NewStats: 3,263,593 , 8,180,679 topics. Date: Friday, 06 June 2025 at 05:32 PM 2ks1a

CreatedtwoRule:
Heart lifting piece. He is in heaven. May God use his death to bring those mocking his death to eternal hope in Christ. We should know too that we are not sinners rather we were sinners saved by grace! Thanks

Amen

Typing:
Nice read

RIP Azaman

Exceed15:
Well balanced write up. However we can be too careful. It's by God's mercy.

Yes

jchioma:
A great piece!

My Thoughts on the Death of Rev. David Azzaman

By: Deji Yesufu

I did not know him at all. I never heard of his name, but it appeared that a lot of people on my social media feed knew him quite well. David Azzaman was a Christian minister who led ministry in Kaduna. s following his death say that he was bold in his enunciation and defense of the gospel. He was also into apologetics; often defending the faith in the face of Islam. If you lead a Christian ministry in northern Nigeria, you cannot avoid the question of Islam. Azzaman died from injuries he sustained from a motor accident on Saturday 24th May 2025, as he returned from an outreach to Benue State. When you look at his Facebook wall, you will see pictures from the very outreach he had carried out in Benue State. Korede Olawoyin mentions that Azzaman was billed to partake in their forthcoming apologetics conference. His death is a great loss to Christian witnesses in Nigeria, and as someone in ministry myself, I cannot but rue it. But the more I see social media messages on the death of this man, the more I think it is important that I share my thoughts again on the question of death. I hope that at the close of this essay, Christians can the hope we have in Christ, and those who do not know the Lord might have an opportunity to hear the gospel preached. This way, Azzaman’s death will bring with it some positives.

The first thing that I think is worth mentioning around this subject of Azaman’s death is to remind ourselves of some basic road safety rules. In his book, “You Must Set Forth at Dawn”, Prof. Wole Soyinka explains that one of the things that informed the setting up of the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) is the sheer number of needless deaths that occur on Nigerian roads through motor accidents because our people ignore basic safety rules when driving. I think that God, the maker of the heavens and the earth, has been extremely kind to the people of this country. Going by the sheer number of bad driving and bad drivers we have on our roads, it is a pure miracle that we do not have a lot more deaths through accidents than we have today. Let us remind ourselves that an average car weighs about 1.5 tones. When you realize that impulse, which is the measure of impact on any object, is the product of the weight in kilograms and the velocity of the vehicle, you will understand why driving at merely sixty kilometres per hour is putting the car at dangerous levels of impact. But Nigerian drivers will drive at no less than a hundred and twenty kilometres per hour. Any disruption of that vehicle at that speed is sure death. Second, I do not understand why the use of seat belts is completely foreign to the Nigerian psyche. I got a clear understanding of how effective seat belts were when Princess Diana died. The driver and the bodyguard seated in front of the car, lived, while Diana and her boyfriend at the back died. What saved the two men in front was seat belts. I do not know what exactly the situation was with Azaman and those in the car with him, but one will not be surprised that his death could be traced to a simple lack of observing basic road safety rules.

Another point that needs to be emphasized is that Christians need to be reminded that they are mortal beings: Christians can die from accidents too. I cannot wrap my head around the idea that some believers have that they cannot die in accidents. Some Christians think Christ died and rose again to keep them safe from road accidents. That is a pure lie. I read a Facebook post that recalls that Azzaman was told that he could be involved in a motor accident, and he replied he would never die from an accident. Now, it is this attitude that usually makes believers not pay attention to basic safety rules. If you think you can never die from a motor accident, you will not do the things that could immune you from an accident. I have lived long enough to see many young, strong and vibrant believers die in vehicular accidents. I have stopped asking God why this thing happens. I now know that if I would not die in an accident, I should do things to avoid it. First, by all means, avoid long road trips. Travel only when it is necessary. Stay at home. Use a plane if you can afford it. Where you cannot, ensure you wear your seat belt when you travel. The Bible makes it very clear that the body of the Christian is mortal. It means our bodies can die just as the body of the unbelievers. We must be responsible for keeping our bodies alive and well.

A third thought on Azzaman’s death is a response to Muslims. I hear that some Muslims are rejoicing that David Azzaman died in an accident. I hear that Azzaman never took prisoners when it came to debating Muslims. Well, perhaps, we should tell our Muslim friends that David Azzaman is in heaven and has gone to be with the Lord his served all his days. The reason why Azzaman used a good part of his ministry to debate Muslims is so that he could show them that it is only in Jesus Christ that any man may find hope in the afterlife. My earlier appeal in this essay has been to believers to be responsible with the use of their vessels on earth. But whether they are responsible or not, the believer who sleeps in death opens his eyes to heaven in the life to come. There is no eternal hope in Islam. The only way to God’s kingdom is through the gospel message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You must repent of your sins, and believe the gospel if you will be saved. This, I am confident, is what David Azzaman wishes for all Muslims in this world to know, and it is just fitting that on the occasion of his death, we can again remind ourselves of the gospel message he so faithfully preached throughout his life.

A few days ago, I reached out to a few of my associates in Christian ministry and told them that in case I die suddenly, they could access some vital information about the church I lead and the numerous Christian ministries I am involved in via a certain channel. My mentality about life is this: I am not the owner of this body. Jesus Christ gave me this body and I have used it for forty-eight years now. He can very well come at any time and demand for his property back. When I slammed my head to the pavement last year in April, I was supposed to have returned this body to him; but he gave me a second chance by ensuring that I was wearing a helmet that day. It is extremely presumptuous of any of us to think that we deserve a day extra. We don’t. We are sinners, who have been saved by the grace of God. But the reason why men die is because we still possess a body of sin, that God has covenanted must die – because of the sin of Adam our forefather. Therefore, the wise person is a person that is ready to die, daily. Jesus Christ does not owe you another day; he does not owe you another hour. We will do well to follow the onition of James to always accentuate every plan we have with “if the Lord wills” (James 4:13-15). What that means is that if God permits us to see more days, it is his grace and mercy to us, and we should endeavour to make the best of the remaining days we have.

For the Christian, death is a bad thing. It brings an end to relationships on earth. It turns a wife into a widow and renders children fatherless. It makes a congregation lack a pastor and a solid witness for the defense of the gospel is silent. In the same breadth, for the Christian, death is a good thing. It is the pathway to see the face of our Lord. It is an opportunity to hear “well done, good and faithful servant”. It is the pathway to the kingdom of God. It is an opportunity to the chorus of glorified saints. Paul said that to live is Christ, and to die is even better. David Azzaman has taken the better part – however untimely it might seem to you and me. His death can be a reminder to the church to pay attention to basic road safety; it can be an opportunity to remind ourselves of our mortality; it should be an opportunity to share the gospel with the unbelieving; and it should be an opportunity to talk about how the gospel renders the sting of death powerless.

Amen.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]

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okomile:
Summary pls

AI Summary:

The article on Nigerian Bigmanism explores a cultural phenomenon where individuals, often men, flaunt their wealth and status through extravagant spending, material possessions, and displays of power. This behavior is often driven by societal pressures, a desire for respect, and a need to showcase success.

Bigmanism can manifest in various ways, such as:

- Excessive spending on luxury items
- Boasting about wealth and status
- Using material possessions to measure self-worth
- Emulating Western or elite lifestyles

The article might discuss the implications of Bigmanism on Nigerian society, including its potential effects on social dynamics, economic stability, and individual well-being.

Nigerian Bigmanism

By: Deji Yesufu

When a society has fundamental problems, every person living within that sphere becomes an overnight sociologist. We all try to proffer solutions to these problems with the hope that we can solve societal troubles. A cursory look at Nigeria’s history will reveal that this country has never had a short supply of solutions to our problems. Books have been written; academic papers have been published; the radio and TV are filled with social commentators; etc. Everybody appears to know what the problem is with this country but the solution continues to evade us. I might have accidentally found the solution to our problems but before I mention it, I must trace out a little history of this country.

In 1949, Obafemi Awolowo called a few friends to a meeting in his house and shared with them the idea of forming a political party. He told them that the party was going to be birth in secret. Having been in politics long enough, the sage had realized that many good ideas have perished in Nigeria because people see what could become of those ideas and because they will not be primary beneficiaries of it, they ensure it is killed in infancy. Between 1950 and 1951, when the political party would be announced to the public, numerous meetings were held; key offices in the party were enacted; ideas were shared; policy papers for the party were formed; etc. Eventually, they came to the question of what to call the party. After a few deliberations, Awolowo suggested that the party should be called “Action Group”. He argued that the main problem with Nigeria is not lack of ideas, it is just that Nigerians love to talk; they love to hear the sound of their own voices, but they hardly have the will to do the things they were talking about. Awolowo told his associates that the Action Group will be known more for what it does, than for what it says. The Action Group government that led South-west Nigeria from 1952 till 1960, remains the most successful political organization in this country’s history. Their success arose essentially from the fact that they pursued to actualize the things they promised the electorate. They allowed their actions to speak for them. By the time they finished government, many of the ministers in Awolowo’s government, including himself, were in debt. They served the people of Southwest Nigeria and much of what they did then is still standing as a witness to their work here in Ibadan.

What is the Nigerian problem? The chief problem with Nigerians is that we love the allure of office, while we are not so concerned with using that office to meet given goals. Nigerians will kill to get to positions of influence, but they reach those offices and spend most of their time there flaunting the fact that they are “Mr. this” or “Chief that”. I had always been aware of this fact about the people of my country. I however did not know what to call it. I was on a phone call with a man I now regard as a mentor who told me that that thing I have successfully identified should be better called “Nigerian Bigmanism”. I will explain what the two words mean, and how the phrase they both form is relevant to the question of solving the Nigerian problem. Nigerian Bigmanism is essentially a Nigerian thing. There is no doubt there are many places around the world, even in developed societies, where this ugly human trait shows itself – but one could argue that it is more pronounced in Nigeria. Everyone in this country wants to appear important. Everyone wants to occupy office. We pursue degrees and certificates, not because we want to solve societal problems but because we want to be called “doctor” or “professor”. We are offended when we are called in public without our given titles. Family spend time wanting to know the ages of other family so we can remind such persons we are older than them. Nigerian bigmanism is a Nigerian thing. With what I have written above, one can safely deduce what “bigmanism” means. But in case you have not, bigmanism is simply the corrupting of two words: “big” and “man”, and then an attempt to make the two words into a noun. The big man is everything in Nigeria. Many times he might just be big in name, and empty of any substance within.

Having identified this problem of bigmanism in Nigeria, the next thing is to attempt a cure for it. To be able to rid ourselves of its corrupting influence, Nigerians must first and foremost accept that we have this problem. To write this article, I have settled within myself that because I am Nigerian, I am also plagued with this problem of bigmanism. Like Alcoholic Anonymous, I must say to myself “I am plagued with bigmanism” and I must submit myself to a program to rid my mentality of this problem. Alcoholic Anonymous takes its principle from the Christian message that calls men to repentance if they will experience any redemption within their lives. When we accept our sins, we are on the path of being forgiven and of being rid of them. Therefore, every person reading this article, if you happen to be a Nigerian, you must accept that you are plagued by this disease.

The second thing that every Nigerian must commit themselves to do would be to talk less and do more. Like Obafemi Awolowo encouraged his political associates to do, we can allow our actions to speak for ourselves. I believe when we began to suffer in this country was when Nigerians began to pay little to merit, and give more effort to the question of who and who you know. When a problem arises in Nigeria, the first question that is usually asked is: “Who do you know in that place?” You need to know someone in an office for your case file to be treated; you need to know someone in a hospital to see the doctor; you need to know someone in a political organization to get a job within a system; etc. When merit died, nepotism and cronyism took its place. At the close of the day, Nigerian institutions are no longer known for what they produce; but mainly for what they used to be. If this country will not go under eventually, we must rediscover merit, and we must be a people with the ability to translate vision into work. Productivity must heighten in this country, and the people who can deliver on a project must be called to occupy office; not just that they know somebody, or they possess some certification; or, any of these silly sentiments that carry the Nigerian big-man toga.

There are many other things Nigerians must do to rid themselves of bigmanism. But I think this one last thing cannot be avoided: Nigerians must understand the true meaning of meekness. The meek man is the person who has power and ensures he does not abuse it. The meek man knows that the position he occupies already gives him a vantage point and strength, and he ensures he does not oppress those under him because of the position he occupies. A meek man makes humility his pursuit. He never announces himself. Even when the work begins to speak for him, he still ensures that he is humble. A meek man enters the office to use the office to meet set goals; not to uplift himself and belittle others. The meek has his strength under control. When we realize that our time in office is fleeting, and one day we must leave our position for someone else, we endeavour to treat other people the same way we wish they would treat us when they are in places of authority. Nigerian bigmanism dies in the face of meekness. When we have knowledge of some history – and realize that many men of power have lived, died, and are mostly forgotten, we want to humble ourselves – because we also will become of one those numbers one day. We should hope that our time in office will leave a mark for many to . We should hope that there will be landmarks that are tied to our names in the future. We should hope that a generation will rise and say, like they say of Obafemi Awolowo, “We went to school because of this man’s vision of free education”. Nigerians should pursue to actualize the given vision and stop basking in the allure of office. There are many things wisdom teaches. Bigmanism is never one of them.

The Nigerian problem is not rocket science. It is easy to solve. I will not mind if this essay s the scrap hill where Nigerians throw away good ideas. I will however endeavor to commit the rest of my life to ensuring that bigmanism dies within me. I hope that if and when I occupy the office, I will spend more time being productive than enjoying the perks of the office. I hope I can be an example to people via my actions, and maybe then people will discover this article from the scrap hill of ideas and realize that I have been championing these thoughts long before I came into office.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY

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chiagozien:
Ok

Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Nemesis

By: Deji Yesufu

One of the leading weapons that Ukraine has succeeded in using against Russia’s incursion into their land is American drones. The technology behind drones is simply breathtaking. If you have a moment, go to YouTube and watch short videos of how these drones are used on the battlefield. The drone tracks down a detachment of Russian soldiers, and while filming them, it begins to aim bullets and bombs at them. There is usually nowhere for the soldiers to hide. After evading the drone for a little bit, the soldiers end up being killed. One of the ways they succeed against these drone attacks is to distract them with one soldier, who chooses to lay down his life for his colleagues, while others flee to safety. Well, the Nigerian public needs to be aware that Boko Haram is now in possession of these same drones, and they have been using them against Nigerian soldiers. In fact, the recent resurgence of these evil men and the increased successes they have had in Borno State are largely owed to this fact. The issue has become such an urgent matter that the Nigerian military reported that its core leadership have now moved to Maiduguri to find lasting solutions to the Boko Haram problem, which has successfully made itself into Nigeria’s chief nemesis.

The beginning of Boko Haram must be traced to a young man called Mohammed Yusuf, who at the beginning of this millennium began to teach an unorthodox Islamic doctrine that the white man’s civilisation was “haram” – not permitted by God. Those who study a bit of sociology say that there is an inevitable clash that will arise between the Western bloc in the world and the Eastern parts of our world. The West was built essentially upon Christian values, while most of the East is Muslim. When the British came to Nigeria to colonise it, their main concern was not to spread their religion. The British needed raw materials to feed their ever-growing industries. They found, however, that they could not separate their mission from the missionaries who had come to bring the light of the gospel to the local people. The British would eventually see the missionaries as allies. The British provided the missionaries with military cover for their work, while the missionaries aided the colonisers to reach the local populace. All of these were happening in the backdrop of a simmering conflict that had just concluded. An Islamic scholar and warlord had only just concluded his missions in Northern Nigeria when the British arrived in the country through the coastal areas in the 1830s.

Uthman Dan Fodio was born in 1754 and died in 1817. Dan Fodio was a Fulani who helped to spread Sunni Islam throughout Northern Nigeria. His movement was regarded as a revolution because it took over most of the areas we now regard as North West and North East Nigeria. His hopes were to bring Islam to the coastal areas of Nigeria, but his followers’ crusade in Southwest Nigeria was stopped at Ilorin. This is why the Sokoto Caliphate still lays claim to Ilorin. Another thing that is generally known about Dan Fodio was that he spread his religion with the force of the sword. If Nigeria had a constitutional government at his time, Dan Fodio could easily have been likened to an old-time Boko Haram. Boko Haram and Dan Fodio quite easily could find justification for their actions from the Muslims’ holy book – the Qu’ran. There is nothing within the Qu’ran that commands Muslims today to pay allegiance to the constitution of Nigeria. In fact, there is everything within their sacred texts that tells them to wage war against unbelievers and bring the government of Nigeria under the rule of Islam. This is the justification that Boko Haram has for its actions.

As we continue to consider the real dangers that Boko Haram and other terror groups pose for the continuous existence of Nigeria, we must also come to grasp with another real fact: which is that our boys in the army are dying en-masse in a war that naturally should not take the nation any time to bring an end to. I am friends with a few soldiers on Facebook, and you cannot imagine the horrors that our boys must endure in a war that I consider needless, and that this country should have ended a long time ago. Perhaps at the heart of the failure of the army to rein in the Boko Haram insurgency is the endemic corruption in many public institutions in Nigeria. Many people are spending blood money in this country. It appears that what propels a lot of Nigerians into action is never love for country or for their fellow men, but love for themselves, their families, and their communities – in that order. One way or the other, Nigerians missed the lesson that a country is only as strong as the people in it band together. The foremost reason people enter public office is almost never to serve the populace, but to serve themselves, their families, and their communities. Corruption is killing Nigeria, and the army is not immune to this epidemic. Perhaps one day this country will find military men who will occupy office to bring an end to the violence in the North East.

As Nigeria battles the evil of corruption in its midst, there is also the challenge of foreign influence on the country. David Hundeyin has been positing a conspiracy theory for a long time, but very few people are paying attention to the young man. He has been saying that the Western world realises the potential Nigeria has not only in the mass of natural resources beneath her soil, but also in the sheer number of its population. Nigeria has simply not gone under because Nigerian women continue to give birth to children in record numbers. When you compare this fact with the Western world, where women are having an average of one of one child to a family, and our women here are having at least three children to a family, you understand why the Western world fear Africa and Asia’s domination of the world scene through sheer population growth. The conspiracy theory is that the West will continue to insurgency activities in the country that will cause chaos, anarchy, and killings, just so that our numbers can be reduced. When you also realise that the drones that the Boko Haram terrorists use are Western-made, in fact, American-produced, you begin to give some thought to this conspiracy theory. Finally, there have been reports that Boko Haram and other Islamic insurgent groups continue to receive mysterious military supplies and food, delivered to the terrorists in their hideouts in the bush with helicopters, etc. You then begin to realise that these conspiracy theories may have elements of truth in them. America’s chief concern has never been the good of the world. The American fundamental theory is “America first”, and Donald Trump has only come to strengthen that philosophy. If anyone will save Nigeria, we may need to stop looking less to the Western world, and also consider a similar philosophy of “Nigeria first”.

The biggest takeaway from my article should be this: how do we solve the Boko Haram problem? The solutions will not be easy, but the Nigerian government must be willing to consider them. The first thing I think the government of the day must come quickly to realise is that there are essentially two types of Islamic ideologies in Nigeria today: the first are agreeable to Western civilisation, and the second are gravely opposed to it. The challenge that I think this country has been having is that many Muslims who are agreeable to Western civilisation also give tacit to Boko Haram. You find this not in what they say or do, but in their complete silence about the carnage that this evil group is bringing on Nigeria. If Muslims regard Boko Haram as a terrorist group in truth and verity, organisations like MURIC should be at the forefront of condemning these animals. What you find is that MURIC and other Muslim organisations will complain about everything except the scores of people being killed daily in Borno State. It appears to me that Muslims have come to regard the activities of Boko Haram as normal. I also fear that it is also appears that there is a hope that some Muslims have that they will one day see Boko Haram overrun this country so that Nigeria would no longer be a secular state but a Muslim one. These allegations may sound extreme, but I believe the only way Muslims would convince some of us otherwise is when they begin to condemn Boko Haram with the strongest words possible.

Second. This country must pray and hope that God will send saviour military men to our army. Men who have the genuine good of this country at heart, and not men who are just in office to line their pockets. Some of the stories that emerge from the frontlines about the raging corruption in the military are really heartbreaking. Earlier this year, Fisayo Soyombo, an investigative journalist, unveiled corrupt practices in the military, where soldiers were aiding the smuggling of crude oil in Rivers State. That story was covered up, and nothing came out of it. Instead, poor Soyombo is doing everything today to not end up being killed by assassins for the work he does to save Nigeria. If the Nigerian military is giving cover to smugglers of crude, what else are these men doing in the face of insurgency attacks in the country? At some point, Nigerians will have to come to grips with the fact that there is such a thing as patriotism. Also, that God has created us to not only benefit our families and ourselves, but also to benefit humanity. And if charity must begin at home, we must all commit to helping this country solve its problems. All hands must be on deck. The potential of this country is way too much for us all to allow it to waste away. Most of us have ignored this Boko Haram subject because it appears to be hundreds of kilometres away from where we live. But the nature of insurgency is that no one knows what it can become tomorrow. The Boko Haram threatening to take Maiduguri today may begin to head to Abuja. And if those animals take the seat of power, this country is as good as finished.

Lastly, I must leave a word for our youths: What are you doing with your education? The nation has heard your cries for jobs, but you must understand that the greatest blessing that God might have given your generation is the absence of jobs in Nigeria. What education equips you with is the ability to solve problems. When you bring solutions to people’s problems, these people will pay you any amount for it. This is how jobs are created in working societies. Recently, a can of beans was being sold for N5,000 in Ibadan. Have you considered agriculture? Here we are talking about the menace of Boko Haram in our society. Have you considered gathering children together and teaching them lessons on patriotism? Instead of these endless skits you young people make, have you considered bringing yourself together and birthing another Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM)? Do you know that the NYM of the 1940s is what produced great nationalists like Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikwe? Your education is meant more than to keep you in an office with air conditioning blowing over your face. It is meant for you to recognise societal problems and provide solutions to them. Yesterday, I met a young man who is planning to become a distributor of electric motorcycles in Ibadan. Another young man has started to build “okada Teslas” in the Eastern parts of Nigeria, and this young man will be selling that product in Ibadan soon. These boys saw that fuel is becoming too costly, and that Nigerians might begin to prefer motorcycles that run on batteries alone.

How Boko Haram became both a menace and a nemesis to Nigeria is a story that will still be properly told someday. For now, we must rest content with the fact that this country has a problem, and we must be brutally honest with ourselves enough to solve it.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]

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Acehart:
Mighty words. Thank God and thank you for this article.

Thank God for the Prosperity Gospel

By: Deji Yesufu

Controversies have always been the driving force in theology. A careful reading of the New Testament will reveal that our Lord Jesus Christ himself did not shy away from controversies. Most of what Jesus taught was either diatribes against a popular opinion of his day or a polemic against false teachers. The Jews of Jesus’ day could never have imagined that God would have anything against their doctrine or practice. They were convinced that, unlike the days of their fathers, when they frequently departed from God’s laws and went after idols, Ezra had finally succeeded in importing true religion to Israel. The fact that they had groups like the Pharisees and the Sadducees was only a pointer to the virility of their beliefs, or so they thought. “Doctrine divides…”, I could imagine a few of them boasting.

Alas, when Christ the Son of God, nay, God himself, came among them, our Lord condemned the religion of the Jews. They couldn’t believe it and, in their exasperation, they took the Lord of glory and crucified him. Christ’s death was the response of the Jews to Christ’s polemic against their religion. We could sit pretty in the 21st century and think that we ourselves would never do such a thing. But such thinking totally underestimates the wickedness in every one of our hearts. Thankfully, the coming of Jesus had promised salvation from sin (Matthew 1:21). The sin this scripture promises Christ will redeem men from shall not be the sin of the world but the sin of his people. Long before Christ was condemned at the cross, God had set out a plan to save his people from their sins. The true biblical thinking, therefore, is not the man who thinks he has finally gained mastery of his sin; rather, it is the man who identifies the wickedness of his own heart to be on par with those of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If God saves the Jews who condemned his Son, God will save any sinner. This is the gospel.

These thoughts emerge in my thinking in light of a simmering controversy on social media. The details of that controversy are not necessary to be mentioned here. What I felt I must respond to was a diatribe against me during this controversy. When an individual made a statement that I am convinced has my person included. This person said, and I paraphrase: a lot of people you see on social media are not Reformed. These people are only reacting against the Prosperity Gospel. You then ask: how do you know this person was talking about you? And I answer: I was not born yesterday. My chairman at the Reformed Theological Seminary Foundation (RTSF) tells me that the greatest strength of the British is hearing what people did not say within a whole lot of statements they uttered. Besides, how many Reformed persons in this country have written against the Prosperity Gospel like me? My book, HUMANITY, was a polemic against the Prosperity Gospel. Now, to be fair to this individual, he might not have had me in mind when he made that statement. For the sake of this article, however, I choose to wear the cap.

My angst against the Prosperity Gospel can be traced to my mother’s words to me sometimes in 1984. Here we are staring at the television, and Benson Idahosa appears, preaching in a flowing white agenda. My mother said: Beware of men like this. They are in the ministry only for money. Many years later, I saw the story of Jeroboam, the first king of breakaway Israel. Scripture records that Jeroboam made two calves and proclaimed that those calves were the ones that delivered Israel from Egypt. Now, a 21st-century thinking person will say: no one should believe that narrative. Israel should know their history. Alas, they believed it. Not alone, generations after generations prostituted themselves with those calves. Scripture tells us that every king after Jeroboam followed this doctrine and every one of them sinned. This continued until God rid the land of Israel. I read that part of the scriptures in 1999, and I became convinced that Benson Idahosa could very easily be substituted for Jeroboam. Modern Prosperity teachers in Nigeria are the sons and daughters of the sin of Jeroboam – nay, Idahosa. What, then, is the relevance of this thesis to the recent controversy? I will explain.

Genuine Reformed thinking has never been a doctrine that emerges by itself. Every Reformed work the Holy Spirit has embarked on since Elijah has been a reaction to false doctrine. Reformed Theology, in other words, is REACTIONARY THEOLOGY. We are in business because false teachers are in business. The day we cease to react to false doctrine, we cease to be Reformed. The word “Reformed Theology” was birthed by Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli died early in the Reformed struggle, and it was left to Calvin to push the doctrine forward. And since then, the Reformed message has always entered a land to purify that land of prevailing false doctrine in a land. So, when modern Reformed thinkers tell us that our Reformed message should not react to the Prosperity Gospel, they are speaking from a very limited understanding, to say the least. If you live in Nigeria and your Reformed theology has so evolved as to no longer be bothered about the Prosperity Gospel, one should question your commitment to the gospel demands of our time.

Now this piece is titled “Thank God for the Prosperity Gospel”, and I must hurry to explain the reason for my joy and rejoicing. God told the Jews that he had left some of the inhabitants of the promised land there so that the land would not be overrun with wild animals, and so as to teach Israel to wage war. If not for the Prosperity Gospel, I would probably have never known that Christ died for my sins ALONE. I employ the word “alone” because Martin Luther used it in his translations of the Greek New Testament into German, particularly in that mighty scripture in Romans 1:16-17. Rather than leave Romans 1:17 as “…the just shall live by faith…”, Luther added “…the just shall live by faith alone…” When he was accused of adding to the word of God, Luther explained that the German language needed that emphasis. But you and I understand that today that the distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism is that word “alone”. In a similar way, the difference between reformed theology and Word of Faith is the word “alone”. Biblical theology, and by extension reformed theology, teaches that Christ died for our sin alone; while Word of Faith teaches that Christ died for our sin, and to make us healthy and wealthy. There is a lot of difference between these theologies, and making this distinction a lifelong pursuit is a worthy ministry.

As we pursue the distinction between reformed theology and the prosperity gospel, which is Word of Faithism, it is also important to remind ourselves of some reformed distinctives. No matter how much anyone accuses some of us of not being reformed, the fact still remains that reformed theology, which is true biblical theology, has never been in lip service alone. While we rejoice in our confessions and we uphold worthy doxologies, true reformed theology is what people do. This is what I mean: biblical Christianity is a life that is transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit via the regeneration of a sinner’s heart. God sovereignly overrules the intentions of men’s hearts, causes repentance following the hearing of the gospel, and then imparts faith in the heart of the listeners. Salvation is by faith alone, which implies that we lay hold on Christ with the hands of faith.

However, it is also the reformers who taught us that true saving faith is not alone. It yields fruits in keeping with genuine repentance. Therefore, it is not he who merely confesses the confessions that is confessional. It is not he who claims to be reformed, that is genuinely reformed. It is not belonging to a local assembly, where everyone vaunts reformed theology that makes a person reformed. The one who is genuinely reformed is the person who lives out the biblical tenets in all of their ramifications. It means that a Roman Catholic who believes in Jesus and lives out the commandments of Christ is reformed, while a reformed person who lives like a devil is not reformed – it does not matter what confessions he makes.

One day in a nation very far away from ours, at a time quite distant from us, two missionaries met on the mission field to discuss the implications of their mission works so far, and how much more the Lord would demand that they do for him. There was, however, a small disagreement: one of the younger missionaries had left the group and returned home at the very point in time he was most needed. As they plotted the next mission, one of the missionaries insisted that this young missionary would not go with them. The other missionary said it was not an issue; the young missionary can be forgiven. What began as a small matter degenerated into a “sharp” disagreement.

The once joyful missionary group became divided (Acts 15:36-41). In the eyes of men, this disagreement was looked upon as something bad, sinful, and controversial. In the eyes of the Lord, two missionary boards had been created to reach the nations with the gospel. The gracious sovereignty of God is the way and manner he uses even our sins to bring his good purposes to . This is why I am so thankful to God for the Prosperity Gospel. Because if there had been no prosperity gospel, I probably would never have encountered the doctrine of grace. Amen.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected].

Source

Kobojunkie:
Nonsense and eegridient pronouncements! 🙄🙄🙄🙄

OP, I insist you go get your health examined by a professional mental health therapist before it is too late.

Coming from a "junkie"

Daisyle:
Is this the father of Aunty Kemi Olu yolo?

Yes


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX6qKQmoNqg?si=9ntttzP7G3nAFokm

How Kemi Olunloyo brought a curse on herself:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX6qKQmoNqg?si=xKRXsEFLTZvNoGVw

Concluded

On a flight home from London on one occasion, Olunloyo ran into Prof. Wole Soyinka on the plane as he was putting his carrier bag in the overhead compartment. ‘Hello, editor of Mustard Seed.’ Wole Soyinka instantly turned and smiled. Soyinka was editor of Grier House magazine, Mustard Seed, in their school days at GCI and was two years Olunloyo’s senior. Both Soyinka and Olunloyo were in Grier House, both now academics, both sideline activists and politicians, both Ibadan ruminants who knew its nook and crannies for all its notable culinary ts. So there was plenty to share and to heartily reminisce about before they took their seats on the plane. Watching quizzically as they engaged were too students from the Middle East. Nervously, they went to Olunloyo. ‘Sir, is that Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate that you were talking to?’ Olunloyo answered in the affirmative, and both students nodded to themselves as if I told you so. Soyinka, with his mane, is unmistakable. The students summoned courage and approached Soyinka to pay their respects and iration. They were mathematics students, so they asked Soyinka if Nigeria also had mathematicians of his stature. All Soyinka did was look back from his seat and point them to Olunloyo, who led them to him. The students returned to Olunloyo and laid bare their mathematics problem. They wanted a simultaneous equation problem involving three unknowns solved. Olunloyo asked for a sheet of paper and solved the problem with three approaches—substitution, matrices and moulds—to arrive at the same answer. It left the students with their mouths hanging open. Suddenly, they exclaimed: ‘Nigeria is full of geniuses.’ Perhaps so; who knows?

When Lekan Are, his friend and classmate was going to be 80, I teased him that Lekan’s GCI school number was 514 ahead of his at 546, making Lekan a quasi-senior boy. His mind went in a different direction. He said to me, ‘Lekan’s number at 514 is very interesting. That is, two to power nine (512) plus two to power one (2), making 514, which in binary language is 1,000,000,010 for the computer’. Anyone who thinks like that must be crazy. Olunloyo was crazy about mathematics.

I once had a week-long programme in Oxford. Somehow I finished by Friday and now had the weekend to myself. To occupy the weekend, I needed a handy book to engage me and so I went to Blackwell’s bookshop for one. I found none until I ran into a mathematics book. So captivated was I that I read the book to the bookshop’s till, through the bus ride to my hotel, and by the next day, I had finished reading the book. Excitedly, I called my wife with elan about my read, and she asked, as women are wont to do, whether I was under the influence. She declined to share the book with me and instead suggested that I give the book to Olunloyo.

As soon as I returned to Nigeria, I went to Olunloyo with my new find. Unsurprisingly, he sat me down and gave me a fuller lecture on Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician who took a mathematics chair at Cambridge without a university degree. Olunloyo just simply knew mathematics. When integers stood alone or together, he saw ascension or descension; he could make their evenness or oddities; when placed on top of one another and fractionated, he could make sense of them all; when a full stop was thrown around numbers, the decimals were his companions; seeing figures, he could make an apparent or inherent meaning to them; he could see figures when sequenced or looped; even when numbers were chaotic, he could make sense out of chaos. Given any figure, he saw a deeper meaning, and with several figures, he could interpret where, under the same circumstances, the rest of us drew a blank. So, for him, there was maths and beauty everywhere around us, in literature, in music, and horticulture. Three years ago, he introduced me to the maths in graphic arts through the works of the genius E.C. Escher. Olunloyo was just simply phenomenal, a wondrous make, a mathematical head, pure and simple. But he was humble enough to acknowledge the vastness of knowledge, and he made a daily assignment to learn continuously. And so he spent endless hours in his study and paid weekly visits to the bookshop. Even when he suffered a stroke, he put his head to the test, and when the faculty was still fully operational, he said the legs could go as long as the head was intact. He rode around in a wheelchair in his study and made regular visits to the bookshop. On his penultimate visit, he sent me a note…He wrote that the bill be given to ‘Kolade whatever his surname’, and this was coming from ‘Olunloyo the man with constitutional authority’.

Sometimes at public functions, he was bewitched in his thoughts. He would bend over to a sheet of paper to solve some mathematical problems. In this mood, I knew better not to disturb his train of thought. When irers, friends, relations, etc, stopped by to say hello, they found him vacant. He was in a different realm. Surprisingly though, and magically so, he followed the proceedings of the function. You knew this because, at the end of the event, he could engage by giving a blow-by-blow of what had transpired.

For his work life, he took up an academic position as a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, then the University of Ife; he was later Rector Polytechnic Ibadan and briefly Polytechnic, Kwara; he held variegated positions with Government and Academic institutions—fifty-five in total spanning forty five years of service. He served as Commissioner for Economic Planning and Community Development, and Commissioner for Education in Western State. At some point, he held two portfolios at the same time as Commissioner of Education and Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. In a number of these institutions, never mind his title, he served as a troubleshooter, an ombudsman, a cracker to solve any and every problem, and an interventionist minister. It was against this background that he set his sight on politics and was sucked into serving fleetingly as the Governor of Oyo State.

I did not think much of his politics and never hid that from him. He was a mass of contradictions. Once, he told me that the politics of Oyo State operated on a tripod: Lamidi Adedibu provided the brawn, Aseez Arisekola/Yekini Adeejo the money, and Olunloyo, the brain—to formulate the ideology and strategy to propel the politics. I was never impressed. I thought he leagued with men after power with all means possible. But he countered that political parties are made up of angels and devils, less of one than the other. I have seen plenty of truism in that statement. Often, when he talked about politics, I listened intently but with dissimulation. I thought he had started his mathematical journey brilliantly, but it stood still when he veered into politics. I wish he stayed true and exclusively focused on mathematics and engineering. His wealth and profound faculty of intellect would have been globally felt far more than his political achievement. But he strayed into politics and remained mercurial in it because he tried to solve it with equations and theorems. It was a struggle that consumed him till the very end.

For all his brilliance, he lacked financial intelligence. This dogged him in his twilight because of the huge expense over many years for his medical care. His family’s medical care was also, for many more years, quite exorbitant. People like him ought to have been kept in the financial court of the government or academic institution. They were not to be disturbed by mundane matters such as finances. Their focus had to be entirely scholarship—morning, day and night. He was on scholarship throughout his academic career. He could have been a national scholar for life.

I am sure Olunloyo would not mind me mentioning his debt to his family and to the late Abiola Ajimobi, late Lekan Are, late Alafin Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, Enoch Adeboye, Rasheed Ladoja, Seyi Makinde, Bode George, Wale Babalakin, William Kumuyi, Olusegun Obasanjo, Gabriel Ogunmola, Kola Daisi, Lekan Ademosu, and Ibrahim Babaginda. Friends do not often reveal what friends do. He repeatedly sang their praises because they extended to him.

Given the portrait that I have offered in this essay, the question should be posed whether his talent lay more in scholarship, particularly in mathematics and engineering or in politics. I will cast my lot with scholarship.

He knew I talked little and wrote little, but when I had to, I did freely of my mind, which was the brace of the relationship. I was one of his sounding boards. He was a great friend, senior and mentor. I will miss his endless stream of conversation from Beethoven to Newton, Einstein to Awolowo and Akintola and, of course, Euler, Ramanujan, Hawkins and Archimedes—his fellow mathematicians. He was a polyglot, a polymath, an iconic, itinerant teacher, a maverick, and a restless politician. Such was the ease with which he could move from Pythagoras through Aristotle and Dante to Nietzsche and Shakespeare with relative ease. He was truly well-cultured.

I a tale he once told me. Chief Obafemi Awolowo had written a letter to him in which he stated categorically that ‘…when I become 80…’. Olunloyo took the letter back to him the next day after having read it. He added two words to that categorical statement, to now read ‘…if and when I become 80…’ Awolowo accepted the correction. The Good Lord took Awolowo away at 79. Man’s limitation and language is to make provision that whatever will be will be, only if God is willing, deo volente (dv), an ablative absolute expression.

On Saturday, April 5, 2025, Dr Olunloyo called me not once, but four times. On the fourth call, he asked that I undertake an assignment for him. I sent a note to the mutual friend he sent me to and added, ‘by the way, Dr Victor Olunloyo will be 90 on April 14, 2025’. Suddenly, I ed his tale and quickly corrected myself and now wrote ‘…Dr Victor Olunloyo will be 90 on April 14, 2025, God willing’. The Good Lord, in his providence, called him home the next day, April 6, 2025.

When death finally came, even though previous rumours and hospitalizations had prepared me, I shed a tear.

…Last scene of all

That ends this strange eventful history

Is second childishness and mere oblivion

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII.

Dr Kolade Mosuro is a Publisher, Bookseller, and Trustee of Government College Ibadan Old Boys Association.

Source

Photo: Author of the article - Kolade Mosuro of Booksellers, Dugbe, Ibadan

Dr Victor Omololu Olunloyo: Uncommon Brilliance

By: Dr Kolade Mosuro

On at least two different occasions, the rumour was rife on social media that he was dead. To be falsely deceased, I teased that he, like Alfred Nobel, had had the chance to read his own obituary. In a particular instance, a family rebuttal revealed that he was in intensive care at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. I made for the Intensive Care Unit, UCH, the next day, a Saturday morning. I was not going to disturb their care or protocol. I just had to be there in case he needed me. Expectedly, and rightfully so, the nurses barred visitors from seeing him. I wrote my name on a sheet of paper and gave it to a nurse to hand over to him, just for him to know I was outside in case he needed anything. The nurse came rushing back and said that he wanted to see me immediately.

As I got to his bedside, he held my hand tightly and, to the amazement of the medical staff around, quoted the melancholy words of Jacques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…” Right there, I stopped him in his tracks that he should quote no further. Instead, to his smile, we both said in unison that the exit was not now. He lived another three years after, but poorly. Finally, with every man inevitably to his exit, death, not wholly unexpected, came calling on April 6, 2025, after he had played many parts following an innings of eighty-nine.

The preparation for these many parts began from Government College, Ibadan (GCI) in 1948, although he was scion to an illustrious family, the first educated elite and early Christians in Ibadan. When David and Anna Hinderer, the first CMS missionaries, came to Ibadan in 1853, they were placed in the care of Balogun Olunloyo, a warlord and high chief of Ibadan. Balogun Olunloyo’s children, Akinyele, male, and Yejide, female, found play and school with the Hinderers. Akinyele became the first male literate of Ibadan, while Yejide became the first female literate. Yejide Girls Grammar School, Ibadan, is named after her. The Olunloyos prominently took up early church, civil, and istrative roles in Ibadan. The Akinyele line produced Horatio Vincent Olunloyo, who was Victor Omololu’s father.

The brilliant signs of Horatio’s first son, Victor Omololu Olunloyo, were there even precociously from primary school. He took the common entrance examination, which was a global examination for all leaving primary school students, and he was first in 1946 and 1947 in the whole of the Ibadan District Church Council schools from Ibadan to Gbongan, Ikirun, and Osogbo. It was while at St. Peter’s Aremo Primary School that he was introduced to mathematics by an impressionable teacher, J.A.F Sokoya, in a remarkable and inspiring way. He saw early and clearly the relations of integers and that there was a concrete connection between mathematics and real life. Here, foundational mathematics was planted to flourish in him for the rest of his life.

In 1948, he entered Government College, Ibadan (GCI) from Standard Five, as the youngest in his class, when most of his classmates came in from Standard Six. It took him some time to rally. Once he found his stride in the second year, he never let go of the first position in Mathematics. To be first meant not just to score high but to get everything. Two illustrations will suffice.

A mathematics examination was going to be served by the teacher, Mr W.H. Browne. The teacher aimed to write the questions on the board, exit to have tea in the staff room, and come back to collect the students’ scripts. As he wrote the first question, he asked the students to commence. There were five questions, and they were to answer all of them. As he finished writing the fifth question and just as he was gathering his papers to go for tea, Olunloyo raised his hand. ‘What is it Olunloyo?’ the teacher queried. ‘I have finished, sir,’ Olunloyo replied. The teacher first thought it was a prank, remonstrated Olunloyo and then collected his papers for marking to see that, indeed, he had finished and got everything.

There was an ‘unsolvable’ problem in the Mathematics textbook by C.V. Durrell. It was common in those days to tackle all the problems in a text to gain proficiency in the subject. There was a generational problem because nobody in the annals of GCI that used Durell’s textbook had solved it. It was a problem built around a billiard table. It was such a knotty problem because it fell outside the imagination of the boys. They had never seen a billiard table before. And then Mr. A. Long, the principal, was going to be visiting a friend at the University College, Ibadan, and he took some boys along. One of them was Olunloyo. Following the visit, they called at the Senior Staff Dining Hall and Recreation Centre, and before their very eyes, for the first time ever, was a billiard table, and a game was on. Olunloyo took a careful look and was in a conjectural mood. He could hardly wait to return to school to tackle the intractable Durrell problem—the one that had baffled his class and the seniors before him. He settled to the problem and finally solved it. In that eureka moment, he threw off his uniform; some said he went nude, running wildly around his house, Grier, shouting: “I have solved it! I have solved it!! I have solved it!!!” It was a momentous occasion for schoolboy mathematics. His brilliance and escapades at GCI became a lore. He went on to record a Grade 1 in his final year at GCI and A1 in Mathematics.

Following GCI, he dazzled with some academic performances. He spent some seven months preparing for his HSC Examinations, a programme that would ordinarily take two years, and ed by scoring AAAC. He spent three months at the University College, Ibadan (UCI) and ed the Intermediate BSc, a programme that would ordinarily take two years. His stay at UCI was brief, but the records he set were renowned. At tests and examinations, when given mathematical questions to solve, for the student to attempt three out of five, Olunloyo would do four within the allotted time, and write on the script for the lecturer to mark any three he chose. He got them all. He was fittingly nicknamed by his fellow classmates, ‘Mark Any Three.’

Of his brilliance, everybody took notice; some took a special interest. Adegoke Adelabu and Emmanuel Alayande saw in him a very special Ibadan poster boy, a pride. M.S. Sowole, Ambassador and Agent-General for Western Nigeria in the UK, his father’s contemporary and bosom friend, and Lady Kofo Ademola and others saw in him a national academic prodigy. They leaned to an overseas university training. For overseas universities, Olunloyo’s heart was really in Manchester University. Why? Manchester then was one of the leading universities in the UK offering Technology. Ademola Banjo was there making waves. He had just recorded a first class in Mechanical Engineering. But Kofo Ademola was pushing differently. She wanted Olunloyo to go to Cambridge to be a part of that reputational institution that had graduated some of the best minds in Mathematics—Isaac Newton, Alan Turing, Carl Gauss,etc, and to go to Cambridge just as did her husband, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola. But Cambridge offered a one-year deferred ission because the session was already on. Olunloyo was not in any mood to wait idly for one year. Kofo Ademola was challenged to find another great university which offered immediate ission, which was what led him to St. Andrews College.

The University of St Andrews is no pushover. It is the topmost and oldest university in Scotland. It is a university much favoured by the British royalty. It was established in 1413, and it is as renowned as the University of Oxford, founded in 1096, and the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209. Coming with only three months from the University College, Ibadan, Olunloyo was placed in the first year to study Mechanical Engineering. He kicked against his placement. He wanted to be placed in the second year, and he was adamant about this. By precedent, this was not done, but Olunloyo was obstinately insistent. He took his case to his Head of Department, Prof. Caldericks. Finally, Caldericks took the matter to the Senate, whereupon they reluctantly agreed to put him in the second year on the condition that he took a test in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Olunloyo pleaded for a week of preparation before the tests were served. When the tests were served, three hours per subject, and marked, he scored 98, 88 and 84 percent in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry, respectively. St. Andrews immediately placed him in the second year.

In that second-year class, he led in all the subjects he took. He became a unique academic specimen, and this time, it was the Senate pressing to meet him. Prof Caldericks took his student to the Senate to the amazement of all the dons. Olunloyo got their bow. One of the amazing things he did in an examination of 150 questions in which they were expected to do 100 was to do all and he scored 132%. The next student to him scored 89%, while the third scored 66%. At graduation in 1957, six academic medals were available in his department; Olunloyo won five, and the sixth was won by Ifedayo Oladapo, both Nigerians, both old boys of Government College, Ibadan, and both classmates at GCI. Olunloyo recorded, of course, a first class in Mechanical Engineering. So did Ifedayo Oladapo, who went on to do his PhD at Cambridge.

At the end of the graduation year, the best results from the top ten universities in the UK, the Ivy League institutions, are pooled, and the very best of them get the most prestigious prize, the 1939 Prize, and also to dine with the monarch. It was Olunloyo who won the British Association Prize for the Most Distinguished Student in the Faculties of Science, and so dined with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 1958.

Olunloyo was exempted from a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mathematics and instead went straight on to do a PhD, a four to seven-year programme. He did it in a record time of two years with outstanding merit, finishing in 1959. He was twenty-four. Let us not debate: he was one of Nigeria’s most brilliant men. His brilliance was proudly extolled both overseas and in Nigeria.

He returned to Nigeria, and marriage soon followed. I point this out just to relate it to brilliance. For his honeymoon, he and his first wife, Funmilayo, flew to the UK. On their return from Liverpool, they hitched a ride back on the Prime Minister’s yacht that had gone over for repairs. It was going to be a new adventure returning home by sea.

Early one morning in the middle of the journey, Olunloyo looked to the sun and to his shadow on the deck and used both to plot a mental com enough to determine that the ship was headed in the wrong direction. He asked for the captain to come to the deck. He shared his mental calculations, and the captain laughed. A disdainful laugh followed, and then silence fell, followed by a reflective sigh. At the captain’s command in his cabin were dials pointing directions, knots showing speed, scopes indicating the depth of water and coordinates, and here was Olunloyo without a tool other than a phenomenal brain telling him he was taking the ship in the wrong direction. Olunloyo asked that he should go back to check his controls. The captain went back to his control and checked his dials and his consoles and when he returned this time, there were sweat beads on his eyebrows. He found that the ship was headed in the wrong direction on the mighty sea. The captain, speechless, motioned that Olunloyo should go back to his cabin. He was going to do a right about turn with the ship, the kind, if you are familiar with the sea, that brings about instant sea sickness. Well, better be sick than dead. Olunloyo, armed only with his brain and the rays of the sun, saved the ship, the crew, and the engers from imminent disaster.

Concluded in the next post

First photo: Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo
Second photo: Olunloyo with daughter Kemi

CC: Seun

Drifter02:
Ehya. Bye bye pro

I the man. He came for our Introduction to Mechanics class when I was in 100L 2016. The lecturer in charge (whom Farai taught) invited Farai. That was the only time I ever saw the man in my life.

From that one class, I knew this man was remarkable.

Rest on prof

He was

Idowu Farai: Tribute to My Teacher

By: Deji Yesufu

Prof. Idowu P. Farai died yesterday, 18th April 2025. He was seventy years old and had only recently retired from the services of the University of Ibadan, where he had been a teacher at the Department of Physics for a long time. Farai was a giant of a man, who encapsulated the phrase “gentle giant” in its truest form. He was easygoing, and in the little time I observed him, I never saw him bring the full weight of his powers on anyone. If he ever did, such an individual would be dust. Farai encapsulated meekness in its true sense. I write this tribute to honour a man who I observed to be truly committed to university education, with the hope that the system he left behind might take to some of the principles that people like him lived by. I also write this tribute for the family to take comfort in the fact that they had the honour of having a father who truly served the system he worked within.

Prof. Farai taught me between 2011 and 2012 when I came to the University of Ibadan to do a Masters Degree in Radiation Physics. I enjoyed Prof.’s classes thoroughly. He had a masterful command of the subject he taught. He taught me Statistics, and I used to wonder how a Physics teacher had such a masterful command of a subject that ought to belong to the Mathematics department. That is a testament to Farai’s versatility. The best part of Prof.’s classes was, however, not the subject he taught but some of the stories he shared with us as side comments as he taught his topics. It has been some thirteen years since I had those classes and I those remarks vividly to date.

One day, one of my classmates, a lady, one of those “SU” types – wrapped up in a head-tie and wearing no earrings, got into a conversation with Prof in the class. I think Prof. had asked her a question based on the topic being discussed, and she was not forthcoming with an answer which was quite an obvious one – if one had really been following the class. Then Prof. Farai asked the lady where she was at the weekend that just ended. She said she had gone to Redeemed Camp. Farai then pointed at the large Physics textbook she was carrying and said “…if the authors of that book had been spending all their time in prayer camps, they would never have had the wisdom to pen the textbooks you and I are using today…” That was vintage Farai. Those of us who had cut our niche in being anti-Pentecostal knew that there was something in Prof. that we could identify with.

On another occasion, Prof. Farai explained to the class the reason why he, as head of the department of Physics at that time, had been quite particular about giving northern students ission to read Physics at the University of Ibadan. He said that universities all around Nigeria are losing their universal trait. He said that the idea behind a university is that an environment of intellectual persons could be built, where ideas are both taught and developed. He explained that no matter how advanced western Nigeria was, we still need to know something of what our brothers in Northern Nigeria are learning. He then mentioned that the reason why Professors go on sabbatical is so they can go to other environments and share the ideas they have they have developed in their fields of study, while they learn from their colleagues there. That this is why we have student exchange programs, and the reason why teachers should be encouraged to come from overseas to teach in Nigeria, while our own teachers go abroad. He then warned that the universality of the universities is being eroded when universities become ethnic or religious; or when people begin to clamor that the person who should lead a university must come from a certain part of the country. He told us in class that few northerners apply to Physics, and that he almost always gives them the opportunity to come and study in UI.

The last anecdote on Farai I was when he taught us a course on ionization radiation. We had learnt from previous studies at the department that radiation combines with water molecules in the body to create ions that are deleterious to body cells. Farai then showed us in this course that there are two types of radiation: those that are ionizing and those that are not. Then he laid down the bombshell: “… the radiation that emits from mobile phone masts is not ionizing radiation…” And the class went agog. He allowed us to settle down from our noise and told us that people always argue with him over the subject. He was recently on a radio broadcast, and after he had made a similar remark, someone called in and gave him this long lecture that his credentials as a Prof. should be questioned. That there are many cases of mobile phones causing explosions with generators; that there have been proven cases of cancers from MTN masts; etc. Prof. replied that these things were possible, but that within the realm of what they have learnt in academia, at least up till that time, radiation from telecommunication masts is not ionizing and they do not cause cancers.

I would see Prof. Farai from time to time when we were still attending the Chapel of the Resurrection. When he made the remark to the lady in my class, l had thought he was an irreligious man. But that is untrue. Farai was a faithful churchman. He is always in church, listening to the sermons, and he was also involved in a couple of church societies. His wife, Mrs. Farai, was with the children’s department of the Chapel. I had taught Prof. Farai’s youngest daughter, Tosin, at the Educational Advancement Center, Bodija, Ibadan. I taught her Physics there. I also worked with Taiwo, Prof’s second daughter, at the Chapel’s children’s church department. I would say that I know the family a little. Prof. Farai and my father, Disu Adeyemi Yesufu, were colleagues at the University of Ibadan in the early 1980s, before my dad left UI and headed to Ahmadu Bello University to work with their newly instituted radiation unit there. In 2019, when my dad returned to Nigeria from the University States to live out his retirement, we visited Prof. Farai at his office at the University of Ibadan. It was fun watching the two old men reminisce about the good old days.

Obafemi Awolowo, while commenting on the demise of his son Segun, which occurred in 1963 in a ghastly motor accident, in his book: “My March Through Prison”, said that his greatest consolation was that the dead are not really dead. They have only simply gone from one state to another. There is a sense that they are still with us. People do not speak ill of the dead because you and I will one day die and we will not like to watch people speak ill of us – especially since we no longer possess the opportunity to give a response. I don’t believe in that theory. I think that if people do evil when they die, you should remind the world that they did evil. At the same time, there is no point raking out all the dirty linens of a dead man – we all have ours, and we wish that people will be considerate enough to cover them when we are gone. Prof. Idowu Farai was a human being, who obviously had his own flaws. I however would wish to him as the man who taught me Statistics and Radiation Physics at my last attempt to get a university education.

Sleep well, Prof.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO. He can be reached via [email protected]

Source

Thank you Seun for this.

I want to say that Nairaland is a lot more than a connecting social media platform now. I believe that this forum can become a tool to fix this country. I therefore suggest the following:

1. Give more space to opinion writers like us to air our views.

2. I noticed you have a rabid fear of the Biafran question. However Biafra is a national question that we can find answers to here. Our blog, textandpublishing.com, has written many articles on the Biafran question but you never put front page.

3. Consider bringing the brightest minds together in this forum for a meeting - a physical one. We can start with a virtual one. They can find their way to and from Lagos, but provide accommodation and feeding. Let these young men and women deliberate on the Nigerian question for two days, and then submit a memorandum to the government, while at the same time proffering some action points.

Nairaland.com is a unifying platform for Nigeria.

You can reach us privately for more ideas.

Well done with what you do.

Sequence001:
Hello Deji

You detailed it all out
Please I stay at ajah, Lagos and in desperate need of a vehicle to drive for uber

Please in any way possible you can assist me
I'll be grateful to reach an agreement for weekly remittance

Please how can I you deji?

Check your messages

Concluded:

Now, a few of us have gotten these jobs and we earn this money, but because very few people are cultivating the ground, very many resources are pursuing small goods – a recipe for inflation. I realized that our people are fleeing this country, Japa, because we do not work the ground. And when we do not work the ground, we will leave the land and go to places where they work their ground – and where they have food to eat. The man at IITA told me that a man left ; came and acquired land in Nassarawa. The man grows cassava. Then turns this cassava into chips, makes them of various flavours, and exports them to Europe and America. While our people flee Nigeria, a German has come to reap from our land, without using a gun. If we do not work on Mother Earth, we will go hungry, and we will flee the land that God has given to us.

I also thought of writing about the concept of death. My concern here is with murder – the spilling of another person’s blood. The biblical command is simply this: “Thou shall not kill”. At no time should any of us take our hands and spill the blood of another. If we do this, Mother Earth will ensure that our blood is also spilt – this is in line with both divine and natural justice. The only time blood can be spilt legally is if in a case of jurisprudence, a matter is adjudged correctly, and a judge in the land determines that a man has taken the life of another, therefore his own life must be taken. Even in such extreme cases, the judge must be dimmed to be fair – or else, God and Mother Earth will demand the blood of that innocent man from the hand of the Judge. Mother Earth listens to our conversation; she hears our debates; and she meddles in our controversy.

Sometimes in the early part of the 20th century, a monarch and his wife were shot dead by a dissident in a little less known land in Europe – Austria. All the European nations took different sides on the matter. It was not resolved until Europe converged in the First World War which consumed no less than thirty million people. That conflict was still not resolved, and the world witnessed a second world war that consumed another 75 million people. An approximate 100 million people died because a conflict was not properly resolved in a little-known city in Europe. Similarly, Nigeria paid the price with three million people because everyone sat ideally back as Western Nigeria was consumed in 1962. Mother Earth judges our conflicts, and she stands with the man on the right. She obeys the laws of God, and she will bless man who obeys God’s laws. Mother Earth is grieved by the sins we commit in the land, and one day, like God, she will request from us the body she borrowed from us to walk upon the land of our birth. We cannot spill the blood of another man. Because when we do so, Mother Earth receives that blood, and ensures that justice is done. If you kill a man unjustly, your own blood will be spilt also. It brings me to the subject of redemption.

Why did Jesus die? God the creator of heaven and earth, could simply have decreed redemption to all of God’s elect without the Son of God dying. In keeping with our reflection on Mother Earth, I think that our redemption will not be complete until God himself has taken up flesh. You and I are made from the dust of the ground: we are both body and spirit. Our bodies and blood are given to us by Mother Earth, while God breathes his spirit into us. Redemption must come in two ways: we must receive a renewing of our spirit by the Spirit of God giving our spirit new life. But it cannot end there. Our bodies must be redeemed also. Therefore, Jesus was born of a woman – he took up flesh. He was possessed of body and blood. He was born of Mother Earth too. At his death, Jesus’ blood had to be shed. With the piercing of his side, and the blood streaming from the thorn of his head, our Lord’s blood hit the ground and brought sanctification to mother earth.

Therefore, any man, made from the ground, who will find redemption – justification and sanctification from sin – must believe in Jesus Christ. As you do this, Mother Earth ensures that your body is freed from the grip of sin. The blood of Jesus that was shed on earth still speaks redemption to every man-made from this earth. The same way the sin of Adam brought a curse on every man born of Adam; is the same way the righteousness of Christ brings redemption to every man born of Jesus. We cannot finish a reflection on Mother Earth without looking closely at how Christ’s death redeemed man. It should also be noted that although Christ took on flesh, his body could not be held down by Mother Earth. He must rise again to secure the salvation of God’s people; but even more importantly, Christ must rise again because Christ made Mother Earth. The earth could not hold him down. Amen.

My father tells me that when he was ten years old, his grandfather used to take him to a land to farm. It is a land situated somewhere in Ilesha. This land is in hundreds of hectares. The land is still being farmed by the man great grandfather left to till the place – and his children. I am hoping to visit that land soon and claim what belongs to me, my siblings and my cousins. We all sit here in the city, living like paupers – managing monthly salaries, for those who have jobs. While a land stands to be cultivated, and if we do it well at least the immediate Yesufu family will have food to eat. Every Nigerian reading this article has such a land somewhere. Our fathers bought those lands and kept them for us so that the moment we get hungry we will return to those lands and work them – and then eat. If not, we will continue this nonsense called Japa. I hope you found this article inspiring – and I will be updating you here with regards to my venture into agriculture. Remain blessed.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO.

Mother Earth: Reflections on Life, Death, and Redemption

By: Deji Yesufu

I am an indigene of Ilesha – Osun State, Nigeria. My great, great, grandfather, Yesufu, was a Muslim cleric that migrated from Ilorin and came to live in Ilesha. He would become a leading cleric in that town. My father, Disu Adeyemi Yesufu, tells me that my ion for religious reforms very likely came from that direction. The only difference is that my great, great grandfather was a Muslim, while I took the Christian faith. Recently my father has had to visit Ilesha and he found that his father’s home needed repairs. Incidentally, his father’s house and grandfather’s house are in the same compound. There are also a few people buried there. These two men had many wives and children in their days, but it happens that there is only one distant blood relation of us living in that compound now. The rest are strangers. When my father arrived, he gave quit notices to everyone – “I want to fix my father’s house”. They all left. Except for one particular person who had lived in the house for quite a while. Eventually, this person also left without any threat of police or legal action.

I asked my dad why she left without a fuss. He replied that the house had become hot for her. In Ilesha, and I think other places in Nigeria also, no matter how long children have left the home – the day they return, the house returns to them. It might be the reason why the dead are buried in people’s houses – a pointer to the historical fact that that house was built by someone’s blood, and only those connected to them by blood can live there. In 2017, I went to Ilesha for a book launch. During a short break in the program, I took a bike to my grandfather’s house. I met the only surviving woman who had known my dad as a child. She looked at me and said “Who are you?” I said “Disu’s son”. She just embraced me. She did not ask for a birth certificate or make a phone call. Blood called unto blood. In this essay, I want to write about Mother Earth. I want to explain how we can honour the earth better, and live our lives to the full. I hope to end with the biblical story of redemption.

The Bible tells us many stories about the earth. The earth was created by God. Then God used the earth to create the first man. Now, when we die, our bodies return to the earth, while our souls go back to the Father of spirits. What that means is that there are two who make contributions to the making of a man who walks on the earth today: God gives the spirit, and Mother Earth gives the body. There is a scripture in Jeremiah where someone calls on the earth to ensure that a king remains barren all of the days (Jeremiah 22:29-30). There are numerous scriptures that show that the earth is a living being – it is a creation of God and thus has eyes to see and ears to hear. Because the earth was created by God, the earthworks in harmony with God. In a similar vein, the earth will work in harmony with everyone who works in harmony with God. When God confronted Cain after that evil person had killed his brother, Abel, Cain denied it but God told him that he heard the blood of Abel calling out to him. The earth gave voice to the blood of a man.

There have been instances in the Bible where the earth has opened up its mouth and swallowed people whole. So, it is safe to say the earth has ears, eyes, and mouth. God told the children of Israel that the land they were possessing spat out its former inhabitants because of sin. All of these were brought quite vividly to me a few days ago when I read Joshua 24, where Joshua, as he prepared to die, called the children of Israel and warned them to keep the laws of God. He told them that there was a rock close by that was hearing everything that was being said. Joshua said that that rock would stand to testify against Israel if and when they broke the covenant of God (Joshua 24:27). Many years later when Israel sinned against God, that land spat them out. When I shared these thoughts with my children last Sunday, during devotion, my thirteen-year-old daughter observed that that rock is still there today – we just would not be able to hear it. The earth listens to our words. The earth hears our covenant. The earth will keep the covenant that generations upon generations make, as long as you and I choose to obey God’s commandments and honour the use of Mother Earth.

I have written all these as an introduction to a more pressing subject I wish to write about. It is the problem of hunger in Nigeria. Why are we hungry in this country? I will explain with a story. As I go around the University of Ibadan, sharing the gospel with people, I often find people hungry – they have not eaten that day, or may not know where the next meal will come from. These are students. I would often have to give them N500 which could secure a meal ticket. It is then they would give me a listening ear. Recently, a congo of beans rose to as much as N5,000. I was concerned. How and why are we hungry in Nigeria in spite of arable lands all around us? So, I visited the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) based here in Ibadan, and I told the person I met there that I wanted to go into agriculture so I could help feed Nigerians. The man is the person in charge of the institute’s Cassava program. He was so excited. He took me around the institute in his car and explained to me how we could get the best cassava output.

Then I got a piece of land, and have since started to cultivate the land. The aim, again, is so that we can feed ourselves in this country. Now, unfortunately with Nigerians, because many people are devoid of wisdom, people often jump on the bandwagon of a working idea. For agriculture, however, this is a win-win. If a lot more young people cultivate the groundwork on Mother Earth – we will have food to eat in the country, and we will have enough to export. The country’s productivity will heighten and the naira will gain strength. It occurred to me that we are hungry in Nigeria because somebody somewhere gave us the stupid idea that agriculture is a menial job, meant for old and tired men. We were told that every one of us should head to the city and acquire white-collar jobs.

Salewa97:
Wole Soyinka is a national treasure.

Precisely

On the Soyinka Debate, Oluseye Fatoyinbo writes:

"This is why I have very little hope in the so-called Gen Z. In fact, they scare me. A horde of humans with access to the most sophisticated gadgets ever known to mankind, vast sums of money and unfettered visibility but with no soul and no thoughts or respect for how sacred some things, ideas and people are is a group that will inevitably be the death of human civilization.

"I'm not speaking in hyperbole. These brats will end humanity through their stupidity and arrogant ignorance"

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AYsa4rtXU/

You Cannot Touch Wole Soyinka

I saw one "Gen-Z" on Facebook "dragging" Prof. Wole Soyinka. What was the lady's grouse? "Eh, Soyinka has kept mum over President Tinubu... He should be criticizing him... Soyinka has ed those people destroying Nigeria..." I engaged the lady on her wall to explain to her why Wole Soyinka is constrained on Tinubu matter. But since she appears not see my point, I have brought the matter to my wall.

First, Wole Soyinka, perhaps only after Obafemi Awolowo, should be considered the most accomplished Nigerian. The man, at his death, will conveniently occupy a space below the pantheons of Yoruba gods. Soyinka cannot be criticized; he must be revered for one reason alone - if you desire greatness, you make excuse for the great. The biggest tragedy of my generation is that we will uphold people like Oyedepo and Adeboye as role models, and know very little about the contributions of Wole Soyinka, Obafemi Awolowo, and folks like them to Nigeria.

Second. Bola Tinubu is in the mess he is today because he did not come into office prepared. He is not a philosopher king. He was more enamored with accomplishing a lifelong ambition, than serving people. That cannot be Soyinka's fault. Besides, the trouble with Nigeria is multifaceted, and solution will not come in one generation. It will require at least three generations of concerted and focused effort at governance before we can get things right.

Third. I told this lady that all of us have people we never criticize out of loyalty. Soyinka tells the story of how Bola Tinubu was his benefactor at a particularly low period in his life. Since that time, Soyinka will criticize everyone but Bola Tinubu. And he has his right to this.

Finally, Wole Soyinka is 90 years old. When the man was your age, dear lady, he took a gun, stuck up the announcing of polling results in 1965, and got the populace to stand against the brigandage that was occurring then by S.L.A Akintola and his political party. That event, added to others, led to the January 15th 1966 coup, that put Nigeria right back on track, despite plunging the country in a thirty month civil war.

Wole Soyinka has done his best for this country. When you do yours, we will listen to what you have to say him. This is a special message to keyboard protesters.

- Deji Yesufu

Source

MaxInDHouse:

It's not easy understanding what God's people practiced in ancient times but a thorough meditation and diligent study of God's word will help.
Worshipers of God in Bible times never report their fellow worshipers to anyone who is not authorized under God's arrangement so it's only the Highpriest, Judge or King in Israel under God's own arrangement handle cases involving the worshipers of God.
So whenever you read about people reporting people to pagans it involves worshipers of different God's not those who worship the same God.
Take for instance the case of Jesus Christ in Israel the Pharisees and Sadducees knew that it's not easy for them to accuse Jesus, judge and sentence him to death when most people believe that Jesus is a servant of God so they took the matter to Pontius Pilate a pagan to judge the matter.
So today if you see those claiming pastors using police to arrest fellow worshipers know that they belong to the modern day Pharisees class not believers in Christ Jesus!

Agreed

MaxInDHouse:
I thought true believers only report their cases to God when it involves those that claims they are also believers!

Well...

OkCornel:
This roforofo fight between pastors is quite pleasing to watch.

I can imagine