Oritsejafor In The $9.3m Temple of Doom,By Ali M Ali

Chances are that this piece will be dismissed before it is read. Why, you dare to ask? Because it is just the way we are-Nigerians. We ignore the message; we dissect and attack the messenger. I represent the perfect guinea pig on how not to read a message: an Ali taking on an Ayo.
I am pretty certain there are elements in cyber and geographical space waiting in the wings to ‘attack’ this writer, in the name of ‘defense’ of the raw cash scandal involving the jet of Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Nigerian government.
Oritsejafor needs no introduction. Unless you are from the moon, you must have heard of this incredible man of God. I challenge anyone to dispute that he is not. He has the cassock to prove he is unendingly fishing for souls to save. He also has the jet. These days’ men of God are also men of means. Gone are the days prophets and messengers of God rode donkeys and camels to take forth their message. Nowadays, the private jet is a necessary accessory in the difficult mission of ministering by men of God. Oritsejafor is not alone. He is in good company. Bishop Oyedepo, Pastor Adeboye are members of this exclusive club strictly for super tycoons like Dangote and Adenuga.
Even at that, the CAN President is not among the top ten private jet owners in the country. The leader of the top ten with three exotic jets is Oyedepo.No Nigerian except the President and Commander-in-chief has that large, a fleet.
I don’t begrudge any of these fine men of God and resource, this blessing. I am a little perplexed though. Someone educate me. When Oritsejafor received heavenly blessings in the form of a jet, he said it was to do God’s work across the nation and possibly across borders. How come it was doing ‘kabu kabu’ on the side freighting, illegally, tons of illegal cash?
Questions like this can’t be answered by an answer like the one offered to wish away this embarrassment. Unless they think of us as numbskulls that think with their bums, the idea that Oritsejafor has only ‘residual’ interest in the jet is exactly this-bunkum. Was that the original mission the venerated leader set out to do with his jet? Was the license issued to fly across borders to traffic cash for black market arm deals?
Let me make a quick distinction. Oritsejafor is a Nigerian. He is also CAN President. He is not Christianity. He has betrayed enough ‘Nigerianess’ to classify him as truly a Nigerian with vested interests.
His antecedent is such that the truly sober have questioned his open partisanship riding on the platform of CAN.Just yesterday George Akume, the Senate Minority leader had this to say of Oritsejafor.
“Since the present CAN leadership came on board, CAN have become a sorry appendage of the villa. It has become politically partisan, obscenely
Materialistic and the voice of the oppressor rather than the oppressed. The situation degenerated to a state that the single largest block of CAN,
Which is, the Catholic Church suspended itself from the national leadership of CAN until “sanity” returns to the leadership.’’
Akume is a politician. He is a visible member of the opposition. He is a member of CAN.Chances are that he will be attacked for calling a spade by its name-a spade.
He went the whole nine-yard. Listen to him “The present leadership of CAN has never raised a comment on the legion of
Scandals President Jonathan has buffeted Nigerians with. CAN was not heard
On the fuel subsidy scam, pension scam, kerosene scam, Diezani’s myriad of Sleazes, etc. etc. Rather, CAN is badmouthing any Nigerian who dares to admonish or even interrogate the series of controversies Pastor Oritsejafors visiting on Christendom.
May it not be recorded in our national history that in Nigeria, Saints are
demonized and demons are canonized?
My appeal to our brothers in the north is that, what they see in CAN today
has nothing to do with Christianity but everything to do with crass
Materialism and self-seeking opportunism……?’’
I find the lame defense by some political ‘has beens’ of the attempt at money laundering gone awry, laughable. How on earth did ‘shipping ’ nearly $10 million dollars in a private jet to another country to trade in black market arms, amount to ‘normal?’
But this is Jonathan’s Nigeria. Such inversion is ‘normal’. It is normal for a camel, nay elephant, to pass through the eye of the needle than the government to level with citizens. So stashing raw cash in private jets of controversial persons to trade in black market arms is ‘normal’. It is here that 16 is greater than 19.Recall the governor’s forum election. A governor scored 16 votes in an election to trounce the one that got 19.He was recognized as duly elected. It is ‘normal’. It is normal that ‘stealing’ is not ‘corruption’. MEND, those guys in the creek who blow up pipelines for bread are not ‘terrorists’ but Nigerians travelling in buses to the east are. And it is ‘normal’
The authorities and their lap dogs think we are brainless. We read the subtle message being put forward that the resort to buying arms through the backdoor was an act of desperation. That the world super power, the US is not excited in helping us deal with the scourge of insurgency. Boloney.
Why then go to South Africa? Someone educate me please. Is the former apartheid enclave an arms shopping destination? Why not go to China? Why not go to Eastern Europe? So the excuse falls flat on its face.
Fellow citizens lets just wear our thinking cap. Lets start asking questions of the actions of men and women of God and Lucifer and reclaim our country. But then, I am beseeching those not colored by the ‘opium’ of the masses as espoused by the ‘renegade’ Karl Max.
Thinkers not lap dogs, patriots who think Nigeria. Are there fellow travellers?