“This Is No Way To Treat African Chief!”
Like the Roman citizenship of the Apostle Paul, God has used this chieftaincy for good in the ministry. In those days before the Christian leader Obasanjo became the president of Nigeria, the level of corruption and extortion was much worse. The Lagos airport was the scene of much negativity. Once, a friend of ours, was asked to show his ticket and his passport. The uniformed officer took the passport and the ticket, and disappeared, and never came back. On another occasion, a nurse friend of ours, named Helen, went to minister in Nigeria for several weeks. On her way out of the country, beggars severely beat her pastor host at the airport, and the Nigerian Airways refused to honor her return ticket home, thus forcing her to purchase another. Then the Nigerian Airways refused to honor that new ticket. After several days and nights in that horrible airport, she borrowed the money to purchase a ticket from another airline, and escaped with her life.
Because of these conditions, my host, Elijah advised me on a subsequent ministry trip to wear the royal clothing and chief’s beads so that I would not be molested when arrival at the airport. But at the last minute, the stewardess took our carry on bags and put them in the cargo, before Joshua or I could remember that our royal clothing was in those bags. Thus, upon arrival at the Lagos airport, we were dressed like and appeared to be inexperienced tourists, who could be easily intimidated and extorted. Sure enough, when we arrived at the airport, there were officers in uniform who were scrutinizing the crown to carefully select those who could be legally robbed. The officer, after looking us over demanded that we stand in this other line. This was the group especially targeted for bullying and extortion. The officers took the man in front of us into the office, sat him down, surrounded him and began interrogating him. After they got from him all that they thought they could, now it was our turn. They took us into the office and began with us, demanding that we justify to them why we came, who did we come to see, how much money did we bring, etc. I had had the presence of mind to put on my chief’s beads around my neck, but under my sports shirt, but not in view. As the questioning began, I asked them with a firm voice of quiet authority, “Ees thees any way to treat African chief?!. Surprised, they demanded, “What do you mean, African chief?” I gently moved aside the buttoned sports shirt and gave them a glimpse of my chief’s beads. Shocked, they murmured to each other, and then asked me, “Eh heh, who ees de kink who gave you chieftaincy title?” Kabiyesi Adeosun at Erin-Ijesa”, I replied. “Ahyeee, what ees yo title?” “Onihirere”, I said. Then the uniformed bully in charge said, for all to hear, “Ah, dees ees no way to treat African chief! Go yo’ way!”