The Sun News On-line/man in the pulpit

His Grace Apostle (Dr) Adebayo Abiola (JP), spiritual head of the Aladura Cherubim and Seraphim Church is a lawyer by profession who found himself in the ministry. In this chat with Daily Sun, the septuagenarian bares his mind on some issues affecting the nation, mainly corruption. He also thinks people in authorities have forgotten that they are there for the people, not themselves.

Obasanjo’s schoolmate
I attended Baptist Grammar School, Abeokuta. MKO was in that school, so also Obasanjo. MKO was a few years ahead of us though.

After that I went to the University College of London to study Law at Inns Court to qualify as a lawyer (that’s like the Law school here).

So as a lawyer, I never thought I’d become involved in the ministry but God works in mysterious ways. My father was the head of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.

When I came back to Nigeria, I joined Shell and worked there for some years. While I was with Shell, I was head of Industrial Relations, in charge of all the working conditions. And that gave me the privilege to know so many places in the Niger Delta. I later left Shell to go to the Nigerian Law School after which I set up my own law firm.

It was after I set up my own law firm that I became really involved in the ministry by setting up a branch of the church. But it wasn’t a branch per se because it was independent. In the C&S Church, we operate a kind of autonomous system. I was made the head of the conference, and other parishes now came up under ours.

Corruption
With due respect, the way many people look at corruption is not all inclusive. People tend to think that it is when money is involved that we have corruption. The society is suffering from corruption in many forms. We tend to overlook some areas of life, which actually encourage corruption.
For instance, if a contract is inflated it is seen as corruption. But what do you call it when there is a vacancy and the person in charge would rather take a relative instead of a qualified person who applied for that job? That is also corruption.

Or the case whereby a child is awarded more marks without deserving it because the child’s parent is also a teacher in that school? That is also corruption.
So, I feel when you have to talk about corruption, you have to talk about homes. Anyone who cannot run his home is not fit to run other people’s affair.

We made a very big mistake after independence when we stopped religious instruction and personal hygiene. In those days, when you go to school, your nails are inspected, and your uniforms must be neat and ironed. Even your teeth will be inspected. But all these things are no longer there.

And one can also trace the beginning of corruption in this country to the era of the sanitary inspectors. For those who defaulted in keeping their environment clean, there were sanctions. But with time these inspectors started taking bribes from offenders. And once you start living beyond your income, you’ll be looking for other areas to keep up.

Now zeroing down to present day Nigeria, when the politicians come to ask for your votes, they bring all sorts of presents like rice, money, scholarships etc, and thus you are bought. And when they get there, the first thing they’ll want to do is recoup, and then you can’t talk because you’ve been bought. Almost all the elected officers do this. Rather than campaign on issues, they’ll rather promise you all sorts. And when they get there, they’ll dip their hands into the till to recover all they had previously spent.

Will Yar’Adua last and should Iwu go?
There are many ways to look at it, as much as possible there should be no lacuna (gap) in administration. If the election were seriously flawed, then the best option would have been to conduct fresh elections. But asking Iwu to leave is another issue again. He may be the chairman but there were also other chairmen at the state level, these people were also responsible. So, if people are asking Iwu to leave, what about the other commissioners.

Again, I wonder why they always think it’s a professor that can do the INEC job. But I don’t think so. Anybody should be able to do it. We had Professor Nwosu, then Guobadia, now Iwu, all of them professors. But what we really need is not necessarily a professor, but someone who knows his onions, and his left from his right. Someone who is reasonably honest and is truthful. What we need is transparency, they think it’s impossible, I think it is possible.

We heard Andy Uba recommended Iwu, and you know what happened at Anambra. We shouldn’t expect something different.

You can take a retired principal or a retired judge to be the Chairman of INEC. As the name implies the body should be independent having an unbiased umpire.

Obasanjo years
Most times when people get into position of authority, they play thin gods. They forget that people put them there and that should not be so. The people should have the say, ask them what they want and let them decide. Our constitution says, ‘We, the Nigerian people…’ That is what happens in developed world.

And one fad here again is that when people retire from the military, they are referred to as retired general. Now that I don’t practise law, why don’t they refer to me as retired Barrister? Those who call these people ‘retired general’ to me are hangers on, and it’s because of what they can get from these retired generals.

Back to Obasanjo, right now nobody knows what he met when he got there. Up till now nobody can say how much he spent. He was unable to rectify the poor power situation.
In my own opinion, Nigeria is too big to have just one electricity generating company, working for the whole country. In the developed countries that are even smaller, they have many companies doing that. And also I think that this country is too big, to have just one police force. Every region should have its police force.

Yar’Adua to me…
The Bible says that anyone who is in authority has been put there by God. What I’d say is that he should rule, honestly, truthfully and sincerely as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He should not rule as president of the north, the Hausa’s or the Kanuris or the Ibos.
So far, I think he should deliver. His training and family background should make him to perform. With his family background, I don’think he will be a grab-grab person.

The legitimacy issue for Yar’Adua
I won’t contest that but you know God works in mysterious ways. Remember the man could have died, when he was rushed out of the country and you remember how Obasanjo was talking to him on the phone on national TV (laughter)
I want to give him credit for reversing the fuel price. God gave us petrol, we shouldn’t be buying at exorbitant price.

But I’ll want him to look at the issue of transportation and housing. In the developed countries, government pays a lot of attention to these things.

If not for corruption I don’t see why government at every level cannot attend to these. How can a governor go and keep billions of dollars abroad, when he can use it to take care of people in his state. Rather they go and do owambe party abroad, with their cronies.

More churches, more evil
Have you found out how church leaders get their money? Do you know some of them push cocaine? You see them suddenly hiring (most times they buy), a warehouse, which they convert into a place of worship. Then they start advertising on radio and TV.

How do they get the money? Nobody bothers to find out. The fact is that many church leaders have departed from the part of righteousness. They have derailed, totally.