₦airaland Forum

3 days to go for round 2 court case - March 18

4 days to go for round 2 court case - March 18

Assault: Court Dismisses Arogundade’s Objection
By Davidson Iriekpen, 03.12.2009

A Lagos High Court yesterday dismissed an application filed by Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade, and the Nigerian Navy, challenging jurisdiction of the court to hear a suit instituted by Uzoma Okere.
Okere was assaulted by six Naval ratings in the convoy of Rear Admiral Arogundade.
In her ruling, presiding judge, Justice Opeyemi Oke, while dismissing the preliminary objection, held that a prima facie case had been established against the respondents, adding that the objection was brought in bad faith, to delay the case and a ploy to waste the time of the court.
Besides, Justice Oke held that the applicants had duly complied with provisions of Order 1 Rule2(3) of the fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 1979 and the court being satisfied that a prima facie case had been made, grants them leave to enforce their rights.
“I hold that Notice of Preliminary objection and the grounds upon which same is brought is mere waste of the time of the court and it is brought in bad faith to delay the hearing of the applicants’ suit for the enforcement of her fundamental human rights.
"I hold that the preliminary objection has no leg on which to stand or knee caps to crawl before this court. It is hereby dismissed with N25,000 cost against the respondents," the court ruled."

This Day

Assault: Uzoma Okere wins round one

Tony Amokeodo


JUSTICE Opeyemi Oke of a Lagos High Court, on Wednesday, dismissed the preliminary objection of Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade and the Nigerian Navy, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear a suit by Miss Uzoma Okere.

The lady was reportedly assaulted by six naval ratings attached to the convoy of Arogundade on November 3, 2008 on Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Okere and Abdulahi Abdulazeez had dragged Arogundade, NN and Unknown Naval Ratings to court and demanded N100m damages.

But the defendants had filed objection, claiming that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the suit.

In her ruling, Justice Oke held that a prima facie case had been established against Arogundade, NN and Unknown Naval Ratings.

The judge also awarded N25,000 costs against the defendants.

Justice Oke also berated Arogundade and other defendants for wasting the time of the court, saying that the objection lacked merit.

She said, “I hold that the Notice of Preliminary objection and the grounds upon which same is brought is mere waste of the time of the court and it is brought in bad faith to delay the hearing of the applicants‘ suit for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights.

“I hold that the preliminary objection has no leg on which to stand or knee caps to crawl before this court. It is hereby dismissed with N25,000 costs against the respondents.”

The judge further held that Okere and Abdulazeez had duly complied with the provisions of Order 1 Rule 2 (3) of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 1979.

She further held that since the court was satisfied that a prima facie case had been made, the court had no alternative than to grant leave to the plaintiffs to enforce their rights.

She said, “I have exercised my discretion on this application for leave for the enforcement of applicants’ fundamental rights judiciously and judicially, that a prima facie case has been made.

“I further hold that the applicants did comply with the preliminary steps for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.”

Regarding the issue of service, which the NN and Unknown Naval Ratings claimed was not properly effected, the court held that the defendants had been duly served with the originating summons, affidavit in support and the verifying affidavit.

The court also held that the contention of the defendants that the NN was not served with the originating summons at its headquarters at Plot 1092, Mohammed Buhari Way, Area 7, Garki, Abuja, was misconceived.

She pointed out that the NN and Unknown Naval Ratings were aware of the suit having been served through their Lagos office and represented by a lawyer.

The court held that the Lagos office of the NN had the responsibility to pass the information to the defendants, saying that to declare otherwise would only make a ridicule of the law.

Justice Oke later adjourned the case till March 18.

Punch

2 days to go - March 11 court case

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-191814.736.html#msg3568365

2 days to go - March 11 court case

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-191814.736.html#msg3568365

2 days to go - March 11 court case

anonimi:
This Day:
----------------------
Naval Ratings: Court Rules March 11
By Davidson Iriekpen, 02.18.2009

Justice Opeyemi Oke of a Lagos High Court yesterday fixed ruling for March 11, 2009 in the preliminary objection filed by Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade and the Nigerian Navy challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear a suit instituted by Uzoma Okere and Abdullahi Abdulazeez who were allegedly assaulted by six naval ratings in the convoy of Rear Admiral Arogundade.
The plaintiffs are also seeking for an order perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from horsewhipping motorists and putting them in apprehension through reckless driving in siren -blaring convoy.
They want the court to declare that the respondents’ prevention of using her Mitsubishi Colt marked MQ 34 KJA on public roads amounts to discrimination, harassment and infringement on her right to freedom as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
They equally prayed the court to declare that she and other motorists are entitled to equal treatment and access to public roads without any discrimination.
The plaintiffs further prayed the court to declare that the acts of intimidation, violence and reckless driving by the respondents on the public roads under the pretext of being military officers, violate her and other road users’ rights to movement and dignity of human person.

It seems I got the court date wrong by a few days. The resumed hearing was held yesterday as per today's report from This Day:
----------------------
Naval Ratings: Court Rules March 11
By Davidson Iriekpen, 02.18.2009

Justice Opeyemi Oke of a Lagos High Court yesterday fixed ruling for March 11, 2009 in the preliminary objection filed by Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade and the Nigerian Navy challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear a suit instituted by Uzoma Okere and Abdullahi Abdulazeez who were allegedly assaulted by six naval ratings in the convoy of Rear Admiral Arogundade.
The plaintiffs who had dragged Arogundade, unknown naval ratings and the Nigerian Navy before the court for assault are demanding N100 million as damages against the defendants.
At the resumed hearing of the suit yesterday, counsel to the respondents , Lawrence Imolode, from the chambers of Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN) argued that the court lacked competence to hear the matter hence the suit should be struck out.
Besides, he urged the court to strike out the notice of motion set down for hearing arguing that the applicants did not seek the leave of the court for the hearing of the origination summons dated November 14, 2008.
In their notice of preliminary objection brought pursuant to order 1 rule 2; order 2 rule 2(1) (3) of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure and Section 91 of the Armed Forces Act 23 Cap A20 2004, the respondents argued that the plaintiffs failed to file and serve a verifying affidavit in addition to the originating summons.
Imolode submitted that the applicants failed to comply with the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 1979 in that she failed to file and serve a verifying affidavit in addition to the Notice of Motion set down for hearing.
Further the respondents contended that the Nigerian Navy was not served the Originating Summon at its headquarters located at Plot 1092 Mohammed Buhari Way, Area 7, Garki Abuja.
Responding, counsel to the applicants, Omotola Rotimi (Mrs), argued that the applicants had fully complied with the Fundamental Human Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules.
Rotimi who is the Director of the Office of Public Defender (OPD) submitted that the applicants filed an application seeking leave of Court on November 11, 2008 and same was granted allowing the applicants to file and serve motion on notice for their fundamental human rights.
On the issue of none service, she urged the court to take judicial notice of affidavit of service filed by the applicants and discountenance the submission of the respondents.
She urged the court to assume jurisdiction and hold that the respondents had been duly served.
They urged the court to declare the acts of the respondents in torturing; stripping her naked, ruthless brutalising and unlawful arrest and detention of the applicants without any justification unlawful and unconstitutional.
They prayed the court to compel the respondents to issue unreserved apologies to them for the violation of their fundamental human rights in at least four print and electronic media.
The plaintiffs are also seeking for an order perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from horsewhipping motorists and putting them in apprehension through reckless driving in siren -blaring convoy.
They want the court to declare that the respondents’ prevention of using her Mitsubishi Colt marked MQ 34 KJA on public roads amounts to discrimination, harassment and infringement on her right to freedom as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
They equally prayed the court to declare that she and other motorists are entitled to equal treatment and access to public roads without any discrimination.
The plaintiffs further prayed the court to declare that the acts of intimidation, violence and reckless driving by the respondents on the public roads under the pretext of being military officers, violate her and other road users’ rights to movement and dignity of human person.

[quote author=B.O.S.S. link=topic=191814.msg3483457#msg3483457 date=1234965880]@ Anonimi

Where outside Nigeria could I keep abreast of this case on the internet?[/quote]I hope the newspapers will carry the outcome the following day.

5 days to go for the court case - Feb 23

BOSS,

Yeah, slowly slowly we shall make progress and reduce the impunity menatlity that has dwelt with us for too long.

6 days to go for the court case - Feb 23

7 days to go for the court case - Feb 23

10 days to go for the court case - Feb 23

ukotmi:
Any giving wether tithes, offerings, thanksgiving or what so ever must be from a willing and thanksfull heart. The truth is that folks often take issues to extremes making others develop a guilty conscience. If I decide to give a pastor a gift, it must be from a willing heart and my decision. It makes no sense to give and be complaining that one is compelled to give. Yes I give but nobody, no pastor can compel me to give. I think(personal thougths oh) Christians should shine their eyes  when giving. For what purpose am  I giving? I know a church that posted missionaries to several rural cities in Nigeria. A particular pastor in that church came up with thew idea of mission aid to help the missionaries. On designated sundays, offerings of cash, materials are taken and sent promptly to these missionaries.

very good initiative worthy of freewill support.
i hope they also set up schools and clinics at subsidised rates in these rural areas.

manmustwac:
@Bloodshed
Imagine this. A group of people are travelling from Abuja to Lagos in a bus somewhere along the road the vehicle has a serious accident and out of lets say 16 passengers only four passengers survive. Now those four survivors will be jumping up and down giving praise to God for sparing their lives.

But what makes them really think that its God that spared their lives? Because if it is really God that spared their life then why did He allow 12 passengers to die in the first place? Why didn't he spare the lives of all 16 of them? Nigerians cannot reason that it was the drivers bad driving that caused the accident, or that the vehicle had a problem, or the bad road, or another driver in another car. They believe thats its the merciful God that spared them.

You can't reason with them.

One of the main reasons nigeria won't make progress. Rather than sue the driver/ the transport company & government agencies responsible for keeping the roads and vehicles in good condition for gross negligence and resulting damages, we will go and do thanksgiving for the survivors and fight over the inheritance of the dead persons. that way those involved are likely be obliged to do the right thing and earn their pay by working hard and delivering on theoir performance criteria to avoid paying up on damages from civil liabilities cases.
Meanwhile, note that the same nigerians abroad will not hesitate to collect money from insurance companies abroad if injured by a vehicle, at work etc
BTW, our laws are basically replicas of those of Britain

Image123:
So kunle,are you saying that anyone who pays tithes is not a christian?

What I and others understand kunle to be saying in all his posts on tithe is that:

anyone who pays 10% (tithes) of his income to fulfil the law on tithes as laid out in the old testament is not Christ like and hence not a CHRSITian.
I hope that is clear enough for you to also understand and make the difference with your blanket statement above.
thus, it is not the payment of tithes that invalidates one from being a Christian but rather the belief basis for paying 10% of one's income.

Image123:
You're always funny or is it phoney.Why would you quote me and say you're quoting kunle,and then say that I am twisting kunle's words,and then you go ahead to remix/twist my words

I guess it's either you did not understand my reference to Kunle's post or you just like being mischievious once in a while.

anonimi:
You are rather the one exaggerating and twisting what has been written here and repeated just above here by Kunle,

That was making reference to Kunle' post # 514 just above mine #515. Hope it is clear enough for you now.

cutie25:
this video is so sad. l just saw it. people are cruel ooo

and it may happen next time to someone very close to you and I hence we need to rally round the court case date of 23 Feb.

gozzilla:
Nwa nna, i want to help you so listen with a open mind. First and foremost tithing is not a thing of the old testament, it came before the law. The first time tithe was mentioned was in Genesis, Abraham gave tithe to Melchizedek. Also in Genesis, Jacob also gave tithe to God. He said he will give tithe if God kept him in one piece.
This men all lived before the law was given to Moses.
Now you ask to see this principle in the new testament. Well tithe is not explicitly stated

You should have stopped here and not go on to wriggle and twist around further as quoted below:

gozzilla:
in the but for one giving and receiving is stated. Now God did not give a command in the new testament that what a man sows he will reap. Paul in Galatian simply stated the principle that God gave to Noah in Gen 8 that as long as the earth remains seed time and harvest shall not seize. That is not a old testament command. So also it is with tithing. It is a principle that guarantees God's hand in your finances, actually He said i will pour you a blessing, and rebuke the devourer.
I could go on and on, but that's why we have the bible and the holy Spirit he will enlighten your heart if you ask him to sincerely.

and how does reaping what you sow justify tithes in the new testament?
please note that sowing & reaping is a very generic principle and not a command.
if you disagree, please quote the exact reference you relied on in the new testament to make your inference.

I may not make it to the meeting but I think sensitising MANY people about this case might also be a good part aside the awareness raisning among youths on 2011 elections.
A simple SMS to people on your address book about the case and its court date will go a long way for this goal.

How about going beyond the tears and doing something practical as our (you & I without the "leaders" contribution to avoid tear-shedding by another generation down the line
You can spread the word about this case

14 days to go for the court case- Feb. 23.

Image123:
Kunle,stop being paranoid,paying tithes is not an heresy.You're exaggerating issues.I've told you before.No one will go to hell because he paid tithes.Heretics are running to hell

You are rather the one exaggerating and twisting what has been written here and repeated just above here by Kunle, i.e.:

No one will go to hell if he pays tithe (10%) of his own volition without been coerced subtly or overtly to do so in reference to scriptures, especially Mal.3.
However, any pastor who compels his congregation to pay tithe or any other offering compulsorily cannot even be described as a CHRISTian and the words and works of Christ and His early Apostles as recorded in the New Testament are clear on this.
Maybe you want to dust up your Bible and read it again rather than feeding on the distortions spewed out by those who have made money-making their business under God's name.

Thought the article below might be relevant to the discussion here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Soyinka On Adunni Olorisa
By Damola Awoyokun

IN his tribute to the late Susanne Wenger, Wole Soyinka as usual drapes the traditional religion TR in richly embroidered aso oke. He singled out its virtue of tolerance, made an example of it and completed the tribute with an 'irreducible' instruction: "Go to the orisa, learn from the orisa, and be wise." (The Guardian, January 20). Really?

Soyinka zeroed in on the superficial at the expense of the fundamental: that TR is a system of superstition; that like other systems of superstition it not responsible to objective verification and empirical analysis; that it is incompatible with requirements of progress and civilization; that the human mind has a duty to follow what is true and not just what is traditional; that the golden traces of beauty, justice, truth, love, ethical emphasis that it holds up as embroideries for PR are eternal values older than any religion. (All religions appropriate these to look credible and seduce the unwary).

Invention of TR started with anxiety about the unknown. In terms of space, this translated to curiosity about what lay beyond the village and the skies; and in terms of time: wanting to know what the future held. It was believed that there is a master script somewhere, the setting of which is the earth and all human beings are characters in it. To have access to this is the reason for divination, which explains why there are terms like kadara, ipin, ayanmo, akunleyan, akunlegba, akoole. Modern philosophical consensus has established all these are false. There is no destiny; nothing had been predetermined; there is no fate. We are our own meaning. Our current situation or our tomorrow is tabla rasa that is why they are products of our choice. No more. We are responsible for what we do and this determines who we are. There is no ori or chi that had negotiated a good or bad contract for one's destiny. And yet the soft force driving all religions is this concept of predestination, to know what had been written down for one's situation.

Among the Yoruba, the divination is Ifa. Here is a typical verse from Otura meji, a principal Odu: , adia fun Aderomokun omo ooni, ala'na kan esuru, n' ijo ti m' ekun se raun ire gbogbo; bi okan ba yo ninu igbo a ba ona wa, ire, ire gbogbo ma ma wa mi wa o, ire gbogbo, What makes a literary work first rate is embedded in this incantation. Not only its flow of cadence, but each word being an anticipation of the next enacts the yearning for determinism they convey. Prince Aderomokun may never have existed but was invented because its meaning and the music of its syllables props the idea the verse carries. Nevertheless, must we allow this literary beauty to obfuscate the fallacies resident not only in the verse but also in the whole of all divination systems? Who says that every time a quarry emerges from the bush it heads for the village path? (Fallacy of hasty generalization and unwarranted assumption) And since this animal fortune has happened to the village, therefore fortune will come your way too? (Fallacy of false cause)

These fallacies are not unlike the odus of other scriptures. An example: that after suffering family exclusion, deprivation and security threats in the bush, the biblical David rose to the leadership of Israel hence this would happen to you too after you suffer. Or when you suffer and become leader, it is because it had first happened to David or any other biblical persona. Glossing over the superficial but zeroing attention on details and the causal relationship among them is the beginning of thinking, the automatic enemy of divination.

Even with Ifa, mysteries of life persisted unexplained. This made it easy for the foreign religions to sweep TR away. Not that they were essentially different but at some points in their development they rendered themselves open to the current state of thought and scholarship, to findings of reformists like St Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Omar Khayyam -a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. Hence, these religions were equipped to offer sophisticated answers to the quest for understanding and attempts to find clarity in the several contradictions of life. Since wisdom is acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said, converting to them seemed a wise choice for our ancestors.

But not without a fight. This is why the claim that TR is tolerant is largely imaginary. TR looks tolerant because it is in the minority. When Islam and Christianity were seeping into the villages and TR was the majority, history discloses several instances where churches and mosques were razed down and converts massacred or disowned by their own families for worshipping a white man's God or going to a white man's school. Now being the minority, TR is emasculated of its powers of intolerance. This is not the same as being tolerant. It is just the aftermath of emasculation, the step before extinction. Intolerance is the evangelical zeal to be the sole majority. This is why now the foreign religions are always at loggerheads, striving to outdo each other in mass violence. To buttress TR's capacity for tolerance, its spin-doctors cite: Ogun worshippers do not fight their Sango colleagues. But they are under the same umbrella just like Baptists and Anglicans or Nasfat and Ahmadiyya. It is all the same incestuous tolerance whereas the one of virtue is the ecumenical tolerance.

Conceptually, no religion can tolerate the other. All of them insist: 'I am the truth not you, I have the word of God, it cannot change. It is a dogma. And dogmas like stubbornness demonstrate a lack of curiosity which is the fuel of development. The foreign religions that were brimming with fresh bulletins from truth now resisted new and advanced findings of truth in humanities or sciences. As representatives of outdated knowledge and hoary ideas, they are now like TR: irrational. And a religion can only be intolerant of another religion because it has first become intolerant of rationality. From this, other monsters burst forth, spill over to other aspects of life.

In this age of democracy and suicide bomber, one reads with horror the case of Olunde the eldest son of Eleshin who in Death and the King's Horseman commits suicide so he can serve as the heavenly courier of his dead king. The play tells us he is a medical student; he himself mentions that he is "attached to hospitals all the time." Meaning: he is not simply a medical student; he has enough sophistication of intellect to have passed pre-clinicals. How come such a mind trained to preserve life, flies home and takes his own life because of a religious stipulation? Iyalode snides at his undead father: 'we fed your sweetmeats such as we hoped awaited you on the other side, ' This mindlessness is one with that of 19 young men, some studying elite courses in German universities who on a September 11 hijacked planes, turned them into altars and immolated themselves since they have been promised busty virgins on the other side. Why shed blood? Why get crucified to save one's people? Extremisms own their irrationalities to the superstitious underlay of religions.
Sutekh, Tammuz, Zeus, Manawyddan, Ra, Ubilulu in their days were Almighties with magnificent temples built to them and hundreds of prophets, seers, viziers in the business of interpreting their commandments. Where are they today? But these ex-Almighties should be commended for their precocious wisdom: having realized early the need for a post-religious society, they tore up the scripts and left the stage hence demonstrating to us the true and irreducible instruction.

Awoyokun lives in London.

[url=http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article04//indexn2_html?pdate=080209&ptitle=Soyinka%20On%20Adunni%20Olorisa]The Guardian[/url]

Thought the article below might be relevant to the discussion here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Soyinka On Adunni Olorisa
By Damola Awoyokun

IN his tribute to the late Susanne Wenger, Wole Soyinka as usual drapes the traditional religion TR in richly embroidered aso oke. He singled out its virtue of tolerance, made an example of it and completed the tribute with an 'irreducible' instruction: "Go to the orisa, learn from the orisa, and be wise." (The Guardian, January 20). Really?

Soyinka zeroed in on the superficial at the expense of the fundamental: that TR is a system of superstition; that like other systems of superstition it not responsible to objective verification and empirical analysis; that it is incompatible with requirements of progress and civilization; that the human mind has a duty to follow what is true and not just what is traditional; that the golden traces of beauty, justice, truth, love, ethical emphasis that it holds up as embroideries for PR are eternal values older than any religion. (All religions appropriate these to look credible and seduce the unwary).

Invention of TR started with anxiety about the unknown. In terms of space, this translated to curiosity about what lay beyond the village and the skies; and in terms of time: wanting to know what the future held. It was believed that there is a master script somewhere, the setting of which is the earth and all human beings are characters in it. To have access to this is the reason for divination, which explains why there are terms like kadara, ipin, ayanmo, akunleyan, akunlegba, akoole. Modern philosophical consensus has established all these are false. There is no destiny; nothing had been predetermined; there is no fate. We are our own meaning. Our current situation or our tomorrow is tabla rasa that is why they are products of our choice. No more. We are responsible for what we do and this determines who we are. There is no ori or chi that had negotiated a good or bad contract for one's destiny. And yet the soft force driving all religions is this concept of predestination, to know what had been written down for one's situation.

Among the Yoruba, the divination is Ifa. Here is a typical verse from Otura meji, a principal Odu: , adia fun Aderomokun omo ooni, ala'na kan esuru, n' ijo ti m' ekun se raun ire gbogbo; bi okan ba yo ninu igbo a ba ona wa, ire, ire gbogbo ma ma wa mi wa o, ire gbogbo,  What makes a literary work first rate is embedded in this incantation. Not only its flow of cadence, but each word being an anticipation of the next enacts the yearning for determinism they convey. Prince Aderomokun may never have existed but was invented because its meaning and the music of its syllables props the idea the verse carries. Nevertheless, must we allow this literary beauty to obfuscate the fallacies resident not only in the verse but also in the whole of all divination systems? Who says that every time a quarry emerges from the bush it heads for the village path? (Fallacy of hasty generalization and unwarranted assumption) And since this animal fortune has happened to the village, therefore fortune will come your way too? (Fallacy of false cause)

These fallacies are not unlike the odus of other scriptures. An example: that after suffering family exclusion, deprivation and security threats in the bush, the biblical David rose to the leadership of Israel hence this would happen to you too after you suffer. Or when you suffer and become leader, it is because it had first happened to David or any other biblical persona. Glossing over the superficial but zeroing attention on details and the causal relationship among them is the beginning of thinking, the automatic enemy of divination.

Even with Ifa, mysteries of life persisted unexplained. This made it easy for the foreign religions to sweep TR away. Not that they were essentially different but at some points in their development they rendered themselves open to the current state of thought and scholarship, to findings of reformists like St Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Omar Khayyam -a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. Hence, these religions were equipped to offer sophisticated answers to the quest for understanding and attempts to find clarity in the several contradictions of life. Since wisdom is acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said, converting to them seemed a wise choice for our ancestors.

But not without a fight. This is why the claim that TR is tolerant is largely imaginary. TR looks tolerant because it is in the minority. When Islam and Christianity were seeping into the villages and TR was the majority, history discloses several instances where churches and mosques were razed down and converts massacred or disowned by their own families for worshipping a white man's God or going to a white man's school. Now being the minority, TR is emasculated of its powers of intolerance. This is not the same as being tolerant. It is just the aftermath of emasculation, the step before extinction. Intolerance is the evangelical zeal to be the sole majority. This is why now the foreign religions are always at loggerheads, striving to outdo each other in mass violence. To buttress TR's capacity for tolerance, its spin-doctors cite: Ogun worshippers do not fight their Sango colleagues. But they are under the same umbrella just like Baptists and Anglicans or Nasfat and Ahmadiyya. It is all the same incestuous tolerance whereas the one of virtue is the ecumenical tolerance.

Conceptually, no religion can tolerate the other. All of them insist: 'I am the truth not you,  I have the word of God, it cannot change. It is a dogma. And dogmas like stubbornness demonstrate a lack of curiosity which is the fuel of development. The foreign religions that were brimming with fresh bulletins from truth now resisted new and advanced findings of truth in humanities or sciences. As representatives of outdated knowledge and hoary ideas, they are now like TR: irrational. And a religion can only be intolerant of another religion because it has first become intolerant of rationality. From this, other monsters burst forth, spill over to other aspects of life.

In this age of democracy and suicide bomber, one reads with horror the case of Olunde the eldest son of Eleshin who in Death and the King's Horseman commits suicide so he can serve as the heavenly courier of his dead king. The play tells us he is a medical student; he himself mentions that he is "attached to hospitals all the time." Meaning: he is not simply a medical student; he has enough sophistication of intellect to have passed pre-clinicals. How come such a mind trained to preserve life, flies home and takes his own life because of a religious stipulation? Iyalode snides at his undead father: 'we fed your sweetmeats such as we hoped awaited you on the other side, ' This mindlessness is one with that of 19 young men, some studying elite courses in German universities who on a September 11 hijacked planes, turned them into altars and immolated themselves since they have been promised busty virgins on the other side. Why shed blood? Why get crucified to save one's people? Extremisms own their irrationalities to the superstitious underlay of religions.

Sutekh, Tammuz, Zeus, Manawyddan, Ra, Ubilulu in their days were Almighties with magnificent temples built to them and hundreds of prophets, seers, viziers in the business of interpreting their commandments. Where are they today? But these ex-Almighties should be commended for their precocious wisdom: having realized early the need for a post-religious society, they tore up the scripts and left the stage hence demonstrating to us the true and irreducible instruction.

Awoyokun lives in London.

[url=http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article04//indexn2_html?pdate=080209&ptitle=Soyinka%20On%20Adunni%20Olorisa] The Guardian[/url]

Jeremiah 9:
23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

Jakumo:
Hey ! Anomimi ! Get a hold of yourself, please.  Calm down !   You are becoming hysterical and we will have to insist that you put your clothes back on right away.

Here is what a good doctor would prescribe for your condition :   Sex.  And plenty of it.  Go and get laid immediately, and repeat as needed every 3 hours for the next week.  You will feel so much better than you do now, and that will make you so much less of a concern to your loved ones.

I am genuinely concerned about the risk of your getting stalked, subdued and sectioned over your above rantings.

Many thanks for your timely advice. As this is a weekend, it could not have been more timely. Is this indicative of your prophetic abilities