₦airaland Forum

adebisi1:
obama has made the entire black race happy, this gives us hope, faith and strenght, the black race is no longer inferior, we on the edge of producing the strongest man in the world.

I am obliged to point out that his winning had NOTHING to do with his being black rather you could say he won the nomination despite being labelled not-being-black-enough by those who see themselves as the real African-Americans. He has shown that you don't need to practice being black, whatever that really means, to be successful with blacks.
You only need to live your life efficiently as quite a number of whites and Asians do and a growing number of latinos and blacks are now realising is the way to go.
It is a question of having good values ingrained and disciplined above all things.

Below are just the last two paragraphs of Abati's comment on Obama's nomination

In total Obama has spent just about three years as a Senator, and four years as Senator in the state of Illinois. He is just 46. If he had been a Nigerian, he would have been told to wait and allow older people to run. Obama has the gift of the gab. Here, he would have been told: "na grammar we go chop". His insistence on change would have been pooh-poohed. His contemporaries out of sheer envy would have said: "is he the only one, who does he think he is?" And they would have struggled to pull him down even without being commissioned to do so by the opposition, or the Clintonites. In the last Presidential elections in Nigeria, Pat Utomi had wanted to be President. He shares a lot in common with Barack Obama. Well-educated, well-spoken, has a good grasp of issues and has demonstrated a passion for the common good over the years. He ran a vigorous campaign criss-crossing Nigeria on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), but what was the main response to Utomi: "oh yes, he is a good candidate, but Nigeria is not ready for a good candidate yet."

While losing sleep over the US Presidential primaries, Nigerians should ask themselves these questions: when will Nigeria be ready for a good candidate? When are we going to start running campaigns that are issues and merit driven. The energy, the enthusiasm that is being devoted to Obamamania by the Nigerian Middle class should now be translated into sustained advocacy for the growth of democracy in Nigeria. There are Nigerians who claim that they contributed money to the Obama campaign fund. The same persons will be reluctant to put their money where their heart is in Nigeria. Obama's strongest message was one of possibility: Yes, we can. I will like to see young and old Nigerians stand up in the face of the rot in our lives and consider the option of change, unity and hope and say like Obama: yes, we can. It is through such faith that a Nigerian dream can be constructed.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=060608&ptitle=The%20Barack%20Obama%20phenomenon%20(2)

Maybe as we dey jollificate for Obama we can also ask ourselves when will Nigeria be ready for a good candidate
While we are at it we may also ask how, why not if not etc etc etc
Abi una don see Americanas wey get am for two heads or maybe 1^1/4 head
Or maybe dem dey ban us from reading the same books or attending the same schools wey dem dey go for learn these liberating theories

amaikama,

I beleive your question has been answered somewhere in the now 11 pages of this thread as reference was made to Apostle Paul's ministry.
You may do yourself a lot of favour by reading his Epistles to get the needed understanding and knowledge to derive the needed response to your question. You will discover that he received gifts and offerings from time to time and thanked those who gave them to him. He did not request nor did he receive tithes. He also worked as a net maker every now & then to supplement the offerings he received even though he lived a meek, humble lifestyle of basics. The other Apostles also did not request nor receive tithes going through the book of Acts.
Have a blessed weekend.

Kola,

You seem to be missing the point on several fronts, which had been stated earlier but I will repeat since you seem not to have grasped teh gist of the matter:

1. Even in the old testament, tithes (defined as 10% of your income) is NOT required. See Deuteronomy 14: 22-29. As I said earlier the closest to it was the harvest festivals held by some churches.
2. It was the priests/levites who were supposed to offer regular burnt sacrifice at the altar from the portion of tithes that they collected yearly and triennially as specified in Deuteronomy quote above.
3. Paul, addressing himself to Jews, being a learned Jewish zealot as well before conversion, clearly said the law of tithe has changed i.e. fulfilled by Christs death & resurrection even including for the priests/levites who had to offer sacrifices at the altar. Hebrews 7: 1-11
4. Do you realise that FULFIL[color=#990000][/color] also means complete, accomplish, bring to an end something as in the law
5. So when you quote Revelations 22:11, it is those pastors that continue to intimidate and con their congeregation into tithe guilt that need to take heed.

Shalom

Check this related thread:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-135922.0.html

Yohanan,

Many thanks for providing the analogy with fornication (and other sexual immoralities) of finding loopholes in God's law. You also concluded that you are a tither and encouraged others to continue tithing because it works.
I suppose you realise that fornication & other sexual immoralities also work for those who engage in it hence its popularity despite the Bible clearly stating that it is sinful. It works even beyond providing the short term pleasure and long term pleasurable thoughts to everlasting results of a child being born, sometimes "glorified" as a love child. That was the case with King David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). It also does not matter that the majority is doing it as was the case in Sodom & Gomorrah, its sinful nature and subsequent repercussion does not change (Genesis 13).
Going through the 10 pages of this discussion gracefully started & sustained by Kunle, it is clear beyond any doubt that tithe is NOT Biblical. The closest thing to the old testament practice is the "harvest festivals" that used to be celebrated by established churches. I do not know if they still do it. The new testament is unambiguously clear about its complete rejection.
Furthermore the pastor who continues to place his congregation in such tithe-guilt-trap is not only committing sin by going against God's law but also leading others to sin just as a seducer will lead his co-fornicator or adulterer into sin.
Will the justification of "I was misled into the sin" of tithe be acceptable despite having the Bible as our guide You may read Luke 16: 19-31, in particular verse
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

to draw your response.

Remain blessed.

Jagoon,

Many thanks for your powerful quote.
God bless you and yours abundantly - Amen

I think he is saying we must use our God endowed wisdom and think out issues very deeply and seriously before rushing to men of god who are more often than not out to fleece their unsuspecting congregation.
You may try to study European history and development as well as the various phases of church growth and decline in their society to have a greater insight into what he is saying.

The next Einstein and the expressway churches
By Damola Awoyokun

ALBERT Einstein's eminent successor, Stephen Hawking on May 11 began a journey to South Africa on an initiative to find African Einsteins through an Institute For Mathematical Sciences based in South Africa. Said Hawking: 'The world of science needs Africa's brilliant talents, and I look forward to meeting young Einsteins from Africa in the near future.'

Case 1: In South Africa between the N1 expressway linking Johannesburg, the commercial capital with Pretoria, the political centre is the Silicon Valley of the telecom and computer giants. South Africa is home to African headquarters of many of these world corporations. Between Lagos the commercial capital and Ibadan, what do we have? The fastest growing blue-chip corporations in Nigeria: the expressway churches.

Case 2: A 24-year-old graduate with second-class upper was diagnosed with breast cancer. She informed her mother who then told her church prophet. Prayers, fasting, vigils, alms giving, mountain pilgrimages were immediately ordered. Her daughter was never allowed to go back to University College Hospital (UCH) for chemotherapy that was sufficient since the cancer was still very young. The man of God strongly objected since it meant the mum was doubting the power of the Almighty. It was when the girl's breasts turned into a rotten pair of plantains that she was returned to hospital and, died. While her body was still warm in the grave, the man of God visited the bereaved family, prayed for them and said 'the death was God's will, if not it won't have happened.' If I were God, I would spit on that prayer and damn him for murder.

Case 3: Mid-nineties, in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife, the number of weekly religious meetings leapt from 19 to 120. Every evening, to get a free class where you could quietly study was tough. When you got one, be assured that preachers would soon barge in to dismiss studying as irrelevant, it is eternal life that counts, that the world would soon end as there is now abundant fresh evidence; or: that there is a big man of God from Lagos in the sports stadium working miracles, casting out spirits of cultism, poverty, indecent dressing or curing AIDS; or that failure in exam is a spiritual attack from home which needs spiritual defence, you must not miss your blessing time at the sports centre. It was not surprising when last year in that same university some students that were supposed to be writing their exams were found in the forest awaiting Rapture.

The problem of the expressway churches in every nook and cranny of the country is not essentially in their mushrooming, it is in the way they barge into our minds and corrode the roots of our thinking with what they preach. They start with fear. And fear like HIV is very polite and diplomatic, its effectiveness is in being unassuming, going on easy till it shatters your immune system and leaves you gullible to all sorts of senseless teachings and practices. 'Come and thank God for your life, many slept yesterday, but couldn't wake up today, that you woke up is not your doing but, or: ' I know one man who did not pay his tithe for only one month his son became ill, he sold land and properties to pay hospital bills, his son still died.' Or 'repent now, tomorrow may be too late.' Without enacting fear and promoting its negativity as a normal state of mind - fear of eternity, of hunger, of curses, of tomorrow, fear of enemies, real or imagined, fear of God - no religion would prosper. Fear is after all, the masterpiece of the evil one.

In the North, a shepherd boy with a small stick (saanda) can order around thousands of cows with big-horns on their heads like PhDs. In the expressway churches, anybody with a pocket-size Gideon bible in the hand can tell tens of thousand of 'educated' people that 2+2 = 13 has been revealed as the truth, they will jump up and shout Ameeen and begin to dance around! That is the depth to which we have sunk. Reason and scientific thinking are no longer a matter of fact. Instead of the unrestricted and diligent exercise of the intellect to problems, we are told solution is in praying for divine intervention, we are told we are in end times and so earthquakes, cyclones, AIDS are fated. We can do nothing.

Weirdly, Christianity no longer calls itself a religion, it is a way of life. So every time on any day you turn on your TV or radio, in the buses, in the offices, markets, on the Internet, a preacher is there retailing some messages or emails of mental bacteria. Little wonder there is an outbreak of mediocrity all over the country. In serious countries, they are building heavens and making lives better for their citizens, in Nigeria we are bringing about hell so as to justify why we have to go to heaven.


Ask kids what they want to be in the future; many are now answering 'pastors.' Why? 'To do miracles and save lives.' Not the technological miracle of space technology or medical saving of lives. It is a la the expressway jamborees. One pastor justified September 11 saying the World Trade Centre was like the biblical Tower of Babel (human attempts to reach God.) God 'had to' destroy it. Other stupidity aside, but why are the lofty achievements of human thought seen as an affront to the supremacy of a most high God?

The remarkable solar eclipse of two years ago happened at the day and hour it was predicted to happen for 4 minutes 45 seconds by instruments of science and technology. For over 2000 years now, Jesus had failed to come as constantly predicted by the Bible and men of God, yet a lot of quality time, energies and resources are devoted uselessly to this otherwise eclipse of reason. Meanwhile the next solar eclipse's date, hour and minute has been predicted 25 years in advance. It will happen. So which should merit our trust, thinking or faith?

Young African minds eager to be the next Einstein or Hawking must start by rejecting their being made sheep that the religions constantly find fulfillment in doing. Sheep is one of the most stupid animals in existence. Have you seen how they cross busy roads? Young minds should aspire to be goats. A goat believes in itself. It is smart. It does not take no for an answer that is why it always seems to be constantly disobeying. It is never satisfied with the status quo. Through the Enlightenment, Europe began to see progress when they squashed the prevailing grip of religion over their minds. Eric Hobsbawm, a British Jewish historian, said Jews began to make startling impacts in all disciplines after the 18th century when they unchained themselves from the application of Mosaic laws to the very last details of their lives. The laws clogged their minds and imagination, shutting them off from the world. So their startling achievements consist not in being God's chosen people but in the conscious rejection of that identity.

Einstein said of his deep religious childhood: 'Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of that experience, ' What a genuine goat.


Awoyokun lives in the United Kingdom


http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article04//indexn2_html?pdate=220508&ptitle=The%20next%20Einstein%20and%20the%20expressway%20churches

tpete,

I believe we are on the same page on the non-Biblical basis of tithes, you must have misunderstood my earlier response to aisha2. My giving is now more focused on charities and NGOs who work directly with poor people in places like my country, Nigeria.
Cheers.

aisha2:
I feel tithes are meant to be used for the futhering of th work of God hich involves caring for the sick and poor, just like tax and not mismanaged but some pastors, so instead of paying tithes directly, I contribute to some child's schoolfees and sponspor someone for vocational Training. Some people say its rong and i know, we are meant to abide by the law and not apply self help but some cases the law is so faulty, disregarded and not implemented

anonimi:
What you (aisha2) are doing in terms of giving to God and His work is what is required of you NOT tithes.

Malachi is also very clear about its admonition addressed to the Levites vis-a-vis their not meeting their requirement as priests to pay their tithes by offering quality sacrifices.
Malachi 1:

6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.
8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.
9 And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts.
10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.
12 But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
13 Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord.
14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

Image123:
whether God is rebuking Jonah or Sodom,Moses or Pharaoh,Scribes and pharisees or James and John.All believers have lessons to learn so stop pushing the verse to the phatrisees.Matt 23v1 is clear on who the message is for(everyboyy including disciples).

When them say u dey misquote you go say no be so, well see the first verses of Matthew 23

1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

And the theme of castigating the scribes and Pharisees continues throughout the chapter including their (scribes & Pharisees) not paying tithes as required of them (scribes & Pharisees) in verse 23.

aisha2:
I pay my taxes but I take ahave a funny view with paying my tithes, I feel tithes are meant to be used for the futhering of th work of God hich involves caring for the sick and poor, just like tax and not mismanaged but some pastors, so instead of paying tithes directly, I contribute to some child's schoolfees and sponspor someone for vocational Training. Some people say its rong and i know, we are meant to abide by the law and not apply self help but some cases the law is so faulty, disregarded and not implemented.

What you are doing in terms of giving to God and His work is what is required of you NOT tithes. Please read Deutereonomy 14: 22-29, all the chapters of Malachi and Hebrew 7.
I would like to also encourage you to read this thread, in case you have not yet seen it, all 10 pages of it prayerfully and checking the Bible references.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-113108.0.html#bot

Thanks Imhotep for the apt reminders.

Ujujoan:
I never said the sin of fornication was graver than trading in God's House. I just said it had graver consequences than we can imagine!!

So a sin that has graver consequences is not necessarily graver I think I will need some education about such "equal but different" phrase.

Ujujoan:
Besides Jesus acted that way in the case of the two women because he wanted to discourage exactly what you guys are trying to do now, judging your fellow men!!!

Did you draw that conclusion of not judging our fellow man from the Scriptures or from somewhere else? I will appreciate if you could clarify the basis of such conclusion that runs counter to the wholesome theme of the Bible with adequate examples.

Image,

BTW Matthew 23 v 23 is addressed to the Pharisees themselves:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

As earlier stated in Malachi, the Levites of which the Pharisees are a subset are the ones rebuked for not paying tithes of the portion they collect annually and triennially after the giver has also given to strangers, poor people, widows, orphans etc. The earlier parts of Malachi clearly refers to the stinginess and poor quality of tithes sacrificed to God by these Levites.
Pity on those CHRISTians who cannot read extensively their Bible and allow themselves to be misled by wolves in sheep's clothing.

Image,

Hebrews 7 answers ALL your questions COMPREHENSIVELY.
Go and read, study and meditate thereon. Paul was chosen by Christ to address issues such as these that He knew latter day false prophets will use to enslave His chosen ones who become too lazy to read His Word in a wholesome manner and understand what He is telling them.
I hope & pray you will repent before it is too late - Amen

Eziachi:
When my father died and I came back for his burial along with my siblings, what everybody saw in us was a meal ticket. They all washed their bellies ready to party and when not much was coming forth as was expected, some conspired that our dad will not buried until this much is paid for one reason or the other and how many cows they wanted slaughtered. I then went inside and came out with a digger and shovel and told them that if they decide not to bury their son, then will do it ourselves.

They thundered about what our father will do to us if we dare and I wasn't having it and I told them that I loved my father till the end but I don't fear a dead person who has not got even an atom of power over the living and I don't believe in after life and since they believed so, it is them that should watch their back. And everything went smoothly without the expected carnival. The best thing you can do for a dead person is to bury him/her. If Nigerians can adopt a simplistic lifestyle, just maybe, we will have less stealing in govt, armed robbery, unnecessary land disputes, election winning by all cost, few chiefs with long chains of meaningless titles, ritual killings, prostitution and human trafficking.

May Almighty God in His infinite wisdom bless you abundantly for your exemplary experience. I hope it will be a testimony to others who have burials, naming, wedding etc to do.
Stopping the waste and making a positive change starts with each one of us, not some stranger or Rawlings.

Prayers And Deliverance: A New Weapon For Simony
Written by Aisagbon Omogiade
Thursday, 15 May 2008
The word simony was coined from the name of biblical Simon (Acts 8:18-24) who offered Peter and John money so that they could give him the power with which they laid hands on the new converts in Samaria to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Apostle Peter’s reaction was swift. He placed a curse on Simon because he thought he could buy the gift of God with money. Selling and buying of benefice is generally refered to as simony.

Martin Luther the former catholic monk who later formed the Lutheran church had accused some catholic priests of simony because he felt it was wrong to clloect money from a christian before the priest absolved him/her of sins.Though the catholic priests of the epoch were using the money for projects of the church, the practice had long been stopped.It is now the turn of the pentecostal pastors.

During my few years sojourn in Benin-City before I re-migrated to Europe,I had witnessed many young girls going in large numbers into a makeshift building that was housing a church.After many weeks of observation, I had gone to a relative nearby to ask him why it was only girls that attended the church.What he told me was very startling;he said men attend the church too but that they were not as many as the young girls.He went further to explain to me that the pastor prays for those girls so as to have their visas easily for Italy.He said the girls pay the pastor between N10,000 to N15,000 for the prayers and those who succeed to get their visas will pay him $2,000 as soon as they are settled in Italy.

Armed with the knowledge of what those girls were going to do in Italy, I got worried whether a pastor is biblically authorised to pray to God to grant certain girls smooth passage to a place they will engage in prostitution - a trade that is vehimently condemned by the bible. I watched this pastor grow materially on daily basis.From an old car I met him with, in less than two years he had a jeep.

My maternal aunt came to my house early in the morning one day to ask for a loan of N100,000. When I questioned her what she wanted to do with that sum,she said her daughter(my cousin)has been asked to do deliverance in one church that she had marine-spirit.When I inquired what relationship has the money with spiritual deliverance,she said the consultation fees for “faith clinic” is N10,000 and each time she will go for deliverance is N10,000 and before she will get to the G O(General Overseer) who will conduct the full deliverance she would have exhausted the sum she was requesting for.

I asked her the name of the church and the G O. She told me.After about five minutes intensive thoughts, I told my aunt that I had the money but unfortunately, I will not give it to her. I said that there was no where in the bible that it is written to pay pastors to conduct deliverance for any body.She left disappointed but I was completely at peace with my conscience.

About three years ago, a local church in Genova invited this G O for a programme.When I saw the poster,I made up my mind to see the man who eventually took more than N150,000 from my aunt for the “deliverance” he conducted for my cousin.At the end of the usual disco-like praise worship, this Rev,Dr. Chief came on stage.He told us that we were in Europe to make money.He said we must sow a seed of faith to enable us succeed.After about thirty minutes of jumping from one corner of the stage to the other,he said that it was now time for the sowing of the seed, He called those who had €2,000 to come out.Nobody came out.€1,500 nobody come out,€1,000 nobody.He looked hard at the congregation and asked, “are you people so poor here”

The money was now reduced to €500.Only one person came out-a Nigerian who runs a cosmetic store in down-town Genova.From there he asked those who had any thing to sow a seed to come out provided it is not less than €50.He prayed for them and asked them to watch out how God was going to bless them.It is worthy of note that the Nigerian who gave out €500. was ejected from her store by a court order for non-payment of rents a day after the end of the church’s programme.She may by now not have fully recovered from the shock.

I went to Rome for a conference recently.On a Sunday before I came back to base,I went to a local church with a friend that put me up.There, it was a different story altogether.The pastor during his sermon accused his congregation for not being faithful.he said a member of the congregation had bought a jeep for a native doctor in Nigeria but “ here in the church no body donates nothing”.He made it clear that from that moment whoever was coming for prayers should have €500 ready other wise he would not pray for such person.When we were leaving, I asked my friend how God can even answer prayers said for people who are still dailly engaged in prostitution.His answer was that he needs to go to church on Sundays and that the pastor was his friend.

These various methods of obtaining money from unsuspecting believers are against the teachings of Jesus Christ.As a matter of fact, there is a General Overseer in Edo State that you cannot see without having bought N50,000 worth of telephone recharge cards for him which are later re-sold to the congregation members at the kiosk nearby.

In the gospel according to St.Matthew (10:7- the bible says:-And as ye go, preach, saying.The kingdomof heavenis at hand. Heal the sick,cleanse the lepers,raise the dead,cast out devils:freely ye have received,freely give.This is the instuction given by Christ to his disciples and this is the bedrock of christianity.

“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you dont like, it is not the gospels you believe but yourself”- St.Augustine


http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/9196/55

anonimi:
just visited the website but could not see any info on scholarships for students such as criteria & amounts under different schemes such as in the links below:

http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman
http://www.morgan.edu/admin/Financial_Aid/scholarship.asp

i only saw some reference on the endowment page, soliciting for 165m to provide scholarship but nothing on how to obtain it.
would you know anything on this, including statistics of how many they have given each year since inception?

i still dey wait for answer oh! one month don pass abi all the CU students don vamoose for Nairaland now wey ogbonge question about wetin dem school dey do for schorlarship.

Ujujoan:
The sin we are referring to here is sexual immorality. What is required is chastity.

Fornication might not be the only sisn in the world, but its the sin of the flesh, which is a sin of against the h/spirit. It has graver consequences than you can ever imagine.

Going through Christ's life, teaching and ministry has it occured to us that in the two sexual immorality cases of the Samarittan woman in John 4 who had changed husbands and the adulterous woman to be stoned to death, He found it appropriate to show them mercy. However those who were trading in the temple under God's name were flogged and chased out.
What does these instances tell you about graver sin(s)

‘You over-celebrate, But Under-Achieve’
The New Republic By Tunji Bello,Email:tunjibello@thisdayonline.com


I was going through some of my random jottings of encounters with remarkable people when I came across this quotation “You people over celebrate, but under achieve”. It is from my encounter with an Hong Kong based Chinese business executive who once worked in Nigeria. It was during a British Airways flight from London to Houston, Texas, last year August. For the first one hour of the flight, the man was busy working away on his laptop, while I got myself engrossed in a book. It was a book on “South Korea, decades after General Park”. I guess it was the cover of the book that attracted him, when he said to me “You do business in South Korea? To which I said no, that I was only reading for knowledge sake. My answer would later trigger a discussion on Asian, and later Nigerian and African politics for the next two hours. I was willing to learn more about Asia from him being a native.
However, I had initially teased him that the Asian miracle happened because the Western powers led by the United States were afraid of Soviet Union and China influences in the region in the period between 1970s and 1980s, so they had to pump investments there and create prosperity as a buffer against the communist threats and by also supporting pro-Western reformist-dictators. While he didn’t entirely disagree with my view, he believed that the successes of Asian countries had more to do with their traditional values more than any other thing. In his opinion, it was the foundation without which nothing could be built. According to him, they took to western approach to development without allowing it to enslave them as they never forgot who they were Asian values, he remarked, are anchored on discipline, hardwork, painstaking, thrift and sense of community. Those elements to him were never compromised. He said Africa can always borrow from Europe and Asia, but it must never compromise its traditional values. The difference between the Asian man and African man in his own view is in the area of physical and mental discipline as we have similar cultural orientation.
The problem of Africa by his own analysis, has nothing to do with knowledge but is due to lack of physical and mental discipline. So what did he mean by lack of physical and mental discipline?
He explained lack of physical discipline in terms of “greed” Too much pleasure for less work” “glory seeking without honour” “power without responsibility” “self over community.” And as for the mental discipline, he meant a lack of conviction. Inability to stick to an idea or belief, reckless paradigm shift, and our leaders’ inability to govern by noble values was how he explained it. Throughout our initial discussion, he never asked of my identity. It was when the discussion got to Africa that he wanted to know if I was from there to which I said yes, and a Nigerian. Mentioning the name Nigeria jolted him. So you are from Nigeria, I once worked and did business there and have also gone to school with Nigerians, he claimed.
He appeared to be more familiar with Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers axis more because he was involved in importation of timbers, wood and teak from the area in the 1990s. “What a very rich part of your country” he said. This would later opened up another discussion of his sojourn in Nigeria.
His first encounter with a Nigerian was at Imperial College in London where he studied engineering. He said he saw Nigerians as some of the most brilliant people on earth and that there was one “Olu” in his class who was the overall best student at his graduation and who works with a corporation in Japan, as they have since remained best of friends. It was the image of “Olu” that he saw in every Nigerian until he got involved in business with Nigeria years later.
Unfortunately, he became disappointed seeing how rich the country was with so much resources even more than china and yet not making good use of them. He was really amazed by the richness of Cross Rivers forest from which several industries could have emerged; yet we allow others to exploit and cart away that richness without adding value. And of course he was one of those exploiters and like he confessed, his business was out-manouvred by other smart competitors with the collusion of government officials, hence had to seek other sources in places like Garbon and Congo.
His comment about his encounters with most Nigerian workers when he had dealings with them through his local company then made me to conclude that those encounters were responsible for his theory of “lack of physical and mental discipline”. “You people,” he said to me, “over celebrate and under-achieve”. “It is pleasure and enjoyment all the time. There is always something to celebrate everyday of the week where so much money is always wasted, to paraphrase him. I then asked him what he meant. He said, his local company in Calabar was fond of getting request from workers for loan to solve one family problem or the other. He recounted a particular experience, where one of the workers had applied for a small loan to do the naming ceremony of his third child. That when the company refused, he had to mobilise his Nigerian supervisor to come and beg on his behalf because he doesn’t want his wife family members to put him to shame that he had no money to name his child. He said at other times, people asked for loan to either bury a relation or for one ceremony or the other. He felt that, if they were more sensible and inventive, they could borrow, put that borrowed funds together amongst at least four people and start a small wood fabrication business with the skills some of them had acquired working for them as raw materials would be cheaper to get, but that they were contented with little money they were being paid. This is how Asian entrepreneurship developed, he advised. He also had something to say of some of his Nigerian directors, then whom he had followed to collect chieftaincy titles in some parts of Nigeria for which he could not remember. The worrisome part of the celebration is that the roads leading to those places are usually untarred, no water and most times you see these hungry looking or half-fed villagers in tattered clothes all looking, some cheering, some curious at the event social but with no hope of a better future. For him, he wondered for what purpose the eminent sons were being honoured when there are poverty and underdevelopment everywhere.
As I glanced through the jottings, that particular word “You people over-celebrate, but underachieve” sent me on a reflection. The Chinese might have interpreted Nigeria from a narrow prism, but there was some home truth in his conclusion. He was probably talking about 15 years ago, but what has really changed since then from our attitude to life, conduct and way of life. Don’t we really over celebrate and underachieve? I believe it is one honest truth we must face. You only need to take a look at Nigerian newspapers daily to see an avalanche of birthday, burial, chieftaincy or Iwuye ceremonies, awards both genuine and fake, notices of celebrations. When you see some of them particularly the awards or honourary degree conferments, you wonder on what basis?; particularly for some people who had helped to plunder the country.
Part of our over celebration is usually manifested through conspicuous consumption, gaudy exhibitionism, shameless display of opulence through reckless and unproductive competition amongst the super-rich “My party or daughter’s wedding celebration was grander than yours” “I hired an aircraft to ferry my guests” “More important people were at my chieftaincy party than his” in a country synonymous with squalour and developmental failures.
Our underachievement confronts us daily, when we craze for latest designer shirts, wrist watches, shoes, automobiles, furniture, mobile phones, computers from abroad but; cannot copy Europe by having designer roads, electricity and water supply, agricultural farms, government and business services. That underachievement is also manifested, when we build mansions in villages where there is no access to portable water or in cities where the roads leading to them are drain less, untarred and gully infested. Or when we live in super rich areas where we are only concerned about our inner opulence, but can’t clean the drains or prevent shanties from developing around us. Or when we make so much but don’t want to give little as tax. Then you then wonder as Thomas Jefferson, one of American’s founding father once remarked: “What is in individual glory, when his community is in peril”.


http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=111339

Exageration or true observation.
If true what can we do to reverse the unfortunate trend?

to all those who are not/don't want to pay taxes,

since most of you say government is wasting it, how do you want the same governement to function without taxes. it seems we cannot understand that even the oil revenue is our collective tax paid directly to government instead of us individually.
what we should be reasoning out is how to make government WORK for us. If you can't or won't pay tax THEN you should opt out of Nigeria and set up your own country of you, yourself & yours ONLY.
We need to make this polical leaders and government employees provide services to us since they are paid for it with our individual taxes or what they collect directly from oil sources.
Make we shine our eyes now abeg.

This Tax question again.
Firstly, we should know we already pay tax, EACH and EVERYONE of us, to the government. Consider that each time Yara & his co Looters-in-Power (LiPs) collect royalties, duties, other payments from oil companies and VAT on OUR behalf we are already paying tax. We could as well go directly, EACH one of us and ask the oil companies to pay us individually these amounts instead of asking the Federal Government to collect and then redistribute to us through our State & Local governments through their monthly Revenue Allocations, although this is impractical.
Mostly because they are contented with these allocations most State and Local governments no longer stress the personal income tax for individuals and other corporate entities. It is enough for them to chop and invite others to come & chop. Moreover if they stress you & I on paying our other taxes, then we will start asking questions as we are doing right now on this forum, in this thread. So they play safe and fool us into thinking we don't pay them, thus we are their MUNGUNS.
Remember that no Yara (doer or dull), Fashola, Amaechi, Saraki, Obi, Nyako etc can collect any kobo except they claim to have the mandate of the 140m (?) people they supposedly REPRESENT. Shell won't pay Yara if he just shows up in their offices simply as Yara.
So normally you should pay your tax as it is a legal requirement and you could go to jail but moreover so you have an ADDITIONAL basis for requesting and obtaining QUALITY common services and infrastructure from your government.
However, even if you do not pay tax for LEGITIMATE reasons, e.g. you are unemployed, a student, a child etc, government still OWES you the provision of these services and infrastructure because they are already collecting your TAXES (or its equivalent) from big corporations on YOUR BEHALF.

anonimi:
Any one wey dey Sapele or Benin fit confirm the story?

oloriooko:
Has anyone seen or heard the story from another source?

We must confirm the authenticity of the story before commenting please.

I still dey wait oh.
Thanks in advance for any useful info.

Oyakhilome’s Pastor Murders Wife Over Girlfriend

By Benson Agwu/Benin-City


The Head Pastor, Christ Embassy, Sapele, Delta State, Joseph Ehigiator, has been arrested by the police for allegedly murdering his pregnant wife, Efe, in an attempt to marry his girlfriend, Miss Oweil.Efe, P.M.News gathered, was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. The Lagos-based Pastor Chris Oyakhilome is the spiritual head of the pentecostal church which has its headquarters at Oregun, Lagos. Ehigiator who fled after committing the heinous crime was arrested in the inner sanctum of the Benin headquarters of the church by detectives from Zone 5 Police Divisional Headquarters, Benin, Edo State.

The suspect, who is now in police custody, P.M.News investigations revealed, had been having a running battle with his wife over the girlfriend, who is also the Sapele church’s secretary. A petition written by the father of the deceased, Reverend Innocent Omoroguikpon, to the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 5, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom, revealed the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death and pleaded for the AIG’s intervention. Rev. Omoroguikpon disclosed that on Saturday, 26 April 2008 around 3 p.m., he received some strange visitors from Christ Embassy who told him that his daughter had been shot by armed robbers at her residence and was receiving medical attention along with her husband at an undisclosed hospital in Sapele.

“On getting to the hospital, the doctor denied ever admitting her husband and upon examination, the doctor discovered that the deceased was brought with cyanosis subconjunctotival petechia and evidence of a noose mark around her neck,” Rev. Omoroguikpon narrated. He disclosed further that the doctor confirmed that she had an unduly floppy neck (indicative of broken neck), an evidence that she was strangled. He urged Ekpoudom to act fast and prevent Pastor Ehigiator from fleeing the country because he holds a valid British visa which can aid his escape. He also informed the police boss that Ehigiator had earlier planned to relocate to the United Kingdom with his girlfriend, Miss Oweil.

Going down memory lane, the distraught father explained that the bitter acrimony between his daughter and her husband started in 2005 when the deceased learnt of the relationship between Pastor Ehigiator and the church secretary through some members of the church. The father of the deceased woman disclosed that whenever the deceased complained she was always beaten up and injured. “Over time, when the beating became so frequent because of the girlfriend, I had to call the attention of Pastor Tom Amienhkienan, head Pastor of Christ Embassy, Benin City.

“Upon his intervention, the mistress was transferred from Sapele last year. “When Miss Oweil found her way back to Sapele late in 2007 to resume work as secretary in the same church, my daughter, who was already three months pregnant, informed the husband and his reaction was that she should terminate the pregnancy because he was not ready for the baby. “Her refusal to terminate the pregnancy, coupled with the fact that his mistress was back in Sapele, led him to pack his belongings out of the house to a new apartment, which he did not disclose to his wife.

“But within the same time he packed out, my late daughter received text messages threatening her life and that of her only son. Each time the man (Pastor Ehigiator) came and she reported the matter, he (Ehigiator) would seize her phone. This was why over the last four months she had to buy several phones which were seized and never returned to her. “On the fateful night she was murdered, he came to the house where my daughter lived at about 10 p.m., having abandoned for no reason, the regular end of month prayers over which he was supposed to preside as the head Pastor of the church,” the father stated in his petition. He asserted that records show that “the suspect left the church at about 10 p.m. when he handed over the moderation of church activities to an assistant pastor, and it was within the same time and early Saturday that the deceased was murdered, after which the suspect escaped.

Reverend Omoroguikpon also expressed dissatisfaction with a purported autopsy conducted at Sapele, saying “there is new information to exclude the fact that she was murdered by strangulation and this portrays foul play. “We cannot explain why the autopsy finding is trying to pin what happened to an ongoing illness which we cannot name. Why would it be when she allegedly had an attack by robbers that the sudden illness came up? There were several other physical findings on her body (bruises and blisters) that they could not provide answers to. It therefore meant that the autopsy was tampered with,” Reverend Innocent Omoroguikpon said. However, Police Public Relations Officer of Zone 5, Mr. Ebi Orubiri, an Assistant Superintendent of Police ASP, said the suspect was being detained along with the church secretary at Sapele, before the case was transferred to the zone following a petition to the AIG in that respect. Orubiri hinted that detectives from the zonal Criminal Investigation Bureau, CIB ,and the Criminal Investigation Department, CID, have commenced investigation into the matter which will be made public in the shortest possible time.

http://thepmnews.com/2008/05/07/oyak, ver-girlfriend


Any one wey dey sapele or Benin fit confirm the story?

BTW, Abraham's offering of one tenth of his war proceeds is similar to the vow made by Jacob in Genesis 28 verses

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:
22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Did he make a practice of paying a tenth every week, month or year before or after this vow?
And this Jacob is teh one whose name was changed to Israel by God.

detruth,

First of all, I am sure you realise that Abraham's offering, which happened to be a tenth part of his war booty does NOT constitute a tithe as it was a one-off gift. You may want to point out any other text that talks about Abraham giving a tenth again.
Secondly what does verse 12 of the Hebrews7 say:
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
What law is reffered to:
The law of tithe described in the preceeding 11 verses.
I think you should read your post quoted hereunder again:

I can see your mind mixed with confusion due to carnal interpretation of scriptures, hence you called Levites (such represented by Aaron and Melchisedec)

I hope you are not the one who is either confused or trying to confuse others for whatever motive when you insinuate that Levites are represented by Aaron and Melchisedec despite Paul's clear message on this subject.
I wonder if you are trying to say Paul in view of his Jewish learned zealot background did not know the order of priesthood and how Jesus fits in or does not to the previously existing order. Kindly note that Jesus Christ "arrested" Paul and chose him to spread the Gospel particularly beyond Jerusalem because he was eminently qualified all-round to do so.

i just hope & pray that the parents will be wise enough to get a sharp lawyer to sue the pastor for civil damages, trauma, child abuse etc, etc and get all the tithes he has conned them into paying earlier before the police collect everything and release the guy on bail or forget him in prison.
waiting for DPP process of criminal case may take too long.

detruth,

Your quote contains no reference/linkage, explit or implicit, of pastors of CHRISTian churches being levites. Maybe you quoted a wrong text, please check and post again.
However, it may be worthwhile to note that Paul's Epistles to non-Jews such as Romans was aimed at showing them (us) that Christ's salvation work was also to benefit us Gentiles whether we are physically circumcised or not. Compare the theme that runs through the whole of Romans with that of Hebrews.
BTW, you seem to have conveniently ignored Paul's unequivocal, clear and unambiguous assertion that Christ is NOT of the Levite order as it is very inferior to His in Hebrews 7 verses:

11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

My only sincere hope is that your ignoring the above text, addressed to Jews like Paul who fully understood the historical priestlhood context was not deliberate.
Shalom.

detruth:
Uhhh! Some people's minds are made up . . . just like Pharaoh!
Has not paying tithes ever make them richer?
Come to think of it, why should tithe payment cause a migraine headache if truely they are a free-will offering givers?
If KunleOshob and his cohort believe in free-will givings while not freely allowed those who are willing to pay their tithes as their own free-will?
But they are only looking for more innocent souls to join their selfish and miserly crusade
He who can't give that which is commanded, can never give rightly that which is self-ruled.
Man is naturally born to be selfish with the thoughts of I & I alone!
Do'nt be decieved, these are poor minds' toast!

my dear friend detruth,

all these gra gra no be am.
instead make you show us conclusively in the Bible where tithe is required of CHRISTians you dey here dey harrass people that have taken it upon themselves to lead others to the Scriptural wholesome truth about this issue
Meanwhile most pastors (and I suspect you are either one already, closely related to one or aspiring to be soon) are placing this yoke and guilt burden for selfish, self-serving reasons for which they will receive their full condemnation in due season.
I strongly encourage us ALL to open our eyes & mind, read & study our bible EXTENSIVELY to understand FULLY Christ's message to His church and save ourselves from people out to bamboozle us.
2 Timothy 2 verse 15 says:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth

shalom.

anonimi:
will you say your post above is not an attack on someone who has a different opinion from yours on this tithe matter

nne uf4oma,

i still dey wait your response to the above question.
except you want us to conclude that your silence means consent.
have a blessed day.

Has anyone read the story of the conception of Jesus by the Virgin Mary? Maybe we need to click on "Refresh"