Jesus said in Matthew 18:6 that anyone who turns little children to sin will be judged so severely that it would be better to have a millstone tied round his neck and allowed to drown at the bottom of the sea.  All children comes from God, but external factors, such as misguided politics, economic depravity, and moral decay can affect the decisions of our little children while growing into adulthood.   

Nigeria has become a nation where fathers send their precious daughters to Europe to go sleep with dogs and snakes to make a living, and Kings giving out chieftaincy titles to sons who value crime (419) over education and dignity.  It is very easy to judge and insult our children, but where were the Nigerian masses and parents when unelected bad leaders took office, where were the Kings when the Nigerian infrastructures were being destroyed or neglected, and where were the religious leaders when Nigerian brains stated leaving the country in exchange for Western Union offices.  Many of the masses, parents, Kings, and religious leaders simple turned the other cheek, prayed, or went on to lobby for a new contract.  They forgot that you must fight for everything.  A baby struggles to walk, a student battles to maintain his grades, a descent businessman is relentless to acquire and maintain customers, and civilized leaders do whatever it takes to make sure that their citizens are happy and can compete with the rest of the civilized world. 

According to Jesus, Nigerians are all ready drowning in the sea with a millstone tied around their necks.  We have led our children astray because of our ignorance, laziness, tribalism, and religious bigotry.  No one came out to condemn his own when they were drowning the country.  They were more interested in contracts and titles without responsibility, and forgot that a day will come when the children of the entire nation will be labeled by others as thieves and prostitutes.  We, along with the politicians, parents, and religious leaders, are the reason why our little children have turned away from goodness, godliness, and decency.  Instead of condemning and challenging the leader to do better, pastors and Imams will go pray for the leader and brag that they are his spiritual guide.  Instead of parents to mobilize their children to go stand on the streets and highways for a week, if need be, until political and economic policies are reversed, they will name their children after the leader and even some minorities will start pretending to be from his ethnic group.  Instead of politicians to fight to make sure that their infrastructures and resources are creating jobs for their graduates, and that their centers of learning are the envy of all, they send their children to foreign universities and boost the foreign economy with wealth stolen from Nigeria.   

I just found out recently that when Nigerian soccer team came to play in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, the Nigerian officials that came with them gave out contracts to Nigerian women to cater food for the officials.  They then told these women to bring some of their female friends to spend the entire Olympic period (a month) with them.  Their Nigerian female friends were assured to get $5,000 each and their non-African female friends would get $8,000 to $10,000 each.  This is the same Nigeria where workers don’t get paid in 9 months, but they have $10,000 to give a teenage White college girl for a month.  While descent Nigerian girls are working their souls to death in distant lands to better themselves and send money home through Western Union, an Arab, Korean, or White girl is getting her entire four-year college education paid for by Nigerian money in a month.  Is this the power of women or the sin of our leaders and parents for not demanding change sooner?  Please keep in mind that despite the fact that the Nigerian team won gold in Olympic 1996, the same Nigerian officials as at the 1998 soccer World Cup in France had not paid the Nigerian soccer players for two years.  This was shamefully announced by the European commentator as Nigeria was playing one of their matches in France 1998.  Do you also know that in Nigeria today, it cost N100000 to sleep with a female college student with a condom and N350000 to sleep with her without a condom for one week?  Hunger is a powerful weapon Nigerian officials have created to get our respect.  Even the needy masses must sell their souls, even to HIV/AIDS, just to feed or get a descent education. 

God once told King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22 that his obedience was greater than sacrifice.  What God was trying to teach us was that the application of His principles was far greater than His worship and praise.  We claim that we follow a great God as a nation through his son or prophet, but we never have the courage to follow through on genuinely applying His principles for the sake of our children.  This is what turns our children away towards the sins that the rest of civilization castigates us for.  One powerful spiritual weapon I have learned from the Holy Book is the power of collective disobedience towards evil. For instance, after the Arab prophet heard from God, he wanted to take Mecca and rid it off its idols, but he did not want to take it by force because of the respect he had for the land.  Despite the fact, that he was a great military leader with a mighty army that could take Mecca in a day, he wanted to earn the respect of Mecca’s idol worshipers after he conquered Mecca peacefully as a man of change while establishing the new order. For many years, each time the prophet march to the gates of Mecca with his followers, he was turned back in rejection.  Instead of leaving in defeat, he ceremoniously sacrificed a camel (Arab sacred animal of trade and success) to celebrate a foreseeable victory in disobedience, and knowing very well that he would return each year as his followers grew each passing year.  On the last year, Mecca broke an agreement with the prophet by killing some of his worshippers.  This was how the prophet marched into Mecca bowed and not a single soul was lost.  He disobeyed peaceful through determination and patience until God’s will was done. 

It is the leader that needs the people.  A leader does not exist without people.  The leaders will always give the people what they want in order to keep their loyalty and respect.  Contrarily to societal expectations, how many times did African Jesus (Canaanite Jew) heal the sick on a Sabbath to give God’s health?  How many times did Jesus eat with sinner and tax collectors to bridge the gap between the rich and poor?  And how many times did Jesus oppose authority publicly to demand better treatment for the people?  Jesus even went to the cross for humanity, but Nigerians can’t die for their children’s destiny and dignity.  Does death not come before going to heaven?  Must we not be prepared to die as God’s children in our fight against evil?  Then, how come we have God on our lips almost everyday and our children are in bondage or can’t return home permanently? 

Nigerians need to take the spiritual power of disobedience seriously.  With it, Jesus’ success and the prophet’s conquest of Mecca occurred without taking a soul.  The next time the Nigerian president, governor, or national officer is coming abroad, instead of running to the venue to give business cards with the hope of getting a contract, inform everyone in your meetings, places of worship, and business centers not to attend the event in their honor.  Mobilize the people in disobedience not to attend any function for any Nigerian official until they can provide the economic and political turnaround that drove us out of the country in the first place.   It should be known in the whole world that there is never a Nigerian present at the airport or functions for Nigerian officials except their appointees.  This is a spiritual war or battle that may take years, but the followers always win.  When they want to give you Nigerian workers’ salaries of 9 months to cater food for them and bring foreign girls, refuse them proudly and diligently.  The greatness of your nation is greater that a one month contract and you are not an unconscious conduit by which your children’s destiny is given away to other nations.  It is through you that they get to the non-African girls to give away Nigerian money for pleasure because they can’t even approach those girls themselves without getting a slap on the face.  Without your presence to create the needed access to your friends, they are just mere Black illiterates and armpit smelling Nigerian officials to these non-African girls.  You are the one they respect as a strong hardworking Nigerian woman of value and not the Nigerian officials, whose citizens are labeled as criminals and prostitutes in their daily media all over the world. 

When Nigerian soccer official are not paying their players or are choosing the wrong coaches in order to also benefit from the hidden contract, mobilize and don’t go to the soccer match.  Let it be known to FIFA and the entire world that Nigerians prefer a well prepared soccer team than just watching Nigeria play soccer.  When your friends invite you to a wedding that is filled with Nigerian ambassadors and politicians, refuse to attend openly.  Let it be known among all Nigerians that the garri in our houses is of a higher value than all the ambassadors from Nigeria.  I tell you that within five consecutive years of this treatment, those Nigerian officials will not only reduce their travels abroad, but will also be forced to make one of two decisions in international disgrace.  First, they will either stop running for office or resign from office because they genuinely do not know what to do to earn your respect or second, they will sit up to start earning your respect.  It is always one thing for outsiders to condemn you, but it is another issue when your own rejects you totally in silence and isolation.  We must fight to win always.  We have no other choice.

References: 

Conquest of Mecca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Mecca 

God and King Saul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul 

Jesus and the Pharisees: http://www.bible-history.com/pharisees/PHARISEESJesus_and_the_Pharisees.htm