Evangelist Theo Rays exposes President Buhari's plans on Biafra

Prayer, diplomacy will restore Biafra not fighting - Evangelist Theo Rays
...says Biafra will bring the best out of the Igbo man

In this concluding part of an interview with Evangelist Theo Rays, during the public presentation of his three books titled Beyond Darkness, End of Crises and Desert Storm at Ogidi in Anambra State recently the journalist turned Man of God bares his mind on Buhari's long absent, much talked about restructuring and the agitation for Biafra. Ugochi Nwagbo in Awka brings Excerpts:

What is your take on Buhari's long absent and assessment of his administration so far?

Common sense tells us that all is not well with our President. We don't need to consult a prophet to know that all is not well with him. It is not easy for an aged man to survive a disease or sickness that has kept him on bed for a long time like this.  However as a Christian Man of God, I believe in miracle and I have been praying for his survival via miracle. But unfortunately there are people who wish him death. No, no, no, people don't have to wish their President death. They don have do that. Considering what he has contributed to the country and what he still have to contribute it is wrong for anybody to wish him dead. To me Buhari is a hero of democracy and with him alive in the system, democracy will continue to grow in Nigeria. So I wish him survival and also call on every other Nigerian to keep on praying for his survival.

On the issue of assessment of his administration, one thing Buhari has achieved is to ambiguously put lazy and idle people on their toes asking them to get themselves busy with something doing. When Buhari assumed office, people expected that he will sooner than later bring manna from heaven. In fact people expected him to do magic overnight, but I asked a question that people considered to be funny. I asked this question: can Nigerians live up to the expectations of Buhari? Are we ready to fight corruption with the new president? I said that I am not sure if the people in the key sections of the system are ready to join forces with the president to fight corruption.  I asked the question because I perceived that Buhari is coming to fight corruption but he cannot succeed if Nigerians are not ready to fight corruption. For us defeat corruption, the elected and appointed government officials have to be ready, cilvil servants have to ready, the police and other security operatives have to ready, the judges and the lawyers, officials of government agencies, the religious pastors at all levels, the journalists like you and I, the bankers, the contractors, the core businessmen, the traders and so on have ready to fight corruption.. Till tomorrow, I believe that corruption is the bane of Nigeria. Corruption is killing everything in Nigeria. The elimination of corruption will bring to an end the problems of poor power supply, poor conduct of elections, poor quality of education, poor health care system, bad roads, reduce crime and poverty to the barest minimum and get Nigeria fixed on the right path of greatness.   It is not possible for only the sitting president to fight and eliminate corruption, it is the responsibility of all Nigerians. As we speak Nigerians are not fighting corruption and they are not prepared to do it tomorrow.

So what is the way forward on the fight against corruption?
The way forward is to attack corruption from source. And what is the source. The source can be defined as the people's mindset, culture, worship and life style. You look at what is controlling the mindset of the people and find out how to change it for the  better. Every human being have basic things that controls his mind and dictates his character and behavior either for good or evil.  Nigerians are being controlled by things that cannot drive humanity in good light. Nigerians place value on acquisition of worldly things than making sacrifice to save lives. If you take a patient to a hospital in any part of Nigeria no matter how serious the case maybe what the medical personnel will consider first is the money you will have to pay not necessarily how to save the life of the patient.  That is the source of corruption. All over the world what controls people's mind and dictates their character and behavior is love for humanity. In a civilized world people show love to everybody regardless of tribe, ethnicity, religion, race political party or nationality. Nigerians limit love to themselves, their families and to an extent their tribe, religion and political party.

Buhari appeared to have placed high priority on political party in his appointment. That is why he gave former Governor  of Lagos State Babatunde Fashola three big portfolio to manage. His appointments is impacting negatively on his administration. The economy went to recession and foreign exchange skyrocketed immediately Buhari assumed office because his appointees failed to wrestle with the challenges on ground. Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze a medical doctor based in America blamed the economic recession on the absent of the Igbo man in the mainstream of economic business and management in the country. He has to open the door for men who can call to the deep without regard to his relationship with them and without regard to their political parties, tribe and religion. I don't see reason why Fashola should be given three ministerial portfolios while people like Soludo, Peter Obi, Pat Utomi and others are free and ready to serve. That is why Buhari have to look beyond close friends, political parties, look beyond tribe and religion.

If we can change the mindset of the people to place value on human lives ahead of worldly things, ahead of money, tribe, religion and political party, I tell you corruption will disappear in no distant time and our country would be fix into the path of greatness.

Naturally it is not easy to change anybody's mindset?
I agree but with God all things are possible. Nigeria have too many number of churches and mosques and both of them are good platforms to reach out to the people. What we just need to attack the mindset of the people and change it is to change the tone and emphasis of religious teachings in the churches and mosques. In most churches the teaching about God and human life is very poor. Pastors and Bishops narrow their teachings about the history of the church, the reputation of the church founders and then teach the benefits of bringing money as offering, tithe and donation to them. We are going to change all that. We can also use the schools by introducing new contents into the curriculum. There are avenues like social clubs, village meetings, Market prayer groups and the rest of them to reach out to the people.

When you say we, who are you referring to?
I mean those who believe in the vision to fight and defeat corruption in Nigeria including President Buhari, APC, the ruling party and others. May be you are one of us. Won't you like to be part of us? I believe you like it.

Some people say we need restructuring?.
Why are they clamoring for restructuring? They are clamoring for restructuring of the system because the leaders place value on their tribes, their religion and their political ahead of the value of the people in general as human beings existing in a country. There is a problem of outright hatred among Nigerians and I wonder how the restructuring would solve the hatred problem. Part of the reason for the resurrected agitation for Biafra is the feeling of hatred of Igbo by Hausa and Fulani people in the north among the Igbo youth. Igbo youth feel that it is enough to live together with people who hate them. Idoma, Urhobo, Itshekiri and Ijaw people say they cannot exist in Biafra with the Igbo because they apparently don't like the Igbo. Will restructuring change this kind of hatred? These are the questions that are begging for answers. I agree with former President Olusegun Obasanjo who said that the mindset of the people have to be restructured first. We have to restructure the mindset of the people into loving one another without regard to tribe, religion and political party. We have to restructure the mindset of the people to place human value ahead of financial values. Restructure the mindset of the people into sound knowledge of leadership and existence generally. We need to let them know human worth and need to preserve the value of life regardless of political parties, tribe and religion. If we restructure the system without putting the right people in the right place we won't achieve the desired results.

Again we have to consider reviewing the qualities of people that occupy leadership positions in this country. Some that are Governors, senators, ministers and what have you, are not showing to be competent enough to be where they find themselves. According to former Minister of Power Professor Chinedu Nebo incompetence is worst than corruption. People have to show sound knowledge and nitty gritty of leadership before getting to a leadership position. It is wrong and also unsafe to place somebody who haven't controlled up to half a billion naira in an office where billion of naira rolls in every month. A would be leader have to show us the skills and technical know how on human and financial management, That should be the first port of call when we talk about restructuring. Recently former governor of Anambra State Mr Peter Obi attributed the problems of Nigeria to the leaders and the lead. If I should quote Obi rightly, he said that a chairman of local government would loot public treasury and build mansion within six months in office and a church leader who is in position to ask question on his source of income will go and dedicate the house build with stolen money. I support restructuring but we have to first and foremost restructure the mindset of the people and also the leadership qualities and of would be leaders at all levels.

What is your take on the agitation for Biafra
I support it because Biafra will bring the best out of the Igbo man. I am in total support of Biafra but let me quickly say that Biafra is going be restored by means of prayer and diplomacy not fighting war as many people think. Let me also quickly say that Ndigbo are not strong enough to face war but they have more than enough people to pray and enough of men of high intellectual capacity to device diplomatic means toward restoring Biafra. So going into war is completely out if. People should realize that Biafra now is like a "death trap" because Nigeria forces are furious about it. Since Ralph Uwazuruike resurrected the issue of Biafra on the principle of non violence about 17 years ago it has been death, death all the way because people go about it on the wrong way. Time to fix the struggle for Biafra on the right path is now. As a Christian Man of God I believe in Miracle and I believe that with God all things are possible.

Like I said earlier Biafra will bring the best out of the Igbo man. Nigeria and the world at large have failed to bring the best of the Igbo man. Nigeria and the world have failed to appreciate the ingenuity of the Igbo man and support him toward getting the best of him for the wellbeing of humanity. Igbo man is providing jobs for people in virtually all cities and villages around the world establishing small, medium and large businesses. Igbo man is  the only human being in this world Today that is building houses, industries, schools, hospitals, markets, hotels everywhere around the world. Ndigbo have great minds of world class pedestal in highly important areas like engineering, science and technology, academic, politics, medicine, law, sports and religion among others.

Take for instances, the name of Nnamdi Azikiwe an Igbo man remains a leading light in the political history of Africa. Chinua Achebe an Igbo man is the first African to produce a book that was translated in over fifty languages round the world. Francis Cardinal Arinze an Igbo man is the only African that has ever gotten close to becoming Catholic Pope. Philip Emeagwali an Igbo man is a renowned world class computer wizard but Nigeria his country home doesn't even know him. Bill Clinton as president of America described Emeagwali as the most intelligent human being on the planet earth in the last 60 years. Emeka Anayaoku an Igbo man served as the Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations. Emeka Ken Nwabueze an Igbo man served as Presidential Adviser on Science and Technology to George Bush for seven good years. Igbo man is the only human being in this present world that is developing business and

To further mention but a few: an Igbo group known as indigenous people of Biafra IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu build the most powerful Radio Station on the planet earth. It is called Radio Biafra. Do I have to continue?. Yes Igbo man is the largest mover of Catholic and Anglican Churches in Africa today. I stand to be corrected. But I don't know if Vatican and Canterbury are aware of that. Vatican and Canterbury have to appreciate the Igbo man. It is not about issuing Papal award to catholic faithful, it is about supporting Igbo against maltreatment in Nigeria.

Quit Notice?
Those Arewa youth are behaving like children of a backward third world country. I think they need my Books so that they can catch up with current position of things in the world today. The world is now a global village and countries are looking for their brother Alhaji Aliko Dangote to come and invest in their territory. If they ask Igbo people let them also ask Coca Cola, Guinness, MTN and other multi national companies to go.