A very unusual kind of topic for me to write on, don’t you think? Well, we learn from different things in life, and there are lessons I’ve learnt from the Apostle Johnson Suleman and Halima Abubakar saga, which spurred me to write this piece.
Suleman is a preacher of the gospel, who runs Omega Fire Ministries, based in Auchi, Edo State. Halima Abubakar used to be a top Nollywood actress, very upwardly mobile, before she ran into stormy weather a couple of years back.
What is the affinity between these people? That was the question to ask, as the actress came out in year 2022 to say she had been having an amorous affair with the preacher for four years, and had even been pregnant for him three times. The pregnancies, she claimed, were lost mysteriously.
Halima had series of health challenges, which took her to different parts of the world, seeking a cure. No headway. She said it was the preacher using her spiritually.
Apostle Suleman went to court, suing for defamation. He won the case, was awarded N10million, and the court restrained Halima from further comments. It was something straight from a Nollywood movie script. Quite salacious.
Then a twist in the tale. Sometime last year, Halima Abubakar came out to say she had lied against the preacher. “I made false allegation against you. I humbly ask for your forgiveness, as I was not thinking clearly at the time,” she said.
Can you just imagine! What kind of mind could have concocted such an allegation against a man of God? How? Why?
Suleman accepted the apology, but added that “forgiveness is not memory loss,” and that status quo would be maintained between him and Halima.
Now, what is your own interest in all these, some readers may ask. Or are you just doing shoboleshon (only God knows how Yoruba people created this word, which means poking your nose into what doesn’t concern you).
This is the nexus. In the year 2020, while I served as spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari, one Rev Andimi had been abducted by Boko Haram in Adamawa State, and later beheaded. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) shockingly said it was part of the ploy by government to decimate the Christian population in the country.
It didn’t make sense by any stretch of the imagination, and I said so in a press statement. There was some back and forth between myself and the rather pugnacious CAN on the matter. In the middle of it, Apostle Suleman added his voice.
He said my defense was empty, and showed me as being unworthy of the position I held. He used some foul words, which were unbecoming of a preacher.
You know that me too I can be troublesome (only once in a while o). So I looked for prophecies Suleman had made during the period, and which hit the crossbar. Without mentioning his name in my tweet, I said: “He claims to be prophet. He said whoever won the 2015 presidential poll would not rule. He said El-Rufai won’t win in Kaduna. Later, he said the man would die within a time. El-Rufai is well and alive. Is that one a prophet? Fake! It’s not me that says so, it’s the Holy Bible.”
The media made a feast of the exchanges between me and Apostle Suleman, but it didn’t bother me. He was the one that stirred the hornets’ nest, and whatever he got, he should deal with it.
My tweet was on 28 January, 2020. And five days later, there was this surprising Open Letter to Femi Adesina, by Apostle Suleman. He reviewed the state of the nation vis-a-vis the relationship between Islam and Christianity. On the foul word he used against me, he said: “ I apologize if I came out wrongly or rudely.
“I took this approach to respond to the heavy insults and name-calling on your Twitter handle, which is well okay by me, and understandable because you were angry. But I hope this meets you well. This is me pouring out my heart to my brother. I love you my brother, and God bless Nigeria.”
To say I was shocked by the open letter is an understatement. Apostle Suleman? He didn’t have to do it. But he did.
I had met the preacher some years back at Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt, where we had both gone to see Governor Rotimi Amaechi. I was still in active media service then, and we had exchanged phone numbers.
I called up the apostle. We exchanged pleasantries. I then asked if the open letter was truly from him. He said it was, and apologized once again for the words he had used against me. He said it was God who directed him to do what he did. I thanked him, and said it was all over.
The Good Book says “…and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Apostle Suleman apologised to me, when he could have chosen not to. And he did it openly. See what Halima Abubakar also did years later. What goes round surely comes round. Whatever you do has a way of coming back to you. With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.
If the apostle was not a man who listened to God, he wouldn’t apologise. I admire his humility in doing it, and making it open. He has my best wishes at all times.
Halima Abubakar? She will find mercy, having retracted her lies against someone who apparently did her no wrong.
*Adesina, OON, FNGE, was Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, 2015-2023
