Victims of Beliefs (Aka Religious Intolerance)

By John Mogbishe Mogbitshe-Odogun

VICTIM OF BELIEF
This book is about the silent working of divinity in the affairs of men. It reveals how life is intricately woven such that the Supreme Being by-passes self-inflicted and presumed beliefs to establish His own Sovereignty in the affairs of men.
It also shows how well-groomed persons can exemplify and exudes right ideals, values, and integrity in tandem with their beliefs while ‘supposedly trusted hands’ can subtly act contrary to the belief they profess.
It’s full of suspense, and copiously interwoven with great sense of humour. It shows how divinity can position and work in ensuring desired progress. The role of responsible, caring, selfless parents especially that of Tobechi came to fore while the maturity, trust and confidence reposed in her and her chastity was not compromised which is the bane of the 21ST Century, ZEE and ZEE+ generation at large.
The challenges of Dauda cannot be overlooked. His maturity and his quest for truth, irrespective of his background is commendable.

Finally, victim of belief enables you to;
Activate, stimulate and maximise every opportunity that comes your way.
Break free and leap over positional obstacles and terrible overtures of life to attain greater height.
I strongly recommend this book to all.
It is a must to read and have in your study.
David Dairo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984561138

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by John Mogbishe Mogbitshe-Odogun.

ISBN:                  Hardcover                     978-1-9845-6115-2

                            Softcover                       978-1-9845-6114-5

                            eBook                            978-1-9845-6113-8

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Rev. date: 10/22/2018

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGES

1.     Table Of Contents

2.     Dedication

3.     Acknowledgements

4.     About The Author

5.     Prologue

6.     Chapter 1     Early Years

7.     Chapter 2     Divine Encounter

8.     Chapter 3     The Company

9.     Chapter 4     Nikkai (Wedding)

10.   Chapter 5     The Encounter

11.   Chapter 6     His Lordship: The Holy Spirit

12.   Chapter 7     Marriage Proposal

13.   Chapter 8     Fraud

14.   Chapter 9     Acceptance

15.   Chapter 10   Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

16.   Chapter 11   Fallings Apart

17.   Chapter 12   Dauda Accepts Christ

18.   Chapter 13   The Dinner Invitation

19.   Chapter 14   Reward for Dedication and Diligence

20.   Chapter 15   Obedience is Better than Sacrifice

21.   Chapter 16   God is Love; (Let’s Love One Another)!

22.   Chapter 17   Ordination

23.   Chapter 18   The In-Laws; Wedding Day

24.   Epilogue

DEDICATION

My special thanks go to God Almighty, the invisible, the all-knowing and the all-wise. To Him be all Glory and Honour, Amen!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to my brother in Christ, Mr. Segun Sanu of Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministry (Southwest 35 Region, Oke-Ado Headquarters), who God used to open up my eyes unto a deposit of literary ideas in my wife and me.

All that he said was, Can you write stories? If you can, I’ll help you to market and sell them …. "Victims of Belief (AKA RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE) and One Rape, One Murder, Too Many" are the first products of such providential outputs.

My special thanks and gratitude go to God Almighty for His sustenance and aspirations.I am grateful to Pastor O.A Oluwaniran, Mrs Toyin Popoola, Mrs E.O Afolabi,Mr Edmund Obilo and Miss Ifeoluwapo Adeniyi (both formerly of Splash FM Radio Ibadan) who played great roles in seeing to the publishing of this work. I like to equally appreciate Pastors Femi Aladesanmi-Lead Pastor Global Harvest Church (GHC)-Liberty, Ibadan, David Dairo (who wrote the back cover) and Pastor Olumide Osho for their concerted effort.

My appreciation also goes to my children: Emoghene, Iruoroghene, and Ejiro for their perseverance and accommodativeness.

Above all else, my heartfelt gratitude to my precious jewel of inestimable value, quality and character, Mrs. Oluwatoyin S. Odogun, who has always been beside me before and whiles this story, was being written. I continue to say THANK YOU. But this thank you cannot be enough because only God in His infinite mercy can reward her doggedness, dedication, love, hard work, and family loyalty. Once more, THANK YOU ALL!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN MOGBITSE - ODOGUN was born in Eku, but raised in Ogunu, Warri, in the early 1950s. Had his primary school education at UNA Primary School, Oyingbo, Ebute Metta, Lagos, and his secondary school at Methodist (Boys) High School, Challenge, Ibadan, till 1971.

Worked with the Lagos State Internal Revenue Department, from 1972-1975, after which he travelled abroad in search ofthe Golden Fleece.

Attended the Athenee Royal De Wavre, Belgium, and obtained a Diploma in basic French. He later studied French, Social Science and Economics at the prestigious Universities Catholique De Louvain, Belgium.

He attended Schiller International University, Heidelberg, and obtained first degree (BBA) in 1981 and MBA in International Business Administration in 1983.

In 1985 he served one-year compulsory assignment at the National Youth Service Corps, in Nigeria. He later got employed by Fujikura cables (Nigeria) limited as a Senior Sales Executive Officer from 1987 to 1990.

Worked in top managerial positions in other places, viz. Faith Mortgage Finance Limited, Em-Kitz (Nigeria) Limited, and finally got employed as Associate Director with Lekoy Trust Investment Ltd.

He’s Christian, and married with five children.

PROLOGUE

Late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya once said he would exploit the internal weakness of this entity of strange bedfellows called Nigeria against her. By the phrase, strange bedfellows’, he means the country’s incoherence as a nation; her disunity; her things-fall-apart nature; her ‘why-are-we-packed-together at-all,’ formation and composition; her inability to live together because of ethnicity and religious bigotries". He intended fomenting and stoking the already ignited ember of disunity which the colonial exploiters and wastrels kindled amongst the people of this country called Nigeria on January 1, 1914.

Unfortunately, Gaddafi himself was not totally immune to such afflictions and terrorisms as the exploiters and wasters were equally and currently at his doorstep strafing his own country people, dividing just to rule his enclave! And, alas, he was murdered!

Justified or otherwise, it all amounts to one form of discrimination or another; different strokes, for same tunes elsewhere in the world.

Why give in to intolerance against one another in the name of religious affiliation? Why get disturbed about the other’s faith when God’s communiqué to each person is not rolled out in the order of fun-fair and drumming? While He encourages our corporate participation in fellowshipping with Him, He is neither opposed to nor critical of humans’ freedom of worshipping Him. It is, and will always be, a personal relationship.

The world has crept into modern-day form of fellowshipping, and modern-day fellowshipping has become rather cultic than really fellowshipping with God.

If not, why the insistence on Religious Tolerance or Intolerance? Why try to enforce God’s will when He is: Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient; the wholesome God – a monotheist’s belief!

So, it is pertinent that one should seriously meditate on what one reads here and, according to one unknown author, Pay a great deal of attention to your relationship with God. It is from this that you can judge if your years on earth have been usefully well spent before God or you have only succeeded in doing those things that will warrant your joining the hellish abode of the ‘lost in the end’!

Godliness and holiness are not a roller coaster affair; it is a rigid thing and every flexibility infused or introduced therein is human-made and not of the Lord. You either serve and worship Him in His own way or stand condemned. It is a free-will affair and the choice is opened before you to make!

While Muammar Gaddafi’s vituperative utterances are not discussible matter in this write-up, they make sense still when one reflects on his having advised Nigeria to break up (or confederate). Why? More than three hundred ethnic groupings; corruption at all levels and, along regional and ethnic biases; murdering and cannibalization of innocent Southern people by some evil Northerners on the basis of ethno-religious divide; and, above all, the putting of round pegs in square holes in the name of quota system, thus constituting a big clog in the wheel of growth and development. This sort of system will never succeed.

But for God and Southern tolerance (or timidity) of the Northern barbaric antics, Nigeria’s apocalypse would have been just a matter of time and history!

Religious and ethnic tolerances are key to the survival of any race, people or country. If one group thinks that it can continue to perpetrate illegality and criminality and continue to get away with it, it is just a matter of time before the inevitable happens. Intolerance disrupts and destroys. Any group of people that allows it to fester cannot progress.

Basic socialization that is capable of entrenching grounded tolerance, robust friendship, and genuine cohabiting – the type that is demonstrated in the lives of Tobechi and Dauda – is what is needed. We should all pray for such so that peace and love will continue to abide by us and in us.

Liberal education is another key. If this is made available to all and sundry, our ability to understand one another, accommodate one another, and tolerate our differences is empowered. And, with it, ethnic bias is flushed away and religious differences become disabused. Liberal education must be allowed to pass through us as we pass through it.

CHAPTER 1

Early Years

Dauda came from a Muslim home. He was the second child in a family of six, which included his father, mother and three sisters.

This family, founded on the strict tenets of Islam, was full of warmth and happiness. Dauda’s mother was in purdah and as a result could not interact freely with people around. Islam forbids women in purdah such worldly interactions. An ideal mother and a good example of a Muslim wife – modest, humble, loyal and very discreet in her conduct – she set the right Islamic standards for her daughters to follow. Indoors she was not usually veiled. This allowed her free interactions with her immediate family members. But as soon as she stepped out of the house, or when visitors were around, she decked herself in a hijab.

The father, Alhaji Isiaka who traded in planks at Iso-Pako, New Garage Area, Ibadan, was the Imam of the local mosque at Odo-Ona, Elewe, Ibadan. He was a role model in his community and a major counsellor to all and sundry.

People went to him for one form of counselling or another. When families had disputes, he was always there for them to mediate. When some marriages were going through the storms of life, the Imam was always at hand to help resolve whatever differences so that these families did not end up being wrecked. If it was land tussle which was a common event in this society of ours, the Imam was always at hand to help resolve the matter. Because of his numerous involvements in brokering truce between and among feuding parties, he was hardly at his plank shop. In most cases, it was his apprentices that held the fort for him.

His only son, Dauda, was expected to toe these lines of actions and heed the call to those duties which his father remained unwaveringly committed to. Dauda took his quranic lessons very seriously. The father was the teacher (or Malim) and he imparted every Islamic instruction that was available to Dauda.

In addition to his quranic studies, Dauda equally attended a formal school. This he did up to university level where he studied History. Though he applied to study Accountancy, he was admitted to study Social Studies. But he opted for History. At that time, and during his childhood, he knew no other religion apart from Islam. His mindset was programmed to believe that the Quran, the guide book of Islam, was sent down from heaven by Allah, and that the only religion on earth was Islam. Not that his parents taught him so, but with the fervency and adroitness with which Islam was imparted into him, Dauda was unable to understand why there must be another religion. In his one-way track mind, any other religion that existed must be devil worshipping. That was the binary nature of his understanding – one is either serving God Almighty or one is serving Satan. He consciously distanced himself from any other spiritual influence, which he held to be satanic.

The father observed this but did not make any effort to disabuse it. Rather, the Malim rationalized that such extreme stance would help Dauda in future – to be totally loyal to Allah instead of becoming corrupted by any other religious interference outside Islam was halal, permissible.

Did somebody say dogma? It should not be! The reason adduced by the Malim was very reasonable in a sense. With so many corruptive religious influences all around, he probably felt that the boys, his son and his peers who received quranic lessons under him, would be better secured and protected by being encouraged to view their religion as the only pure source of uncorrupted values. Exposure to any other beliefs, even if solely for the purpose of knowing of their existence, was viewed a costly risk that must not be taken in the name of knowledge acquisitions.

One might be forced to want to toe the Malim’s line of thinking considering what became of the men of Meaux, France, who in the year 1546 were found guilty of heresy and condemned to be burned alive. How about Jean Crespin, born 1520 in Arras, Northern France, who was one of the reformists of that era? What shall one say of the famous John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Knox, Theodore Beza, and a host of other martyrs that were burned alive in the name of religious intolerance?

Did somebody say Catholic persecution? Of course, not! The less that was known about the truth, the better for everyone. The Catholic Order of that era chose to follow that line of thought because it helped them. In an attempt to rein in any opposition, ignorance and the spirit of blind imitation was seriously empowered. And if there was no opposition, there can be no crime and, of course, no sin. Sin against man, that is! Knowledge is power and when one is deprived of it, one cannot go wrong since one would live a quiet life of zombies; only obeying orders sheepishly, never being curious about whether the word truth exists.

***

Michael Servetus, born in Villanueva de Sijena, Spain, in his solitary quest for the truth got burnt at the stake in Geneva, Switzerland. Even his executioner, (A Vicar of John Calvin hue) warned the on-lookers: He (Michael Servetus) is a wise man who doubtless thought he was teaching the truth but he fell into the hands of the devil … Be careful the same thing does not happen to you! What had this unfortunate victim done to deserve such a tragic fate?

As a boy at the age of 14, Servetus had learned Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and had ample knowledge of Philosophy, Mathematics, and Theology.

At age 16 while studying Law at the University of Toulous, France, Servetus came across the original and complete text of the Holy Bible for the first time (it must be noted that it was not easy and legal to access this book then). His study of the Bible, together with the moral degeneracy of the clergy that he had seen in Spain, shook his faith in the Catholic religion.

Can one draw a line between the Malim and the Catholic religion?

In his solitary quest for the truth, Servetus came to the conclusion that Christ’s message was not directed at theologians or philosophers but to the common people who would grasp it and put it to practice. His studies made