The following are the views expressed by Olufemi Oguntokun in the June 3, 2026 episode of the On the Lord’s Side Podcast — Christian perspectives on news and current events.
ON THE GOSPEL SINGER’S VIDEO AND MAKING EXCUSES FOR THE GOVERNMENT
You must know this lady — one of the most popular contemporary gospel singers in Nigeria, Adeyinka Alaseyori. She has been in the news these past couple of days, and I hope she has not been reading the comments on social media, especially on X, about a video she released concerning the matter we are all consumed with: the kidnapping by terrorists and bandits of young children and their teachers in Ogumoshaw. Everybody is concerned. We have all been praying. I hope you have been praying too.
In her video she said that what we need is prayer, prayer, and more prayer. I have listened to it twice in full — the second time yesterday, until my wife said, “Can you just stop?” So let me be fair about exactly what she said. First, that everybody should keep praying — for the government, for the president, for the soldiers, for every parastatal; she used that word over and over. Second, that we should not suppose the government is not doing its best — she even raised the possibility that soldiers have gone into those forests to rescue the captives, but that sometimes some supernatural thing happens and they cannot find their way. And third, that this is not the time to be thinking about who could govern better, because we don’t even know what those who claim they could do better would actually do in office.
That got many people angry — and understandably so.
Let me be very clear, because regular listeners to this program know my heart. May I never be in the camp of those who make light of the power of prayer. Did we ourselves not tarry on this platform for about an hour and a half this morning in prayer? Did we not end our waiting upon God praying fervently for the release of these children? My private prayers have been for them, as I am sure yours have been. I will never make light of prayer. I have experienced its power, and the Bible teaches me that the only way to bring down the blessings of heaven is to pray.
So to the extent that this gospel singer urged Nigerians not to tire of praying over this matter, we support her one hundred percent. But to the extent that she also made excuses for the government, we find that unnecessary. And I want her to understand — if she has been reading those disparaging comments — what people are truly angry about. People are not angry because she said we should pray. Yes, there are scoffers out there who want nothing to do with prayer and would wave it off entirely — but that is not what the anger is about. People are angry because, in addition to that godly call to prayer, she also made excuses for the government and delved into politics. And this connects directly to what I said yesterday about people who put themselves forward as pastors or evangelists: it is not your duty to make excuses for the government.
Why are people so angry? Because we now see, especially among leading and popular pastors and gospel musicians, that many of them are closely aligned with those in government. People were sharing pictures and videos of this very lady gracing state functions, kneeling before these politicians, hobnobbing with the very people who hold decision-making power in this country. And we are not ostriches with our heads buried in the sand. We know how things work in Nigeria: when you hobnob with these politicians, they reward you financially. I am not a betting man, but I would wager that this lady cannot honestly say she has never benefited financially from her association with them. That is how it works — and that generosity is never out of their own goodwill or their own pocket. When anyone in government gives you something extravagant, you should ask yourself: where did this come from? More often than not, it comes from funds taken unlawfully, if not illegally, from the commonwealth of the nation.
So this is the point: it is perfectly fine for a Christian witness to say, “Nigerians, we must keep praying.” That is true. What is not acceptable is for anyone who simultaneously presents themselves as a Christian witness to also be making excuses for the government.
And that is why I was so heartened by a post I came across this morning that strikes exactly the right balance. It was a video of a prayer walk held in Ibadan — hundreds of people on the streets, praying and walking, seeking divine intervention for the release of the captured students and teachers. I give glory to God for it. (As an aside — and this is worth saying — we now see in the South, among Southern Christians, a sense of urgency and a passion in prayer that perhaps was not always there. There was a time Christians in the North felt that Southern Christians were not as concerned about their plight. Now that this terror has come to the South, we are alarmed, and we are praying with passion. I surprised even myself with the fervor of my own prayers. But let us leave that matter for another day.)
The caption on that prayer-walk video put it beautifully. It said: this is the role of the church in any situation. We have prayed, and we will continue to pray. After praying, we will still pray. And after that, we will pray again. That is the role of the church. But the role of the government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. You voted for them. Security is not a privilege — it is your fundamental human right. Know who to hold responsible.
I love that. And someone commenting beneath it wrote: “What prayer cannot do, more prayer can do.” That is the Christian position, the position of faith, and no Christian should ever shy away from repeating it. Have we prayed? Then let us pray again. Have we prayed again? Let us pray again and again. Jesus himself said men ought always to pray and not to faint. By that, He acknowledged that in the Father’s infinite wisdom, some things do not happen simply because we have prayed once, or even prayed repeatedly — sometimes things happen precisely because we have prayed and prayed and refused to give up.
But none of that gives us license to look at the government and excuse them. It is the government’s primary, fundamental duty — a fundamental part of the social contract — to secure the lives and property of citizens. Security is the fundamental obligation of government, and I do not want anybody making excuses for them. Are you a Christian minister? Then urge people to pray and be prayerful, and let it stop there. This wise division between the role of the church and the role of the state is sensible precisely for this reason.
That is why people are also digging up videos of women — I believe some of them wives of governors — visiting the First Lady and singing what has become the political anthem of the current president, the “mandate” song. As one person wrote: children are in the bush suffering, and you mothers are in air-conditioned rooms singing political jingles — shame on all of you. This is exactly why Christians should not go out making excuses for politicians. We should simply turn to God and pray. That was the error this singer made. Some even suggest she was paid to make that skit — and politicians do exactly that. Once you are in their corner, once you have benefited from their generosity, they make demands on you: go out there and put out something in our support.
Many are outraged that, at a time like this, the government is carrying on as though everything is normal. But we are not living in normal times. We are living in desperate times, and that should be clear to all. The president, according to a State House release, returned to Abuja after the Eid el-Kabir holiday in Lagos to undertake “a series of important political, government, and national engagements” — received with fanfare at the airport. Meanwhile, children and teachers kidnapped three weeks ago remain in captivity. One teacher was executed in the most gruesome manner, on a viral video I cannot bring myself to watch. Some of the captives are said to be as young as two. At least one of the women is a nursing mother; another is said to be heavily pregnant. And we are not getting any sense of urgency from the government. That alone should be deeply concerning.
You want to call us to prayer? Please do. You want to remind us to pray again and not to tire? Please do. But do not insult the sensibilities of suffering people by making excuses for those in government.
And as further proof that these are not normal times: when a delegation visited the affected community — I understand it was sent by Governor Makinde of Oyo State, and wisely included women who could speak to the distraught mothers — they came bearing rice and money. And the women rejected everything. They said simply: we want our children back. I love that response. Just as Christians say, “What prayer cannot do, more prayer can do,” it seems the nefarious, corrupt politicians have their own creed for the Nigerian citizen: “What rice and money cannot do, more rice and money can do.” Whatever the catastrophe — banditry, accident, mayhem, blood and tears — the government shows up to say, “We are sorry, take heart,” and hands out rice and a little money. It would be funny if it were not so deeply sad. As one person wrote, all that seems to matter to the government is to share rice and money instead of mounting a rescue of kidnapped toddlers and their teachers.
So I hope, even for those who have no children among the captives, that we will all — Christians and indeed all citizens — recognize that this is not the moment to be collecting anything from anyone, however large the sum. These are desperate times. The role of the church is to pray, and to keep praying. The role of the government is different: it is to act. And none of us should be out there making excuses for them.
ON PRIDE MONTH AND THE “I WAS BORN THIS WAY” ARGUMENT
Let me turn to some of the ideas Christians are confronted with in the culture today. You know that in many jurisdictions, the month of June is celebrated as Pride Month — a season in which the culture says to those living as gays, lesbians, and transgenders, those who have rebelled against the biblical order of gender, “Celebrate who you are.”
I think those who named it “Pride Month” must be truly unaware of what pride means in Christian theology — though, in a sense, it is a most fitting name for what they are doing. These are people living, without mincing words, in open rebellion against God.
Now let me be careful and precise here. A person who has committed any sexual sin — whether as a homosexual or as an adulterer — has not committed the unpardonable sin. If that person turns back to the Lord, the Lord will receive them. It is our duty not to condemn them but to pray for them, that they return to the Savior. The reason they remain in rebellion is that they will not even accept that they have done anything wrong.
This is the crucial difference. The Christian who falls into sin — who commits adultery, say — is grieved by his sin. He looks to God and says, “Lord, I have sinned against you. You commanded me not to do this, and I have done it. I am sorry.” That is the Christian who falls. But the person living in open rebellion says, “I have done it, yes — and who are you to tell me I have sinned? I am my own lord. I own myself. I was born this way, and I have nothing to apologize for. I will take pride in who I am.” That is open rebellion against God.
So the great justification offered for this rebellion is: “I was born this way. How dare you try to change how someone was born?” And many Christians feel boxed into a corner the moment they hear it.
But I came across a wonderful clip of a Christian woman answering this argument by faithfully dividing the word of truth, and I want to share the substance of it. When someone says, “I was born this way,” the answer is: I have good news for you — you can be born again. That is the power of God. We were all born rebellious, but Jesus paid the ultimate price to make us new and to set us free. Too many Christians act as though there are some sins Jesus paid for and others He did not — as though He can set the drunkard free but cannot set the homosexual free. To say that is to spill the blood of Jesus on the floor; it is to claim His power on the cross was limited. But when He said, “It is finished,” He meant that sin — all of it — was crucified with Him. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, the homosexual will not inherit the kingdom of God — and then, in the very next breath, he says, “and such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
That phrase — “and such were some of you” — is everything. You used to be a homosexual until you encountered the grace of God. You used to be a drunkard until you encountered the grace of God. We were all on our way to hell, every single one of us, until we were washed, sanctified, and justified by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the power of the gospel.
So we must thank God for the generation of faithful preachers rightly dividing the word of truth and equipping the church to respond. Because this is exactly the answer to “I was born this way.” We were all born sinners. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” When Nicodemus asked how a grown man could re-enter his mother’s womb, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” David said in Psalm 51, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” We are all born in sin — so being “born this way” is no defense at all.
You would never accept a man saying, “I just love adultery, I love other men’s wives, that’s who I am, it runs in my family.” You would tell him he needs to be born again. The same applies here. So this month of June, when you find people celebrating Pride — gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and all those hiding under the plus sign — celebrating what is, in truth, rebellion against God and justifying it by saying, “I was born this way,” you have your answer ready: “Yes, you may well have been born that way. But the Lord calls you to be born again.” Everyone must be born again, because we are all born with the flesh of sin. I hope that helps someone respond to the culture with clarity and with grace.
ON THE 1:47 A.M. PHONE CALL: WHY WE MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO CALL ON GOD
Finally this morning, I want to share a story I came across on social media. As you know, you can never be entirely sure whether these stories are true — but this one resonated deeply with me, and there are real lessons in it for our relationship with God.
The story goes like this. A woman wrote: When I was seventeen, I called my mom at 1:47 in the morning from a party I wasn’t supposed to be at, surrounded by people she didn’t know. I only said, “I need you to come and pick me up.” She replied, “I’m on my way.” No questions — not then, not during the drive, never. I thought she was angry. She wasn’t. She arrived in twelve minutes, which meant she had left the house the instant I called, still in the clothes she had been sleeping in, and driven across the city at two in the morning to a party she didn’t even know existed.
She looked at me once, then drove home in silence — not a tense silence, just silence. I kept waiting for the questions: Where were you? Who were those people? Why did you lie to me? They never came. She turned the radio down low and drove the way she always did, as if I were not in any trouble, as if it were an ordinary night. When we got home, she said only, “Drink some water before you go to sleep,” and went to her room. That was it. I lay awake all night waiting for the lecture, but in the morning she simply made eggs and asked what I wanted to do that day.
Ever since I became a mother myself, I have thought back to that night and understood what my mother understood then. She knew only one thing: I had called her. And that was enough. I had been somewhere I should not have been, but in that moment I chose her — I called her — and to her that meant everything. She would never have punished me for making that call. Now I have a daughter of my own, and there is one thing I tell her more than almost anything else: I will always come and get you. No questions asked. No matter where you are, no matter what you told me before — just call, and I will come. That is what my mother taught me, not with words, but by showing up at 1:47 a.m. Years later I called my mother and told her I still remembered that night, and that I finally understood. She was quiet for a moment, then said, “I was just happy that you called me.” Even today, more than twenty years later, those words bring tears to my eyes.
As I read that, I said to myself: isn’t that exactly what the Lord wants us to understand, over and over again? Just call me.
I have always taught this in my engagements: what the devil wants most is for a Christian to believe that he can no longer call on God — that he has sinned so badly, so egregiously, that he has forfeited the standing to call. That is the lie. And that is precisely why, over and over in Scripture, the Lord says, “Call unto me, and I will answer you.” “Come now, let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” And Jesus said, “Anyone who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.”
I am not offering parenting advice here — parenting is not one-size-fits-all, and you must deal with your children as the Holy Spirit leads. But one principle can never go wrong: never make your children feel reluctant to call you, even when they have gotten themselves into trouble. Because if a child comes to believe she dare not turn to her parents when she is in trouble, she will look elsewhere — and out there are people waiting to take advantage of her, ready to lead her astray. It is exactly the same in spiritual matters. When a Christian gets into trouble and concludes, “I cannot call on God,” he begins to look for other options — and what waits there are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and Satan himself and his agents.
This is how God has dealt with us. He has shown us His loving side, His fatherly side, His motherly tenderness, His kindness and compassion, so that we have no excuse not to call upon Him — even in troubles of our own making. Just as that young woman called her mother from a party she had no business attending, surrounded by strangers, and her mother rose and came for her without a word of reproach — so too our Father is waiting. He is like the father of the prodigal, always looking out, who saw his son a long way off and ran to meet him.
So, is God ready for your call? You need to make that call — not to anyone else, but to your Father in heaven. And I pray that we, in turn, will always let our own children know that when they are in trouble, they can always call us. How blessed are we — think about it — that we have a Father to whom we can call at any time. Glory to His name forever and ever. Amen.
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