those who come after Him, who believe in Him, will far exceed even what He -Jesus did. That they will do greater works, whether it is in the working of miracles they would do more, or in evangelism, they would reach more souls for Christ and in the preaching and copious expositions of the gospel, they will do even more than Christ Himself.

 

So, in all Jesus spoke 31,247 words as recorded in the Bible, and Paul wrote 184,000 words. Konyin in this work alone, “Musings of a Precant” has 308,074 words. If you add the words he wrote in his other theological works: “Musings of a Pilgrim” 380,000 words, “Musings of an Ordinand” 295,020 words, “Musings of a Parson” 321,840 words, and in total, he has written a total of 1,304,914 words so far.

 

Jesus spoke 31, 247 words, Paul 184,000, and Konyin 1,304,914 words so far! Greater works indeed because Christ said those coming after will do great works. By the way, the entire King James version of the bible contains 783,137 words. Konyin has already exceeded all of the words in the KJV bible.

 

One more parallel is to be drawn with Paul and Konyin.

 

Peter said of Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3:15-16:

“15. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.”

 

In verse 16, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction.”

 

So Peter who was not as learned as Paul said “hmm, this man writes some things that are difficult to understand, but he writes from the wisdom that God has given him.” So, when I saw the title of the book the Musings of a Precant, I like Peter said, “haba, this man uses some words hard to understand.” So, I immediately resorted to my online dictionary only to discover that precant is another word for a person who prays!

 

Three things on prayer before I present the book, the first is that it is a mystery, that is, God who can do all things insists that we must bring our requests to Him in prayer. He likes to hear from His children so when He says to pray without ceasing, all he is saying is to be in touch always. So we must pray even when we don’t feel like it

 

The second point is that the prayer of the Christian is different from any other. It is prayer in the name of Jesus. Why? Because the Christian is one who believes that Christ died for his or her sins, past, present and future, and He paid the price of sin by death and shame on the cross.

 

When God sees the Christian, He does not see a sinner, He sees His son Jesus, who is completely clean and righteous. So, when we pray even if the devil tries to remind us that we have just done wrong, we can rest in the assurance that all that God sees is the righteousness of Jesus. We are free from condemnation, which is why Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

 

When we pray in the name of Jesus, we remind Him of the covenant of the complete forgiveness of sin, and salvation by grace alone not by works.

 

The third and final point is that God is interested in all matters concerning us no matter how small or mundane we consider them to be.

 

I will tell you a story. Many years ago, I lost my passport, I had been travelling quite a bit at the time, and I had travelled to South Africa and on my return, my passport was stolen at the airport. I looked everywhere and tried everything and I couldn’t find it. At the time, I was the protocol officer for Pastor E. A. Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Eventually, I ended up with a group of people who told me they could find my passport in Oluwole. We sent people to Oluwole, and they said that if they could find the passport, it would cost me N400,000 and at the time, I didn’t even have N40,000!

 

One of the days when Pastor Adeboye was travelling, I went to take his bags and check in him at the airport, and seat with him until he was ready to travel. Just as I got to his house, I told him that my passport was stolen. He asked how it happened and I told him it must have been stolen when I got back. He asked for how long to which I replied that it was about 3 months ago. He then said to me that “do you know that if you pray, you can get your passport back?” He said, “do you believe that if we pray, you can get it back?” I said, “yes sir, I believe.” (But of course, I didn’t believe it).  (General Laughter). He then prayed and said, “by the grace of God, you will get your passport back.”

 

Less than 10 days after that, the person who stole my passport brought it back to me. A week or so later, I went back to see Pastor Adeboye, and I said the person who stole my passport brought it back. He said to me, “professor, so you didn’t believe when we prayed that you would get it back?”  (General Laughter). The truth of the matter is that God is able to do all things.

 

 

So, let me pray for you. I pray in the name of Jesus that in this season of the birth of Jesus Christ, the birth of grace, you will receive a gift from God that will cause you to say “only the grace of God could have given me this” in Jesus’ name. Amen

 

The second prayer is that the year 2023 will be your best year yet in Jesus’ name. Amen

 

It is now my special pleasure and privilege to officially present the Musings of a Precant by the very Rev. Prof. Konyin Ajayi, SAN for benefit of all mankind and to the glory of God.