Nigeria’s Prophecy Will Not Fulfil Itself

For decades, many Nigerian Christians have held on to the prophecy of Pa Sydney Granville Elton, the British missionary who came to Nigeria in 1937 and spent the rest of his life here. He reportedly spoke about a time when Nigeria would become so known for corruption that the Nigerian name would stink around the world. But he also spoke of another Nigeria; one that would become known for righteousness, to the point where people would want to follow Nigerians home and learn righteousness from us. Many Nigerians who know this prophecy have been waiting for that second part. We have prayed for it, quoted it and hoped that perhaps we would be fortunate enough to witness it in our lifetime. But I have been thinking lately: what if the prophecy is waiting for us too?

Something about prophecy is that if you wait long enough without seeing it happen, you may eventually begin to wonder if God actually spoke or if the prophet simply spoke from his own imagination. But we have seen this play out even on a smaller scale. Someone is told as a child that they have a great destiny, that they will become somebody remarkable, that their future is bright, and then they proceed to do absolutely nothing with their life. Years later, nothing about that life resembles what was spoken. Sadly, some even die without ever becoming what they could have become. Was the prophecy necessarily false? Not always. Sometimes the person simply did nothing with what had been placed in their hands. There is hope for a tree that is cut down, because at the scent of water it can sprout again, but human beings do not have unlimited time. Many people die with unrealised potential simply because they spent their lives waiting.

The Bible is full of people who received promises from God, but their response to those promises was never passivity. Abraham was told to leave Haran for a land God would show him, and he moved. There was no GPS and no detailed map of how everything would turn out. He simply obeyed and kept building his life along the way. Joseph saw a great future in his dreams, yet between the dream and its fulfilment were a pit, slavery, false accusations and prison. Still, everywhere Joseph found himself, he worked, served and used what God had given him until the opportunity came for him to stand before Pharaoh. David was anointed king, yet the throne did not appear the following morning. He still tended sheep, fought Goliath, served Saul, fought battles, lived in caves and spent years becoming the man who could eventually carry what had already been spoken over him.

Even the children of Israel were promised a land, yet they had to walk into it. God told Joshua concerning Jericho, “I have given Jericho into your hands,” but there were still instructions to follow. They marched. They shouted. The walls came down. And even after the walls came down, they still had to go in and take the city. The promise was God’s, but there was human participation in its fulfilment. That is the part I think we sometimes forget when we speak about Nigeria. We have somehow convinced ourselves that one day a saviour president will emerge, fix everything and suddenly turn over 200 million people into righteous citizens. I do not think Nigeria works that way.

Nigeria is Nigerians. Nigeria is the banker behind the counter, the teacher inside the classroom, the civil servant processing your file, the contractor building a road, the pastor behind the pulpit, the CEO paying salaries, the police officer at the checkpoint, the parent raising a child and the student sitting inside an examination hall. We cannot continue demanding righteous leaders while excusing corruption whenever it benefits us. We cannot complain about politicians stealing billions and then inflate an invoice, cheat an employer, buy examination answers, collect money to manipulate a process or say, “Everybody does it.” We cannot build a righteous Nigeria with Nigerians who have refused to transform their own minds.

So perhaps the question we should be asking is no longer, “When will Pa Elton’s prophecy come to pass?” Perhaps it should be, “What part of that prophecy is my responsibility?” If you are a banker, be the symbol of righteousness in that bank. If you are a teacher, your assignment may be even more important than you realise because the children sitting before you are Nigeria twenty years from now. Do not watch them cheat and look away. Do not teach integrity with your mouth and teach corruption with your behaviour. If you are a CEO, let your staff discover through you that a company can be profitable without becoming dishonest. If you are in real estate, stop selling the same land to five people. If you are a pastor, let righteousness govern more than what you preach; let it govern money, power, leadership and accountability. If you are a parent, let your children meet righteousness at home before Civic Education attempts to explain it to them.

And even if you do not yet know the grand thing God has called you to do, you can start by being a righteous Nigerian. Be trustworthy. Do excellent work. Keep your word. Refuse what is wrong even when you could get away with it. Take responsibility for what has been placed in your hands. I believe national transformation will happen through institutions and good leadership, yes, but institutions are eventually run by people. We need righteous people in politics, but we also need them in schools, banks, hospitals, businesses, churches, courts, media houses, markets, homes and communities. Perhaps Nigeria’s transformation will begin with individuals, move into families, shape communities, reform institutions and eventually produce the kind of leadership we keep praying for.

I refuse to believe that Nigeria’s story ends with corruption. I believe the second part of that prophecy is possible, but I no longer believe our assignment is merely to sit down and wait for it. Somewhere, a generation of Nigerians will have to decide that we will become the people capable of carrying the Nigeria we have been praying for. Tomorrow, I will share more practically what I believe that transformation could look like and the things we would actually have to change if we are serious about building a different country.

I’m Oluranti, and I am very bullish on Nigeria becoming a top-tier country.