Speaking during the 3rd Session of the 1st Synod which was held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Obeiba-Ihima, Kogi State, Bishop Ajulo said both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the judiciary should be held culpable for recurring cases of perversion of justice common with corruption cases.
Musing on the problem, the cleric said, “the courts too seem not to know who is truly guilty; no persons that EFCC has arraigned before any law court for ill-gotten gains have so far pleaded guilty; and if they are not guilty then is it Nigerians whose God-given wealth have been plundered that are guilty.”
He cited the EFCC, which he described as “a-not-too effective government apparatus that tracks and traps fraudsters, corrupt persons and organisations; and unfortunately, recent outcome of cases involving persons fingered in the fuel subsidy scam and the police pension scam seems to judge Nigerians instead of the thieves and looters.”
Speaking on the theme of the Synod,, ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision’, the Bishop said that the multitudes in Joel’s day could never answer God’s question, nor would those who live in the present day be able to answer it. This, he stated is because God has done nothing wrong, He has been exceedingly patient with His people and the present generation.
“If people understand the severity of God’s final judgment, they will want to take God’s offer of hope, life, forgiveness and restoration to those we know standing down there in the midst of the hoarding multitudes. People will call men to receive mercy from God.”
He said that the multitudes represented Israel and prophetically, people who live in the world today adding that God, the judge, was telling His people what He requires of them and all the ways they had wronged Him and others. According to him, the picture of the multitudes in the valley of decision as cited in Joel 3:9-14 is an unusual one, stating that Joel was preaching and warning of the impending judgment of God “in the day of the Lord.”
Bishop Ajulo described various kinds of multitudes, some of which included the multitudes in the valley of socio-cultures and in the Church.
He expatiated by adding that everyone is standing behind the flag hoisted for his partisan society and culture and the Church is now in the dark valley of Health, Wealth and Prosperity gospel, which according to him ought to come after repentance, forgiveness and restoration.
In relation to Nigeria, he said politicians have formed alliances, not so much for the service to the people but in a bid to have newfangled inlets to the wealth of the nation- all at a great cost to the life and blood of the people. The erudite scholar said most politicians these days are insincere, uncaring and unloving; they all are simply engaged in an ever present game of mask wearing, not meaning well for the multitudes, nor wanting their salvation but to keep feeding fat on their meat and milk.
Prof. Ajulo added that the restless, restive and rebellious hordes in the valley such as the Boko haram sect, OPC, MEND in the nation today are being asked by God the same question as the Israelites, “My people, what have I done to you?” He said that nations are forming all sorts of economic alliance like EEC, OECD, OPEC, ECOWAS etc. to attain a better economy and better life, but the more they strive the deeper they go down into the unrelenting global economic “melt-down”. To him, all have been formed by the multitudes in the valley of decision.
