Seven Pillars of Wisdom

November 21, 2018

                          A review by Bayo Ogunmupe

     The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a paperback christian  theological treatise on wisdom and how to get it. Gaining inspiration from: "Wisdom hath builded her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars,"Proverbs 9:1, the Right Reverend Chris Josephs U Eromosele wove out an inspiring message of hope for mankind. According to Reverend Eromosele, as God's children we have been enabled with a great and stable destiny. We have access to wisdom's pillars for a fulfilling and fruitful life. In this classical monograph on theology, Eromosele reveals how you cannot fail.

     This book is your guarantor of success in whatever vocation you choose to dwell in. Why is wisdom so important in fruitful living? Wisdom is useful in the enhancement of a fulfilling destiny. Among others, wisdom is a defence against failure, Ecc. 7:12. Wisdom is better than strength: Ecc.9:16. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, Ecc.9:18. Wisdom is justified by her children, Matt 11:19. Wisdom is profitable in the service of business, Ecc.10:10. Wisdom is better than rubies, Prov.8:11. Wisdom is the principal thing-Prov4:7. This revelation will culminate in a change of season for you as it did for the author.

     In defining wisdom Eromosele says wisdom is knowing what to do in a situation. It is the 'know how' of any issue. Once you know what to do, success comes to you easily. Failure is the result of not doing well. Success represents a culmination of decisions taken rightly. Taking rightful decisions was the outstanding feature of the greatest wisdom celebrity- Jesus of Nazareth. He is referred to as the wisdom of God. he is wisdom personified. When tou access this wisdom, you won't walk in darkness on any subject. You will intuitively know what to do in any situation. You will become the encyclopedia of your  time- John 1:2.

     The Seven Pillars of Wisdom has 17 chapters, 164 pages and a page of the author's memorabilia. It was published this year by The Secret of Fulfilment Series; printed by the Grace Insight Production, Wuse 11, Abuja Nigeria. The word of God the Bible is wisdom. You can only have access to wisdom through the reading of the word of God. It is impossible for you to have access to wisdom and be tossed around by the currents of life. In another way, wisdom is the proper application of knowledge to life. You are expected to earn God's pleasure as a wise man. Jehovah is always happy with His wise children.

     The following suitably describes His feelings towards you: You are a city set on a hill. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. You are a chosen generation. You are the apple of God's eyes. You are the master of signs and wonders. You are kings and priests unto God. The wisdom of God is supreme, when you build a house with it, it becomes your home. Access to God's wisdom is available to His elect: "I will give you a mouth and a wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay and resist," Luke 21:15.

     In concluding chapter two of part one on the power of vision, the author enjoins you that in order to succeed in life, you must draw up a plan with the utmost clarity. Architects will tell you that before any building is erected, its plan must be settled; an exact replica of the proposed structure is built such that a visitor can easily predict the outcome of the building. Which is why success isn't a try your luck creature. Success isn't an accident, it is a result of planning. Hence a vision of your greatness must first be hewn. "And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do," Gen. 11:6.

     Joseph is Eromosele's example of the visionary whose vision was fulfilled in prison after interpreting the Pharaoh's dream. Wherefore, Joseph was made prime minister of Egypt where his family members came to worship him  for food and protection. God loves you when you are not just a hearer, but a doer walking in the integrity of God's word. The qualities you need for fulfilment are: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge: and to knowledge temperance: and to temperance patience: and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. for if these things abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged, of his old sins."

       "Wherefore, rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling, for if ye do these things ye shall never fail,"Gen 11, 1:5, 10. And finally to achieve your goals, you need such pillars as diligence, faith, knowledge and love. The author, the Right Reverend Chris Eromosele is the president of The Pinnacle of Grace Incorporated. He is the author of several books. He has been presiding over the anointed ministry for over 20 years: a minister of the gospel and inspirational speaker. His church is in Wuse 11, Abuja, Nigeria. From the foregoing you will realize that The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a must read for your success and fulfilment.

Reddlemen”, we must now become

November 21, 2018

Deciding what topic to comment on in Nigeria these days is proving to be less and less of an effortless undertaking, what with the breathtaking spate of egregious discoveries within the leadership class, and the brazen indifference of the ranking members of that class to those discoveries. I dare say that it is inconceivable to think up a more damning script for Project Nigeria than the intensifying “You be thief! I no be thief!” drama among our elected leaders – see my piece in The Guardian of 6^th April, 2018.

I had once remarked to a colleague that contemporary Nigeria is likened to a military parade wherein a clumsy ill-trained recruit tragically assumed (read usurped) the drum-major’s position. That of course was not a novel commentary on the Nigerian state. Parallels to my expressed view could be obtained without exertion; famous among these was the late Pius Okigbo’s scathing line in his 1992 University of Lagos 30^th Anniversary Lecture: Crisis in the Temple. In his clinical analysis of the sources of decay in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, the renowned economist pointed out that successive investigation panels on the administration of Nigerian universities had observed that most lecturers notoriously fail to update the currency of their qualifications. Typical of him, he then went on to conjure up the hazardous graphics of drivers with expired licences. Academic qualifications, the anniversary lecturer had asserted, like driving licences, are meant to be renewed periodically. In his immortal words, “If Faculty members lack the discipline to diligently revalidate the currency of their intellectual contents, these are automatically deemed incapable of learning… Now, would any one be taken aback that our temple of learning is in crisis, when those who are notoriously incapable of learning have taken to teaching therein?”

The unfortunate situation depicted by the great Anambra state born intellectual aptly mirrors the situation in all other sectors of the Nigerian state. And, as the yet unfurling leadership crisis reveals, that ugly situation is rendered ugliest by Nigeria’s primitive political culture, which permits of semi-illiterates and ill-bred persons rising to the pinnacle of power. Imagine the absurdity of notoriously corrupt officials of one political party vociferously calling for the arrest and prosecution of their fellow notoriously corrupt officials in another party??? (The kettle calling the pot black is apparently the new normal in Nigeria) Therefore, we now can safely say that discounting the few, not unlike the late Aminu Kano; MKO Abiola; Alex Ekwueme, etc, who were unquestionably accomplished prior to seeking political office, a greater part of Nigerian politicians are mindless gold-diggers who spare little or no thoughts for the ordinary people whom they swear under oath to conscientiously serve. Much to our collective discomfiture, these questionable characters have now leveraged themselves into vantage positions in Nigeria’s political space with ill-gotten wealth. Simply put, ill-bred persons now predominantly decide the composition of Nigeria’s leadership. This scenario clearly is a state of national emergency calling for massive citizens’ action. If Nigeria were to keep her glorious appointment with destiny, her committed patriots, be they men or women, party members or not, young or old, religious or not, able-bodied or physically challenged, professionals and non-professionals, must now cultivate the spirit of the “reddlemen”, a leading character in one of Thomas Hardy’s classic novels, “The return of the native”.

Hardy’s reddleman could pass as a benevolent masquerade in our setting, because he was not only something of a guardian spirit committed to sniffing out evil plots and persons in his 19^th Century Wessex, England, but would go the entire hug to ensure that the ultimate aim of those evil plots came to naught. Instructively, he did all of these entirely at the expense of his personal resources and risks to his safety. Diggory Venn was the man literally behind the reddleman’s mask. In pre-industrial England, a reddleman was a person whose vocation it was to supply farmers with redding for their sheep. On account of their ware, reddlemen were usually red from the crown of their head to their feet – thus disguising their natural features. Being itinerant, reddlemen have privilege knowledge of their communities. Citizen Diggory Venn had patriotically put that advantage to the peace, unity and progress of his Wessex homestead. The climax of these instances was when his priceless intelligence gathering culminated in averting the potential elopement of Mr. Damon Wildeve and Mrs. Eustacia Yeobright. 

Damon and Eustacia had been lovers; but Damon’s unfaithfulness caused Eustacia to harbour second thoughts about the relationship. During Christmas, Clement Yeobright, a glamourous native of Wessex who had made good in Paris in the world of finance, returned. Eustacia, the local beauty who ceaselessly dreamed of living out her life in a more glamourous setting than rural Wessex, was inexorably taken in by the returnee’s reputation. Ever the resourceful coming lady, she caused her path to cross with the illustrious returnee’s. Against both families’ misgivings Clement and Eustacia struck up a relationship that made a bee-line for marriage. Eustacia’s estranged lover, Damon, acting with an eye to spiting his former heartthrob, married his casual lover, Thomasin on the rebound. But he no sooner learned of the unending torments of burying one’s love before its death. Eustacia was still much the love of his life. He desperately, albeit furtively, wanted her back.

Meanwhile, Eustacia, to her disappointment, was similarly circumstanced. She had cleverly schemed to marry Yeobright in the hope that he would return to Paris after his short visit to Wessex. Was she utterly mistaken! The accomplished economist had returned to give back to his fledgling community. Clement had come back to stay! Eustacia consequently starting toying with unholy ideas about the young marriage, much like a kitten sports dove. Under such a heavily misty atmosphere, Mr. Damon Wildeve and Mrs. Eustacia Yeobright were able to contrive a most secretive elopement plot. But for the legendary selfless intelligence gathering exploits of the reddleman, most of which were undertaken in the dead of the night and in inclement weather, that evil plot could well have been pulled off, much to the heartbreak of many a Wessex citizen.

Damon and Eustacia died in the misadventure. But it was a happy ending for the reddleman as he earned bounteous returns on his huge investments in sustained selfless community service. He was the residual legatee of Wessex with his marriage to Wildeve’s widow who recently came into her rich inheritance. The tale is as engaging as its moral is compelling. The latest shocking revelations in our own land ought to jolt us into massive citizens’ action to exorcise the political class of the ill-bred characters among its ranks. We must now become reddlemen. Needless to say that I am one already; that is the reason I persist in speaking poignant truths to power, in spite of explicit death threats to my person by government agents. Needless also, to state that the spirit is slowly but surely finding a foothold in our much abused country, Nigeria. It is interesting to observe that a number of recent group-protests against the harsh realities in the country readily adopt the reddleman’s colour code: deep red. One of these has even produced symbolic blood-red cards to express the mood in which its members would approach the 2019 general elections. I couldn’t agree more; ordinary Nigerians have endured red-eyes for decades due to a succession of grossly incompetent leaderships, it’s time red-cards substituted the weary red-eyes!   

Reddlemen, therefore, we must now become to reset Nigeria on the course of true greatness; so help us God.

Afam Nkemdiche; consulting engineer. November, 2018