Thursday 28 February 2013

Entertainment and God

A few months ago I wrote one of the most controversial articles " I have questions" and oh my goodness I got so many responses both the good and the bad.
Most of it was so bad that a lot of people seized the opportunity to tell me all the things they had been wanting to tell me for so long. They cursed me and made me out to be a monster and a rebel.
The funny thing is that I was loving it so much because at that point I knew I had hit a nerve in a lot of people. My aim was achieved during that time as I got a lot of people to talk about it.
The most shocking thing about it is that the most constructive responses, advice and arguments I got were from the Muslims, who sent in research materials. Thank God for my strong and unchangeable love for my Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, I would have been converted easily. My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who call themselves Christians were busy insulting me and mounting curses on my generation without even answering any of the questions I asked. Only a few pastors and Christians were kind and mature enough to make their points known which I appreciated.


In all of this I still maintain and stand my ground that the church of today has failed us in all aspects of life. From politics, to domestic violence, to marriages, to business, to even knowing what to do as a people who need God to save the nation. The Christians are the first to judge and condemn, they are the first to make you feel you are not worth it, they are the first to laugh at you and they are the first to make you feel like God is so far from you but close to them because your sins are too great.
They have lied to people for too long and people have carried too much pain and guilt, thereby loosing out on the blessings and their purpose laid down for them by God. Some of the pastors of today have taken it upon themselves to become mini gods and untouchable. They have misled too many people especially our generation to the point that there is a huge disconnect between young people and God. Notice i did not say young people and church, I said young people and God. They have made church a place were only certain types of people can enter , even though the bible says Jesus came especially for the sinners. I thank God for pastors like Ituah Ighodalo and Kelechi Chukwuemeka who have stood their grounds to be servants and ministers who say it as it is. They have stood as men of God and not made themselves God of men. Where are all the people who claim to be God's Generals? They should stop flying high and come low to let us know they are still humans. Let us know they are the servants of God and not God himself.

The entertainment industry has had a lot of painful losses and people have had different prophecies and different theories as to what could be going on. A lot of pastors and entertainers have tried to come together to pray and worship so that God will help put an end to all that is going on.
People die everyday and people fall sick everyday it is not peculiar to my industry so I will not live in fear everyday of my life because I am worried that it might be me next. God did not give us the spirit of fear so I am not afraid at all.
 However, I must state here that the whole entertainment industry needs to go back to their source, we need to turn away from all the evil and  dangerous things a lot of people have put their hands into just for the fame and the money, we need to stop leading more people to hell with the content we are putting out there. We all need to know where we have gone wrong and start to trace our steps back to where we all once came from. This whole mess started with the disconnect from the House of God where a lot of us belonged to but these same churches failed a lot of us one way or the other but we never got a chance to even speak to the pastors and church leaders who believe that they have become spirits that are unapproachable.


There are some things that need to be said and some things that need to be heard and STELLA DAMASUS in not afraid to say it or hear it exactly like it is. There must be a middle ground between the House of God and the children of God who have been blessed with so much talent given to them only by God and not the world. We don't all have to be gospel singers or evangelists or do church movies for us to have a free relationship with God and his house. But how can we do that when we are even afraid to be identified with a particular church publicly. I am done with all the silence, backbiting, gossip, fear, ignorance, hypocrisy and the lies in the church today and I am tired of the unspoken battle, the cold war between entertainment and the House of God. If nobody can boldly come out and talk about, I am ready to bear the consequences because God will not be happy to see that we know the truth but for fear of other human beings we choose to keep quiet and let his children perish for lack of knowledge.


After the article I decided to put a talkshow together to address some of these issues but Alas! So many factors started rising up against it. Unfortunately for them my determination grew stronger and faster.
I have decided to put an event together in conjunction with my partner and the only radical pastor I know who is not afraid to speak the truth. The event is tagged ENTERTAINMENT AND GOD which will take place on the 3rd of March in Abuja. If you are an entertainer, stylist, publicist, beautician, photographer, pastor, choir member, media personnel, journalist, presenter or anyone who feels they need to hear what I have to say, then please come for this event.


May the souls of ENEBELI ELEBUWA, GOLDIE HARVEY and JUSTUS ESIRI rest in perfect peace.

Monday 11 February 2013

We Have Killed Us



Recently I cried over the death of a very young girl called Ogaga
Okparavero who had asthma. She was so young and had a full life ahead
of her but I guess it was her time. Was it really? I started asking myself questions like, what if she was born in a better country? By that I mean another country with good health care and dedicated medical practitioners who would not use the frustration of the treatment from the government to punish citizens who have not done anything to offend them.


I cried for the young girl not just because she died but how she died.
The pain came when I heard of the struggle to save her life which
would have been so possible only of we had more passionate doctors and
nurses who treat human beings as important. The poor girl had a bad crisis in her home, her mum and sister tried to rush her to the hospital only to be attacked by armed robbers who were terrorizing the neighborhood. They begged the armed robbers to let them go because of the situation
Ogaga was in. Surprisingly, the armed robbers even had a better heart
and more compassion than the hospital they went to. The robbers let them go and they finally got into a hospital hoping their case would be treated as an emergency seeing that this young girl was almost giving up. To their greatest shock, without even trying to resuscitate the young girl the hospital told them they did not have oxygen so there was nothing they could do.


My goodness! I thought to myself, these hospitals without the basic
requirements of the hospital management board should all be shut down.
Dejected and so scared, they left that hospital to another one and before they could even attend to them they were required to fill cards, pay money, etc. The wickedness of it all really beats my imagination because the young girl had stopped breathing with all the delays, her temperature had started changing. Goodness me! The doctor then finally comes to see the body only to order them to take a dead body out of his hospital. He was actually angry that a
dead body was brought in to his hospital. What madness is that? How
did he know she was brought in dead? If they had attended to her and
tried to save her life first before worrying about money, would she
not at least be stabilized.  Why are we so wicked? Why do we not care about human lives? How did we get to the point where the money is more important to these doctors and nurses than saving the lives that they promised to save when they were in med school? How many of these people actually went to proper schools for this?

I am sure most of you have heard about the smart trick one of the
governors of the country pulled, which led to the sack of a lot of
nurses. He went into one of the most popular hospitals in a very convincing disguise and was treated like a dog because he didn't look like he had money. This went on for so long that he took his disguise off and all the nurses started running all over the place. He relieved them of their duties which I thought was fantastic.


A lot of people have died in the hands of the same people they run to for help.
Do we plan to be sick? Do we plan to have crisis? Do we plan to be
shot? Do we plan to have accidents? What if these things happen at the
time you don't have a dime in your pocket but it's an emergency? Do we
die because no one will attend to us if there is no immediate cash? Is
this how life is supposed to be? We have killed a lot of us in this country and i am in so much pain because I am not even sure who to blame anymore. I don't know if it's the hospitals who don't have time for emergencies until they see
money, or the government who will not pay them on time till they
strike, or the electricity which is nonexistent thereby making the
hospitals insist on payment so they can buy diesel to power their
generators.


Stacey Okparavero and Ogaga Okparavero
Ogaga is gone today, tomorrow it can be anyone.
May her soul and the souls of those who have died due to negligence
rest in perfect peace? Amen.

An art exhibition in honor of Ogaga Okparavero will be held from the
9th to the 17th of February at Water Works Gallery, 3B unity close,
off Africa lane, Lekki phase 1, Lagos Nigeria. This exhibition is
being presented by late Ogaga's sister Stacey Okparavero, who I
believe is one of the best visual artists in the country today. I am
proud to say that some of my paintings are by Stacey who has also done
a beautiful portrait of me. Stacey is also a singer and an actress who
trained and starred in the high school musical stage play.
I ask you all to please pass by and encourage this young girl who
watched her sister pass away gradually and wants to immortalize her.



God bless you all for your constant support. As you pray for the
Okparavero family please pray for Nigeria as well.
 
Quote: Greed brings grief to the whole family, but those who hate
bribes will live. Proverbs 15: 27