AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu We all know that to question the word of any man of God is a risky business. But to dare to dispute the opinion of a highly respected and supremely revered man of God is an invitation for a fierce and ferocious attack of nuclear proportions. Being the impudent knucklehead that I am, however, that’s exactly what I plan to do in this commentary. While addressing the crowd at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) National Youth Convention held at the Redemption Camp in October 2012, the RCCG General Overseer, Pastor Adeboye, made the following statements: “Let me tell you the truth. Do you know that the number one reason why God chose David to be king was because he was a musician…singing the right kind of songs.” Many may find the above statement innocuous. That I’m even flagging it at all may even come across to some as being overtly picky. Yet, to those who care about upholding the sanctity of the Word of God, Pastor Adeboye’s claims are egregiously alarming. To any

By Akin Ojumu One of my earliest introductions to African writers was One Week One Trouble, a 1972 young adult novel written by Anezi Okoro. The book tells the story of young Wilson Tagbo, a naughty High School student with a knack for troublemaking. One of Tagbo’s escapades includes sniffing around the Chemistry laboratory and inhaling nitrous oxide, i.e., laughing gas, which caused him to pass out. Like Wilson Tagbo, it seems like it’s one week one trouble in Africa these days. There’s no week that passes without hearing about a military coup in one impoverished African country or the other. The rapidly spreading phenomenon of military putsch has been a long time coming and is considered by many, a welcome development.  Impecunious citizens of Africa’s shithole countries seem to have had enough. For years, they’ve been crushed and clobbered by successive oppressive civilian regimes. Their lands have been persistently raped and ravaged by men and women who take pleasure in their miser

By Akin Ojumu Actions speak louder than words, and a picture is worth a thousand words. You don’t have to be a mind reader to know where Kirk Franklin stands when it comes to the degeneracy of sexual identity. Just take a look at the color of the shirt the man is wearing in his recently released musical video titled, “Try Love.” It tells you everything you need to know.  Frankly, you could say Kirk Franklin ’ s color choices speak louder than his choice of words. For Kirk Franklin to proudly wear pride colors in his latest music video is a bold declaration of his true intentions. The rainbow-colored shirt is a signal to the community of sexual perverts that he sympathizes with them. By appearing in those colors, Franklin is announcing to anyone who’d care to listen that the days of dog whistle are over, the season of the bullhorn has come.  The man is letting us know that he has dropped all pretenses, and that he no longer sees the point of hiding his position on this issue anymore. He

Deadline: November 1, 2023 Applications for the Northern/Pacific Global Health (NPGH) LEADERs 2024-2025 Fellowship Program are now open! This is an outstanding opportunity for US & LMIC post-doctorate trainees and US doctoral students to take part in a 12-month clinical research training program in one of nine low- and middle-income countries. The program is sponsored by the NIH Fogarty International Center in partnership with several NIH Institutes and Centers. The Global Health Fellowship Program is a 12-month clinical research training program for post-doctorate trainees and doctoral students in the health professions, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center (FIC) in partnership with several NIH Institutes and Offices. The Northern/Pacific Global Health (NPGH) Research Fellows Training Consortium is a partnership between the Universities of Washington, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota; with international partnerships in Kenya, Cameroo

  The contrast is uncanny!

By Akin Ojumu While most men his age tend to shrink in height and mount up the pounds, Donald Trump is defying all the odds, that is if one were to believe his words. In just four months, the 4-time indicted criminal defendant grew one inch taller and lost 25 pounds in weight. Comparing what he reported as his height and weight at his criminal arraignments in April and August in Manhattan, New York and Fulton County, Georgia respectively, Donald Trump is getting leaner and slimmer contrary to all evidence that says otherwise: Manhattan Criminal Arraignment – April 2023 Donald J. Trump Pre-Reported Stats Height: 6 feet, 2 inches Weight: 245 pounds Fulton County Criminal Arraignment – August 2023 Donald J. Trump Pre-Reported Stats Height: 6 feet, 3 inches Weight: 215 pounds It’s incredulous that a mostly sedentary 77-year old man who eats loads of McDonald's hamburgers and drinks gallons of regular Coke on a daily basis would post such height and weight measurements. Even elite athle

By Akin Ojumu “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15). What exactly is the world? The world we are told not to love is not the created world or our fellow human beings.  The world we are called to hate refers to the spiritual system of evil that operates in the physical realm that is opposed to God. It’s the function and thought processes adversarial to God. It’s the complex ideologies, philosophies, and psychology that are antagonistic to God’s commands. It’s the viewpoints and behaviors that are hostile to God’s laws. The world is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. What does it mean to love the world? To love the world is to let the world govern your soul It’s to let it determine the pursuits of your life. It’s when the world drives your faith, dictates your worship, and directs your prayers. To love the world is to give it an affection it is not worthy to rec

By Akin Ojumu At the root of all the mess in the Christian Church today is the blinding love of money. Undergirding all the deception, enchantment, manipulation, immorality, self-glorification, empire building, pride, pomposity, and the rest that have come to define the Body of Christ is the fervent worship of Mammon.  The mayhem and chaos are all because people have chosen to sacrifice their soul as an offering to the demons of materialism and their heart as oblation to the spirits of covetousness. It’s the insatiable craving for earthly possessions with no eternal value that’s responsible for the deafening cacophony of, “Money, money, money, and more money,” that rings from the parapets of the worship houses. “And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” (2 Peter 2:3). Today, a vast majority of those in the ministry of saving souls are not actually motivated by a deep concern for the s

By Akin Ojumu If the wealth of a nation were to be determined by the abundance of apostles, Nigeria would be the wealthiest place on God’s earth. It’s a land crawling with apostles. Everywhere you go, an apostle is there waiting for you. Whichever direction you turn, there ’ s an apostle staring you in the face. If you step out of your house and take a stroll down the street in any village in Nigeria, you are most likely to run into one or two apostles before you walk 1 kilometer.  For there to be so many apostles in one place, it’s not too farfetched to expect the society to be transformed by their holy presence. Having such an abundance of apostles, it’s logical to expect that the medical professionals will be out of jobs and all the hospitals closed down because sickness and diseases have been banished, and the people are living in divine health. Because of the hosts of apostles in the land, crimes ought to have ceased and criminals become saints. By virtue of an overflowing apostol

By Akin Ojumu When it comes to theatrics and putting on a good show on the preaching stage, there are few that can match Prophetess Bynum. The queen of melodrama is out again with a big bang. This time, the Lady of exhibitionism is out with a loud bang. And I mean, bang, bang, bang, literally. Here in this video clip, Juanita Bynum whips out a water pistol filled with anointing oil during one of her stage performances. The anointing oil in the water pistol is all the oil from her mother, aunt, and spiritual parents. The Lord spoke to her, saying: “I want you to pour all of your oil that you have from your mother, from your aunt, from Pastor Boyd. The last pure oil that you have, and I want you to pour it in there. And I want that to be your sacrifice. Because the anointing that is upon every bottle is what’s going to sit on people.” Thinking she was simply going to pour the oil into a bottle, she was surprised when she heard God say to her: “These people are weapons. These people would

“Cure for Ignorance” By Akin Ojumu Wherein the Scriptures say, “no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly,” the self-styled anointed demigods with special knowledge insist that unless you sow seeds, God will withhold from you all good things.  They warn that your dreams will die if you don’t bring sacrifices and offerings to their ministries. The only way to pry open the windows of Heaven, they claim, is to bring your first fruits and lay them at the feet of the anointed man of God.  And so, in terror of having dreams die, you empty your bank accounts, and sometimes enter into indentured servitude, all in a futile effort to satiate the unquenchable appetite of the man who has turned himself into a god. While no one is being strangled or burned at the stakes for owning a Bible in the civilized world, the reality is that Christians all over have turned their Bibles into a bonfire of neglect and abandonment .  It ’ s certainly true that the Bible is now in the hands of

“When Men Become Idols” By Akin Ojumu In order to perpetuate their power, the powers that be in the Church have successfully convinced the laity that the word of the man of God carries more weight than the written Word of the Almighty God.  These gods of men, in furtherance of their influence, have done an extraordinary job in elevating the authority of their pronunciations over and above the inspirations of the Holy Spirit given to men and canonized in the Holy Bible. Sadly, in these modern times, befuddled Christians have willingly capitulated to the whims and caprices of the hierarchy of the Church. Within the early Church were certain people known as the Gnostics who held beliefs that deviated from the doctrines of the Church. The Gnostics placed particular emphasis on “special knowledge” as a way of knowing God. According to their heretical beliefs, collectively known as Gnosticism, salvation is not free at all. Gnostics believe that, in order to be saved by God, a man must first

“The Peril of Owning a Bible” By Akin Ojumu Throughout the history of Christianity, deliberate and concerted efforts have been made to conceal the truth of the Word of God from those who believe. Early in its history, the hierarchy of the Church feared the potential impact that a personal knowledge of God’s commands would have on the believer who reads the Bible on his own. They were afraid of what would happen when a believer comes to a personal understanding of God’s precepts gained through personal study of the Bible and not merely what they heard preached from the pulpit. According to William Tyndale, one of the foremost leaders of the Protestant movement, “the Church forbade owning or reading the Bible to control and restrict the teachings and to enhance their own power and importance.” In the minds of these leaders, an educated Christian is a dangerous Christian who would one day rebel against the excesses of the Church fathers. They knew that an informed believer is one who woul

By Akin Ojumu Biblical Christianity is based solely on the Bible. The Bible is the manual of operation of the Christian faith. All the tenets, dogmas, creed, beliefs, teachings, doctrines, and theology of Christianity are all written down in Scripture. Quod non est biblicum, non est theologicum. What is not biblical is not theological. Sola Scriptura! The sufficiency of Scripture is forever established. The Bible is a closed Canon. It has been so since early Christianity. Scripture is the complete, infallible, inerrant, and all-encompassing source of all truth. It is the voice of God speaking to us today. The Bible is enough, and it’s all we need to know the mind of God on any issue. It is the guidebook for godly living. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (1 Timothy 3:16-17). Don’t let anyone fool you by their grandiose rel

By Akin Ojumu Christianity is under persistent Satanic onslaught. This assault comes in diverse ways, from different directions, and on several fronts. One of Satan’s most successful strategies in this raging war has been the misinterpretation of Scripture that’s so commonplace in the Body of Christ. Satanic forces have achieved great feats in this internecine war by firing their weapons of mass spiritual destruction at the very foundation of our Belief and by corrupting the lifeblood of our faith. Some of the products of the erroneous interpretation of Scripture are the false doctrines, erroneous beliefs, and heretic customs and practices that have become so widespread in the Church. Of the numerous Bible passages that have been subjected to abuse, misuse, and erroneous interpretations, none has had it worse than Proverbs 29:18. “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” There are those who interpret Proverbs 29:18 to suggest that the passage is talking about the importance of h

By Akin Ojumu Whether by willful ignorance or deliberate diabolical intent, Abel Damina is leading many away from sound doctrine  into the doctrines of demons. This man, who is the Senior Pastor of Power City International Church, Uyo, Nigeria, is an existential threat to the Body of Christ. What makes Abel Damina so dangerous is his conviction in his falsehood. Dexterously, he rips Biblical passages out of context, mixes them up in a theological hodge-podge, and then misapplies them to push a false narrative. You can’t listen to him and not come away with the impression that he seems pretty sincere in what he believes. Nevertheless, sincerity is not a proof of validity. Abel Damina may be sincere in what he believes, but his beliefs are sincerely erroneous. The man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. His numerous erroneous teachings make him an enemy of Christ. The following are a sample of the things Damina has said in the past that should scare any Christian in his right mind away from h