I have for a long time cultivated profound respect for Kanayo O Kanayo (KOK), one of the greatest pioneer and practitioners in the motion picture industry. He remains to me, one of the best motivational speakers and an inspirational personality not just in Igbo land, but across Nigeria. He is versatile, erudite, forthright and down-to-earth. His composure is unbeatable. He’s a man with an infectious and arresting swaggy attitude.
Recently, he literally set the internet space on fire by bringing to the public space a responsibility and activity which most fathers had often discharged in the safe confines of their private domains or homes. He got his son, who has joined him in the film industry and who got paid his first wage, to receive his blessings in the full glare of the camera. The message he passed during the short display, have elicited varying degrees of reactions, some in total agreement with his position and others in diametric opposition. KOK had pointedly stated that it’s the primary duty or role of fathers to bless their their children for progress, success and prosperity, especially after training them and they have secured employment and earned their first salary. He was emphatic in stressing that it’s never for a Pastor to play such crucial role.
The position of Kanayo O Kanayo on the subject is absolutely correct. It is indisputable. There’s basically nothing to add or subtract from it. Traditionally or culturally, and Biblically, this cannot be faulted in the least in Igbo practice. The raging argument over KOK’s position stems from the wrong practices some of us have been exposed to for a long time, whereby we erroneously assume that Pastors are be-it-all, and represent everything that we desire. Many of us have confused the roles of Pastors in our lives, in which case, we believe rather wrongly that, they can solve all our problems; that they are capable of doing anything and everything for us. This has been compounded since the advent of prosperity preaching in Christianity.
The way Pastors are important to the congregation of God’s people is exactly the way parents are essential to their families. Pastors are representatives of God in the collective assembly of God’s people while parents represent God in their respective families. It’s the responsibility of parents to nurture and train their offsprings in all ramifications. On the other hand, it’s the duty of Pastors to guide and nurture the spiritual growth of the flock under them. The blessings of parents over their children are not of lesser efficacy and weight than the blessings of Pastors over their congregants. Isaac did not have to take his sons, Esau and Jacob, to any other person for blessing. All he did in his old age and blindness was to pronounce blessings upon Jacob, even as the latter obtained his father’s blessings deceitfully.
Parents bear the responsibility of nurturing their children from birth, through infancy to all the stages of life. They feed and clothe them. They pay their school bills, hospital bills and bear all other conceivable financial obligations to their children. They even help to bring them up in the ways of God and teach them how to be responsible and useful citizens. There’s absolutely no reason under the sky why it would not be the father but a Pastor who should receive the first salary of a child whose parents are alive. This can only be done if the Pastor was responsible for the training and upkeep of the person or child in question.
In Igbo culture, parents must continue to bless their children at all stages of life. Whether they are schooling, acquiring skills, commencing life careers, receiving their first wages, getting married and so on, the blessings of parents are imperative to their success and progress. No one is better placed to assume this responsibility over them. Even Church or Court weddings come only after parents would have rendered or pronounced their blessings to the couple.
Indeed, KOK had merely restated or reinforced the divine position of fathers in the family. May God bless him abundantly for speaking the truth exactly the way it ought to be. This does not in any way diminish the essence of Pastors. However, it sets out to redirect or correct those who have been misled or are wallowing in ignorance.
I stand with KOK on the undeniable import of a father’s blessing on the child.
