NEW BREED WITHOUT GREED
For the umpteenth time, the global chairman of Network of Apostolic Ministers, NOAM, Apostle Lawrence Achudume, has raised a passionate cry to Nigerians on the need to elect credible leaders with track records of achievements, especially in their private endeavours. He has been warning the citizens not to hoodwinked by popularity-seeking politicians who have nothing to offer the masses, except crumbs.
The cry for leaders of integrity, whose hands are clean, with no stench of filthy lucre oozing from their heels because they could put a knife in their throat while eating with the kings of this world, as the world’s recorded most wise man, King Solomon, admonishes in Proverbs 23: 1-3: “When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.”
This is where many political office holders fail woefully. The media tell us how they stack the commonwealth and hide same for themselves and their relatives, in flagrant disregards of the code of conduct of public office they swore to uphold. It is at the eve of electioneering campaigns you see them doling out the ill-gotten monies to woo the unsuspecting electorates; under the guise of empowerment.
Unfortunately, the unwary electorates who have been robbed of their rights to quality education, infrastructural development, decent shelter, food and security by these same politicians over the years, have no option than receiving the crumbs, not minding that they are selling out their destinies.
But who would dare tell the dis-empowered, disenfranchised and demoralized populace the truth that by dancing to the whims of these loquacious politicians, they are mortgaging their future and deepening their woes? How will they know that these popularity-seeking politicians will continue to pillage the common till if elected and, like a turncoat dog who had since become deaf to the prodding of its owner, turnabout to attack to them? Who will warn the people that these set of politicians will oppress and silence the same voices they induced to sing them to power?
Who would have believed that President Muhammadu Buhari would soon turn his ire on those who celebrated him to power? Ask Omoyele Sowore, Prof. Woke Soyinka and even Pastor Tunde Bakare who him with diadems of power; they all swore he had converted democrat. Not only is the country battered by bloodshed all over the land but opposing voices are muffled by the might of the crowned, injustices are openly venerated, corruption eating deeper the moral fabric of the nation, while the poor masses are licking their wounds. Who will heal them? Only time will tell!
To heal the wounds of the oppressed has been why this lone voice has been speaking, insisting the masses must not vote in the coming elections as usual but across the lands, they must seek for credible people, especially those who have made lots of impact in their private endeavours before public office. Apostle Lawrence Achudume’s voice must be adhered to by the masses. Failure to heed his heart’s cry will be ruinous.
It takes a man with clean hands to approach equity. For Lawrence Achudume, you can bet he’s someone who has kept himself unstained with the lust of money. For many who do not know him, he’s based in the rocky city of Abeokuta, where he is doing great exploits for the kingdom of God and has greatly impacted the ancient city.
He once was led by God to turn a jungle into a city where the headquarters of his mega ministry, Victory Life Bible Church, is located. The sprawling estate, along Ajebo Road, opposite the Ogun State Television Corporation (OGTV) was a den of robbers, abandoned for decades, with woods competing for space. It took a strong faith to dare and he did. Today, Km 9 Ajebo Road has been transformed into a city.
Hardworking and selfless, Apostle Lawrence Achudume has distinguished himself as a servant leader in the body of Christ. His church hosts national and international figures in the Christendom regularly, either for the purposes of raising leaders under the Network of Apostolic Ministers (NOAM) or VLBC’s transformational conferences, with thousands of youths thronging the place. NOAM has extended its hold across the nation, passionately raising and supporting young leaders to stand and thrive.
Right from his university days, he was busy wining souls for the kingdom and fighting injustice. This took him round many cities of the nation, as he was deeply involved in the leadership of the Christian fellowship in higher institutions of learning under the aegis of NIFES.
Quiet but firm and focused, Lawrence Achudume is the man to admire, if you really get to know the beauty of his character. He’s about the only clergy of his standing who doesn’t go about with retinue of guards, despite his megalomaniac image cut in the Abeokuta and beyond. There’s hardly any major national event that he and his wife, Fola, do not seize to embark on streets evangelism, doling out packages to mitigate the pains of the suffering masses. From helping the disadvantaged and the vulnerable groups, Lawrence Achudume has distinguished himself as the Apostolic father to the downtrodden and the disproportionate.
His milk of kindness, is widely extended to the clergies whom he holds in high regards, and always plays a fatherly role; “lifting the hands which hang down and strengthening the feeble knees.”
That he’s a man of integrity is not a mere word. Lately, a popular clergy, Bishop Emma Isong eulogized Lawrence Achudume for his sterling character, especially his virtue of contentment. According to Bishop Emma Isong, a governor once told him that the only man of God who never asked for money is Lawrence Achudume. Bishop Emma Isong admitted that he was stunned when the said governor explained how Apostle Lawrence Achudume turned down money he wanted to give him and jokingly said: “Your Excellency, you don’t have the kind of money I need.”
This is hard for critics who have awash the media with falsehood that the apostle was executing contracts in Akwa Ibom State. It was a story the apostle laughed at and challenged his critics to show proofs of such contracts. Till today, nobody has come forward with any link.
Though he is a regular guest at major state functions in Akwa Ibom State, especially those that border on the church and the body of Christ, he pays for his own return ticket. As a leadership strategist, Achudume had galvanized the body of Christ in Akwa Ibom State for the last elections. To his credit was the emergence of Akwa Ibom Christian Assembly (ACA), which he founded and constituted a board of directors (BOD). But whereas the citizens should applaud him for risking his life during the reelection campaigns, in which he insisted Akwa Ibom being a Christian state, should reelect Udom Emmanuel – the first practicing Christian governor. However, many who could not bear with his transparent approach to ACA management, were rather antagonistic, fanning up tribal sentiments that ought not to rear its ugly head in the body of Christ.
But Achudume isn’t the kind of a leader distracted by criticisms and hate. This is why he’s mobilizing the electorates to search for credible leaders, not only in Akwa Ibom State but throughout the nation, because of his belief in the democratic tenets of egalitarianism, social justice and good governance. Apostle Lawrence Achudume is a new breed without greed.
Aspirants to public office, political stakeholders and the electorates should heed the lone voice of Apostle Lawrence Achudume by presenting credible leaders whose hands have not been soiled in wickedness, as King David has it in Psalm 15:1-2: “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.”
