The following are the views expressed by Olufemi Oguntokun in the June 26, 2026 episode of the On the Lord’s Side Podcast — Christian perspectives on news and current events.
ON VENEZUELA AND THE PASSING OF ALL THINGS
Good morning to you once again. It is Friday, the 26th of June 2026.
Venezuela. Many people have written, almost in poetic terms, about what happened in Venezuela, and I hope you have been following the news. If you have, you must have been in awe, mouth agape with incredulity. Somebody wrote on X: “Venezuela does not need loud headlines right now; it needs rescue, calm, and information that does not outrun the truth. The aftershocks are not over. People come before numbers.” Accompanying that caption was a video of a high-rise building — from what I can see, about twelve floors — collapsing all at once. Why? Because of what has been described as a two- or three-second earthquake. A three-second earthquake, leading to the collapse of multi-storey buildings and to such devastation that, if you look at the pictures and videos coming out of Venezuela, you would suppose that area had been attacked by drones and bombs.
As I read more and more about it — I have never experienced an earthquake, and I pray never to — it occurred to me that earthquakes do not last for minutes, definitely not hours; often mere seconds, sometimes up to a minute or two. From what happened in Venezuela, you would suppose that if an earthquake were to last for minutes in a particular area, that town would be wiped out of existence entirely. In archaeology, and in history, you must have come across accounts of towns and cities discovered beneath the ground — cities that once existed, that historians date to a point in time, and that at some point sank. For a long time I laboured to wrap my head around it: a city existed, and then it sank underground, so much so that people forgot it ever existed. What could have happened? Did it happen overnight, or over time? Well, cities that are no more have existed before in the course of history.
As I speak, I am looking at that video over and over again, on a loop — about a twelve-storey building collapsing because of that three-to-five-second earthquake. And the more I look at the many other videos and photos from Venezuela, the more I shudder, the more the shock overwhelms me. You just cannot describe it. I am not saying this is the worst disaster in history — remember the tsunami and many others — and we should not get into the business of ranking disasters, which was more devastating than another. A disaster is a disaster. By some estimation, about 100,000 people may have lost their lives, though that figure is not confirmed; this morning I saw a report that at least 188 persons have been confirmed dead — those are the bodies that have actually been found. But with so many people unaccounted for, and given how humanly impossible it would be to rescue all those under the rubble, the estimation is that more than a hundred thousand may have died. This is really mind-boggling.
Many people are saying, “Pray for Venezuela,” and I beg you — let it cross your mind to remember them. This is why, in the ultimate sense, we as Christians have a duty to pray for so many people other than ourselves. We often find ourselves preoccupied, praying mostly for ourselves. I am not begrudging you — I am like that too, and many times I have to catch myself: I have prayed for a length of time, and find it has all been about myself. But God wants us to intercede for others as well. It is only the unkind, the unloving, who will remain unaware of the many people deserving of our intercession before the throne of God. For those of us in Nigeria, think of those in the captivity of bandits — should they remain there? Think of Leah Sharibu, still held all these years for refusing to renounce her faith in Christ; her life has been irreversibly altered, and many do not even hear of her any more, nor know whether she is still alive. Think of the Chibok girls from 2014 yet to be released. Think of those kidnapped in many parts of the north — those whose husbands were killed in their presence; an Anglican priest, a retired general, and so many others. There are families that are grieving. Thanks to the mercy of God, we can sit here and learn of these things and grieve for them — but there are people who are actually sorrowing, and we must remember them in our prayers. We must remember those still trapped under the rubble in Venezuela, and pray that those who may still be alive will, by some divine intervention, be rescued. Accounts exist of people trapped under rubble for days who were eventually rescued, so things can still happen.
When we engage with news like this, it should make us, like everyone else, say, “What just happened? I am shocked.” But then it should also increase the number of items on our prayer list. It is fanciful now for many to write “thoughts and prayers” on social media — and some in the culture make fun of that phrase, saying, “What we need are not thoughts and prayers.” But we do need thoughts and prayers; we simply need them not merely written on our platforms, but actually prayed. Somebody else wrote: “A few seconds of earthquake in Venezuela has caused this devastation. Oh God, how terrifying would the day of judgment be?” And I love that this person put a biblical feel to it, calling our attention to the more important things. No one with a biblical perspective can fail to think in eschatological terms when seeing destruction like this. You are reminded of Peter’s words, “Seeing that all these things will be destroyed.” In 2 Peter 3, from verse 10, Peter wrote: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” And in verse 11: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” So I am not surprised that this Christian wrote what he wrote — for one day everything will be destroyed and this world will pass away, to be replaced by the new Jerusalem.
I have been preparing for a Bible study in church, on the chapter where our Lord spoke about earthquakes, and wars and rumours of wars. One cannot help but look at devastation like this and be in dread of what can happen. With a fertile imagination, as you watch housing complexes of many storeys falling all at once, you should be thankful for the technology — the CCTV installations in homes, stores and supermarkets — that lets us see these things in real time. It used to be that, after an earthquake, journalists could only report on the aftermath and extrapolate what the structures must have looked like before. Now we have live video of the devastation. And as I look at it, I think: when the ground began to shake, the people in those buildings must have been doing all sorts of things. Even the best fiction writer in the world could not imagine all the different things all those people were doing at that exact moment. Nobody predicted it; it happened suddenly, in a matter of seconds, and it was irreversible.
That is why we must look at this from a Christian perspective and be reminded of how easily God can — and will — destroy the whole world. During the last Artemis voyage into space, widely celebrated in the United States and around the world, the astronauts, though they did not land on the moon, travelled farther than any space voyager had gone before, and took pictures of the earth from outside it. I mentioned this in a previous episode. When I saw those pictures, the earth looked just like a round ball. And you would understand then what God said: as in Psalm 2, He who sits in the heavens laughs when men are rebellious; and as the Bible says, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.” Just My footstool — meaning that with one kick I could send it wherever I wanted. Think of yourself seated in your own home, your leg resting on a stool; if you wanted to get rid of that stool, you would do so most easily. That should be a reminder to us.
But as we remain on this side of eternity, the first application from a Christian perspective is to remember those who have been impacted. The destruction of buildings, properties and infrastructure — those are things, and they will have economic repercussions, but let us look first at the lives lost, the human tragedy, and remember them in prayer. Second, see how you can help. I understand that, for many in Nigeria, contributing to the relief effort may be practically impossible, and sometimes even inadvisable, because you want to avoid organisations that will simply take your money and run. But if you can, you should — look for avenues where credible agencies receive contributions, no matter how small. Third, be reminded of the truth that all we see will be destroyed by the elements. Jesus Himself said, in Mark 13, when His disciples pointed to the temple and its wonderful, beautiful stones, “I tell you, the time will come when there will not be one stone left on top of another.” They could not believe it — that was the greatest architectural structure of their time — but He said it.
May we be reminded of these things, even as we commiserate with the people of Venezuela, remember them in our prayers, and seek ways to contribute. As that hymn writer put it: “all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.” And we are reminded of when Jesus asked, “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What have you been promised by the world, or by Satan, in exchange for being on the Lord’s side? Whatever you have acquired, whatever you think is worth exchanging your soul for — well, a few seconds of an earthquake could destroy it, and it would be no more. Some of those sites may, in future, be rebuilt; but the particular buildings that stood there, and the people who were in them at that time, would be no more. Oh, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
And this must frustrate those who operate from a godless perspective. If you were afraid of thieves, you could install the best security; if afraid of rain, secure your roof; if afraid of heat, install air conditioning; if concerned about bad roads, buy an SUV. But earthquakes cannot be prevented, and often cannot even be predicted. We can now, with some success, predict some storms — it is not an exact science, but we try — yet earthquakes mostly take us by surprise. They took Venezuela by surprise. And so will the day of the Lord. The most overarching thing here is that learning of this disaster, and the many others in the world, should add to the items on our prayer list. And above all, I pray that you are not letting the things of this world so charm you — for it would be the greatest folly of all, as our Lord said, to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul.
ON AKARA, GRANTS, AND HOW LEADERS SEE THE POOR
Next, many people in Nigeria this morning are engaging with a video of a statement credited to the First Lady of Nigeria, the wife of President Bola Tinubu, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, who also always flaunts her credentials as an ordained pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The activist Kayode Ogundamisi posted the video on X — he was not the first, but I am reading from his caption — paraphrasing the First Lady: “Economic hardship? Start akara, kuli kuli, or roasted corn business. First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, urges poor Nigerians.”
In the clip she says, in essence: “We are trying to give hope. To start an akara business doesn’t take a lot of money; to start roasting corn doesn’t take much. We didn’t give them a loan; we gave it to them as a grant. So we’ve encouraged Nigerians as best we could. Whatever is within our hands, I have given and I keep giving. I remember giving, when I heard there were so many TB cases, two billion; to breast cancer, a billion; to food malnutrition, half a billion. In agriculture, in social investment, in education we’ve given a little scholarship, ICT training with NITDA. And we are still open, we want to do more. The narrative has really changed to challenge the average man, whereas the average man is supposed to have hope. I like that Mr. President called this the Renewed Hope Agenda. We have to renew our hope, and that’s what I tell Nigerians: don’t give up. We are a very proud nation.”
Now, there are many people listening to this. She says, “We are a very proud nation, let us not give up — after all, we are giving people grants to start an akara business, a kuli kuli business, a roasted-corn business.” For those who are not in Nigeria, or who do not understand the culture, let me explain. When she talks about the akara business, she is talking about people often found by the roadside or in marketplaces, frequently without a stall — maybe just a makeshift umbrella, sometimes no cover at all — with nothing but a contraption serving as a cooker. I call it a contraption because I am not talking about industrial cookers; sometimes they use firewood, with a large frying pan of oil used over and over, to make bean cakes. That is the akara seller’s business. And the lady standing behind her in the video — among several aides, government functionaries or wives of functionaries — was supplying her with words: “roasted corn, roasted corn.” The same roadside trade where people, often women, roast corn under the open sun, with no stall and sometimes no umbrella, and sell it for next to nothing.
The truth is that for anybody operating in this economy, it is a no-brainer — and the First Lady cannot claim not to know — that given the economic hardship in Nigeria today, there is no way a person selling akara or roasted corn by the roadside is making ends meet. It is simply not possible. And that is not even about present conditions; it has always been the case. I remember a Bible study session in church where one lovely sister made the point that the Holy Spirit had said to her: when you stop to buy the akara or the kuli kuli or the roasted corn, stop arguing with these people, stop trying to pay them less than they ask. These are people who cannot make ends meet no matter how much they sell in a day. That is why some well-off people, coming across such sellers, will say, “Everything you have to sell today — how much is it all?” And the seller says, “Ten thousand, fifteen thousand.” To someone reasonably well-off, fifteen thousand naira is something spent without a second thought, perhaps on refreshment; the more affluent would spend ten times that taking friends to lunch. So they simply buy the whole lot and give it, because anyone in this economy knows that selling akara by the roadside is not what you would wish on your own people.
Let me rephrase: it cannot possibly be empowerment to say you are getting more people to start selling akara, kuli kuli and roasted corn by the roadside. The reason many are taking a second look at this video, and wondering, is this: that this is what it means, to the First Lady, for people to be empowered. She is delighted, satisfied that she has given grants for people to start selling akara and roasted corn. Maybe someone says it is better than doing nothing — and there is an argument there — but should we be satisfied with that? Is that something to flaunt? And the aides behind her, nodding their heads and even supplying the words, “kuli kuli, roasted corn” — I have no facts to prove it, but from what I know, the people standing behind her are people who, sitting down to lunch in upscale places, would spend almost five hundred thousand naira; whose headgear alone might cost a year’s worth of an akara seller’s income. And yet they were nodding, “Yes, the First Lady has tried, she has given people money to start selling akara.”
The very fact that the First Lady has had to give money to many people to start an akara business should remind her that there is abject poverty in the land. If that is the kind of intervention the government is making, there is so much poverty that she should be alarmed rather than celebrating. And, if you allow me, it tells us what some of our leaders think of us. As they say on the streets in Nigeria, “they don’t rate us at all” — meaning that what they think we deserve are grants to start akara, kuli kuli and roasted-corn businesses. From a Christian perspective, this should not surprise us: unless there are checks and balances and means to hold leaders accountable, they do not really care. In that video she spoke of giving billions — a billion to tuberculosis, another billion, another. But for those who understand how nations have actually rescued large portions of their populations from poverty, you will know that handing out grants like that cannot be the way. A person sitting at a roadside akara stand, all other things being equal, without some further intervention, can never escape poverty. Poverty is a cycle, a horrible cycle. You cannot scale up, because what they earn is not even enough to restock, let alone meet other obligations — and in a place like Lagos, with rent, transport and school fees, it is impossible.
This tells us how lowly we are rated by many of our politicians. I would have thought the First Lady would be too ashamed to say things like this out loud. And we do not want this “Father Christmas” mentality: “I heard of this, so I gave them a billion.” A billion of whose money — yours, or the commonwealth’s? And even if the grants came from your own pocket, we must be clear that this is not going to lift anyone out of poverty. What you want is an enabling environment: the infrastructure in place, housing affordable, education subsidised as much as possible for the most vulnerable, healthcare available — if not free — for the most vulnerable, and access to markets made easy. You want to invest in infrastructure that makes enterprise thrive, so that entrepreneurs, knowing that energy will be available and that the rule of law and a strong judiciary will protect their contractual rights, will invest the more, employ more people, and lift people out of selling akara by the roadside.
But a friend made a point to me yesterday: can you not see that it is in the interest of politicians in Africa for people to remain poor? Because the poorer people remain, the more dependent they are on the largesse coming from government, and the more pliant they become to whatever those in power want. See things as they are. That is why voters in Nigeria are given loaves of bread, packs of Indomie noodles, and five or ten thousand naira — now skipped up to fifteen thousand — and they jubilate, collect it, and vote for the politicians who give it. We look at them and say, “Are you not wise? Do you not see you should not sell your votes?” But these are desperate people — I am not making excuses for them. The point is that the politician who holds on to power by giving such nonsense to voters does not think he owes them any duty to rescue them from poverty; and politics being a game of self-interest, it is not in his interest to. Many a politician reasons: “If I lift people out of poverty, they will become so comfortable that they will start thinking, ‘I too want to be president.'”
We must contrast how human leaders think of those they lead with how the Lord thinks of us — and find a world of difference. Did our Lord not say, “Do not be like the rulers of this world,” who love to lord it over people, and who want people to remain indebted and beholden to them, unable to escape? That is not the case with God and us. The psalmist says, “We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” — but He elevated us to be His people, His children. Jesus came to empower us. If God wanted us to remain in bondage, He would not have sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins; we would have no standing before Him, daily burdened by our sins, forever seeking animals to sacrifice and living in dread of Him — like the Israelites who would not go near Mount Sinai, saying, “This is too powerful, too dreadful, we do not want to draw near.” But that is not what He has done. He has drawn us near, empowered us by the blood of Christ shed at Calvary, so that we can enter the holiest of places. Hallelujah.
If human politicians, especially in Africa, do this — because they are compelled by the realities of their society, by institutions that are weak and electoral consequences that do not follow — then you simply see people for what they are: they do not want to empower you, they want you to remain where you are, and they even flaunt it. This is a message to politicians who are Christians: you cannot possibly be like this. It must be your purpose to truly do good by the people. We are all stewards of the positions, opportunities and privileges we hold. Are you the First Lady of Nigeria? You are a steward of that office, and you will give account of it — and thankfully this First Lady is an ordained pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, so she must understand that she is a steward, just as I am a steward of whatever office I hold, and you of whatever position you occupy, as a parent or an employee.
One of the most haunting statements I have ever heard came from the late Dr. James Boice, whose teachings I find deeply insightful — perhaps the greatest influence on me in my Christian walk. Treating the passages on Joseph in Genesis, he reflected on how Joseph kept a God-perspective throughout — as a boy in his father’s house, in Potiphar’s house, in prison, and in the palace; he was always talking about God. And Boice said the heavens could have said of him, “Oh, that’s our man in Egypt.” If you know the history of colonisation — the British Empire, of which it was said that the sun never set, so vast it stretched from India to the farthest parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, so that while one part slept, another was awake — the politicians in London would ask, “Who is our man in India? Who is our man in Lagos?” They posted out their administrators — Lord Lugard, Flora Shaw and the like — to different parts of the world. And in the same way, Dr. Boice said, we must realise that in heaven the question is sometimes asked: “Who is our man there?” Could it be said, “Oh, it’s the First Lady there”? “Who is our person in that company, that hospital, that place?” That the angels of heaven would be able to say, “Oh, Femi is there — that’s our man in this place,” or that you are there, and they would mention your name.
Long and short: politicians in Nigeria can get away with so many things — the First Lady can get away with saying things like this, whereas in other climes it would force a person to retrace their steps and clarify, “That’s not what I meant.” But may those politicians who are Christians be reminded that they must see the opportunities they have. If many politicians would not think of empowering people, Christian politicians must think differently. And ultimately it is heartening to understand that God is not man, and does not deal with us as human rulers do. He did not lord it over us; He humbled Himself, came into the world, and even washed His disciples’ feet. He said, “The rulers of this world lord it over you” — but “I no longer call you servants; I call you friends.” He drew us close; and when He rose, He began to call us His brothers. We continue to pray that the Lord will raise up for us leaders who love Him, who understand that their duty to serve the people is rooted not only in the constitution but in an obligation to God. Blessed is the nation, blessed is the society, led by people who understand that.
ON HUMAN WICKEDNESS AND THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL
Finally, what would you say about an ex-employee who confessed to killing his former boss, saying he did it “to teach her a lesson”? I was discussing this with my wife and said, “Wow — this gives you an insight into how truly wicked human beings can be.”
I take this report from SaharaReporters. The Ogun State Police Command announced the arrest of three suspects over the gruesome murder of a retired Ogun State television broadcaster, Madam Olaketan Oyesiku. The Commissioner of Police gave an update at the command headquarters on the progress of the investigation into the double murder — the recovery of the deceased’s vehicle through technical tracking, the forensic examination of a handwritten note allegedly left by the attackers, and the arrest of all suspects directly linked to the crime. The incident came to the attention of the police on June 21, 2026, at about 4 p.m. The front door of the residence had been partially damaged, and the security house within the compound was found locked, which prompted intervention. Detectives mobilised to the scene made a shocking discovery: the lifeless body of the security guard, a 38-year-old man, was found inside the security house, while the body of Madam Oyesiku was found lying in a pool of blood in the living room of the main building. Preliminary findings revealed that the deceased’s Lexus car had been taken from the compound, deepening the suspicion that the incident involved both murder and robbery.
The command launched an intensive investigation involving intelligence-gathering and technical tracking. The following day, operatives traced and recovered the missing Lexus. Although the ignition key had been removed and the registration plate detached in an apparent attempt to conceal its identity, detectives found the plate hidden on the seat, which enabled them to positively identify the vehicle as belonging to Madam Oyesiku. One of the major breakthroughs came from the handwritten note allegedly left at the scene; subjected to forensic analysis, it generated vital leads. After days of intelligence-led operations, the police identified and arrested the principal suspect — a 22-year-old man, identified by the police as Philip Olajuwon — at a construction site in Abeokuta, where he was said to be working as a labourer. Follow-up operations led to the arrest of two other suspects. During interrogation, police said, the principal suspect made a confessional statement admitting his role in the murder and implicating the two others. According to that confession, the attack was planned over grievances he held against the deceased from the period he had worked as a security guard in her employment.
So this man, who has reportedly confessed to killing this woman, once worked as her security guard. He had grievances — we do not know what sort, and frankly we do not care to know. What we can say is that no decent person, no one who is not led and possessed by demons and the devil, would kill another over any grievance whatsoever. Think of the most horrendous thing that woman could possibly have done to him — there is nothing that would call for him to kill her. But he did. Twenty-two years old, and he got two other persons to go and kill her. A man found working as a labourer on a construction site. This is a reminder that some people think only the rich and powerful commit evil crimes. They do commit crimes — but people at the lowest rung of the social ladder are equally capable, which is why the question of sin is no respecter of social status or riches. He must have left that woman’s employment, and while labouring, thought to himself, “That woman — I am going to kill her.” What does it take for a person to be so angry as to say, “I am going to kill”?
If a movie were made of this by an American, how do you think it would be titled? You have seen titles like these: “Teacher from Hell,” “Student from Hell,” “Husband from Hell,” “Wife from Hell,” “Employee from Hell.” That expression, especially in American culture, refers to people who did horrendous, evil things that could only be done by someone of the devil — that is the meaning. This is the case of a “security guard from hell.” Of course, “hell” in that expression, to many in the culture, just means “somebody bad, somebody evil,” and they will not think deeply about it. But for us, from a Christian perspective, we want to be reminded that those who do such wicked evil are the children of the devil himself, whose mission in the world the Lord revealed: to steal, to kill, and to destroy. There are many people whose hearts are inhabited by the devil himself. Our Lord told us there is no possibility of a heart remaining vacant; there will always be someone on the throne of a human heart. May the Lord protect us from the many people in society whose hearts are enthroned by the devil — people who will not bat an eyelid to steal from you, to kill and to destroy, physically as well as spiritually.
May God comfort the family of this woman. May we be grateful for the diligence of the police in this matter — proceeding on the basis that all we have read is exactly as reported, we thank God for that diligence, and pray the case will be seen to its logical conclusion and that these people will be brought to justice. And let us pray for protection for you and for me, for we live in such a dangerous world. No wonder our Lord taught us to pray every day to be delivered from evil. The times are evil, and I pray the mercy of the Lord will protect us, in the name of Jesus; that those diligent policemen will continue in that path; that the Lord will continue to expose the crimes of the evil ones in our midst; and that the day will come — may God hasten it — when the whole world will know Jesus.
For if the whole world knew Jesus, just imagine what you would no longer see in the world: we would not see “security guards from hell” like this. That is why the Christian response to matters like this is to bring our neighbourhoods, our friends and our neighbours to Christ, and to pray that the light of the gospel will shine on them. That hymn — “Thou whose almighty word chaos and darkness heard, and took their flight” — is one of my best; I love it dearly. “Where the gospel day sheds not its glorious ray, let there be light.” So that many may come to the kingdom of God, and that we may have peace in our societies. The second stanza calls on the Saviour; the third says, “in earth’s darkest place, let there be light”; and the fourth: “Holy and blessed Three, glorious Trinity, wisdom, love, might, boundless as ocean’s tide rolling in fullest pride, through the earth far and wide let there be light.” Until that day, we will have wickedness — horrendous, unspeakable wickedness — in this fallen world.
I want to thank you for sitting with me today, and this week, on GospelBells Radio, On the Lord’s Side — Christian perspectives on news and current events. I hope to be with you again on Monday by the grace of God. Whatever you do this weekend, please remain faithful 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.
