Thank you so much. I want to really thank the New Phase of Edo for bringing me to this place. I think that this idea should go around Nigeria. My pastor is here; he called me and said he saw my name somewhere and must be there. He is the International Men’s Director of the Church of God Mission International Incorporated. Welcome, sir.
I did my internship at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital in 1985. That makes it 40 years since I left medical school. I don’t know whether I’m the right person to speak because I’m not too normal.
I want to introduce some books to you. My mentor said that if you don’t want a black man to know a secret, write it in a book. “Echo Income” — there are some monies I make while I am asleep. Activities I did long ago. I did a video years back, and it is still bringing dollars to me when I’m sleeping. “Echo Income,” “The Oil of Marriage” — when I want to go to bed, I perfume myself so that when my wife turns to embrace me, I’m a living sacrifice with a sweet-smelling savour. You don’t wear dirty boxers and go to make love. The woman will be feeling disgusted. You don’t wear last night’s underwear; poverty is worrying you. This is key.
“Understanding Women.” Every woman wants to control her husband. My wife drives for me as if she is the one driving. She’ll be stepping on the brake on her side. If you read this book, you will understand your wife. “Man Money Be Like Mango Leaf,” they fall everywhere. “Woman Money Be Like Plantain Leaf,” the leaves are close to the body even if it falls on the ground.
I’m 65 now. It is good to get old, but don’t be old and broke. Hold on to your vision. My father told me when I was in Primary 4 that I would become a medical doctor. He was a refuse collector in the Warri General Hospital. I became a medical doctor and worked in the same hospital where my father was a refuse collector.
I used to teach the men’s fellowship of the Church of God Mission at the Bible of Gilead. My senior pastors will remember this. We would use this to teach 4,000 pastors of the Church of God Mission at the Bible of Gilead: the pastor’s family and finances. My juniors are professors in UBTH. None of my mates will come from the United States of America and intimidate me with money. In fact, I don’t think there is a pastor in Delta State that will intimidate me with properties, and I make my money in Nigeria.
There was a girl I went to chase. I didn’t know that rich men’s children have sense. She told me, “Dr. Apoki,” she said, “Charlie Poko,” that’s the name I like. I love you, you know. “I call you mobile encyclopedia, but we are not in the same social class.” That day, I cried. I said, “Poverty is bad.” But I was with her recently. She came to visit me in my school at Okuokoko. If you get there, it’s like Europe. The gateman kept her waiting.
“The Philosophy of the Ant.” The ant builds a termitarium that is 30 feet tall in the savannah. That means, as a human being, you are supposed to build a house that is 11 kilometers high. The termitarium is air-conditioned. Never retire without a house. “Overcoming Difficult Times.” That’s what I used to teach the men in the Bible of Gilead recently. I’m making more money now. My wife said, “They’ll say this one is expensive, this one is expensive.” I said, “Just increase the prices of your own products.” Dollar price went up; I made more dollars. That’s easy.
I want to speak on good governance, and I might talk about qualitative education. But being a lastborn, I don’t like it. You have brought all these men to speak good English, and now you are bringing me to speak Pidgin English alongside. But I just pray that God will help me.
We are talking about good governance. Sometimes when people forget who they are, they find it difficult to become who they are supposed to become. In Luke 11:2-4, when the disciples told Jesus to teach them how to pray, He said, “Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” If politics does not create a little heaven here on Earth, it is useless. Governance is to bring a little heaven here on Earth and that the will of God be done on Earth. Outside that, it is just another form of entrepreneurship.
Sometimes the Edo man forgets who he is, particularly the Benin man. When one explorer came to Benin City, he said it was like Amsterdam, and they had street lights made of lamp oil. In this town, if we have leadership in the 21st century and all the streets in Benin City can’t have street lights, then we have regressed. I just Googled the Benin Moat; it is bigger than the Great Wall of China. If it was to be awarded as a contract to Julius Berger to build now, it would be billions. But it was built by your ancestors. This mask you see here, you don’t know the price. It was done by your ancestors. If you go to Egba, in fact, your kingdom here extended diplomatic relations with the Republic of Benin, up to Nupe, up to Egbas, several parts of this country. And so, when we shrink into a small state and we start reasoning with a mediocre mindset, we forget who our fathers were.
When they called every person out here, the DJs, all of them looked like Aduaran. That’s what we call “giant” in Urhobo. All of you look like Aduaran. I’ve never seen a small man in this hall. So if you want to talk about good governance, Anthony Enahoro insisted that you cannot encroach on my territory anyhow and impose yourself on me. Anthony Enahoro was key in the labor union’s struggle for equity. Anton Nzeribe moved the motion for the independence of this country; I think he’s from this state too. His brother, who is a great mariner that attended the secondary school with me, my senior, Peter Pan, Peter Enahoro, was also insistent on good governance. I remember one man in those days called Osari. I remember a man called Adams Oshiomhole. No matter what you think about him, he fought for good governance at different times in this country. There is a man called Peter Esan, he is from this state. There’s another man called Oku, he’s from this state. There is a woman called Aisha Yesufu, she is from this state. And there is a young man that is the same age as my last born, a very dark black man, he’s from this state. So Edo State is known for one thing: they hate oppression, they hate bad governance; they always insist on good governance. There’s a musician who is late. Even in the time of Ayinla, he was bold enough to speak.
One of his boys, who is from Delta State, says that there is a man who preaches on the radio, his name is Dr. Charles Apoki, but that people don’t put what he preaches into practice. He said it is because they are deaf. The four most difficult persons to advise include the following: a girl in love; a woman who is ready to divorce; a wife that has a prophet as a pastor; and a Nigerian politician. Very difficult to advise. So everything I’m going to say here now to the politicians here, only God will help me if they put them into practice. I have advised; I entered Mimiko’s bedroom. Mimiko, I entered his bedroom, and he has come to my house. I interact with governors, but I found one thing with the Nigerian politician: you will be saying something, and he might be saying something else. Both of you are thinking that you are reasoning together. He’s not reasoning with you. A typical Nigerian politician can make a true prophet a liar. That’s why I said I didn’t come here to campaign for any person. I insisted that I was just going to speak the truth. I won’t take pictures with people; I will go away.
What is good governance? Good governance is the political and institutional processes and outcomes that are necessary to achieve the goals of development. The keywords are political and institutional processes. The true test of good governance is the degree to which it delivers on the promise of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. And I wrote here: the right to safety and the right to security. There are two different things. Safety is the mobile policeman that is standing around you to prevent you from getting harmed. But security is the guarantee of a future. If a man serves a state as a teacher, is he guaranteed that four or five years after retirement, his pension will be paid? If that man does not have a guarantee that his pension will be paid after six years and he might die before it, he doesn’t feel secure, and he will steal in office.
I went to Australia. When I saw where old people stay, it is better than our grandmothers’. If you don’t have clothes, you can collect clothes from a place. You don’t need to steal. In fact, in places like Norway, they don’t have prisoners of Norwegian origin because you don’t need criminality. Somebody told me in South Africa when I went to preach there, when they introduced me, they said, “Meet Dr. Apoki.” He said, “Oh, doctor from Nigeria, criminals!” I said, “Shut up your mouth!” I said, “Criminality is intelligence looking for an avenue for manifestation in the midst of oppression and deprivation.” The Nigerian is one of the most intelligent human beings God ever created. A Nigerian from Kwara State Polytechnic designed the Vault car that General Motors used to succeed during the economic depression before Obama came in. We are excelling all over, but until we create an environment for safety and security, good governance has failed.
I want to quickly say this: the processes of electing governorship or whatever in this country are so flawed that unless we bring angels, corruption will not be removed. From the collection of the form, a man pays 27 million to collect a form. The delegates will demand dollars. You will go and see all the traditional rulers. Then, some stupid pastors like us will come and prophesy upon you. You also give us money. No person invests his money without wanting to profit. And so, until we reduce the cost of governance and make the people own governance, we can’t have good governance. Kamala Harris was just made the DNC frontrunner. It is the people that donated money; they didn’t beg for her money. As we were coming here now, somebody just said, “Never give us money.” When we keep begging politicians for money and they keep giving us rice and wrappers, we don’t expect them to rule us well, and we must stop that in this country. We must own governance by being responsible for sponsoring the party politics. Peter Obi’s party, as at that time, we saw a model. I know how much all these people have spent. Ighodalo, I know how much they have spent, and it is because of our entitlement mentality to governance, and it must stop. If not, we are just deceiving ourselves.
I was supposed to be a governorship candidate for a party in my state, but my younger one was going in, and I told myself at this age, I shouldn’t be struggling for politics with young children. But I told him before I would endorse him, “You must come and see me on my farm.” And when he came to see me on my farm, in those days in Benin, I don’t know whether I’m right, if they want to make a new Ogie, he has to climb a palm tree. Are you following what I’m saying? To humble him, to know whether he will be humble. I said, “Go, if you want to be governor, come and see me on the farm.” And he came with his entourage. I was uprooting cassava. I gave him a check because I don’t expect him to give me money. He is coming to serve us. Until our women, our traditional rulers, our youth, our so-called state leaders, our so-called state elders, or stakeholders stop putting pressure on our politicians, we can’t get good governance. And if we want a new phase of Edo, we want a new phase of Nigeria, it must end. We must insist on it. Are we still together here now?
Improvement on the lives of people is what is development, not necessarily roads alone, not necessarily GDP. During Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian economy was growing at 8%. Did the poor man feel it? And so in Nepal, they no longer have GDP or per capita income; they have a happiness index. So in Edo State, let’s copy from Nepal: happiness index. Are the people happy under this governor and or the next governor?
I’m talking about the processes. We cannot have good governance with a bad judiciary. The people will vote, and one lousy judge will now determine who will be the governor, and it was not our choice. And if we don’t have a good judiciary, my friend is still owing from the court cases he judged to enter the House of Representatives. That judges in the tribunal, judges demanded, don’t look at me like that, I don’t fear any person in this country, me, I am ready to die, I have nothing to hide. Tribunal chairmen and tribunal members collected dollars, and he has not finished paying. Am I talking to somebody?
We cannot have good governance with bad legislators. Edo people, let me tell you, you people disgrace us several times. I saw your House of Assembly members fighting, carrying a mace, breaking each other’s heads. Have we degenerated to that level of insanity? And Edo State Deputy Governor, you are here. Ask whoever when you win, you must ensure there is… I don’t know who will win. Clap because I said “whoever will win.” They are following me. So there must be a smooth transition. Look at Biden; he knew that he was not strong enough. He just called his deputy, “Kamala Harris, come and take over.” All this one when the deputy and governor are fighting in Edo State, they shoot people at the airport. We don’t want it again. You are embarrassing us. We are a civilized group of people. Am I talking to somebody? So there must be a process of transition that is smooth from one governance level to the other. That’s why I don’t like Trump because of January 6th. The tradition in America that has stayed for years, you wanted to destroy it, and people died. No, we must ensure that our politics, our transition system is smooth.
So the next thing I want to talk about is that unless we understand what politics is, we can’t do well. According to David Easton, politics is the authoritative allocation of resources. And according to Harold Lasswell, it is who gets what, when, and how much. Now, let’s listen.
Let me talk about the Greek philosophy of politics. Greek philosophy of politics states that we have idiots, we have tribesmen, and we have citizens. An idiot is not somebody who is not reasonable. An idiot is somebody who can eat a banana and throw the peel outside. Somebody who can drive against traffic. This school I went to, Government College Ugbogui, I don’t drive against traffic. I don’t cross lawns. All I don’t throw refuse from my car. I’m not an idiot. When political campaigns no longer have value for decency, idiocy has come into politics. When an Edo State campaign has gone to whether somebody has children, somebody has a wife or somebody does not have a wife, it is the lowest level of political campaign. It is idiocy. Benue State has been ruled by two Reverend Fathers; they don’t have children; they don’t have wives. Am I right? So let’s not bring the campaign to the level of every four years we bring clowns and comedians, either with a broom or with an umbrella or with one thing. And when politics degenerates to only dancing, we cannot have a reasonable dialogue and good governance. You will not have anything to hold the people responsible for. So these politicians that are campaigning now, let them write down what they will do for us in four years. If you don’t do it, we will cross-check in the next four years. If we don’t see them, we will remove you. I know the rotation process is good, but sometimes it produces a “Mumu” syndrome. Am I talking to somebody? When you say it is my turn, it is my turn, what if it is a “Mumu” that is coming from there? We will now have a “Mumu” governor and produce stupidity for us.
Then there are tribesmen. Tribesmen are people who take decisions based on either tribal affiliation, political affiliation, religious affiliation, or one kind of affiliation. If an election in Edo State must be, “I am voting for this because he is PDP.” I saw somebody with “Obidient” for APC. Why are they laughing? I haven’t even said anything. You must look at an individual based on his competence, his capacity. I said in one of my videos that you should not let your erection give you direction. That the womb that will carry your children must have the brain and capacity to carry your future. The governor you must elect must not come from your tribe; he must have the mental capacity to solve your problems. Now, I don’t know any of them. Now, listen very well.
There is a problem we have in governance, Deputy Governor. You know that when you wake up, up to 40 people sit down in front of your house. Am I right? They don’t… they come maybe you are a wicked person. The average politician, if you wake up, people will line up. Most of the things they are coming to line up for, if social justice is present, they don’t need to come and meet you. Do you know what social justice is? Social justice is when the political system makes it in such a way that the basic needs of every person are met at his level. They won’t come and meet you for school fees. They won’t come and meet you for house rent.
I have a grandson who is a European. The mother went to pray, and she saw a show. An ambulance came to carry her to the biggest maternity in that country. And they told her she has an option to sign for whatever she wants, Cesarian section or normal delivery. She said she wants normal delivery. She’s a cardiologist. And then she stayed there. She was sending me pictures of the food she was eating in the hospital. I said, “God punish poverty in this country! Why was I not born there?” She walked out of the hospital after 10 days because insurance pays. They gave her 100 units of diapers, so no person came to meet me for money for napkins.
My grandson started earning an allowance for being a citizen from the first month. My grandson will go to university to the Ph.D. level free. So I won’t come and sit in front of your office waiting for school fees for my children. If we can solve some of these things once and for all, then the pressure we put on governors and senators and these people will come down. My daughter-in-law had two years of maternity leave with pay, and she had to stay in a hotel for one weekend with her husband, paid for by the government.
We need to fight most of all this poverty. Some of the prayers we pastors tell people to pray, “Poverty, cast every ancestral demon!” If your father had money, ancestral demon won’t worry you. So Edo State, we need social justice. Why? If not for social justice, I couldn’t go to Government College Ugbogui. My father was a refuse collector, but I was sitting down with the son of the Secretary to the Federal Government. I schooled with Obi’s children. I schooled with O. Whiskey. I schooled with Professor Hals in UBTH, the hematologist whose father was the permanent secretary. I stayed with him in Federal Government College Warri. My father was a refuse collector, but I was there. Government gave us uniforms, gave us books. We ate a cow. We had a swimming pool. I went to Federal Government College Warri, I ate chicken, I ate Quaker Oats. They were paying us transport fare to go back home. But the wickedness in this country is that my generation that enjoyed these good things are the ones bringing problems to this nation. God will punish them! I told you, don’t invite me again. I came, I came again.
I could enter medical school without knowing any person. I schooled with Otas’s grandchild. My mate, my classmate, had cars in school. Can the child of a poor man enter a prestigious school to study medicine today? Then why would we have problems in this country? We must bring decency. He didn’t know I said he would kill me in old age. I took my daughter from Year 3 to write JAMB because she was in BIU. She allowed somebody to copy her, you know, “Book.” Write JAMB again. So she wrote JAMB from Year 3. Today, she’s the administrator of our two schools. We need to create a model of a decent human being in our children.
My father told me, “I will soon finish, don’t worry.” My father told me in primary 4, “You will be a doctor.” I became the doctor. But he told me, when I used to go and look at television in other people’s houses, I asked him, “Papa, why are we poor?” My father said, “The school I couldn’t go to, you must go. The way I couldn’t speak, you must speak. The name I have taken, go and take it.” I have taken the name to you. I have brought it here. And in 2012, I went for my son’s graduation in medical school in Europe, and he was with white children. And I remember when I used to cut firewood in the creeks of the Niger Delta. We would stay in the water, and the water would reach me on my knees. I would be shivering with cold. And then I would say, “Mama, I’m cold.” She would say, “Cross your leg.” I would cross my leg. She would say, “Piss for your body,” I would urinate on my body. The water would make me warm; the urine would make me warm. But I’m standing here tonight because of good governance and social justice and qualitative education. God bless you. I’m your friend, Dr. Charles Apoki. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Wow!
