“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28.

It is often said that you may not be able change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust the sails to reach the desired destination. What is the direct implication of this statement? Wind must always blow, obstacles and hinderances must always be on the path or route as a nation journey towards its destination. But despite the wind and obstacles, the destination is important; hence how to journey past the wind, storms and hinderances is what ultimately gets a nation to its desired destiny. And this is where leadership is required. The nation is at a destination where a leader has brought it to. And leadership is what is also required to take it from where it is presently to where every citizen desire it to be and this requires determination, skills and competence. But this will not be the effort of the leader alone, the people must also be involved. We will find out how.

I saw in a vision; chaos, crisis or what is called civil unrest. I saw robbery, I saw how youths took to the streets, I saw blockage of major roads with shootings and looting going on. I Saw young men and youths armed with guns and assault rifles, they took to the streets harming and killing the innocent, breaking into houses and forcefully collecting what belongs to their fellow citizens, yet they were chanting songs of change but violently destroying properties and lives. As I stood and watched with horror, I sobbed and began to weep feeling hopeless and helpless for my nation. What is the cause of this I asked? And the voice spoke to me; It is simply because there was a unanimous refusal of the results the nation had seen. And the citizens are demanding for it to be annulled. Then the voice spoke further: A new nation is going to emerge; youths must not faint but should also not be deceived; the new nation that will break forth is not going to emerge like this. Warn my people. This is the inspiration behind this article.

For this nation to remain one, to become great, and to become a nation that we all desire to live comfortably, the next couple of months is very critical; the leadership and the citizens of this nation must be at alert, courteous and consciously prepare and sensitize each other on the need for peace, unity and good governance with objectivity.  I would like to begin by making reference to the subtitle of this article which narrows down the subject of my discuss; it says how to set a nation on the right course. So, until the right direction or path is taken the destination or transformation which we all desire would never be attained. As much as we desire change, revolution or restructure of this nation it will not be achieved by the pictures and activities I just saw in the vision. Instead, it will impoverish the people, lead to more hate and separation and ultimately lead to underdevelopment.  

Let me give us an analogy. A captain of a ship for instance is a person in command, one who has the responsibility to take a people successfully from one point through a journey to a particular destination. Irrespective of the turbulence, pirates or the storm, it is expected that the captain knows how to navigate the ship through in order to arrive at the pre-determined destination. The question is: what if the captain does not know the destination? He will ultimately lead the followers to a different destination. The second question is, what if the captain does not know how to navigate the ship through the storm? The ship, its entire crew and the passengers will sink or perish. Why did I begin with this analogy? Two things are worthy to note. Number one:  as one who leads a nation, in order to get a people to where they ought to be, you must know the destination. How many leaders actually know the destination or know where they want to lead this nation to?  It's very important. Please I would implore you to read on; there is an important message we must get.

The second lesson is this; the captain must know how to navigate through the bad weather, the storms and the troubled waters. One thing I came to realize is that as much as the nation’s destination is important, how to navigate the nation to that destination is also very important. So, navigating through the storm to get the nation to the wrong destination is not a goal any leader would want to achieve, hence as much as the leader knows where he is going, he must also know ‘the how’ to get the nation there.

These are two important qualities the citizens of this nation must put into consideration so as to unanimously choose a leader that is goal driven and to avoid the scenarios I saw in the vision. So, there is a skill or know-how required to make a nation enter into rest, into peace, into prosperity. These are destinations; how many leaders know the how? The citizens of this nation must look out for such leaders. This means that the problem of this nation is not just with the leaders, although it is true that everything rises and falls on leadership. The problem of this nation is the people- the king makers. Inferring from the analogy I gave earlier, if the sailor is sailing towards the wrong direction, and the people follow, it is either because they also don’t know the destination or because any destination is acceptable. Could this be said to be true about us as a people? But if the people are conscious of where they desire the nation to be, they would either call the captain to order or require a better leadership. And this brings us the crux of our discuss. Thank you for reading to this point. But let’s move on.

Haven said this, what led to the scenarios I saw in the vision I explained at the beginning of this writing? I would wish to call it revolution. What is revolution? According to an online dictionary, it is a repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed. It is otherwise known as the process in which the people call the attention of the government, captain, or the leader expressing their dissatisfaction.  Although it is easy and also right to blame the leadership, what are the people who are being led by that leadership doing? Could revolution be the solution to bad governance, systemic decay and corruption? But this could only be possible with a people who know where the nation ought to be heading to as she journeys through towards development, prosperity, and stability.

For the sake of emphasis, I like to reiterate that the primary aim of this writing is to sensitize the citizens of this nation to carefully choose its leader or captain so as not to wish to have a different captain or wish for the rejected one in the future. So, revolution is not in destruction of lives and properties, that is an old method. Revolution is sitting with God to actually show the people who is right and who has been anointed to navigate the nation through to its determined destination.

So, the intent of this article is not to set the nation on fire but to set the hearts of the nationalists on fire. Now this may be the reason why I wept in that vision: The young men who were supposed to see visions according to Acts 2:17c were the ones destroying and setting properties ablaze, the old men who were supposed to dream dreams no longer lead according to this experience. Until sons and daughters begin to prophesy, and the young men and women begin to see visions; the old men begin to dream dreams the nation will not be set on the right course.

Where there is no prophesy, where there is no dream, where there is no vison, the people will cast off restraints. When the Spirit of the Lord was poured out it came with this enablement. And leaders must give attention to the youths, give them vision rather than bribe, encourage innovation, redirect their focus towards formulating ideas, economic policies, advancement in technology and health care system. And this nation will ride on the path towards becoming the most powerful and the most prosperous. The Spirit must again be poured out from on-high. Vision, dreams and genuine prophesy is reformation strategy required to set the nation on the right course not demonstrations that will shut down the economy, or lead to the lost of lives and properties or impoverish it citizens. The key is true vision, genuine prophesy and dreams.

Thanks for the gift of your time, Apeh Francis Abah!
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