By Ode Okore

IT should no longer sound improbable.

It’s long been coming. A few faithful have for some time now called it a revival, a national revival. Yes, even in the midst of great national pessimism, a few optimists have for long seen the coming of a new dawn even though they could not predict its timing or define the form it would take or the road-map to it.

Perhaps for them it was something of a primitive faith, faith whose strands of eviden-ce of what was to come though somewhat hazy were nonetheless visible. Indeed, starting with the pointy heads of Oluseg-un Obasanjo’s regime, I mean Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Obi Ezekwesili, Charles Soludo et al, many were already see-ing Elijah’s little hand of God in the Nigerian firm-ament and expecting the drizzle before the inevita-ble down-pour.

A revolution in Nigeria? Now things are a bit clearer. Certainly, not the sort we are seeing in North Africa and the Middle East—violent rebellions seeking to overthrow sit-tight an-cient regimes of family dynasties.

But a revolut-ion nonetheless; a revolu-tion whose starting point is the ballot box, a gigant-ic transformation which many people had thought only a short while ago impossible in Nigeria.

In other words, not a revolu-tion with guns, bombs and missiles, but of new sensitivities, of new awa-reness or enlightenment, of a new thinking about government and its insti-tutions, indeed, of gover-nance and how they want to be governed and by whom.

A revolution of the ballot box! A revolution of a gigantic proportion. Just look at it this way: a professor/vice-chancellor at the helm at INEC, and a group of carefully selected professor/vice-chancellors at collating centres or as returning officers and young grad-uates, untainted and without hardened politi-cal self-interests, or parti-sanship, manning the polling centres. We, as people, have for so long been reviled by the world for our inability to do simple things right that what we were seeing un-fold was quite new and indeed a balm to the spi-rit. A determination to get things right. But who can understand the ways of God!

Yet for many who in the-ir visions had seen this unfolding great revolut-ion though many scorners will hiss, it is not much a surprise. It is really God at work. But why now? Because the time for Nigeria to leap forward has finally come! There has for a long while now been a deep and pervasi-ve feeling, and belief, at least among the faithful, that something is about to happen in this nation, that the iron chain with which Satan had for long tied down Nigeria from moving forward in its economic and industrial development like the Asian Tigers or the new South American econom-ic giants (Brazil and Arg-entina) has at last been broken.

Where does the Church come in in all this? Niger-ia is obviously a praying nation (both Moslems and Christians) even though we have for deca-des stagnated in econom-ic backwardness, political confusion and moral deg-eneration and it seemed there was nothing to show for all the prayers. But quietly God has been at work. Let we make some brief allusion to two significant things that have their origins in the Church. I am referring specifically to The Red-eemed Christian Church of God, December 2010 Holy Ghost Congress.

The first was the Cong-ress theme: “All will be well”. The theme itself was a prophetic pronoun-cement of hope, encour-agement and faith in God and an affirmation of His goodness and tremend-ous love not just for the teeming members of RCCG, or Christians as a whole for that matter, but more so for this great nation called Nigeria. An expectation that there would be peace and that something marvelous and positive would happ-en in this nation to give life even to the dry bones.

The second significant thing at the congress was that the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye made three newsbreaking declarations all of which were widely reported in the media: on tithing and re-marriage in the church. But the most thunderous declaration of all, and which was echoed all over the cou-try, was on the integrity of the electoral process.

What he said simply was this: “We will ensure that our votes count.” And he added; “we will defend our votes”, of course not with bombs and machetes but with prayer, physical presence and practical vigilance. For too long the Church had made a rigid separation between itself and the state, between ecclesiastical concerns and practical politics. Now it was happily readj-usting itself to publicly make itself into an insti-tution with a soul and also with a social conscience.

The call to “defend our vote” coming from Pastor Adeboye, a man of great humility and enormous integrity, a man usually not given to bluster and to Ho! Ho! Ho! pronoun-cements, came indeed as a thunder-bolt. It was a waking call to a people who had for so long been frustrated, wearied and enfeebled and had co-nsidered themselves incapable of changing the system. A call, more or less, to the barricades by a man they trusted and who has signaled he was prepar-ed to be in the van-guard of the unfolding revolution.

The call rev-erberated across the nation, across religious divides, age and gender and class. It galvanized people into action, Christ-ians and Moslems alike, the human rights and civil societies, labour unions, women groups, the youths and the media. It became the battle cry of the un-folding revolution. “We will ensure our votes count! We will defend our votes!” And did they respond!

There on the voting lines were men and wom-en, some in their 70s and 80s, women with babies strapped to their backs while occasionally giving suck to them. There they were, enduring the scor-ching sun, only a few in their clusters hiding under an ineffective umbrella, yet with smiles and sheer determination on their faces.

The gen-erally aloof elite, the academic highbrow and, oh yes! even the corpor-ate Brahmins of Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Banana Island (even though their own heat may have been attenuated by acacias and palms!)…they were all there. Staring into trans-parent ballot boxes, waiting patiently to cast their votes and determined to see their votes cou-nted! In Nigeria! The birth of a true democracy? Forget the post-election barbarism. It was truly amazing and a thing of joy. Of course, all kudos to Prof. Attahiru Jega and to a sitting president who resolutely refused to interfere in the process.

In moments of great national deliverance as Nigeria is currently exp-eriencing, God can use anybody as a vessel or instrument to carry out His plans and purposes. Remember King Cyrus? And Ahassuerus? A few years back, God had used Soludo to initiate the banking revolution but he was slow and tentati-ve. It took Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to unleash a tsun-ami upon the entire bank-ing and financial sector, and with great courage and tremendous single-mindedness of purpose, to clear out the ravenous foxes that had been watching over the nation-al chicken coops, those who had been entrusted with our economy and national assets but in-stead had become its evil and shameless looters and saboteurs.

Now, the Church has suddenly rediscovered its enormous strength and power and capability to affect society and to bring about positive change. The Church has now found itself in the vang-uard of this unfolding national transformation. And God has given us a president, a man of great humility, very aware of his own humble back-ground but with a lot of fire in his belly, quietly determined to sustain the revolution in our national life. Thank God too he has bravely announced to the world that he intends to serve only one term of four years. Therefore, he will have no reason to pander to narrow political interests.

He will need to be bold to take on special interests such as a rapa-cious National Assembly and the entrenched cor-morants in the civil ser-vice who will stand in the way of the revolution to resist it. In this struggle he must at every turn be supported and be given the assurance that the whole nation is behind him. He will certainly need the voice of the Church to be louder than ever before. So, the battle has only just begun. The Church is already in the thick of the rumble. It cannot pull back now.

*Dr. Okore is the publisher of Anthony Village Community News.