NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 19th - Sunday 25th May 2025
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins (Isaiah 58:1)
With devastating impact, the reality has now dawned on the Christian community in Nigeria that a jihad has been launched in the country. When the alarm was raised eleven years ago, some influential Christian elites described the warning as “fear mongering”, “divisive political tactics”, and “rabble rousing”. Now, with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Nigerians in the grave (many of whom are Christians) and hundreds of Christian communities sacked and replaced with jihadists from the desert while the Christian owners of those lands languish in IDP camps, to say nothing of the countless number of Nigerians kidnapped by Islamist militia all over the country, no conscientious Nigerian will deny the reality of jihad in the country. Those who have been fortunate to escape from those jihadists have often given horrifying accounts, attesting also to their crying their blood-curdling ‘signature tune’ of “Allah Akbar!”
In the circumstances, we cannot stop engaging this matter in the place of prayer as well as in public discourse. As we pray, we also need to be honest with ourselves and ask, “How did we get to this point?” Christians need to look in the mirror and tell themselves the truth, because only the truth sets free. If Christians can honestly answer the question, “How did we get here?” it will be easier to know how to get out. A problem properly diagnosed is only a step away from the solution.
The public engagement of these issues, uncomfortable as it is, might have been unnecessary if the principal actors, the Church leaders, readily responded to counsel and correction. Many well-meaning efforts were made by God in heaven and men on earth to reason with them, but they sadly ignored the entreaties. For example, the Christian Elders (comprising membership from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria) initiated several unsuccessful meetings with officials of the apex Christian body, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on these issues. Those efforts included the setting up of two independent committees to investigate issues in the Church. They were repulsed. In August 2021, God further spoke to another group of Christian elders in Lagos. They had started a weekly prayer meeting for Nigeria since 2014. God instructed them to write a letter to the Church leaders in Nigeria, warning them that He was “ANGRY” with them for their passivity to the horrors unfolding in the country. That letter was dated 26th August 2021. Those prominent church leaders received their letters individually, and the Elders followed up for their response. Regrettably, those elders (and the God who had sent them) were ignored. If those church leaders had responded humbly and allowed a dialogue, the matters would have been handled quietly.
In the prayer call of last week, entitled “The Sons of Issachar”, it was proposed that Church leaders should organise a “repentance and reconciliation” meeting as a prerequisite for divine intervention, as well as to unite the Body of Christ to resist the jihadists. We are still hoping that there shall be a proper and timely response by the Church leaders. The unfortunate general indifference of the Christian leadership when the Church is called upon to take corrective measures has been a major hinderance to healing and restoration in Nigeria.
This week, we seek to answer the question, “How did we get here?” The Nigeria Church is experiencing distress and calamity due to unimaginable betrayals by those entrusted with its leadership. That is a major problem that Christians must contend with. If the problem of compromise amongst church leaders can be solved, every other problem confronting the Church can be solved. The Christian community should be aware that even though these matters of church leaders’ compromise are now in the public domain, those leaders given to compromise have been unrelenting, as if on treacherous auto-drive, unable to stop unless compelled to. Some have built ministries on selfish interest, and others live above their legitimate means. Consequently, asking them to stop the compromises could be tantamount to asking them to commit suicide. Treachery appears to be the major source of income for those.
We shall highlight three kinds of treachery within the Christian leadership, that have brought the Church and the nation into the present bondage and bloodshed. They include actions that Christians see but the dots of which they might have been unable to connect.
1. Wilful transgression to satisfy personal selfish interest
In the runup to the 2015 elections, God made it clear that the jihadist party should not be permitted to form a government. Some Church leaders rose against that warning and worked to ensure that a well-known jihadist became the president of Nigeria. They not only voiced their objections to the word of God, they also wrote a letter to fight what they knew was God’s will. By that transgression, those Church leaders betrayed the Lord Who had called them into the ministry. It was a flagrant “Not Your will, but my will be done.” That betrayal opened the gates of hell into Nigeria. To shut it has become a herculean task. The jihadists now hold political power, and they use the instruments of the State to afflict Christians and Nigerians at large, courtesy of Church leaders.
2. The sin of irresponsibility
When God saw that the complicit actions of church leaders was going to put the jihadists into power, He started putting in place counter measures to mitigate the impact of their attacks and strengthen the Church to resist them. Those structures of divine mercy were neutralized by that leadership, making the jihadists stronger. For example, there was the CAN Trust Fund meant to raise N5 billion monthly to fund Christian advocacy and take care of vulnerable Christian areas, and the Strategy Document meant to initiate structures to strengthen the Church, promote the ideology of democracy in the country above the ideology of Islamism, as well as move the gospel into an offensive position against the ‘enemy at the gate.’ The vision for the Church was “GO NORTH”. Now, Christians are fleeing from the North. The Christian Political Consensus was a landmark initiative of the foresighted Elders, to harmonise Christian engagements in politics in Nigeria. The apparent intentional destruction of that great move ceded political power to jihadists. It smacked very painfully of treachery.
3. Criminal negligence
It amounts to criminal negligence when leaders fold their arms and do nothing while a group of people faces existential threat. In the past sixteen years since the Islamist insurgents have been attacking Christians in Nigeria, church leaders are yet to put reasonable structures in place, locally or internationally, to defend or succour endangered Christians. The last of such efforts was many years ago, before 2016, when a former president of CAN repeatedly went to the US Congress to raise alarm about the unfolding crisis in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Church can do much more than the nothing it has done in checking the excesses of the jihadists. The fundamental problem of Islamism can be resolved in the court. Credible efforts were made in that direction in 2018, but it did not get the support of the Church leaders. Another option was to harmonize Christians to use their demographic superiority in the country to promote democracy and ensure good governance in the land. Rather, church leaders openly threw their weight behind the jihadist political party, dismantled Christian political consensus, and ignored the Christian political candidates.
Apart from making weak and disjointed press statements, which some affirm are drafted in Aso Villa, church leaders have been missing in action. As little as ensuring that the Aso Villa Chapel is re-opened for Sunday worship has been hard. It appears to be a Church without cover, without direction, without succour.
As grievous as those transgressions are, they could have been resolved with a simple confession to God and apology to the Church. Anyone who thinks that that is difficult should recall that a Muslim, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, only last week, came out openly to apologize for a ‘technical glitch’ that affected many candidates in Lagos and in South-Eastern Nigeria in the just-concluded JAMB entrance examinations. That Director General of JAMB openly shed tears and apologized for the trauma that the glitch had caused the students and their parents. While some query whether the tears were sincere and redemptive, at least it brought reasonable reassurance, yet that technical disaster in no way compares to the many deaths and abductions at present in the country on account of blind church greed among leaders and the led.
If a Muslim could come out and accept responsibility for a problem caused by his subordinates, how about Christian leaders who teach repentance and restitution, whose personal infractions caused bloodshed, the death of millions of Nigerians, and calamities all over the country? Could there not be found one Church leader who would take the path of honour and accept responsibility for the disasters that their actions have caused?
This matter is only beginning. The court of heaven shall sit, and the books shall be opened. The betrayal of the Nigeria Church shall not go unaddressed. Too many lives have been destroyed.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
1) Matt. 16:18
Thank God that the Church is built upon Jesus, the Eternal Rock of Ages, and not on any man. Therefore, no treachery of man shall destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.
2) Job 5:12-14
Cancel all plans and conspiracies of the jihadists against the Nigeria Church. Pray that they shall be consumed by their own wickedness.
3) Isaiah 29:6-8
Pronounce the judgment of God against every nation and ethnic group involved in jihad against Nigeria.
4) Mal. 2:7-9
Pray that unless and until they repent, God would execute judgment upon every priest in the Nigeria Church that betrayed the Church.
5) 2 Kgs. 19:32-35
Pray that all the forces of jihad in Nigeria shall be smitten by the power of God.
6. Isaiah 40:1-2
Pray the comfort and restoration of God for everyone in Nigeria who has been attacked by the jihadists, especially Christians.
7. Jer. 3:15
Pray that God would raise credible spiritual leaders in the Church, who will unite the Church and set it on the right path for victory, healing, and restoration.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 12th - Sunday 18th May 2025
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do (1 Chr. 12:32).
On the day of Pentecost, after Peter had delivered his message, the bewildered crowd asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). If there is one question Nigeria Christians should be asking now, it should be, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Any Christian in Nigeria not burdened about the state of the country and the plight of the Church under the present circumstances in the country, should be charged with criminal negligence. Even for people of faith who have the assurance that the situation will turn out for good, there must still be godly concern about the escalating bloodshed and insecurity in the land. Rather than diminish, the bloodletting and kidnapping are assuming epidemic proportions.
The Bible talks about the children of Issachar, who had two qualities indispensable in resolving crucial national issues. They had:
1. An understanding of the times and seasons
2. They knew what should be done in due season
The Nigeria Church in this season needs men and women who understand what is going on in the country, why things are happening that way, and what should be done to return the country to normalcy. The Church has in abundance men and women who understand what is going in Nigeria, but there seems to be a shortage of those who know what to do. It is not enough to understand what is causing the crisis in the land, the proper solutions must also be provided. In this prayer call, we shall focus on what the Nigeria Church ought to do.
To enable us to arrive at the proper solutions to the crisis in Nigeria, we shall refer to an instruction that God gave Prof. Vincent Anigbogu in September 2013. God instructed him to study the factors that were responsible for the collapse of Christianity in Constantinople, which is present-day Istanbul in Turkey. From 330 AD till 1453, (1,123 years) Constantinople was the centre of Christianity in the East, while Rome was the centre of Christianity in the West. Constantinople boasted of having, in that period, the largest and most beautiful cathedral in world, the Haggia Sophia. Today, Haggia Sophia is a mosque. Turkey, at present, is 98% Islam, while Christianity is less than 1% in the country. Officially, Christianity ended in Constantinople in 1453 after a siege mounted by twenty-one-year-old Sultan Mehmed.
The point was made on a previous occasion, that if Islam could eradicate Christianity in Constantinople, after an existence of 1,123 years, the Nigeria Church, which is 183 years old in 2025, counting from 1842 when Methodist Rev. Birch Freeman arrived in Badagry, should not assume that Islam cannot “eradicate it in all its forms and ramifications”, according to the jihadist communique tagged “Abuja Declarations 1989.” These historical facts are shared not to cause panic, but to lay bare the facts of what is confronting the Nigeria Church.
Prof. Anigbogu researched the factors leading to the fall of Constantinople and discovered fourteen mistakes that the Christians then made. Those fourteen mistakes led to the collapse of Christianity and the capture of Haggia Sophia. When God led him to look at the Nigeria Church, he was alarmed to discover that the Nigeria Church was repeating those fourteen mistakes. That was when God told him, on Saturday 14th September 2013, “If care is not taken, in 30 – 40 years, Nigeria will be like Turkey.” By 2025, it has been 12 years since that warning, and Nigeria is already being ruled by a Muslim–Muslim ticket that was facilitated into office by Church leaders. Their Muslim-Muslim candidates have shut the only Christian Chapel in Aso Villa for two years. The Church leaders who facilitated the Muslim-Muslim ticket into office are not saying anything about the Aso Villa Chapel that, for two years, has stopped observing Sunday worship service. Meanwhile, over four mosques operate in the Villa.
In this treatise, there shall be no time to go through the fourteen factors that led to the collapse of Christianity in Constantinople. However, attention shall be focused on what is considered the most crucial factor, and that is the unity of the Church. Amongst those fourteen factors are two factors that should concern us. They are:
1. The leadership of the church within and outside Constantinople was bitterly divided.
2. Racism and tribalism weakened and eventually broke the unity of the Body of Christ.
That was in 1453. Fast forward to 2025, and consider the state of the Church in Nigeria under an intensive attack from jihadists. According to the historical narrative that Prof. Anigbogu enunciated, the Body of Christ in Constantinople remained divided, even under the siege. Eventually, they agreed to a reconciliation meeting on the eve of the capture of Constantinople. By then, it was too late. The following day, Constantinople fell.
Now, to the children of Issachar in Nigeria, who understand the times, what ought the Church to do? Should the Nigeria Church wait until too late, for repentance and reconciliation? To avert the looming disaster, it is imperative that Christian leaders be persuaded to organize a “repentance and reconciliation” meeting: repentance towards God, and reconciliation towards one another.
Repentance of Church leaders is indispensable because there is overwhelming evidence that some Christian leaders facilitated the emergence of the jihadist party into power. Ordinarily, that is a grievous sin. Some Church leaders made it worse, because they committed that transgression after God had specifically warned that the jihadist party should not be permitted to form a government. To confirm that they received the warning, they wrote a letter to denounce and reject the warning. Theirs was an act of wilful rebellion the consequences of which the entire country is now suffering. Before God, it cannot be ignored.
The truth of the matter is that, if there is no open acknowledgement and repentance of the complicity of the Church in the calamity that has befallen Nigeria, divine intervention may continue to be delayed, and judgment could fall heavier. God has sent signals that He is willing to forgive, but His conditions must be met. God in His righteous judgment will not overlook an act of wilful rebellion that has resulted in massive bloodshed. It is this rebellion that has brought blood guiltiness upon Nigeria, not just the vicious murders committed by the jihadists. God charged David with killing Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites. In like manner, the Nigeria Church is charged with the murder of Nigerians with the AK47 of the jihadists. This is the fundamental sin that must be confessed and atoned for, before heaven will respond with intervention.
The Church leaders who participated in that act of rebellion must come out and accept responsibility for their actions. Just as their actions brought calamity upon Nigeria, their repentance would bring restoration.
If the Church leaders are unwilling to organize the meeting, lay leaders should organize the “repentance and reconciliation” meeting and repent on their behalf. At this point, it is still easy to roll back, with minimal loss, the aggressive advance of the jihadists. The jihadists could not have come this far if the Most High had not nodded His head for them to advance. The Scriptures say that the "Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria" (Isaiah 7:18). There is an international conspiracy of many Islamic nations to turn Nigeria into an Islamic country as a prelude to transforming Africa into an Islamic continent. The sheer audacity that they can displace over 200 million people is an indication that what is going in Nigeria is not human. God has a hand in this.
Shockingly, instead of retracing their steps and desisting from collaborating with Islamists, some Church leaders are still working to ensure that, in the next elections, the Islamists remain in power. Some of the most vocal propagandists for the Islamists are Christian elites. The promotion of personal selfish interest has eaten deeply into the fabric of the Church to the extent that the suffering of the average citizen is of no concern to some Christian leaders, so long as their nest is feathered.
We are not unaware that there was a repentance meeting by some Church leaders, at the National Christian Centre in Abuja. However, those that needed to be there did not attend, nor were the real issues stated. In approaching this matter, the Church cannot afford to be politically correct. These are serious issues that require brokenness and godly sorrow for sin.
This is a call for brokenness and godly sorrow over the sins and transgressions of the Church. Only genuine repentance will move the hands of God and open His ears to the plight and cries of Nigerian Christians in this season. That genuine repentance must come from the leaders who incurred the wrath of God upon the land.
God bless Nigeria.
1. Isaiah 59:1-2
Confess the sins of the Church leaders who acted against God’s revealed will and endorsed jihadists to rule Nigeria. Pray that the blood of Jesus shall cleanse and deliver Nigeria from the consequence of their sins and transgressions.
2. Ez. 18:1-4
Pray that every Christian leader that heaven holds complicit in bringing blood guiltiness upon Nigeria shall alone face the consequence of their actions.
3. Ez. 18:20
Plead with the Almighty God that Nigeria would not be held responsible for the transgressions of some of the Church leaders. ”The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
4. 2 Cor. 7:10
Pray that godly sorrow for sins shall overwhelm Nigeria Christians, and there shall be genuine repentance at all levels in the Church.
5. Jn. 17:20-23
Pray that the prayer of Jesus for the unity of His followers shall be answered in the Nigeria Church. Pray for unity and Godly reconciliation in the Body of Christ in Nigeria.
6. Is. 29:6-8
Pray that all the nations attacking Nigeria shall be scattered, according to the word of God.
7. Jam. 2:13
Pray that mercy shall prevail over judgment in 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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 5th - Sunday 11th May 2025
A couple of weeks ago, we published a prayer call entitled “THE TIRSHATHA”. There, we looked at Nehemiah as an example of Godly leadership during crisis. Within the Nehemiah account lies an account of ungodly leadership amidst crises. Both accounts are preserved in the Scriptures for our learning and admonition.
Eliashib the high priest was introduced in Neh. 3:1 as a humble and responsive office holder. He was the first to respond to the call to rebuild the broken walls of Jerusalem and he rallied his brethren, the priests, to join in the work.
Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel (Neh. 3:1).
Unlike the nobles of Tekoa who, in Neh. 3:5, are reported to have "put not their necks to the work of their Lord," Eliashib put his neck to the work of the Lord and mobilized other priests to do the same. His response, as the high priest, must have encouraged other families and groups in Jerusalem to join in the work.
Had Eliashib continued that way, his story would have been written in gold. Unfortunately, something disastrous occurred to Eliashib. It is recorded in Neh. 13:4-5 that Eliashib did the unthinkable. He emptied a room in the temple for Tobiah. "And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah: And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priests."
When Nehemiah arrived to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, three people led stiff opposition against the work. They were: Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. They were the enemies of the Jews whose High priest was Eliashib. Under the Mosaic law, leadership of the nation was vested in the high priest. That was the only office that was openly ordained by God to lead the nation, before the monarchy. After the monarchy was destroyed by the Babylonian captivity, the office of the high priest remained.
Why would the high priest empty a room in the "house of our God"
for a public enemy of God? The answer is, compromise. Eliashib’s grandson, the son of Joiada (Eliashib’s son) was married to a daughter of Sanballat, the archenemy of the Jews. As the high priest, Eliashib knew that God forbad marriage with the heathen nations, yet his grandson married the daughter of Sanballat. After breaking the law of God, it was no longer difficult for Eliashib to bring defilement into the sanctuary. Again, as the high priest, Eliashib knew that God had commanded that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever (Neh. 13:1). Tobiah, whom Eliashib accommodated in the temple, was an Ammonite!
By that inappropriate action, Eliashib proved that even though he occupied a leadership position, he was neither a leader of the people, nor a servant of God. He did his abomination because Nehemiah had gone back to king Artaxerxes. The moment the true leader was out of Jerusalem, Eliashib manifested his strange character. If Nehemiah had not returned when he did, only God knows what other atrocities might have been committed by the spiritual leader of Israel. When Nehemiah returned, starvation had started driving the Levites out of the temple, because their welfare was no longer the concern of the sanctuary. The room where their supplies were supposed to be kept had been handed over to Tobiah by no other than the high priest. Upon his return, Nehemiah asked, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” (Neh. 13:11). The house of God was forsaken because the high priest compromised with the enemies of God. Why would the high priest bring an entity like Tobiah the Ammonite into the temple? What was Eliashib thinking?
It is dangerous when the past successes of a leader are used to excuse his present failures. A leader must be judged and assessed by whatever he is doing at the moment. That a man started well, does not mean he will end well. That a man did the will of God yesterday does not mean he is doing the will of God today. This is a lesson that Nigeria Christians are yet to learn. Even when the consequences of the serial compromises of their leaders are staring them in the face, Christians still find it difficult to hold them accountable the way Nehemiah promptly dealt with the compromise of Eliashib. If Nehemiah had held on to the previous record of Eliashib, he would have been unable to deal with the problem he met in Jerusalem on his return from king Artaxerxes.
Nigeria Christians are not interrogating the actions of their spiritual leaders. They are using the success of yesterday to provide excuses for today’s compromise and treachery of some of the leaders, even those responsible for the bloodshed and other calamities that have befallen the Church and the country today. Like Eliashib, they have compromised.
Bearing in mind that some of the Christians are prone to argument, some examples shall be cited, of glaring compromises by spiritual leaders in the Church. The All Progressives Congress (APC) gained political power in Nigeria; a prominent church leader wrote a letter that negated a clear warning from God that APC should not be permitted to form government. Thus, the “son” of that spiritual leader was politically “married” off to a “jihadist”, and together, they collapsed the security architecture of Nigeria and turned the country into the poverty capital of the world. They laid the foundation upon which the present-day devourers are building.
It did not end there. The apex body of Christianity in Nigeria, like Eliashib, brought Buhari (represented by Rotimi Amaechi), Atiku, Miyetti Allah, Tinubu and Shettima, into the National Christian Centre for political engagement and dialogue. After their dialogues, the intensity of the murder of Christians escalated, kidnappings were added, while organ harvesting became the new scourge in the country. The reception Christian leaders gave the Muslim-Muslim ticket candidates of APC, at the National Christian Centre before 2023 election, was not given to any Christian candidate contesting in the same election.
It did not end there. Do Nigeria Christians remember those who made the following statements?
After endorsing APC to form a government, they kept reinforcing its failures so that the Christian community would not agitate for their removal. That their flock are brutalized and pauperized does not seem to matter to the leaders. Such is the spirit of Eliashib. So long as Tobiah is comfortable in the temple, starvation can drive the Levites out to fend for themselves.
When leaders compromise, the followers suffer the consequence. In the case of Eliashib, Nehemiah quickly stepped in to prevent another collapse of the nation. Who is stepping in for the Nigeria Church?
This prayer call is not demonizing Christian leaders, it is an attempt to awaken the Christian community to the dangers of compromise in spiritual leadership. This matter is raised to alert the Christian community that those who endorsed APC into power are preparing to do it again in 2027. Therefore, the Christian community needs to organize peaceful counter measures because the consequence of leadership compromise is borne by the followers and not by the leaders. If leaders bore the consequences of their compromise, they would not do it.
Remedial measures should be considered to mobilize and harmonize the Christian community to reverse the compromise that weakened the Church. One of such measures is to build a structure that will be a rallying point for Christians. In 2001, the five Church groups established Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) to manage Christian engagement in politics and social issues. This is a laity-based movement. This movement accommodates every Church group in Nigeria. It was dormant for some years, but it has been revived. Christians should participate in it and build a common front for the emergence of righteous leadership for Nigeria. In addition to prayers, there must be proactive engagement of politics. Faith without works is dead.
May God deliver Nigeria Christians from a generation of Eliashibs in the sanctuary.
Christians who are interested in proactive measures can visit www.csmnigeria.org to register and receive further information.
1. Jer. 43:1-2 Confess the man made calamity that befell the Church. God, in His mercy, gave sufficient warning to avert it but some self-seeking Christian leaders negated God’s counsel. Pray for God’s forgiveness and deliverance.
2. Deut. 5:32-33 Confess the compromise of God’s standards and commands by many of the Church leaders. Pray that God would uproot all in leadership positions who have compromised God’s perfect will for the Church and Nigeria.
3. Hos. 4:7-9 As the country approaches another election, pray that God will disable and render powerless any Christian leader that wants to promote evil an government in Nigeria.
4. Jer. 3:15 Compromise in the Church produces spiritual decay, social unrest, the loss of spiritual authority and provokes divine judgment. Pray that God would give the Nigeria Church spiritual leaders with strong moral character and genuine fear of God.
5. Isaiah 33:22 Pray that God will raise a righteous judge, like Nehemiah for Nigeria.
6. Rev. 11:15 Pray for unity amongst all Christian groups in Nigeria to forge a unified political agenda.
7. Isaiah 43:18-19 Pray that the new Nigeria shall come forth and it shall neither be delayed nor deferred, in the name of Jesus Christ.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 28th April - Sunday 4th May 2025
Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! (Ecc. 10:16-17).
At various times, God has revealed that a “David” would sit on the throne of Nigeria. Faith in those revelations has been strengthened by the prophecy of Pastor Elton in 1986, that Nigeria would go through two phases: a first phase of corruption in which the country would stink globally, and a second phase of glory in which it would be known for righteousness. According to recent prophecies, Nigeria is on the verge of transition from the phase of corruption to the phase of righteousness.
Nigeria incurred the wrath of the Almighty God when, in 1977, it organized a celebration for Lucifer, under the guise of promoting culture. Not a few spiritually discerning people in the country affirmed that FESTAC ’77 was where the country lost the favour of God, and has had a downward slide since then. Fortunately, God has also promised, in a prophecy delivered in 2024, that 50 years after FESTAC ’77, Nigeria would receive forgiveness for the sin of idolatry that brought judgment upon the country. It is therefore safe to conclude, as intercessors, that Nigeria is on the verge of breakthrough into glory, because 50 years after FESTAC ‘77 is 2027. In an earlier prophecy of 2023, God said that 40 years after the prophecy of Pastor Elton, Nigeria would transit into the phase of righteousness, and 40 years from 1986 is 2026. It was pointed out in a previous prayer call that 2026 and 2027 are crucial years for Nigeria.
The escalation of corruption, violence, bloodshed, and immorality in the land are signs that the forces of darkness want to commit as much atrocities as possible before their tenure expires. If possible, they want to provoke God, through the people of land, to extend the time of affliction. It sometimes occurs that a people, out of prolonged rebellion, provoke God to prolong judgment on their land.
Christians should not be naïve to assume that Satan and his forces will give up without a fight, but nothing happens to a land without the approval of God. Prophet Amos asks, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" (Amos 3:6). In Prov. 16:4, the word of God says, "The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil."
God is in total control of all that is going on in Nigeria, but God's intervention in any land is usually determined by how the people of there relate with Him. The situation of any land is worse when the people of God there act contrary to the revealed will of God. It is in this regard that the Nigeria Church has become a liability to Nigeria. Part of the prayers for Nigeria must include God’s mercy and intervention for a new leadership to take the Church back to God’s righteousness.
If the Nigeria Church had been faithful to God, the severity of His judgement would have been less. Unfortunately, the Church has been mismanaged and misled by a generation of leaders whose passion is for earthly wealth and fame rather than heaven's interest and righteousness. Some of them, unfortunately, have been collaborators with Islamists while others have become outright worshippers of mammon. Sadly, they are not showing signs of repentance.
In the circumstances, the intercessory community must accept responsibility to ensure that the manifestation of “David” is neither delayed nor deferred. God has been known to delay the deliverance of a land until His conditions are met. The Israelites in Egypt did not understand that, but Daniel in Medo-Persia did. If Daniel alone could stand for Israel and bring their captivity to an end at the fulness of time, the intercessory community in Nigeria can, and must bring to an end the judgment of God upon the country, ushering in the “David”.
As can be seen in the case of Nigeria, the flagship for the affliction of the land, the All Progressives Congress political party, is doing everything possible to dig-in as the sole ruling party in Nigeria. It is undeniable that since APC assumed political power in 2015, the condition of Nigeria has worsened. Everything that was right went wrong, and what was wrong got worse. God permitted Satan to bring out the worst he has in his storehouse to afflict Nigeria. The last ten years of Nigeria under APC have been hell on earth. A comparative analysis of Nigeria before APC got into power, and the period that APC has been in power, will settle any argument on the matter. Despite complaining about corruption under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), not a few Nigerians now wish for the days of PDP rule. Both PDP and APC are bad, but the replacement to PDP has been worse. The condition appears to be as lamented in Joel 1:4: "that which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten." The worst, after the bad.
This concern underscores the desperation of the land for a deliverer. The weight of divine judgment is heavy upon Nigeria. The situation must not degenerate. The situation might have improved if the Church had responded to God in genuine repentance. As pointed out earlier, the leadership of the Church is occupied by some who openly identify with APC.
In matters like this, God has His calendar, and He does not usually act outside it, except in cases of extreme demonstration of grace, as in Matt. 24:22. Our concern is that Nigeria must not miss the divine deadline for the manifestation of its “David”. The political forces that were birthed in the 6th Chamber of hell in 2014 will fight tooth and nail and employ all sorcery, rituals, violence, and subterfuge to remain in control of the country. The answer to their wickedness would be intercessors labouring for God to foil all the attacks of Satan and His forces and establishing His Kingdom in Nigeria through the vessel whom He has chosen. The season calls for vigorous spiritual engagement of those forces of darkness behind bloodshed in the land.
We should also acknowledge that it is not only intercessors that have a role to play. Other Christians have work to do in bringing the man of righteousness to the throne of Nigeria. There are Christians who should make political preparations, economic arrangements, media engagements, as well as mobilization of the people. What is important is that every Christian should identify what he or she has been called to do, and faithfully do it. The extreme opinion of some Christians that what they are doing is the only thing that should be done should cease. We have encountered Christians who are called to pray, and they insist that all that needs to be done is prayer, and God will do the rest. We have also encountered Christians who proclaim that the people have prayed enough, that prayers should stop so that mobilization can commence. Both positions are extreme. When the mighty men of Israel came to make David king, there were those who came with provisions to meet their needs. When Jesus chose His twelve apostles, there were women who supplied their needs.
Christians must develop an attitude of cooperation and appreciation of each other to bring the “David” to the throne. No task is insignificant. Those who are called to pray should not look down on those engaging in politics, while those in politics should not deride those who pray. Let each person do what God has called him or her to do. What matters is for the man of righteousness to sit on the throne of Nigeria.
As we round up this week’s prayer call, we must thank God, according to Ps. 124. What Satan and his human allies had purposed to do to Nigerians is much worse than whatever we are witnessing. God has still given us many reasons for thanksgiving. May the Lord perfect His good counsel for Nigeria. Amen.
1. Ps. 124
Thank God for His mercy upon Nigeria despite the many sins committed in the land.
2. Ex. 20:3-6
Confess and repent for all the acts of idolatry in Nigeria, particularly the FESTAC ‘77. Ask God to forgive Nigeria for the state-sponsored public display of idolatry.
3. Matt. 6:24
Confess and repent for the failure of the Church to focus on God alone. The worship of mammon divided the loyalty of many Christians towards God. Renounce mammon as “master” in the Church.
4. Dan. 9:1-3
Pray to God to bring to an end the desolation and indignation upon Nigeria. Pray that the indignation over Nigeria be not extended.
5. 1 Tim. 2:1-2
Pray that the righteous ruler who shall usher in the era of God in Nigeria shall be revealed by God at the fulness of time and he shall sit on the throne of the country. The manifestation of “David” shall not be delayed.
6. Num. 27:15-17; 1 Cor. 1:10
Pray that God will raise a leader within the Church who will coordinate and harmonize the Christian efforts to birth the new Nigeria. Pray that Christians will pray and work with unity of purpose to birth the new Nigeria.
7. Isaiah 8:9-10
Pray that God will scatter the coalition of foreign nations conspiring to destabilize and attack Nigeria to promote their selfish interests.
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
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Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 21st - Sunday 27th April 2025
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (John 15:12).
On 7th February 2017, during the biennial conference of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) in Benin City, Edo State, the then Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, delivered the keynote address entitled “Our Greatest Enemy is Hate.” In the paper, Prof. Osinbajo catalogued the series of riots in Nigeria, mostly religious riots in the northern parts of the country. The account was chilling. A short excerpt from his paper reads as follows:
"Between 1979 and 1983, during the Shagari administration, there were the Maitatsine crises in Kano, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Yola, and the Gombe riots in 1980, and the Kalakuta crises in Bulumkutu, Maiduguri, where over 5,000 died and 60,000 were displaced. In the first coming of the military administration of General Muhammadu Buhari (1983 – 1985), we also had the Maitatsine riot in Jimeta, and in Yola in February 1985. In that riot, about 586 died. A re-occurrence was seen in the Pagani ward of Gombe in April of the same year, claiming another 165 souls. The Maitatsine crisis ended with General Buhari’s Government which put a stop to it in 1985.
"The spiral of religious clashes, however, continued in the Babangida administration (August 1985 – 1993). You might recall, for instance, the Easter procession clashes in Ilorin in March 1986 and the clashes between Christian and Muslim students of the University of Ibadan in May 1986. There was also the violence in Jos in 1987 and the Kafanchan crises in Southern Kaduna, the same year, where thousands of people died in Kafanchan, Kano, Zamfara and Bauchi. Religious riots still occurred in the following year in Bauchi and Gombe as well as in Zaria and Kaduna where 107 students of the Ahmadu Bello University were seriously injured during the election of a Christian to the leadership of the Students Union.
"A Shiite uprising followed in Katsina in 1991, with dozens of lives lost. Another clash of Christians and Muslims in Bauchi in April 21, 1991 claimed 200 lives, and 700 places of worship were burnt. Other notable cases include the Bonnke Riot of October 1991 in which hundreds died in Kano and the renewed Kafanchan crises of 1992 where, at least, 60 were killed in Zango Kataf. Several more lives were lost in Funtua, Katsina State during the Kalakato crises of February 1992. Under the Military administration of General Abacha in November 1993 to June 9, 1998, there were two occurrences of religious riots again in Jos in April 1994 and April 1997 where, at least, 200 houses were burnt down and several persons killed."
The full paper can be accessed at: https://proshare.co/articles/acting-president-yemi-osinbajos-speech-at-the-pfn-14th-national-biennial-conference-in-benin-city?menu=Economy&classification=Read&category=Politics
The unfortunate narrative above has been surpassed by the cycle of violence and destruction unleased upon Nigeria from 2009 to date. The magnitude of the destruction of lives and properties that has taken place in Nigeria from 2009 makes the narrative above a child’s play. Insurgent groups like Boko Haram, Fulani 'Herdsmen,' 'Bandits,' Al Qaeda, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and the other terrorist organizations have turned Nigeria into killing fields. Clearly, their actions are motivated by hate.
Recently, Christians in the North and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria have been traumatized, oppressed, persecuted, and afflicted in the most inhumane manner unimaginable, as reported below of the Gbagyi people:
The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) identified two major factors responsible for violence and disunity in Nigeria:
1. The supremacist ideology of a particular ethnic group
2. The doctrine of hate taught in Madrasas of northern Nigeria
History has confirmed that one section of the country is filled with hate and intolerance towards other sections of the country. That hate is not in-born; it is deliberately taught and nurtured as a tool for political and cultural domination. The hate is being deployed on the platform of a religion. The solution is not counter hate but the infusion of the superior ideology of love. Hate will always beget hate. Those who promote the doctrine of hate have destruction and death as their ultimate goal. At a meeting of some select religious leaders in Abuja in 2015, it was agreed that violence cannot prevail against an ideology. Only a counter ideology can. The Church has that counter ideology.
In addition to the various prayers for Nigeria, the Church should consider practical ways of deploying its counter ideology of love to overcome the destructive doctrine of hate that wreaks so much havoc in the country. As Prof. Osinbajo wondered in his paper in 2017, “… why is it that no administration since 1970 has succeeded in completely stopping these killings? ... It is because the answer to hate lies with the Church. It can only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Prof. Osinbajo went further, “How can a man pray for those who, in his presence, killed his children and ripped out the baby with which his wife was pregnant? How do you love someone who comes into your community annually to kill as many as he can find? How do I turn the other cheek when the bones of the right side of my face have been cracked by the first slap?” The answer to this question is provided by God when He says in His word, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).
While we appreciate the good words of Prof. Osinbajo in 2017, we are not by this prayer call absolving the government of Buhari (in which Prof. Osinbajo was the Number Two man) of criminal negligence with respect to managing the security of the country. The security architecture of Nigeria collapsed under the Buhari presidency. For historical accuracy, we are referring to the paper delivered by the former Vice President because no one can contest the authenticity of the data it provides.
The challenge facing the Church, within the equal rights of self-defense, is how to mobilize and deploy its superior ideology of love to overcome the destructive ideology of hate that is ravaging the country. A Muslim convert to Christianity in the North said, “If Christians live like Christians, no Muslim will remain a Muslim.”
It is time for Christians to awaken the love of Christ in their individual lives as well as in their churches. Currently, the love of Christ is in short supply within the Church. The current atmosphere of division and contention amongst Christian groups, as well as amongst church leaders, is a manifestation of hate, not love. The open strife amongst some ministers of the gospel promotes division amongst their followers. Going by the command of Jesus in John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" it will appear that the Nigeria Church lacks genuine disciples of Jesus.
The neglect of persecuted Christians in the country, particularly those in IDP camps, is a serious indictment of the Nigeria Church. All efforts to mobilize Christians to help those in IDPs have yielded little result. In one extreme case, church leaders wilfully destroyed structures that were built to mobilize support for Christian IDPs.
The Church that is meant to deploy the ideology of love to combat hate in the country is battling hate within its fold. A Church that would not demonstrate the love of Christ to its members will find it difficult to utilize the ideology of love to counter the ideology of hate in the land. The first step is for Christian leaders to build structures to resolve strife amongst ministers of the gospel. Such a structure was proposed in the Strategy Document submitted to CAN by the National Christian Elders Forum in 2015. Regrettably, the document was not implemented. If the Church does not have a structure to maintain discipline and orderliness, building Christian love and unity will remain a mirage.
Having identified hate as our worst enemy, conscious efforts should be made in the Church to eliminate hate within the Body of Christ. There must be conscious plans to promote brotherly love amongst the saints. One of such works is to support persecuted Christians. If the enemies of the Church see Christians taking care of persecuted Christians, they will begin to respect them. However, if the current attitude of neglect of Christian IDPs persists, the message is that nobody cares for the persecuted, and the terrorists would be emboldened to afflict them the more.
We are commanded by the Master to demonstrate the love of God to a broken world, starting from the household of God. In 1 Cor. 13 we are taught that if we do everything but do not have love, we are nothing. May our love not grow cold.
1. John 13:35
The Nigeria Church has fallen below the expectation of the Lord with regards to brotherly love. Pray for forgiveness and ask for the Lord’s intervention for Christians to walk in love towards each other.
2. Jam. 4:1-3
Pray for the righteous judgment of God to fall upon ministers of the gospel who are causing divisions amongst the saints because of their contentions and covetousness.
3. Num. 35:33-34
For many years, Nigeria has been polluted by the blood of the innocent. Pray that God will purge and cleanse the land from the pollution and defilement of bloodshed, according to His righteous judgment.
4. Rom. 12:17-19
Pray that God will execute judgment according to His word upon all who afflict Christians in Nigeria. Pray God’s judgment on all the sponsors, collaborators, and foot soldiers of the various expressions of terrorism in Nigeria.
5. Matt. 24:22
Pray that God will shorten the days of His indignation against Nigeria so that a righteous government shall emerge to tackle insecurity in the country.
6. Ps. 91:9-13
Pray for divine protection for Christians undergoing persecution in Nigeria. Pray that God will send angels to protect them from all attacks.
7. Matt. 6:10
Pray that the Government of the Kingdom of God shall come upon Nigeria and the will of God be done all over the country. Amen.
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
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Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
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NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 14th - Sunday 20th April 2025
Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor. But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God (Neh. 5:14-15).
Whenever the people of God are in distress, through manifold sins and disobedience, God’s prescription has been to search out a man to lead the people out of the distress and back to God. In God’s dealings with man, leadership is crucial. Repeatedly in the Scriptures, God says the same thing:
1 Sam. 13:14 ”... the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart”
Jer. 4:25 “I beheld, and, lo, there was no man…”_
Jer. 5:1 ”Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now … if ye can find a man … that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.”
Ezek. 22:30 ”And I sought for a man … that should … stand in the gap before me for the land ...”
The greatest problem of Nigeria today is not a lack of wealth, resources, or capable manpower, but the lack of people who meet the stringent requirements of God for proper leadership. The burden of raising such a leader is upon the Church. While there are many people who occupy positions and bear titles in the Church, the dedicated leadership required for national transformation is grossly in short supply.
The spiritual leadership that will birth national transformation must be modelled after the pattern of Christ: “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all” (Mark 10:44) In this generation, in which servants of Christ want to be referred to as “daddy”, “papa”, and “father in the Lord”, finding the required authentic spiritual leadership candidates amongst Christians becomes a serious challenge. Many covet positions and titles in the Church; very few pursue authentic spiritual leadership.
In the book of Nehemiah, we find a model of leadership that surpasses what we find in the Church and in the country. Nehemiah distinguished himself in his generation by the quality of leadership he provided for the Israelites. He was not only an administrator, he was also an effective spiritual leader, a revivalist, an army general, a tactical diplomat, a compassionate benefactor, a defender of Godly moral standards, and a strict disciplinarian. Nehemiah satisfied the three broad conditions required for Godly leadership. He was:
1. Spiritual
2. Authoritative
3. Sacrificial
When Nehemiah heard of the broken walls of Jerusalem, he started seeking the face of God in prayers. The problem of the entire nation became a burden to him, which he first discharged through prayers. To inform his boss the king about the burden on his heart, he also prayed. As the rebuilding of the wall progressed, Nehemiah kept praying. He was a leader who realized that his strength and ability came from God, and he ensured that he remained connected with Heaven. He did not permit the allure of the office of the governor to distract him from his relationship with God. The fire on his personal altar did not go cold at anytime.
Nehemiah exemplified authoritative leadership in how he dealt with the shylock Israelites who were oppressing the less privileged ones amongst them. He did not show respect of persons but spoke for the poor and needy. He used the authority of the office of the governor to promote righteousness and justice in the land. While other men might have befriended the rich and the powerful in the society, Nehemiah used his authority to call them to order and ensured that the wealthy ones did what was right. He demonstrated boldness in how he handled Sanballat and Tobias. His response when asked to hide in the temple from would-be assassins was a classic, “Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in” (Neh. 6:11).
As a sacrificial leader, he joined his men in the work as well as in providing guard duty. Nehemiah and his men did not change their clothes in the fifty-two days it took for the project to be completed (Neh. 4:23). He was not merely a supervisor, he was a labourer amongst the labourers. At his table, from his personal expenses, he made sure that he provided daily meals for many people. All the while, out of the fear of God and a compassion for their sufferings, he refused to extort money from the people. He sacrificed the privileges that other governors enjoyed, and rather bore the expenses of making life easier for those he led.
A leader like Nehemiah the Tirshatha is what the Nigeria Church and the country require. Many Christians in spiritual and political positions fall far below this model of leadership. Having such a leader in the Church and in the land should be the goal of Christians. The model of Nehemiah should be the irreducible minimum standard to measure leadership in the Church.
Leaders like Nehemiah are not raised in leadership schools or at business seminars. There is divine sovereignty in the manifestation of such leaders. Someone might say that such leadership virtues belong to those who have prepared themselves. That is not entirely correct. They are prepared by God. The Bible says in Matt. 10:40, “But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.”_Certain people have been prepared by God to play some roles in the life of a nation. It is God Who endows them with the burden for leadership and creates the enabling environment for them to manifest and perform.
True spiritual authority does not belong to those who seek it. It is usually reserved for those whom the office calls. Oswald Sanders wrote, “Should it not be the office that seeks the man, rather than the man the office?” Jeremiah 45:5 admonishes us thus: “And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not…” It is perilous to put an ambitious man into office. The word “ambition” derives from a Latin word that means, “canvassing for promotion”.
In Mark 10:35-45, Jesus taught His disciples the principle of leadership in the Kingdom of God. It is the office that seeks the man, and those who have been sought are called to be the servants of all. If this principle can guide all who occupy leadership positions in the Church, blessings may begin to proceed from spiritual and temporal offices in the land.
For now, the Christian community should commence prayers for God to release His appointed leaders for the Church and for Nigeria. There are men like David in the land, men like Nehemiah, Joseph, Joshua, Moses, and Paul. There are people who have been prepared by God for such a time like this. Only Heaven can release them. Concerning John the Baptist, the Bible says in Luke 1:80, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.” There comes a day for the manifestation of the authentic spiritual leader in the Church. The Nigeria Church is ripe for such a leader. If the leadership crisis in the Church can be resolved through the manifestation of authentic spiritual leaders, Nigeria will reap the blessing. The responsibility of the Christians is to pray authentic spiritual leaders into manifestation. It is time for the manifestation of the sons of God in the Church. Men must make the demand, and Heaven shall respond. It is time for God to release His champions for the Nigeria Church, because Jesus must be glorified.
God bless Nigeria.
1. Mal. 3:1
Pray that God shall release to the Nigeria Church His messenger who shall rebuild the broken altar of righteousness in the Church and in the land, so that Jesus shall be glorified.
2. Jer. 3:15
Pray for the release of a new generation of spiritual leaders in the Church, who shall be men after the heart of God.
3. Neh. 6:11
Pray to God to release for the Church bold and uncompromising leaders who can stand to defend Christians without fearing the enemy.
4. Neh. 5:14-17
Pray that God would raise a new set of Church leaders who will have compassion on the sufferings of Christians in Nigeria, and release the resources of the Church to help weak and vulnerable Christians.
5. Neh. 13:23-25
Pray for the manifestation of Christian leaders who will restore the moral standards of God in the Church and challenge worldliness in believers.
6. Rom. 8:19
The Nigeria Church has failed in raising disciples. However, what is impossible with man is possible with God. Pray for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, for revival to be poured upon the Church in Nigeria.
7. Isaiah 32:10-15
After many years of trouble in the land, pray that the Spirit of God would be poured upon Nigeria for restoration and for healing.
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
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Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 7th March - Sunday 13th April 2025
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
The Bible passage above is a messianic prophecy about the character and attributes of Jesus Christ. As the Head of the Church, which is His Body, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven while His Body is on the earth. The Son of God reigns over all creation, both visible and invisible, and has committed the government on earth to the Church, His body, for "the government shall be upon his shoulder…" The shoulder is a part of the body; it is not part of the head. It is the divine responsibility of the Church, the Body of Christ, to provide the president, governors, senators, and all the various appointees or electoral officials that exercise governance in the land. This is the calling of the Church. Governance is the responsibility of the Body of Christ, however, the exact opposite is witnessed in Nigeria. Rather than provide governance, the instrument of the State is used to oppress, afflict, and persecute the Church. Could we then say that the word of God is not true? Far from it. The problem is not the word of God, it is the Church, and the problem of the Church is its leadership.
Christian leadership is required to mobilize and harmonize all the potentials of the Church to provide temporal and spiritual leadership for Nigeria. Everything the Church needs to provide government in Nigeria has been given to the Church. Christians constitute the largest demographic group in Nigeria. They are the most educated, the most civilized, and the most enlightened. They constitute the largest group of professionals, academics, intellectuals, scientists, technocrats, skilled workers, and marketplace entrepreneurs. Even the wealth of Nigeria, be it oil, gas, ports, waterways, and the bulk of the arable land, is in Christian owned areas of the country. Unfortunately, Christians are currently an endangered species in Nigeria. Those who kill them are not prosecuted.
Many prayers have been said, and are still being said, for the protection of Christians as well as for divine intervention for peace to reign in the land. So far, heaven has remained silent. God might be waiting for His people to do the very things they are calling on Him to do. It is a spiritual fact that if solution to a problem is available on the earth, God will not provide it from heaven. For the same reason, if an information is available on the earth, God will not give it from heaven. Revelation is God telling a man what no one can tell him on the earth. God only provides from heaven what man cannot provide on the earth. That is why God gave humans brains, to think and apply the solutions of God on earth. The major problem with Christianity in Nigeria is that many Christians have been put into neutral gear by some church leaders whose only message is "miracles" and "divine breakthroughs." Some churches do not teach members to think; they only teach them to expect miracles.
The Church in Nigeria is not operating in dominion because it does not raise disciples. The Church has a generation of leaders whose specialty is raising spiritual babes whom they refer to as their “children”, and who also refer to those brothers as “daddy in the Lord”. This practice amounts to a violation of the Lord’s command in Matthew 23:9 "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." It takes “sons” to exercise dominion. Nigeria is groaning in expectation of the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19). Unfortunately, most churches keep producing babes in Christ who find it difficult to dominate their environment and establish the Kingdom of God in the land.
One major shortcoming of most Christian assemblies is the failure to teach about the Kingdom of God. Christianity is basically about the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Both Jesus and John the Baptist started ministry in Matt. 3:2 and Matt. 4:17 proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In Matt. 6:33, Christians are commanded: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Many church leaders inundate believers with messages of earthly wealth and prosperity. In the process of scrambling with the children of the world for the mundane things of the earth, Christians lose the righteousness of the Kingdom of God.
If Christianity in Nigeria would be victorious, the obsession of many churches with mammon must cease, or in the alternative, a new generation of leaders must rise to lead the Church. So long as a generation of greed and vanity-infested leaders are in control of the Church, Christians will continue to suffer defeat and oppression in the country.
There must be a return to Christlikeness in the Church. Jesus reigns over the universe, and at His name every knee shall bow. The method Christ used to conquer Satan is the same method that will work for the Church. Christ proclaimed, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:34). In John 14:30, Jesus said, says, "for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me," confirming His holiness and separation from the world. How many Christians can make the same affirmation?
On the physical level, there must be conscious plans to take the kingdom of Nigeria and hand it over to Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God will not be established in Nigeria merely because people prayed, but because, as Christians, they also worked, for "Faith without works is dead." (Jam. 2:26). As pointed out in a previous prayer call, no one wins an election because a prophecy was proclaimed over him or because anointing oil was poured upon his head. You win elections because you have political structures. Naturally speaking, the politician who does not pray but builds political structures will win an election over a Christian who prays but has no structures. Christians should not be deceived that a miracle would take place and a Christian without a political structure would win an election. Angels neither vote nor count votes. Therefore, the candidate must be in control of those human beings who vote and those that count the votes, while he still prays. God intervenes in human affairs when they have tried their best, but it is not enough.
Rather than build Christian political structures, Christians in politics unfortunately hire the political structures of the Muslims. It is Muslims who control the existing political structures in Nigeria. This is the reason Christian politicians become helpless after getting into political office and they are unable to stand or speak for Christian interests. Many Christians blame Christian politicians for the failure to defend Christian interests, but they seldom ask which structure put them into the office.
If the government would be on the shoulders of Jesus Christ in Nigeria, the following points should be noted.
1. Christians must realize they have a divine mandate to provide a righteous government for Nigeria. until they do so, the land would continue to mourn and suffer. God will not do what man is supposed to do.
2. leadership is crucial. Christians must agree to follow a leadership structure that will be the point of convergence. The various Christian groups must unite under one political leadership in the Church. In a previous prayer call, it was stated that the body established by the five Church groups in 2001 for this purpose is the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN).
3. Christians must be prepared to fund their political structure. This can easily be done if each Christian agrees to contribute a token amount every month. The political process in Nigeria was intentionally designed to be very expensive, so that only the rich can participate.
4. training of interested candidates must commence. It is still not too late to prepare candidates for the 2027 elections. It is indispensable for Christian candidates to have basic understanding of the principles of the Kingdom of God, before they enter a political office. The National Prayer Altar is making that arrangement
5. Christians should obtain their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC), and Party Registration Card (PRC). While the PVC will enable them to vote on election day, the PRC will enable them to influence decisions of political parties. It is those with PRC that will decide which candidate would run and who should be a delegate at the party primaries.
Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matt. 10: 16).
God bless Nigeria.
1. Isaiah 9:6 Thank God for the divine mandate upon the Church to provide government for Nigeria. Pray that this revelation shall become real to every Nigeria Christian.
2. Ps. 133 Pray for a fresh anointing of unity upon the Church, so that the Christians would work as one to fulfil the mandate of providing leadership for Nigeria.
3. Rom. 16:17-18 Pray that Christians shall be diligent and determined to resist those who will seek to divide the Church from fulfilling the divine mandate of providing righteous government for Nigeria.
4. Matt. 6:10 Pray that the government of the Kingdom of God shall be established upon Nigeria.
5. Titus 1:10-13 Pray that God will silence all ministers of the gospel who preach prosperity at the expense of Christlike discipleship.
6. Lam. 3:37 Cancel every utterance or confession to the effect that ungodly and wicked politicians shall continue to rule Nigeria in 2027.
7. Rev. 12:10-11 Plead the blood of Jesus to counter and nullify every sorcery, satanic ritual, and enchantment to retain the throne of Nigeria in the hands of Satan.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 31st March - Sunday 6th April 2025
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1 Cor. 4:2
There was a certain rich man who built a housing estate of many apartments and let it out to tenants. After a while, the rich man travelled abroad for some years. Before leaving the country, the rich man handed over the management of his estate to a manager. After a few years, the lord of the estate returned and met his estate in disarray. The buildings were not maintained, the estate roads were filled with potholes, while the tenants were constantly fighting and injuring each other. Instead of managing what was entrusted into his hands, the estate manager was busy acquiring his own properties and making friends with the business rivals of his lord. Those business rivals had purposed to encroach on the property of the master and take it over. What should the lord of the estate do to his estate manager?
The lord of the estate in this parable is Jesus Christ, the estate is the Church, the rivals of the lord of the estate are the Islamists, but who is the estate manager?
At a Christian Conference on 16th June 2018 in Lagos, a paper was presented entitled “Impact of Lack of Unity in CAN as Threat to Christian Faith”. The paper traced the growth of Christianity in Nigeria and identified the foundation upon which the Church was built in the country. Following the arrival of Methodist Rev. Birch Freeman in Badagry in 1842, various denominations came from different countries to Nigeria. The Methodists came from Wales, the Anglicans from England, the Catholics from Italy, the Lutherans from Germany, while the Baptists came from USA. Those denominations reported to different headquarters. Under such circumstance, each denomination operated independent of the others. The indigenous leaders who took over the leadership of the denominations after the Independence of Nigeria simply followed the pattern established by the colonial Church leaders.
On 26th August 1976, the Lord compelled a situation that made the various denominations agree to form an association that would build unity amongst all the Christian bodies in the country. On that day, 49 years ago, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was birthed with the motto, “THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE” (Jn. 17:21).
At the inception of CAN, 49 years ago, the following were the conditions of the Church in Nigeria:
• Christianity was in a stable condition in the country in 1976
• Christians were not being brazenly persecuted, killed and maimed for their faith
• Church buildings were not being burnt, vandalized, and destroyed
• Christian communities were not being sacked and the Christian owners driven off to IDP camps
• Christianity was highly regarded and influential in the country.
The points above reflect the state in which the Church was handed over to CAN, but 49 years down the road, what is the state of the Church?
▪️ On 4th February 2017, the American Congress affirmed that Nigeria is the worst country on earth for anyone to be called a Christian.
▪️ Christians in Nigeria are murdered in the hundreds of thousands
▪️ Thousands of church buildings have been destroyed
▪️ Millions of Christians are displaced, with many of them in IDP camps
▪️ Nigeria operates a constitution which recognizes Islam but makes no mention of Christianity
▪️ The only Chapel in the seat of Government no longer observes Sunday worship for almost two years, while over four mosques meet regularly in the Villa.
▪️ Despite the motto “That they all may be one”, the Church is terribly divided, with ministers of the gospel publicly hurling insults at each other.
▪️ Sexual immorality, greed, covetousness and hypocrisy have combined to rob the Church of integrity and credibility
Under these circumstances, who should be held accountable for the condition of the Church in Nigeria, a non-Christian organization or the leadership of the Church?
The problem of Christianity in Nigeria is simply a leadership problem. There is nothing wrong with the Church neither is there anything wrong with Nigeria. In both cases, leadership is the problem. During the 2018 Conference referred to earlier, the speaker stated, “Islam is a threat, but the Church is the problem.” The Church became a problem to Nigeria because, as the light of the world, the Church refused to shine to dispel the darkness that engulfed the country. The light of the Church cannot shine because those who constitute the leadership structure of the Church have a different perception of what Christian leadership should be. There has been a deviation from the examples and the directives handed over to Christians by Jesus Christ.
There are two leadership groups in the Church: the clergy and the laity. The clergy manage the denominations and ministries while the laity run the fellowships. Some of these fellowships, like Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International and Wailing Women Worldwide are bigger than some denominations and ministries. However, there is a significant difference between clergy leadership and laity leadership. At the level of denominations, under the management of the clergy, discrimination amongst the brethren is common. It is at this level that one hears, “Catholics have nothing to do with Pentecostals”, “Pentecostals don’t believe those in Cherubim Church are Christians”, “Deeper Life is separate from those other churches,” “those ones are not Christians, they are occultists” etc.
However, at the fellowship level, under the management of the laity, the President of the Fellowship could be a Catholic, the Vice President a Pentecostal, the Treasurer could come from Cherubim and Seraphim Church, while the Secretary could be a member of Deeper Life. They all pray and fast together, plan programs together, and worship God together without any discrimination or resentment. Under laity fellowship, the only question that is asked is, “Do you belong to Jesus?” Meanwhile, under the clergy, the question is, “Do you belong to our denomination?”
Under the circumstances, with the goal “that they all may be one”, whom should the management of the umbrella organization be handed over to? Those who promote unity or those who discriminate in the Church? It should not be surprising therefore that 49 years after the establishment of an umbrella organization to build Christian unity, Christians are more divided today than they were in 1976. The umbrella association is currently running as “clergy association of Nigeria”.
Christianity in Nigeria is facing existential threat. Millions of Christians have been murdered while those remaining alive can be killed without anyone being held accountable. Therefore, evaluating leadership performance is neither rebellion nor a disrespect to Church leaders. Given the gravity of the situation, questions should be asked and answers provided, because too many people are dying. It is imperative for the Church to reorganize its leadership structure, to prevent collective suicide by Christians. The deplorable condition of Christianity in Nigeria after 49 years of clergy leadership in CAN demands a performance review. The clear message is that CAN, as it is presently constituted, lacks the capacity to confront the life-threatening challenges militating against Christianity in Nigeria. Tolerating poor performance in leadership under the guise of respecting Church leaders or showing Christian love is suicidal. Which Christian would volunteer to be the next victim of terrorists or kidnappers? Christians cannot keep the same leadership doing the same thing again and again and hope for different results. A quote attributed to Albert Einstein says, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
CAN as an institution is a wonderful concept that should be retained but the structure must be reviewed. Christians, being the most vociferous group calling for the restructuring of Nigeria, should begin to call for a restructuring of the Church, to effectively engage contemporary challenges. If the Church is not restructured, the situation in Nigeria will not improve. Only the Church has the capacity, spiritually and physically, to halt the impending disaster that has been hanging over Nigeria for some years.
Christian laity professionals should be brought into the leadership of CAN to provide virile and competent leadership that will develop and execute countermeasures against the organized murder of Christians in Nigeria and the hostile takeover of the country by foreign invaders manipulating religion for racial, political, and cultural domination. Appeal and dialogue with Islamists will not work. The Salafi/Wahhabi ideology driving jihad does not give room for negotiation. There must be countermeasures.
If Christians in Nigeria should permit the clergy to lead them into the 2027 election, the clergy will repeat what they did in 2015, 2019, and in 2023. Recently, the leadership of CAN undertook an action which is a public statement that it is aligned with Allah, and there has been no uproar from the clerical leadership over the closure of the Aso Villa Chapel. If the Church will not be used again to endorse another four years of Islamist government that is determined to destroy Christianity, Christians should demand a review of their leadership structure. It should always be remembered that in 2013, God warned that “if care is not taken, in 30 – 40 years, Nigeria will be like Turkey.”
It is not wise to keep repeating the same debilitating process while expecting positive results.
God bless Nigeria.
1. Ps. 46:1-3 Bless God for being our refuge, and holding back the flood of the enemies.
2. Ez. 34:7-10 Pray that God would silence all self-seeking and self-promoting leaders in the Church who for selfish interest resist efforts to make the Church stronger and more effective.
3. Jer. 4:19-22 Pray that Nigeria Christians will receive understanding about the seriousness of re-organizing the Church to respond effectively to the conspiracies of the enemies.
4. 2 Tim. 1:7 Pray for the boldness of Christians to engage Church leaders so that the Church is better positioned to resist and overcome its enemies.
5. Prov. 26:27 Pray that all who have set snares for the Nigeria Church shall fall into their own pit.
6. Ps. 89:19-24 Pray that God would project, promote, and establish all the leaders He has prepared for the Nigeria Church in this season.
7. Matt. 16:18 Decree that no conspiracy of hell, no wile of the devil, and no attack from Islamists shall prevail against the Nigeria Church.
Amen.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 24th - Sunday 30th March 2025
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Cor. 2:11)
After the recent declaration of the State of Emergency in Rivers State, a public analyst, Dr. Charles Apoki, made a short videocast on the development, in which he described the declaration as “state capture”. What does “state capture” mean? “State capture” by whom, and for what purpose? While one might agree on Dr Apoki’s analysis of state capture, who has captured the state might not entirely be the President. There are other forces that have long determined to capture the entire Nigerian state for racial, cultural, and political domination through the manipulation of religion.
Nigeria Christians should be reminded that there has been a sinister conspiracy to capture the entire country, not just one state in the country. Rivers State happens to be one of the key states that must fall before the entire country would be in the net. Those who link the State of Emergency with preparations for 2027 elections are correct, but they might not be aware of the full picture.
The sponsors of the politics of religion in Nigeria, in their goal to turn Africa into an Islamic continent, identified seven African countries that should primarily be Islamised: Nigeria, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Congo, and South Africa. Of those seven countries, the most important for them is Nigeria. Since 1983 when the OIC formulated that strategy in London, surreptitious moves were started, to undermine democracy, good governance, and freedom of choice in Nigeria. At present, the sponsors of the politics of religion seem to have found a candidate who would do anything to remain in power.
In a recent prayer call entitled “The Frog in the Pot,” reference was made to a leaked letter which was purportedly written by the Islam in Africa Organization to a leader of Nigeria many years ago. Salient instructions in that letter include, amongst others:
• Place total ban on all forms of worship by Christians, …
• Impose Sharia law on Nigeria, Islamise all universities, colleges and schools and courts of law in the Federal Islamic Sultanate of Nigeria
• Formally proclaim the National Republican Convention, NRC the only national ruling Islamic Political Party and phase out the Social Democratic Party, SDP (which is a party of infidels.) …
It should be remembered that Islam in Africa Organization (IAO) organized the Abuja Conference that produced the communique entitled, “Abuja Declarations 1989”. That letter surfaced in 1990.
Some people might object that SDP could not have been referred to as a “party of infidels” because it fielded a Muslim-Muslim ticket of MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, like the current APC ticket of Tinubu and Shettima. In both instances, it was a Yoruba and Kanuri ticket. What those people who object might not realize is that, to the power brokers in Nigeria, “infidel” does not refer exclusively to non-Muslims but also to non-Fulanis. It is now common to hear the “North” claim that Yoruba Muslims are not real Muslims.
The chosen party of the sponsors of the politics of religion then was the NRC. That might also be why the popular June 12 election was annulled. The “anointed” party did not win. The party of the “infidels” won. If NRC had won the election in 1993, that election might not have been annulled.
Another person might point out that if the instruction from Islam in Africa Organisation (IAO) was that SDP should be “phased out”, how come SDP still exists but NRC, the supposedly “anointed” party, is extinct? The answer was provided by the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) in one of its papers. At independence, there were three dominant political parties in the country: the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), the Action Group (AG), and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). Both AG and NCNC collapsed into NPC due to the greed and carelessness of the leaders of the indigenous ethnic nationalities. Thereafter, every major party that has formed the government in Nigeria has been a mutation of NPC. The NCEF described NPN as NPC 1, PDP as NPC 2, while APC is NPC 3. It is NPC that has been ruling Nigeria since Independence because of the greed of the leaders of the indigenous ethnic nationalities. They were always willing to sell out. So, NRC was stepped down, but it was replaced by PDP while PDP was replaced by APC. It is NPC 3 (APC) that wants to institutionalize a one-party state.
There is an acceleration of the one-party state in Nigeria, and neither SDP nor PDP appear to be the “anointed” party. There are worrisome signals that even PDP and Labour Party are under threat. The current anointed party is APC. Note the number of politicians decamping to the APC.
A former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, warned President Tinubu to desist from attempts to create a one-party state. In the news report carried by Daily Trust of 25th February 2025, “He also warned against attempts to create a one-party state, calling it a dangerous path that could lead to instability,” stating that “Nigeria cannot afford a one-party system. A strong democratic order is essential for national progress and for future generations.” (https://dailytrust.com/bafarawa-to-tinubu-dont-stifle-opposition-uphold-democracy/). Where did the idea for a one-party state come from? A letter from the Islam in Africa Organization (IAO) advocated that Nigeria should transmute into a one-party Islamic state. It is against that background that the development in Rivers State should be viewed.
The most astonishing aspect of the unfolding scenario is that the people most threatened by the conspiracies of the sponsors of the politics of religion are the ones some of whose leaders, for pecuniary gain, are the greatest supporters of those behind the plot. So much information has been put out into the public domain, enough to have cautioned Church leaders and the Christian elites, as well as spur Christians into proactive steps to counter the conspiracy. So far, there has been an indifferent response from the quarters where virile counter actions are expected.
In September 2013, God sent a word, that if care was not taken, in 30 – 40 years, Nigeria would be like Turkey. After giving that word, God made sure that it was published worldwide to wherever Nigeria Christians were. In 2013, twelve years ago, no one would have imagined the calamities, disasters, and tragedies that have befallen Nigeria. If people were told in 2013 about the horrors that APC would unleash upon Nigeria, they would have insisted, “it is impossible”. If Nigerians were told that the 2023 election would be brazenly hijacked and Nigerians would be helpless to stop it, it would have sounded outlandish. What about the hike in fuel price from N87 in 2013 to N1,050 in 2025? Whoever “prophesied” these in 2013 would have been dismissed as a prophet of doom. Twelve years after the warning that Nigeria could be Islamised like Turkey (Constantinople), the only Christian Chapel in Aso Villa no longer observes Sunday worship since the Muslim-Muslim ticket came into power. Christianity has been locked out of the seat of power. Where does it now have influence in the country? Meanwhile, there is no evidence that Church leaders are alarmed. On the contrary, they are breaking bread with Islam.
Rather than take steps to protect the Church, some Church leaders give the impression that the master they now serve is not the one who went to the cross at Calvary. In Matt. 6:24, Jesus Christ said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Nigeria now has a generation of Christian leaders who see nothing wrong in breaking bread with Islam. They dine at the table of the Lord and dine at the table of Allah, all worrisome indications that should make any God-fearing person to tremble for the Church.
It is true that God has promised a “new Nigeria,” but every promise of God is conditional. When God makes a promise, humans must measure up to the requirements of God for the promise to be fulfilled.
This call is an alert for intercessors not to relent in prayers for the Church and the country. The enemies are both inside and outside the Church. The worst enemies are those in the Church, because they possess the capacity to neutralize the Church from within. Once the Church is compromised from within, it would be unable to resist the enemies from without.
Christian, seek not yet repose. The real enemy is closer to you than you think.
1. Rev. 3:15-19
Repent for the laxity and lukewarmness that currently characterize the Nigeria Church. Ask God’s forgiveness for the lack of zeal for righteousness in the Church.
2. Is. 54:15-17
Nullify, with the blood of Jesus, every projection of sorcery and enchantment directed at making Christians timid, docile, and disunited. Pray for the spirit of boldness to rest upon Nigeria Christians.
3. Jer. 6:13-15
Pray that God will uproot and dismiss every Church leader who, because of greed, places personal interest above the interest of Jesus Christ and His Church.
4. Ez. 34:7-10
Pray that God would speedily judge every Christian leader who compromises the unity and the protection of the Church.
5. 2 Cor. 12:9
Pray that the grace of God shall prevail in every area in which the Nigeria Church is weak and vulnerable.
6. Is. 29:5-6
Pray that God would judge and destroy everyone in the conspiracy to destroy Christianity in Nigeria.
7. Is. 4:4-6
Pray for fresh fire of the Holy Spirit to be poured upon the Nigeria Church for purging and for revival.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 17th - Sunday 23rd March 2025
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word (1 Kings 18:21).
We received with concern the news that the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) joined Muslims to break the Ramadan fast in Abuja in March 2025. If the information had been otherwise received, it might have been dismissed as fake news, but it was on TV, with the CAN President making his supportive remarks. Our first concern is for our Church leaders, because not everyone might be entirely aware of the spiritual significance of some of their actions.
Some liberalist Christians might be persuaded that there is nothing wrong in a Christian breaking the Ramadan fast with Muslims. We acknowledge that a Christian is free to eat in the house of anyone, whether a Muslim or traditionalist. We also recognize that Section 38(1) of the Constitution provides freedom of religious conviction for all citizens. We do not condemn any religion. However, when it comes to worship, a line must be drawn. When Muslims fast, they do so to Allah. A Christian engaging in that religious rite with Muslims implicates that person as a worshipper of that deity. It is for the same implications that a true Christian would not break kola nut with a native doctor in his shrine, for he becomes a worshipper of the god of that native doctor. Maybe that is an extreme example, but if an apex Muslim leader such as the Sultan should partake in the Christian sacrament of Communion or submit to public water baptism, does it not make an open announcement of his faith in the God of the Christians? A Christian leader at a Ramadan rite is an uncomfortable public statement.
Many Christians are ignorant of the Islamic doctrine of taqiyyar, which allows that an ‘infidel’ could justifiably be deceived, so far as the lie promotes the cause of Islam. Such a lie would not be a sin.
There are two taqiyyar forms in the public space: 1) that Islam is peace, and 2) that we all serve the same God. Taqiyyar is a form of jihad, a stealth jihad framed as “civilization.” It is what has given radical Islam an inroad into Europe and USA. Unwary Christians come under the influence of stealth jihad, and they act against their own interest. CAN appears to have become a victim of stealth jihad.
Whenever it suits their purpose, Muslims usually claim that they and Christians worship the same God. Otherwise, they proclaim that there is no God but Allah. It is taqiyyar. The same God created all humans (Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Christians, and witches), but all humans do not worship the same God. For example, the one whom the Muslims worship has no Son, because they insist that God would have needed a wife to have had a son, and God has no wife. They condemn the doctrine of the Trinity as the idolatrous worship of three gods. They reject the Sonship, Lordship, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those are pillars of the Christian faith.
If Christians and Muslims worshipped the same God, why do Muslims wage violent jihads to destroy Christians? Over the years, in Nigeria and in several other countries, millions of Christians have been murdered by various vicious Islamist insurgents. The global persecution of Christians by Muslims is highest in Nigeria. Thousands of Christian places of worship have been destroyed, and hundreds of Christian communities sacked by Muslims, yet we worship the same God? Taqiyyar.
If Christians and Muslims worshipped the same God, why was Leah Sharibu compelled by her Islamist abductors to renounce her Christian faith and confess to becoming a Muslim, as the condition for releasing her along with the other abducted Muslim girls? Do the terrorists read a different Koran or serve a different Allah from those with whom the CAN President held a banquet? There are many religions in the world, but there are only two contending spiritual forces, each demanding worship. To which of the two is either of Islam or Christianity connected? Your answer says much.
We are enjoined in 1 John 4:1-3 to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” and in 2 John 1:7-8 to be careful because “many deceivers are entered into the world” and whoever “confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” is “a deceiver and an antichrist.”
Religious meals are spiritually significant, because they indicate covenants. For instance, the Holy Communion is a covenant meal, and 1 Cor. 10:21-22 warns: “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” In the Old Testament, non-Israelites were forbidden from the Passover meal, unless they were proselytes or the property of a Jewish family.
It might be argued that the objective of CAN was to build tolerance and mutual respect, which is a commendable objective. However, the style in the present case is not consistent with the Scriptures, neither is the timing appropriate, especially as Christians are at the moment protesting three significant actions initiated by Muslim leaders in the country:
1. the suspension of Sunday worship in the Aso Villa Chapel while mosques continue to meet regularly in that Presidential Villa,
2. the closure of schools in Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, and Kebbi states because of Ramadan, which even CAN condemned and threatened with a lawsuit,
3. the death sentence by the Supreme Court against Mr. Sunday Jackson for defending himself against a Fulani Muslim attacker on his farm.
These are apart from the countless Christians in IDP camps and the uncountable others in mass graves all over the country, all of them victims of brutal Islamist insurgency. We support tolerance and understanding amongst the various groups in Nigeria, but spiritual Communions have their unpleasant implications.
There are paths to understanding and mutual respect with other faiths in the country without subscribing to their rites. That explains why, in 2015, the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) produced a Strategy Document for CAN so that the Church could build structures to strengthen Christianity in the country as well as promote democracy. To date, that has not been implemented, even though it was accepted and approved by the NEC of CAN. Also, a plan of action was presented to CAN, with strategies for funds to implement the Document as well as provide resources to cater to persecuted Christians. That initiative was destroyed by those to whom it was handed over to in 2016. Another strategy meeting was held by CAN in November 2016 to supplement the initial Strategy Document of 2015. The resolutions of that meeting still await implementation.
If the Church is left without credible action plans to defend itself and promote democracy, Muslims will continue to have a field day in the country. Power respects counter power. It does not respect tears, pleas, or solicitations for ‘peaceful co-existence.’ Power respects power, institutions listen to institutions, and structures obey structures.
Church leaders in Nigeria cannot leave the Church powerless, without plan or structures, hoping that Islamists will have mercy on them and agree to peaceful co-existence. Sharia forbids it. This is not to judge anyone, and none is the custodian of all spiritual knowledge, yet we can look ourselves in the mirror to be better presentable. That is the perspective from which we worry, because the participation of the CAN President in that breaking of Ramadan fast is generally interpreted by Muslims not as a gesture of mutual respect and goodwill but as a sign of weakness, a public admission of the weakness of the Church to Islam.
This tricky drift of the Church towards Islamism was heightened in the past CAN administration, whose lack of veritable support frustrated the Christian political consensus, but brought Muslim presidential candidates into the National Christian Centre for electioneering consultations. When the Islamic Council of Ulama meets to decide which Muslim candidates should receive Muslim support at the polls, do they invite any Christian candidate? The same immediate past administration brought Miyetti Allah into the National Christian Centre, twice, for a conference. Did their conference stop the Fulani ‘herdsmen’ (terrorists) from killing Christians? Taqiyyar.
We sense with concern that the CAN President may have been under great political pressure to do as he did, especially to give the world a ‘positive’ image of Christianity in Nigeria particularly now that the country is coming under a strong global searchlight for Christian persecutions. We cannot compromise the chance to let the world hear our cries. We cannot, by such religious and political subterfuge, join the wicked media to lie about peace in the land when there is none.
If Christians do not wake up and demand accountability and spiritual responsibility from their leaders, they could wake up one day to discover that the Church has been completely compromised. As watchmen, on behalf of the nation, we at the National Prayer Altar join voices with other intercessors to ask the mercy and forgiveness of God for the Ramadan Communion, and to dissociate the nation and the Church from any unholy covenant that may have been activated by that meal and other similar subtle seductions. We pray that God would grant our leaders greater discernment, and make them strong leaders, not men pleasers, for “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).
1). Jer. 3:12-14
Confess the backsliding of the Nigeria Church and ask God for mercy and forgiveness.
2). Ezekiel 44:6-8
Repent of the pollution of the sanctuary by Church leaders who brought non-Christian politicians into the National Christian Centre. Pray that God would not count that against the entire Church in Nigeria. Plead the blood of Jesus to cleanse the Nigeria Church.
3). Mal. 2:1-4
Pray that the God of Balaam would appropriately visit every Christian leader who places personal interest above the interest of Jesus Christ in the Nigeria Church.
4). Mal. 2:7-9
Pray that God would execute His judgments upon every political and church leader misleading Christians or the nation and manipulating the Church for personal advantage.
5). Joshua 24:15
Renounce and dissociate from every agreement and covenant of Church leaders with other gods. Declare that the Nigeria Church shall only serve Jehovah. Declare that you and your house shall only serve the Lord.
6). Jer. 3:15
Ask God to give the Nigeria Church shepherds after His own heart, to lead the Church like Jesus Christ.
7). Joel 2:28-29
Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit of God for revival and the restoration of 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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 10th - Sunday 16th March 2025
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished (Prov. 22:3).
The human brain reacts sharply to three things: food, beauty, and danger. Instinctively, the brain notes all three. It is not human nature for one to see danger and remain passive. The quest for survival is the greatest instinct in humans. Once danger is sensed, amygdala, the "fight or flight" region of the brain that processes emotional responses, is instantly activated.
Humans rarely respond to situations like the frog which, as demonstrated in a social experiment, would flee when thrown into a pot of hot water. However, if the same frog was placed in a pot of cold water and the pot was placed on the fire, the frog would boil to death. The frog would keep adjusting to the temperature until it boiled to death.
The above analogies are shared against the background of the passive and uncoordinated response of the Nigeria Church to Islamist insurgency in Nigeria, fifteen years after the organized murder of Christians started in the country. By now, it is clear to conscious minds that there is deliberate agenda to exterminate Christianity in Nigeria. Instead of kicking against the agenda, the evidence is that some of the influential church leaders who campaigned for the Islamists to be in power are still working for the Islamists to remain in power. Meanwhile, many other church leaders who are not Islamist collaborators keep watching, passively.
Whenever this point is made, some Christians retort angrily, that someone is 'antagonizing Church leaders.' With due respect, no one is fighting any church leader. If the Church is facing a threat, it is right for those who understand the issues to speak out. If, after speaking out, the Church leaders refuse to take corrective measure, the clarion caller should not be silent but continue to speak to protect the interest of all Christians. As a result of the nefarious agenda of the Islamists, hundreds of thousands of innocent Christians have been murdered while the lives of many more are under threat. Christian leadership is required to be proactive under the circumstances. The passivity with which Church leaders are approaching this issue is disturbing.
Last week, this prayer call raised the alarm that the only Chapel in Aso Villa no longer observes Sunday worship service since the Muslim-Muslim ticket came into power. One is yet to hear any Church leader amplify the protest. After the prayer call of last week, some brethren pointed out that the former governor of Delta State, Mr. Ifeanyi Okowa, had said in a publicly shared news item in 2023 that the Chapel in Aso Villa would be shut for four years because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket! It has now been shut for almost two years! This is the ticket that some Christian leaders openly supported into power. https://www.nairaland.com/7596509/okowa-aso-rock-chapel-closed
The warning of Mr. Okowa has been in the public domain since March 2023. What have Church leaders done to prevent the closure of the Chapel or reverse the action, after it was taken? The Chapel in the Villa was built in 2000 and has been observing Sunday worship for twenty-three years, until the Muslim-Muslim ticket candidates entered Aso Villa. Meanwhile, they rode into power on the shoulders of some Church leaders.
After shutting down Aso Villa, the Islamists have proceeded to shut down schools in four states in the North because of Ramadan. What will they shut down next? In core Arab Islamic nations, no government shuts down schools because of Ramadan. One is therefore compelled to ask, “What is going on in Nigeria?”
It is good that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) responded and even threatened to go to court. However, after a press release and a threat of litigation, what next? Should not a conscientious Church commence mobilization and harmonization of all Christian assets to become more influential in politics and governance? The Islamists of Nigeria have hijacked the apparatus of the State, and they are using it to push their brand of Islam which is based on the doctrine of hate and intolerance.
Christians should remember that what is going on is not a coincidence. It was planned and meticulously executed. Unfortunately, it appears that the Christian leadership in Nigeria lacks survival instinct. Instead of "fight or flight," they merely frown, and continue business as usual. The proverbial frog in the pot comes to mind.
Over the years, a lot of information leaked into the public domain about the plans of Islamists in Nigeria, in collaboration with foreign Islamist organizations and Islamic countries, to transform Nigeria into the largest Islamic nation in Africa. The strategy meeting of OIC which was held in London in 1983 produced a 356-page document on the plans to turn Africa into an Islamic continent. Of that volume, as many as156 pages of the document focused on Nigeria.
The OIC meeting of 1983 was followed by the Islam in Africa Organization (IAO) conference in 1989, in Abuja, which produced the “Abuja Declarations 1989”. The communique issued at the conference detailed the plans of the Islamists to, amongst other nefarious plans, “,,, eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity …)” It beats the imagination that an information like this would be in the public domain yet some Christian leaders would mobilize to bring Muhammadu Buhari into power in 2015 and support a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023.
In 1990, a document from IAO also leaked into the public domain. The document detailed instructions on how Nigeria should be transformed into an Islamic state. Some alarming instructions, with impunity, were given by that Islamist organization to a sovereign country, as if Nigeria was a vassal state.
It is a fact that when the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) and the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) launched the Christian Political Consensus project in 2018 to harmonize Christian presidential candidates, that initiative was frustrated by some Church leaders. On 30th November 2018, the day the Christian Political Consensus meeting was held in Lagos, CAN released an advertorial, which was published in PUNCH newspaper that it had dissolved NCEF. The plan was to create credibility crisis for NCEF. The purported dissolution was null as CSMN (and not CAN) established NCEF.
On 10th December 2018 when the Elders met in Abuja to commence deliberations, CAN issued a statement in the press that it would “interview” both Christian and Muslim presidential candidates on that same day. Instead of harmonising Christian candidates to produce one strong candidate, the Church leaders brought Muslim presidential candidates to the National Christian Centre.
What is narrated above in summary is not an attempt to denigrate Church leaders but an effort to awaken Christians in Nigeria to the danger that is facing them and their faith. Historically, in most nations where Islam displaced Christianity, the Muslims succeeded through the collaboration of influential Christians. A good example is Syria in 634 AD. Syria was where the followers of Jesus were called Christians for the first time in Antioch (Act 11:26). Syria became an Islamic nation when two priests, Jonah and Romanus, betrayed Damascus and Bosra, two major cities in Syria. Jonah agreed to show the Muslims the way to take Damascus in exchange for immunity for himself and his fiancée when the city was captured, and the other Christians were slaughtered. Damascus fell but his fiancée committed suicide when she knew what her would-be husband did. The city of Bosra fell after priest Romanus converted to Islam and led the Arab forces through a secret way to take the city. From 634 AD till date, Syria has remained an Islamic nation.
Christians in Nigeria must not act like the frog in the water on fire. This is no time to be passive. We are not advocating violence or any act of vandalism. However, Christians ought to commence plans, with the two institutions established by the Church, for the purpose of providing leadership. CAN and CSMN should be planning together on mobilizing and harmonizing Christians. There would be an election in 2027 yet there are no signs that the Church is prepared.
This is no time to harbour grudges or maintain division in the Church. Leadership must place the interest of the followers first, by strengthening unity amongst all the various Church groups. All the Christian fellowships managed by laity leaders must be involved in the preparation to provide a righteous government for Nigeria. For good things to happen to a land, good people must plan and execute the plan. A righteous government will not come merely because some people have fasted and prayed. It will come because, after praying and fasting, they worked. It is for the same reason that people will not win election because someone prophesied over them or poured anointing oil upon their head. You win election because you have structures. If a candidate has no structure, it does not matter who poured the anointing oil, that candidate might not win.
This is the reason we say that the problem of the Church is a leadership problem. It is the leaders who will organize the followers to build the structures. The Church in Nigeria must not be the frog in that pot on fire.
God bless Nigeria.
1). Ps. 129
Thank God for not permitting the Islamists to overrun Nigeria and the Church of Christ in Nigeria.
2). Is. 8:9-10
Pray to cancel every agenda against Christianity in Nigeria, and against the country. Decree that it shall not stand neither shall it come to pass.
3). Mal. 3:3-5
Pray that God will purge the Nigeria Church and dismiss all collaborators with Islamists from His Church.
4). Ps. 133
Pray for unity for the Church to plan together and work together.
5). 2 Cor. 12:9
Pray that the grace of God shall be sufficient for Christians in Nigeria to plan and organize effectively against the agenda of hell.
6). Is. 51:9-11
Pray for revival, that the power of God shall be demonstrated again in the Church and in Nigeria
7). Is. 33:20-22
Pray that the Lord would mediate and advocate for us, and the new Nigeria shall come forth.
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 3rd - Sunday 9th March 2025
And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem (2 Chro. 28:24).
The Bible records many ungodly kings and queens. Amongst them, in the Kingdom of Judah, were Amon, Manasseh, Queen Athaliah, and Jeconiah. God was so angry with Jeconiah that he cursed him and his descendants with barrenness, according to Jeremiah 22:30: “Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.” That king left an evil legacy.
As evil as those rulers were, none of them shut the temple of God, only King Ahaz did, as a man wholly given to idolatry. In his attempt to please the king of Assyria, Ahaz emptied the temple and shut the door. By shutting the door, he stopped the worship of God because, in those days, God was only worshipped in the temple. Consequently, divine wrath broke out upon the land. In 2 Chro. 28:19, the Bible says, “For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord.” The entire land mourned and suffered because of the transgression of a wicked ruler.
The land of Judah suffered a humiliating defeat from the northern kingdom of Israel when 120,000 soldiers of Judah were killed in one day, and some of the survivors were stripped naked and taken captive to the northern kingdom. It took the intervention of God for the prisoners to be released and sent back home. It was therefore not surprising that his reign was cut short, and he died at the age of thirty-six, having ascended the throne at the age of twenty. Even Manasseh, who was another wicked king, ruled for fifty-five years. Manasseh did not close down the temple.
There is terrible consequence on a land that symbolically shuts its door against God. When the ruler sitting on the throne openly demonstrates hostility against God, the entire land suffers the consequence. When God is told in plain terms that the throne of the land does not welcome Him, that land forfeits the attributes of God - light, life, and peace.
The report should therefore be of concern to discerning Christians in Nigeria, that since the present administration got into power, the Chapel in Aso Villa has been shut, and Sunday worship no longer takes place there in the Villa. In the eight years of President Buhari, with all the atrocities that that government committed, the Chapel remained open.
On 11th July 2023, PM News carried a rebuttal by the Presidency that the Chapel was not closed, but that the President was yet to appoint a new chaplain. The rebuttal insisted that “there are weekly fellowship going on at the chapel and mid week fellowship on Tuesday …” https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2023/07/11/aso-villa-chapel-not-closed-tinubu-yet-to-appoint-new-chaplain-oluremi/
It has been almost two years since that rebuttal, but current reports indicate that Sunday worship service has not started. Why would it take almost two years to appoint a chaplain? So far, the name of the chaplain of the Aso Villa Chapel under the present dispensation has not been heard. The name of the chaplain under president Buhari was not hidden.
The Aso Villa Chapel was built under President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000. Upon assuming the office of the president of Nigeria in 1999, he noticed that there were mosques in Aso Villa but there was no church building. He proceeded to build the Chapel. There have been two Muslim presidents after Obasanjo but none of them shut the Chapel, until the present Muslim-Muslim-ticket candidates came into office.
What makes the situation more painful is that the Muslim-Muslim-ticket candidates were promoted and supported into office by some prominent Church leaders. CAN and PFN wrote congratulatory letters to President Tinubu after the controversial 2023 elections. One Bishop was so incensed against anyone opposing the Muslim-Muslim ticket, after eight years of Muhammadu Buhari as president, that he pronounced a curse on any Christian that would not vote for them. Now that the presidency has told Jesus Christ in plain terms to stay away from the governance in Nigeria, what are those Church leaders saying? Bearing in mind that this administration has been in office for almost two years, would those Church leaders claim that they are unaware that three Mosques operate inside Aso Villa, but the only chapel has been reportedly shut?
To worsen matters, there are indications that some Christian leaders who supported the Muslim-Muslim ticket have not withdrawn their support for the same government that increased the price of fuel from N197 to N1,050 per litre. The APC party met fuel at N87 per litre in 2015 when it came into power. Today, fuel sells for N960 in most filling stations. The suffering is so bad that many Muslims from the northern parts of the country openly express regret at supporting the Muslim-Muslim ticket.
On the economic front, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) reported that in the first year of the Tinubu administration, 767 manufacturing companies closed down, while goods worth N350 billion remained unsold in 2023. The Association attributed the development to “various economic difficulties, including exchange rate volatility, rising inflation, and a general worsening of the investment climate.” https://nairametrics.com/2024/03/06/767-manufacturing-companies-shut-down-in-nigeria-n350-billion-goods-unsold-in-2023/
One area in which the government claims considerable success is the fight against insecurity. However, official reports belie this claim. The National Bureau of Statistics in its report published in 2024 states that 614,937 Nigerians were killed in the first year of this administration, while 2.2 million people were kidnapped and N2.2 trillion paid as ransom to kidnappers. In the eight years of president Buhari, the official figure of those killed was 63,111. What the figures indicate is that those killed in the one year of the Administration that shut the Chapel is ten times more than those killed in the eight years of Buhari. When people reject God, the consequences are terrible.
As New Testament saints, we agree that worship of God is not restricted to a building because the Spirit of God dwells in each believer. However, it is symbolically significant to have worship rise to heaven from the throne in the land. Locking down the place of worship of Jesus Christ in the Presidency is a total rejection of the grace and mercy of God upon the country. Is anyone still wondering why Nigeria continues to sink deeper into the mire, despite countless promises from the government.
If the Chapel is shut, where is the altar of righteousness that should be speaking for the land from the throne? Even if a president is not a Christian, there should be an altar where Christians around him can link up with heaven for the country. An altar is the link between the physical and spiritual. The implication is that the altar speaking at the throne of Nigeria is not connected to Jehovah. How can healing come upon the land?
Constitutionally, shutting the door of a Christian place of worship while permitting another religion to thrive in the State House is a violation of the secularity of the country. The constitution forbids what is going on. It is a direct statement that government has adopted one religion as state religion in violation of Section 10 of the constitution which states that “The Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.”
Christians are not vindictive people who will demand that other places of worship in the State House be also shut. Christians will rather insist on the secularity of the State and compliance with the Constitution. The Chapel must be re-opened.
By this development, it should be clear to the Christian community that the architects and sponsors of the “Politics of Religion” in Nigeria are unrelenting in the pursuit of their objectives to turn Nigeria into an Islamic theocratic state. Whenever this issue is raised, some Christian elites claim that it is “fearmongering”, “divisive” and unwarranted “alarm”. That was how many Christian leaders responded in 2014 when the warning first came. In fact, a prominent Church leader wrote a letter and described the warning as “wickedly false, unsubstantiated, ill-conceived, and mischievous”. Ten years after the warning, with hundreds of thousands of Christians in the grave, and Islamist terrorists sprouting all over the country, would anyone deny that there is a pernicious religious agenda in Nigeria?
In the prayer calls entitled “POLITICS OF RELIGION” and “THE DAY OF VISITATION”, the Christian community was asked to pay attention to its leadership. Christians must devise ways of getting Church leaders to take side with the suffering masses of Nigeria instead of constantly supporting the status quo. Even if some Church leaders are no longer interested in going to heaven, they should at least consider the humanity they share with members of the Church, as well as the non-Christian masses in the land. They should join in the efforts to get good governance for Nigeria. The current political class has discredited itself through unbridled greed and avarice. The incompetence of these politicians stinks to the high heavens, and their capacity to corrupt every institution in the country in unparalleled in the world.
The Church leaders should start by championing the call for the re-opening of the Chapel in Aso Villa and ensuring that the worship of God, through Jesus Christ, resumes. It is time to proclaim, “Lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye ancient door, and the King of Glory shall come in.”
1. Deut. 21:5-9
Let God know that Nigerian Christians did not shut the Chapel at the throne of Nigeria, neither did they approve of it. Ask God to have mercy upon Nigeria and not impute the sins of wicked rulers upon the country. Plead the blood of Jesus Christ.
2. Ps. 55:22
Pray that, as God judged Ahaz, He would judge all rulers who reject the worship of the true God in Nigeria.
3. Isa. 14:12-15 (Read in KJV)
Take authority over every evil spirit contending with the worship of Jehovah in Nigeria. Bind and cast them down into hell.
4. Zech. 3: 1-5
Plead the blood of Jesus to cleanse Nigeria and atone for every sin that has been committed by the country against God.
5. Ps. 144:11-15
Pray that God would deliver Nigeria from the hands of strange children so that times of refreshing can come upon the land.
6. Ps. 24:1-2
Pray and rededicate the throne of Nigeria, the seat of Government, and the entire country to the Almighty God through Jesus Christ.
7. Ps. 24:7-10
Decree that every spiritual gate in Nigeria should open for the King of Glory to enter and reign over the country.
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 24th February - Sunday 2nd March 2025
Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation (Luke 19:42-44).
The “day of visitation" refers to a time when God will intervene in a person's or a nation’s life, for judgment or for salvation. It can be interpreted as a day God would reveal His justice upon a person or a nation, based on their deeds or in terms of the purpose of God concerning them.
It says in Gen. 50:24: ”… Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
In Ruth 1:6, Naomi ”… arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.”
1 Samuel 2:21 tells us that after many years of traumatic barrenness, ”… the Lord visited Hannah””
Divine visitation could be for deliverance and salvation or for judgment because of the wickedness of a people or a person. For the Canaanites, God said, ”And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.”
In 2013, God sent Luke 19:42-44 to Nigeria, warning Christians of the danger in missing divine appointment for the country. That year was a year in the history of Nigeria; it marked the 100th year of the Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates. According to the terms of the Amalgamation, Nigeria was supposed to be renegotiated, after 100 years, by the ethnic nationalities. They were to decide what they would thenceforth with the country. A new agreement was supposed to commence in 2014.
In appreciation of the terms of the Amalgamation, President Jonathan was persuaded to organize the 2014 National Conference. It was a “Kairos” moment, an opportune time for the country, but the Church missed the signals.
In 2014, God sent a message to Christians in Nigeria, which believers dubbed the “Wake Up Call”. In an unprecedented move, God gave a word that broke through every barrier in the Church. That word broke every denominational, tribal, and doctrinal barrier in the Church. It broke through international barriers as Christians in the Diaspora received the word and circulated it. ”The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.”
Unfortunately, resistance to that word came strangely from some influential Church leaders. While Church members received the word as a message from God to be acted upon, the influential Church leaders and their Christian elites placed personal interest above the word of God and misled the entire Christian body. With the benefit of hindsight, no one can deny that choosing those 2015 agents of “CHANGE” brought about the ruin and calamity Nigeria has witnessed in the past ten years.
God in His mercy is sending signals of another divine visitation upon Nigeria, and the Christian community must be sensitized to be ready to seize the next “Kairos” moment. Nigeria must not miss the next season of divine visitation. If the first visitation was missed, the next visitation can also be missed if Christians do not take adequate precaution and make necessary preparations.
As published in a previous Marathon Prayer call, God sent two signals pointing to 2026 and 2027. The first word revealed that forty years after the prophecy of Pastor Elton, which was given in 1986, Nigeria would transit from the phase of corruption into the phase of righteousness and glory. Forty years after that prophecy, would be 2026.
The second word from heaven stated that fifty years after FESTAC ’77, Nigeria would receive forgiveness for the sin of idolatry that the festival represented in 1977. Fifty years after 1977 is the year 2027.
Heb. 6:18 assures us ”That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:” When God gives two signals about the same thing, the matter is settled. Joseph told Pharaoh in Gen. 41:32 that the dream was shown to him twice because the matter was established by God, and it would definitely come to pass. A new Nigeria is around the corner.
Having these promises, let Christians begin to prepare as follows for the visitation of God upon the land:
1. Prayer must be intensified for national deliverance from the stranglehold of the forces of darkness. Those forces tenaciously hold on to Nigeria through the various acts of bloodshed, adultery, and idolatry in the land. Those sinful acts are not by accident but are being deliberately orchestrated by evil spirits to keep the land in bondage.
2. Christians must consciously work towards the unity of the saints. They should consciously build Christian political consensus. Unless God chooses another method of crowning a “David” for Nigeria, the available channel for getting to the throne is politics. At present, Christians are not influential in the political arena. It is not because Christians are weak or few, but primarily because they are not organized to participate in the political process. All the Christian groups involved in various aspects of politics and governance need to unite to provide a “David” for Nigeria. The Christians must agree on a point of convergence and speak with one voice.
3. The Christian body must agree to build a funding platform that will provide a pool of funds for the political process. Some of the Christians that would offer to serve might not have the required funds to campaign or sponsor the logistics that electioneering requires. The solution is for the Christians to crowd-fund those who are going to be sent to take the kingdom. As the Scriptures say, ”Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?" (1 Cor. 9:7).
4. Education of the saints on kingdom matters must begin. Many Christians do not know the difference between the government of the Kingdom of God and the government of the kingdom of the world. For many Christians, support for a candidate is based on ethnicity. That must stop. God is looking for a leader through whom He would work righteousness, justice, and fairness in Nigeria. Christians should look for a candidate that is Kingdom of God minded. A change of attitude towards politics is required.
5. The Christian community must begin to demand accountability from its leaders. The weakest point in the Nigeria Church is its human leadership. The promotion of selfish personal interest is strong amongst many Church leaders. Going by precedence in the 2015, 2019, and 2023 elections, Church leaders possess capacity to truncate the coming divine visitation. If Christians do not hold their leaders accountable, and get them committed to the promotion of collective interest, the leaders might frustrate the next divine visitation.
The deliverance of the land is at hand. May the children of the Kingdom of God be willing to be delivered in the day of God’s power.
1. Ps. 40:1-3
Give thanks to God for delivering Nigeria from the miry clay.
2. John 13:34-35
Pray for brotherly love and unity in the Body of Christ, so that Christians will work in one accord to usher in divine visitation.
3. Nahum 1:9
Pray that affliction shall not come a second time. Decree that Nigeria shall not miss divine visitation again, as in 2015
4. Ezekiel 34:7-8
Raise a lamentation against those shepherds who place their personal interest above the interest of the Body of Christ and the entire country. Pray that God would render them powerless.
5. Eph. 6:10-13
Take authority over every evil spirit that wants to keep Nigeria in bondage. Bind all those forces of darkness and cast them back into hell.
6. Deut. 12:2-3
Overthrow every satanic altar in the country and pronounce judgment on every satanic priest and priestess servicing altars of evil in the land.
7. Isaiah 60:1-2
Proclaim to Nigeria, Arise shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 17th - Sunday 24th February 2025
Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him (Eccl. 8: 6).)
This prayer call was first published in June 2024. It is being repeated now because its message is apt for the season that Nigeria has entered into. As events unfold in the country, there is need for the saints to focus prayers against dead thrones still disturbing the land. They must be buried forever.
God is Sovereign. For every purpose upon earth, God has a time and a judgment. Once the calendar of God starts running, it can neither be interrupted nor abrogated. There are instances in which God gives man an idea of His calendar. A situation might not seem pleasant or palatable, but it could fit into God’s eternal purpose. Under such conditions, it does not matter how much prayer, fasting, or cries one offers, the calendar will run its full course.
However, because God is sovereign, He might also decide to break into His calendar and accelerate events, as indicated in Matt. 24:22: "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened". Whenever God breaks into His own calendar, it is amazing grace.
In His dealings with nations, God establishes programs of action to purge, prepare, or preserve the people, for His purpose. We see two examples of such dealings with Israel in which the nation went through a calendar of fire to prepare and purge the people to fulfill God’s purpose.
That is where it gets interesting. Once God commences His calendar, its termination or fullness of time is left to the people. If they are alert, they will terminate the calendar at its fulness of time. However, if the people are rebellious or careless, they could extend the calendar. This is true for nations as well as for individuals.
In Daniel 9:2, Daniel wrote, "In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." Daniel was on the alert, waiting for the seventy years to be accomplished for the Jews in Babylon. He did not pray before the seventy years were completed, because he knew it would not work. The prophetic calendar had to run its full course.
Daniel was still on his knees when the answer came from heaven. "And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation" (Dan. 9: 20-21). Heaven was waiting for the nation to arise and demand a termination of the calendar of judgment. Only one man understood the times and the seasons. That single individual ended the calamity for the entire nation.
We find another example in Gen. 15:13. God told Abraham, "... Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years" The calendar of God for Israel in Egypt was 400 years. They spent 30 extra years. When Moses started stirring in the 390th year, they drove Moses away, querying, "who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" Moses fled to Midian for forty years. That was what brought their servitude in Egypt to 430 years. They extended the calendar by 30 years.
There is an interesting historical account in the public domain that concerns the calendar of God for Nigeria. In that account, Uthman Dan Fodio was shown a vision in which he was told that the empire which he had built on blood would last for 200 years. That was in 1804. In 2004, the Caliphate publicly celebrated its 200 years of existence. What does that tell us? Where were the Daniels in the land to mark the calendar? Twenty years after, in 2024, the throne is still exerting an influence over Nigeria and exercising power in the politics, economy, religion, as well as the sponsorship of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
At the dot of the 200 years, God made sure that the throne celebrated the calendar for the whole world to know that the time was up for them. It was a valedictory celebration. Unfortunately, Nigerians did not catch the signal.
The Church leaders who, as the gatekeepers over the land, should have given direction to the people, were consumed with the vanity and covetousness of the world. Consequently, they could neither discern the times nor the seasons God appointed for Nigeria. As a matter of fact, when some of them were reminded about the importance of the season, they were offended. Because there was no understanding of visions, the people continued to perish (Prov. 29:18).
Certain thrones are still speaking in Nigeria while, in the calendar of God, they are dead thrones. Their time has run out. It is therefore not strange that death has filled the land. Dead thrones cannot dispense life, only death.
In a previous prayer call, it was mentioned that the currency to pay for empires is blood. Every empire is built on the foundation of blood. Once the duration of an empire expires, if the beneficiaries do not want it to die, they must pay double the amount of blood that was paid to establish it in the first instance. The calendar of an empire ended in 2004, five years later, in 2009, massive bloodshed started in Nigeria. Connect the dots. An empire whose tenure has expired is still tenaciously clinging to power in Nigeria by attempting to double the blood price.
A few months ago, God gave a revelation, that Heaven had ended the tenure of some thrones in Nigeria. However, like Daniel, the people must pray them out so that the demonic Prince of Persia would give way. The major assignment now is to travail in prayer and remind God that His calendar for Nigeria is due. It is 20 years overdue. Gather the wailing women. Call together the mourning women (Jer. 9:17 - 18). Let them lament the desolation of the land and the breach of the divine calendar.
Let the hosts of heaven mobilize into Nigeria and enforce the divine order. A new light has dawned for this country. It is the era of the Son of God. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory" may enter Nigeria.
Nigeria, arise and shine, for your light is come. The glory of God is risen upon Nigeria.
1. Dan. 2: 20 – 22
Thank God for revealing to His people the mystery of His calendar for Nigeria. Thank Him for changing the times and the seasons for the country.
2. Dan. 9: 2
Remind God that while His calendar for Israel in Babylon was 70 years, His calendar for Nigeria was 200 years. Call upon God to end the desolation of Nigeria just as He ended the desolation of Israel in Babylon.
3. Ez. 32: 18 – 27
Pray that every dead throne that is still speaking in Nigeria be dismantled and buried in 2025.
4. Isaiah 49: 24 – 26
Pray that every evil structure that is sustaining oppression, regression, and suppression in Nigeria be dismantled in 2025.
5. Rev. 12: 10 – 11
Plead the Blood of Jesus to silence and nullify the power of every blood that has been shed as sacrifice to keep Nigeria in bondage to dead thrones.
6. Rev. 12: 7 – 9
Pray that the hosts of God shall be released by God into Nigeria to drive Satan and his forces out of the country the way they were driven out of heaven.
7. Isaiah 60: 1 – 2 Proclaim the glory of the Lord over 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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 10th - Sunday 16th February 2025
A controversy is currently raging in the public domain over plans to establish Sharia Courts in the South West of Nigeria. Attempts were made by some Muslims to launch Sharia Court and Sharia Arbitration Panel in Oyo and Ekiti states of Yorubaland. Both moves encountered disapproval from the governments of the states and a stiffer resistance from the Muslim population in Yorubaland. It would be amazing to those who do not understand the difference between Islam in the North and Islam in the West of Nigeria. They might be wondering that it is even Muslims in the South West who are in the vanguard of the rejection of Sharia.
In the prayer call of Sunday 24th – 30th June 2024, we carried an article entitled “WHAT DO YORUBA PEOPLE MEAN BY ‘SERIA’?” In that prayer call, we explained Yoruba people's perception of Sharia. They associate “seria” (Sharia) with suffering and excruciating pain. In recent times, that perception has broadened to include injustice, because some elites from the North steal billions from the state treasury without any repercussion while a 12-year-old boy who stole a phone could have his two arms cut off. Yoruba Muslims do not want that brand of Sharia promoted by the Muslim North. Some Yoruba Muslim intellectuals have pointed out in the raging controversy that there are Muslim arbitration panels operating in some areas of Yorubaland, but they do not intrude into the larger society.
Christians need to understand how the raging Sharia controversy affects them, their faith, as well as their country. That understanding would take us to the root of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the global sponsor of Sharia. The object of the Muslim Brotherhood in sponsoring global Sharia is not religious piety but the intent to establish the global Islamic State. That's politics and power.
The first thing to understand is the difference between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion, while Islamism is a political ideology that teaches that wherever Islam is, Muslims must dominate. Islamism is a political ideology, like democracy, communism, socialism, and welfarism. Muslims in the South-West practice Islam as a religion while their counterparts in the North practise Islam as a political ideology. The leaders of Islam in the North are mostly Islamists who manipulate the religion of Islam for cultural and political domination. That is the underlying reason why the brand of Islam in the North is intolerant and violent towards other religions and non-Muslims, while Muslims of Yorubaland engage in peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims, because for them, Islam is essentially a religion.
In the run-up to elections in 2027, the Muslim North is demonstrating desperation to regain power, and has resorted to the manipulation of religion to split the South-West, having identified it as a crucial voting bloc. The desperation is confirmed with the intervention of the Sultan of Sokoto in the raging debate. He spoke through an Igbo convert to Islam, further highlighting the determination to split, not only Yorubaland, but also the South. Most Yoruba Muslims were not pleased with the statement made on behalf of the Sultan of Sokoto, and they voiced their objections openly.
While Christians practice their faith under the Biblical injunction to “follow peace with all men”, they should understand that not all men are committed to the same ideals. Islamism was established with “jihad” in mind. Current Islamism dates to 1924 when Mustafa Kemal, the “Atarturk”, dismantled the Ottoman Caliphate and embraced secularism and western civilization so that Turkey would develop. Some Islamic fundamentalists felt then that his action was a betrayal of Islam, so in 1928, Hassan Al Banna led some fundamentalists in Ismaila, a village in Egypt, to establish the Islamic (Muslim) Brotherhood. At its inception, the Muslim Brotherhood had two objectives:
1. To implement Sharia worldwide
2. To re-establish the global Islamic state known as the Caliphate.
The creed of the Brotherhood is: “Allah is our objective; the Koran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”
In addition to establishing global Sharia, the Muslim Brotherhood aims at dismantling two critical institutions:
1. Western civilization which it traces to a Judeo-Christianity ideology
2. Democracy – Representing liberty, freedom of choice, and freedom of expression
Islamism is averse to human rights, democracy, and western education. All three aversions are prominent in northern Nigeria, and surreptitiously spreading all over the country. At present, Nigeria is not practicing democracy in its true sense because votes do not count, and the ballot box has been replaced by the courts in declaring “democratically elected” leaders. Some of those holding elective positions in the country were not elected at the polls but appointed by the courts. That is not democracy. It is Sharia. Democracy is deliberately undermined, and Sharia is promoted.
Islamism entered Nigeria in 1962. Sheik Gumi, Snr. accompanied the Sardauna on his Islamic Unification trips to different Islamic nations. While in Egypt, Sheik Gumi came across a handbook of the Muslim Brotherhood. He brought it to Nigeria and started implementing it. That was how Islamism supplanted the Sufi Islam which was the traditional religious practice in northern Nigeria. The ideology behind Islamism is the Salafist/Wahhabist ideology with roots in Saudi Arabia.
Some Christians engage in the politics of ethnicity, not realizing that the political terrain has changed, and the country is now playing the politics of religion. The politics of tribalism ended with the trio of Azikiwe, Sardauna, and Awolowo. Politics in Nigeria today is determined by religion, and those who understand it are building upon the jihadist Abuja Declaration of 1989. As many Christian leaders did not understand the present politics of Nigeria, they were easily manipulated to take positions that were against their interest. In 2014/2015, many Christian leaders conspired to remove a Christian president and install a core Islamist as the President of Nigeria. In the 2023 elections, they had not learnt their lessons. While the Islamists pushed their gains and demanded a Muslim-Muslim ticket, some undiscerning Christian leaders threw their weight behind those Muslims without realizing that they were implementing the Abuja Declarations of 1989. Some salient portions of the Abuja Declaration are as follows:
• To ensure the appointment of only muslims into strategic national and international posts of member nations; (e.g. Muslim-Muslim ticket)
• To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-muslim religions in member nations (e.g. Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, ISWAP, Al Qaeda etc)
• To ensure that only Muslims are elected to all political posts of member nations. (In the first five offices in Nigeria, nos. 1,2,4, & 5, are Muslims)
• To ensure the ultimate replacement of all Western forms of legal and judicial systems with the Sharia in all member nations before the next Islam in Africa Conference. (e.g. the removal of CJN Onnoghen and his replacement with Justice Tanko, a Sharia lawyer, in a Common Law country)
For Nigeria to have peace, it must retain its status as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural society. The promotion of one religion for political and cultural domination will bring doom upon the country. Fortunately, Muslims in the South-West have seen through the exploitation of religion and are stridently opposing it. Meanwhile, some Christian leaders still act as if nothing has gone wrong, yet Christians are the main target of Islamism, as confirmed by the rabid terrorist attacks on Christians and Christian communities in the North. Islamism has done great damage to Nigeria. It entered Nigeria in 1962 and, under democracy, has been ruling since 2015. Nigerians should look back and assess the state of the country from 2015 to date. Even some Arab Islamic states cannot tolerate Islamists. It would be recalled that both Egypt and Tunisia, in the wake of the Arab Spring revolution, placed Islamists in power. Within one year, both countries conducted a counter-revolution and threw them out.
Under the circumstances, Christians must unite internally and collaborate externally. There must be political cohesion within the Church while efforts must be made to collaborate with other non-Christians in the country for the common good of all. All efforts must be geared towards protecting and promoting democracy. Votes must count, and only the ballot box must produce elected officials, not any court in the land. If there is contention over results, there must be fresh election. This implies that there must be an electoral reform before the 2027 elections. All the loopholes that INEC manipulated in 2023 must be plugged. The incursion of Islamism into the politics of Nigeria must stop so that the politics of merit can commence.
God bless Nigeria.
1). Ps. 124
Thank God for preserving and delivering Nigeria from forces that were determined to enslave the country.
2). Isaiah 8:9-10
Pray that God would scatter all local and international forces of Islamism that plot to take Nigeria captive.
3). Col. 2:14-15
Cancel every declaration, communique, or resolution by Islamists to take Nigerians captive.
4). Ps. 94:20
Plead the blood of Jesus and nullify every law of mischief that promotes iniquity in Nigeria. Decree righteous laws upon Nigeria.
5). Isaiah 45:8
Pray for righteousness, liberty, and justice to cover Nigeria as the waters cover the sea.
6). Ps. 75:6-7
Pray that God would empower righteous people to become stronger in Nigeria and prevail, while the wicked and the ungodly shall be weaker and of no influence.
7). Isaiah 43:18-21
With thanksgiving to God, call forth the new 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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 3rd - Sunday 9th February. 2025
At present, the catchword amongst Nigerians, particularly the Christian community, is “New Nigeria”. Most Christians are eagerly looking forward to a turnaround in the affairs of the country. Further encouraged by prophecy, they are optimistic of the emergence of righteousness, justice, and prosperity in the land. However, while we await the “New Nigeria”, we should ask ourselves, “What happened to the Old Nigeria?” If we do not understand what caused the collapse of the “Old Nigeria”, those same factors could afflict the “New Nigeria.”
The answer to that question will take us to 1913, a year before the Amalgamation of the Northern and the Southern Protectorates in 1914. The Northern Protectorate was receiving annual subvention from the British Crown while the Southern Protectorate was declaring surplus. The colonialists decided to merge both protectorates and use the surplus from the South to fund the deficit from the North.
At a colonial government dinner in 1913, Lord Harcourt (after whom Port Harcourt was named) used metaphor to describe what the colonialists had in mind when he said, “We have released Northern Nigeria from the leading strings of the Treasury. The promising and well-conducted youth is now on an allowance “on his own” and is about to effect an alliance with a Southern Lady of means. I have issued the special license and Sir Frederick Lugard will perform the ceremony. May the union be fruitful and the couple constant! The Nigerians are not designed to be a great “Trust” but a great “Federation”.
A quick analysis of this short quote would reveal some facts about Nigeria. First, to the colonialists, “northern Nigeria” was not a geographical space. It referred to “the promising and well-conducted youth”. Second, southern Nigeria was perceived as a wealthy “lady of means” who would use her wealth to sustain her husband, the “promising and well conducted youth”, in a marriage contracted by the British, so that the British Crown would stop giving him “allowance.” The “promising youth” in that metaphor was the Fulani ethnic stock, and the wealth from the South was meant to be an “allowance” for him. Therefore, to understand Nigerian politics and powerplay, anytime one comes across “north” or “northern” in politics, “Fulani” should reasonably be substituted. As a geo-political expression, the North ceased to exist in 1967 when Gen. Gowon created the 12-states structure. Nevertheless, till today, the term tenaciously dominates politics and power in Nigeria. The North is not a geographical space in Nigerian politics, it is an ethnic group.
The sponsors of the Amalgamation considered their move a masterstroke. Lord Lugard, on 1st January 1914, gushed, “I trust that as one united country, Nigeria will increase in prosperity and wealth and its people in happiness.” On the other hand, the colonial officers in the Southern Protectorate considered the Amalgamation a disastrous move. Ian Nicolson, a Colonial Officer in Lagos castigated the Amalgamation when he described Lugard’s administrative plan as “trampling on all the carefully nursed seedlings of civilized government, law and legislature, and substituting authoritarian adminstrocracy in which the whole emphasis was away from the coast, away from the law and education in its widest sense’ and concludes that Lugard’s amalgamation places Nigeria in a state of arrested development …” Today, Nigerians agonize over the state of the country, but few people realize that the development of Nigeria was arrested 111 years ago.
In mid-1914, six months after the Amalgamation, the Times of Lagos, wrote in an Editorial which said, “The Amalgamation of 1914, is, broadly speaking the conquest and subjugation of Southern Nigeria by Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigerian system, Northern Nigerian laws, Northern Nigerian Land laws, Northern Nigerian Administration, must be made to supersede every system in Southern Nigeria.” If we remember what “North” means, then we shall understand what the Times wrote.
Every attempt to break out of the “arrested development” has been ruthlessly quashed by the North. We shall mention a few instances.
Under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Yorubaland made great developmental strides. Chief Awolowo was implicated in a case of treason and was sent to jail while the North supported Chief Akintola to ferment crisis in the West. To date, the West has not recovered its development pace.
In 1975, Murtala Muhammed as military Head of State conducted a “purge” of the Civil Service in which 10,000 career civil servants were dismissed. Those dismissed were mostly career civil servants of southern extraction. In the outcry that followed, government set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by late Monsignor Pedro Martins, the then Chaplain of the Army. According to Chief Philip Asiodu in a Vanguard interview in 2015, “the debacle of 1975 when 10,000 people were asked to retire or dismissed within two months was unfortunate … that act was quite unjust because there were procedures in the civil service for discipline … Later on, when the late Monsignor Pedro Martin was asked to look into the cases of the dismissals, his Report said that 90% of those dismissed did not deserve dismissals”. For producing such a report, Murtala Muhammed retired Pedro Martins from the Army. The dismissed Federal civil servants were replaced by people from Local Governments in northern Nigeria.
There were two consequences of the purge.
One, corruption entered the Civil Service. Most of the people affected suddenly found themselves without houses, cars, or financial back up. Many of them died an untimely death. Those who survived the purge started putting something aside for the “rainy day”. Presently, the Civil Service in Nigeria is the most corrupt institution in the country.
Second, mediocrity entered the engine room of government. The people brought in from the North were not as educated as those that they had replaced. Today, mediocrity is a standard malaise in Nigeria. The average Nigerian would prefer to patronize imported items than made-in-Nigeria goods because the people know that whatever is ‘made-in-Nigeria’ rarely has quality. The combination of corruption and mediocrity made sure that the development of Nigeria was in a perpetual state of arrest.
One may also mention the admission criteria into government-owned Unity Schools in which candidates from the South were required to score as high as 139 points to gain admission while those from the North were admitted with as low as 14 or 9 points. All of them were expected to sit for the same exams and receive the same certificates upon completion of their studies. Of course, it was ground for mediocrity and corruption. Besides, those from the North freely entered the Civil Service and ran the government!
Those expecting a new Nigeria should understand the malady that killed the Old. The solution is to renegotiate Nigeria, starting with a new Constitution. The current 1999 Constitution (as amended) is a tool of “development arrest”. President Tinubu should summon courage and adopt the draft constitution of the 2014 National Conference. That is the easiest way to a new constitution within the shortest possible time. It would be the first step in breaking the yoke of arrested development. The new constitution should include regional autonomy and a secession clause in which any ethnic group that is no longer interested in the union may exit the Federation. The liberty to leave or stay in the Federation would promote mutual respect and regard for human lives, while the regional autonomy would enable each zone to develop at its own pace.
Renegotiating Nigeria should not be used to play politics of second term. This was the mistake made by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Instead of implementing the report of the National Conference in 2014, he wanted to wait untill after the election in 2015, hoping that he would get a second term. The rest is history. The North was prepared to set the entire country on fire to prevent his second term so that he would not be able to implement the report of the National Conference. Therefore, President Tinubu should do whatever is needed to be done now, to destroy every yoke arresting the development of Nigeria. The starting point would be the constitution. It would be his memorable legacy to Nigeria.
In the meantime, the intercessory community should continue in prayers for the country. It is written, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).
God bless Nigeria.
1). Ps. 94:20-21
Pray to dismantle the law of iniquity upon which Nigeria was birthed as a country.
2). Isaish 10:27
Pray to destroy every yoke of ‘arrested development’ placed upon Nigeria from 1914.
3). Ps. 11:3
Pray that God would lay a new foundation for Nigeria, to replace the foundation of oppression and injustice upon which the country was birthed in 1914.
4). 1 Cor. 3:11
Pray that Jesus Christ, the eternal Rock of Ages, shall be the new foundation for Nigeria.
5). Ps. 105:24
Pray that God would increase Nigeria greatly and make her stronger than all her enemies locally, and internationally.
6). Zech. 8:9
Pray for wisdom and courage for the government to give Nigeria a new Constitution which will promote righteousness, justice, and equality in Nigeria.
7). Matt. 6:10
Pray that the government of the Kingdom of God shall be established over Nigeria. Amen.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 27th January - Sunday 2nd February. 2025
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight (Num. 13:33).
When anyone elevates their problems and challenges above the power of the Almighty God, they display a mentality that is best described as “the grasshopper syndrome”. The giants, the descendants of Anak, did not call the Israelite spies “grasshoppers”. It was the Israelites that described themselves as “grasshoppers”. In doing so, they not only belittled themselves, they belittled the Almighty God and created the impression that the giants were stronger than God. To worsen matters, the entire nation agreed with them, and they kept a vigil of tears, each man standing at the door of his tent. Only Joshua and Caleb remained resolute. Strangely, those were the same ones who had witnessed God’s judgments upon the idols of Egypt. They experienced the deliverance of Passover when the firstborn sons of the Egyptians died but none died amongst the Israelites. The parting of the Red Sea was an amazing miracle which was confirmed by Jonathan Gray, an archaeologist, and Ron Wyatt.
At the Gulf of Aqaba where the children of Israel crossed, the Red Sea was 5,000 feet deep, but God had elevated a section of the seabed by 4,000 feet and created a smooth walkway that was 2,952 feet wide stretching 8 miles (13km) to the land of Midian in Arabia, on the other side. Entering the sea at that spot was a gentle 6 degrees which provided carts and humans a comfortable slope to enter the walkway. The children of Israel walked through 1,000 feet of a wall of water on either side of them for 13 kilometers. The water did not crash down on them because, as Ex. 15:8 says, “And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.” God congealed the sea!
The children of Israel watched as the congealed water walls came crashing down on the Egyptian army, killing them all. They saw God bring water out of a dry rock, and He rained bread from heaven everyday. After living in the miraculous for two straight years, they got to the border of the Promised Land and concluded that they were “grasshoppers”. God was so furious that He sent them back into the wilderness for another thirty-eight years until all the generation of ‘grasshoppers’ died. Only then could their descendants enter the Promised Land. Christians who exhibit the “grasshopper syndrome” remain in the wilderness.
As we approach the 2027 elections, Nigeria Christians must beware of the “grasshopper syndrome”. Some common apprehensions in the country include the notion that the politicians have amassed excessive wealth to compromise the elections. President Tinubu is reported to have said that only death could stop him from getting a second term. The Fulanis, being masters of politics, are strategizing for 2027. If someone should consider these apprehensions, one might be tempted to conclude that in 2027, elections would be business as usual. However, what does God say?
In 2023, God spoke through one of our brothers that forty years after the prophecy of Pastor Elton, Nigeria would experience righteousness and glory, after a phase of corruption in which the country would stink globally. Pastor Elton gave the prophecy in 1986, and forty years after that would be 2026 when Nigeria should transit to the phase of righteousness.
In 2024, God also said that fifty years after FESTAC ’77, Nigeria would receive forgiveness for the sin of idolatry, then the nation would enter righteousness. Fifty years after FESTAC is 2027, which is the year of the next election. Therefore, 2026 and 2027 are critical years in the prophetic calendar of God for the country.
Now that Nigeria is at the border of its Promised Land, will Christians express a “grasshopper syndrome,” or proclaim, like Joshua, “we are able to take the land”? God has endowed the Christian community with enormous potentials to deliver righteous leadership for Nigeria. Let us consider the number of voters in the Church.
In the 2023 elections, President Tinubu was declared winner by the Supreme Court based on eight million votes. The Catholic Church has an estimated membership of 21 million while the Anglican Church has an estimated 18 million members in Nigeria. These two denominations alone have an estimated 39 million members. Bearing in mind that voters are registered from 18 years, these two denominations could easily have produced twenty million voters to counter the eight million votes that brought Tinubu into power. We have referred to only two denominations. There are many more in their category. What stopped Nigerian Churches from uniting to produce righteous leadership for Nigeria?
It would amount to criminal negligence if the Christian community in Nigeria does not unite to provide righteous leadership for Nigeria by 2027 in fulfillment of the prophetic calendar of heaven. In two separate prophecies, both pointing to the same period, God has declared that it is time for Nigeria to transit from the wilderness into the Promised Land. Will the Christians act like ‘grasshoppers’?
The past ten years of APC in power have been disastrous for Nigeria. From 2015 when APC made its debut into political power, it has inflicted sorrow and blood upon the citizenry. Today, according to the Cable Index, there is a total of 133 million poor people in Nigeria. This is made up of 45.5m in Northwest, 20.5m in North-East, 20.2m in North-Central, 16.3m in South-West, 19.7m in South-South, and 10.9m in the South-East. Under Buhari, Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world.
With regards to security, a major newspaper in the country cited the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as reporting in December 2024 that 614,937 Nigerians were killed between May 2023 and April 2024. This is horrific, if true. That figure exceeds those killed in the Russia-Ukraine war, estimated at 67,000 people. The Bureau of Statistics is also cited to have reported that 2.2 million Nigerians were kidnapped/abducted within the same period while N2.2 trillion was paid as ransom. The number of Nigerians kidnapped under APC government from May 2023 to April 2024 is more than the population of 15 different countries in the world.
In the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari, as APC presidential candidate, 63,111 Nigerians were killed, according to Nigeria Security Tracker (NST). When Tinubu took over in 2023, the number of Nigerians killed in one year reportedly rose to 614,937. Yet, the APC wants to return to power in 2027.
Going by these disturbing figures, one can conclude that Section 14(2)b of the 1999 Constitution as amended which says, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government” is of no paramount importance to the APC-led government. Shockingly, the response of the Tinubu administration to poverty is a handout of N75,000 to ten million poor people. If ten million out of 133 million poor people receive the handout, what will happen to the remaining 123 million poor people? Besides, what would Nigerians do with N75,000, which cannot buy a bag of rice or fill the tank of an average vehicle twice?
We have outlined the figures above to underscore the imperative of Christian political unity to align the Church with the prophetic calendar of God. The situation facing the country is serious and desperate. Every effort should be made to ensure that Nigeria enters in through the door of deliverance that heaven has opened for the land.
The greatest threat to Christian political unity is the rivalry of some Christian denominations and the promotion of personal interest by some of the Church leaders. It is imperative, in the overall interest of all Nigerians, that all differences be set aside and the Christian body function as one, to usher in a righteous government in 2027. We reiterate that it shall amount to criminal negligence on the part of the Nigeria Church if it cannot unite to produce, promote, and vote into office, righteous and God-fearing rulers for Nigeria. The oft-repeated tendency of some Church leaders to endorse corrupt and incompetent candidates must not happen again.
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the umbrella body established to forge unity amongst the various Christian denominations must ensure that all the denominations speak with one voice to adopt credible candidates into the various political offices, while Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) should be supported to fulfill its role as the socio-political arm of the Church. All the various groups in the country working towards the emergence of the New Nigeria must be prepared to work together in the spirit of Christ, to birth a country that will truly flow with milk and honey.
Nigeria cannot continue to operate as if the Body of Christ does not exist in this country. The light of the Church must shine and overcome the darkness that is covering the land. It is time for the manifestation of the sons of God. The New Nigeria must come forth.
1. Zech. 1:12-17
Thank God for bringing to an end the indignation of heaven against idolatry in Nigeria.
2. 1 Cor. 1:10
Pray for Nigeria Christians to unite and work in harmony to birth a new Nigeria.
3. Eph. 6:10-13
Take authority over every spirit of division and strife working through ethnic or denominational rivalry. Bind those foul spirits from causing disunity in the Church and cast them out.
4. Matt. 12:29
Take authority over the satanic strongman and all forces of darkness working against righteousness and godliness in Nigeria.
5. Rev. 12:11
Plead the blood of Jesus to neutralize and overcome all rituals, sorcery, and blood sacrifices by evil politicians in the land.
6. Ps. 34:21
Execute judgment on all priests and priestesses servicing satanic altars in the country. Decree that the evil of their doings shall consume them.
7. Num. 17:6-9
Pray for a mark of divine approval on all the people God has approved to hold political offices in the country.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 20th - Sunday 26th Jan. 2025
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever (Revelation 11:15).
In the prayer call of 11th – 17th December 2023, we wrote a treatise entitled “THE BATTLE FOR THE THRONE”. In that earlier prayer call, we pointed out that every kingdom has a throne, and whoever controls the throne controls the kingdom.
As Nigeria draws close to another election season, it is important to clarify the goal of Christian involvement in the political process. Emerging signals reveal that some Christians do not see any problem with whoever wields power in the country, so long as that person is their preferred candidate. To have one’s preferred candidate in power is one thing, building the Kingdom of God on earth, is another.
Christ left His disciples with two major assignments:
1. Soul winning
2. Establishing the presence and power of the Kingdom of God on earth
There are two spiritual kingdoms operating on the earth. They are the Kingdom of God, headed by Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of the world, headed by Lucifer, as the prince of the world. The assignment of Christians on earth includes promoting the principles and practices of the Kingdom of God in preparation for the return of the Master Who will establish its fulness on earth. For this reason, Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).
For Christians, therefore, it is not sufficient that a preferred person is the president, or that a president has good policies. Christians should be more concerned with, “which kingdom is ruling Nigeria? Is it the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of the world?" That is easy to answer simply by observing the policies and actions of the government.
Since Independence in 1960, access to the throne of Nigeria has been through the “law of iniquity”. Successive governments have come into power through dubious, wicked, and treacherous actions. The results of such governments have been deceits and acts of wickedness. It says in Psalm 94:20-21, "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood." This Bible verse summarizes the character of successive governments in Nigeria. The country is yet to have a government that can be considered righteous.
The purpose of God is that a government shall emerge in Nigeria reflecting the character of the Kingdom of God. According to Psalm. 89:14, four pillars uphold the throne of God, and these are: “righteousness, justice, mercy, and truth.” "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face." (NKJV)
God desires that the law of access to the throne of Nigeria must be through righteousness, justice, mercy, and truth. These four values have been lacking in the process of emergence of successive governments in Nigeria. Consequently, governance has been by subterfuge, wickedness, corruption, and bloodshed.
The task of the Church is to facilitate the emergence of a government that will reflect the character of the throne of God so that Christ would be enthroned upon Nigeria. No matter the intercession and supplication of the saints, Christ will neither sit on, nor endorse, a throne of iniquity. The throne must be established by righteousness before Christ will honour it with His Presence. Until Christians unite and organize to produce a righteous government, it is not possible to claim that Christ reigns over Nigeria. Undoubtedly, God intervenes in our national affairs and that is the reason the country has not imploded. However, the consequence of the throne of iniquity in the land is starring all citizens in the face. Presently, wickedness and iniquity are running the affairs of Nigeria.
Under the circumstances, what should be the response of Christians? Should some Christians still work to support the throne of iniquity, under the guise that it promises to do some good work? Or should they cooperate with the Holy Spirit to birth a righteous throne for the country?
These questions become pertinent because of a disturbing trend in Christian engagement in politics. Most Christians who participate in politics and governance seem not to know the difference between the throne of iniquity and the throne of righteousness. To some Christians, government is government. Some Christian leaders are secular in their political engagements. They forget that it is Nigeria that is secular, the Church is not. The Church recognizes the secularity of the State, out of respect for other citizens’ freedom of worship, but the Church itself is not secular but sacred. Therefore, when some Church leaders and some Christian elites endorse a government that gained access into power through the law of iniquity, those Christian leaders present themselves as enemies of the Kingdom of God (James 4:4). Anyone who joins Lucifer to strengthen a throne of iniquity cannot claim to belong to Jesus Christ.
Therefore, those Christian leaders whose politics tilts towards worldliness should reappraise their stand. Their commitment in the world will determine their position in eternity. It would be impossible for an individual who spent his life defending and promoting the throne of Satan to expect that Jesus Christ would welcome him into the Kingdom of God. This is probably one of the reasons the Lord will reject many of those who served Him.
Jesus Christ declared in Matt. 7:21-23, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Some of those that the Lord will reject could have served Him meritoriously, but classified as “workers of iniquity,” they would be rejected from eternal life. Their association with the throne of iniquity while on earth would be used to judge their eternal reward. Anyone who supports Lucifer to strengthen his kingdom can never receive eternal rest in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. On that day of judgment, money would be meaningless.
This is one of the reasons we are appealing to Church leaders and Christian elites to join in the efforts to enthrone a righteous ruler over Nigeria. The current political class is corrupt and discredited. Their politics is characterized by deceit, occultism, unrighteousness, and every manner of abominable work. It is embarrassing that some prominent Christian figures in the country support them and are canvassing support for them to remain in office.
The Christian community can produce righteous leadership for Nigeria, but the Church must unite. The key element in delivering a throne of righteousness for Nigeria is Christian unity. This can only be done when Christians understand and accept that they must not associate with a throne of iniquity. The events of the 2023 elections confirm that the government in power did not ascend the throne through righteousness but by the law of iniquity. The throne of iniquity shall not have fellowship with God (Ps. 94:20).
General Overseers, Bishops, Church Officials and the Christian elite should desist from supporting and endorsing thrones of iniquity in the country. They should rather join hands to birth a righteous government that will provide the platform for Christ to reign over Nigeria.
The government of the Kingdom of God shall be established upon Nigeria. Amen.
1). Eph. 1:17-19
Pray that God will endow Christian leaders in Nigeria with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enable them to understand the difference between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world.
2). Ps. 133
Pray for unity amongst all the various Christian denominations and ministries. Pray that Christians shall be of one mind to produce a righteous government for Nigeria.
3). Gal. 6:14
Pray that the cross shall work deeply in Christian leaders and crucify every lust for money, self promotion, and self interest.
4). 2 Cor. 2:11
By the blood of Jesus, nullify every manipulation and projection of sorcery to divide Christians and hinder political unity amongst the saints.
5). Isaiah 59:19
Raise a banner of the blood of Jesus and barricade in the spirit realm every plan of evil politicians to sustain a throne of iniquity over Nigeria.
6). Isaiah 43:18 19
Pray that God will do a new thing in Nigeria and bring forth a righteous nation.
7). Rev. 11:15
Decree that the kingdom of Nigeria has become the Kingdom of God.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 13th - Sunday 19th Jan. 2025
Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle (Deut. 2:24).
After promising Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the land of Canaan, by an everlasting covenant, God gave the Israelites a curious command as they were about to possess the land. In Deut. 2:24, God instructed them to "begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle." That God has promised an individual or a nation a gift does not imply they should fold their arms and wait. There is a battle to be fought for the manifestation of every promise of God. For the Israelites in the Promised Land, there were giants daring them to go in and possess the land.
In Matthew 12:29, the Lord asks, "Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house?"_ Matthew 11:12 states, " And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force".
The catch phrase in the mouth of many Christians in Nigeria is “The New Nigeria”. Christians are waiting for a restored country filled with righteousness, justice, and peace. In anticipation of the new Nigeria, a lot of prayers and fasting are going on. That is good. However, prayer should not be the only preparation for the manifestation of the new Nigeria. The other side is to “contend in battle”.
It is in contending in battle that Nigeria Christians have a serious challenge. The response of the Church over the years to issues of serious national challenge confirms that Christians in Nigeria are strong in “faith” but weak in “works”. The notion is that having prayed, God would do the rest.
If that attitude does not change, the new Nigeria might be delayed. The new Nigeria would still come, because when God makes a promise, it will come to pass. If a generation does not claim the promise, the next generation would. Therefore, if the promise of the new Nigeria is to be appropriated by this generation of Nigerians, the Church must get militant. The concept of militancy here is not with reference to carrying guns and exploding bombs all over the country. Militancy means that the Church must be prepared to plan and be determined to execute its plan.
A major deficit amongst Christians is the ability to plan. Almost everything is spiritualized and left for God after they have prayed. Meanwhile, in dealing with man, God separates what He would do for man, from what man would do for himself. God only does what man cannot do. If a problem can be solved on the earth, God will not provide the solution from heaven. If an information can be provided on the earth, God will not provide it from heaven. Revelation is God telling an individual what no one can tell him on the earth. There are problems of man that God will not solve from heaven, but man must solve it on the earth.
This is the reality that nations like China, Singapore, Malaysia, not to talk of Europe and USA, have accepted. God gave man brain for man to solve his problems. Even in Israel, where the manifestation of God was rife, God never went to the battle while Israel stayed at home. God always met Israel on the battlefield. The people must be prepared to engage the enemy before God would come and help them.
At present, Nigerians are groaning under cruel taskmasters who pretend to be statesmen. This group of devourers hijacked the state ten years ago with no intention of leaving in 2027. They have stolen, killed, and destroyed (John 10:10). If they are left in office for another ten years, they will continue to steal, kill, and destroy. Majority of the citizens are tired of them. They have replaced governance with propaganda.
If one should ask the average Nigeria Christian what he is doing to get rid of bad government, he would respond with “we are praying”. Ask again, “after the prayers, what are you going to do?” You will hear, “our Church is fasting. After the fasting, you will see what will happen in this country.” Nothing will happen. Faith without works, is dead.
At the National Prayer Altar, we believe in prayers and fasting. The Prayer Altar prays every night for Nigeria, and it will clock three years of unbroken prayer exercise by April 2025. However, we strongly affirm that practical works based on careful planning must be added to prayers. We have often expressed this through some of the interventions we have made on national issues. Everyone ought to pray and work. It is not sufficient to call ourselves to prayer and fasting for Nigeria without adequate strategic planning for Nigeria.
The Nigeria Church has the capacity to transform the country by virtue of its potentials. Christians constitute the largest demographic group in Nigeria. They are the most educated, the most civilized, and the most skilled. They constitute the largest group of academics, intellectuals, scientists, technocrats, business entrepreneurs, skilled artisans, business magnates, and professionals in all fields. Even the wealth of Nigeria, be it oil, gas, ports, water ways, and the bulk of the arable land are on Christian lands. Yet, in Nigeria today, Christians are underdogs. The problem? Christians do not plan; they only pray. Faith without works, is dead.
Even when a plan was prepared, like National Christian Elders Forum did for the Church, some Church leaders killed that plan in 2016. To date, the Nigeria Church has no plan against insurgency, poverty, sexual immorality, corrupt and incompetent government, and apparently no plan to establish a righteous government. Only calls to prayer and fasting!
It can change, and it must. What has been lacking is proper leadership. If Christians will agree and rally round the structure that previous Church leaders built for socio-political engagement of the Church, credible efforts can commence to prepare for the emergence of the new Nigeria. The Nigeria Church has two leadership bodies: the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN). While CAN was established in 1976 to build Church unity and it is managed by the clergy, CSMN was established in 2001 for socio-political engagement of Christians, and it is managed by the laity. Both bodies were established by the five Church groups that make up Christianity in Nigeria. They are the only two groups, so established.
A central mobilizing and harmonizing body is required because of differing denominational and sectional preferences. If Christianity is going to utilize its enormous potentials for societal transformation, Christians must be harmonized to work in unity. Hitherto, Christian political assets have been divided, turning Christians into minority groups during elections.
For 2027, Christians in Nigeria must speak with one voice and consciously present a competent presidential candidate on a credible political party platform. For this to happen, Christians must accept a leadership institution to drive the process. Whoever says Christians should not participate in politics has not read Isaiah 9:6: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder". Christ is the Head, and the Church is His body. The Government is resting upon the “shoulder,” which is His body. It is the responsibility of the Church to provide righteous leadership for Nigeria, and the channel to do that is politics. We must begin to plan.
It would be a shame on all Christians if devourers should return to power in 2027. It would be to our collective condemnation, if the new Nigeria does not manifest as God has promised.
In the meantime, Christians in each denomination/ministry should establish a “Social Forum” for Christians interested in politics and governance to interact. They will work with CSMN to mobilize all the members of their assembly in preparation for the emergence of righteous government in Nigeria. We must match our faith with works. The new Nigeria shall emerge.
CSMN can be contacted at:
1. John 17:21-23
Pray for unity and peace amongst all Christian groups in Nigeria to birth a righteous and just government for the country.
2. Rom. 16:17-18
Pray that God will silence and incapacitate those who cause division amongst Christians.
3. James 1:5
Pray for divine wisdom to plan and overcome the wiles of the devil and the craftiness of politicians.
4. 2 Cor. 2:11
Pray against every attack and manipulation of Satan and his forces to destroy the Christian political consensus project.
5. Isaiah 9:6
Pray that the Nigeria Church shall be empowered by God to carry the responsibility to birth a righteous and God-fearing government in Nigeria.
6. Ex. 31:1-6
Pray that everyone that God has filled with wisdom and ability to birth the new Nigeria shall come forth.
7. Rev. 11:15
Proclaim that the Kingdom of Nigeria has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 6th - Sunday 12th Jan. 2025
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (Gen. 3:6).
The story of humanity started at the Garden of Eden, so did human woes. As we commence another year, it would be good to retrace how humanity got into its present distress, and review what is called “the original sin” of man. At the beginning of this year, a look at the beginning of humanity might offer clues to a successful and peaceful year.
A literal reading of Gen. 3:1-2 shows that a “serpent” deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. That has been the common belief over the ages. A deeper look at the root word translated “serpent” reveals something different. The Hebrew word translated “serpent” is nachash, sometimes pronounced “nahash.” It means, “serpent, shining one, one who shines”. There are Bible scholars who believe that it was “a shining one” who spoke to Eve. It says in 2 Cor. 11:14: ”And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” Revelation 12:9 provides more clarification on the identity of the “serpent” when it says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.”
The Scriptures confirm that the devil deceived Eve and she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). After eating it, she gave the same to her husband, and he also ate. This is where the story gets interesting. Was Adam also deceived by the devil? The Scriptures state emphatically in 1 Tim. 2:14, “And Adam was NOT deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Adam knew that the devil lied. He knew that they were not supposed to eat of that tree, yet he went ahead to eat the fruit. Satan did not deceive Adam; so, why did Adam willfully disobey God?
We could reconstruct the Genesis account of the creation of man to give us a clearer picture of our aim in what might have been responsible for Adam’s choice. After the creation of man on the sixth day, God rested on the seventh. It was after the day of rest that God assigned Adam the responsibility of tending the garden and giving names to all the animals (Gen. 2:18-20). We do not know how long it took Adam to give names to all the animals. Zoologists spend years in the university to study animals, but Adam named them all. While undertaking that assignment, Adam was alone, and God confirmed that there was neither help nor companion for him. It was at that point that God created Eve and brought her to Adam.
Adam was put to a deep sleep from which he woke up to find a flawlessly beautiful woman by his side. There are many beautiful women in the world, but none could have been as beautiful as Eve. The reason is, when she was created, there was no sin, so her beauty was perfect and flawless. To a man, the most beautiful thing on earth is a woman, while to a woman, the most beautiful thing is a baby. So, imagine a man who had been alone on planet earth suddenly being gifted with the most beautiful woman in the world! For Adam, Eve could do nothing wrong. Whatever Eve wanted, she got from him. Satan watched and decided that Eve was Adam’s weakness.
That was where the problem of humans started. Adam loved the gift more than the Giver. As far as Adam was concerned, pleasing Eve came first. Even though Adam knew that they should not eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and he had not been deceived by the lie of the devil, he could not say “no” to Eve. There was a contest in the Garden of Eden between God and Eve for the heart of Adam. Unfortunately, Eve won. God became furious and drove the two of them out of His garden. The gift must never replace the Giver.
That “original sin,” as we may describe it in this context, is repeated by many descendants of Adam in various ways, but the consequences remain the same. Whosoever places the gift of God above God vacates the garden of God.
Interestingly, this “original sin” is not committed by unbelievers only. It is found amongst born-again Christians. There are regenerated Christians whom God has blessed with gifts which, unfortunately, have taken precedence over God. There are Christians who cried out to God for a good job. Having got it, the job got more honored than the God who gave it. That person disdains God at the beginning of each week, going late to worship on Sunday, even though they are very punctual at work on other days.
There are Christians whom God placed in important positions, but who ended up compromising truth and righteousness just to ‘keep their job’ and remain ‘relevant’ amongst their peers. Even when they know the righteous demands of God, they choose to forsake His standards and act in ways inconsistent with the will of God. Pleasing the job becomes more important than pleasing God the Giver of the job. Yet, if one should ask them where they would spend eternity, they would point in the direction of heaven. How can someone repeat the “original sin” and hope to be in the garden of God?
Examples abound of Christians who placed ministry, marriage, business, political appointment, children, including foreign visa, above the Giver. In so many ways, descendants of Adam keep re-enacting what occurred in the Garden of Eden, without considering the consequences. Adam unwittingly turned Eve into an idol because, whatever one places above God becomes an idol to that person. The sad truth is that, in our generation, many Bible-believing Christians have turned the gifts of God in their lives into personal idols. No idolater shall find favour before God.
As we commence another year, let Christians search their hearts. The gift of God must not replace God. The commitment and devotion of man to God must not be violated. In other words, in this New Year, PUT GOD FIRST. On the scale of preference of many professing Christians, God occupies a lower place, meanwhile, they expect Him to put them first in His blessings. Some of those who desire God to take their matter seriously treat Him with levity and disdain. Whoever places the gift of God above God will vacate the garden of God.
May we not misplace our priority and end up losing favour with God. Pleasing God must come first in all things. In 2025, Put God First.
1. Ps. 92:1-4
Thank God for grace to enter 2025 peacefully and in good health. Thank God for grace to abide in the faith.
2. 1 John 1:8-10
Confess every sin of placing personal interest above the command and purpose of God.
3. Ps. 90:13-17
Pray for restoration into God’s favour in 2025 in every area of your life where self-will or disobedience might have affected God’s favour.
4. 2 Cor. 5:18-19
Christ came to reconcile God and humans. Pray that the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from every controversy with God, and restore you into the fulness of divine favour in 2025.
5. 2 Cor. 6:14-18
Pray for personal consecration in 2025, so that your obedience to God shall be perfect.
6. Ps. 128
Pray that all members of your family shall walk before God and be perfect in 2025 and retain favour of God.
7. Joel 2:21
Pray for Nigeria, that in 2025, God shall restore the country into divine favour.
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
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar
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