The NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 3rd - Sunday 9th March 2025
THE ASO VILLA CHAPEL
And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem (2 Chro. 28:24).
The Bible records many ungodly kings and queens. Amongst them, in the Kingdom of Judah, were Amon, Manasseh, Queen Athaliah, and Jeconiah. God was so angry with Jeconiah that he cursed him and his descendants with barrenness, according to Jeremiah 22:30: “Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.” That king left an evil legacy.
As evil as those rulers were, none of them shut the temple of God, only King Ahaz did, as a man wholly given to idolatry. In his attempt to please the king of Assyria, Ahaz emptied the temple and shut the door. By shutting the door, he stopped the worship of God because, in those days, God was only worshipped in the temple. Consequently, divine wrath broke out upon the land. In 2 Chro. 28:19, the Bible says, “For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord.” The entire land mourned and suffered because of the transgression of a wicked ruler.
The land of Judah suffered a humiliating defeat from the northern kingdom of Israel when 120,000 soldiers of Judah were killed in one day, and some of the survivors were stripped naked and taken captive to the northern kingdom. It took the intervention of God for the prisoners to be released and sent back home. It was therefore not surprising that his reign was cut short, and he died at the age of thirty-six, having ascended the throne at the age of twenty. Even Manasseh, who was another wicked king, ruled for fifty-five years. Manasseh did not close down the temple.
There is terrible consequence on a land that symbolically shuts its door against God. When the ruler sitting on the throne openly demonstrates hostility against God, the entire land suffers the consequence. When God is told in plain terms that the throne of the land does not welcome Him, that land forfeits the attributes of God - light, life, and peace.
The report should therefore be of concern to discerning Christians in Nigeria, that since the present administration got into power, the Chapel in Aso Villa has been shut, and Sunday worship no longer takes place there in the Villa. In the eight years of President Buhari, with all the atrocities that that government committed, the Chapel remained open.
On 11th July 2023, PM News carried a rebuttal by the Presidency that the Chapel was not closed, but that the President was yet to appoint a new chaplain. The rebuttal insisted that “there are weekly fellowship going on at the chapel and mid-week fellowship on Tuesday …” https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2023/07/11/aso-villa-chapel-not-closed-tinubu-yet-to-appoint-new-chaplain-oluremi/
It has been almost two years since that rebuttal, but current reports indicate that Sunday worship service has not started. Why would it take almost two years to appoint a chaplain? So far, the name of the chaplain of the Aso Villa Chapel under the present dispensation has not been heard. The name of the chaplain under president Buhari was not hidden.
The Aso Villa Chapel was built under President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000. Upon assuming the office of the president of Nigeria in 1999, he noticed that there were mosques in Aso Villa but there was no church building. He proceeded to build the Chapel. There have been two Muslim presidents after Obasanjo but none of them shut the Chapel, until the present Muslim-Muslim-ticket candidates came into office.
What makes the situation more painful is that the Muslim-Muslim-ticket candidates were promoted and supported into office by some prominent Church leaders. CAN and PFN wrote congratulatory letters to President Tinubu after the controversial 2023 elections. One Bishop was so incensed against anyone opposing the Muslim-Muslim ticket, after eight years of Muhammadu Buhari as president, that he pronounced a curse on any Christian that would not vote for them. Now that the presidency has told Jesus Christ in plain terms to stay away from the governance in Nigeria, what are those Church leaders saying? Bearing in mind that this administration has been in office for almost two years, would those Church leaders claim that they are unaware that three Mosques operate inside Aso Villa, but the only chapel has been reportedly shut?
To worsen matters, there are indications that some Christian leaders who supported the Muslim-Muslim ticket have not withdrawn their support for the same government that increased the price of fuel from N197 to N1,050 per litre. The APC party met fuel at N87 per litre in 2015 when it came into power. Today, fuel sells for N960 in most filling stations. The suffering is so bad that many Muslims from the northern parts of the country openly express regret at supporting the Muslim-Muslim ticket.
On the economic front, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) reported that in the first year of the Tinubu administration, 767 manufacturing companies closed down, while goods worth N350 billion remained unsold in 2023. The Association attributed the development to “various economic difficulties, including exchange rate volatility, rising inflation, and a general worsening of the investment climate.” https://nairametrics.com/2024/03/06/767-manufacturing-companies-shut-down-in-nigeria-n350-billion-goods-unsold-in-2023/
One area in which the government claims considerable success is the fight against insecurity. However, official reports belie this claim. The National Bureau of Statistics in its report published in 2024 states that 614,937 Nigerians were killed in the first year of this administration, while 2.2 million people were kidnapped and N2.2 trillion paid as ransom to kidnappers. In the eight years of president Buhari, the official figure of those killed was 63,111. What the figures indicate is that those killed in the one year of the Administration that shut the Chapel is ten times more than those killed in the eight years of Buhari. When people reject God, the consequences are terrible.
As New Testament saints, we agree that worship of God is not restricted to a building because the Spirit of God dwells in each believer. However, it is symbolically significant to have worship rise to heaven from the throne in the land. Locking down the place of worship of Jesus Christ in the Presidency is a total rejection of the grace and mercy of God upon the country. Is anyone still wondering why Nigeria continues to sink deeper into the mire, despite countless promises from the government.
If the Chapel is shut, where is the altar of righteousness that should be speaking for the land from the throne? Even if a president is not a Christian, there should be an altar where Christians around him can link up with heaven for the country. An altar is the link between the physical and spiritual. The implication is that the altar speaking at the throne of Nigeria is not connected to Jehovah. How can healing come upon the land?
Constitutionally, shutting the door of a Christian place of worship while permitting another religion to thrive in the State House is a violation of the secularity of the country. The constitution forbids what is going on. It is a direct statement that government has adopted one religion as state religion in violation of Section 10 of the constitution which states that “The Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.”
Christians are not vindictive people who will demand that other places of worship in the State House be also shut. Christians will rather insist on the secularity of the State and compliance with the Constitution. The Chapel must be re-opened.
By this development, it should be clear to the Christian community that the architects and sponsors of the “Politics of Religion” in Nigeria are unrelenting in the pursuit of their objectives to turn Nigeria into an Islamic theocratic state. Whenever this issue is raised, some Christian elites claim that it is “fearmongering”, “divisive” and unwarranted “alarm”. That was how many Christian leaders responded in 2014 when the warning first came. In fact, a prominent Church leader wrote a letter and described the warning as “wickedly false, unsubstantiated, ill-conceived, and mischievous”. Ten years after the warning, with hundreds of thousands of Christians in the grave, and Islamist terrorists sprouting all over the country, would anyone deny that there is a pernicious religious agenda in Nigeria?
In the prayer calls entitled “POLITICS OF RELIGION” and “THE DAY OF VISITATION”, the Christian community was asked to pay attention to its leadership. Christians must devise ways of getting Church leaders to take side with the suffering masses of Nigeria instead of constantly supporting the status quo. Even if some Church leaders are no longer interested in going to heaven, they should at least consider the humanity they share with members of the Church, as well as the non-Christian masses in the land. They should join in the efforts to get good governance for Nigeria. The current political class has discredited itself through unbridled greed and avarice. The incompetence of these politicians stinks to the high heavens, and their capacity to corrupt every institution in the country in unparalleled in the world.
The Church leaders should start by championing the call for the re-opening of the Chapel in Aso Villa and ensuring that the worship of God, through Jesus Christ, resumes. It is time to proclaim, “Lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye ancient door, and the King of Glory shall come in.”
PRAYER POINTS
1. Deut. 21:5-9
Let God know that Nigerian Christians did not shut the Chapel at the throne of Nigeria, neither did they approve of it. Ask God to have mercy upon Nigeria and not impute the sins of wicked rulers upon the country. Plead the blood of Jesus Christ.
2. Ps. 55:22
Pray that, as God judged Ahaz, He would judge all rulers who reject the worship of the true God in Nigeria.
3. Isa. 14:12-15 (Read in KJV)
Take authority over every evil spirit contending with the worship of Jehovah in Nigeria. Bind and cast them down into hell.
4. Zech. 3: 1-5
Plead the blood of Jesus to cleanse Nigeria and atone for every sin that has been committed by the country against God.
5. Ps. 144:11-15
Pray that God would deliver Nigeria from the hands of strange children so that times of refreshing can come upon the land.
6. Ps. 24:1-2
Pray and rededicate the throne of Nigeria, the seat of Government, and the entire country to the Almighty God through Jesus Christ.
7. Ps. 24:7-10
Decree that every spiritual gate in Nigeria should open for the King of Glory to enter and reign over the country. Amen
