It was American author, Dan Pearce, who
said, “People love to say, ‘I love that person even though…’ But let’s
be honest. Genuine love is never followed with the words ‘even though”.
The word ‘even though’ depicts the existence of reservation even as we
try everything possible to mask it.
In the face of political and
socio-economic differences in multi ethnic and religious entities like
Nigeria, only a pretender will submit that we truly love ourselves
without reservations. Some schools of thought suggest that we do lack
genuine love and have merely been tolerating ourselves.
All over
the world, it has been different stories of humanitarian crises. And
according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, about 68.5 million children,
women and men are currently displaced by spiraling crises around the
world. The Agency equally posited that every 2 seconds someone was
uprooted and forced to flee due to violence, conflict or persecution
around the world.
In recent times, Africa with our country
Nigeria has been plagued by all manner of humanitarian crises. Now
entering its ninth year, the crisis in North-East Nigeria has created
vulnerabilities and humanitarian concerns, since the first Boko Haram
insurgency in 2009. While scaled-up and fast response by aid groups and
the Government helped avert the threat of famine in 2017, food
insecurity and malnutrition remain high owing to the depredation of the
conflict. An estimated 7.7 million people are in acute need of
protection and assistance. The conflict in the Lake Chad Basin has
displaced around 2.2 million people; 1.6 million in Nigeria’s NorthEast
alone. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have fled to neighbouring
Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Sexual violence, including rape, is a defining
characteristic of the ongoing conflict, with 6 out of 10 women in the
northeast having experienced one or more forms of gender-based violence
(GBV).
It is believed that if we tried to provide some forms of
care no matter how infinitesimal, that the effects of these crises on
Africans would have been very minimal. The question is: Do we genuinely
love our fellow Africans especially children, women and men affected by
these crises? Or are we now immune to their feelings and welfare because
of the frequency of outbreak of crisis? Crisis can erupt in the East,
West, North or South, just anywhere in the world regardless of race,
tribe or tongue.
The international humanitarian system has made
significant progress towards greater coherence in response coordination,
learning from past responses to large-scale disasters.
But
Prophet T.B. Joshua believes that genuine love is the only tonic needed
to achieve greater change in Nigeria and around the world.
The
General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations said that
genuine love certainly does not discriminate against background, class
or ethnicity. And if just as low as 30% of Nigerians show genuine love
and concern, that unimaginable change can and will be experienced not
only in solving humanitarian crises but in other areas of our national
life.
In the words of Prophet T.B. Joshua, “Looking the other way
when your brother is in need is equal to rejecting God Himself”. He
said that when we see our contribution to others no matter how
infinitesimal as an assignment from God, that is when our contribution
can solve problems. Some weeks ago in one of his sermons, he explained
that nobody prays for earthquakes, typhoons, fire outbreaks, insurgency
or flooding and they can come without warning causing irreplaceable loss
of lives, extreme damage to infrastructure and displacement of
communities. He posited that the effects of the aforementioned can be
cushioned by our showing genuine love to those affected by providing
essential relief in the areas needed most, including healthcare, shelter
and foodstuff.
In line with his summation on the extension of
genuine love, Prophet T.B. Joshua and the Emmanuel TV team of the
Synagogue Church of All Nations, have at different times in various
locations across the globe provided succour to people who were affected
by natural disasters, flooding, fire outbreaks and most recently victims
of insurgency.
Across Africa, Prophet T.B. Joshua and the
Emmanuel TV team have over time reached out to all sectors of the
society, including prisons and correctional facilities. In the prisons,
they have donated different materials in order to maintain hygienic and
safe environment thereby assisting in the prisons’ mission of
rehabilitation and reformation. Relentless in the mission of spreading
genuine love, they have visited hospitals across the continent with
messages of hope to patients and provided them with materials, equipment
and even ambulances to aid movement in emergency situations.
P.M.EXPRESS
findings showed that Prophet T.B. Joshua and his team have equally
contributed to the maintenance of law and order in different countries.
They have assisted in the provision of brand new operational vehicles,
motorcycles, helmets, reflective jackets and other security gadgets to
the local police.
Inspired and driven by genuine love, the
Prophet with his team of evangelists, pastors, lawyers, teachers,
engineers, doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs and others has continued to
sacrifice time, effort, finances, knowledge and everything they can
muster in their mission of love.
In the North Eastern part of
Nigeria, there are thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
seeking refuge as they flee from the violence that has engulfed much of
that part of the country, largely due to the activities of Boko Haram.
With their homes reduced to rubbles, their workplaces deserted and their
relatives among the casualties of the crises, young and old alike from
conflict zones are gathered in IDP camps. They never planned for such as
most escaped with only the clothes on their backs. They needed to be
shown genuine love in the form of medical attention, foodstuff, proper
shelter and messages of hope. Government alone cannot effectively
provide all these but our little efforts can go a long way to ameliorate
their plight.
Seeing the plight of these innocent victims, T.B.
Joshua and the Emmanuel TV team did not look the other way. They have at
different times demonstrated genuine love in their visits to the
affected areas; they have donated food items, clothes, and drugs and
equally provided money for clinics to address the rampant sicknesses in
the camps which were major concerns. In their bid to bring comfort to
those affected by insurgency and civil unrest, the Emmanuel TV team
travels to far Northern states of Nigeria including Borno, Jos, Adamawa,
Kaduna, Abuja, Yobe and other places. T.B. Joshua personally leads the
team in loading the trailers with thousands of relief materials in
readiness for the humanitarian mission and they reach out to
underprivileged communities hardest hit by the harsh conditions of lack
and loss.
P.M.EXPRESS can submit that wherever you find Prophet
T.B. Joshua and his Emmanuel TV team, there is a need being met, a
problem being solved, a skill being developed, a family being reconciled
and a life being transformed.
It has been an unprecedented and a
revolutionary story of genuine love that overcomes obstacles,
transforms communities and rewrites histories. It goes to show that
genuine love truly has a language that transcends all languages,
distances and barriers and our nation can indeed witness the desired
change if we imbibe the spirit of love as being demonstrated by the
Prophet and his team. Let’s begin to see our lives as solutions to
people in need.
