NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 30th Dec. 2024 - Sunday 5th Jan. 2025
THE SILENT PROPHET
Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day (2 Kgs. 6:31).
In 2 Kings 6:25 to 7:2, the Bible narrates an agonizing experience in Israel. The Syrian army had besieged the land and caused a famine that got so extreme, it led to cannibalism. Two mothers negotiated to eat their children one after the other, but the second mother reneged after eating and surviving at the expense of the other’s child. The cheated mother cried to the king for justice. Even though the Bible does not say other atrocities committed by the desperately hungry in their attempt to survive the famine, that singular incidence of infant cannibalism was sufficient to stir the king into murderous rage.
The response of king was, “… God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day" (1 Kings 6:31). What was the fault of Elisha that his head was threatened? Was it the prophet that invited the Syrian siege? Was it he that encouraged the women to eat a child? No, but the king seemed to have held Elisha responsible for the calamity that befell the land because he knew that the prophet had the unction to speak into the situation and change it for the better. The king was furious because Elisha did not speak. Why was the prophet silent until then?
Despite the horrors around him, Prophet Elisha seemed to have been basking in his prophetic serenity, in his house, chatting with “the elders” of the land. If he had any distress, it did not show until the king had issued the threat. Elisha knew at once that danger was coming, then he made the proclamation that released the food to the gates of the city. Until his peace was disturbed and his life was threatened, Prophet Elisha did not respond to the tragedy around him, even though the solution was in his mouth. The first thing the prophet did was to complain that his life was being threatened by that “son of a murderer-” The second thing he did was to embark on self-preservation. He instructed those around him to “shut the door.”
In every generation, there are people that God has raised and empowered to stand for truth and righteousness. The world recognizes this and concludes that “evil triumphs when good men do nothing”. Every generation has “good men” empowered by God to stem the tide of evil. The problem is that, like Elisha, they sometimes become too comfortable to be bothered by the evil going on in their environment. Whenever good men permit themselves to be distracted, and they focus on personal comfort rather than bother about national interest, evil triumphs.
In 1998, after the death of Gen. Sani Abacha and Chief MKO Abiola, Nigeria faced a crisis that could have led to the implosion of the country. In the ensuing tension, a group of elders arose in the land. They were not religious leaders, but they were influential, and their voices commanded attention. They started as a group of nine, made up of Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon Lar, Senator Francis Ellah, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Bola Ige, Dr. Iyorcha Ayu, Prof. Jerry Gana, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Mallam Adamu Ciroma. That group, known as the G9, which later became G18, and gave birth to G34. It was the G34 that metamorphosized into the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The intervention of those elders helped to stabilize the country and give birth to the current political dispensation which Islamist extremists have corrupted with the politics of religion. Those were elders who spoke when it was imperative. They were not silent.
Nigeria is currently going through unwarranted distress because certain voices that should be speaking are silent. What happened to the country during the 2023 elections should not have been permitted by men and women of good conscience. There were credible and influential voices that should have strategized to resist the obvious perversion of justice and due process. Unfortunately, like Elisha, they were silent while evil and unrighteous men hijacked the government.
Today, propaganda is fast replacing good governance. There are feeble attempts to assure Nigerians that the people who hijacked government meant well for the country. If someone should steal a car and is caught while using that car to carry orphans to school, does that apparent act of kindness justify the theft? Would the owner of the stolen car be persuaded to not seek redress because the car is being used to “help” the needy?
To worsen matters, those who hijacked power in Nigeria are not using it for the benefit of the people. Within seconds of the swearing in, they introduced an unscripted, unplanned, and ill-conceived verbal policy that increased the price of fuel from N195 to N540 per litre. The price of fuel further rose to N617 in 2023, and it is currently over N1,000 per litre. Some vehicle owners spend about N120,000 to fill their tanks in a country where government is still struggling to pay the minimum wage of N70,000. Does it make better sense to kill corruption or kill the people with hunger?
Most ridiculous of all, after ‘tightening the belt’ of Nigerians to the point of strangulation, the hijackers proceeded into a life of flamboyance and extravagance. A new presidential jet was purchased at over N150 billion, and a “presidential yacht” at N5 billion, with legislators receiving new SUV’s estimated at over N160 million each. Meanwhile, the house of the Vice President was completed at total cost of N21 billion, all by people who hijacked the government and promised that they meant well for the country. A Yoruba proverb states, the eye that will see eventide does not make dirt in the morning.
What occurred in Nigeria during the 2023 elections should not have been permitted. Both INEC and the Judiciary should have been checked, but the voices that should have spoken were silent. To date, those voices are still silent. The calamity is not so much the hijacking of government by unrighteous politicians but the muteness of the voices that should be screaming.
If voices did not arise from the political arena, what about from within the Church? God empowered certain people in the Church with unction, like Elisha, but they, too, have become comfortable, like Elisha, chatting away in their homes and at their endless “conventions,” while mothers are eating their children in the land. While we are unaware of reported cases of parental cannibalism in Nigeria, there are growing reports of underage girls prostituting themselves and taking the proceeds home to their famished parents, which is a kind of cannibalism. Should the prophets wait until widespread and public parental cannibalism before their anointed voices will speak to break the siege and open the gates again to bread? Of increasing concern are the many Christian intellectuals and elites who speak in glowing terms of those who should be prosecuted for treason, but seem to see nothing wrong with injustice and unrighteousness.
As the National Prayer Altar pointed out in its conference communique after the 2023 elections, tribalism was not the determinant of the outcome of the elections. The 2023 election was the outcome of the unbridled determination of Islamists, who corrupted every institution in Nigeria to ensure their flagship political party remained in power. This should be of concern to non-Islamists in Nigeria.
After the 2015 elections, the Forum of Christian Elders reviewed the state of the country and concluded that, having gained control of power in Nigeria, the Islamists were going to embark on two programs:
First, ensuring that Nigerians are impoverished so that whomsoever they offered money would do their bidding. As predicted by the Elders, the process of impoverishing Nigerians started with Buhari, and it has been accelerated by his successor. Poverty in the land is an agenda of the Islamists.
Second, the Elders predicted that the Islamists would provoke war in the land. The chaos of war would enable them to exterminate all those who could resist their plan to turn Nigeria into an Islamic theocratic state. The attempts to provoke a war in the land are behind the violence from non-state actors across the land. Nigerians should not be deceived into thinking that what is going on is tribal politics. It has nothing to do with ethnicity. The Muslim-Muslim ticket should be a constant reminder that Nigeria is dealing with the politics of religion. Christian elites should be well guided.
The land is in distress. The people have been deliberately impoverished while security of lives is no longer certain. God in His faithfulness has positioned certain voices in the land to speak to promote justice and righteousness. Those voices are within and without the Church. Unfortunately, those divinely-appointed voices are silent. Wherever they are, they should begin to speak to prevent further calamity from befalling the land. The prophets must not be silent anymore.
PRAYER POINTS
1). 2 Kings 6:31
Pray that every voice appointed by God to speak for justice and righteousness in Nigeria but which has remained silent should be disturbed by God until they speak.
2). Exodus 34:5-7
Pray that everyone who participated in bringing suffering and sorrow upon the masses of Nigeria shall not be guiltless before God.
3). Ezek. 11:1-2
Decree that those who give wicked counsel in Nigeria, leading to bad governance and the collapse of the economy, shall receive fiery judgment for their evil.
4). Ps. 68:1-2
Pray that every political party that promotes corruption, bloodshed, and electoral malpractice shall cease to exist.
5). Isa. 28:14-15, 18-19
Pray that every politician who gained entry into politics through satanic rituals and covenants shall be destroyed by the same forces of darkness.
6). Ezek. 22:23-28
Pray that every Church leader who endorses unrighteous politicians shall partake of their judgment.
7). Lam. 3:21-23
Pray that as Nigeria enters 2025, God will show mercy to the people and deliver them from taskmasters. Amen.
JOIN US AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
DAILY INTERDENOMINATIONAL PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
https://zoom.us/j/96806190505?pwd=K2RqcUN3YjRwQzEzRDZaMUt2N1ZsUT09
Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
LINK TO MARATHON PRAYERS ZOOM ROOM
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar