Appreciating God’s Exceptional Grace @ 50

The Holy Bible says that the victory or success of the battles of life is not to the swift nor is it to the strongest, but it is always of God who showed mercies. That means that no matter one’s intelligence, money, fame, connection, etc he or she cannot guarantee his or her own safety, health, security, long-life and  so on. We all look up to God through His mercies for all of these divine benefits. Whatever God decides to do is what comes to the forefront, and He does everything at His own convenience and time. Nobody ever pushes or force or influence Him to do anything, except of course through prayers.

That means that nothing can be done without the help of God who created man and the entire universe. Whoever claims to have achieved anything in this life on his own without God is the most foolish person that has lived. And the Bible also adds that except the Lord builds a house, the builder buildeth but in vain. That means, where God is not involved, no life can come out of it and nothing grows there. These inspiring scriptures and more, are my guiding principles and the anchor that holds my life.

Last Friday 18th November,2022 ( two days ago) was my birthday. By calculation, I was exactly 50 years and two days today. That means that I had lived successfully, escaping all  machinations, untoward permutations, evil plans and satanic attacks for the past 50 years. Looking back at these  years is a mixture joy and despair, hope, pain and happiness, and one can but conclude that this life no balance.

My life is that of miracle and exceptional grace. A young man from a poor humble family, the only parental asset was God himself. I held Him with the highest care and tightly too. From childhood to this level, life has not been easy. From the elementary school through primary and secondary schools to the University, it has been God all the way. When my father had to leave the Nigeria Army prematurely to the village after the 1967-70 civil war, little did young Timothy and his siblings knew what life holds for them. My dad left on health grounds because of the eye injury he sustained during the Ojukwu biafran war and straight to the village not even one day in Jos. I was born in the caliphate state of Sokoto and all through his service years, my father served along the Sokoto- Kebbi axis where I grew to speak fluently the unique Sokoto hausa dialect which is only exclusive to the state. In  retirement, my dad took to photography as the disengagement empowerment package and retirement skill acquisition prepared for him by the Nigeria Army as a parting gift. But because of the call of God upon his life, my father rejoined me in the primary school where he had left in class four to join the army because of the personnel demand of the war. While I was in primary 1 my dad was in class 5 in the same school. When I got to class two he was in his final year primary six from where he wrote and passed his exams to enroll as a student Pastor at the then Christian Training Centre, Zamko in Langtang North LGA. We were in the same primary school with my dad for two years before he completed and left for the training school. I later finished my primary school in 1985 and got admission to secondary school, went to the University in 1992 and graduated in 1997,went back to the university between 2005-2007 and 2014-2020. The story of the years of these scholarships are better imagined than described. They were stories that would have discouraged some persons from carrying on with life. They were stories of situations that actually discouraged some persons from carrying on with school. I was not the only one passing through such situations but each person had situations uniquely exclusive to him or her. After graduating from the University with a second class upper division in Political Science, it was another level of frustration waiting endlessly for job opportunities. I stayed for seven years with my certificate moving round one office to the other, one bank to the other and one agency to the other. It was under such circumstances that I decided to enroll for my master’s degree without a job and money. But in all these, God was more than faithful. He made sure I was not stranded, but provided me with every need. My deep interest in journalism gave me an opening where I started work with the prestigious Plateau State owned Nigeria Standard Newspapers from where I grew in the profession to become State House Aso Rock Editor of the Leadership Newspapers group under the able and firm mentorship of the late Pharmacist Sam Nda Isaiah, the publisher and chief executive. Little did I knew that God was preparing me for political leadership by using the media to make me popular among my people. The result was my election into the Plateau State House of Assembly in 2011 where I served the good people of Kanke State constituency. I was also the Chief Whip of the state parliament. In 2015 I got elected into the Federal House of Representatives to represent three local governments of Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam federal constituency where I became Chairman House Committee on Legislative Budget and Research. I got reelected into the National assembly in 2019 but my mandate was stolen and snatched at gun point by the current APC led Plateau state government. In all things, the Bible  had admonished us to give God thanks and that all things work together for good to those who trust in the Lord. Looking back at all that happened, I could only but say a very BIG THANK YOU to God Almighty who saw me through all the circumstances and keeps me healthy and strong in the faith.

I see myself as a product of God’s rich grace because it was not human luck that gave me the opportunities of life but God himself. That is why I never got stranded, frustrated, depressed or loose hope in anything I find myself doing.

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Today by the amazing and exceptional grace of God, I am a proud holder of the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Political Science, Masters in International Relations and Strategic Studies and Doctorate in International Relations and Strategic Studies. I have a beautiful wife Chalya Golu, nee Banda, who has been a strong pillar to me and together we have produced 5 sound children( three beautiful girls and 2 handsome boys). God gave me a wife who fears the Lord and whose life has been diligently rooted in His word and who has impacted so much positivism( socio-physical, spiritual, educational, etc in the children  to make them what we want them to be in life.

On a day like this, my heart is full of appreciation, adoration, worship, praise and thanksgiving to this great God whose mercies and grace were sufficiently released to me and are still being make available for my triumph. The Lord gave me a humble spirit that has helped me live a consistent life in and out of office. He has helped me to play politics with conscience and the fear of the Lord. He has protected me from the avalanche of vulnerable traps in the polity. I have remained the same person I was within the community without losing my saltiness in the polity. Being in or out of office has not changed my person. It only made me appreciate life better and see God in more greater dimensions.