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| Maku |
He became a teacher, journalist, commissioner, deputy governor and minister.
Maku, who would be leaving office on Monday to pursue a higher political career, held a special thanksgiving service tagged, “A Testimony of God’s Goodness and Mercy,” where he spoke about his background, coming from a poor family and an obscure village in Nasarawa State, and how God has lifted him from ground zero to hero. The session was captured by Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye in this interview.
Why the thanksgiving service?
My wife, Mrs. Mary Maku, and other family members with whom we have come to do this thanksgiving, owe special gratitude to God today. The Priest has already told you why I have come today, especially to thank God.
The various biblical texts read by the priest summed up the reason we are here. But I will add that Psalm 113 is of special significance to me in addition to what our priest has already told you. If you look at Psalm 113, you will see that King David was expressing to God his heartfelt gratitude for how God took him from behind, from tendering after the sheep in the bush, over and above his strong, well-groomed elder brothers and made him King of Israel. Now as I stand before you here, the summary of my life is that I am here because of God’s grace and mercy.
For those who know my little village, which is by the hills, Wakama, Akun Development Area of Nasarawa State, if you go there, it will remind you of what was said in the Bible that Bethlehem was the least of the city of Judah and can anything good come out of Nazareth. So God can go to the most unlikely places and raise people from the dust and place them at the rulership of their communities and their nations. That is exactly what God has done for me.
My late parents didn’t go to school, they were peasants farmers, when I was born there was no modern facility in my village. My mother didn’t go to maternity because there was no hospital around. And she told me that on the day I was born, my father was the birth attendant, so he received me. No midwives and nurses were around to receive me at birth. This is really a very interesting story. So that is the way I came into the world. Indeed I don’t know my birthday because it was not recorded, so every day is my birthday, maybe it was today, I don’t know.
How did you go to school?
In our time, our people did not go to school. There was a Catholic school at Alushi, St Michael’s Primary School, but my community refused to go to school because we were very deep in culture. I started life worshipping like the traditionalists in my community. Then some times at the beginning of the civil war, a priest from this church went and convinced the village head, he told him, “look, we want to start a school in your village, but your people don’t come to school, could you please move from house to house and get maybe one child per house, so that we can start a Catholic school in your compound?” The village head went from compound to compound himself because he knew if he didn’t nobody would agree, forcing each household to release a child to go to school.
So when he came to our compound, there was a big drama. My father said it would be my younger brother that will go to school. I was very happy because they said then that they use to beat children in school, so anyone that goes to school then was like a punishment. I was very excited that I was not the one, and I went behind the compound rejoicing. Then some twist of fate took place, my stepmother refused. She was begged for more than 30 minutes, she said, no that her last child would not go to school.
Because my elder brother, Alhaji Usman Sule, who is here today, had already been forced to go to school earlier in the 1940s, so she felt that this last child would stay with her? My father said, I’m the only son from my mother’s side, and if I go to school, who will now take care of my mother and the farm. So there was a stalemate and evBecause my elder brother, Alhaji Usman ery opportunity to convince my stepmother to allow my younger brother go to school failed. So, the village head said look, if his younger brother’s case is impossible can we call his mother and plead if she will allow him to go to school. They called my mother and she said, ‘yes’. That is how I went to school, by substitution.
This school was just a Catholic class. We went there first year, by the second year, the Catechist, whom I can’t even recall his name now because we were so little didn’t come back and my father rejoiced and we returned to the farm. There was no road to our village, there was only the bridge built in 1974, and we had only thatched roofs all over. After a year, the priest there sent another catchiest to go to the village again to restart the school.
My father said, ‘why are these people disturbing us, I thought this matter of school has ended’. Then we were compelled to go back to school. After a year, the second catchiest who is still alive today also left. I recently invited him to my office in Abuja, where we sat and rejoiced together. So he too left after a year and we returned to the farm, enjoying ourselves. Then the third year the village head announced that all those children that started school three years ago, that they are now to go to school at Badah, compulsorily. That is how our parents were compelled to send us back and I happened to make the class, to come and start school here.
For those seven years, we trekked something like 14 kilometers to school and back each day to finish class 1-7 and on our way back, we have to go to the farm because they will carry your food there, so that you won’t be a lazy boy. For me to finish primary school, maybe I trekked something like the circumference of the earth. To trek 14 kilometers for seven years, if you calculate it you will see how difficult it was to be able to finish school.
When we finished, I went to Zawang Teacher’s College, Bukuru, Jos, and another Catholic college. Going to school then was not like that of the children of today, my parents took me to Akwanga, asked the driver where he was going, he said, Jos, they put me in the vehicle and went home and they didn’t know the direction of Jos, anyway.
So you see everything concerning me has been God’s grace, is not my effort, is not my family’s pedigree, is not royalty, is not wealth, is not fame, everything is God’s grace. God was so merciful to me, the first time I started that Catholic class, I came first in the exam that followed.
What were the frustrations you had going to?
I will tell you a funny story, when we went home, my cousins were sitting around the moonlight with our parents in the village. They asked for us our positions in the exam we had? I had a cousin who came 12th, another came 19th, and I said I took only one. So the people exclaimed and said how can somebody took 19, another one 12 and you took only one, we are going to withdraw you from school. Because they didn’t understand how someone who took one could be better than someone who took 19. This is true life story because they didn’t know.
Now I can tell you that when I left the university I also took first class. So God has been gracious upon all the limitations of not having anybody in the school, when we went home nothing apart from moonlight. Nobody will ask if you have done your homework because nobody knew what you were doing. But in spite of that God lifted me above and I was always leading my class and led up to the university.
Today, I rejoice with God because His mercy has been so much in my life. My younger who was supposed to go to school in my place, when I was in Form Five, I came and instigated him to go to school, we quarreled over that but eventually he went to school. I taught him in Form Five because I was already a Grade II teacher then, and he was coming first in class, he was more brilliant than me. I trained him up to Form Five but as fate will have it in that fifth year, some people came and convinced him and he went and got married and returned to the village and refused to continue. He is today with the Civil Defence, and is doing well with his family.
How can you describe your beginning?
I must say that on behalf of myself, my family and everyone around us, I want to give this testimony so that when you see little children from poor family; when you see children from very rural settings whose parents are nothing, sometimes you tend to disregard them, sometimes you tend to think that is only the children of the wealthy that God will use. That is why I will continue to tell politicians, do not misuse anybody’s child because I know where I am coming from. The child that God may use to lead maybe from the least of a family and I am a testimony that God can use anybody’s child. So don’t be discouraged especially parents, you have seen how God can use a boy of my background. All that my parents gave me were sound morale training – you must do right at all times, you are not permitted to misbehave and you must be very hardworking. Therefore, poverty is not the absence of material comfort; it is the absence of character that is poverty.
You have tasted poverty, what is you idea of it?
So we must not define poverty as people living in good houses, in comfort and luxury. Sound upbringing, strong faith in God, strong bringing up of children, that is what we need in this world, it is not the material comfort. Like Christ said, for the poor they will always be here. I come from a poor family in terms of the material things, we didn’t have skyscrapers and the modern things of life, but we had a comfortable life. A life of strong culture, a life of enough for everybody in the community, we didn’t lack in terms of what to eat, what to drink, what to celebrate with.
Sometimes, we underestimate certain people, certain community because of the material things but I think that life is more than the comfort we live. And that is why I keep telling my children, you can see the way I am, God lifted me from ground zero; so don’t ever think because of the position of your father, that is what will lift you. No. It is strong character, faith in God that will lift you. I don’t have authority to lift you. I can pray for you and prepare you like my parents prepared me.
I want to tell us that we should not always loss interest because of the circumstance we are in, if you trust in God and bring up your children with the fear of God, they will be blessed in ways you did not expect because this God, is the God of the rich and the poor. I’m the evidence that God can do it for your child.
When President Goodluck Jonathan, said he went to school without shoes, many Nigerians were surprised. If you look at our previous leaders, from Gen. Gowon to Obasanjo, their stories maybe as interesting as my mine and that of the President today. They didn’t come from big families; they came from what we will define today as the poor. I think we need more confidence in ourselves and those of us God has lifted, I always remember to thank God especially when I look back and I keep saying God you are an amazing God, you can do anything with anybody. That is why I called for this thanksgiving service; you will see that God has been merciful to me since that time.
I went to the university and became student leader in the second year; in the third year, I was elected the National Publicity Secretary of all Nigerian Students all over the world. I came out I became a journalist and rose very rapidly to be political editor, member editorial board. I went to USAID, I rose very rapidly and became a director, coordinating the governance and training that led to the democracy in 1999. When I was leaving USAID, my former governor had to write a formal letter for them to release me. I came home in 1999; two years later they sacked the cabinet I was retained. In 2003 everything ended I was elevated to a deputy governor.
You wanted to be a governor in 2007?
I wanted to be governor some people came to my house and said look, you cannot just be governor o! We have to recruit you into a cult. My wife and I were sitting after the morning prayer; they came and said this matter of governor is not just a matter of preaching o! There is a cult, they are 12 people controlling the world, if you agree then we recruit you then you will be the next governor. I said to them and ordered them to leave my house. You are a shame, you came with a Bible and you are telling me this story. I told them that I wanted to be a governor just to help, just to serve but if being governor will sepawith a Bible and you are telling me this story. I rate me from my God then to hell with it.
I said look at the trees outside, the goats outside, God created them, I came into the world and I am a human being. Some things came into the world as flies, cockroaches, ants, but I came into the world as a human being therefore God has already made me a governor over all His kingdoms. So anything that you are giving me as governor cannot add anything to me. Therefore I want to rejoice with God for making me a human being not because I have been in any office. See the experience of animals around you God created them, look at the trees outside they will never move from where there are. So I’m rejoicing not because of those things, so I drove them from my house. Well, as you know the story I didn’t become a governor I returned to my village.
After your failed attempt to become governor, what was your next move?
When I was in my village, an old woman came and said my son, you were climbing a tree to the top and some people drove you down because you have nobody. I want to give you an assurance today, (because she was a deep Christian), God is going to lift you from this village and those people who stopped you in the way will not be able to stop you. I said Mama, thank you very much. First year passed, second here passed, this person will dream and said ‘we saw that you were given appointment’ another will dream, ‘we just saw that they elevated you, we saw you in a large convoy’ I said keep praying.
On the day before I was appointed a minister, my cousin dreamt that I was appointed a special assistant to President Obama, but when they went for the thanksgiving they were singing the Nigerian National Anthem. And I said, my brother thank you, and just keep praying. The following day my name was announced as nominee for ministerial appointment.
Why am I telling you this? God gave it to me. It was God. I didn’t go to a Babalawo (witch doctor), I didn’t go to any cult, I didn’t buy a sachet of pure water for anybody, I didn’t buy a bottle of water to go and beg on my behalf. God gave me from the throne of host. Since 2010, I have been there as minister of state, then full minister of Information and Communication, the cabinet was dissolved and I was reappointed again I didn’t have to lobby. Why? If God is for you, there is nobody that can be against you.
How has your wife supported you?
I also want to thank God because I have a wife who prays for me on a daily basis, there is no place she wouldn’t go to pray. So, if you see us succeeding is because we are always praying. So I want to thank her here openly for being a spiritual anchor in my journey. I am very very grateful. And I know all of us here will take my story because the reason why I am giving this thanksgiving is that I want politicians to abandon a lot of things, to abandon the role of principalities and power and run to the throne of Jesus, where you will be lifted without even asking for it because this is how it happens.
On Monday you will resign to do what?
I want you to help me thank Jesus, thank God for me, just pray for me because by October 20, anyone in government who wants to contest election must step down because the time has come for us to do that. And I have always made my interest known and so next week by the grace of God I will sacrifice the comfort of a minister, to seek something higher, to go into the wilderness.
You see a time came when Moses came out of the Palace to enter the wilderness with his people, that is exactly what I am about to do now. I want to sacrifice the comfort of the high office that I am in now in order to go to the wilderness with my people, the people of Nasarawa State to fight for peace and justice.
There is too much blood being shed here, there is too much evil taking place here, there is too much destruction going on in Nasarawa State. The time has come for us to ask God to bring this era to an end. And is only God that can do it nobody else, so we are asking God that as we step out voluntarily, which is very important to me, that as we go into the wilderness, as He did for Moses, will lead us to cross the red sea, rip water from the rock of politics, give us manner of heaven, cross the Jordan, pull down the walls of Jericho.
Saturday Sun
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