The book: “My Thoughts on Nigerian Politics, Leadership, Religion and other Related Issues,” written by Rev. Edward Koye-Ladele was published posthumously by Gihon Ventures in 2023. The author, a clergyman, spent his life teaching God’s word through seminars, revival meetings, and Bible studies in Nigeria and abroad. He was a passionate advocate for the poor and good governance in Nigeria. He died in October 2022.
In the introduction, Rev. Koye-Ladele wrote that the book was an extension of his interventions on national issues on radio and television about national issues and various other subjects. He stated that he had always believed that clerics should be involved in the affairs of state and political governance, rather than the call for them to “continue praying while staying far away from political issues” because it is not their calling.
Thus his thesis statement: “I fault those calls because I believe clerics are meant to be people of sincere, honest, truthful and godly opinions. Why then should we withdraw such sound opinions from efforts at nation-building? I was dissatisfied with calls to continue praying only while seeing our nation continue to retrogress due to the corrupt and ungodly practices of our leaders and people. God will not come down to do what he has empowered man to do. We must put our act together and use our God-given grace and enablement to do what is right.”
So, in this book, Koye-Ladele put himself out as a voice for good government and governance, and also stuck out his neck to propose solutions to the problems of the nation and the Christian community. “I want to use this book to call a spade a spade, not an agricultural instrument. I hope to write not as a tribal or religious man but as a voice of hope to effect change in us all and provoke everyone to commit to rebuilding our nation into one we can be proud of,” he wrote.
Against this background therefore, Koye-Ladele begins this three-part book by holding out his long cane against the people who stand aloof and leave politics to the bad boys. His lashes are primed against those who do not reckon with the fact that their lack of participation in the political sphere has a direct impact on their lives. He thus calls out to good and patriotic people (p2) to come out of their shells and join the fray to make the nation better. “We need to look at politics differently. It should be an avenue through which patriotic people are elected into governance for the sake of building the nation and bettering the lots of the people. Politicians should be credible, competent, and capable people with the vision and skills to use state powers to build a great nation.”
That set the stage for this book, which contains various thoughts of the author on diverse topics spanning politics, personal relationships, marriage and church building.
In the work, the author thought rather than change our leaders, Nigerians need a change of mind-set and perception about leadership.
For him, it is unacceptable that Nigerians – including the leaders and the governed- see the leaders as lords (Pp3-5), instead of servants. “Until most Nigerians start to see leadership as an opportunity to serve and develop the country, these problems will persist even if we change the names and faces in the offices. It is only through a well-chosen leadership that society can be effectively organised and governed.” Drawing from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, Koye-Ladele explained that the leader must be the servant, and an opportunity to serve. He lampooned the appellation “servant leader” or “chief servant” that are used by some politicians to deceive the people. These ones mainly deploy the terms to excite, deceive and garner votes only to see the nation regress.
He lamented that the viral perception that politics is a dirty game has led many good people to distance themselves from it, making them limit themselves to voting alone. He warned that this carries huge consequences, and called on all good people to join the fray.
In the same vein, he frowned at the undue interference of religion on politics and governance in Nigeria. The infusion of religion has never led to good governance and fortune for the nation. For him, rather than godliness, religion has produced godless, thieving and corrupt leaders in Nigeria. And we have used religion to divide the people for selfish political advantage. Therefore for him, Nigerians should reject divisive tactics and recognise competence, capability and character as the ultimate criteria for leadership. Arising from this, Koye-Ladele writes extensively in the book, the evils of leadership that Nigerians must eschew, and the qualities of good leadership that must be thrown up when deciding on who governs the people.
In the book, My Thoughts, the author discussed the role of citizens and the church in making a nation great. While it is unfair to put the blame of poor leadership and retrogressive governance on the leaders, the author argued that citizens have a share of the blame. After all, it is citizens that make leaders, and even if all leaders are changed, the people who will take their positions are the same citizens. So, he challenged citizens to choose to eschew greed, stomach infrastructure and worship of money. Although these factors have been entrenched in the citizens through decades of poor leadership, limited investments in civic education and under-development, if the people are determined to witness good governance, they can start by mindset shift. (P19) They can start with how they view one another. They must “resist all attempts to divide us along ethnic or religious lines and instead adopt a spirit of brotherhood amongst ourselves.”
The author wrote that free and fair elections are essential to progress in the nation. And he writes that if we must develop as a nation, the people must critically ask themselves some questions before going to vote in the elections. The question is: “Who is the best leader to chart a course to our desired future?” For him, this question is more important than thinking whether that person can win the election. The religion or tribe of the person do not matter. The ultimate is whether the person has “the competence, character and capability to birth the future we desire.” And after this critical question has been asked and honestly answered, then the next thing is to register to vote in the election. For the author, it is meaningless to desire a better Nigeria and not vote in elections. It is not enough to “criticise the government endlessly but never turn out to vote. Criticism cannot bring us good government.” (P20) And it is imperative to vote for competent and capable people, even in the face of intimidation, and without resorting to violence.
A pastor himself, Koye-Ladele brings the church into the conversation. He wrote extensive essays and thoughts in the book about the role of the Church in the anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria. He argues (p23) that the church “has a huge role to play in sanitising our nation because God has committed the ministry of reconciliation to the church.” Thus the church should “partake in the drive to cleanse our society of corrupt practices.” The way to do this is by providing proper discipleship and raising a voice for God, holiness and righteousness in society. He wrote (Pp24, 25) that there should be renewed emphasis on “right standing with God, with people discipled to stand with and for God in all circumstances and imbibe personal ethics that promote propriety.”
The author concluded that the church needs to be more focused on the Bible, for if the church gets it right, the country will benefit from it. But it has to provide discipleship, groom genuine Christ-like Christians, raise godly believers, and produce selfless people who know and love God.
In this 217-page book, the author has essays about various topics, including relationships, religion and religious intolerance, distrust, corruption, surviving in hard times, and the ever nagging subject of restructuring Nigeria, succession agitation, rotational presidency and state sponsorship of pilgrimage.
He also wrote about Christianity and the church with extensive discourse on the Christian doctrines regarding the believers walk, including homilies on personal relationship with God. The second section of the book also focuses on the author’s thoughts on hearing the voice of God, Scriptural giving and personal exhortation to pastors regarding service and servant-leadership and ministry.
The third and concluding section of the book also contains essays of sundry other issues like marriage and marital conflicts, godly parenting and teachings about sickness and death.
Ultimately, the book is a rich collection of secular and Christian-focused essays, lectures and sermons written by the author for the enlightenment and edification of all citizens, irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations. It is a body of essays that are written to prick the society back to consciousness and the need to rethink our nation.. Olatunbosun can be reached via 0802-351-7565 (SMS & WhatsApp only) and [email protected].
