Former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the 2022 Future Africa Leaders Awards/New Year’s Eve service with Rev. Dr. Chris Oyakhilome of
Christ Embassy in Lagos, lamented the crisis in Africa.
The former Nigerian president speaking on the theme: “The Imperishable of Life – Here and There”, noted that African countries are where they are because of leadership failure. He spoke on what leadership entails, how to achieve the best of leadership and what the Scripture teaches.
Former President Obasanjo congratulated Pastor Chris Oyakhilome for the annual parade and reward of those adjudged to be exemplars among their peers in presenting themselves as upcoming young leaders in Africa. According to Obasanjo, “it is an effort to encourage, promote and enhance leadership quality in Africa.”
He stated that “leadership is doing the right things by yourself and making others do the right things as well and together.” He noted that in leadership development, it is the heart, the head, the hands and the minds that are crucial.
Obasanjo declared: “Character, attributes, attitude, all go together to make you an exemplary leader like Jesus Christ who excelled as a leader when he was here on earth.
“His life was encapsulated in the Ecclesiastes passage Chapter 9, Verse 10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom”. “We need right qualities of leadership to get it right for ourselves and to be able
to help others to get it right here on earth and as preparation for heaven.
“Our major problem in Africa is leadership and if we can
fix the leadership problems, we will be able to shout Hallelujah and fix all other things.”
The former Nigerian President emphasised that “winners of The Future Africa Leaders Awards have
demonstrated leadership in meeting the challenging needs of their communities and their nations and we have seen in the video that we have watched on the screen.”
He said that they are using their God-given talents and abilities to serve God by serving humanity. They are laying up imperishable treasures there in eternity by serving God here on earth. “You are all congratulated and please don’t relent. I will urge you to use this award as encouragement and inspiration to do more of the good work you are doing.
“Brothers and Sisters in Christ, always remember that you are here on earth to serve humanity and God and you should leave the perishable that will hinder your service for the imperishable that will help your service and your relationship with man and
God. Be a good leader like Jesus Christ – a holy person full of righteous deeds and actions and going about doing good,” Obasanjo declared.
Obasanjo’s full statement reads:
REMARKS BY CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO
At The 2022 Future Africa Leaders Awards/New Year’s Eve Service With Rev. Dr. Chris Oyakhilome
Christ Embassy, Lagos
31 December 2022
Children of God wherever you are, I bring you greetings from the city of God which is what I call this gigantic and sprawling edifice God has enabled Pastor Chris Oyakhilome to build and to
continue to build for God.
I was not originally scheduled to address you from here on this New Year eve for the service and the future Africa Leaders Presentation and Awards. We were going afield to bring one of
the incumbent African political leaders to address you. But as it happened, the two that we approached in Ethiopia and in Togo,
have national issues at hand that require their being at home almost 24/7. May God spare their lives and your lives and maybe you will be able to listen to them at some future dates.
Pastor Chris has asked me to be a substitute. My attempt to make excuse like Moses when he was called by God to be given an assignment to get the children of Israel out of the land of slavery in Egypt did not hold water. I said to Pastor Chris that I am a poor substitute. And hear what the great man of God said
to me, “God makes use of poor and weak people for His purpose by empowering them to run a successful errand for Him”. Then
that was the end of the matter and therefore you have to bear with me for a few minutes.
At this juncture, my dear brother and friend, please let me publicly acknowledge and express appreciation for your annual regular Christmas and New Year presents and particularly for the
one of this year which was sumptuous – as the Yoruba say, orisirisi. May your shadow never grow less.
I have chosen my short remarks the title, “The Imperishable of Life – Here and There”.
Children of God, brothers and sisters, let us dwell on some
passages in the Bible that are very relevant to our topic, ‘The Imperishable of Life – Here and There’. Here on earth and there is in eternity.
Psalm 90 Verse 12, “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom”. Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, understanding and good and sound
judgement. Wisdom also comes from learning and doing. The longer we live, it should normally be that the wiser we will become, but does it always go that way? It will only go that way when you count your days. Not just in terms of twenty-four hours
in a day and seven days in a week which gives us 168 hours and four weeks in a month and twelve months in a year. This is important, but what is more important that the Psalmist refers to
as counting or numbering your days is what you do with your life.
Here on earth, you are here to serve humanity and to serve God.
And if your life is not rich in the service of humanity, consequently in the service of God, you are not numbering or counting your
days and your heart is not a heart of wisdom. And if you are not wise, you are the opposite – Foolish. We are created to be wise but, of course, we can choose to be unwise and that will be a
choice made by us and not by God for us.
Let me go to the second passage in Matthew 6: 19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. My dear brothers and sisters, here in this passage again, we come across the importance of our hearts in holy and righteous living and godly deeds as well as our actions in our relationship and interaction
with others. A heart of wisdom will lay treasure where it is safe and secure not where it can be stolen and destroyed. Let us
consider, what is often regarded as very important or most important to us in this life? Please come along with me as I give some checklist: Life itself, you have no control over it; health,
you can manage it, but you have no control over it; possession and properties, it may come and go and if it does not leave you, you will leave it and others will do what they like with it and with your will, you have no control over it; praises and popularity, it is all vanity; family and friends, they will leave you or you will leave
them. The imperishable for you and me here is character and human relationships and there in eternity, it will be attitude and your relationship with God. We bring nothing tangible here, and we will take nothing tangible there. The imperishable that may
not be interred with our bones is the intangibility of our character, attribute, impact on and relationship with other human beings.
The imperishable that will be with us in eternity is our attitude which influences our relationship with God up to when we have to give account of our stewardship here on earth to our Creator.
The heart is the custodian of the imperishable of our life here and there and we must number our days so that our hearts may acquire wisdom for our imperishable treasure to be rightly laid up where also our hearts should be.
Now in this address, we are where we want to be: leadership, what it entails, how to achieve the best and what the Scripture
teaches. Before I go into these details, let me at this juncture again congratulate Pastor Chris Oyakhilome for this annual parade and reward of those adjudged to be exemplars among
their peers in presenting themselves as upcoming young leaders in Africa. It is an effort to encourage, promote and enhance
leadership quality in Africa. Leadership is doing the right things by yourself and making others do the right things as well and together. We talk of the heart in numbering our days to be wise and putting our treasure where our hearts should be. In leadership development, it is the heart, the head, the hands and the minds that are crucial. Character, attributes, attitude, all go together to make you an exemplary leader like Jesus Christ who
excelled as a leader when he was here on earth. His life was encapsulated in the Ecclesiastes passage Chapter 9, Verse 10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither
working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom”. We need right qualities of leadership to get it right for ourselves and to be able
to help others to get it right here on earth and as preparation for heaven. Our major problem in Africa is leadership and if we can
fix the leadership problems, we will be able to shout Hallelujah and fix all other things.
The winners of The Future Africa Leaders Awards have
demonstrated leadership in meeting the challenging needs of their communities and their nations and we have seen in the video that we have watched on the screen.
They are using their God-given talents and abilities to serve God by serving humanity. They are laying up imperishable treasures there in eternity by serving God here on earth. You are all
congratulated and please don’t relent. I will urge you to this award as encourage and inspiration to do more of the good work you are doing.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, always remember that you are here on earth to serve humanity and God and you should leave the perishable that will hinder your service for the imperishable that will help your service and your relationship with man and
God. Be a good leader like Jesus Christ – a holy person full of righteous deeds and actions and going about doing good.
Happy New Year to you all.