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Prof. Ibiwari is Sixty!
By: Deji Yesufu
The stories that we hear of ancient times and those that emerge from our recent histories all centre around the lives of men. Some historians like to call them “strong men” but it might be appropriate to say that before the birthing of strong and lasting institutions, God has almost always sent certain men to birth the ideas that create those institutions. Eventually, these institutions begin to run on the ideas that these men have laid down – and in some cases, we have seen institutions still running on a two-hundred-year-old idea. China, in the 19th century, was a disorganized and failing state, and it needed a strong man to put it together. That man would be Mao Zedong, whose socialist-communist ideas were able to wedge the disparate parts of China together and make it a world super-power today; even threatening the hegemonic hold of the United States on the rest of the world. Mao was called the Chairman. His leadership was ruthless at times, but China is thankful that they were given such a man once in their history.
When it became obvious that the seminary connected with Christ’s Reformed Baptist Church, Rumuoadara, Portharcourt, needed to be revamped, Pastor Aniekan Ekpo invited nine men to join him on a board that would oversee the seminary. From the first meeting we had, it was obvious that we needed leadership and Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima was unanimously elected to lead the board. None of us knew what we were getting ourselves into when we did this but we are thankful that God in his gracious providence led us to take that path. Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima has offered us leadership – that is the only way I can summarize the experience of working under him as the secretary of the board. His position as chairman is still in an acting capacity, but everybody on the board readily calls him “chairman” because we are discerning enough to see that he combines grace and firmness to stare the board in a direction that God would obviously want us to go. Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima is averse to praise-singing, so I will now be veering off in this article to write about a few things I have learnt under his leadership.
Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima
Somebody once said that life comes to all people with its peculiar challenges. This person then added that life as a Nigerian comes with added problems. If two or three Nigerians were to gather in a space, they could use the next three hours to debate the fundamental problems with Nigeria. At the heart of the debate, they will point at everything wrong with Nigeria but never touch the core trouble bedevilling the country. Nigeria is made up of people, and if there is a problem with the country then there must be something wrong with the people. If two or three people gather to discuss the trouble with Nigeria, it only makes sense that they also examine where each and every Nigerian has contributed to the national problem. A discussion on the country is not complete without each discussant expressing where he has failed the country individually. This is one doctrine Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima never fails to remind us at the board: “…we are all sinners…”, he will often say. What does this mean?
The theory of the sinfulness of all men is one that is steeped in the biblical narrative. Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” The writer of the gospel book of Matthew tells us that when the angel appeared to Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, he told him that the child to be born would be called Jesus because “…he will save his people from their sins…” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus while talking about the efficacy of prayer, pointed at two men praying in the temple in Luke 18. One of them was a Pharisee, who spent all his time enumerating all his good deeds. The other one was a publican, who would not even lift up his head to heaven – all he could say was “…God be merciful to me a sinner…” Jesus said the latter went away from that place justified (Luke 18:14). The biblical narrative is this: man is born in sin, and man is naturally rebelling against a holy God. Now, even the redeemed man still sins (1 John 1:8-10), and it is the humility that comes from a clear understanding of our various depravity that we use in engaging whatever relationships or duties that God has providentially brought us into. Therefore, rather than enter a task with bravado and self-confidence, which is inherently Nigerian, we enter every duty with humility and a heart of dependence on God.
The Board of Trustees celebrates Prof. Ibi on his birthday
Now, it is easy to take this lesson for granted. But when you realize that even the churches that ought to teach these things do not know them, one begins to understand why Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima reminds everyone that “we are all sinners”. The board that Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima leads is overseeing is the Reformed Theological Seminary Foundation (RTSF). It is a seminary that will be training men for Christian ministry. At the heart of Reformed Theology is the gospel message of Jesus Christ coming into a sinful and depraved world to save humanity from their sins. The real challenge with gospel preaching is not saying these things. In fact, to be “reformed” now in Nigeria has become a fad. It is doing these doctrines that is the real challenge. Therefore, the seminary will be aiming at training Christian men to be like Ezra, who in Ezra 7:10 first prepared his heart to seek the law of God and then to do it, before he proceeded to teach its precepts in Israel. And when Christians get down to obeying God’s commands in their day-to-day lives, the first thing they discover is their total inability to keep those laws. The whole process of learning to be gracious to oneself, and then to others, is what informs the building of Christian communities where brothers love one another and are committed to building each other up – in spite of their sins. This is what Jesus commanded when he said we should love one another. Our Lord knew that our sins would show up in Christian fellowship, but he commands that we must remain committed to each other in spite of our many failings. This is what Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima has taught me and other board members in the two years we have worked together in setting up this seminary.
This brings me back to the Nigerian question. It is very clear to me that when everything has failed to fix the Nigerian problem, the solution must arise from the Christian church. But a cursory look at the state of the church in this country will show that even Christians are bereft of ideas on how to fix the country. What is undeniable is that the rot in Nigeria is deep-rooted, and what will fix it will not be immediate. This is where the Reformed Theological Seminary Foundation comes in: we believe that if men are properly trained as theologians and pastors, and then sent into various communities in Nigeria, these men will train others also. Gradually, the churches that will emerge from the work of these men will impact the moral compass of this country. So, a day will come when men of virtue will lead institutions in this country and the overall moral climate of the nation will be positively affected. This is the work that the board of the RTSF is trying to do, and we are really privileged to have Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima lead us in this project.
I wish Prof. Ibiwari Erekosima a happy sixtieth birthday, and I pray that the Lord will grant you many more years to celebrate this day of your birth.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan.
Prof. Ibi visiting the uncompleted site (now completed) of the RTFS, Rumuoadara, Portharcourt.
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