NewStats: 3,263,681 , 8,181,017 topics. Date: Saturday, 07 June 2025 at 09:56 AM 6e4c6t

Urheaster:
APC go collect wotowoto for this up coming general election in Nigeria

Finish

Why A Muslim-Muslim Ticket is a Bad Idea

That Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the leading individual to become President of Nigeria in 2023 is a fact that cannot be easily disputed. Tinubu is the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the coming elections and it is not a secret that in our clime the matter of incumbency acts as a great advantage for those who are seeking political power. They have the resources of state at their disposal; they have political structures littering the whole national space; and they have an army of hungry and jobless people at their disposal.

So it was not surprising that the person that will become Tinubu’s vice became a hotly contested matter in the political space in the country in the last few weeks. This afternoon, that debate was put to rest when Tinubu elected Senator Kashim Shettima, a former Governor of Borno State, a sitting Senator in the country and a Muslim, as his running mate for the forthcoming elections. Tinubu is perfectly within his right to choose whoever he wishes as his deputy in government. What he fails to realize, however, is that the matter of a Muslim-Muslim ticket is an issue in today’s Nigeria since he himself is a professing Muslim.

Those who brought about the tradition of presenting two individuals representing the two dominant religions in Nigeria did so in recognition of the reality that the country is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims. We speak mostly of a Muslim north and a Christian south in Nigeria, even though we are quite aware that there are thriving Christian populations in the north and a large Muslim population in Southern Nigeria.

Yet, the religious divide is almost an accepted reality and when it comes to politics, politicians want to show the electorate that they have the sensitive matter of the religious divide covered. In 2015, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to step down from being Muhamadu Buhari’s running mate because it became apparent to the APC that religion was quite a sensitive matter in Nigeria and that if the APC will remove the People Democratic Party (PDP) from power, they will have to show some regard to the Christian population.

Thankfully they did this, and the result was the removing of an incumbent from office – something that has never happened in our nation’s political history. It is therefore difficult for me to comprehend why the same Tinubu will dispose of all counsel and still go for a Muslim as his running mate today.

An argument that has been proffered in Tinubu’s defense is that the 1993 elections saw M.K.O Abiola, a Muslim, team up with a Babagana Kingibe, another Muslim, to produce the freest, fairest and most popular election that this country has ever witnessed. What these people who proffer this argument fail to realize is that 1993 is a good thirty years ago. Times have changed: the social realities that we are faced with today are totally different from what was happening in 1993.

In 1993 we had no Boko Haram. In 1993 we had a military government that had been in power for close to a decade and with whom people were quite eager to see leave power. In 1993 the debate over a Muslim-Muslim ticket was brought forward but it was quite easily dispelled by the raging realities on ground in those days. Today, such arguments cannot be easily put aside.

Another reason why the Muslim-Muslim ticket is not a workable plan for Nigeria is because of the raging insecurity that the Boko Haram insurgency has brought upon our country. Just a few days ago, a variant of Boko Haram, the ISWAP, swooped down on Kuje, a community in Abuja, the nation’s Federal Capital City, and effected a prison break that saw more than 60 insurgents, who had been incarcerated by the state, released into the general populace.

As Nigerians come to grip with rising insecurity in the land, we also have allegations of collaborations between government officials and the insurgents. No one has been able to explain how the military checkpoints, situated at major points en-route Kuje, were suddenly replaced with new personals who barely knew their way around the area – all of these happening less than twenty-four hours before the attack.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, spoke of having Boko Haram sympathizers in his government. It is clear to observers that there are elements within government that have sympathy for the ideas of these lunatics. When Nigerians now take the government of their nation and put it in the hands of a Muslim president and a Muslim vice, we are clearly then putting ourselves at the mercies of more individuals who might have sympathies for these insurgents

. This is obviously not a time to disregard cries from the Christian Association of Nigeria that has been telling the APC that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is a bad idea at a time like this. Ignoring calls from Christian organizations and imposing such a one sided religious perspective on the country’s elections will certainly ostracize Christian voters. Tinubu is touted as a master political strategist. Unfortunately, in this one situation he has failed to read the handwriting on the wall and I will not be surprised if this singular action of his prove the deathknell on his ambition to be President of Nigeria.

As the nation approaches the 2023 general elections, the two other leading political figures and parties in contest for the office of the presidency of Nigeria are Atiku Abubakar’s People Democratic Party and the Peter Obi’s Labor Party. Atiku has gone to the South-south of Nigeria and picked a Christian Ifeanyi Okowa, sitting governor of Delta State, as his running mate. While Peter Obi just picked Yusuff Datti Baba-Ahmed, a Muslim, from Northern Nigeria, as his running mate.

These two parties understand the nature of the religious divide in Nigeria and have keyed into it while selecting those who will become their deputies in office. While Atiku may have done well in choosing a Christian as his deputy, he also has a lot of baggage that he is contesting with as he seeks to be President of Nigeria. So that in my estimation the greatest threat to Tinubu emerging as Nigeria’s President is not Atiku Abubakar but actually Peter Obi. And it is this Obi phenomenon that has made the decision Tinubu look like a very bad one. I will conclude this essay by explaining why.

Whether Tinubu envisages this or not, there is a teaming Christian population in Nigeria that have become tired of the way and manner government is run in Nigeria. The eight-year rule of Muhammadu Buhari appears to be one that treats issues of Islamic insurgencies with kid gloves. Besides that, there has also been the raging phenomenon of Fulani herdsmen in the country that has resulted in the death of hundreds of people.

Only recently, insurgents attacked a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, leaving scores of innocent worshippers dead. The fact is that the ongoing insecurity in the land, coupled with the ruling party’s disregard for the country’s Christian population, has given the Peter Obi phenomenon greater iration with the Christian voting populace. Churches that were hitherto apolitical, have begun to use their pulpits to campaign for a Christian president and Peter Obi is the only one among the three leading political figure that fit the bill. Tinubu’s action in choosing a Muslim as his running mate has totally ostracize a large voting bloc from the Christian populace.

As I have mentioned already, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is perfectly within his right to choose whoever will be his running mate but it should be noted that in spite of this master political tactician’s wisdom when it comes to elections, he clearly does not know it all. There is a biblical statement that usually follows incidents that don’t appear normal: when Samson went to the Philistines and sought a wife among those who were considered the enemies of Israel, people did not understand why he did it.

But the Bible records that such an event was from the Lord because he sought an occasion of confrontation with the Philistines so that he could destroy them (Judges 14:4). In the same vein, Tinubu’s choosing a Muslim vice at a time like this may just as well be an occasion from God. It is not difficult for God to put an error of judgement in a leading political figure, no matter how minute, that will go a long way in determining who will lead this country. As Christians, we pray daily that God will put to shame the enemies of Nigeria and help destroy them. May God answer our prayers and do what is right for our beloved country, Nigeria.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/why-a-muslim-muslim-ticket-is-a-bad-idea/

© Deji Yesufu

NNTR:
I have one more to add, and its 'prophecy' can fail you.
_{Personal text: Jesus is not a theologian. He is God who told stories.}

NNTR:
Jeremiah 6:13
'Because from the least of them and unto the greatest of them, they all commit deceit,
and from the lying Prophet and unto the Priest, all practice falsehood '

Jeremiah 23:16, 21, 32
'16Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you.
They are teaching you worthless things and are leading you into futility;
They speak a vision of their own mind and imagination
And not [truth] from the mouth of the LORD.
21“I did not send [these counterfeit] prophets, Yet they ran;
I did not speak to them, Yet they prophesied.
32Hear this, I am against those who have prophesied false and made-up dreams,” says the LORD,
“and have told them and have made My people err
and go astray by their lies and by their reckless boasting;
yet I did not send them or command them
nor do they benefit and enhance [the life of] these people in the slightest way,” says the LORD.'
_{Personal text: Jesus is not a theologian. He is God who told stories.}

Nothing to add

Kestolove:
nigeria pastors are prophetic gamblers nd dia ticket dey always cut

The Inevitable Defeat of Pastor Tunde Bakare

By: Deji Yesufu

In my estimation, Pastor Tunde Bakare was the best of all the aspirants that sought the Presidential ticket on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). That Tunde Bakare got zero votes from the primaries is more of an indictment on all of Nigerians. It is a testimony to the fact that the best of us continue to languish at the base of the country, while the worst of the lot enter political office. In a normal country, no one should be pushing an Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or an Abubakar Atiku as president. Alas, this is not a normal country and we are left again to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. The only ray of hope in the horizon, at least for some of us, is the Peter Obi phenomenon. This essay is not about Peter Obi; I have written quite a bit on him already. Instead, I want to examine something that I choose to call “The Inevitable Defeat of Pastor Tunde Bakare”, while at the same time draw out some relevant lessons.

In the year 1998, my third year in the University, I came to living faith in Jesus Christ. In a dramatic turn of events in my life, I became very religious and decided that I was going to make God, in Christ Jesus, the central focus of my personhood. I have never regretted that decision because it has helped me a lot in decision making. That same year, I met a young man called Israel Badaki. He was studying Geology at ABU, my alma mata, and was a rather reserved fellow. He took a liking in me and began to mentor me in the Christian faith. One of the tapes he gave me to listen to was preached by a totally unknown Tunde Bakare. The first message of Bakare I listened to was “Prophetic Cave Dwellers”. In this message, Bakare drew out lessons from the life of Elijah, particularly that instance where God told him that He had 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal. Bakare said that although the life of the 7,000 that were following God in the days of idolatry in Israel was commendable, there was still that blemish in them: they were God’s prophets who chose to live in caves. That message instilled something in me: Christians cannot afford to be silent in the days when tyranny rules in the land.

Tunde Bakare exemplified this message perfectly because in the days when Sanni Abacha reigned with terror in Nigeria, Bakare spoke frequently against him. Bakare was picked up by the State Security Services (SSS) at various times and was continually intimidated by their presence in his church auditorium. It did not deter Bakare from criticizing them. One day, Tunde Bakare gave a prophetic declaration: he said that by the close of a certain week in 1998, Sani Abacha will be dead. It happened as he said and the relatively unknown pastor was shot into national limelight. Bakare’s popularity was short lived because he soon made another prophetic declaration, in latter months, as the country drew up to its first elections after many years of military rule: Bakare said that Olusegun Obasanjo was not Nigeria’s messiah. He said Obasanjo was Agag and from the biblical , Agag was hacked down by the prophetic sword of Samuel. Unfortunately for Bakare, Obasanjo finished his two as President and the Owu chief is still alive today – having celebrated his 85th birthday this past week. Bakare quickly developed a reputation for being a prophet whose prophecies were not always accurate.

I remained a follower of Tunde Bakare until 2013 when I renounced Pentecostalism as a denomination (today I am a professing reformed Baptist: a subject for another article). I did not leave Pentecostalism because of Bakare’s failed prophecies: I left because of the plethora of defects in the character of many Pentecostal leaders. I also discovered that the Word of Faith doctrines were plain heresies and that at its core is an undermining of the gospel of Christ: which is actually what a Christian must end up preaching, regardless of what we pursue in life and ministry. Along the line of renouncing Pentecostalism, I also renounced belief in prophets and apostles. I came to a realization that only biblical prophets gave accurate prophecies and that the Bible actually warns against individuals giving failed prophecies: scripture regard such individuals as false prophets. Because of my close observation of Tunde Bakare, his life, family, doctrine, etc, I will be very reluctant to call him a false prophet because of his failed prophecies. Rather, I will like to call him a presumptuous personality and the dangers with presumption is that many times it fails us.

This is why when a video emerged on the internet and Tunde Bakare was saying that he was going to succeed Muhammadu Buhari, I knew that he had again ventured on one of his presumptuous statements that are often couched under the title of prophecies. I knew that Bakare will ultimately fail in his quest to get the APC presidential ticket. I followed the primaries keenly and was quite hopeful that maybe I will be proven wrong: maybe this will be one of those one in a hundred prophecies that Pentecostal prophets make that come to . Alas, Bakare got no votes from the delegates at the APC presidential primaries and the rest, like they say, is history.

Bakare’s inevitable defeat could be founded on two things: first, the horrible realities of the Christian life outside the confines of a church fellowship. If the primaries were run by Christians, and based on Christian principles: where none of the delegates needed to be bribed with thousands of dollars, it is possible that Tunde Bakare would have gotten a few votes and maybe even won the contest on the mere fact of his character as a leader. The fact still remains that Tunde Bakare is an exceptionally brilliant personality who rose from abject poverty, obtained an education and founded a thriving law practice in 1984. He left law and entered into Christian ministry. He has led that church for many years, influencing many young people in life and ministry. I was personally taught self-development and entrepreneurship through the teachings of Bakare that I got at his church when I attended it briefly in 2004. While at the church in Ogba, I saw how his leadership acumen brought about such order in ministry that could easily be transformed to running an orderly government in this large and disorderly entity we call Nigeria. This is why I began this article by saying that I am convinced that Bakare was the best candidate in the APC primaries. But Bakare’s inevitable defeat lay at the fact that he was dealing with men who know nothing of a Christian worldview and were not willing to allow a level playing ground in their politicking.

The second thing that lay at the heart of Bakare’s defeat are these presumptions he calls prophecies. God did not tell Tunde Bakare that he was going to be the 16th President of Nigeria. If God did, Bakare would have won the APC primaries. Instead he got zero votes. Bakare’s defeat is a pointer to a greater malaise that lies not just in the life and ministry of Tunde Bakare, but at the heart of Christian ministry in general in Nigeria. Christians need to understand this biblical testament: the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of true prophecy. All of prophecy is founded on the pages of scripture and fulfilled in Christ and his calling to save sinners. What that means is this: Christians do not have a sure home in this world. While we may have a commitment to leave our world better than we met it and we have a commitment to social concerns and development, at the heart of the Christian message is a gospel that calls sinner to repentance and faith. Somewhere and somehow in the ministry and life of Tunde Bakare, this message has been lost and I think that God has sent this unusual rebuke to call Tunde Bakare back to true ministry.

One of the messages that Israel Badaki gave me, preached by Tunde Bakare, were sermons that he directed at Benson Idahosa. Bakare will say to Idahosa: “you have lost your vision and calling in life; by pursuing wealth and mundane things, you are no longer serving Christ but your belly”. I will be reluctant to say that Bakare has also lost his vision in ministry. I will rather say that true Christian ministry is calling sinners to repentance and faith. National development, and the redemption of Nigeria is a side calling which should not envelope our true calling. If Tunde Bakare is called to pastor people, he could focus on that calling for now. His advice for national development will always be welcome but it is obvious that he is not the one that God will use to save this country ultimately.

The title of this article is taken from the movie “The Ultimate Defeat of Mister and Pete”. A 2013 American movie that tells the story of two young boys who spent their summer holidays evading arrest from the police after their cocaine dealing mothers were arrested. Ultimately they were caught and with retrospect they realized that the police were not pursuing to arrest them just to clamp them in jail but for their ultimate good and preservation. Perhaps God has permitted this defeat in Tunde Bakare to allow for self-introspection and a whole revamping of the ministry that Jesus Christ has committed to his hands. The Bible says that all things work together for the good of God’s saints. I am positive that if Tunde Bakare is an elect of Christ, the defeat at the APC primaries will only add to him and to his ministry.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/the-inevitable-defeat-of-pastor-tunde-bakare/

wowcatty:
Is this Mr Aisha Yesuf or there's just something in that name?

not Aisha Yesufu and no relations with her

RuddyFusion:
OBILIFIED IAM

SEYIKP:
I am also contemplating, soonest I may de-batify and become obidient in the coming election.

Don't be long ☺️

How I Became OBIdient

By: Deji Yesufu

I have been told that politics is not my calling. I have been told to stick with religion. They say politics is dirty and those who claim to be pristine through the grace of God should not be associated with it. I have heard those arguments before but they have not convinced me. After ing Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and witnessing his disastrous two in office, I made the resolution that I will not be putting my name on any politician again – Nigerians should vote whoever they wish. When I made that resolution, I was almost sure that I will break it. The reason is that I live in Nigeria and I experience everything the average Nigerian is enduring. I am also into pastoral ministry and I understand the need to meet the physical needs of the people you are ministering to before the spiritual message you are preaching can make any sense to them. Churches, like many other social organizations in the land, have become a place of refuge for the poor in Nigeria. The easiest way to unburden oneself in Christian ministry is to call on government to do what they are supposed to do, so that churches can return to their primary duties. It is for this reason why we must the bandwagon of seeing credible individuals come into government.

Anyone watching the political scenario in Nigeria will understand that it will take a miracle for Peter Obi to emerge the President of Nigeria in the forthcoming elections in 2023. I myself have argued that only the incumbent APC and the PDP can produce who will be the ruler of this country in the coming election. I have however reconsidered the candidacy of Peter Obi because I believe in miracles. I believe that in the 9 months before the elections, an OBI-tsunami can sweep the Nigerian landscape, bringing unprecedented popularity to this gentleman that will deliver for him no less than 20 million votes across Nigeria and thus bring him into the highest office in the land. I am convinced that the same way I became OBIdient, many more Nigerians can become equally convinced too. This is why I must relay my pathway to OBI-ism in this essay.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was an option only as long as former Governor Peter Obi was running on that platform. When Peter Obi jettisoned the PDP and reverted to the Labor Party, I turned my attention to the All Progressive Congress’ coming primaries. Primaries in political parties in Nigeria have been completely monetized and the APC’s primaries was not going to be any different. Even at that I had hoped that Muhammadu Buhari will wield some veto power and convince party men to settle for a consensus candidate – with the hope that they will settle for Yemi Osinbajo. When Bola Ahmed Tinubu scuttled the President’s plans with his now popular emi lo ko speech in Abeokuta, it was clear that nothing could hold back the scheduled primaries of the APC and dollar rain, not workable ideologies, will determine who will emerge the APC presidential flagbearer. Yemi Osinbajo gave a resounding speech to the delegates during the primaries and made a hearty and spirited plea for them consider him. While all these was going on, I understand that some weighty candidates had reached each of the over 2,000 delegates present with $25,000 offers. By the close of the day, the number of votes Tinubu garnered from the delegates was double the amount of votes all the other aspirants got – combined. It was on that note that I settled for the Jagaban of Lagos as the only possible candidate in the coming elections. Atiku was not an option and Obi was not popular enough. Until…

On the night of Sunday, 12th June, I received a call from my cousin in Canada. He asked me what candidates I was considering in the forthcoming elections. The thing about Nigerians in the diaspora is that they have half of their personhood here in Nigeria. They live abroad but their hearts are here and most of them partake in the country’s electoral process by proxy: they get their loved ones to vote sensibly. I told my cousin that I was left with no other choice than to Tinubu. He agreed with me but he took his time to show me something that I was missing: he said that if the Bola Ahmed Tinubu that is running today is the same individual that ruled Lagos between 1999 and 2007, then he will him. He said that clearly age and particularly ill health will impede the government of Tinubu. Then he helped me to see how ill health had stood as an albatross to the government of Yar’Adua and even Muhammadu Buhari, and how the general productivity of all human is usually impeded by ill health and aging. No one can cheat nature; we are only as good on a job as our bodies will permit us. My cousin also did not think that Peter Obi was popular enough. He only felt that if we must vote for Tinubu, we must be sure of the state of his health. One thing that I am sure the ers of Tinubu have not been able to argue for is the state of health of their principal. Bola Tinubu is not well and he is clearly not going to do well leading this country.

It was at this point the possibility of a Peter Obi emerging as President began to appeal to me. First, there is a large section of the Nigerian electorate that are tired of both the APC and the PDP. It is clear to these people that the two parties are one and the same: the same money politics had produced the flagbearers of the two parties. That the call for an alternative to these two, a sort of third force, was actually a popular sentiment being expressed by many people. Then came the individuals who were the minds and brain behind the End SARS protests. Until this day, no one knows who are the real backbone of the EndSARS protests; they appear to work well anonymously. And some of these individuals were emerging and calling for a third force. In their usual manner, they do not say that they were campaigning for Peter Obi; they are only asking Nigerians to head to INEC and get their PVCs. These are the individuals behind the clarion call for every adult in Nigeria to grab a PVC and be ready to vote out bad leaders. Some of them have organized concerts where they made it clear that the PVC was the entry ticket. As a result, young people are converging at INEC and getting their PVC. I was in one of the INEC offices here in Ibadan yesterday and the whole place was filled with young people: they have heard the clarion call for true CHANGE. It was at this point I realized that Peter Obi could be elected on the mere fact that he presents himself as a credible alternative to the APC and the PDP. This is how I became OBIdient.

More than anything else, a Peter Obi presidency will settle the question of the alleged marginalization of the Igbos in Nigeria. Whether we agree or not, the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has gotten the attention of everyone in the country. They have spilled enough blood for us all to ask them: what do you want. If by any chance Peter Obi is elected President it is not likely that there cry of marginalization will end; it will however reduce considerably and the Nigerian government, under Obi, can then fast-track a process of meeting the demands of these aggrieved section of the country. The presidency of Nigeria is not the exclusive right of one or two sections of the country; the Igbo man can also rule the country and if they are suggesting Obi as their man, the Nigerian people should consider him.

Another thing that has endeared Obi to me is this perceived stinginess of his. Fr. Mbaka, of the Adoration Ministries, Enugu, had suggested that Nigeria does not need a stingy person in government. What Mbaka regards as being stingy is what sane people in developed countries regard as being thrifty. There is one major problem that many of us in this country have not been able to identify and that is our penchant for waste. Nigerians are not only corrupt, we are also very wasteful and the place where this waste is most prominent is in government circles – it is incredible. Peter Obi’s success in Anambra State was in curbing waste in government. He was so thrift with government resources that while he met the state in debt, he left huge resources in government coffers when he left. Nothing teaches a people frugality than adversity but Nigerians are unable to learn to use scarce resources well because a culture of corruption has made it impossible for us to think these issues through. Everyone is milking the country and are ready to jump ship the moment the country begins to sink. Thankfully, Peter Obi is of another spirit.

I am not under an illusion that it will be an easy ride for Peter Obi to the seat of the presidency of Nigeria. I believe that as things stand, the best that Peter Obi could get will be a few million – perhaps five million votes – which will stand as an advantage for him in 2027. I also believe that fostering a coalition with a popular individual in Northern Nigeria, like former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwansor, will give Obi a major boost during the forthcoming elections. The last card that I will be banking on will be some sort of tsunami – some kind of realization falling on many Nigerians and helping us to realize that we cannot continue to do the same thing in the same way and expect a different result. If after 24 years of PDP and APC this country has not been able to make any significant progress, and all the options the two parties can give to us are two individuals who are better off in nursing homes than in the highest office in the land, it is time we take our destinies in our hands and do the right thing.

I believe the right thing is ing the presidential ambition of Peter Obi. This is how I became OBIdient. Would you also consider the Peter Obi option?

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/how-i-became-obidient-deji-yesufu/

How Nigeria will get Better

By: Deji Yesufu

The political situation in Nigeria is at the moment in the process of throwing out different candidates that will bear the flag of the various political parties in the land. While there are almost 100 ed political parties in the country, only two of them have enough reach around the country. These two are the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). There are a few other parties like the SDP, LP, and APGA but most of them have only regional reach. The PDP and APC have become the behemoth that they are because they have once produced people who became president of the country.

So political parties are in the middle of their various primaries. INEC, the country’s political arbiter, has a few days ago extended parties primaries by another six days to give more time for political parties to mop up everything concerning party primaries. When Nigeria came into the fourth republic in 1999, many people did not pay much attention to things like party primaries and because of this a lot of shady deals were cut and people emerged as party representatives in manners that did not conform to the law. INEC has resolved most of these issues at the courts, and with a new electoral act in place, political parties know that they must do everything by the book or risk loosing at the end.

One area that INEC has failed to fix in these electoral processes, though, is the issue of how party representatives are selected at the primaries. Today, we have the delegate system. What it means is that at various levels of selecting candidates for political offices, individuals are selected by the parties to elect people as party representatives. The people who do these election or selection, as the case may be, are called delegates. Delegates are established of a political party. They are expected to be individuals that are well known in the party, people who are above board and who can make decisions for the party.

In fact I understand that at the national level there are 3,200 delegates who will choose for Nigerians the people who will represent the country for both the APC and the PDP. Now this is where things get interesting: because Nigerian politics have become heavily monetized and the inherent corruption factor has become part and parcel of us, these delegates no longer make choices based on mere observation alone; they elect the highest bidders to office. Ayisha Osori’s book, LOVE DOES NOT WIN ELECTIONS, brings to fore the problem that well intentioned persons undergo to overcome the larger than life presence of the delegate system. You literally have to pay your way into being chosen by your party. I am told that delegates are collecting as much as $15,000 each to elect people as party representatives for House of Representatives. This should give you an idea of how much these delegates will earn at the presidential level.

Now if what I have written above gives you a bleak picture of the state of things in our country, then I have succeeded in showing you why I am still convinced Nigeria can get better. For the rest of the essay, I want to suggest three things that will fix this country.

Nigeria’s Young People: The EndSARS protests was the best thing that happened to Nigeria in the last few years. It was spontaneous; it had a unity of purpose in it; and it was engendered by our country’s young people. The killing of those young people at the Lekki Toll Gate, which brought an abrupt end to the protests, remains a tragedy and a blight on this country’s conscience. I am confident that either in this life or in the life to come, those who killed those young people will face judgement. I digress.

EndSARS showed some of us that the number one thing that will fix Nigeria is her army of young people. Our youths may not have jobs, they may even be denied education but they have a certain drive for creativity and a commitment to forge ahead and make it like no other sets of youths in the world today. A perfect example of this is seen in what Nigerian youths are doing in the music industry. From the mad face Portable to the calm, cool and collected Kizz Daniel, Nigerian young people are producing music that the world is crazy about. And this creativity is not restricted to music alone. We see it in our sports, media and movie industry also. It is only a matter of time, these young people will rise up and replace the old order of things in this country. Nigeria will get better because her young people will only get better at what they do.

Nigeria’s Massive Human Resources: One day the story of how India moved from being a third world country to first, like that of Singapore, will be told. For now India has placed herself and her people in every sphere of world affairs. Indians are about the leading people in Information Technology and the sciences. India has become a major source for medical tourism, especially for people in Africa. Even in the relatively unknown world of Chess, Indians are becoming the leading players of the game. The penultimate world champion in Chess, Vishy Anand, is an Indian and is still very much playing the game. India is what she is today because of her massive human resource. Human resources is the greatest and the best of all the resources that God has given to the nations. That Nigeria has the highest concentration of black people in the world is an advantage that this country will someday benefit from and this is why some of us do not believe that the breaking up of this country will prove advantageous to us. The world has learnt that countries thrive better when they come together and that is why we have such unions like the European Union and others. The larger the better.

The people that usually set off society in a positive direction do not usually have to be many; we only need to have a few people in places of influence and society will have no choice but to get better. The story of my encounter with a young man leading the vehicle licensing office that operates here in Ibadan, which I published a number of months ago, is a case in point. The young man and his team have ensured that vehicular licensing, at least as far as Agodi, Ibadan, is concerned, must be done properly. If such an individual were to move up the ladder of the civil service, he will bring a similar positive change to the whole system he presides over. Imagine what will then happen if we have such persons occupying the office of President, Governors, Legislators, Judges, and so on – with time, our society will become better. The blessing of population is that society has a greater likelihood of producing such people.

Sheer Providence: For many years, Nigeria was under the iron grip of one man called Sanni Abacha. He killed whoever he wished and left alive only those he decreed so. The Nigerian people were constantly under fear. We could not speak freely; the press was gagged and it was as if this was how things will continue to be. Nigerians woke up one morning in 1998 to learn that the evil military despot, that held the whole nation by the jugular, was dead. There were widespread celebrations and in a matter of weeks, the country began to have a semblance of normalcy. Subsequently Nigerians elected their own leaders into office and since 1999, the country has continued to enjoy uninterrupted civilian rule. Those who are thoughtful understood that what happened with Abacha is what we call providence: it pleased God to take away life from the one that had constituted himself as an enemy of the nation. The God who saved us from Abacha can still save this country today.

In spite of a rising army of atheistic youths on the social media today and the despising of the idea of God saving men through prayers, the fact remains that God answers prayers and he still influences the nations through his kind providences. One other reason why we believe that Nigeria will get better is that we pray daily to God to save this country and we trust that God will, one day, raise up leaders to various spheres of our national life so as to cause for things to work properly in the country. There are rumors that one of the reasons why insurgencies still persists in Northern Nigeria is because certain individuals in the top echelon of the Nigerian army are benefitting from the continued conflict. With wars also come the need for the purchasing of arms and ammunition. The whole process shores up illegitimate gains for certain people and the crisis is made to continue to persist because a few people are making money off the blood of others that are being spilled. It is not difficult for God to change such people in a minute. The Christian church will continue to pray and plead with God to send the right people to lead this country and we know that God will answer our prayers.

Conclusion: There is actually no alternative to Nigeria getting better. Some of us have become too old to go to another country to go and begin to struggle to acquire a better life for ourselves. Even if one manages to go abroad, there is still that nagging pull that Nigeria continues to exact on its citizens all around the world. The constant thoughts of Nigerians in the diaspora is how this country can get better. Those of us who are still here have the opportunity to partake in the fixing of this country. There might be little time left for a few of us; we are not likely to enter the promised land because of age but we can bring the country to the point where we are able to actually see the promised land ahead of us. These three items I have suggested in this essay are points we cannot overlook: we can take advantage of our large population; we must invest in our youths; and we cannot cease to pray for Nigeria. And one day we will wake up to behold a New Nigerian nation.

Amen.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/how-nigeria-will-get-better/

I have not read other comments on this thread but I will advise the following course of actions

1. Tell your own parents what is happenings. Let them counsel you on the way forward.

2. I will advise you take the baby from you in laws and give to your parent. Trust me, there is a reason why God made women mothers. You cannot handle a five month old by yourself, even with a nanny.

3. I think your wife will need psychiatric examination. You might need to get her to see a doctor. It is possible she is abusing drugs or something bc her course of action is not naturally.

All the best.

ivandragon:
The VP, however articulate & cultured, cannot disassociate himself from the shortcomings of this present istration.

I agree. It is the weight he must make Nigerians understand he can remove when he reaches power

Ttalk:
"Osinbajo used very little resources to achieve great reach through the use of a modern medium of broadcast."

When we told them that Osinbajo is a departure from archaic politics that he is a hybrid politician that combines old experience with modern savviness they thought it just a promotion stunt, now it is becoming clearer to everyone that the ingenuity this man is bringing into political space is top-notch.

He is clever, brilliant, intelligent and full of wisdom. If you can't see this qualities in him then you lack any of the quality

Gbam!!!

Thoughts on a Yemi Osinbajo Presidency

By: Deji Yesufu

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made known his intentions to run for the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 11th of April, 2022. Osinbajo published a short video on Twitter to explain to Nigerians why he was the best man for the job come 2023. The video that Osinbajo made was quite ingenious because rather than spending money gathering a crowd at, say the Eagles’ Square, Abuja, Osinbajo utilized the social media. And in the first six hours of posting that video, there were 345,000 views on it and 3 million impressions – setting something of a record in internet videos in Nigeria. In other words, Osinbajo used very little resources to achieve great reach through the use of a modern medium of broadcast. All kinds of reactions have followed his declaration. In fact, before he made his intentions public, Farooq Kperogi had written a piece labeling Osinbajo as a Christian extremist. Kperogi employed the same religious tactics that was used against Buhari in the buildup to the 2015 elections. Kperogi’s allegations has since been debunked by people who work with the Vice President: Osinbajo is not seeking to Christianize Nigeria.

Probably the most publicized reaction to the declaration of Osinbajo for Presidency were those of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A journalist asked Tinubu what his thoughts were to his “son’s” desire to run for the presidency. Tinubu replied that he had no son old enough to run. Ahmed Tinubu has long made known his intentions to be President of Nigeria. The reason why his response to Osinbajo is quite telling is because Tinubu is believed to be Osinbajo’s benefactor. During Tinubu’s eight-year rule of Lagos State as Governor, 1999-2007, Yemi Osinbajo was his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice. When the All Progressive Congress (APC) was created, with the merger of various political parties, the talk was that Ahmed Tinubu was to be Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate.

But with Buhari bringing the baggage of a religious extremist into the political arena and being a Muslim, he could not afford to have another Muslim as his running mate. It is believed that it is at this point that Tinubu acceded to Osinbajo becoming the running mate to Buhari. Today, however, Osinbajo has made it clear that becoming running mate to Buhari was purely on merit and not because he was recommended by Tinubu. Tinubu’s statement that he has no son old enough to run for Presidency is also an indication of the divide that has come between these former political allies. My thoughts in this article will dwell on the pros and cons of a Yemi Osinbajo Presidency. I want to look at the practicality of his emerging as the Presidential flagbearer of the APC. I will also be offering some critical examination of Yemi Osinbajo himself with the aim of determining whether or not this is a person that the Nigerian electorate can entrust their votes to.

Between the 30th and the 31st of May this year, the APC will be converging to elect flagbearers for various political offices for the coming general elections in 2023. Top on the list of this primaries will be the person who is elected as the Presidential flagbearer for the party. This is where established political parties like the APC and the PDP have distinguished themselves in the nation’s political landscape. The problem with many political office aspirants is that many people do not realize the utmost importance of being elected as a flagbearer of either of these two parties. One fact that cannot be erased is that only these two parties have ruled Nigeria at the presidential level since 1999. They produce most of the nation’s governors and house of assembly .

There are other parties that elect political office holders too but it is safe to say that the PDP and APC constitute no less than 95% of political office holders in the country. Therefore, if anyone is really intent on getting into political office, they will have to get into either these two parties. If they feel they have such popularity in the grassroots, they can try their luck with lesser known parties but by getting the ticket of either the APC or the PDP, one’s chances of getting into political office in Nigeria has been upped by at least 90%. This is why the likes of Omoyele Sowore, Kingsley Moghalu and the others will not become president of Nigeria. It does not matter what political capital they may have; they still need the party structure of established parties like the PDP or the APC. This is another reason why party primaries at these two political parties sometimes could become a do-or-die affair.

Yemi Osinbajo will have to emerge as the Presidential flag bearer of the APC if he must become President of Nigeria. On his path to this great feat will be standing the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Osinbajo’s ers are making it clear to anyone who wishes to know that Osinbajo does not owe Tinubu anything. They are asking everyone to go to the party’s primaries and may the best man win. Yemi Osinbajo has the office of the Vice President of Nigeria behind him. He is young (compared to the other aspirants), articulate and has a record of being a technocrat turned politician. If he is ever elected President, he will become the most educated person to lead this country – as a professor. Osinbajo had the good fortune of leading Nigeria at short period when his boss, Buhari, was away to the United Kingdom for medical purposes.

The stability that Nigeria is enjoying in the Niger Delta areas is owing to some deals he reached with oil vandals in that region. The country saw a man of authority when he doused the tension that arose as a result of the DSS invading the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. Clearly, if he ever emerges leader of Nigeria, this man will do well. The trouble however is that as he goes to the Presidential primaries of the APC, he must also approach it with a money chest – something that he is not likely to have. Already he has been forced to cough out 100 million naira for the Presidential form alone. At the primaries, he will have to wage war – naira for naira – with the man that is said to own Lagos State, Tinubu. Nobody knows the extent of the financial chest that Tinubu will bring to the APC primaries. What is clear is that Osinbajo’s work is already cut-out for him.

On a flip-side though, an Osinbajo presidency may not be the Eldorado that many of us are envisioning. The reasons are many but I will simply mention a few so as to quickly bring this essay to an end and not make it too lengthy. First, is the fact that popularity does not mean effectiveness in office. The testimony of the emergence of Buhari as President and his rather lackluster tenure in office, with Osinbajo as his second in command, lends credence to this fact. Yemi Osinbajo will have to prove to voters that the failures of this istration to curtail insecurity and corruption cannot be traced to his table. Second, Nigeria’s problems are endemic: they are more than what one individual can solve in one tenure in office. The whole Nigerian landscape: from political, to religious, to ethnic and even geographical, needs a total overhaul.

The average Nigerian mindset needs total reset. The Nigerian people need to possess a national identity that we all subscribe to and which we are all trying to realize. The country needs an overhaul. The question of restructuring: what to restructure and how we need to go about it, needs to be attended to. Until then, there is no messianic figure in any political entity that will fix this country. Lastly, Yemi Osinbajo will need to prove to Nigerians that he is different. He will need to show us that he is a problem solver. Already by launching his political ambition to the Nigeria people at little or no cost is proof that he is someone who knows the value of money and can maximally utilize it. He will need to go further by properly articulating his vision for development for the Nigerian people. He will need to employ his youthful vigor and charm to win the people to his side. If Yemi Osinbajo is able to cross the deep crevice of the APC national primaries and emerge their presidential flagbearer, he is as good as the President of the country.

I hope that those who read this piece do not conclude that this is an endorsement of a Yemi Osinbajo candidacy by me; it is not.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/thoughts-on-a-yemi-osinbajo-presidency/

Debates debatable

NNTR:
Malachi 2:14-17
14But you say, “Why [does He reject it]?” Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your marriage companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your vows].
15But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth.
16“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong and violence,” says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore keep watch on your spirit, so that you do not deal treacherously [with your wife].”
17You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,” or [by asking], “Where is the God of justice?”

1 Corinthians 7:15
But if the unbeliever separates himself, let him separate himself.
The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases.
But God has called you into peace

A well objective written up piece by OP, of which I cannot really improve on and so just will only reaffirm the sentiments of the original post and stamp likes on the thread where deserving

Yes, the situation that led to Osinachi’s death is one that has many sides to it, and some of the sides to the story, I'll one by one list, as follow

1. We have a wolf in sheep clothing for a husband. An animal in human skin husband. Well now that he's gotten rid of the hen that laid the golden eggs, let him enjoy cooling himself off in the state or federal prison

2. We see what legalism gets one. The bible says wisdom is the principal thing, so you get wisdom, and in your getting get understanding.
How Osinachi didnt get the understanding that one doesnt stay in an abusive and toxic relationship, even marriage, we dont know. Self preservation, the protection of oneself from harm or death, is especially regarded as, a basic instinct in human beings and even animals.

Violence, meaning, any or all behaviours, involving physical force with intent to hurt, maim, or kill someone or something, is not the fruit of the Spirit, so how will anyone explain loving, endorsing or condoning violence?

Malach 2:16, thats been weaponised and used to unduly scare people from escaping toxic, abusive and deadly relationships

3. 1 Corinthians 7:15 is a useful and informative verse, if to list just one verse alone, as its evident that God has not called anyone into violent and toxic relationships. Morever a believer will not maltreat, abuse, assault his/her partner.

4. Osinachi was let down by the same church, now shedding crocodile tears in the aftermath of her demise. Osinachi couldn't by herself, set herself free because she felt she'll be blacklisted, ostracised and made a pariah, by a mean spirited church, who will base their arguments on their flawed excuse of her being a divorced person and so she cant be invited to their events to perform praise and worship ministrations

5. Evil prevails, when the good say or do nothing. Osinachi's twin sister, kept quiet. They sing together, she witnessed her suffering yet did nothing. Fellow gospel singer, Frank Edwards described the husband of late Osinachi, as abusive, yet he too, did nothing. If Osinachi were to be his sister, would he have loved others in the know, keep quiet too, hmm?

As for Dr Paul Enenche and all that his pulpit gra gra. Why DIDNT he get whiff of all this through the prophetic, anointing or something, hmm? Classic case, of having a form of godliness but lacking the power thereof

Sister Osinachi didnt want to lose face and ended up losing her life because of that. Ministers that invited her to come minister at their events, knew about the toxic relationship she had with her husband, but none of them, called out, until after she ed on. They started singing like canary birds after her demise, saying they knew about her abusive relationship but couldn't voice out because Osinachi asked them not to

Well, suffice to say, that, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men/women to do nothing. All in the know, will have to carry the burden on their chest of 'wish I had called out, wish I had snitched'

What a beautiful woman and gift WASTED away just like that. All because of greed. Osinachi RIP, if not, then RIP. Sun re ooo.
- Return if possible, if not soon, then Rest in peace

_{Personal text: Jesus is not a theologian. He is God who told stories.}

Olaleyeabdullah:
Apt

Gratias

Malory:
They don start again after they will deny ever saying anything like this

Did you read the article?

God Still Hates Divorce

By: Deji Yesufu

“God seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of your youth. For the God Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce…” Malachi 2:15-16

The death of gospel musician Osinachi Nwachukwu, reportedly at the hands of her husband, has elicited all kinds of response among Nigerians in the past one week. The Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has taken up the matter – promising justice for Osinachi. I understand that the woman’s husband has been arrested and presently being investigated by the Nigerian police. Most of the virulent response has come from the public – particularly feminists, who continue to postulate their doctrine of “… to hell with all men…”; “… men are not all that…”. Abimbola Adelakun of Punch newspapers adds to these narratives when she wrote “… People routinely shame women’s inability ‘to keep a man’ as if men are a piece of land in Eko Atlantic …” In other words, men are not worth much – a piece of land is much better than keeping a husband.

My article has been elicited by both the death of Osinachi and the article that Adelakun wrote. There is very little for me dispute in Adelakun’s article except that I wish to correct the notion, which the title of her article carries, that God does not hate divorce. Adelakun claims that the position of Malachi 2:16 is not timeless but only relevant for an ancient people – the people of Israel. Our modern liberated world need not submit to such antediluvian notions like submitting to a man in a marriage or keeping the bonds of marriage no matter what might threaten it. To be fair to Adelakun, the Malachi 2 scripture is not a scripture that legitimizes staying in an abusive marriage. In fact, a careful reading of the text, as I have replicated above, shows that God is actually concerned with how men treat their wives in the marriage. One part of the text earlier stated that God is witness of how men treat their wives; then it warns against treacherously dealing with the wife; and finally, it counsels against careless and unthoughtful putting away of the woman.

The context of that scripture is an onition to men not to break their marriage covenant easily. So when a Christian quotes “God hates divorce”, they are not legitimizing bad marriages as feminists tend to claim; rather they are asking married people to treat their spouses well and not abuse them. I understand that a shallow mouthing of “God hates divorce” could be some people’s way of covering abuse in marriage. The scripture however never had such intentions in mind. In the rest of this essay, I will be arguing for viral marriages in spite of so much abuse that goes on in our society.

The words of the Holy Bible, like those that counsel against divorce, are usually words that are directed at God’s covenant people. In the Old Testament these people were the Jews. In the New Testament, those people are the Church. The place of the Christian Church, a godly society, is one that too many people either take for granted or have no idea what it should be. Besides preaching the gospel and helping the saints to walk lives that are honoring to God, the Church is also called to be a place of refuge for God’s people.

One of the institutions that need the Church covering the most are marriages. And the job of the minister in the Church does not begin with settling disputes in marriages, it begins long before the marriage is put together. Jesus said what God has put together, let no one put asunder (Matthew 19:6). Tunde Bakare thinks that the flip side of that scripture is that if God has not put a marriage together, the natural tendency is for anything to put it asunder. Most marital challenges never developed within marriage; they started long before the couple were married. And this is where the church comes in.

A Christian Church worth is salt must be concerned with marrying only Christians. In fact, the minister of a church must have discernment to know who and who is a Christian in his congregation. So that the moment such individuals want to get married, he knows what to say about the marriage. Christian ministers must marry genuine born again individuals. It is possible that one part in the relationship is saved, while the other is not. A brief period of counselling these individuals should reveal to the pastor the eternal state of this person’s heart. If they are not Christians, the pastor must stand against the wedding.

At least he must ensure that his church has no hand in the union of that couple. It all begins with putting together persons who are possessed of the Holy Spirit; individuals who are have a living conscience; people who can hear God from the Holy Scriptures; and individuals who will submit to God, to the church, to the scriptures and to one another in holy matrimony. The moment a church marries a wolf to a sheep, you should expect that one will devour the other eventually.

After the church has put these two together, the church must take up the responsibility of discipling the couple. Discipling will include teaching the couple the way of Christ and the dictates of a Christian home. A man is taught to love and lead his wife and children. The woman is taught to submit to and obey her husband. Couples must be taught to be truly one in mind, body and finances. Some churches counsel that couples keep a t . This is something that I also advocate but this will be impossible if the man is a wolf and the woman is a sheep – or the other way round. It is the process of teaching a couple to live together that many times occasion a minister discerning the state of individual homes. This is where the monster of mega-churches come to play. Where the congregation is too large, a pastor cannot discern the state of peoples’ hearts. When the congregation is small and a minister looks at a woman’s eyes, whether she says it or not, he can tell she is undergoing things in her home.

A little period of counseling will reveal what might be happening, and a good church must step in to protect the woman, the sheep, from the man – the wolf. Where there has been constant, unrepentant abuse, the woman must be separated from the man and the man must be put on church discipline. He will remain in that state until the church can discern repentance in him. The woman can then be allowed to return to him. If the abuse continues, the church may, with discretion, bring an end to the marriage and ensure that the woman is well catered for – along with her children. The church must be able to handle such marital disputes and there is no need for God’s people to take themselves before ungodly men to dissolve their marriage.

The situation that led to Osinachi’s death is multifaceted and such things will continue to happen until God’s people commit themselves to following what the Bible commands them. First, our churches must be filled with converted persons. Second, the gospel must be preached in our churches. Our ministers should live out the truth of holy scripture in all of its ramifications. When these are done, God gives the church wisdom to handle situations that come their way. When scripture said that God hates divorce, the Bible did not have unbelievers at heart. The Bible had a community of gospel believing people in heart. It is such a community that loves God and his word. It is such a community that respects the tenets of the Bible.

It is such a community where sincere love exists among spouses. Even when there might have been disagreements that had once or twice degenerated to disputes, the church can come in and counsel each parties in the matter. Then the Holy Spirit brings forgiveness and healing to hurting heart. At the close of the day, the suffering woman thanks God that she remained in her marriage, because she sees God change the bullish man into a lamb. God hates divorce because divorce too many times is an easy answer to a more complex situation that involves inherent sin, Satan and the struggle between righteousness and darkness overwhelming a home. A situation which left to remain as it is could lead many times to broken homes and broken children.

The world should not rewrite the Bible’s teaching for us because of one or two situations that may give credence for it. Osinachi’s death is very unfortunate but what killed her is a lot more complex than the Church which has committed itself to obeying God’s command for more 2,000 years and has had little reason to regret it.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/

Lizzyolatunjs:
Hello my fellow nairalander family and friends. A silent member, please help me all. I always saw people bringing family issues here until I personally fell into same trap today.

Please my people am at crossroads and I need advice, bring it all on pls. I would like to know why my husband of 10years would save chats , screenshots of our whatsapp messages when we quarrel and I mouth off to him. I mostly dont even go back nor such episodes. However I just said let me check his pictures randomly and lo and behold screenshots of all our personal messages? We have kids together and there has been cheating on his part in the past. I have forgiven and forgiven but seeing my messages saved as screenshots broke me.

We have good chats too but I didnt see any of that so it was specifically done. Elders and colleagues please help me out. Thank you all

Ask him... right?!

[quote author=Wawelexy post=111507842][/quote]

Lobatan

Ghandi Olaoye: Why Pastors Should Not Become Kings

By: Deji Yesufu

There is the possibility that everything I will be writing in this essay will be a rehearsing of things I have written before. I am however encouraged to venture into this subject because it is possible that some who will read this article, have not read anything else I have written. For these ones, my argument will be new and it will not be a waste of effort after all. Secondly, the subject matter that has triggered this essay is a new one. So, I will basically be employing old thoughts and making them relevant to a new subject. In this essay I want to explain why it is incongruous with sound and practical Christianity for a Christian minister to leave his calling and seek to become a king. It is even more distasteful to learn that a supposed born again Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, will seek to become a traditional ruler – a king in a Yoruba city.

It has been reported in numerous online and print media that one Pastor Afolabi Ghandi Olaoye, a Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), is vying for the position of Soun of Ogbomoso – a grade A traditional position in Oyo State. Ghandi Olaoye is the Senior Pastor of Jesus House, RCCG, in Washington DC, a church that is touted as the biggest and most successful Redeemed Church outside Nigeria. Olaoye has been a pastor with the RCCG since 1992, thirty years now, having pastored branches of the church in Nigeria, and then the United States of America. Olaoye is said to be a Crown Prince to the Ogbomoso traditional stool and with the ing of the 20thSoun of Ogbomoso last year, the traditional seat of power in the town was vacated and a number of illustrious sons of Ogbomoso are already vying for the coveted chair. Ghandi Olaoye has also thrown in a bid to be Soun. In fact a few days ago, it was rumored that Ghandi had actually resigned his pastorate in the USA to contest for the seat. The revered Pastor has however refuted this claim, saying it is not true. What is not controvertible is that he as a pastor is vying for the stool of the Soun of Ogbomoso, and it is this matter I wish to write on.

I am thoroughly convinced that a Pastor should not be vying for the seat of a traditional ruler, nor should he be involved with politics – running for the seat of Governor, President or any other political office for that matter. I make this argument because I am convinced that there is no higher calling than the call to serve Jesus Christ in Christian ministry. There is no nobler vocation than those of looking after the souls of human beings and preparing them for the life to come. Those who relinquish the office of a pastor to serve in political office or as traditional rulers have not been genuinely called by God. If they have been, I am convinced that the weight of the call on them will constrain them in the path of ministry, and there will be very little allowance to serve anywhere else. Once upon a time, an apostle of Jesus wrote this: “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” – 1 Corinthians 9:16. Those are the words of Apostle Paul, a man who felt constrained to do nothing else than serve Christ in ministry. If one is already serving the God of the universe and preparing souls for eternity with him, it will be plain relegation to go and serve mere men.

The trouble however with pastors seeking to be kings or traditional rulers is even a lot more worse than I have already stated. At the root of it all is a faulty theology; a false conception of God; and the pursuit of worldly gains and human approbation. Long before we began to have pastors leave the high calling of ministry to serve as earthly kings, Christendom was replete with men and women who entered Christian ministry with the mindset of sacrifice. Because Jesus Christ died and redeemed them from their sins, these men and women were committed to dying to help others come to saving faith in Christ Jesus. The word “minister” in the New Testament connotes servanthood, not the lofty position of a “man of God” like we know it today in our churches. In his book, Pastors and Teachers, Derek Prime writes: “Contemporary use has given the word ‘minister’ a rather respectable sound, so that it implies station and office. But not so in the New Testament, for it properly implies lowly service – in fact, like that of a table waiter!” A Christian minister is a servant. When ministers begin to seek to be king, something is desperately wrong somewhere.

Ghandi Olaoye, as a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, espouses the Pentecostal religion. While there might be a lot of things wrong with Pentecostalism itself – the real challenge of modern Pentecostalism is its espousal of the Word of Faith gospel. This is what Gotquestion.com, a reputable online theological medium, says about the Word of Faith theology: the “Word of Faith teaching is decidedly unbiblical…” The Word of Faith theology espouses what has come to be known as the prosperity gospel. It is a message that teaches that Jesus Christ died and rose again to make Christians healthy and wealthy. The Word of Faith theology is another gospel – it is plain heresy. It has however taken advantage of a wide acceptance among many professing Christians in Nigeria to today become the standard of orthodoxy among Christians in our nation. Ghandi Olaoye espouses a Word of Faith theology and in keeping with this theology’s quest for the better life and higher positions that comes with more wealth, he would see no reason to jettison the high calling of a pastor to sit on the vain stool of a town’s traditional ruler.

I understand that when the recent Olu of Warri was installed as king of that town, the man dedicated his coronation to “my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ.” I’m also told that Ghandi will not be the first pastor to leave the church to be installed Oba in Nigeria. All these, however, only lend credence to an oft made remark that Christianity in our day has become increasingly worldly, while the world has become increasingly churchy. Our Lord Jesus himself said that many on the last day will say to him “Lord, Lord…” but he will say to them: I do not know you; depart from me because you are workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:22-23). It has always been the modus operandi of the devil to make Christianity popular so that it can infiltrate its ranks with false confessors.

Ghandi may also wish to hide behind a plethora of Nigerian Pastors who are seeking political office. The nation’s number two man, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, himself is a pastor also with the Redeemed Church. Pastors like Tunde Bakare and Chris Okotie have never hidden their hopes of one day ruling Nigeria. The only problem is that a case could be made for these pastors running to lead a country purely on a secular basis. The trouble is that traditional seats in the country are known for their meddling with diabolical means. Most times, Christians have sought to pay their way through these traditional rites but they forget that whether they are directly involved in the rites or they are paying for it, they are still very much part of it. While pastors running for political offices do not engage in diabolical rites, the same case can be made against them: anyone called into the Christian ministry should never leave it for the kingly stool.

What the Christian Church needs today are genuine pastors and teachers. Christianity is in crisis because many professing Christians do not have worthy examples to follow. The gospel need of our day is immense: there is a world out there perishing without God and his Christ. The gospel needs to be taught and lived out in full. Sinners need to comprehend the gospel and be saved. Many institutions are suffering because Christians are not shining their light on them. Marriages are folding up; homes are breaking; children are being raised by single parents; violence is on our streets and insecurity abounds. This is besides the proliferation of cults in our day. The last thing we need are men who claim to serve God and are merely serving their bellies.

Postscript:

In the process of writing this essay, I came across new reports that indicate that Ghandi Olaoye has actually been appointed Soun of Ogbomoso and is only awaiting coronation. Another report from Punch newspapers states that Ghandi had initially not been interested in the position of king but he was encouraged by Pastor E. A. Adeboye to pray about it. Ghandi claims in the interview that God told him that this was the reason he was born: to become Soun of Ogbomoso. It is impossible for me to include in this essay reasons why I am convinced that it is not God that has spoken to Ghandi to pursue this line of action but since it is far too common for Pentecostals to legitimize every vain desire of their hearts with “God told me”, we will just as well have to accept his position. Suffice to say that some of us know well enough that the words of God are stated in the Bible and by direct or meaningful deduction, we can come to know what God might be saying to us today. I am thoroughly convinced that God has not asked Olaoye to be Soun of Ogbomoso. The witness of scripture is clear enough: you cannot be servant to God and be servant of mammon at the same time.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/ghandi-olaoye-why-pastors-should-not-become-kings/

You are the lord of your home.

Whatever you permit, stays.

Whatever you disallow, leaves.

I'll say you talk to your Mother in law and tell her it your house and thus your rules, respectfully.

If she still insist on no sex, tell her to leave

ProphetofOdin:
Hi,
Please I will try to be brief as possible as i can.
I work with a firm that sells construction equipment, and head the logistics and warehouse department. I have this junior colleague that has been with the company for 8years(long before i ed cos i have only been there for 2+ years), he is experienced and good at his job.
But yesterday i caught this guy trying to steal two pieces of 70ah batteries, it really broke my heart because he can not even sell this things for up to 100k. I have tried everything in my capacity to make sure those working under my dept enjoy every benefits that are due to them; from hazard allowance, overtime, and so on. I sign all this allowance without asking questions even when sometimes some of them are questionable. I was doing all this so that nobody has any reason to steal and they have small change to augment their salary.
Personally i hate theft and frown at it and they all know it cos i keep preaching against this at every meeting, and if i escalate this to the management at the HQ in Lagos, he might be sack without benefits after 8 long years and he is a family man.

Though I have scold him and told him he would hear from me by Monday morning, the truth is given the situation I don't know what to do with this guy.

I am really confuse cos i don't even know how long he has been doing this shit.

Tell management the same thing you told us, of course in a professional manner. Let them make the final decision. It will curtail future happenings with both him and others.

chatinent:
What our leaders need is biancacetamol.

BIANCA POTENTIAL

By: Deji Yesufu

During my days in Ahmadu Bello University, there was a lady who had come to my school for her undergraduate studies at about the same time. My family and hers remain family friends till this day. This young woman went to school at a Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC) in Eastern Nigeria and because of her exposure and travels, I was always intrigued by stories she told us. One of such stories was about how Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late Biafran warlord, Odumegwu Ojukwu, had visited her school and spent some time talking with her and her friends. Bianca had just won the beauty pageant that launched her into fame and I doubt she was even married to Ojukwu as of this time.

My friend told me that quite naturally all the girls in the school flocked out to see Bianca and the beauty queen took her time to interact with them. At some point she began to ask them what they wanted to become in life. Everyone had one thing or the other to say. One of the girls told Bianca that she wanted to become a beauty queen like herself. At that point all the girls let out shrills – of course doubting the young girl. Bianca quieted the girls and told them that this girl had potentials. As if to shut off their disbelief, Bianca pointed at the girl’s fair skin and her particularly slim and long legs as marks that could stand her out in a beauty contest.

Incidentally I knew this girl because she happened to have schooled in ABU too. Long story short, this girl, Nkem, soon bagged the nick-name: “Bianca Potential”. The story of Bianca Potential did not go on to become the fairy tale many of her mates had envisioned for her. Nkem married a wealthy Igbo man. Her husband restrained her from pursuing any other career and thus became a full time house wife. Nkem lost all her potentials to child bearing and overweight and soon died a little more than a decade after we all left school. She never fulfilled her potentials. When the story of the slap-fest between Bianca Ojukwu and Willie Obiano’s wife broke yesterday, I sent a text to my friend saying that I didn’t know that Bianca had potentials for slapping too. My friend replied that she was just learning the same.

This article is not meant to examine the propriety of the actions of the two high class ladies at the inaugural ceremony of Prof. Charles Soludo as Governor of Anambra State yesterday. It is impossible to do justice to the subject because whatever will make a human being resort to diatribes in the manner that Mrs. Obiano did yesterday and which also brought fort the violence in Mrs. Ojukwu – no one can say for certainty. Clearly the two ladies were once allies who have now become arc enemies.

It is however safe to state two things: first, like the story of Bianca which I just relayed, especially the Bianca before becoming Biafra’s matriarch, shows that Ojukwu’s wife can be humane. While others felt Nkem had no potential, Bianca could see one. She encouraged Nkem with her words such that by the time I will see her at ABU, she had clearly become a beauty to behold. And save for bad judgement from a husband and death, Nkem might indeed have gone on to become Ms. Nigeria – all thanks to Bianca. In other words, the ladies who turned to fist cuffs yesterday are normal human beings and yesterday may just have been a particularly low point for them. And thus they should not be defined by it.

Secondly, and more importantly, the story of the relationship between Nigerian politicians – including the relationship between their wives is a tragic one to behold. I understand that historically the Western Region that degenerated to violence in the early 1960s, was actually the outplay of a feudal war between Chief Awolowo wife and the wife of Chief Akintola who was the sitting Premier of that region at that time. Awolowo’s wife was the sole distributor of Coca-cola in Nigeria then. After her husband had left office, Akintola’s wife felt she should also have a slice in that pie too. Their disagreement led to the South West boiling and the sacking of the democratic government of that day by the military.

I am saying that if left unchecked, disagreement between two ladies could lead to a tragic end. It is not likely that Bianca’s feud with Mrs. Obiano will extend any further though because the former Governor has other fish to fry as he must now explain himself to the EFCC, who arrested him at MMA yesterday as he sought to leave the country for the USA, following the end of his tenure as Governor. Willie Obiano will very likely elude the Nigerian ant graft agency in another few years, after he would have settled himself out of court with some plea bargaining.

It is all a summary of the tragic situation we have found ourselves in as a people in Nigeria. Tragedy just as it happened in the life of a young woman I didn’t know too well but who was called “Bianca Potential” because she had potentials to be great but perished before her days even begun

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/bianca-potential/

Seun, lalasticlala

Visiting Enugu: How IPOB is Destroying Eastern Nigeria

By: Deji Yesufu

October 2018 I was in Enugu to promote my book, VICTOR BANJO. I used the trip to also familiarize myself with Eastern Nigeria – since I had never been to that region of Nigeria before. My friends who hosted me ensured that I had the best time ever and when I returned, I wrote a glowing article – particularly extolling the efforts of the State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, in his efforts to fix the old capital of Eastern Nigeria. That article was my honest observation of Eastern Nigeria. Four years down the line, all of that has changed.

I was in Enugu this week on official duties and the city I met was a far cry from the promising situation of 2018. I stayed on the outskirt of the town this time and as we drove to the hotel, our driver informed me that just last week there had been some killings on that very road. Unknown gunmen had attacked a detachment of security operative and opened fire on them. Four persons were killed. The situation had become so common that the person telling the story relayed it without any sympathy for the dead. We arrived the State on a Sunday. Our work was to commence the following day, a Monday, but we were told that there was a sit-at-home. When I enquired as to who is enforcing this, I was informed that it was the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – a separatist group protesting the continual detention and prosecution of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu had been kidnapped by the Nigerian government outside the country and brought into the country to answer to charges brought against him years back – which he had avoided answering to, after he escaped from Nigeria. IPOB insist Kanu must be released or else the country will know no peace.

A friend told me that usually many parts of Enugu refuse to heed the sit-at-home order. After a few weeks of observing it, children soon returned to school on Mondays. But to remind the people and cower them into obedience, unknown gunmen suddenly emerge and kill people. People get scared and they return to observing the sit-at-home again. At the hotel, I was told that one day a man had just finished an early morning duty and was returning to his home this early Monday morning. He was met by gunmen and shot dead. People heard of his killing and retreated to their homes once again. IPOB insist Kanu must be released or else the country will know no peace.

When I pointed out to a driver of a car that conveyed me in one of my trips, that the killings were obviously being carried out by IPOB folks to enforce the sit-at-home order, he asked me how do I know this for sure. He said he was an IPOB person because he has sympathy for the course of Biafra. He explained that even though he was IPOB, he was not given to violence neither does he the killing of innocent people. Since he was driving me and I couldn’t tell what his temperament was, I said to myself: obviously IPOB people have different modus operandi. There are those who carry arms to enforce their beliefs and there are those who are pacifist.

When I asked to know what the State Government is doing to ensure security in the state, I was told that Ugwuanyi has entered into the second term curse that usually befalls many Nigerian governors. In the first term, they sell themselves to the people with their good works. In their second term, they have no one to please so they begin to plan for retirement into the Senate. The insecurity in Eastern Nigeria has also worsened situation and since the that IPOB has emerges from the grassroots, the state government is careful not to loose popularity with the people. The governor finds himself in the unenviable middle of pleasing IPOB and also obeying the Federal Govt under whom they receive their monthly allocations.

Despite the lockdown on Monday, I was able to make it to work but the whole place was deserted. However I had with me a young man, who had defied the lockdown to be at the office. I asked him why he had not ed others and stayed at home – why was he risking his life. The young man explained that most of the people staying at home were government workers. He said because he works for himself, he must go out and work or else he will not eat. He even told me that he had been at the spare part market that morning and was able to get the item he sought. “And the boys opened their shop?” “Sure”, he replied. In other words, to remain at home on a Monday morning was to court hunger. That sums up the varied reactions I got from the Monday lockdowns.

I titled the final chapter of VICTOR BANJO “Can This Happen Again?” That is: can Nigeria witness a civil war again and the overarching response is “yes”. Then I counselled young Igbo men to try and demystify Nnamdi Kanu. Right now he has become a cult like figure among them but a few things will demystify him. Nnamdi Kanu should articulate his arguments in a book. Let him convince the world that his sessationist agenda is worth pursuing. If he is able to bring his ideas to the world of academia and they are accepted, perhaps his following will grow beyond motor park touts. I say this because most of those who know this man and have listened to him know that he doesn’t have a solid argument for his ideas. He has simply keyed into the discontent of a region to sell his agenda. And he’s doing well at it.

As the Igbos seek to demystify Kanu, they should also consider honestly the positives in their remaining in Nigeria. As it remains, what is truly Biafran in geography is a landlocked area of Nigeria with no access to the sea and that has almost no natural resources. Second, the Nigerian nation has heard the cry of the Igbos on marginalization long enough and I’m positive that if they put forward a worthy candidate today, Nigerians will vote for him. They could start with putting a formidable party behind Kingsley Morghalu and the rest will be history.

Lastly, Igbo land must appreciate the fact that their greatest enemy are not the rest of Nigeria but themselves. Because except a people hate themselves, they will not reduce their work days to four while the rest of the country has five. Igbo land is the worst for it in the face of all these lockdowns.

I left Enugu a sad man. There is deep fear in the hearts of people in that city. You don’t know when next unknown gunmen will strike. You don’t know who’s next. And where there is insecurity, there can be no growth; no development. The Igbo people will need to identify who their friends and who their enemies really are. IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu mean no good for Eastern Nigeria except retrogression.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/visiting-enugu-how-ipob-is-destroying-eastern-nigeria/

The War Between Russia and Ukraine

By: Deji Yesufu

I have just read Sunday Adelaja’s Facebook post. He says all out war has broken out between Ukraine and Russia. Adelaja is a Nigerian pastor living in Kiev, Ukraine. He says from his home, he can hear shelling and bombs going off some distance away. Welcome to war, friends. But as we watch thing work out in Eastern Europe, here are my thoughts on the situation.

Foreign policy among countries has always been one of dominance. The more you bring people under your sovereign, the stronger you are as a country. The Greek and Roman empires expanded through military conquering and dominance. Napoleon Bonaparte was the last world leader that sought a similar domination but failed ultimately. After Bonaparte, the world began to look away from domination to association. Rather than a country ruling other countries, what we now have are union of countries.

The idea of union of nations is actually one of the fruit of the democratic experiment of the United States. America is a conglomerate of 50 nation states. So that after World War 2, which America played a major role in quelling, the USA brought her democratic experiment on nations by introducing the concept of United Nations. Sine then, different countries have sought different association between themselves. The USA also forced many European nations, like Britain and , to follow up their commitment to these new world principles by granting African countries independence from colonial rule. So that the end of WW2 also sparked the beginning of the end of colonial rule in Africa and Asia.

America and Russia fought on the same side in WW2 and defeated . Though they had a common enemy, they possessed varied ideologies. America was capitalist; Russia – communist. Their differences sparked the cold war. The Cold War ended with the disbanding of the nations under the USSR in 1989. The USSR were countries, like the USA, banded together for a common good. America instigated the end of the USSR, leaving her as sole super power in the world. Russia despised this and Putin regarded it as the biggest failure of his country. With his rise to power, Putin has seen the return of the USSR as his sole ambition. Ukraine was formerly in the USSR. Then the impossible began to happen.

Ukraine, now an independent country, in the past few years has been hobnobbing with the NATO. NATO is a conglomerate of European countries and the USA. The association seeks mutual economic and military ties. As Ukraine sought to NATO, Putin sent out a strong warning: He would be caught dead if Ukraine, a former USSR nation, a nation with people possessing close ties with Russia, s NATO. Rather than Ukraine going, he will invade that country and bring her back under the rule of Russia.

You may think this is wrong but looking at things from the perspective of Russia and Putin, you cannot blame Putin too much. Truth is that countries ought to respect each other. America knows about Putin’s ambition, yet they take steps at bringing a former USSR country under them. America knows that Russia is a country that can call their bluff and enter into full blown war and thus, now that Ukraine is invaded, the best the USA can do is impose sanctions, and cry diplomatic wolf. Russia will invade Ukraine and bring her under their rule and the world will do nothing.

The other option is that NATO may launch an attack on Russia. If that happens, welcome to Third World War.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/the-war-between-russia-and-ukraine/

Guns and Blood in Ibadan

Yesterday, there were guns blazing in Ibadan and there was blood everywhere. It is no longer news that a bullion van was attacked by armed robbers in the early afternoon yesterday at the Idi-ape junction connecting major parts of Ibadan, including Agodi-Gate, with other parts of Ibadan, like Iwo road and Basorun. What might be news to you is how it all happened.

The Seyi Makinde-led government of Oyo State has, since inception, embarked on a rapid completion of major road construction in Ibadan that were commenced by the outgoing Abiola Ajimobi government. The most prominent of these roads has been the Basorun-Akobo road. Akobo is a residential area of Ibadan and might be the most inhabited parts of the town – at least for middle income earners. The state government therefore provided a double carriage way through that part of the town, which still leads to other fast developing parts of the town and has made transportation quite easy for the people living on those axis. To curb the excessive speeding of motorist, particularly the ever-present Micra drivers, the state government only recently provided traffic lights to major junctions in Ibadan. It is those traffic lights that turned out to be the waterloo of the drivers of the bullion van that was attacked yesterday.

Eye witness s has it that it all begun around 1pm in the hot afternoon. The bullion van conveying money to a nearby bank, had pulled up to the traffic light and was forced to wait because a few vehicles in front of them had stopped. A few seconds to the light glowing green, armed men wearing police uniform and having their faces masked, emerged from a Sienna vehicle, and opened fire on the bullion van. At first they shot into the air to scare away people but subsequently they began to shoot at occupants of the van. After this, they moved towards the bullion van, broke open its safe and carted away the money that was being conveyed.

In the wake of the attack, Vanguard reports that three policemen and four other persons were killed. Because quite a number of people were stationed around the bullion van, inside the traffic, it was easy for stray bullets to hit them. It is not known how many people were injured but quite a number of them were subsequently taken to the University College Hospital (UCH) for treatment.

Ibadan is a sleepy civil-servant town in South-west, Nigeria. It is generally believed that there is no money here. The last time we had this type of gangster-type robbery must have been no less than ten years ago and it was almost at the same spot: when the Intercontinental Bank, situated at Idi-ape junction, was robbed. Many people have complained about the inability of law enforcement agents to curb these kinds of robberies. Just about two hundred meters from Idi-ape, there is the Testing Ground, where a central police station is located. The place is also a residential quarters for the police. A few meters away from the point where the bullion van was robbed, is the officer’s mess for the Nigerian army. In the space of about half an hour when this robbery was ongoing, there was practically no resistance from any law enforcement personal in that area.

Ibadan saw guns yesterday and the streets of the town was littered with the blood and bodies of the innocent. The people who witnessed the carnage saw nothing less than a war situation. Some of us resident here are thankful to mark ourselves safe from the attack; unfortunately, a number of other people were not so lucky.

https://textandpublishing.com/guns-and-blood-in-ibadan/

© Deji Yesufu