Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Columns

Nigeria 2019: Chimamanda, Daddy Freeze, Tithes, Buhari, PHCN and Lazy Youths – By Nneka Okumazie

By Nneka Okumazie

In a broad sense, Daddy Freeze is a vivid example of Buhari’s do-nothing youths comment. The President, whom in a term, was not shaken with external, weighty thoughtful projects by young people, had the right, in his mind to make such comment. The president got away with doing nothing on many issues, but it did not begin at the height of major crisis of his presidency but from the ineptitude that it took off with, but no one seemed to notice.

There are millions of young Nigerians who have legitimately done well for themselves, some have great profiles, and some are diligent, but you cannot say most young people of Nigeria are relentlessly focused on relevant projects that will move the country forward. It has been a case of distraction, lack of focus and racing at shiny objects.

Daddy Freeze, the anti-Church champion has been a gift to the unfocused, seeing his cause as what Nigeria needs, believing it is worth the fight. Tithes, churches, pastors, testimonies, multiple parishes, prophecies, offerings, etc., anger them, and the exclusion of all, in their thinking, will mean well for the country. But there is nothing they’ve ever said about their cause on how it would directly prompt the development Nigeria needs. To ask a question like Daddy Freeze, where is it in the constitution of Nigeria that the government must provide everything for free to the youths?

True churches are not the problem of Nigeria; they never have and never will. The problems of Nigeria are obvious before our eyes; the path is everywhere else but solutions. For example, there is no light, the new distribution companies have re-branded, they have Twitter, Facebook, new trucks, new staff uniforms, road shows, nicer offices, responsive customer care, they have all the packaging, but their purpose – electricity – is unstable.

Many people say sub-standard education is the problem of Nigeria. OK, so what are Universities doing, by themselves to solve this problem, within their power? Nothing; but Universities have radio stations, they do beauty pageants, inaugural lectures, there are campus entertainment shows, conferences and several useless projects on campus, outside better academics and genuine focus on solutions to problems.

There are simple and complex problems in Nigeria, but everything simple that should be approached is seen as complex and every responsibility is left to government. With due respect, government is little percentage useful for solutions, state governments, federal and local; yet delusion to make a difference from within the government has engulfed the youths, again, towards the coming elections.

There were lots of enervated young people who dumped the Jonathan administration for Buhari in 2015, but went to sleep after he won, hoping he does magic. Now he has failed them, so Buhari must go. Nigeria has shown that activism is so cheap, but genuine passion is sparse and thorny. There are so many wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing activists and concerned citizens, noisy, only to cave after cash.

There is scant passion for genuine solutions in Nigeria. Not with activists, not with most self-absorbed twitter smart youths. There was a major activist leader many years ago who was loud, appeared passionate and grounded the country a couple of times; but after some years, that activist became a governor, the true colours afterwards, became obvious to everyone.

So there have been examples and examples of glimmers of hope in Nigeria. But, without a furnace of external passion for solutions, nothing changed. An election is coming, a way forward is missing, but the agitation of many young people, championed by Daddy Freeze is tithes. They believe tithing belongs in the Old Testament, and were required to give, it should have been explicated in the New Testament.

Any sage defense is met with ‘where is it in the Bible’ by someone falsifying it for attention. Painfully, some respected Pastors fell in the trap of trying to engage with someone pathetically unreasonable. Normally, in any agreement, there are grey areas. There are stuff not said or stated that you are allowed to do, or not. There are, as humans, things you should understand. But tithes and giving transcend these across both Testaments, if you believe. 

Distort the story, but there was a widow’s mite in the bible. There was a Prophet who told a poor to give the last meal available, and several other sacrificial giving examples. Even the poor, giving, understands it is not the fault of the pastor or the church for their situation; they sometimes just want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. This same reason is why people give to church buildings, seeing after many years, what a collective contribution they were a part of – became. Assuming you continue to give solely to beggars, you are unlikely to change their lives; after a while you will understand it is not your responsibility to lift them out of poverty.

Giving is personal, you choose to or not. Tithing is intangible among all the issues in Nigeria we have to deal with. It is not fundamental to what should spark our passion or challenge us for development. On radio stations and blogs, there were hot topics that got people engaged, you rarely heard great development passion, but engagement was high, the most interesting were relationships, music, reality shows, movies, parties, etc., but tithes have topped all, explosive at work, pubs, etc., When some people hear the word tithes now, they start vibrating and somersaulting.

Sorry Sir, but as far as Nigeria is concerned, tithing is not a hindrance to development, why is it so important to you?

Daddy Freeze is a radio presenter whose main objective is entertainment. All his opinions are useless to what is important to Nigeria. He probably ran out of topics and focused on tithes after he got people interested. Assuming he actually had substance, he would have moved on to other stuff, but his incontinence to trend, as a sham and fool’s errand, made him stick with tithes. He may in future backtrack by saying it was all a joke. Who knows?

The world’s biggest philanthropist and another philanthropist, in a joint interview on the eponymous cable station of the latter conceded that there is limit to what private philanthropy can do to solving public problems. Governments have the power and resources to do all the major solutions. In Nigeria, they have not, but expecting true churches to fill this void is foolish thinking; because even if they tried, it is an endless canal and out of line with their mission.

The problem of Nigeria is lack-of-genuine/misguided passion. In fact, no Corporate Social Responsibility is passionately focused on lasting solutions. Sponsoring entertainment or sports is not CSR useful for development. It is possible to do so much CSR, and no difference is made. Election is here, the president spoke his mind and many fell into his trap. Daddy Freeze, just to jump on the attention opportunity, attacked Chimamanda for a benign interview question. Daddy Freeze continues to vaunt, displaying voluminous intellectual laziness but his support is strong. Don’t blame the president.

_______

Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng

Copyright 2018 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Related

News

Award-winning Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who was recently decorated with Harvard University’s iconic W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, has broken her silence over her...

Africa

A stampede at a Christian prayer gathering in Liberia’s capital Monrovia has killed at least 29 people, police said on Thursday, adding that the...

News

Radio presenter Ifedayo Olarinde a.k.a. Daddy Freeze, has apologised to Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel, for referring...

News

New York based General Overseer of Miracle Center International (MCI), Dr. Nicolas Felix has said that he is praying to God to call controversial...

Copyright ©