Painter represents next level agenda of the APC government prophetically, says Nigeria is heading for a great deal
By Chinyere Ogbonna: A Revolutionary art work and Prophetic Painting entitled “GOD HAS GRANTED US AUDIENCE” – A Nigerian painter who describes himself as a prophet with paint and brush, Mazi Daniel Awgu says God has Granted us Audience is an Inspirational artistic representation, prediction of what is going to happen in the NEXT LEVEL agenda of the President Mohammdu Buhari’s APC led administration as he begins his second term in office as the President of the most populous black nation in the world. However, how these predictions come to reality to change the situation of an average Nigerian on the street remains unclear. Many Nigerians are unemployed, hungry, faced with uncertainty as violence, insurgency, kidnapping, ritual killings of innocent Nigerians has dotted the country’s landscape. The ruling party in Nigeria, the All Progressives People’s Congress (APC), under the leadership of President Mohammadu Buhari at inception, started with a change mantra, indicating that they were coming to change the way things were in Nigeria and for Nigerians. After taking over from the PDP led government led by the former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. But many Nigerians have shared divergent views on the change slogan, while some said it was paying off, many are of the views that that many Nigerians probably failed to ask members of the APC during its political campaigns the kind of change it was bringing to the table; bearing in mind that change could be either positive or negative. These were against the backdrop of hike in the prices of commodities shortly after the current administration took over the mantle of leadership of the country in 2015.
GOD HAS GRANTED US AUDIENCE
The mantra of the administration in President Buhari’s second term in office has been changed to the “NEXT LEVEL”; which the party says is an agenda to consolidate on the gains of its first tenure, even as Nigerians hold divergent views on the achievements recorded so far by the administration. While some say that the economy was bastardized by the PDP led government and so he needed time to rebuild the country, others who share a contrary view, say he is slow at bringing about the expected change he claimed to be bringing.
However, the prophetic artist, Mazi Agwu shares an entirely different view. The artist is optimistic that there is hope at the end of the tunnel for Nigerians. He says his painting is born out of inspiration and has come up again with another painting showing President Mohammadu Buhari with some angels around him. He explains the painting and the presence of arch angels around Nigeria’s president in this interview with our correspondent.
SHOUT-AFRICA: How have you captioned this painting?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:The title of the painting is “GOD HAS GRANTED US AUDIENCE“and when he grants you audience, what he expects you to do is to speak to him. When God grants a man, a nation or a family audience, what he expects from him is to speak. It means that he wants to solve your problem. You have been praying that God should answer you and now he has stepped down; just like when he wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He said; let me go and see if what he was hearing was true. Now, he has come down to Nigeria to listen to all the prayers we have been praying; all the vigils, the crusades held all over Nigeria, the prayers of the saints, everyone from different religions. He has come down to grant us audience; to give us his ears. Every country has the torrential powers that govern it. So, when your own prayer gets to him and he decides to do something about it; one thing he does, is to give you audience; and whatever you do at that moment; he will answer you. I did this painting trying to show what is going on spiritually over this country; Nigeria; so that we do not miss the opportunity because it is golden. What God is telling us in the book of numbers, is that what you tell me is exactly what I’m going to do. So, this time around, we don’t need to speak any how about this country. Whatever we want government to do for us, it is time to say it; to do it and to practice it because God indeed has granted us audience by sending his arch angels to come and take record of whatever thing we need to improve upon.
SOUTH-AFRICA:This painting seems to have a correlation with the recent prediction of the General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Pastor T.B. Joshua on Nigeria. Is there a link between your prophetic painting and his prediction?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:My painting was in the public domain about 3weeks before his prediction. T.B. Joshua prophesied that God showed him a vision where Seraphim were pouring rain water on Nigeria and you know what rain water signifies. You also know who a Seraph is. In heaven we have categories of angels; there are angels that are thousands of miles away from God, there are those that are close to him, just like the seraphim’s and the cherub, those are closer angels to God after Christ. The next close to him, are the Seraphim. So, they came and they were pouring rain water over this country, Nigeria. You know, before anything good happens, you will always have this shaking, it even happens in the life of individuals, So, the shaking that we are witnessing in Nigeria today, is a kind of battle that the devil created to lead many people away from this rain that God is pouring over this nation which will soon take effect physically.
SHOUT-AFRICA:Is God about to pour the rain water or has he done that already?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:According to the prophesy by Prophet T.B. Joshua, he was pouring the rain water. It is a spiritual thing. The bible says that God will not do anything without showing it to his servant. So, that was a vision that God gave to him to confirm this painting that, the cries of this nation has come to me and pouring rain water on this country and when that is going on, changes will begin to manifest.
SHOUT AFRICA:Okay! What are some of these changes that you are expecting that God is about to bring about in Nigeria?
PAINTER: I know he is going to use us; but in terms of security, it is very necked and clear for even the blind to see. “God is going to end this insecurity that we are currently experiencing in this country. There will be abundance of food supply and there will be peace; in this nation. People from all over the world will soon begin to start pouring into Nigeria, same way we were pouring out to seek for greener pasture. When people have now seen that God has blessed this nation, Nigeria; that even her own citizens are abandoning, then, they too, will start looking for our visa. I saw in my private time, where the sky was painted green all over the world. People were looking for this country called Nigeria”.
“Some of the things the angels are coming to do; is to quench insecurity. It is going to quench hunger on the land, there will be abundance and there will be peace. In fact, being a Nigerian will be a thing of pride, the same way Americans take pride in being Americans”. In no distant time, under this government, Nigerians will be so happy carrying Nigerian passport anywhere in the world”.
SHOUT-AFRICA: In 2016, you did a painting that had a link with ASO ROCK where President Buhari was shown sewing on a machineand many who saw that painting, ordinarily wondered what the president of a country was doing with a sewing machine. But your explanation was that it was an indication that something good was in the offing for Nigerians. How would you assess President Buhari’s administration in the last four years; judging from what has played out since he assumed office?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: Okay! Let me go back to that painting entitled “INSIDE ASO ROCK”. The prophesy then was a reflection of what was going on in Aso Rock Villa, which was that God brought up, the man, Mohammadu Buhari and put him there to work for him; and what was his job then? He was putting Nigeria together; all the pieces of Nigeria torn by previous administrations. Those were what he was doing in Aso Rock and we all saw it that in the first four years of Buhari’s government, there were so many things he was able to put together. For example; in terms of our armed forces, he gave them their due independence. He gave the IGP the directive to relocate to Benue during the farmer-herder clash until the crisis went down, He urged the IG to arrest any man who was guilty, irrespective of who they were. He gave strength to some of these institutions, like the police, the military and all other security agencies to receive life. I went home in 2016 and Garri was so expensive that a cup of Garri was sold for N15, a cup that can be given to a beggar, it was scarce that people were looking for it, but I went home again a few months ago and I observed that people hardly went to the market to buy Garri because it was surplus and available everywhere.
“So, one of the pieces he tried to put together was; that laziness we tried to put into our bones, he stopped it and men now went back to the farm. The farms are now revived. Provision of food was one of those pieces that he was able to put together in his first four years. Farmers are no longer seen as poor people in Nigeria. They are now rich men and they are all doing very well and getting some forms of support from the government. You can now see that all of that reflects my previous painting tagged “INSIDE ASO ROCK” and from what I’m seeing now, more benefits will unfold in this second term.”
SHOUTH-AFRICA: I can see an angel in this painting, how would you explain the presence of an angel with President Buhari in this art work?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:‘’GOD HAS GRANTED US AUDIENCE’’ Implies that when God grants you audience, he expects you to speak and when God grants a man or a nation or a family audience, it means that he wants to solve their problems. So you have been praying that God should answer your prayer, and now, he has stepped down to answer you; just like when God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he said, let me go and see if all he has been hearing were true. So, he has come down to Nigeria to see all that we have been praying for, the vigils we have been keeping, the crusades we held all over the country, the prayer of the saints from everywhere, from different religions. He has come down to give us audience, to give us his ears. Every country has its own torrential powers that govern them. When your own prayer has got to him, and he decides to do something about it, one thing he does, is to grant you audience, give you his ears so when your own prayer has got to him and he decides to do something about it, whatever you do at that moment, he will answer you. He wants to do something about it. So, the painting I did is to show what is going on spiritually over this country, Nigeria, so that we do not miss this opportunity offered us because it is golden.
When God is telling us in the book of Number’s, he said that whatever thing my ears hear, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. So, this time around, we do not need to speak anyhow about this country. So, whatever thing you think that you want God to do for us, it is time to say it, to do it and to practice it, because God indeed has granted us audience by sending his archangel to come to take record of whatever thing we need to change, whatever thing we need to improve upon and whatever our needs are.
SHOUT- AFRICA:Are you saying that in his first years he did very well especially in boosting food production?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: I would say that we have more food now. Prices of food are gradually coming down and will continue to come down because many states have keyed into agriculture following federal government’s initiative to transform the agriculture sector and boost food production for both local consumption and the export market.
SHOUT-AFRICA: You also know that recently there was a call for a revolution tagged “REVOLUTION NOW”which was a clear indication that many were not satisfied with the performance of his administration. How would you link this to the message of this painting, prediction and prophesy by the General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T.B Joshua?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: Talking about revolution and protests, it is the norm all over the world; and part of democracy. That’s talking about freedom of association, freedom of speech and all that. What they were doing by that protest was the right thing to do, but they were doing it with the wrong motive and with the wrong back up. When something is not going right in government, you have every right to advice government on how to go about it and if they insist on going the wrong way, then, you can go out on the street to protest, to let your grievance be known.
SHOUT-AFRICA:Did Nigerians have to wait for four years before reaping the benefits of democracy from the APC led administration? Assuming he did not have the opportunity to come back a second term? And shortly after he assumed office for a second term, came a call for a revolution. What does that say?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:of course if he did not do well in the first four years, they wouldn’t have returned him. We returned him because he did well. There is nobody who can satisfy everybody. Nelson Mandela even had enemies in his own country, while he was alive. But today, the whole world has gathered to declare a day; Mandela’s Day and I see Africa gathering someday in the future to declare a day Buhari’s Day. Yes, because no prophet is honoured in his own country. The next four years of his administration is for reaping.
SHOUT- FRICA:I think that with this call for a revolution, people obviously do not seem to be satisfied with his administration. Do you think otherwise?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: No, no, no, the second four years has just started and we will begin to reap the fruits in the last four years. Those who are protesting now, those who are revolting now, will regret it tomorrow. Not that they did not do the right thing, they did, but when they look back to see what the man has done, they will be very happy for it.
SHOUT AFRICA:Why are you so optimistic that these four years of President Buhari’s led administration will be better than his first tenure?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: The difference between a prophet and the ordinary man on the street is that ordinary man acts based on what he sees, but prophet act based on what is real. Everything we see physically comes from the spiritual realm. When you look at things spiritually, it is a process. You cannot just change our mentality overnight. The same way, all good things that God or the governments prepare for us will come in sequence. They are going to unveil a step after the other. Countries like China did not prosper overnight. It is a process; every Nigerian should participate to bring about this prosperity. The President is just one man; the people involved are all Nigerians. So, if all of us support him, it will be quicker. But if we don’t, we will keep complaining, besides, there is even nobody who will get in there and do it over night. Every one of us needs to support him. But if he is going against what God has called him to do, then, we can complain and perhaps bring him back on track. But as long as he is on track, we should support him and by supporting him, we make it quicker for every Nigerian to begin to reap the benefits of his administration.
SHOUT AFRICA:What is the link between your painting and the prophesy by prophet T, B. Joshua?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: The link is that I did the painting first before TB Joshua confirmed it through his prophesies. Now, if you watch the painting, an angel was sitting down and the president was seen talking with the angel out of a book. He was explaining to him that since heaven has granted us audience by sending an arch angel and other angels to come and interact with us. Whether we like it or not, the president of any nation is the person that God sees spiritually. They come with both wisdom and understanding. The similarity between the two is that he confirmed the very prophesy. His was as a known global icon, one of the best to come from Africa. Unfortunately, we don’t appreciate him much here. That is always the situation with any man that God is using mightily. Even Christ was not accepted by his own family, how much less, T.B .Joshua. Ours was an artistic representation; while his was to the world through his church, the Synagogue Church of All Nations. A Seraphim was pouring rain water on Nigeria, that audience, means that whatever the president says to him, whatever, prayers we have been praying as a nation for God to bless this nation, that’s what he is giving to him. All the prayer, all the protests, all the complaint, they were all there. Those who were protesting were protesting against insecurity, food and everything. So, all those things have been tabled before God. As I’m talking to you now, they are working on them. That painting will preserve today if we keep it very well.
In the next generation, when they look back at what they were enjoying, they will remember, that heaven granted Nigeria a special audience. Africa will designate a day to celebrate him.
SHOUT-AFRICA:You seem so convinced that at some point in our lives, Africans will celebrate Buhari, Why do you think so?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: Even his enemies know his purity. In the first painting I did, he was wearing a white garment. That white was not born out of colour matching; that white reflects his mindset. Do you understand? When you look at his life, he was in power in 1983 as a military Head of State and dethroned in 1985, he came back again in 2015, and we returned him again now. There is a reason God brought him back. God gave him an assignment to do that year, then enemies of this country using human beings to destabilize this country chased him away, God preserved him and brought him back. It is almost the same story with the late Nelson Mandela who was insisting on freeing his people as he was going into the prison, but insisted until the day he was brought out and made the president of his country. He led them well and instead of trying to pay back to all those who dealt with him, he forgave everybody and even told the blacks to take the whites like their own brothers. The president is preaching against corruption, he is not corrupt. No man can link any business or any kobo to him. If they say the son has a BMW motor bike, the son is an entity on his own who may want to tow his father’s line or go his own way, but as for the president, what he has been preaching since 1982 till date, he has been on it and that is; that Africa cannot be free if we condone corruption. And you know that 95 % of poverty in Africa today; is not as a result of brain drain, but corruption; they will steal here, save it in France, when they are sick, they go there for treatment, take medication and come back. But the president does not have those qualities.
He is a former military man and God brought him up that way to prepare him for this. Do you understand? So, a day when Africa will look back at a leader who was not corrupt is coming. A day will come when Africans will begin to make reference to him; to ask their leaders why they are not like the president of Nigeria. That’s when the whole world will wake up to say, that there was a man in Africa who showed the way out of the poverty we are experiencing which was caused by corruption. So; when that day comes, they will say let’s call that man so that the generation next would emulate him and know that there was nothing we brought to this world and that we will go back with nothing. The fear of acquiring wealth beyond your means will no longer be there. A time where people in the nation will not be materialistic is coming and we are going to lead that revival in Africa. If you watch; corruption is everywhere on the streets, everybody is looking for money by all means, but there is one man who believes that we can get it right and that man is, President Mohammadu Buhari. We will soon get to see what happens when God grants a man or a leader of a nation audience. A good leader is not the person that does what people want, but someone who takes the people to where they are supposed to be and we are right on course.
SHOUT AFRICA: I’m glad you spoke on corruption and it is good that President Buhari made the fight against corruption one of the cardinal objectives of his administration. This is because corruption has really eaten so deep into our fabrics as a people; from the public service, to the private sector it is so pervasive. But people believe it is just a fight against political opponents and like they say “Defect to APC and Your Sins Will Be Forgiven “. People have continued to say that there are people who are facing allegations of corruption that are part of the current administration. The fight against corruption to me is a good fight; but I think that it should trickle down to the lowest strata of the society; including the civil service but that’s not the situation. What would you say about that, especially for a man you have spoken so well of?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:Now, let’s bring it back to the street because the street will now define the question you asked. Many people have been killed on the street in Lagos because somebody just shouted ‘thief’. When a man is accused of stealing or declared corrupt, to some us, such a man is a thief and nothing good can come out of him. That also played out in the COZA Pastor alleged rape case. Somebody accused the pastor of a crime that took place 20 years ago, and there was a protest in the church for him to step down. He was called names such as a rapist; without verifying their facts nor waited to get his own side of the story. That is our mentality. Once one is accused of anything; nobody tries to hear his or her own side to the story. But the law says you are innocent until proven guilty. Their cases were with the EFCC and if they were found guilty, EFCC would have convicted them even while they were in PDP. These guys have been in politics for about 20 years or more, but other governments were not able to convict them. The court is there to prove whether they are guilty or not, the president had requested that anybody who had any information about them to come forward with their evidence, but nobody stepped up to say that Akpabio or any one of them was a thief or gave any evidence against him. All we do is media trial. Everybody is a thief as long as we don’t like him. That even makes the real thief to go into hiding. You know all these newspapers we have, are mostly owned by some of these politicians. All they do is hire some journalists under them to write against their opponents when they see them doing well. So, if you are listening to the journalists with the wrong motive, journalists who have been bribed by the opponent, he will never see anything good in the other person. What we need to do is to force this government to strengthen the judiciary to be able to be independent of government influence so that when they want to try any man who has a criminal case, they will be convicted and jailed. Okay, look at what happened in Delta state; a man who was convicted overseas for corruption and released after serving his jail term, arrived the country and all the top men in the state; including pastors went to the airport to welcome him, describing him as their hero; a convict?. Was it President Buhari that told them to go welcome an ex-convict? It is not even a PDP or APC matter. It is about our culture and values; we glorify money. It is the people themselves that were celebrating a convicted criminal. If a criminal stole 200 million and gives you 2 million then, you shut your mouth, but if he fails to give you, you begin to castigate him. It is all media trial. “We hear say, them talk say, who was there and where are the evidence to show for it”?
SHOUT AFRICA: People had talked about the president’s son owning a BMW power bike when he was involved in an accident. BMW bikes are more expensive than some cars you see on the roads. What does he do? How did a student, make money for a BMW? Those were the questions a lot of Nigerians asked during the period. What’s your response to that?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: His son may choose to tow the way of his father by being just and upright or be contented by what he earns by himself. That the president didn’t have much does not mean that the son should not aspire to have more than his father. The father had been in government service all his life. I don’t think that being the son of the president should stop him from living his own personal life. But if that is traced and confirmed to be proceeds from government funds, then, should be tried. Otherwise, I don’t think that he leaving his life should be a crime. Like me, I sponsored most of my education most of my schooling period. I earned money and paid my tuition.
SHOUT-AFRICA:You equated President Buhari to the late Nelson Mandela, how?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: Mandela was fighting for his people. Human beings made him a global icon. He was not born from the moon. But because people saw that love he had for his people; they supported him. A leader is useless; a leader cannot do much if the people he is leading are not willing to follow him.
SHOUT AFRICA: That takes me to the level and manner of killing across the country which has been alarming. There have been so much senseless killings. Very gruesome killing, the bandits have resorted to waiting for travelers on the highways. Many of us don’t feel safe to travel by road anymore. Don’t you think he should have taken a very firm stand on the menace? How would you assess his response to addressing security challenges facing the country?
PROPHETIC PAINTER; Anyone who says it has been rosy, that person is a liar and must be coming from another planet. This is a trend. There was a time that every crime committed in this country was blamed on the Igbo’s and we kept quiet. Now! If you watched the trend, every kidnap case is reportedly perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen. Does it mean that those criminals in the west; east have all turned born again? Does it mean that all the criminals and kidnappers and militants in the Niger-Delta region have all become born again? Let me tell you the truth, if a Fulani man should come to Ebonyi State that he doesn’t know the terrain and does not speak the language and the way the security men operate, kidnaps somebody and gets away with it, go and check very well, somebody from that locality is among them. In fact, he brings them in. May be, those Fulani men know how to handle guns better than him. They will say, okay come I have 2 or 3 men that you will kidnap and let us all make money from it. They kidnap somebody and take them to the forest within the local government and nothing happens, they make calls; and give locations for victim’s families to go and drop money and nothing happens; and they collect the money and walk away with it freely. Go and check very well. The natives of these places where the crimes are committed are involved; they are only using these Fulani Herdsmen as a force to achieve their goals. Remember oh! Fulani have people in the Sahel region, from Libya and so on and so forth who are coming back. These are criminals. Criminals have one thing in common and that is money. So, any criminal in Igbo land or Yoruba land when they hear that these people are very good, they will go and invite them. Then 2, the Police have been given the free hand to work and if they refuse to work; we should rise up against them. Even the revolution that was done should have been against them. The army is also there and is even better trained; we can also ask questions if they are performing below our expectations, we can ask those questions because they are all paid from tax payer’s money. When they say that the presidents urged them not to make any arrest; then, we will have justification to say it is the president’s fault. We have policemen everywhere, they are not working, let me tell you the truth. Whatever thing you are seeing going on, is the product of the street. Thousands of people that joined the force whether the Police or any other; are not there to work; they are all there just to earn salaries. So when there hear gun shots from anywhere, they take cover; though we havegallant people among them.So, they people we should blame first before going for the head of the president are those people we are paying to secure us.
All the planes we have are not flying, the drone, how much is a drone? They collect security votes every time; buy drones and fill the air with it; monitor what is happening on the ground and anywhere you see smoke in the forest, go down there and pick pictures, send it back, coordinate very well. These are things the police can do without calling on the president. When criminals know that another criminal has made 200 million from a crime, he says ha! Let me go join. That’s what people are doing now. So; it is not the president that we should blame we should blame the people that we are paying to do the job. There is nothing that Buhari will do that will change the situation if the police are not ready to work. So let protesters go to police headquarters in every state. If they do that, then you will see that crime will go down overnight. Go and arrest the son of a police commissioner, within 2 minutes, they will bring him out because he is the oga and he knows everywhere but if it is a common man, they will relax because they need more money from government.
SHOUT AFRICA: Okay! If that is the situation, why can’t the president be more assertive in dealing with the problem by giving them a marching order to say anybody who fails to deliver, would be shown the way out of service?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: He has been issuing such statements. The problem is what I have just told you. He cannot go to the streets or bushes everywhere to go and arrest people. Look at what the Police officer, Abba Kyari is doing with his team. Does it mean that we just have one policeman who has that kind of mentality all over Nigeria? We have policemen in every state and every local government. If they can emulate that man; the challenge of insecurity will be addressed. In fact, they are afraid of dying. When armed men become afraid of them; that’s when they too become safer. But now nobody fears them. Give them N1, 000; you can pass with a human head. I was travelling to the north the other day, none of our buses were searched; what if some of us had weapons or bombs? Some will look into the bus and say go, some will look and ask driver to give them money and say go. Then how then do you want crime not to escalate? Nobody searched us until we got to Maiduguri, so they are not doing their jobs; they are tired. And they are being paid, if they are not doing the job, let them step down and let some others take the job.
SHOUT-AFRICA:There is an issue here; respect for the rule of law. As a leader if you want people to be law abiding, you lead by example. During his electioneering campaign, he promised Nigerians that he was going to be democratic but a court says release somebody, whether it is on bail or otherwise, and you hold unto the person. Does that show respect for the rule of law?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: Although I don’t support the disrespect for the rule of law because when you go outside the law, in fact the society will turn against each other, because when you exit that role, somebody else will climb and the person may decide to follow your foot step and may be coming to arrest you and when he is asked to release you; he may say no because you started it and it becomes a trend. So, I don’t support any man or woman who goes above the law. However, sometimes, such a thing is necessary. Even the US if they arrest a high profile suspect, a terrorist, there is a way they treat the person, it is not like a normal human being. For instance, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, (IMN) Elzzazaki has been a threat to Kaduna state for a long time. He has his own government; he does not respect the law of the state where he practices his religion. Sometime, he says he takes his directives from the Islamic state of Iran, so; his activities became a threat to the government. It is no longer a normal security issue. This man can set this country on fire; I have seen their members display in Abuja and other parts. I have seen them one-on-one; so with an army like that; a government within a government; a military man that does not respect their Commander-In-Chief; so their leader cannot be allowed to move about freely. So, I support keeping him on house arrest, let him be in his house not leave the country or have access to the outside world. He may be kidnapped by Iran because they are the ones sponsoring him and he is the one propagating their type of Islam in Nigeria.
SHOUT-AFRICA:Do you think attaching a security operative to him during his medical trip will make any difference?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: Let me tell you something; we have men and women who can do this job. When our security men decide to work, they can deal with this security issues affecting the country in six months and nobody will hear gun shots in this country. This is a security issue and before they decided to allow him go, they would made solid arrangements with the other country.
SHOUT-AFRICA: You talked about Nelson Mandela forgiving everybody after all the pain he went through and assumed office as the President of South Africa. There were allegations that the former National Security Adviser (NSA) to former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki was being victimized. When I used to report from the streets at newspaper stands, a particular man from the northern part of the country, pleaded with me that he wanted to speak on a particular headline and that was on Retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki’s detention even when I was running out of time, but I gave him the go ahead to speak, and he said the man was being victimized for his role in the coup that removed Mr. President as a military head of state. How would you react to that?
PROPHETIC PAINTER: If you look at it very well, you will see that all the money that was shared from that security money they collected from the National Assembly was from the office of Dasuki. He shared the money. Two, there are some information they have which we don’t have. For example, I went to Bornu State and I posted some comments on my Facebook account and said that any man or woman, who is profiting from this blood that is flowing here, will suffer it. Children are suffering. There are some parents of hundreds of children that have no future, some of them are only surviving by picking nylons to drink the remainingwaterinside of them and somebody put them in that condition. True, Boko Haram started it, but somebody could’ve released this money for these people to live a better life by ensuring that the military was better equipped to protect them and the person sat on it. That is blood money and Dasuki was the head of all that. So, Dasuki to me and from what we have heard from the presidency and journalists is a threat to the nation. Okay, was Dasuki in his father’s house doing his private work or doing a very good work publicly and Buhari went there to arrest him? Was it only Dasuki that arrested Buhari in that 1980 December? It wasn’t only him. Babangida was among, and many other top men in Nigeria, but they are all working freely. Why only Dasuki? There was a link between him and that money. How many billion dollars was released to quell the insurgency? Those guys would have been prevented if the funds were properly channeled to the purpose for which it was approved. So, the problem we are facing today is caused by them, Dasuki and the other one that acquired boxes of jewelries that is worth millions of dollars, Deziani Allison-Madueke. If not that God is merciful, this guy does not deserve to be forgiven.
SHOUT-AFRICA:Yes, but you can’t be in power for four years and another four years and still talking about what Jonathan did or what he did not do well. They should have been able to do something different. If the mantra is change, then every Nigerian should have felt that change in their everyday life after his first four years. Change begins with me means that I must be disciplined, I must obey the rule of law but when a court gives an order and you disobey it, are you setting the pace for others to follow?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:Most football coaches when they go for tournament, they will tell the fans not to expect too much because they want you to calm down and follow the game as it develops. So when the president says don’t expect too much, he didn’t mean that nothing will happen. He’s just tried to make us understand that everything worthwhile takes time and that everything that is golden will pass through fire and fire is not something that feels good. People saw the change mantra as something that was going to be magical. They expected him to get in there, go to Central Bank, pick all the money and throw it on the streets.
SHOUT-AFRICA:Don’t you think that Nigerians should have asked him what kind of change he was bringing to the table during his electioneering campaigns better?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:There was no mistake, we didn’t make any mistake. Why I say that is number 1, we know how things were when Jonathan was in office, he was called so many names. Jonathan is a good man. People like Dasuki have been in the military even when Jonathan was in school; so they have known government and had tested power. He just came in, a gentle man that he is from Otueke, they just saw him, they said to themselves; he cannot control us. It is very clear, you could see the way they were giving him wrong advice. Go and read Wala Abdullah’s book “On a Platter of Gold” they were coming with talks to influence him, “that man is a good man any day” if he had the right people around him. The only man that fits this country as it is today is the man that is there- Buhari. It wasn’t a human being that put him there, God put him there and he will be there for the next four years in good health and he will do his terms and the will of God will prevail over this nation. God brought him back for a reason. Remember when he was in London for 3month plus. They wanted to take him out, but God preserved his life because he had not finished with him and he brought him back strong. All the Generals ganged up against him in the last election and he still won. They capitalized on the emotions of the people. I worked for him, so I can tell you firsthand what happened. He did not give anybody a dime. The only money, change, that circulated was money from some senators and governors who were contesting. In fact, people were even afraid to bring out their money because he might ask them how they got the money. But some of us who campaigned for him, we didn’t get a kobo and some people I know collected heavy money from the Atiku team, yet, didn’t vote for him. So, this change we are talking about is beyond what we can think at the moment. It is something we are going to benefit from tomorrow. Though I love the hit going on, revolution here and there is good; in fact, it will make the new ministers to sit up and follow this man’s ideas and also follow what God has planned. God anywhere in the bible does not interfere directly unless when he gets angry or when he wants to do a particular miracle. Most times, he prospers a nation by using the hands of those who allow him to. So that protest is good; it was a wakeup call to say to them that the Nigeria of today is not the same thing with yesterday. Don’t toy with our feature so they will sit up and do what they are asked to do. For the first time in this country, federal government has presence in every state. You are either benefiting from agriculture, roads or from light etc. That alone is worth praising. I know we will not appreciate it much now, but as time goes on, we will start seeing the fruit of those four years. When you plant something, it doesn’t give you the fruit instantly, it has to be watered; it has to germinate. So we planted a new one which has grown in four years. It is now time for us to harvest.
SHOUT AFRICA: You said we now have federal government’s presence in every state. How do you mean?
PROPHETIC PAINTER:Many states of the federation now enjoy one federal government project or another. In my state, Ebonyi, we are enjoying federal government’s assistance in agriculture. Somebody said that Buhari has made them to appreciate the value of agriculture. Everybody including the youth is now going back to the farm. Food items are becoming cheaper like those days when enough attention was given to farming by my people. The same thing with Abakaliki rice; its production is getting a lot better. In some areas construction of works are ongoing. Some communities that never enjoyed electricity supply now do. Mr. Babatunde Fashola did a lot to ensure that electricity supply improved even in rural communities. People are coming in to work in the villages because of what the governor is doing. So the state is gradually turning into Lagos. This was something that we never witnessed. The same thing is happening in the transport sector. The rail lines are being developed. Abuja Kaduna and Ogun state railway lines are now operational. These will also provide employment for many Nigerians. When you are strict, doing your job the way it should be done, people call you names. Nobody wants to see a teacher who insists that a student must pass his or her exams before he is taken to the next class; they see him as being wicked. Nobody wants to do the right thing; we want to bend the government. START The reason why I am an Igbo man and you a Fulani or Hausa man is because of the beauty of life, variety makes everything beautiful. When I dress in my Isiagwu as an Igbo man and you dress as a Fulani or Yoruba man we make everything colourful and beautiful, so the problem we are having is even undefined because Indonesia have so many ethnic groups but they are united. So, if we can stop this corruption which we have made a culture even in the church; life will be better for us all. Ritual killing everywhere, it’s not the government that is doing the killing. It is those people on the street that have made money their gods; kill their neighbours, sit in their homes and expect money to fall from heaven instead of doing dignified jobs. The online crime popularly known as Yahoo-Yahoo is another dubious thing that our youths indulge in to make quick money. Many spend as huge as N700, 000 just to go to Libya, an amount that is enough to start a business here and earn a living. It is just born out of greed and not hardship. A man who is poor is someone who can’t afford to feed himself. But someone who can pay N700, 000 thousand naira to an agent to take him to Europe is not a poor man, he is rich because that money is enough to open a small scale industry here and make money because the market and there and people are willing to buy whatever it is that you produce. Instead; they will sell the land; sell all their property; gather that money and travel out of the country and become slaves. The painting is only telling us is that while heaven has granted us audience; we too should say the right things about our nation and leaders. A pastor did it, he put one flower on one side and another on the other side the same day, and began to curse one, while blessing the other. The one he was cursing died and the one he blessed was able to grow and was beautiful. So, every day we wake and say this country cannot work, how do we expect God to bless us? When you are saying that Buhari is a useless man, then he will keep doing useless things. But God forbid, because there are also some other people who are blessing him and blessing this land and God will hear their own prayer first before he hears that of those cursing the land. So, that painting is reminding Nigerians to be careful of what they say about Nigeria because God is taking record, why? He has granted us audience. It means that he is ready to address our problems. As a nation what we need to do now is to pray for unity. Tell God about our security men that are not working so that he will on his own put a commissioner of police, a DPO, that are ready to work.
SHOUT–AFRICA:Still on corruption, a recent survey rated Nigeria police the worse corrupt agency. As much as I agree that they are corrupt. There is no doubt about that because they do it in the open and even look for change when their victims claim not to have change. This is very common along Owerri-Mbaise -Umuahia Road. However, judging from my personal encounter with the Nigeria immigration Service, I rate them wore than the police. Fighting corruption in Nigeria is an issue that we need to take more seriously beyond the political class. It has continued to embarrass us as a people. There are laws to address every problem, but the law enforcement agents just wouldn’t do the right thing. The collect money and close their eyes to illegalities. Take a trip to Force Head Quarters Annex in Lagos (Moloney Street & the entire Obalende axis in Lagos where one would expect to see some level of sanity, but all you see there is the height of lawlessness right before the police men and women all over the place, they collect money from motorists,motorcyclists and close their eyes to illegalities. If we must succeed in the fight against corruption, then, we must begin to look beyond the political class. You want to do your passport the immigration officer dumps your documents if you pay the official rate. We cannot succeed in the fight against corruption. How would you assess President Buharis’s fight against corruption?
PROPHETIC PAINTERE: Corruption is a major problem that we must all join hands to fight. That is why we must all support the president’s to rid the society of corruption.
SHOUT AFRICA:What’s your final word for Nigerians on APC’s Change slogan?
PROPHETIC PAINTERE:I want to advice every one of us that that the president cannot do it all alone. It is our collective responsibility to make the Nigeria project work. For President Buhari to succeed, he needs the support of every Nigerian. The corruption we are facing in Nigeria today didn’t start with politicians but from the streets, the police man on the road was not picked from America, he was the same man on the street that sees money as the end of everything in life, when you now give him a gun; he sees it as a tool to make money. The civil defense man also came from the street. We only need a bahavioural change to move our country and image forward.
