The following are the views expressed by Olufemi Oguntokun in the July 14, 2026 episode of the On the Lord’s Side Podcast — Christian perspectives on news and current events.
ON THE ORIRE ABDUCTION — MORE DEATHS, MORE QUESTIONS
Good morning to you once again. It is Tuesday, the 14th of July 2026.
I want to begin by returning briefly to the story of the release — or the rescue, as may be the case — of the teachers and students abducted in May at a school in Oyo State, who, after about 57 or 58 days, have now come home. Time will tell what actually took place. Yesterday we engaged with it extensively, reminding ourselves that our response should be thanksgiving that these people have returned, but also, at the same time, remembrance of those who are mourning because their own loved ones did not make it back — not only regarding this episode, but the many other kidnappings where victims were killed despite ransom, or where families could not raise the ransom. We must continue to pray for our country and to witness to the glory of God and His sovereignty over all the affairs of men.
When we had that engagement yesterday, we were speaking only of the one teacher who was beheaded gruesomely on video, on the very day of the abduction — no doubt to make the abductees and all of us afraid. But yesterday, as the government allowed Mrs. Rachel Folawe Alamu — the principal who became the face of the abductees, always in the videos released by the captors — to speak to the press, she revealed that the terrorists killed others too. So, whereas we were told all the abductees had been released, that was not the whole truth. In her words: “They tried a lot with us, but we are grateful for a government that thought much of us. We discovered that the whole world was interested in our case. We want to say thank you to everybody — the officers, the governor, the president, everyone involved. We have scars already, but we believe with time we will heal. And we pray that God will console the families of those who lost their lives. On behalf of everyone, we say thank you from the depth of our hearts.”
That was Mrs. Rachel Folawe Alamu, the rescued principal of the Community High School in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State, saying that while they were held, one teacher — a Mr. Michael — was killed on the second day of the abduction, and another, whom she referred to as “the Deacon” (probably a deacon in the Baptist church, since one of the raided schools was owned by a Baptist church), was killed on the first Sunday of June. This reminds us how deeply these abductees have been traumatised, and we should bear that in mind as we pray for them, and as their families gradually reintegrate them. But it should also reinforce our praying for the relatives of those who did not return from that horrible experience. This is the kind of situation where relatives will have so many questions. Anytime a person loses a loved one, questions arise naturally; but in a case like this, even more — for the one who knows and loves the Lord will look up and wonder: “You have shown that You have the power to rescue people; some were rescued. Why did You not rescue my own husband, my brother, my friend?” A pastor will ask, “Why did You not rescue my own member?” Why does God save some and not others? These questions afflict any human mind.
We should pray that the Lord will send His Holy Spirit to minister to the loved ones of those who were killed. There is a level of comfort no human being can give; there are things for which we have no explanation. We can point to the sovereignty and wisdom of God. David wrote in Psalm 119 that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether — when taken all together, when you can see the whole picture, they are true. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, the Preacher, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reminds us that God makes everything beautiful in its time, that He has set eternity in our hearts, and that no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. The more you look at what God does, the more challenging it is to understand in full; He grants us understanding from time to time, but even that is only in part. Paul wrote that now we see dimly, as through a mirror, and know in part; but the time will come, if we are patient, when we shall see clearly and know in full. On this side of eternity, we can only see and know in part, even when we think we have known so much about the Lord and His ways.
So the relatives of those killed will not only be sad in the general sense; they will have questions — about the justice of God, the wisdom of God, about “why.” And it is our duty not only to weep with them, but to pray that God Almighty will send His Holy Spirit to comfort them as only He can. What can I say to such a person? How do I explain why this happened to one woman’s husband while other teachers made their way home? It is possible that in the same church, in that local government, there is a family whose member was taken and returned alive, and another whose member was taken and did not return — imagine the delicate task for the pastors leading such churches. Let us remember them too, and pray that we will not experience these things again.
I now bring you the press statement by the governor of Oyo State, Governor Seyi Makinde. Since this episode began, everyone noticed the disconnect between the federal government and the Oyo State government. The governor is not in the All Progressives Congress, the ruling party at the federal level. One would have supposed that mature, God-fearing leaders would set politics aside and work together at a time like this. But even before the abductees were released, the governor said in public that he had questions about the abduction and about the credibility of the federal government’s statements regarding the so-called rescue. He had said earlier that he found it disconcerting that he declared his intention to run for the presidency at 4 p.m. on a certain day, and by 9 a.m. the very next day something that had never happened in the southwest in that manner then happened — so he suspected it was politically motivated. And yesterday he went further, calling on the international community to investigate all aspects of what is now called the Orire abduction. In his words: “The facts of the Orire abduction are sufficiently grave and unusual to warrant independent scrutiny beyond our domestic institutions. I therefore, with a full sense of responsibility as the Executive Governor of Oyo State, call on the appropriate international human rights and accountability mechanisms, including those within the United Nations system, to closely examine the facts surrounding this abduction and the circumstances of its resolution. Such scrutiny is not intended to undermine our institutions, but to reinforce public confidence that the truth will be established, and that every person found to bear responsibility — regardless of office, influence or affiliation — will be held accountable. The Nigerian people deserve a full and transparent account of what happened, who was responsible, whether there were institutional failures, negligence or collusion at any level, and what measures must be taken to ensure that no community is ever subjected to such an ordeal again. This is not about politics. It is about justice for the victims, reassurance for our people, and restoring public confidence that every Nigerian child can go to school without fear.”
I fully agree with the governor. This should not be about politics; it should be about justice — and about restoring confidence in our institutions. Because if we cannot be confident that certain things simply could not happen, we are in trouble. There are things that, if you heard them, you should be able to say, “No, that cannot possibly be.” If you heard that the government manufactured or staged an abduction to rubbish a political rival, or to ram one law or another through the National Assembly, you should be able to say, “No, that cannot happen” — the kind of confidence good people have in one another; the things that, to use Paul’s expression, should not even be named among you. Of course, when we speak of politicians and the world at large, we are not talking about people on the Lord’s side — and maybe it is a wake-up call that when you are dealing with unregenerate minds, nothing is out of bounds.
The presidency has responded to the governor’s call. According to Punch newspaper, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy said the governor’s request suggested a lack of confidence in Nigeria’s security institutions. Please. This is quite weak — I am reading it for the first time. The only people who claim to have total confidence in Nigeria’s security are those in government who control those very institutions. The fact of the abduction itself, that it lasted almost 60 days, that it is not the only one — that there are still perhaps hundreds held captive across the country, that ordinary citizens are raising millions to pay ransoms — all of that should shake the confidence of any rational person. We all lack confidence in our security institutions. We do not want to; it is our prayer and desire that these institutions be empowered and manned by competent, God-fearing, noble people, so that citizens can have real confidence in them. The presidency also insisted that the military had already provided explanations for the rescue operation. But, as we said yesterday, those explanations have not filled the gaps — and once you withhold relevant information, people fill the gaps themselves. In other countries, after such an operation there is a briefing: when did it start, what was the extent and the target? And when you say you “rescued” people, the question is — from whom? These abductors, where are they? Did you kill them? Did you arrest them? In Nigeria, when it concerns abductions and the so-called rescues the federal government claims, you never hear anything about those from whom the victims were rescued. Were they asleep when you got there, so that you rescued the people and left the captors sleeping? There is this sense that the government treats these abductors with kid gloves. And if they have been left untouched, and ransom has been paid, we all know what will happen: they will feast on what they received, regroup, and look for an opportune time to strike again. That speaks to the complicity of many people in government.
So we have our work cut out for us. Continue to pray for this country; we must never tire. I will say again what I have always said: former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, when he sought the APC nomination for president at the convention that eventually chose the person who is president now — the people who have demonstrated a lack of competence, character and compassion, who are complicit in much of the corruption and insecurity, with unexplained wealth — yet the very people who pray to God for good leaders choose these people. We are always praying, “God, help us, give us good leaders,” but when it comes to it, we vote for these people; and when someone else says, “I also want to be president,” we say, “No, no, you can’t do it.” We are always voting in the opposite direction of our prayers. That does not fully explain the Nigerian situation — people also point, rightly, to an electoral system prone to abuse, and my wife always insists Nigerians did not actually vote for the government we have, that the politicians manipulated the system, which is a partial explanation. But it must also be said that many people who pray for good leadership continue to make the wrong choices. Which is very sad.
So we bring up these stories — the two teachers, one killed on the second day, the other (the Deacon) on the first Sunday of June — to impress it more on our minds to pray for their loved ones, that the Lord will console them, and to hope the government will not forget them but will immortalise their names and support their families. And we bring up the governor’s statement: if someone in that vantage position has doubts about the federal government’s claims, then indeed there are questions, and it is incumbent on the government to answer them. In the absence of clarifications, the government has not done its work — which is why we keep calling it the so-called rescue. The fact that we have questions is itself disconcerting, a reminder that there is fire on the mountain. But this much we know: the Lord is God; He rules over all the affairs of men; and we pray it will please Him to intervene in the matter of this country, in Jesus’ name.
ON GOOD NAMES AND BAD LIVES
Next, some lighter stories from which we can still reflect on consequential matters. First, a sermon clip some called humorous and one person called “brutal” — the person who posted it said “this pastor is brutal.” The pastor said, in effect: “In the USA you see names like Stone, Bush, Bucket, Cricket, Mr. Cow — yet they make progress. But in Africa, Blessing is begging for data, Happiness is suffering from depression, Wisdom has no sense, Victory fails his exams, Courage is scared of an ordinary dog. We bear good names, but we live bad lives.” Many in the congregation laughed, and I am sure you chuckled too. He said in the US and Europe people bear names like Stone and Bush and Cricket — I have not personally come across a “Mr. Cow,” but it is not beyond reason. Some of these are just names, for identification, without much meaning; and even English names often do have meanings we miss as non-native speakers — I randomly think of a former British prime minister whose surname means something like a field or meadow. But the pastor’s point stands: in Africa, and certainly in Nigeria, we are so concerned about choosing names like Happiness, Blessing, Wisdom — yet, he says, Blessing is begging for data, Wisdom has no sense; we bear good names but live bad lives.
This is a reminder of one of the overarching themes of Jesus’ preaching: He was always pointing people away from a preoccupation with appearances — with how we look, what name we bear, what people see us do — toward how God sees us; and when the Lord looks, He looks not at the apparent but at the heart. This is not to say people bearing plain names in Europe and the US are better in their standing before God, or more godly in character — that is not the point. The point is that you who chose to bear names signifying the things you want are not, on that account, doing well or being godly. That is why it is always sad when, on the list of people doing horrible and sinful things, you find those bearing Christian and biblical names — John, Moses, Joshua, Elijah — doing wicked things. It teaches us, as Jesus taught His day, that the apparent does not matter; what matters is who you are.
When the heart is good, when it has been transformed, that transformation affects everything — how you look, how you talk (your speech seasoned with salt), your appearance and dress marked by moderation, as the Bible teaches. But that should not be the starting point. The name you bear, the way you talk, your appearance — none of these is the starting point. The starting point is to know Christ, to surrender yourself to be transformed and renewed by Him; and then it flows from the inward to the outward. That is the Christian life: it starts in the heart and shows itself outside in fruits all can see. We were reading Galatians 4 at the Readers’ Club on Saturday, reflecting on verse 6, where Paul writes that because God has made you His sons, He has put His Spirit into your hearts. That is where God works — in the heart, where He starts. Whereas we human beings want to start from the outside: a name people will like, a dress that catches attention. But God works the opposite way. He told Samuel that the Lord does not look as men look — men look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And in that promise of Jeremiah 31, fulfilled when our Lord died and rose, He said, “I will do a new thing; I will take away the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.” God always starts in the heart, and the work He completes there then manifests outside. Do it the other way around and you have inverted the whole thing; it will not work. You cannot start from the outside and work in — you start inside and manifest outside.
So the pastor’s point holds: in Africa, people do not want to bear “Stone” — many would take exception to being called Stone or Bush or Cricket, and so would I. But if you are named Blessing, show that you are a blessing; if you bear Moses, honour God as Moses honoured Him. Merely naming our children after biblical characters will not make them godly, and merely changing our own names will not change our lives or our deeds. The first thing is, as the Lord gives us grace, to lead our children — and ourselves — to Christ, to surrender to Him to work on our hearts and transform us. Only then can we live up to what God expects of us.
ON THE FIRST LADY, CHARITY, AND WALKING THE TALK
This next clip is of the First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu — and you will remember we have had occasion to engage with statements credited to her. In this one she appealed to young people in the entertainment industry: “I’ve said it before — I’ll use Akon, a music icon who does a lot of great charity work. The Burna Boys of this world, Asake, all of them, Davido — we want to see you with one foundation or another, helping the poor with your money. Good cars are good, a Maybach is good, a Rolls Royce is good — but you can still help. The burden on the government is huge. There are pepper sellers, vegetable sellers, okra sellers, melon sellers, akara, kuli kuli. I once read of a young graduate who couldn’t get a job and sold akara in Abuja; we approached him — I didn’t put my name to it — and equipped him more, and he now has twelve workers under him and is doing very well. So our people should never despise honest work.” She went on about visiting Kogi and seeing opportunities, recalling her own days as a classroom teacher over forty years ago in Ikole Ekiti, praising the beauty and endowments of Nigeria, and lamenting the deportees who went to South Africa with resources hoping to come back big but returned empty — “I’m glad they have a home ready to lift them up again.”
Many of those statements should be applauded — that no one should look down on anyone doing honest economic activity is worth celebrating, and I listened with rapt attention. But the part that got many people talking is where she addressed the entertainers — Burna Boy, Asake, Davido and the rest — telling them a Rolls Royce and a Maybach are good, but what is better is helping the poor. In the general sense that is a good thing, the Christian thing: Paul told Timothy to charge the rich in this world not to put their trust in riches but to do good with them. So, in principle, correct.
But let us take some steps back — and here I echo many on social media. If you speak of “these people” who live large, drive exotic cars, fund lavish lifestyles — which people would you assume the speaker meant, if you had not seen the clip? In Nigeria, do government functionaries and politicians not live like that as well? Do they not drive exotic cars and fund lavish lifestyles, albeit from the commonwealth? Responding to the First Lady, Mr. Rufai Oseni wrote: “The president’s wife says musicians should buy less Ferrari and spend more on charity — can government officials also reduce their convoys?” If you have seen the convoy of the First Lady, or of this president compared with previous ones, you look at it and ask, “What exactly is this?” And it is not only about lavish convoys. Mr. Peter Obi recently recalled that, around the time this government came to power, it saw fit to build another official residence for the Vice President, Kashim Shettima — the figure cited was either 2 billion or as much as 21 billion naira. In a country of abject poverty — and it is abject poverty — this is worth calling out.
You heard the First Lady talk about akara sellers and kuli kuli sellers. Yes, the overarching point is that we must support them; they are part of the economic ecosystem. But we do not want them to remain there — their being there should remind us that there is abject poverty in Nigeria. How poor are Nigerians? According to the World Bank, approximately 63 per cent of Nigerians — about 140 million people — live in poverty, up from 56 per cent in 2023, driven by declining household income and consumption, high inflation and economic challenges. In a country where 63 per cent, about 140 million people, live in poverty, a government considers it appropriate to spend some 21 billion naira to build and renovate the official residence of a Vice President who already had a house to live in. And the same First Lady spoke those lofty, noble words I cannot disagree with: the rich musicians and entertainers should remember the poor; those on the lower rungs should not be forgotten. How can I be wrong to agree? But it is right, when people who have a duty to the people say such things, to also look at them and ask, “Is that the way you are conducting yourself?”
Many recalled what the First Lady said when addressing women politicians in the APC — that governors in their states should give the female politicians gifts of good cars. Government’s primary responsibility is to put in place policies that help the poor. To then point at Burna Boy and others and say, “Don’t just love your Rolls Royces and Maybachs; remember the poor and help,” invites the response. Now, the biblical point stands: the rich must not put their faith in their riches, must still know the Lord, and should use their resources to help the poor. That is correct. But for us on the Lord’s side, what does this remind us of? That the easiest thing in the world is to advise other people, to preach, to teach. That is why those of us who are teachers and preachers — practically every Christian — bear a huge responsibility for our own lives. Remember Paul kept his body in subjection, so that after preaching to others he would not himself be a castaway. The easiest thing is to advise other people.
And, from where I stand, in the First Lady telling Davido and Burna Boy and Asake and the rich musicians to remember the poor, she needs to hear that same message herself — that the money spent lavishly on luxurious lifestyles for government officials, and the many sums said to be unaccounted for, must be addressed. The World Bank has alleged that about 2 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP — running into about 8 trillion naira — was spent off-budget. That should be a huge scandal — but in Nigeria, so many scandalous things have happened that nothing is scandalous any longer. So, without discounting the truth of what she said, let us remind the First Lady and the political class that you must lead by example. That is why, for all of us who are Christians, it is not “do what I say”; Paul told his hearers, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” We have to take our own advice. A friend told me recently that sometimes you take your own advice and sometimes you don’t — but consistency is very important. The people who move us are those who walk their talk. In the case of the First Lady and the government of her husband, we do not find what she said consistent with what that government does. We would want the government to be so mindful of the poor that it orders its priorities rightly. Just two days ago it was said that students writing the West African examination would have to pay as much as 50,000 naira — put on hold now, but that is the trajectory. If the government would account for every dollar coming in, we would have no business being this poor; we could fund so many welfare initiatives that no one among us should be that poor.
So, Madam First Lady, what you said is not wrong — but it would be far more persuasive if people saw you walking the talk. And the same is true for us Christians: our witness would be more effective if the world knew that we do the things we preach. What has been the bane of the Christian witness today? That people can point to Christians and say, “Look at those preaching to us — see how they conduct their churches, the strife and hatred among them, how they pull one another down, how they fight over money.” As Paul said, through such things the name of God is blasphemed. If we do not live consistent with our message, our message will not be effective. Wisdom says, “Listen to the message, not the messenger” — and that is right — but often you cannot fully divorce the message from the messenger, which is why the messenger must be upright. That is why the Holy Spirit, through Paul, gave us a framework for who should be a preacher, a bishop, a church leader. It is not that the right message cannot be preached by the wrong person — but it is difficult for people to accept it. One should train oneself to separate the message from the messenger; and one should also labour to live consistently with the message, so as not to make it harder for people to accept. That is true for politicians, for the First Lady, and for all of us who are Christians — and especially for those who lead the body of Christ.
ON POLITICIANS IN THE PULPIT
Finally this morning, the story of Malam Isa Pantami — former Minister of Communications under the late President Buhari, now the gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Gombe State. When people want to win office, they go everywhere for votes, and we will not begrudge him that. In his bid, he has, according to many reports, visited churches in Gombe State — one of the northern states with a sizeable Christian population. But many who know his antecedents regard him, by all reasonable indices, as one of the Islamic fundamentalists in Nigeria; he has, from time to time, expressed sympathies that treated Islamic terrorists with kid gloves. So when videos emerged of him visiting a church in Gombe, walking and talking with the church’s leader, and members welcoming him warmly, one person wrote that Christians in Nigeria are not wise — that Nigerian Christians tend to embrace those who want to destroy them.
For me, it is not really about whether this man, if he becomes governor, will persecute the church — he probably will. People recall what happened when Nasir El-Rufai was governor of Kaduna State, which has a predominantly Christian southern region: throughout his eight years, we heard stories of carnage, attacks and killings in Southern Kaduna, and the Christians there knew no peace; now that he is out of office, those occurrences have virtually reduced. So many are asking the Christians in Gombe: what is wrong with you? Why embrace your oppressors — a man who has shown himself a sympathiser of terrorists, an Islamic fundamentalist, now coming to your church because he needs your votes?
That is the path of wisdom Christians must walk: we have to be circumspect, clear-eyed, as wise as serpents. But the overarching point is this: the idea of churches opening their doors and offering a platform for politicians to campaign is simply wrong. Jesus said His house would be a house of prayer — a place where people worship God — and I do not see how a political campaign is a form of worship. It cannot be. If a politician says, “I know you have a sizeable congregation; I would love to address them,” what you should do is organise a town-hall meeting outside the church service — “This person is coming on such a day; come to this place, and I will attend your town hall.” But to invite people into the church to campaign, whether the campaigner is Christian or not, is not proper; it does not honour God — and it becomes even more troubling when the person invited does not honour your Christ, does not acknowledge Him as Lord. Anyone who does not acknowledge Christ as Lord is in enmity against Him — it is not that he has not heard, but that he has not accepted Him. And I dare say those who invited him did not engage him with the mind of Christ. If, at that service, the pastor had said, “Now that Mr. Pantami is here, we will listen to him — but above all we have a message for him: Christ is waiting for you,” that would be one thing. I am not a betting man, but I would wager whatever money I have that those pastors did not say that, did not challenge him to give his life to Christ.
Of course, we live in a multireligious community; not every political leader will be a Christian, and you may at times find it compelling to vote for one who is not. But the church service should not be an occasion for inviting politicians to campaign. Those pastors who gave their platform — aside from probably getting a governor hostile to Christians — should realise it is an abuse of the pulpit. My dad used to speak of “abuse of the pulpit”: when you do from the pulpit things that are not wholly in the worship of God and the honour of Christ. Whatever is done there — raising funds, which must be only for welfare or the cause of Christ; supporting the ministry; preaching the gospel; praying for people — must be God-centred. When it comes to politics, something is wrong. That is why I disagree with the pastors who invited Mr. Pantami into their church — not because it was Pantami, but because it was to make a political campaign; that is an abuse of the pulpit. And second, because you invited into that place someone who, to your knowledge, does not honour your Christ, does not accept Him as Lord — what business has such a person addressing the people of God?
And, as always when things like this happen, people fill in the blanks: perhaps the pastors were “motivated,” as they say in Nigeria — just motivate them, and they will allow you. If that was the case, it would be really sad. Again, it is a reminder to pray for grace for our church leaders. Imagine being a pastor and the government of the state says, “Reverend, I’d like to be in your church just to address your people; I’m sure you’ll give me this privilege.” There are cases where it is so difficult to say no, because you do not want to appear uncooperative or rude. That is why we must pray for grace for our leaders to say no when they are duty-bound to say no. I pray God will give them that grace.
I want to thank you very much for staying with me this morning on GospelBells Radio, On the Lord’s Side — Christian perspectives on news and current events. I hope to be with you again tomorrow by the grace of God. Whatever you do today, please remain firmly on the Lord’s side. God bless you. You are listening to GospelBellsRadio.com, the Christian internet radio with a mission to engage the culture with the mind of Christ. Keep listening, and invite others too. God bless you. Engaging the culture with the mind of Christ.
