“Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted.”

It was a glorious and beautiful day. I woke up at 5.00am and got ready to go out by 5.30am. Actually, I didn’t sleep deep that night because one sentence kept reverberating in my head through the night

Walk for Light!

I ran to my mentor’s room to find out if he was ready and soon after we set out for the airport (Omagwa International airport, Port Harcourt). We had had a great time that weekend starting from saturday. We landed in Port Harcourt around 6 pm and went straight to Presidential Hotel from the airport for “Purple Night”. A event with over 700 people in attendance. My mentor spoke powerfully at the event and I met a few friends and members of my team there. It was a fun-filled event.

On Sunday, we went to church and then had to do 2 seminars on Holidays and Cash in the evening. My team in Port Harcourt were already having seminars at Little Africa Restaurant, Woji Road, GRA, Port Harcourt by 4pm and we needed to be there to support them. After which we moved to Landmark Hotels to hold another seminar for an older, larger team. I also took a trip into town to see my babe’s sister’s family and didn’t get back till quite late. I eventually went to bed in the wee hours of the morning all the while thinking about what the next day(Monday) held in store.

Me at "Walk for Light"

I had been waiting in earnest anticipation for the “Walk for Light” day. We had been told earlier that we’d march on protest to the governor’s office in church and that August 12 or so would be the date. This was announced around May/June. August came and went and nothing happened. I was beginning to think that the leadership of my church (Daystar Christian Center) were growing cold feet with respect to taking responsibility for our underdevelopment and lack of good leadership in this Nation.

The church has proved to be very passive and irresponsible in my view in the last few decades with respect to the emergence of a New Nigeria. They have neglected their responsibility to take action and substituted it for making long and ineffective prayers for God to do what they should do.

Statistics have it that 45million Nigerians go to church every sunday. That is all the critical mass needed to change a Nation of 140million people if they would only take responsibility. The church had taken a back seat too long and were becoming irrelevant as opposed to light shining in darkness.

On the backdrop of this, I felt my own church even though it has shown what church is supposed to be by engaging in empowerment and community development on a large scale, was retreating in the face of imminent confrontation. That is why when it was announced that the walk would happen on Monday, October 19 by 10am, I was ecstatic. Finally, we are going to let the world know that we don’t agree with the black state of our Nation (epileptic power supply) and we were going to do something about it.

Rev Sam Adeyemi, Pst Nike Adeyemi, Pst Godman and other ministers at Daystar's "walk for light"

So, that was the reason why I was so restless knowing that I was far removed from the site of the walk. We got an early flight that day though we missed the first one out of PH and I almost ran through the arrival lounge pushing my luggage trolley. Since we landed at Murtala Domestic Airport in Lagos, I had been communicating with a couple of friends who were already gathered at the church venue for the commencement of the walk. My mentor and a friend who I travelled with kept making fun of me as they saw my eagerness to get united with other Walkers for Light.

We got into the car quickly that came to pick us at the airport and told the driver directly that he should do his diligence to get us as close as possible to the walkers since we had already found out that the walk had commenced. We caught up with the first set of walkers around Radio busstop, Obafemi Awolowo way in Ikeja, jumped out of the car and immediately joined the nearest platoon of walkers.

We stood out as the odd ones for a while because we had no “Walk for Light” t -shirts which had been handed out to everyone to wear before the commencement of the march. We chanted and sang songs demanding for Light and expressing our sorrow, discontent and disapproval of the current situation of lack of power in the country. Many people laughed at us, some encouraged us, others wandered at us and some where disgusted at us.

Light walkers at the Governor's office in Alausa

We couldn’t care less. We were on a march for light. After all, we were the light of the world and the least we could do was “Walk for light”. We caused quite a traffic jam because over 4,000 people turned up for the walk. What amazed me the most was that people took time off from their regular jobs to participate in the walk.

Finally, I started feeling in my heart that

Maybe we are on our way to change after all.

Maybe the church is recognising that if only they’d get involved and committed to the New Nigeria project, it would move from being a mere dream to a reality our eyes will see in our own lifetime.

Anyway, by and large we got to the governor’s office in Alausa and expressed our compelling reason for marching in protest.

Let there be Light

Afterall, that was God’s first creation on earth.

If we must therefore rebuild a Nigeria that has become void and lacks any sensible form whatsoever, our first assignment must be

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

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1. The role of the church in Nation Building
2. Is our Foreign ministry jobless?
3. My Trip to Ekiti
4. The Rule of Light
5. Ekiti: Good People, Bad Leaders