Why the Church business thrives in the Giant of Africa.


"There is a man in this room, you have been having these dreams.... in these dreams, you are building towers, rather like broadcasting towers...everywhere, all over the world. God is asking me to tell you, that He is the one giving you those dreams, and He is going to make it happen. He has also given you a new heart, you are going to have such compassion. Please come forward, if you are that man."
-[extracted from Strive Masiyiwa's How to build a multi-billion dollar business in Africa from scratch]

Strive Masiyiwa stepped out of a 500-member congregation in response to the Pastor's direct call and was prayed for. The prophecy came to pass, Masiyiwa subsequently overcame several hurdles to establish Econet: a reputable telecommunications giant.
Strive Masiyiwa is worth over 1.3 billion US Dollars today.
At this point I wish to ask the curious reader if the Pastor who gave that prophecy wouldn't be a happy recipient of Masiyiwa's generosity today?

Nigerians turned to religion that has grown extraordinarily attractive over the years beginning from the 70s. It thrived following the inadequacy of National leaders to meet basic expectations, religion soon became the best way out of personal woes following the healthy prospects of its charismatic leaders.


The Rise Of Religious Leaders.

The basis of all developments both personal and national lies in good deeds and goodness. At a time when superstitious beliefs founded on evils were the order of the day, certain chosen men of destiny rose up in a bid to change the order of things.
These men conversant with the unhealthy happenings of the day popularized by collective backwardness and stuntness of growth sought a way out, they sought God, found Him and proselytized their findings and answers.
Goodness they believed was the root and source of all prosperity - some majored on spiritual prosperity which involved setting people free from personal calamities and plagues, others on physical and material prosperity seeking to liberate the poor from poverty.
These men started with little or nothing and had very few if any, who shared their visions, their spouses most of the time turned out as closest confidants. Promoting their newly found faiths by transmitting their enlightened ideas into the minds of a darkened population required intense efforts, discipline and prayers - apparently a change from established traditional and orthodox practices to a pentecostal culture was not easy. They battled discouraging situations at the beginning, prevailed and pressed on.
It wasn't until years after starting off did they begun to reap the fruits of their labours, and they surely still reap the fruits of the laborious efforts they put in twenty, thirty and even forty years ago today.
{starting a business, enterprise is tough at the beginning, getting patronage and sales can appear like rocket science, but with persistence and discipline momentum is reached. When momentum is reached, the profits soar high and higher depending on whether momentum is maintained or not}

People started coming when they clearly saw the efficacies of goodness exemplified by this men of God, those with physical defects who came in contact with this men received wholeness, those who were beaten and battered became sane and victorious, paupers became givers when they acted on words (of knowledge) they received from this saving charismatic preachers, these settled people sooner became free PR for the religious leaders and the institutions they represented. When momentum was achieved, trickles of people and material prosperities alike sooner turned to downpours and then to overflow - the collective church became SUPER RICH.

The Charismatic Church Leaders had proved theoretically and practically that they had a solution the government lacked to solve the problems of the common man : by calling on higher powers on behalf of members who received respite and experienced improved situations, church business begun to boom and received high nationwide approval ratings.

The Church solved a huge problem and it got rewarded big.

Its ability to identify local needs with pinpoint accuracy, meet the longings of the grassroots and provide a feel of family unity for members sealed its mark in the minds of Nigerians and by extension Africans. It can thus be said that church leaders command a much respected and massive following than political leaders because of the more positive effects attached to them ahead of their political counterparts. The guess that goodness had attached to it multifarious blessings paid off big!

The way to respectability, likability and reverence for a leader remains the same: do good for, by and to the people always.



Criticisms.

Although it is unlikely that faithful adherents will criticize their leaders who double as their mentors, religious outsiders have criticized religious leaders opinions on tithings, use of luxury and flashy toys at members' expense.
"the monies wasted on these toys could have been used to build schools, build roads and to alleviate the situation of the poor" critics say.
This line brings to mind Judas Iscariot a famed disciple of Christ who lambasted Mary for wasting a costly ointment on his master Jesus' feet, insinuating that the money used to acquire such ointment could have been expended on the poor, a logical statement in itself except that the intent of Judas was self-serving rather than altruistic - he was only interested in having money in his bag.
The intent of critics matter in these situations.

These Church Leaders are very much aware of how they got to where they are today - by looking into the affairs of others' i.e by loving others' as themselves.
Only by this was their wealth built in the first place, only by this can it be sustained and increased, so they still very much care for the poor and look to their needs, logistical shortcomings are taken into consideration by home fellowship units, the smallest units of the church system.
They may not be skilled in political propagandizing which blows its trumpets when meeting local needs.
They build schools with excellent facilities and are involved as school administrators in the daily running of these institutions, it is worthy to note that their institutions surpass government institutions in certain areas.
On acquirement of private toys and luxurious jets, it can be inferred that they have grown so large to afford those toys and all its attendant sustentation, it should also be noted that members of healthy financial standing can conveniently purchase and maintain these toys on behalf of their spiritual leaders, ultimately these toys can be used to bring in more financial gains and further its goals across the globe.
Acquiring these toys is a matter of personal choice and taste, a spiritual leader is due his honor - reaping where he has sown not where he hasn't sown.
The way to riches remain the same, identify a problem (as peculiar to you) humanity faces and solve it - anyone can be rich if he can successfully meet these conditions.

Objective criticisms are a solid basis for continual improvement, one spiritual leaders can critically assess and act upon, destructive criticisms on the other hand have self-destructive malicious intents and thus receive no valuable responses.



In Conclusion.

Religion thrives in Africa because religious leaders have the basic knowledge and know-how to solving problems, the tool used being the SPOKEN WORD(an abstract tool), working organizations and countries that have thriving systems also solve problems with a totally different tool- Concrete tool. Well-developed systems utilize both.

Cooperation not disintegration(of its working systems) is the sure way to strengthening Nigeria and Africa at large.

Knowledge sharing is a great junction to start off, if the principles being traded by blooming religious organizations can be acquired and incorporated by national governments, different outcomes that will ultimately lead to progress germinates.
Knowledge sharing requires that masks of ignorance and I-know-it-all mentalities both being different extremes on a singular scale of pride, fall off by allowance of honest assessments to be carried out in order to root out ignorance in place of rewarding knowledge, this shouldn't be a retrogressive competition but a progressive collaboration - and if the interests of the common man is truly at heart, there need be no discord.

The solutions to national problems are easy when we humble and trust ourselves enough to ask help.
When help is requested from a foreigner, he will give such help with the expectations that his interests be put into consideration, the implication being that full benefits are not received by the host party.
In Juxtaposition, when help is requested amongst ourselves, all benefits ensued is collectively ours. Trust and belief in ourselves and ability is primal.

Let's support our working systems, extract their working formulas and apply them to our struggling systems.
Soon all wobbly systems stabilize and we are prosperous.


Timothy Adetolu.