AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu Last Sunday, November 28, 2021, Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s sermon was titled, “Going Higher”. Quoting from Exodus 17:8-23, the revered man of God told the story of the battle between the children of Israel and the Amalekites in Rephidim. While Joshua led the army of Israel into battle in the valley below, Moses, together with Aaron and Hur, went up a nearby hill overlooking the battlefield below. As the fight raged on below, Moses held up his hands. As long as the hands of Moses were raised, the battle went Israel’s way. Whenever his hands came down, the Amalekites gained upper hands. At a point Moses hands became too heavy, and he could no longer keep them up by himself. So, his two companions got a stone, sat him down, and they helped keep Moses’ hands up until the battle came to an end. And the children of Israel prevailed in battle that day. This story, the GO says, is a demonstration of the importance of going to the mountaintop to pray, because up there you are closer t

By Akin Ojumu In the nomenclature of the Coronavirus variants, we are almost two-third of the way down the Greek alphabet. The Omicron is the latest variant of concern making its way through the nations of the world. As of today, there have been 163 cases detected across multiple countries but it is still predominantly found in South Africa. With such a few number of cases detected to date, the panic of the new variant seems to be spreading much faster than the variant itself. Since its first discovery in South Africa, travel bans have been instituted around the world. Alarmed that Omicron will lead to a resurgence of cases of COVID-19 in their countries, governments of wealthy nations have shut their borders to non-citizens coming from the Omicron hotspots of Africa.  Rightly or wrongly, these travel bans have been decried as discriminatory and borderline racist in some quarters because they target mostly poor nations with the lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccination to begin with. The lo

By Akin Ojumu Wealth, health, leadership, success, deliverance, destiny, and dimensions. That encapsulates the prevailing message of most modern-day preachers. It is the addictive LSD of professional pulpitism and the intoxicant of the high priests of mammonism. These are the addiction inducing psychedelics that modern-day preachers peddle to their hapless listeners. The drug pushers pumped their victims with loads and loads of the addictive drugs at every encounter and at every gathering. Within a short period of time, the victims get hooked for life on the LSD of earthly cravings while the professional pulpitineers become extraordinarily rich, living large at the expense of their zoned-out customers. Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, one of the foremost kingpins of the drug trade, took to the stage at the recently concluded 2021 Annual Convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, to give out free samples of the dangerous narcotics. Without wasting time or mincing words, the High Prie

By Akin Ojumu Books are comprised of words and the novels we read are built from the layering of bricks of the words we speak. The original words may have either been spoken and then transcribed or written down directly. Either way, books are still words – a compilation of words on paper. Any book you pick up to read is nothing but the words of the author, methodically organized on paper. But guess what? Authors aren’t the only ones rich in words. When it comes to words, there are no paupers or wordinaires . There’s an abundance of words around and we all have words. They effortlessly pour out of our mouths every second of the day. There are so many things that are beyond our reach, words aren’t one of them. The air we breathe is so thick with words, we can choke on them.  Here are some statistics that illustrate the abundance of words at our disposal. An average man speaks between 10,000 to 25,000 words a day. Whereas, in a day, a woman speaks an average of 15,000 to 30,000 words. In

By Akin Ojumu There’s something fundamentally wrong with a minister of the Gospel who, while standing on the pulpit of righteousness, tells the congregation: “Money has sustained you up till now. Without money you have no life. So, anybody who tells you money is not important is either the person is totally ignorant or absolutely mischievous. Because, without it there is no life. That is why, anytime you deal with money, you would provoke something.”  – Mensa Otabil. To utter such profound words in a House of worship of the Almighty God, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, is preposterous. For a seasoned Christian leader to make such an emphatic declaration on the altar of He who is the sustainer of all things, to whom belong every beast of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills, is a dangerous thing, to say the least.  The sentiment conveyed in those remarks is totally alien to the true Gospel. Such a view of life and money is foreign to the Scripture and contrary the Messag

By Akin Ojumu Some read my soliloquies about the state of the Christian Church and go, “Akin, let these pastors be. It is God that called them, and it is God they are answerable to. Just leave them to God to deal with. All that is required of you is to pray for them. It is more important to pray for them.”  These feedbacks often come from a good place and are greatly appreciated. I get it. People don't like to rock the boat. Challenging leaders, especially faith leaders, is sacrilegious and culturally a no-go area for many, even though lobbying criticisms at, and attacking, political leaders for their indiscretions is considered fair game. However, these are not sentiments to which I subscribe. This live and let live attitude is a gross trivialization of the fierce battle in which the Church of God finds itself. Such a thinking vastly underestimates the seriousness of the situation that confronts the Ecclesia. Having such a mindset about the precarious condition of the Church is, i

By Akin Ojumu Wonders shall never cease. When you thought you’ve seen it all, something else happens that jolts you back to reality and reminds you that you ain’t seen nothing yet. Bishop (Dr) Abraham Chigbundu is a deliverance minister – a self-styled deliverance apostle. He is the presiding Bishop of Voice of Freedom Ministries International, headquartered in the Government Residential Area, Benin City, Nigeria.  I knew him from way back when I was still pretty young in the faith as a Christian student on the campus of the University of Benin, Benin City. As a member of the Christian Union Fellowship then, this man was a frequent guest minister to the fellowship. Being a far more matured Christian than many of us students, Bro Chigbundu was one of those "Senior Friends" we revered, looked up to, and whose counsel and guidance we frequently sought not just on spiritual matters but also on other things going on in our lives as well.  The Abraham Chigbundu that many of us knew

A rotten carcass always invites a flock of vultures and a horde of flies. Wherever there's a teeming market of daydreamers, it is bound to attract a flood of peddlers of daydreams. It’s the law of demand and supply.  Christianity is in the middle of a crisis of faith. Satan is out in full force to dismantle the very foundation of the Christian belief. He has unleashed a host of false teachers and false prophets on the world who are out deceiving their captives and misleading the prey.  Sadly, many Christians fail to understand this. They go on as though it's business as usual. Some even believe - albeit, falsely - that it is a present-day revival.

By Akin Ojumu Apostle Joshua Selman had this to say the other day, at the 2021 Annual Youth Convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. It was profound, to say the least. "As long as you are poor, you will never be able to taste the corridors of power and influence. It takes economic empowerment to lift the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus is very heavy, it takes resources to lift it up." In the versions of the Bible that I have been reading since the very first time I picked up the Bible to read and in Sunday school classes that I attended growing up, the story of redemption was that of a Jesus Christ who was born in a manger, to a poor working family from Nazareth, which was no more than a dirt-poor backwater village of which Nathaniel declared, “Nazareth! Can anything good come out of there?"  To help him in his ministry, this poor son of a poor carpenter from a poor hometown chose as disciples a ragtag team comprised of a bunch of poor nonentities. Among them

By Akin Ojumu Today, a woman became the President of the United States, for the first time in US history. On this fateful day of Friday, November 19, 2021, it was Madam President Kamala Devi Harris following the transfer of power to her by President Joe Biden while he underwent routine colonoscopy that required him to be put under anesthesia.  Even though it was temporary and in an acting capacity for a total of about 85 minutes, it was still a moment that will go down in the annals of the history of this great nation. While it was for a brief and short-lived period, the import of it was massive all the same.  When a routine medical procedure makes a woman temporarily POTUS, we were like them that dream. The mind cannot help but wonder what it’d be like to one day have a woman ascend to the highest office in God’s own country. The thought of it arouses a pleasant feeling in the soul and it causes the mouth to drool of what might be. The 85 minutes of the female POTUS was a catalogue of

By Akin Ojumu Isaac Oyedepo is the youngest son of Bishop David Oyedepo and heir to the throne of the Living Faith Church Worldwide aka Winners’ Chapel. Appointed by his father as the Senior Pastor of the Living Faith Church in Bowie, Maryland, United States, Isaac is touted as the: “…extension of one mandate to multiple generations. God delivered a mandate to his father, Bishop David Oyedepo on the 1st and 2nd of May 1981 to deliver the world from all oppressions through the preaching of the Word of Faith. He teaches the Word of Faith with simplicity yet carries the fire of the Holy Spirit to his generation with proofs of signs, wonders, and miracles,”  As his bio on the Church website reads. Whenever Isaac picks up the microphone and opens his mouth, you don’t need a DNA test to confirm his paternity. The gentleman is a chip off the old block and a true son of his father. He is young, flamboyant, charismatic, and articulate. And like his father, he’s always sharply dressed in well-ta

Albert Watkins, the attorney representing Jacob Chansley, the QAnon Shaman, fielded questions from reporters outside the courthouse following the sentencing of his client to a 41-month imprisonment for his role in the January 6th insurrection. On whether he considers his client an Insurrectionist Attorney Watkins: "An insurrectionist? Look up the word. Are you going to follow the guy who is naked, tattooed nipples, January, DC, hours outside, with horns, face paint, and a fur? And you say, 'yeah, that's the guy I want, I'm following him?' Unless you are smoking crack. But, you know....not bad...on occasions...but..." On the appropriate accountability for Donald Trump for the January 6th Insurrection Attorney Watkins: "Ummm..well, if you ask me my opinion. Well, you know, my opinion is meaningless. I would say that I'd be far more effective over a beer with former President Trump, even if he didn't have a beer, because I understand he doesn't d

By Akin Ojumu Donald Kirk Hartle of Las Vegas, Nevada, is a 55-year-old registered Republican. He voted for Donald Trump in the November 2020 presidential elections. His wife, Rosemarie Hartle, died in 2017 from breast cancer. She was 52 years old. Following last year’s general election, Kirk Hartle went public with the allegation that someone had requested a mail-in ballot in the name of his late wife, forged her signature, and cast the ballot in the presidential election. In an interview with one of the local news outlets in Nevada, Hartle expressed his disgust that someone would impersonate his wife and vote in her name. “That’s pretty sickening to me, to be honest with you. It certainly brings up a lot of discomfort,” he said. Waiving Donald Hartle’s allegation as evidence of voter fraud in the November 2020 general election, the Nevada State Republican Party, the National Republican Party, the Trump Campaign, and conservatives of all stripes went ballistic. The right-wing newspape

By Akin Ojumu It was on 3rd of August 2021 that I last visited the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Washington, DC to complete the final step of the application process for a Nigerian passport. At the conclusion of that exercise 3 months ago, I was told that my new passport would be sent by mail to my address on November 3, 2021. I was skeptical that would happen, but I kept my fingers tightly crossed anyhow. This morning, November 15th, makes it exactly twelve days, or 10 working days, since the passport was supposed to have been mailed. As at the last time I checked my mailbox, the passport had not yet been delivered to my address. The skepticism I had 3 months ago was now being validated and my doubt at the competency of the embassy staff was coming to pass. As the saying goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Rather than waiting and waiting and hoping the passport would arrive in the mail, I decided to head back to the embassy this morning to pick it

By Akin Ojumu In the early 1980s, at the very beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the American white evangelical community mounted a full-course press to force the administration of then POTUS, Ronald Reagan, to downplay the dangers of the new disease which they believed was a divine retribution unleashed upon gay people for their sinful lifestyles. The Christian conservatives revolted against government’s efforts to curtail the spread of the “Gay Disease" or “Homosexual Disease” – their derogative label for AIDS.  Churches and conservative news media outlets became the fountain of all sorts of conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS. Christians were told to avoid contact with people who were HIV-infected and those living with HIV were denied the use of restrooms. Schools and neighborhoods were closed to children with AIDS and their families. Some churches even banned persons with HIV infection from attending Sunday schools and church services.  The American Christian conservatives rel

By Akin Ojumu Christiane Amanpour of CNN interviewed President Muhammadu Buhari back in May 2016. As usual, it was a real doozy. Here is an excerpt. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Your government received a proof of life video for about 15 of the kidnapped Chibok girls earlier this year. Our CNN colleague, Nima Elbagir who was in Nigeria got a hold of this video – she was shown it and she then showed it to the families, and this was the first time they had seen a proof of life of their lovely girls…of their missing girls. Why did it take our colleague to have to show the families? Why didn't the government share this information with them? PRESIDENT BUHARI: I haven't seen that video. But even if I see it, I'll be very careful about showing it to the family. There's no point to deliberately raise the hope of the families if you can’t meet them. I saw the families as a group twice. One, they came to visit my wife. Two, they came as a group to see me. And the less I see them the bet

By Akin Ojumu As an immigrant myself, it always thrills me to see a fellow immigrant succeed in their chosen profession. Few things give me more joy than an immigrant child who, against all the odds stacked up against him, still manages to achieve an extraordinary academic feat. I’m an enthusiastic cheerleader for the accomplishments of all immigrants in America and I’ll never stop celebrating their worthy exploits. Despite my passion for the progress of immigrants and as much as I love to see us excel in the land of our sojourn, though, I’ll also be the first to call out anyone of us who brings shame upon the immigrant community. If an immigrant breaks the law by engaging in a criminal act you can be sure I’ll not hold back in pouring out my fury on such a person. Lawless immigrants stick in my crawl and deplorable ones make my skin crawl. Drs Stella Immanuel and Joseph Ladapo are examples of immigrants who have brought shame upon immigrants of West African descent. At a critical peri

By Akin Ojumu After months of internecine wrangling between progressives and moderate congressional Democrats, in a rather ugly process of legislative sausage making that nearly torpedoed President Biden's economic agenda, the US Congress eventually passed the infrastructure bill with bipartisan votes on November 5, 2021. The $1.2 trillion historic legislation will make major investments in core infrastructure priorities including roads and bridges, rail, transit, ports, airports, the electric grid, and broadband. Touting the legislation in a statement released by the White House shortly after its passage, President Biden said,  “The Bipartisan Infrastructure legislation will rebuild America’s roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has access to high-speed internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in communities that have too often been left behind. The legislation will also help ease inflationary