By Apostle Moses Oludele Idowu
* Full Text of a Valedictorian’s Speech on the Conferment of Professor of Ecclesiastical Theology and Human Development
The Chancellor,
Registrar of the Academy
Guest Lecturer
All other Professors in this gathering
Invited Guests
Gentlemen of the Press,
I want to begin at the Beginning by giving all Glory to God, the Giver and Maker of life for this day.
I want to honour my Lord and King – the Man Who died and rose –
“Master of every trade and art
The Beginning and the Beginningless,
The Word that made the world
The Fountain of my inspiration
The Power which enables my creativity.
I want to acknowledge the Spirit – the Muse and Power of prophets and sages, the One Who trains my ears to hear what is inaudible, Who taught my fingers to write words that cause men’s hearts to burn.
I acknowledge their oneness and bow under their threeness – ‘Trinity in unity and Unity in trinity’ of the Creator of creation.
I stand before you today as a living testament to the Grace of God, the irresistible power of the human will, the courage to conquer all adversity.
I stand before you as a living exemplar of Hope and an exponent of Faith – faith in the goodness of the Living God, in the power of relentless study and learning; of the value of persistence and total devotion to work; and the result and accomplishment that they bring.
It was one of my teachers, A.W. Tozer, who said, “If you refuse to bow to the world, the world will one day bow to you.”
If you major on your assignment and diligently pursue it with undivided focus and rapt attention, success is attainable.
“Seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings and not before mere men.” Today this Scripture is fulfilled before our eyes.
We live in an uncertain time and in an age of paradoxes: the most precarious era, – a trying time indeed, when the best is ruled by the worst.
A time when the desperation of human need is met by the most wanton form of executive indulgence; when, in the words of Charles Dickens, “want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices”- among the rulers and the ruled. A time when there is so much learning resources and reading materials than at anytime in History yet there is lack of time and willingness on the part of people to read. A time when, in the words of William Butler Yeats, “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
A time of stress for the saints and extreme danger for the patriot and sons of freedom. A time when the Culture of Honour is so frontally assailed in our nation that known looters and bank embezzlers seize the commanding heights of both the economy and politics. A time when men of honour are so needed for a nation’s redemption and when they are so lacking in both executive, legislative and judicial arms of government; among the masses and even their elites.
A time when there is no more action in the pew and no passion in the pulpits. A time when Knowledge is so openly challenged and questioned by the young and the teens because they cannot see its utilitarian values or revolutionary potentials to their lives or as the only route to success and financial breakthrough.
A BBNaija housemate just got 120 million naira for winning this soul- destroying, heart-wrenching mind- numbing programme with no intellectual content or spiritual meaning. That is the annual salaries of 60 professors in Federal Universities. This is why children are questioning education – its utilitarian value, sociological imperatives and relevance in a postmodern world.
It was George Orwell who said that “if liberty means anything, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
The main currents in our nation at present time is not inclined towards learning or research or intellectual development. The main currents in our day is what Richard Hofstadter, Pulitzer winning writer and author, refers to as “anti-intellectuaism” or the anti-intellectual virus which has infected politics, religion, business and even society at large.
It takes a strong man to go against the current of popular opinion. It takes a man who is focused and alive to go right when the most people go the other direction.
I salute all the scholars in the house this morning. I salute all graduands and awardees and the teachers who taught them. I salute the officials of this Academy and their collaborators here and abroad. I salute all the professors in the House. Professor Steve Bank Ola, I salute you. I salute your courage and labour to devote time to invest in men and to water your investment with patience.
History vividly recalls that the man who invests in men will outclass the man who invests in institutions.
Two men illustrate this case: The poor Rabbi and a great general. The Rabbi is Christ and the general is Caesar. Christ and Augustus Caesar lived around the same time and within the same period and region of the Earth. One poured Himself and invested in men, the other invested in an institution – the Roman Empire. One built men the other built buildings, roads and an empire.
Augustus Empire lived well for 500 years and collapsed by 476 AD but Christianity still lives – and will continue to live as long as there are men and women on earth who can read and write. I forgot to mention too that the poor Rabbi’s followers eventually possessed the General’s Empire and conquered it without firing a shot.
That is the power of investing in men.
We live at a time of great struggles and battles, when light and darkness are confronting each other publicly; a time when men of darkness are not ashamed of anything and are bold and virulent and making dramatic gains. Never in the whole of Christian History has the claims of Christ and the truth of Christianity been so openly challenged as at now and never has there been a time when there are few who are trained for their defence. Never in history has the Cause of Christ and the values of Historic Christianity and of the Apostolic Faith needed able defenders and apologia and never before in History had there been fewer men and women who have the know- how to muster to their defence.
The Church now needs Theologians, thinkers, philosophers, ideologues, writers, artists, wisemen, in addition to preachers, evangelists, pastors, deacons etc.
In the day when men travelled by horses, donkeys and boat, a fisherman is a good preacher to the world. In a day when even a child is on the internet and when a teen can reach the world in a moment on X, we need more than a fisherman to preach the Gospel. We need thinkers, technocrats, technicians, scholars, specialists and professionals to lead the charge. It was not an accident that Peter, an illiterate fisherman was sent to his own Jewish people while Paul, a lawyer, student of Gamaliel – the best scholar of the Rabbinical method and the greatest Jewish exegete of the First Century – was sent to the Greeks with their arrogance of learning and philosophy. Ought we the children of this Divine Order act with less discerning of the times in our decision making?
One more thought before I close.
Christianity was originally connected with education. In point of fact, as C. S. Lewis, Oxford professor of Literature once wrote, “Christianity is an education.” In virtually all part of Africa during colonial era, the village school teacher is also often the clergy of the church in the village.
Christianity was associated with education, reading and books. In the 1850’s the only people you see with the books were Christians and preachers. The only bookshop selling books was the CMS Bookshop in Lagos.
The book is fundamental to Christianity. The story and power of Christianity is about a book. Most of the great awakenings in History have been the results of books and those who read them.
Early missionaries were known with A, B, C, primers and were identified as “the book people,” “readers.” In Kampala, Accra, Abeokuta etc this story is the same. Because to be a Christian and a real Christian, you must be able to read the Bible and Christian Literature to even understand the message of salvation and the sacrament of baptism. Christianity is thus rightly called the “religion of the book”.
Men who were Christians developed the movable press purposely to print the Bible, making the Bible the first book to come out of the modern press. That is why we call it the Book of books, the book that made way for other books. That is why it is illiterate to spell the word of the Bible in small letter – bible; as is now common with many people including many Christians because they lack understanding and knowledge of History.
There is now a challenge in our day. The religion of the book is becoming the religion of fables, miracles, credulity, traditions – anything except the book. Anti- intellectuaism is now a reality in modern Christianity. Christianity is no longer associated with the book or even the Book. Christians today are as ignorant, credulous, simple- hearted and slow- witted as their other compatriots.
Literacy was essential for the spread and supremacy of Christianity. It was the edge that Christianity had over the others at the beginning. In Abeokuta in those early days you know a Christian by his association with a book.
Today a change has happened. The religion of the book is becoming the religion of the naira and Kobo. Here is a warning: In the day a wedge is finally driven between Christianity and the book, between the religion of Christ and literacy, Christianity will cease to be true and will cease to be the religion of Peter and Paul, of Luther and Aquinas, of Wesley and Calvin and of the historic truths of antiquity.
We must regain the edge and the time is now.
On behalf of all awardees here today, I want to thank everyone of you for your patience, and your time. Much more I thank you for being good listeners.
* Apostle Moses Oludele Idowu delivered this piece as Valedictorian’s Speech on Friday, 6th October, 2023, when he was made a Professor of Ecclesiastical Theology and Human Development by an American University
