OBONGS KEYNOTE ADDRESS

          All Glory and Honour to Jesus this day and forever.
          Beloved in Christ, I bring you heavenly felicitations for the year 2005 and beyond in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Today you and I are about to make history on the positive side of God. May His sufficient Grace see us through in the Name of Jesus.

          The privilege has been mine to summon this solemn and Holy convocation aimed at bringing us to a point of sincere repentance in order that our Faith, for higher values and attitudes, more enduring and greater blessings for us and our future may be appropriately provoked and sustained. Let me therefore deeply and publicly appreciate the Almighty God for making this day a reality. This indeed is the day that the Lord has made and we truly delight and rejoice in it.

          Beloved brethren our position today draws strength from the words of the Lord to king Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon recorded in the Holy Bible - Daniel 4:24-32.... "until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will". These words eloquently address our distressing circumstances as a people. Our untutored resolve to pursue a course of disobedience against the ordinances of the Most High God has understandably banished us from entering into the perfect will of God for us. Our unwitting fellowship with the powers of darkness under the disguise of cultural heritage had visited our sons and daughters with untold hardship, untimely and premature death, failure to excel, preoccupation with the frivolous, an eclipsing of any light that ever tried to shine out of this land, the Pull-Me-Down syndrome ably masterminded by the Crab-like Spirit (Nkono) which we had continued to yield to, the grossly endangered male gender in our community apparently marked out for extermination, failure to thrive and prosper in our land where others have come and blossomed, unfounded pride, marital disharmony and broken homes, irresponsible fathers who find complacency in such positions, utter disregard and disdain for leadership and elders in society with its consequent disunity and absence of love for one another etc etc. I also note with pain in my heart the confusion that has been perpetrated amongst the traditional stools in Calabar. The determination to erode the authority of the Obong from within and without; the brevity of reign of the preceding Obongs, the heathenic rituals and lifestyles that tradition imposes on an Obong from the true Christian Faith (which remains the foundation of everything good and worthwhile), have all conspired to reproach the traditional Efik throne. This must not subsist. I dare to ask whether contemporary traditional thrones in other religious settings have ever relegated their faith to a position of irrelevance or rather had boldly allowed their tradition, in the light of ordinary civilization, to be swallowed up by their religion. The time of change has come and the time is now. I therefore call on the Throne of Grace to hear this my heart cry and the corporate repentance of the Body of Christ in Calabar and arise to roll away every covering cast of darkness and bless us with an open Heaven from henceforth.

          Our failure to repent and return to the God who is Lord of all had left us at the mercy of the evil one. God must punish sin for Him to be just hence our situation. Today however we gather together unto Him who appointed me and gave me the Efik throne (ref Dan. 4:32). In deference to Him and Him alone l take my stand to return unto God the throne and the entire people of Calabar for forgiveness, cleansing, blessing and upkeep now and forever. The blindness is over.

          May l hereby be allowed to go down memory lane as the Holy Spirit emphasizes to our hearts the Divine position and attitude towards Calabar which the devil has dared to resist. Divine Grace in 1843 prompted two great monarchs of the Efik kingdom to write and invite the light of God into our society. Thus, king Eyamba the 5th of Duke town wrote...."And then some man must come for teach book proper and make all men saby God like white man and then we go on for same fashion..." On his part king Eyo Honesty requested as follows... "Mr. Blyth tell me England glad for send man to teach book and make we understand God all same white man do..." the answer came with the arrival of a team of six missionaries in April 1846. Our response to this heavenly expedition was mixed and quite unfortunate. Our indecision empowered by our passion for the mundane and the lowly denied us this God given opportunity to be truly the first and the best. The devil cleverly exploited our half-baked Christianity to build walls of divide amongst us thus further weakening us as a people through disunity and dissentions, spiritually and secularly. God's plan for us had only been delayed and certainly not aborted. You and l are here today to partner with Heaven to put the vision on course. May His wisdom guide us all as we arise to obey in Jesus' Name.

          My beloved people, our stand this day must not be misconstrued by our detractors to imply that Efik people are or had ever been the worst tribe in this Nation. Far from it, l recognize and acknowledge some of our very rich cultural heritage, our very hospitable disposition, our infectious cleanliness, dressing and traditional occupation, properly tutored and highly cultured wives and mothers with exquisite cooking skills and menus, we cannot deny these and many others. We however advocate a reasoning together with God (Isa 1:18) amongst our people to empower a cultural sanitation that will trail-blaze, as usual, for the rest of Africa. God's hand of blessing is stayed against us till we return and submit to Him. He has chosen us in wisdom. He needs us, so let us throw ourselves down at His feet for Mercy.

          Finally, l quote from the memoirs of that great and legendary missionary, Mary Mitchell Slessor. She wrote;   "We do not attempt to give in numbers those who are nominally Christian. Women, lads, girls, and the few men who profess to have placed themselves in God's hands. All the children within reach are sent to school without stipulations. We have just kept on sowing the seed of the word, believing that when God's time comes to gather them into the visible Church, there will be some amongst us ready to participate in the privilege and honour".

          Beloved brethren in the Lord, I believe that the time for that prophesied great harvest for Christ in Calabar is now. Today I lead the entire people of Calabar under the canopy of the Church of Jesus Christ, here present, to approach the Throne of Grace with penitent hearts that every evil determined against us might be averted and that God's mercy, sufficient Grace, abundant life, unfailing love and every nameable blessing be unleashed over our land and people in the Mighty Name of Jesus.