It is an important teaching in Christianity: God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. We cannot escape the consequence of our actions; everything that we do as participants in this interconnecting community has repercussions - one way or another, it comes back to us. Much like this principle and the law of karma, in nearly every religion and culture there is a fervent belief that the total result of a person's deeds and actions during the successive phases of the person's existence determines the feedback fate issues that person within their lifetime or in the hereafter. It is further taught, 'If we sow a thought we reap an act; if we sow an act, we reap a habit; if we sow a habit, we reap a character; and if we sow a character, we reap a consequence.'

At this point in time, nowhere is this message more relevant than on our very own doorsteps where few people in the corridors of power are determined to garner us towards a most debauched consequence. Despite the activities of the last couple of months and the resolution of the past week, reports have been made of secret plans by a select few in the corridors of power, who continue to resist adherence of the constitution and are trying to combat any resolution that may have been made in the best interest of the nation but which threatens their positions in power. If these reports are true, despite the brink of disaster from which we have just come from, then, the consequence Nigeria finds itself in is truly pathetic and indeed sad - very sad. Although our country is situated on top of a smouldering volcano that is ready and rearing to erupt at any given moment, there are still elements within government that are determined to unscrupulously elongate their inhabitancy of power while damming the consequence of their actions. The more they hold secret meetings to decide on the next course of action to divert Nigeria away from the tenets of its constitution just so that they can remain in office, the closer they advance us toward the trigger that might commence the great explosion. But do these few officials in the corridors of power care about this great explosion? No, because they have completely become victims to a world where the intense lust for power fully possesses its prey, so much so that they no longer bother to camouflage their voracity, guile, and self-serving actions. And to be able to satisfy the worldly desires of a few, Nigeria and her helpless children are again being short-changed by the intrigues of those who swore to protect them. The amount of spin the few in the corridors of power are running in order to achieve their alleged aim moves faster than that of a tumble dryer. Anyone who doesn't comply is chewed out like a discarded piece of bubble gum and anyone who speaks against it is threatened, stalked and victimized like a sub-human entity.

In the past, government officials who tried to double deal this country by either illegally elongating their tenure in power or milking the coffers for what it is worth have received their comeuppance in the most unfortunate of ways. But still, following numerous failed administrations, we are again being besieged from within by tyranny, graft and disloyalty by a select few who carry out secret meetings and come to secret agreements that they earnestly, "between them and God", know is not in the best interest of this country. Honestly, it is really painful for any of us who truly loves this country to think about the state that our nation is in. It is sad for us to face up to the fact that our beloved Nigeria is an epitome of a sorry republic on the brink of Armageddon. If we are truly not careful, that unwanted Armageddon is likely to arrive in the form of the corollary of the malevolent actions of a select few in government or as a factor of their stratagem to manipulate the system in order to recklessly remain in power.

The power-hungry packs who are advocating desecrating the fragment of the liberty we gained in 1999 are the true enemies of this nation. By turning Nigeria into a business venture and a power podium, they have betrayed the dreams of our past and the hopes of our future. By planning to disregard common sense and behaving as if the millions of us who have a stake in this country don't exist, they create and contribute to the disaster we find ourselves in. By steering our country for purely personal ambitions, those few in the corridors of power stand before us guilty as people who acted to disorganise Nigeria. If, in the next few weeks, those who are in power succeed in bringing forth any anti-constitution, anti-people and anti-Nigeria policy, history will forever judge them reproachfully as those who were willing to pawn the future of their children, grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

With decades of power mismanagement in this country, one is compelled to wonder whether we are fated thusly. Is the giant of Africa perpetually condemned to an eternity of a greedy gaggle of a few government officials who mortgage our nation, disdain the interest of the population and bleed Nigeria dry? This would appear to be our reality. This, more so, is due to the fact that the voice of the masses of this country is nonexistent.

If those we had previously relied upon to take us to the Promised Land continue to short-change and fail us, then, maybe the masses of Nigeria as a collective need to take the requisite action to improve this country. Our hindrance is that we are a nation divided and in denial, we suffer from grave memory loss and are incredibly easy to manipulate. People still look at freedom fighting with suspicion along ethnic and religious lines: Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Gwari, Shekiri, Irogbo, Nupe, Birom, Langtang, Auchi, Ijaw, Tiv, Ogoni, Igbira, and all the other 236 tribes of Nigeria; our struggles are one and the same and, unless we realise and embrace this, our torture will continue. We tend to also fantasize that a messiah will emerge and the seas will part open into two in order for Nigeria to be saved. Maybe the solution lies not within the direction of a messiah but within the strength of the masses of a nation that claims one in every five Africans. If we consider the effect of the Ukrainian, Iranian and Georgian peoples' resolve when the insult of their governments became unbearable, we begin to realise the power of a people when they stand together as one. Tyranny begets uprisings when the government's tyranny reaches its zenith any more than it has now and the people realise they are constantly staring at empty food bowls, unending fuel queues, rigged elections. The situation may spew and the next mass action may really become mass.

For those determined to flog this country off so that they can remain in power: lest you forget, your actions all have consequences. Make no mistake, you cannot get away with the bad choices you make for your nation, because history is recording everything you do. If you sow bad in this season, you will reap worse in another, no matter how long it takes. Even some of the greatest forces in Africa - Idi Amin, Mobutu Seseseko, Haile Selassie - once bred the radiant rule of monarchs. And for some time their might nurtured their supremacy and reign over their countries but, in the end, they faced karma and all three ended up victims of the consequences of their actions. None was even allowed to die in the nation he once commanded.

Thus, next time the 'freemasons' in the government corridors secretly meet to sow the seed of ruin for Nigeria, they should be mindful not to be deceived: ‘God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.’

Tomorrow marks the platinum anniversary of freedom for Nelson Mandela from Robben Island prison after serving 27 years. Records show that February 11, 1990, was a bright and sunny day. And on that day, at approximately 4:14pm, a jubilant Nelson Mandela holding Winnie's hand, together with his colleagues, appeared at the gates of the prison, smiled at the ecstatic crowds and punched the air in a victory salute before taking a silver BMW sedan and driving away into a future filled with promise and freedom. After decades of struggle and hard labour in prison, this great moral and political hero continues to stand tall as the beacon of humanity on the hilltop of our time.

Nelson Mandela feels more like a father than a famous figure to many of us who, for the duration of our lives, love him so much and recognise him as the greatest statesman in living memory. His story has been one of strife, great effort, new hope, and the ultimate accomplishment. And even in the midst of his darkest days he demonstrated with vigour the task of a great leader by leading his country from a dark, shallow hole to the elevated height of freedom. He did this with the spirit of a saint and a perception of strength, bravery, generosity, courage and forgiveness. Nelson Mandela is a true freedom fighter whose love for his people has no end and whose life and personal success will be remembered long after the world has forgotten the evils of the oppression that, once upon a time, engulfed his people. While lending a voice to the voiceless, he rose above the petty national, religious, and ideological boundaries. He is a star who has brightened the lives of many and set the ultimate example for all leaders in the world.

In a role seldom witnessed, he selflessly dedicated his life to fight against one of the most powerful systems of oppression ever conceived and today stands as a decisive testimony for the victory of nobility and hope over desolation and odium. His life personifies what a true patriot should do and how they should behave under the most trying of circumstances. The spirits of all the revolutionaries and freedom fighters of this world, past and present, surely would smile blessings upon him because he always stood fair against all kinds of domination and was willing to give his life for it. The radiance of his personality has touched the lives of many over the years and we hope to continue drinking from his river of humanity as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of his freedom tomorrow.

While in prison, Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners. The apartheid government numerously offered him a reduction of his sentence as long as he abided by certain conditions, but each time they offered, Mandela would refuse on the notion that "prisoners are not able to enter into contracts, only free men could negotiate". Mandela was determined to sacrifice his freedom, his family and use himself and his body as a vehicle from which his people could attain liberty. After his release form prison, with his tenacity unblemished, he went back to his life's work, determined to end the struggle he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. On May 10, 1994, he won and became the first democratically elected president of South Africa. And, unlike most other African leaders, even though he was at the apex, he retired in June 1999 and relinquished power with no fuss after only one term in office.

Without doubt, Nelson Mandela's life has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation. He has never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality, justice and forgiveness. Despite severe provocation, Mandela never answered racism with racism but symbolised the triumph of the human spirit over man's inhumanity to man. The fact that he never took revenge or tried to harass the people who tortured him and his people makes him unique. Here in Nigeria, as we watch our brothers and sisters all over the country kill each other for religious and ethnic reasons and blame each other for the malfunction of our nation, we should consider the life struggle of a man like Mandela and recognise the benefit of forgiveness and love over revenge and hate.

The story of Mandela personally fills me with a cocktail of emotions. It makes me very happy and proud to think that a person of black African descent could perceive and use power in the way Mandela does, and it also makes me sad to think that there are hardly any others in this continent like him. Especially in a country like Nigeria where very few are willing to compromise their self-interest and focus on what is in the best interest of our nation.  For as long as I can remember, our leaders and those we identify as heroes have existed in a struggle to attain and remain in power, and that has been the bane of their struggle. Our structure, at every level, has always been about elections, re-elections, political appointments or some other forms of power maintenance. Even for the very few Nigerians in our history who have put their interest of land before interest of self, one would be hard challenged to produce the name of a singular person who has managed to do half of what Mandela has done and sacrificed for his nation. Yet this man, who spent almost all the years of his active life fighting for the freedom of his people, did not insist on holding on to power, but immediately paved way for other people to handle the country when his mandate expired.

This sort of notion seems so strange in a country like Nigeria, where people literally quantify politics as do or die, by force and tazarche. No Nigerian in government seems willing to leave power and everybody out of government strives to get into and stay in power. If we consider the structure of our government since the dawn of this Fourth Republic, we find a trend where most of the people that got into office back in 1999 are still in the same government positions. The same faces we saw in government back in 1999 are still the same faces in government now. That is not to take away from those that are generally adored by the public and were genuinely voted by their people. But in truth, how many of those are there?

If only we could have leaders willing to emulate Mandela in this country, those who have been truly inspired by him, our future would be laced with a smidgen of hope. I don't think there are any words which can describe how blessed this generation is to have lived during the times of a man like Nelson Mandela. I and millions of people all over have learned so much from him and will continue to pray for him and cherish him. If the world can have more people like him, it indeed would be a much better place to live in. And if Nigeria can produce a leader who has just a quarter of the qualities Mandela has, then, we would well be on our way to the salvation that this country is desperate for.

When I think of Mandela, I do not see just a person; I see an institution of goodness and a beacon of strength. He is the representative of an extraordinary human being filled with humility, charm and compassion. And even though it is comforting to think that he will be with us forever, the reality is that Nelson Mandela is a 91-year-old that has led a very challenging and dynamic life. As he increasingly becomes frail and weak, the world will forever be indebted to this very special man for the leadership and inspiration he provided. The world shall continue to pray for his time ahead to be filled with happiness and peace. I join the world in celebrating this platinum anniversary of freedom with the Madiba.