By Olalere Fagbola
Travelling Secretary of the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria, Peter Paris (1961-1964) rightly classed Bola Ige and Martin Luther king jr. together as two Prophetic young men who were destined for greatness in the public arena , recalling how both of them in Athens, Ohio in 1959 held the audience spellbound by their oratorical power at the Quadrennial meeting of the National Student Christian Federation of the United states.
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He lamented that both of them, alas, met with violent death.
Uncle Bola Ige was influenced into politics by Philippe Maury of the Student Christian Movement of France and had been a member of the Action Group Youth Association since his undergraduate days, with strong conviction that “God has put us in this earth not only to be the salt of the earth but also to be the light of the world, not only on Sundays, but every second of our lives. ”
He believed that by this , one cannot as a Christian separate politics from life.
Before he was silenced by assassins twenty years ago, Ige had gone through prison life on account of his heroic struggle to better the lot of the common man .
The best way to pay tribute to his struggle and immortalize his good name is to share in his tribulations because the war of salvation and power which began right in heaven was never a tea party, and was only won by those who did not love their lives ” even unto death .”
The Christmas Meditation delivered by Most Reverend Dr. E.A.A.Adegbola some fifty three years ago becomes relevant here :
” After what God has done at Christmas time, has a Christian any reason to doubt that the Christian religion has to do with political questions,with traditional culture, with economic development ? The holy God did not hesitate to come in human flesh and to be born as a man to face the problems of man.That is the first meaning of Christmas. ”
” Politics is a dirty game ; so we have found out.Similarly, the world is a very dirty place, yet God came into it . The Christian goes into politics, not to cut for himself ” a share of the national cake”, but to become an agent of God in the affairs of men.”
OLALERE FAGBOLA
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