'Gutterways' you mean? A mixture of sewage and the likes. What do you expect from a community without a sewage system or pipe-borne water, yet, they pay their taxes to the Govt.

Credit - "FRIENDS IKOYI CLUB 1938" Forum & Wunmi Akintide PhD. Edited By Sesan Olasupo

I had the privilege of attending some meetings of the Yoruba and Igbo Leaders. I was not a leader but a youth who knew how to wash his hands. At one of those meetings in Owerri, I think in 1989, I think, I listened to Uncle Bola Ige and other Yoruba Leaders take the likes of Mbakwe, R. B. Okafor and others to the cleaners when the Igbo said the Yoruba were betrayers, citing that Chief Obafemi Awolowo led them into secession with a promise that if the Igbo left Nigeria, the Yoruba would follow suit.


They accused him of not following up on his promise. Trust Uncle Bola Ige! He pointed to Chief Mbakwe and said, "you were there in the meeting between Awolowo and Ojukwu as I was. Is that statement correct?".He turned to two other Igbo and two Yoruba Leaders who were at that meeting and asked the same question, saying he had transcripts of the meeting between Awolowo and Ojukwu.

They kept quiet while the Yoruba Leaders affirmed that Awolowo never promised to follow the East into secession. What he said was that if the Igbo were "driven" out of Nigeria the Yoruba would take it seriously and reassess their own position. Igbo Leaders DID NOT CONTEST this version. Then Chief Bola Ige threw in the clincher! "Who are you to accuse the Yoruba of betrayal?" he roared, and continued:


1. At Independence, Awolowo offered a joint government between the NCNC and AG, with Zik as Prime Minister and Awo as Finance Minister. Awo and Zik "were still negotiating" when it was announced that Zik would be President in a coalition with NPC of the North. The East then collaborated in destroying the West and sending Awolowo and his lieutenants to jail!


2. What of the 1965 elections which the West and the East agreed to boycott? We met all night and reached agreement about 3am on the day of the election. In the morning, while the Yoruba boycotted the election, the Igbo went to vote


3. After the 1979 elections Yoruba (UPN) and Igbo (APP?) Leaders were still at the negotiating table for a coalition when to their surprise, an announcement was heard that the Igbo (NPP) had agreed to a coalition with the North (NPN)


4. After the 1983 elections, 1979 repeated itself. Not giving up, Awolowo reached out to Azikiwe again for cooperation. Talks started and they met in Benin where Awo pleaded passionately that only a collaboration between The Igbo and the Yoruba could save Nigeria. They didn't reach agreement but promised to meet again. Before the next meeting, the Igbo had again teamed up with the North


Uncle Bola paused and then continued "we can go on and on. So how dare you accuse the Yoruba of betrayal? How many Igbo have been killed in Lagos, Ibadan, Akure, Oshogbo (he mentioned other Yoruba towns)? You have your businesses in the West and went to Western schools. Yet you count the Yoruba as your enemy. You get killed in Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Zaria etc and have your goods looted yet you consider the Hausa/ Fulani your friends. It's your choice. If you want to be slaves forever, we can't help you"

I had never been so scared in my life. I thought the roof was going to fall. There was a pin drop silence and no Igbo dared interrupt Uncle Bola Ige because he was telling the truth. The Yoruba Leaders ended the meeting at that point and left. I hope Chief C. O. Adebayo's memoirs will give more details of those exchanges.

Now to make three points from all this:


A. The Yoruba have been stretching their hand across the Niger for a handshake for a long time. The Igbo refused to take it for a long time until recently


B. Many Igbo Leaders of the 70s, 80s and 90s deliberately perpetrated the legend of Awolowo's role betraying them into the civil war and his role in prosecuting the war, to rally the Igbo population behind themselves. The Igbo agreed on Yoruba hatred than on any other issue. So it was the fabric that held them together for a long time


C. Time heals all things. Many Igbo reading this will be hearing for the first time that their leaders of old knew for a truth that Awolowo did not break his word to Ojukwu as alleged.




The Yorubas have always loved the Igbos more than the Igbos loved the Yorubas. Awolowo and his Action Group were ready in 1959 to form a coalition Government with the NCNC which would have given the NCNC and the Action Group coalition Government a narrow majority to push the NPC into the Opposition in Nigeria in preparation for Nigeria’s independence on October 1st, 1960.

The Yorubas and the Hausa /Fulani block also share part of the blame. Just like the Igbo-dominated NCNC under Azikiwe did not want any meaningful collaboration with the Yoruba dominated Action Group led by Awolowo,, the same Action Group did not want any collaboration with the North for the reasons I stated in part 1 and the North was always going back into a coalition with the Igbo-dominated party without making any serious attempt to woo the Yoruba dominated Action Group for a change. There was plenty of blame to go around.

The only Nigerian politician who made a serious attempt to change the status quo was Samuel Ladoke Akintola but he did it in a way that made him look like a Judas Iscariot. But what he did was the right thing to do in hindsight. He drastically changed the calculus of Nigerian Politics by rejecting Awolowo’s intransigence never to consider going into a coalition with the NPC. He immediately formed his Democratic Party in the Western Region which went into a coalition with the NPC/NCNC coalition at the Federal level thereby creating a counter force to the Igbos in that NPC/ NCNC coalition.

The Igbos did not appreciate what Akintola did because they knew their game was over. They could no longer continue to dominate most of the federal jobs that could not go to the northerners because they did not have the education to hold such positions in the Public Service. Richard Akinjide became Federal Minister of Education because of the move and one of the first things he did was to start correcting the lopsided imbalance. The Igbos did not forgive Akinjide or Akintola till tomorrow but the two Yoruba leaders did the right thing. I was in the Federal Public Service at the time and I knew that Richard Akinjide did what he had to do to put the Yorubas back in contention at the federal level.

The Igbos preferred a Government headed by Tafawa Balewa to the one proposed by Awolowo which would have been headed by Azikiwe as Prime Minister and Awolowo as Finance Minister. More than 60 years later, the Igbos are still of the same mindset, sad to say. My intent was not to insult either the Igbos or the Hausa Fulani in making the case. I did not say anything about the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy that their respected political leader, the late Sardauna Bello of Sokoto had not said about his own people in a moment of candor.

Sardauna publicly admitted at a press interview aired on You Tube that there was less than 23 indigenous northerners in the Northern Regional Public Service of Nigeria by the time he first became the leader of Government Business in northern Nigeria. He confessed that the Igbos had dominated his public service up until that time. He crafted and passed into law his “northernization” policy out of necessity and he justified his decision to appoint many British, Indians and Pakistanis and Egyptians on contract basis as public servants while turning down the applications of Nigerians from the South because he felt the Igbos were bent on marginalizing the northerners and he was not going to allow that. He admitted the northerners at that time were far behind the East and the West in education and that was one of his reasons for rejecting independence for Nigeria in 1956 or 1957 ahead of Ghana as proposed by Awolowo and Azikiwe. He told the British the North was not ready and he won the debate. He knew the northerners needed a lot of catching up to do and he said it loud and clear at the London conference.

Most Igbos would tell you they love the Yorubas. They just don’t like or appreciate Awolowo or Benjamin Adekunle, Olusegun Obasanjo, Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Fani Kayode. I say to them “Foul or over the bar” like late Ishola Folorunsho, the best Nigerian football commentator used to say in the 50s and 60s. Igbos cannot hate all of our best leaders and turn round to tell us they love us. By the same token, the Yorubas cannot tell the Igbos we love them but we hate Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chinua Achebe, Michael Okpara and Alex Ekwueme to mention a few.

The idea of Igbo-dominated and Hausa/Fulani dominated parties always forming a coalition to rule the rest of Nigeria in perpetuity is not the kind of thing we all must embrace if Nigeria is to become a nation of our dreams. The former ACN of the Southwest and the Buhari-led CPC merging together to challenge the PDP is the kind of a major re-alignment I am talking about. It should be seen as a step in the right direction and a change to the status quo in Nigeria. It is a novelty which ought to be given a chance to succeed.

The two mega parties can then alternate power from one election circle to another based on performance like is done in very stable countries like America, Britain, India, Canada and Australia to mention a few. That is what I am advocating with the two serial articles.

I am also saying with emphasis that the Yorubas love the Igbos more than the Igbos love the Yorubas. Kenneth Olawale, an Igbo young man born and raised in Akure was elected and selected as the Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly which is third in rank to the State Governor. I knew it because Kenneth came from my constituency in Igbatoro/ Ala Ajagbusi /Igunshin area of Akure North Local Government. Who voted for Kenneth to become an Honorable member and Speaker? It was the Yorubas. We knew he was an Igbo man but we loved him and we knew he could do the job well. Once upon a time, Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe as I hinted earlier, was on his way to becoming the first Premier of the old Western Region in 1954. Who voted for him? It was we the same Yoruba people.

When Awolowo launched his Free and compulsory education and free medical treatment in the old Western Nigeria, many Igbo parents and their children emigrated to the Wet in huge numbers to take advantage of the program. Many of their children were my classmates in the primary school at Akure. Awolowo did not exclude them and the Yorubas never resented them at all for coming to the West to enjoy a program the Azikiwe Government in the Eastern Region could not offer them. Many of those Igbo sons and daughters including Elias Ibe Opadike an Engineer who now lives in Detroit and Mr. Alex Omeke, a good friend of mine, were some of the beneficiaries of the Awolowo ‘s free education and free medical coverage in the old Western Region.

The two gentlemen are alive today and living in America. They are encouraged to feel free to issue a rebuttal if they think I am lying. As a matter of fact I would be sending them copies of this article for that reason. I write about what I know and never about hearsay

None of the properties left behind in Yoruba land by the Igbos during the Biafran war were confiscated or taken away by the Yorubas like the Rivers people and Ikwere people did to the abandoned properties of the Igbos in Port Harcourt and in much of the South/South. What more evidence of love and consideration do the Igbos want from the Yorubas?

Odumegwu Ojukwu the rebel leader who could have faced the firing squad had he been captured alive during the war was lucky to return from exile in the Ivory Coast to recover all of his father’s properties in Lagos. All Igbo properties in Akure my hometown were preserved and kept under lock and key for the Igbos to reclaim after the war. Akure Metropolis, Ibadan and Ilesha metropolis used to vote massively for the Igbo-dominated NCNC and Azikiwe when I was growing up in Nigeria. That was how Sir Odeleye Fadahunsi, an Ijesha man and a big wig in the NCNC became Governor of Western Nigeria after Sir Adesoji Aderemi. Pa Adegbola the greatest Akure community leader. Pa Faleye Igun “O sari mo sa ogun” Pa Gideon Arowolo of Akure were all big supporters of Azikiwe and the NCNC in those days talk less of Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya of Ikorodu, Chief J.M.Johnson and Theophillus Benson of Lagos, Adegoke Adelabu, M.A. Akinloye and the present Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Odugade who actually became a Parliamentary Secretary under the Tafawa Balewa Government at the Federal level as I recall. Who says the Yorubas do not like the Igbos?

The name “Azikiwe” was defined by the Yorubas as “Aisiki Iwe” meaning “a joyful embrace of education”. I do not know what the name means in Igbo Language but the Yorubas felt so good about Azikiwe that they define the name in their own way. Herbert Macaulay, the first nationalist in Nigeria and a Yoruba man handed over to Azikiwe as his successor in the Nigerian Youth Movement because he trusted Azikiwe. He loved Azikiwe like his own son. Azikiwe in return love the Yorubas, spoke Yoruba fluently and gave Yoruba names to all of his children.

Prominent Yoruba citizens like the late Tai Solarin and Nobel Peace Laureate Wole Soyinka all stood up for the Igbos’ right to live in peace and security in Nigeria and not be subjected to ethnic cleansing by the Northerners.

Continue at the link below;

https://www.amazingstoriesaroundtheworld.com/2018/06/historical-perspective-of-hatred.html

The French People went crazy in this format for us as per Bring Back Our Girls Campaign, So they deserve more More Than Prayer from me as a Nigerian

Former Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, is unrecognizable in a new set of pictures posted by renowned Nigerian journalist and publisher Dele Momodu, who said he visited her two weeks ago.
Mr. Momodu shared the pictures while introducing his newly launched magazine “TheBoss newspaper” Friday night.

Vanity Upon Vanity, what's the essence of acquiring world's wealth and lose your soul. For those of you in government still thinking of impoverishing the masses, you better think twice, because there is another day in paradise they say.

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2015/11/shocking-photos-of-cancer-stricken.html

Fellow Nigerians, let me tell you about my James Bond stunts in this season of the sensational SPECTRE movie. Yes. The news of the arrest of the former strong woman of Nigeria’s Petroleum Ministry, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke in London had hit the airwaves like a thunderbolt. No member of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government held the nation spellbound like Madame Diezani. Controversy dogged her every step just as she spawned loads of salacious gossip. She is a newsmaker per excellence.
For starters, Madame Diezani is a paragon of beauty. She’s also very simple but chic and elegant in dressing and appearance. At 54, she would give our much younger ladies a run for their money in the prettiness stakes. She is intelligent to boot and boasts a decent academic pedigree. She is that hot and even her most vociferous critics agree that she combines brains with beauty. Add to that is her marriage to retired Rear Admiral Allison Amaechina Madueke, a former Chief of Naval Staff which boosted her national and political profile.

The only problem was the almost unanimous belief that she had abused her privileged position and appurtenances of office in the discharge of her ministerial duties. It was reported that billions of dollars literally disappeared under her watch. She was under intense heat and scrutiny throughout her reign but seemed unrattled and unfazed by the deluge of dirt splashed at her from every direction. She stayed invincible and definitely unshakeable to the end.
Her firm grip on the President was palpable. It was a subject of discussions everywhere. There were rumours of constant clashes with the former First Lady, Dame Patience Faka Jonathan. No one really knew the true story. Mrs Alison Madueke did not help matters by studiously ignoring the lurid pictures painted of her. She rarely granted interviews and when she did, hardly responded to the monumental gist from unrelenting talebearers.
I always wished to have a one-on-one interview with our own Alice in Wonderland or Cleopatra, if you like. Such is the nature of gargantuan fables around this mythical lady. She is the dream of every celebrity reporter. A nice interview and some photo-shoot as icing would be no mean achievement. There are few women in her mould anywhere at any time.
I had studied her trajectory to determine what makes her tick. She was born with silver spoon to the family of Chief Frederick Abiye and Mrs Beatrice Oyete Agama in the garden city of Port Harcourt and grew up in the Shell Camp where she schooled and learnt to speak both English and Dutch. She wasn’t a regular kid like most of us. The way her life was suddenly disrupted at Shell Camp she says would later inform her philosophy during her time as Petroleum Minister. Her family was unceremoniously evicted from the Shell Camp because her father dared to question the promotion process of Nigerians by Shell. She believes that Nigerians must occupy and enjoy the resources God has blessed us with and accordingly she sought to empower Nigerians as a principle, she claims.
The young Miss Agama studied Architecture in England and then at the renowned Howard University in the United States where she graduated. She later obtained an MBA from Cambridge University. She worked at Shell, following in her father’s footsteps, and rose to become its first female Director. The first part of her life story ends there.
The second part begins with her stint in the government of Nigeria where she managed several important ministries including Mines, Works and Transport and finally Petroleum, the chicken that lays the golden eggs. Once she got the juiciest portfolio in the land she was transformed from an Angel to being labelled a femme fatale, a nomenclature that has stuck to her like flies to palmwine. Political opponents of President Jonathan blamed her for all the sins of omission and commission of that Government and she really never was able to keep her head under the parapet. This is why she is in hot demand by reporters, local and international, alike.
Anything about Madame Diezani makes news and goes viral. We met only once at a public function hosted by Alhaji Aliko Dangote in Abuja. We spoke very briefly and she was going to give me her telephone contact but a personal aide intervened and promised to send it to me but never did. So I missed interviewing her. I had loads of satanic questions to ask her and was unsure of how she would have reacted, with calm or fury, but I would have thoroughly enjoyed that auspicious moment as I am sure would have been my readers.
Anyway, the dream never materialised. I simply shrugged my shoulders and moved on. After the demise of the Jonathan government, I assumed it was goodbye to a good story but man proposes and God disposes. I was sitting quietly at home when the news of Mrs Alison-Madueke’s arrest exploded like a bomb. Social media instantly caught fire. We were regaled with tales of how she was captured at home by the London Metropolitan Police for money laundering running into atrocious and unimaginable sums of cash. Some reports said she was planning to buy a property worth billions of pounds in London and even gave a famous address. Those who know London fairly well immediately doubted the veracity of such claims but anything is believable in this season of anomie.
We were later informed by the National Crime Agency (NCA) that arrested her, that only £27,000 pounds was recovered and that she had been released on bail. Then came reports that the energetic EFCC in Nigeria had also invaded her home in Abuja and we imagined this invasion must have been well choreographed and perfectly co-ordinated by the governments of Nigeria and Britain only for NCA to tell us this wasn’t so.
My interest in speaking to Madame Diezani by all means was re-ignited. I was greatly saddened by the dearth of investigative journalism in our clime. I remembered with nostalgia our days at Concord Press of Nigeria, owned by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. I had a flashback to the Weekend Concord days when that paper broke all records by publishing endless scoops and I earned repeated accolades from my Editor, and boss for life, Mr Mike Awoyinfa, for the manner I gained incredible access to very important personalities and topical news.
My dream is for Nigerian media to return to those halcyon days and it is not too difficult to achieve. What it takes is for us to have credible journalists who can manage stories responsibly without using media power to terrorise or witch-hunt anyone no matter their personal views or political ideology. A seasoned journalist knows that facts are sacred! Proper investigative reporters have access to even terrorists and rabid insurgents for this reason. However in Nigeria, we tend to reflect our prejudices in the stories we write. Such bias should be reserved for opinions and editorial pages.
Back to Mrs Alison-Madueke, the more I read the conflicting and contradictory reports the more I wished someone could penetrate the seemingly impregnable wall erected by our leaders to get the news behind the news. There were reports that Madame Diezani was battling with the much dreaded breast cancer. Not a few said she was merely pretending in order to escape justice. I wondered aloud how nice it would be to find a journalist who could be trusted with this massive story and bring us face to face with one of Africa’s biggest newsmakers.
About the same period, I was spending sometime seeking treatment for cataracts in London and this gave me the opportunity to investigate the Diezani conundrum myself. I made calls to several credible sources including a close lawyer friend who has a solid reputation in such matters. First, I confirmed that, contrary to the belief that she was feigning her illness, she was actually receiving treatment for a most chronic and aggressive form of breast cancer. She had undergone surgery and chemotherapy on several occasions and was being prepared for radiotherapy. Indeed, she had slipped into both natural and induced coma which lasted five days on July 28, as steroids she was receiving had inadvertently raised her sugar level abysmally. Her doctors declared her condition a near-miss. All my sources said it would be unfair and unthinkable for a reporter to invade her privacy in that state.
I believed the world deserves to hear from her, for good or for bad, and so never gave up my dream of getting exclusive access to Nigeria’s most talked about woman. My tenacity paid off two nights ago as I came face to face with Mrs Alison-Madueke at a secret location in London. My bosom friend had called to say someone had mentioned to her that I was critically on her case. Madame Diezani had wondered why a known and certified critic of the Jonathan Administration would want to interview her but was told that despite my opposition to their regime I remained one of the most objective writers in Nigeria. She told my female contact that she reads Pendulum and was impressed at the level of maturity often displayed even when she disagreed with my views. However, Madame Diezani was particularly worried that even in the throes of a most debilitating ailment, she was still being virulently attacked by her fellow citizens.
I told my source that without being judgmental, I think she should understand that many Nigerians believe she and the government she served had brought untold hardship upon the generality of Nigerians especially through the mismanagement of the main source of revenue in our country. She may know better than the rest of us but it is up to her to tell her story. Those who will believe are waiting to hear while those who won’t may never subscribe to her defence. What is important is for her to purge her soul and where necessary offer sincere apologies and penitence.
I was stunned when I got a call from my contact: “are you available to meet Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke on Thursday evening at a private location in London?” I don’t know how many reporters would miss such humongous opportunity. My response was an instant, yes. I was told the location would be communicated to me one hour to the appointed time. That was fine by me.
The only one I could trust to drive me on such a mission was my wife accompanied by her younger sister. We got to the venue almost dead on time and scanned the vicinity. Having read too many James Hadley Chase novels in my school days, I expected to see some unobtrusive bodyguards around if I looked well. I imagined I was right when I saw a dark stocky man in suit prancing about furtively and restlessly. I pressed a buzzer as instructed and the main door swung open. I approached one of the elevators as directed and headed to a particular apartment where my contact opened the door even before I knocked, and ushered me in.
I didn’t see my interviewee but only a fair lady, who looked vaguely familiar. I took a comfortable position and waited with bated breath. I was undergoing a stream of consciousness at supersonic speed. Where is Madame Diezani? Will she meet me or chicken out? Would she open up or just whet my appetite for nothing? How will I ask my satanic questions and in what order? What can I do to make her relax and pour out her heart? Can she trust anyone with her story in her present condition and state of mind?
I was in this interior monologue when Madame Diezani herself sauntered in. I stood up to greet her as she stretched out her hand. “My name is Diezani, the most misunderstood and abused Nigerian…” I didn’t know whether to say yes or no. I was perturbed and disturbed. The Diezani before me was not the ebullient woman I used to see on television and in newspapers. Her head had become a Sahara desert of sorts almost totally bald with a sprinkle of freshly growing hair all grey. She requested to sit on a classroom chair as her back was hurting badly and she could not sit so low. Wow, what a terrible time she must be having, I almost screamed out but cautioned myself. Sitting across from me was a woman who was a shadow of herself, almost like an apparition or ghost. I’m sure she saw the horror in my face.
I knew I had to tread gingerly so as not to ignite trouble. I expressed sympathy about her battle with cancer. I told her I was one of the doubting Thomases and wished her God’s mercy and miracle having seen her shocking state. She summarised how her ordeal started and that moment when her worst nightmare was diagnosed. As she spoke she belched and gasped intermittently, a by-product of the aggressive treatment she’s been receiving. I was visibly worried at a point thinking she may end up in an ambulance if care was not taken. The other lady I met earlier soon came out from wherever and insisted we must stop but Madame Diezani was just getting into the flow of our chit-chat. We were told to round up in five minutes by this chaperone.
I fired shots at her in staccato fashion and raced through my questions. I wanted to cover enough grounds before she returns to hospital after this weekend. I asked about Jonathan, Chris Aire, Kola Aluko and others linked to her in business transactions and otherwise. She said as much as she possibly could in the little time available and promised to say more later. The fair lady soon returned to stop our session. I would have been atrociously wicked to ask for more time though I felt she was in the mood to talk. She stood up delicately and she and the two ladies with her disappeared into the cold night…

Dele Momodu is a Nigerian journalist, publisher, and former presidential aspirant. He tweets from@delemomodu. This article is culled from ThisDay.

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2015/11/how-i-met-cancer-stricken-diezani.html

"The fruit of the righteousness [is] a tree of Life, and he that winnet souls [is] wise" (Prov.11:30)

The primary task of Christians and every ministry in the world should be soul winning, to go into the world in order to preach the Good news to all creatures, a command which was given by Jesus Christ. (Mark 16: 15-16). And one of the greatest joys that we have as Christians is the joy of leading someone to christ, And you and I can be God's instruments in the salvation of others.

Unfortunately, many churches have lost focus on the mission of winning souls for christ. Most churches are not winning souls for christ because the leaders of these churches have lost their passion for lost souls.

I was honoured to be one among many who met Pastor David Oyedepo(Jnr) an embodiment of humility on the high street of London winning souls for christ.
Pastor David Oyedepo (Jnr) is the Resident Pastor of Winners Chapel London.
He is also the Regional Pastor for the European network of Churches. His life reflects that life in spiritual leadership is life devoted to God without restraint. It is tragic that todays pastors are losing the vision of soul winning
And I strongly believe that frequent examples of his lifestyle of evangelism also speak volumes to the ever increasing London's winners chapel assembly.

A Healthy church is where the church body is active in seeking the lost, sharing their personal faith and the Love of Christ as exhibited by Pastor David Oyedepo (jnr). He has been the catalyst to the overall success of the church growth in the UK and its outreach program. His desire as Pastor of the church to see the ministry as a Christ-honoring and kingdom building succeed can not be over emphasised, at a time many Pastors and Christians have neglected their roles in the society of winning souls for Christ but rather towards fulfilling their own will to the detriment of the gospel.
There is no burning desire in most churches of today to see lost souls or sinners come to christ, which is largely due to the fact that soul winning is not on the forefront of most churches agenda, but rather has been put on the back burner that sinners are not reached for salvation.

Sadly, so many London pastors tend to stress the importance of fishing for members instead of fishing for souls. Every Church should strive to be a soul-winning church like the the London winners Chapel. Achurch is sucessful in the eyes of God If its pastors, leaders and members are equipped to soul winners.

However, the process of becoming a soul winning Church starts with leadership. And in order to be a soul winning church, the pastor must have the passion to be a fisher of men in and out of the pulpit.
Every pastor should evangelize the community. The strategies will differ from one man to the next, depending upon his gifts and opportunities. As a fisher of men, he must go where the fish are. He must leave dry land, sail out into deep waters, and cast his net. Pastors must venture out into the community, like Pastor Oyedepo (jr) is doing, to share the gospel, and urge people to believe upon Christ. Community outreach involves building bridges to unbelievers. A pastor who just wants a church desk job in order to get away from the front lines is not fit to be a pastor. Whatever the strategy, making such inroads requires going where unconverted people are and unashamedly sharing Christ.
It has been rightly said that the greatest joy is knowing Christ and the second greatest is making Him known. May every pastor enter joyfully into this privileged task of doing the work of soul winning for christ.
If soul winning is not a joy or passion in the lives of the leadership, then it most likely will not be in the lives of the followers. this may not be in all cases but surely in many instances, as members have a "follow the leader" type mentality, meaning they do what the pastor does and what he or she teaches.
Jesus was a master soul winner, Jesus said in Mark 1:17, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The above are piercing words in Scripture that spells out the necessity of evangelism in the Church and in our world. It is only when the word of God is proclaimed to people that church growth can come about. This is evident in the episodes that ensued in the Acts of the Apostles. As the Apostles preached the word of God in the midst of opposition they turned situations of communities around including the face of politics, social structures were also affected and with time, many cultural beliefs were transformed for good. The council that met at Jerusalem in C.49 A.D (Acts 15) on the issue of circumcision is one glaring example. Evangelism in the Christian Church today is passing through a great challenge and that challenge is the call to true discipleship

Wife- Ehen so, you now have my time abi?

Osinbajo- You know the work of a Vice president of Nigeria, is more tasking than that of a mere commisioner of Lagos state.

Sometimes when Bukola Saraki sports his agbada, he bears resemblance to Chief Eleyinmi in the familiar but now defunct Village Headmaster television series. Saraki, like Eleyinmi, wraps a certain mystique around his hands. So he hides them inside the voluminous sleeves.

But he lacks two vital qualities associated with Chief Eleyinmi. The Village Headmaster thespian does not wear suits. Two, he projects a Rabelaisian sense of humour and effusive candour that titillate his audience in spite of the actor’s patrician peccadillos.

Eleyinmi drinks his tea or water or wine by grabbing the spoon or glass under the protection of the fabric. Saraki does not. Saraki also wears the western suit that exposes and takes away the sanctity of the hand.

It is quirks like these that made me write a cover over a decade ago in Sunday Concord on political fashion. If Saraki was a factor in those years, he might have played a prominent part in the cast. Unlike Eleyinmi, however, Saraki does not make you laugh.

He did not make anyone laugh when he hid, in the name of ambition, in a nondescript car in the National Assembly in the wee hours in order to be Senate president. He did not amuse when he made an impolitic quote defending men of his class about not taxing the Nigerian jet set. So, by his reckoning, we should not have special taxes for jet owners. He did not amuse when he abandoned his party and supped with the enemy, again in the name of ambition. Absence of principles can be amusing, but the former kwara State chief does not know how to suck us out of our sulks.

He did not amuse when he rebuffed his party leadership by not conceding any of its demands in the spoils of Senate office.

He might have amused us, though, when he slid his way onto the prayer ground with President Muhammadu Buhari during the recent Muslim festivities, and allowed the impression to pass that he had somehow won over the chief. But it was not a laugh he wanted credit for because it was against him. It recalls what playwright and Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett designated as “a laugh laughing at itself.” It was not an Eleyinmi moment though. It was more of a Baba Sala episode, a rip-roaring farce.

He did not get much of an attention from the President in that holy hour. He probably lost it.

Even Eleyinmi, for all his sweet obnoxiousness, never played the obsequious role. He was a chief who knew his limits and was funny any time he bowed to the calm and chastening rhetoric of the king. He betrayed the innocence of a boy caught in a prank.

But our own pretended Eleyinmi does not know how to play that innocence. Rather than admit a wrong, and eat his humble pie in public, he has engaged in a contradictory drama. He is begging and fighting simultaneously. He waited for House Speaker Dogarra to bow to party pressure before he realised that the legislature had its limits. He has sent emissaries to beg the President and also to beg the Lion of Bourdillon. I am not aware how sincere and how effective these odysseys of humility will be. But it is significant that the man who thought he had subverted decency in the name of power still remembers how to bow.

At the same time, he is taking a battle to the head of the EFFC. His perception management of this matter leaves much to be desired. Not long ago, the EFCC held his wife for questioning over corruption charges. It clearly rankled his skin deep enough for him to show his hands and deliver a fistful to Lamorde, the EFCC boss. So, wielding the power of the Senate, he is going after the man in charge of corruption by throwing charges of corruption at him. The merit or demerit of the case is beyond me at this point, in spite of what news reports have said about the petitioner’s pedigree.

But the whole drama of his fighting and begging after acting as the Eleyinmi of Nigerian politics must sicken even him. He is now surrounded by the hyenas of his ambition. He wanted to be a giant. He thought he had attained the status, and then he looks like the characters in Wole Soyinka’s Nobel Prize-wining play, A Play of Giants. It is farce that leads downhill. In his play Macbeth, Shakespeare describes it as “vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself.”

Edmund Burke, the master theorist of conservatism, who saw power and penned ruminations on it, including about the French like Robespierre, Danton and the little general Napoleon, wrote: “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”

While he battles to stay afloat in what is a looming morass, Saraki has to consider another man of power, Federick Douglas of the abolition era of slavery in the United States. Power is about negotiation in a spirit of reciprocity. He must consider what to give, and he must not look like the giants of Soyinka’s play. Hence Douglas noted, “power concedes nothing without a demand.” The other side asked, but he did not give. If he is not careful, he will be given away. He should read Professor Niyi Osundare’s poem on him and his likes, especially the line, “wind vane politicians with multiple tongues…”

Via - http://thenationonlineng.net/not-yet-eleyinmi/

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Comrade and his women

We arrived Abeokuta in the first ink of dusk, at about 5:00pm. We were visiting the city’s most iconic figure, the white-haired, white-bearded, tall, grand fellow of many battles and accolades.

Before we made the turn to the bush, a sign was unmistakable. Louis Odion, the writer in resting, who sat beside me in the car, read the sign. Roared Louis in a guttural register: “Any trespasser will be shot and eaten.”

The imprimatur of the poet. All around were trees. We drove on, and a sense of rural splendour fell over me. The serenity of trees. Birds. Leaves in lush colour. Earth Edenic. Modernity alienated. A shadow cast not by twilight but by the peculiar colouring of a forest. It was as though I was on my way to my mother’s home village in Delta State.

In a few moments, we saw what looked like a clearing. Looking farther, a big house, unpainted but tasteful, with a grandeur one would describe as quaint. Nothing ornate. Not the windows, not the stairwell. It was a house sitting in arboreal paradise.

The vehicles parked, and in a few moments, the guest of honour, the sprightly Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole and his elegant wife, Lara, materialised from a vehicle. We moved in and waiting was chief host, playwright, poet, writer extraordinaire Wole Soyinka. It was billed as a lunch but the vagaries of technology associated with his flight arrangement turned it into a dinner. Former governors, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Rotimi Amaechi, had visited earlier in the day.

As we sat, I delved into wordplay and described the setting as “Adamic.” The Edo Governor appreciated it and turned to his wife and they exchanged a joke about the Garden of Eden, and the wife quipped that if the Governor was the Adam, then she would be the Eve. At that moment I started to contemplate Adams, just as W.S. served wine and later asked us to the dinner table with his wife Folake.

I thought here was Adams, and the story of the man in the past few months revolved around women. The first was his wedding. He, a Nigerian, above 60, and the bride young and from Cape Verde. The news generated quite an attention.

Those who attacked, especially young men, were probably envious it was not them. Those women who condemned the bride, mostly girls, were also envious she was not them. I wonder what W.S. thought about the couple during the bonhomie of conversation over wine and food.

He, too, wedded Folake, but to less flurry of envious rage, maybe because we did not have Internet or Facebook then. But essentially he was a prophet of his own nuptials with his play, The Lion and the Jewel. I told myself, we had two lions and two jewels at the table.

Nothing about this irony propped up in the conversation, and so I reined in my mischief. I took my time to watch, speak with and listen to a man I had admired all my life. That was enough peace for me eating his jolof rice, fried plantain and fish with the lubricating grace of red wine.

But what I also thought of were Oshiomhole’s other women. The one was former so-called coordinating minister of the economy, Okonjo-Iweala and, of course, the big-eyed oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. When the Edo Governor started lashing out at the other women, attention swiftly turned from his beauty parlour to the beasts of the economy.

Adams had noted how the so-called World Bank, Harvard and all the phony accolades of western brilliance of the finance minister gave us nothing but poverty. Ngozi was a failure. She was a disaster. When the Edo governor reeled out her financial iniquities, I felt especially vindicated.

Very early I was not moved by her resume. She was not trained for the Nigerian economy, just like her bow-tie colleague now roosting like hens in another African agricultural employment. She was trained about the dependency of African economies.

I know because I attended quite a few of them and I inoculated myself against their paradigms. She did not and that explains why she met a buoyant purse and left a leaky one.

Then he visited the United States with President Muhammadu Buhari, and when he returned he unleashed a bombshell. One minister stole as much as six billion dollars from our purse.

How much is that in naira? In my own calculation, it is at least N1.2 trillion. That money will pay all the salaries owed the state workers, build quite a respectable cancer centre in the country. He would not say who the minister is out of decency. But we cannot but know that the finger pointed at the oil minister. She was the only one who could have had that kind of access.

The American officials cannot say such a grave thing without evidence. Diezani was the worst of the Jonathan era. She was a disgrace of a minister just as Jonathan was a scandal of a president.

We raked in the most money in that era, we are broke today because of them. Adams had to come out with the facts because he, too, was outraged. It was Adams the activist, the fulminating labour leader that squared off against Iweala and Madueke.

Was it not in the same era we had other women, like Mama Peace, and Stella Oduah. Mama peace, the first lady, with whom many Nigerians lost patience, spoke as though the nation was a Mammy Market and all Nigerians were subaltern, backwater denizens without culture.

The evening eventually came to an end after close to four hours of exchange of jokes, ideas, etc. I could not but also note the sheer number of carved masterpieces in W.S. home. I called back his recollections of his search for an African artifact to as far away as Brazil. He wonderfully delineated the adventure in his memoirs, You Must Set Forth At Dawn.

We left into the bush again, and then back into the urban jungle. But it was a gradual descent into modernity. We saw buildings here and there interspersed with bushes until it was bricks and tars and cars.

Via - http://thenationonlineng.net/comrade-and-his-women/

The Phones No Longer Ring: "Mr President Must Be Able To Reach You At Any Time. You Must Always Be Available.” I was like: “really? Which kin job be dis?” - By Reuben Abati

As spokesman to President Goodluck Jonathan, my phones rang endlessly and became more than personal navigators within the social space. They defined my entire life; dusk to dawn, all year-round. The phones buzzed non-stop, my email was permanently active; my twitter account received tons of messages per second. The worst moments were those days when there was a Boko Haram attack virtually every Sunday.

The intrusion into my private life was total as my wife complained about her sleep being disrupted by phones that never seemed to stop ringing. Besides, whenever I was not checking or responding to the phones, I was busy online trying to find out if the APC had said something contrarian or some other fellow was up to any mischief. A media manager in the 21st century is a slave of the Breaking News, a slave particularly of the 24-hour news cycle, and a potential nervous breakdown case. Debo Adesina, my colleague at The Guardian once said I was running a “one week, one trouble schedule”. There were actually moments when trouble knocked on the door every hour, and duty required my team and I to respond to as many issues that came up.
Top of the task list was the management of phone calls related to the principal. In my first week on the job, for example, one of my phones ran out of battery and I had taken the liberty to charge it. While it was still in the off mode, the “Control Room”: the all-powerful communications centre at the State House tried to reach me. They had only just that phone number, so I couldn’t be reached. When eventually they did, the fellow at the other end was livid.
“SA Media, where are you? We have been trying to reach you. Mr President wants to speak with you”
“Sorry, I was charging my phone. The phone was off.”
“Sir, you can’t switch off your phone now. Mr President must be able to reach you at any time. You must always be available.” I was like: “really? Which kin job be dis?”
The Control Room eventually collected all my phone numbers. If I did not pick up a call on time, they called my wife. Sometimes the calls came directly from the Residence, as we referred to the President’s official quarters.
“Abati, Oga dey call you!”
If I still could not be reached, every phone that was ever connected to me would ring non-stop. Busy bodies who had just picked up the information that Abati was needed also often took it upon themselves to track me down. My wife soon got used to her being asked to produce me, or a car showing up to take me straight to the Residence. I eventually got used to it, and learnt to remain on duty round-the-clock. In due course, President Jonathan himself would call directly. My wife used to joke that each time there was a call from him, even if I was sleeping, I would spring to my feet and without listening to what he had to say, I would start with a barrage of “Yes sirs”! Other calls that could not be joked with were calls from my own office. Something could come up that would require coverage, or there could be a breaking story, or it could be something as harmless as office gossip, except that in the corridors of power, nothing is ever harmless. Looking back now, I still can’t figure out how I survived that onslaught of the terror of the telephone.

Buhari Angry Over How Clerk Gate Crashed Into Ramadan Dinner - When Introduced To Him For a Handshake After The Dinner, The President Said: ‘You, how did you get here?

There were indications yesterday that the police might charge the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa to court for the alleged forgery of the Standing Orders.
Maikasuwa may be arraigned with some staff of the National Assembly suspected of having played one role or the other in the drafting of the rules.

Besides the Standing Orders matter, the Clerk is also said to be facing a fresh crisis on how he was selected to be part of a Ramadan dinner (Iftar) with President Muhammadu Buhari while under investigation by the Police.

The Presidency is investigating alleged breach of protocol by the Clerk by attending the breaking of fast with the President.

But the President made the Clerk to know that he was an unwanted guest at the Villa when he was introduced at the end of the dinner.
A source said: “When he was introduced to Buhari for a handshake after the dinner, the President said: ‘You, how did you get here? If I knew I would not have allowed you to enter this place.’ I think some protocol officers committed a slip.
“We did not know how he got onto the list of the guests of the President. This is why the President is very strict with his schedule and aides.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/senate-crisis-nass-clerk-faces-trial-as-police-establish-forgery/
http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2015/07/buhari-angry-over-how-clerk-gate.html

The article, No longer a pariah, by Sam Omatseye, which appeared on the back page of the July 13 edition of The Nation newspaper, was in very bad taste. And the fact that the writer claims to be one-time winner of the DAME Media Award for Informed Commentary, makes the article pathetic. From the write-up, one gets the impression that the writer is unhappy that after President Muhammadu Buhari has been vilified and ignored by politicians and the people of Nigeria, the latter have now joined his band-wagon, chorusing his praises following his 2015 election victory.

In view of the reputation of the writer and the traditional responsibility of all journalists and writers the world over, Omatseye is doing violence to journalism and national discourse. Through his writing, he is promoting hate and discord and perhaps wished that providence did not change the fortunes of Buhari to tally with the desire of the generality of Nigerians for Change in their lives!

One gets the unmistakable impression that Omatseye and his paymasters, must love President Muhammadu Buhari and had done certain critical things that helped him to power. The question now is, should Omatseye and his group bellyache over the fact that many have become converted to the Buhari clan? It’s like if it is possible, the writer and his sponsors would like to dictate to President Buhari, those who should be his friends and associates and who should rejoice, and those who should be shut out!

The above cannot however happen because Buhari’s victory at the 2015 polls is a national mandate that transcended the capacity and imagination of the foresighted people who began the struggle. Indeed, a few wise and courageous men began the project to rid the helpless people of Nigeria of the misrule of the PDP but later, the idea and effort was taken over and adopted by the Nigerian people and this made victory possible. Omatseye and his mentors have forgotten that the brand called Buhari, was not their creation. They merely prepared and presented him with a platform in which many other Nigerians bought into through the legacy parties. These parties were, the Action Congress of Nigeria, which in spite of the brilliance of its leaders remained a provincial political party, Buhari’s defunct Congress for Progressive Change, which in 2011 garnered 12 million electoral votes even when the hard- fighting Buhari lost that election to the PDP candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, the veteran opposition party, the All Nigeria People’s Party, the New PDP faction of Atiku Abubakar and the five governors and Governor Rochas Okorocha’s branch of the All Progressive Grand Alliance. The question needs be asked Omatseye and his paymasters, how could only one of these legacy parties provide the ingredients for the victory of Buhari against the PDP behemoth, when it took a five party coalition to send the then ruling PDP out of power?

Thus one finds it difficult to place the sulking and grudge of the writer and those who sent him on errand. It seems that a kind of infantile neurosis is disturbing the political camp of the writer and his masters. The Nigerian people having wholeheartedly adopted Buhari and flocked to him in their millions, the political camp to which the writer belongs is feeling sad that they cannot control or dictate to Buhari as the latter now belongs to all, and no one in particular; apologies to the President.

The writer in his article not only expressed regret that President Buhari is now the toast of most Nigerians , including his foes of yesterday but he also singled out eminent Nigerians who have pledged loyalty to the President for abuse, insult and hate! This is akin to anti-party activity and treason! Pray, what wrong has former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Senator Bukola Saraki done to warrant the denigration heaped on them. One gets the impression that Omatseye not only lacks home training but respect for elders and leaders which is part and parcel of the culture and tradition of our society.

Reading the article titled, No longer a pariah, one discovers that a principal grouse of the writer with Abubakar, Obasanjo and Saraki is over the outcome of the democratic election that produced the current National Assembly leadership. Omatseye would like the election quashed and the preferred candidates of his sponsor imposed on the national legislature under the guise of party supremacy. However knowing the APC leader who sings party supremacy because it would benefit him and his acolytes at the expense of the other legacy parties, no one is fooled. The sponsors of the article are no democrats nor are they national politicians but are those who are unrepentant advocates of regionalism and provincialism. They allowed their party, the then ACN to join the APC coalition for the simple reason of capturing power at the center which they hoped to monopolize and appropriate with Buhari becoming a puppet President, always at their beck and call. When it has become clear that the dynamics of politics is making the ACN’s political domination unrealizable, hence the bitterness and declaration of war on all perceived adversaries.

The National Assembly crisis is behind the party and the nation now as all and sundry have resolved to move forward and allow peace to rein, yet war and violence remains in the heart of the former ACN leader, who true to type thinks he should be the one to decide who gets what in the Buhari government. Being loyal and committed members of the APC, both Senator Saraki and House Speaker Dogara are eminently qualified to hold their leadership positions in the National Assembly having satisfied the requirements of the 1999 Constitution.

In the last paragraph of Omatseye’s confused and poorly-conceived article, one sees totally unmasked, the malice, arrogance, intolerance and violence that make up the persona of his paymasters. He wrote: “Obj, Saraki and Atiku have a choice. They have to decide whether they belong to APC or they want to form an alliance to form another party”! This is arrant nonsense. Is there a Godfather in APC? No. As far as the majority of the party members are concerned, the party is a democratic party in which all the legacy parties and their members and any Nigerian who joins the party are equals. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a founder of APC as other leaders of the legacy parties that came together to give birth to the latter. He cannot threaten anyone in the party because the APC is not his provincial ACN where he used to call the shots but which in national politics, failed serially.

This writer has seen reason to understand why, despite his brilliance and hard work, Asiwaju Tinubu is not accepted as a political leader among his Yoruba kith and kin and why that South West political bulldozer and arch-foe of the Jagaban, PDP’s Chief Bode George stated the truth about Tinubu for all seasons, that “he (Tinubu), is yet to learn, and can never learn the rudiments of national politics”!

No longer a pariah

By Sam Omatseye

President Muhammadu Buhari’s rise to power is a parable of tenacity and the happy pendulum of fate. No one counted on him at one time. His big and mighty foes feared his appeal. They waited for his venom to expire. Before the expiration date, however, he struck.

Then those who pooh-poohed him, who sneered that he was no more than a grand and populist irritation, began to see him as the wisdom of the hour.

They no longer flaunted their superior airs and credentials. Rather, they flocked to him. They morphed into cheerleaders and wiggled their waists in the same band. But they rehearsed a different genre of music.

When it was time to sing, their incongruous tunes collapsed under the throaty sonority of the majority.
Now the majority’s symphony fell silent, we started to hear the dissonance of toads and crocodiles.

Nothing tells this story more than the ambitions and cynicisms of three men. The first is the Owu chief, Olusegun Obasanjo, the peripatetic harlot of Nigerian politics, Atiku Abubakar, and the Kwara renegade, Bukola Saraki.

As for the rise of Buhari, it calls back the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. All three were outsiders of the vortex of power. In the case of Lincoln, he was too tall, ungainly and ill bred. Churchill was a loud mouth, boor and subversive. In fact, former United States president, Richard Nixon, noted in his memoirs that he drew inspiration from Churchill. His obituary was written off late in his life in the House of Commons. He turned out to be the greatest prime minister in memory.

As for de Gaulle, he was an outcast in an age of national treachery when Petain and other French leaders sold the pride and birthright of France to the butchery of Nazi Germany. His contemporaries regarded de Gaulle as rebellious, foolish and puerile. Churchill plotted to fly him out of Paris in the turbulent flush of the blitzkrieg. Churchill remarked that de Gaulle’s soul encased the French pride in that flight of escape.

Once these men became their nations’ leaders, they waxed from pariahs to messiahs. All who looked down on them later bowed. Those who did not bow wheeled into subterranean intrigues and acts of subversion. They wanted to torpedo the popular will.

The APC crisis is still called crisis in spite of what some of its leaders call reconciliation. It is the act of papering over the cracks. The men who do not wish the party well only wish for the party their ambition. They do not love Buhari. They only sat in the train or rode in the same carriage because he was the only one in whose company they could clutch their selfish dreams.
Their schemes are coming home to roast, not roost.

Their plan was simple. Let us win in the Senate, make it a fate accompli. Later, we can con the president onboard. They took the president for a simpleton. Atiku formed the dubious coalition with Saraki and Obj because of the ambitions of 2019. The man who won 2015 has not settled down to office, their 2019 ambitions want to unsettle his administration.

Yet we know that Obj, Atiku and Saraki are strange bedfellows. They are too ambitious for their own good. An Obj will not endorse an Atiku ambition. Atiku knows this. Saraki, for whatever egoistic delusion, thinks he can be Nigeria’s president.

But in all these, they want to throw cats in the pigeons of the president. After causing confusion, they want to present themselves as angels of peace. That is the so-called reconciliation move. It is capital self-delusion and hypocrisy. They want reconciliation without truth.

They say the Lawan and Gbajabiamila groups should accept the fait accompli of Dogarra and Saraki leaderships in the National Assembly. Now, how do they want to explain two irrationalities. One, the party arrived at one candidate. Saraki defied it, plotted with the enemy, waylaid the party and disgraced the majority vote. They forget that Lawan was Buhari’s candidate. After the fact, the governors of the party tried to save face. How do you live with the fact that a party decides something, some members flout it, and no penalties are imposed. Does that not turn the party into an impunity machine? Was that not one of the capital reasons the PDP was flushed out on March 28? Is the APC not going back to its vomit by starting off embracing the enemy’s mistake?

All those behind Atiku, Saraki and Obj want to wield their influence to let the matter slide. Well, they won but it does not feel like victory. That is why they keep calling for peace. In spite of that, they show their true colours. Saraki said recently that inability of some state governments to pay salaries could be traced to corruption. Saraki has no right to talk on corruption until the charges hanging over his head are cleared. He cannot vault himself into sainthood overnight. He became Senate president on a corrupt lie, overthrowing the party convention. His is a victory without honour. That is why he remains the Kwara renegade.

That leads to the second point. If they wanted reconciliation, why did Saraki and Dogarra spurn the party letter? The argument that the law is more important than the party is a self-serving line. The law towers above all, but law is itself based on honour. When we manipulate the law and defrock it of honour, we work against the very spirit of law. That was what the Saraki group did. It is haunting them, and it will haunt them forever. Reconciliation without truth is going to the future without memory. It is like pursuing an end without a beginning. If we reach where we are going without knowledge of where we are coming from, we will not know why we started the journey.

Last weekend featured the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. The speakers, including former President Clinton, stressed the need for reconciliation but it must be based on truth. We cannot wish truth over unresolved issues. It is like prospering on a lie. In South Africa, truth was sought before reconciliation. Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace tapped into the theme of truth and reconciliation by looking into the story of a professor who takes advantage of a female student and thinks he can get away with it by merely leaving his job. He spends the rest of his life grappling with the consequences. Booker Prize novelist Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel, The Buried Giant, looks at the unresolved crisis of the birth of Britain to show how a past of division cannot be glossed over by mere prosperity. The author referred to Bosnia, Kosovo, the second World War, etc, as some of the inspiration for the work, a fantasy of gnomes, elves, dragons, etc.

Part of Nigeria’s problem is that we have not resolved many issues and we move on. But we never move on, and unresolved issues haunt us always, so woes pile on woes in our national life.

Obj, Saraki and Atiku have a choice. They have to decide whether they belong to APC or they want to form an alliance to form another party. Atiku has PDM that never wins anything, and he cannot stand on his own. He has to play LovePeddler with others to get something. In his present style and content, he has not, and he never will, be Nigeria’s president.

The choice still dangles before this group and their men. It will determine whether they want to work with Buhari or stalemate him.

http://thenationonlineng.net/no-longer-a-pariah/

My experience in a land of opportunities and promise of the better future but yet with a heavy burden of broken promise, heartbreak, lack of compassion and empathy, tolerance and forgiveness.
I have always adored United Kingdom as one of the best countries in the world to seek a refuge with great promise of a brighter future for the new generation and a world class in humanitarian services which is undoubtedly true.
My confidence about this fact made me seek refuge in the UK in 2004 with my partner as we settled down to live our lives as a law abiding citizens. Although we had no right to live in the country at the time, we hoped and pray as every other illegal immigrant. My partner later seek asylum in 2005 during the period of which my partner and I had four children aged 10, 8, 7 and 4 all of which were born in the UK and have been granted leave to remain.


We lived our lives without depending on public funds even though life in the UK as an immigrant was extremely difficult, I still managed to take care of my family and raised well behaved, well mannered and well trained children that I believe will one day make the entire nation proud. My children are among the top students in their various classes owing to my dedication and support for them as a responsible father and husband.
My desperation to become recognised as a legal migrant with full status led me to follow wrong advice which I later regret deeply. In June 2011, I was arrested at home by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) for“Deception to obtain leave to remain” and I was sentenced to 32 months in prison. My absent from home took a great toll on my family especially my children. I cried regularly each time my partner brings me news of the emotional and physical stress my children are passing through which I’m yet to forgive myself for.
I was later released in October 2012 and at the hearing, I expressed my deepest regrets and I also formally apologised for my actions and inactions. Despite all efforts by the Home Office representative to paint a false picture of me claiming that I was a danger to the public and that I will abscond if my bail was approved, the reason why, I’m yet to understand, the judge saw the sincerity in me and ordered my release.

Ever since I was released in October 2012, the Home Office had little or no contact with me, someone they considered dangerous to the public but eventually turned up again in January 2015 after much more pressure from my solicitor and my constituent MP (Kate Green), saying my application for Article 8 under Human Right to family and private life was refused.
In 2013, I was issued with a deportation order but was later withdrawn by the Home Office after the judge said that he cannot decide on my case without my partner’s pending asylum application being decided upon by the Home Office.
Meanwhile, in October 2014 my partner’s asylum application was granted and was issued leave to remain with all my four children. Even though, my case was linked with my partner’s case and the Home Office issued us with a letter stating that I am among her dependants, it’s unfortunate that I was not granted leave to remain as the rest of my family.
On Friday morning the 15th of May, just before getting my kids ready for school, the UKBA stormed my house to arrest me with up to 7 intimidating looking men and women, the type used for hardened criminals or a terrorist. It was a big shock and unexpected, all my children including my partner were frightened by the bang on our door. My children were shaking and really traumatised by the scene before they are locked up in one of the bedroom.

Add caption
I believed that I have been punished enough by the UKBA and repatriating me back to Nigeria (May 26th 2015) is totally unfair and unjust. The UK system has failed me and my family despite the two appeals based on humanitarian grounds and family ties submitted before and on the day of my deportation, yet the UK system failed to recognise any of this two point as a reason not to deport me.
I am seeking this medium as an opportunity to appeal to everyone out there to please sign this petition so that I can be reunited with my family. I really miss my family especially my very young children, I can’t survive without my family, I cry every single day, and I can wait to be reunited with them.
I once again sincerely apologise for my misdeeds and I hope to seek favour and forgiveness from the British public, UKBA, the general public and last but not the list my family especially my children.
Thanks to you all.

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2015/06/nigeria-man-wrongly-deported-from-his.html#more

$300m Fight of the Century - Floyd Mayweather Vs Manny Pacquiao Finally on!

More @link below....

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2015/05/300m-fight-of-century-floyd-mayweather.html

THE Igbos, who live in these areas, have amongst themselves, the richest individuals in Nigeria. Orifite has over 10 billionaires; the best known of which is Sir Emeka Ofor.

The Anambra State Governor the other day called a meeting of 50 people and 25 of them were billionaires. The rest were no slouches. The Igbo sometimes are too polite for their own good.

Each time a politician goes to Anambra State, he makes the promise to build a second Niger Bridge or to dredge the Niger. The Igbo feel that people say these things because they think they are fools.

They ask whether the Federal Government built the ports of Lagos for Lagosians? Was the 23 kilometres Third Mainland Bridge built for Lagosians? A bridge across the Niger is a development of infrastructure that would yield benefit for all Nigeria.

Why does the Federal Government need a special loan or bond to build the bridge? That they do not openly say this in public is perhaps an element of the sublimation of their persecution complex. Culture The Igbos are proud of their culture.

But are also willing to participate in other people’s cultures, and more importantly, to adapt foreign culture to their own. For many years, the black people in the United States had been insulted by being regarded as having no culture.

Many changed their names in the belief that this would identify them with Africa; they preferred to be called African Americans, and took names like Kobe, Jamal, Hussein, etc, little realising that these were Islamic names, not African names. No matter, the point had been made that Mr. X was African American and his name was Jamal Juba. About 15 years ago, two cultural trends burst out on the African scene – a distinct music genre, distinct dancing genre and distinct theatre genre.

The U.S. has always been open about its debt to Africa in term of music – jazz, pop culture, ghetto dancing and music etc. The Yoruba and other Africans contributed to this, not only Igbos. But in the past few years, the young African musicians had taken on world pop culture and Africanized it, dominated it and now own it. There is no Igbo mega star like Fela – so massive was his genius.

However, young men and women are hitting the world stage with beats that cannot have grown from anywhere else than in Nigeria, and a lot of it, due to Igbos. Hand in hand with this musical explosion.

African drama was re-born but this time, using new techniques to attune old theme – the advent of Nollywood – which in 10-15 short years – is now the third largest movies industry in the world. Igbo influence, both in new music and in Nollywood, is substantial.

It was generic, and should remain so. But it may die if it imbibes government contagion. Nearly everything shown in Nollywood about Igbo Kingship, Princesses and Princes, etc., is an exercise in the producers’ imagination.

The cultural basis is there; but the manifestation is poetic licence of the producers, and rightly so. Nollywood is not a cultural course: it is entertainment within the imagined context of Igbo culture.

The Biafra War It is impossible to write about the Igbos without writing about the Biafra War. It is futile to go into the pros and cons of the war. The war affected Igbos, as it did other Nigerians.

The Igbos felt that they had something precious to contribute to Nigeria; but the Civil War deprived them from contributing, and Nigeria from accepting, Igbo contribution. They lost a war they felt was unjust.

They lost property everywhere, especially in Port Harcourt. But they learnt how better to handle other Nigerians. They channelled their sense of loss into more productive avenues. They now believe in Nigeria; but also believe anything can happen and hedge their bets and build large houses in their villages should any other war break out.

They have a mixed feeling for – yet believe that it is now their turn to rule Nigeria. Some Nigerians, including some Igbos, believe that the eventual break-up of Nigeria is a matter of time, unless some fundamental changes are made soon in the political arrangement.

The Igbos believe in meritocracy because they are supremely confident that they would prevail.

An apocryphal story goes something like this: If you do an examination with an Igbo man and he has a better result and beats you, he will nod as if to say that is natural, that is as it should be. But if you beat him, he would ask you whether the examiner is your brother or who leaked questions to you.

The Igbos lost a lot of houses in Port Harcourt. Lately an old wise Rivers man seeing the Igbo contribution to Abuja and Lagos wondered whether the Rivers State Government should not invite Igbos back to Port Harcourt to do their magic on housing and the economy in Rivers State. Young men and women living together before marriage is unknown in all African cultures including Igbo.

Hollywood’s portrayed of this practice is non-Igbo and due more to western acculturation than any thing, traditionally, a girl may go to the husband’s house after the payment of dowry and the consent of her parents, herself. Inheritance, even “kingship” and property legally does not go to the children but to the eldest brother of the deceased who by custom is now supposed to look after his brother’s wife and her siblings. • Concluded. • Dr. Cole (OFR) is Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Brazil.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/04/the-igbos-and-their-unifying-factors-4/

Sani Abacha & wife went to
Aso Rock together.......Only
his wife came back

Olusegun Obasanjo & wife
went together....... ...only
Obasanjo returned

Umaru Musa Ya'adua & wife
went together....... ....Only his
wife returned

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan &
wife went together.......
.......Now, both of them are
coming back together with their family.

GEJ is indeed lucky to break
that curse in Aso Rock!

The final burial arrangement of Yinka Ayefele's dad, late HIGH CHIEF JOSHUA TAIWO AYEFELE. Who Slept in the Lord on 12th of October 2014 .
BURIAL ARRANGEMENTS.
22nd of January, Artists night @ Ipoti-Ekiti civic centre, Ipoti-Ekiti.
23rd of January, service of song @ orita market, iwaro street in Ipoti-Ekiti,
Lying in state @ Yinka Ayefele Villa, isokun, in Ipoti-Ekiti.
Saturday 24th of January 2015, final burial service at our saviours Anglican Church, Ipoti-Ekiti by 10 am,
Party and Entertainment of guests follows immediately at Ipoti High school field Ipoti-Ekiti.
R. S. V. P .
NIYI AYEFELE +234803563 4300,
OLAWOLE AYEFELE +234803 5506090

A last ditch bid to save schoolboy Rafeeq Atanda from deportation to a country he has never lived in has failed.
Despite an 11th hour appeal from Gateshead MP Ian Mearns, the five-year-old is believed to have been flown to Nigeria on Friday night along with his mother, Bola Fatumbi.
Just hours earlier, Mr Mearns had asked the Home Office to review a decision to deport the youngster after more than 8,000 people put their name to a petition demanding he be allowed to stay.

Despite being born in this country, Rafeeq, of Bensham, has spent the past week in a London immigration centre with his mum, before his removal from the country.
The Home Office has said that Mrs Fatumbi was first told in 2007 that she had no right to be in the UK, while later that year she was jailed for nine months for possession of a false document, which she used to illegally obtain employment in the UK.
But the Bensham community say Rafeeq, who has some learning difficulties, now faces life in a country he has never known, thousands of miles away from his friends.
Joanne Allen, headteacher at Brighton Avenue Primary School, where Rafeeq was a Year 1 pupil, said: “The staff here have been very upset all week and the children have been asking where Rafeeq is.
“He, of course, would have been welcomed back to our school with open arms.”

On Friday afternoon, Mr Mearns was notified that a review had been carried out following a request by the MP, but that Mrs Fatumbi’s deportation would go ahead as planned.
Mr Mearns responded with an email stating: “I really do not think that the Home Office has given any weight to the welfare of Mrs Fatumbi’s son.
“I cannot for the life of me think what a five-year-old boy, who has never set foot outside this country, has done to warrant his deportation to a country, Nigeria, that he knows nothing about and certainly never set foot in.
“I really do think that this child’s position warrants that the whole case be reviewed.
“Please ask the Minister to think about the rights of this child in considering his mother’s case.”
Family friend Kath Hayward, who started the petition, said: “We’ve had more than 8,000 people sign since Wednesday - which is incredible. The support we’ve had shows the strength of feeling.

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2015/01/uk-deports-5yr-old-nigerian-boy-born-in.html

J = Just
O = On
N = Negative
A = Assignments
T = To
H = Harm
A = All
N = Nigerians

THEN we must also find someone who will

B = Bring
U = Us
H = Hope
A = And
R = Remove
I = Incompetence
CHANGE in 2015...is inevitable.

SAI BUHARI. Power Must Change Hand!!!

16 TRUTHS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MEN[b][/b]

1 – The way to a man’s heart is no longer his stomach but the quality of your brain.
2 – If your man must be Tall, Dark and Handsome then be ready to be the 2nd best because what you desire, others’ seek too.
3 – If you allow your parents’ pressure push you into marriage, you may end up a single- mom.
4 – A man that slaps you before marriage will build a boxing ring after marriage. Guess who his opponent will be – YOU!
5 – If you are yet to know any member of his family after 12 months of courting him, then, is either he wants you as his baby-mama or a back-up plan.
6 – If what attracted him to you are your bosoms and the sexy legs you flaunted, the contents of your brain had better keep him, else, there are too many well-rounded and bigger bosoms waiting to snatch him away.
7 – Men love sex, at least 90% that I’m aware of. So don’t be surprised when he asks you for sex the first day you visit him. But learn to say NO without feeling guilty. If he insists, leave him and keep looking for a man within the 10% that can love and grow the relationship without necessarily disturbing you for sex. Be careful!
8 – If he doesn’t discuss future plans with you in the picture, he just wants a fling.
9 – Even when you trust each other, a little jealousy reminds him that you care.
10 – Men love a listener. No matter how much you want your opinion to push through, listen to his details and don’t counter them.
11 – When you are already living with him before marriage, he won’t propose quickly, you can only become his baby mama; because he won’t pay for the cow where he is getting the milk free of charge.
12 – Don’t waste your years waiting for an unserious man to propose just because his parents loves you, you’re going to be married and living with the man, not his parents.
13 – When you seek his advice, you make him feel more of a man than he is.
14 – Your encouragement or concern about his career or job works faster than listening to a motivational tape.
15 – An engagement ring isn’t an assurance for marriage; it could possibly make you his regular sex-mate if you are not careful.
16 – Don’t endure domestic abuse in a marriage because of your kids and what people will say. If you die as a result, the man, the people and the kids will bid you dust-to-dust, he will marry another woman and she will take your place as the mother of your kids. It’s that simple!

40 days to presidential elections. If you're voting remember these factors:

1. The Missing Chibok Girls.
2. NNPC Scam.
3. Police pension fund.
4. Missing 20Billion.
5. $9million Arms deal.
6. Continued Boko-Haram insurgency/Bomb Blasts.
7. Immigration job scam which led to job seekers several dead
8. Petroleum pump price.
9. Devaluation of Naira.
10. Oil theft.
11. Constant Power outage with several failed promises.
12. Selling of Nepa.
13. Selling of Refineries.
14. Skyrocketed power Bills.
15. Decay in our educational system with ASUU & Poly Strike.
16. Doctors Strike.
17. National Assembly tragedy.
18. Stella's Oduah Aviation Scam
20. Kerosene subsidy
21. Nigerian Police college scandal
And many more......please, help add more!

They Didn't Raise 21Billion for Ebola; They Didn't Raise 21Billion for dilapidated hospitals; They didn't raise 21Billion for Military Weapons against Boko Haram; They Didn't raise 21Billion for flood Victims; They Didn't raise 21Billion for children dying of Vaccine preventable disease; They didn't raise 21Billion for the homeless>:O BUT they all gathered to raise 21Billion for another 6Years of INEPTITUDE AND BAD GOVERNANCE AND "BADLUCK".... NO WAY!!! NO MORE!!! POWER MUST CHANGE HANDS!!!

I know looks or physical attraction are important when finding a life partner. But its important to sometimes look at attributes beyond physical appearance to decide whether to move forward in a relationship.That would be called "compromise." Looks do matter to a degree but....It is good when people can come together in love despite one or both not being the other's set "type", yes, but it's also not bad when someone can't do that. You can't fault someone for not being attracted to someone.


In the online world normally the first impression you get of a person is a picture, and most people won't even bother to look at the profile if the picture doesn't fit the mold they have created to be a good match. Maybe you find out this person is funny, has a big heart, hard working and so on. That might make up for some of their other shortcomings.
Well lets face it, looks fade but whats inside will always be there.

There are women who value other things much more than a man's looks. They are most attracted to intelligence, personality, financial stability and other attributes. Looks may be secondary to them, but still play a part in their evaluation of a potential partner

People live and learn. Some learn faster than others. Some repeat the same mistakes time and time again. As we age, most of us learn what is most important to us. We learn not to expect perfection. At the same time, we learn there are some chracteristics we value in a partner that must be there. For most people, this will require a self-evaluation. We think about past relationships and what was right or wrong in those relationships. We hopefully pull something from that to use in building new relationships.

I concur that attraction has to be there, but there has to be much more than just attraction. In my experience, finding someone you're compatible with and enjoy being with can lead to an attraction growing. Attraction is only part of the puzzle that makes a successful relationship. It helps to launch relationships, but it can also be a piece that comes later, after other pieces have fallen into place and the relationship is coming together.

The story of Tim Femi Oladipo, is quite inspiring hence, I decide to share it with you.
Read excerpts from his Facebook Timeline below:

[b]Take a very good look at the pictures to your left!


Yeah! That was me! Yeah! Timothy Oladipo fresh off the African boat (well plane) in my grand entry with shirt made out of pillow cases! in August of 1987!

The most pronounced and prominent part of my body was my head and the excited geeky smile that I touched ground in London Heathrow!

It was almost 2 months after this that I met my wife who was born and raised in England! Can I be honest with you now? I probably wouldn't have married me seeing this geeky smile and what seemed like a hunger stricken body. Ah!



But when everything disqualifies me in the Natural sense (as in the packaging) Shola looked beyond the physical and saw the positive contents. A year after she said yes to me in marriage almost 27 years ago!

The dude to the right is what a lot would probably dream of as a husband material in our today's world because society has taught us to not add value to life or relationship but only to go for the 'refined' 'signed and delivered' man or woman.

Hardly would any woman have said yes to the guy who's life belongings and worldly wealth were put in a calendar bag! Oh No!!!(Does anyone remember those bags?) . Oh no! Some would think I was not toshy or oity-toity enough, or even swaggy enough to be introduced to their friends!

What has befallen our world today? Why do we always desire the finished products? Why are more and more people no longer willing to strive and struggle to build a home together? I doubt if any other woman would have been able to carry the grace on my wife to put up with my inherent African madness, or my unrefined self before I get to where I am today... Mind you I am still very far from where I should be!

People please be reminded that the package may look wrong, but the content might be glorious... And the package may look wonderful and the content awful!

Chose today not for the world, but from God's own perspective for you.

Marriage is not a child's play, and you don't get to chose only your favourable parts! [/b]

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2014/12/do-women-ever-look-past-mans-physical.html

NOTE OF CAUTION TO APC
15 Nov 2014

PENDULUM BY DELE MOMODU.

Fellow Nigerians, let me state my interest in APC very clearly and urgently in order to clear any lingering ambiguity on the matter. I’m not a card carrying member of APC and have no intention of being one in the near future. I remain a member of the National Conscience Party despite the fact that we are undoubtedly one of the tiniest political parties in Nigeria today. I’m of the view that the crisis in Nigeria transcends what political parties alone can tackle and handle with requisite proficiency and competence. All hands must therefore come on deck to save this sinking ship before our nation is buried alive by gamblers and vampires.
We must speedily correct the terrible impression that Nigeria is the exclusive preserve of politicians and political parties. There is ample evidence that only about 15 to 20 percent of our voting population actually belong to one party or another. Majority of our people belong to the Floaters Party. It is just unfortunate that we’ve allowed a tiny minority to bully the giant majority for far too long. The reason for this anomalous situation is simple; most Nigerians never paid attention to matters of governance. They feel insulated and foolishly careless in the expectation that they can survive without any support from government. Power has thus been abandoned in the hands of those who understand the game of how to manipulate everything and everyone.
Our current crop of leaders has learnt how to keep us permanently in bondage. They are efficient at chaining us down like dogs with three heavy padlocks: money, ethnicity and religion. The average Nigerian would always swallow their bait hook, line and sinker. But the discerning ones amongst us can see better today that we must rise above those primordial sentiments and rescue this rudderless ship regardless of our political affiliations. This has been a familiar terrain for me and I have travelled this route in the past.
I was not a member of SDP when I worked for Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola’s Presidential campaign in 1993. I was not a member of NADECO per se when I ran the Yoruba programmes on RADIO FREEDOM which later became RADIO KUDIRAT (from 1995 – 98) and used my pseudonym of Saliu Elenuugboro Eni Olorunopa. I was not a member of AD when I supported the Presidential bid of Chief Samuel Oluyemisi Falae against General Olusegun Matthew Aremu Okikiolakan Obasanjo in 1999. I was not a member of PDP when I took to the streets of Abuja during the Enough-is-Enough rally in support of then Vice President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, against the cabal that had prevented him from assuming power while President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was comatose and incommunicado. It is the same way I have scanned our political landscape and can see the road ahead at this moment. As someone who hopes to answer the calling of God sooner or later, let me give you the predictions from me (Pastor Joseph in the making). A lot of our prophets know this unassailable truth and I wonder why they can’t speak out.
There are not too many options left to us. The first is to allow the charade called PDP to continue dribbling us endlessly with no hope of any, not to talk of monumental, achievement now or in the future. When they made all those highfalutin promises in 2011, little did they envisage that tomorrow would come anyhow and today would arrive eventually! Now that all those promises have come and gone unfulfilled we are now being mesmerised again with sugar-coated scorecards and a non-validated hagiography by their spin-doctors. After 16 years, Nigeria deserves a respite from a political party that has failed to deliver and failed woefully.
The second option is to manage the only other Party that has the muscle to wrestle power from the PDP. I’m bold enough to admit that APC is not our IDEAL alternative. The Party suffers its own contradictions but in the Party lays flashes of hope and new vistas of opportunities. At any rate, it would be the height of foolhardiness to suggest that we must live perennially with PDP just because we are not sure APC would be radically different. The sheer possibility of sacking the unfortunate behemoth called PDP is enough to drive the fear of God into present and future politicians in Nigeria. I shall return to APC shortly after examining the next factor.
The third possibility is anarchy which we must do everything possible and necessary to avert. A chunky part of North-Eastern Nigeria already suffers from a state of Mobocracy. The situation is such that our usually confident military has virtually become lame-ducks and objects of parody. If this goes on unabated, only one thing is likely to happen; a sad return to military rule like we have seen repeatedly here and elsewhere. For me and my house, this is a No-No.
This is the reason many people have chosen to embrace APC warts and all. It is our collective responsibility to make the Party work whether we are registered members or not. I’m reasonably convinced that PDP is incapable of changing the way it is presently configured but APC still has a good chance of re-inventing itself (not least because it is a reconfigured Party and is therefore not overly burdened by the past) if the ubiquitous godfathers allow good counsel and common-sense prevail.
So far, so good, the APC leaders are still presenting a public display of unity and camaraderie despite the volcanic tension within. The battle for supremacy is always a natural manifestation in the power game. I can say confidently that the reality APC must come to terms with is that it has moved from being a Limited Liability Company to a Public Limited Company and many terms of the former shareholder agreements and the Directors and officers are no longer applicable or tenable. In a PLC, the shareholding structure determines many things. For example, when UBA was bought by a smaller bank, Standard Trust Bank, the old Board of Directors could not hold on to the levers of control but bowed to the new wiz-kids led by Tony Elumelu. Such is life.
Once ACN, CPC, New PDP, ANPP and others agreed to work together, the big guns in those Parties should have known that things have changed. I’m aware that it takes time to adjust to a new environment but in this case there is no time to waste. I will now teleport you to the future that awaits APC and Nigeria in the short and long run. What I forecast is a precarious situation which would have to be delicately balanced for the sake of our country.
The first matter to be handled efficiently is that of picking a Presidential candidate for the Party. The strength of APC seems to be its greatest weakness. The Party is richly blessed with the most formidable aspirants in the race today as opposed to the PDP which has saddled itself with the sole-candidacy of President Jonathan and shut the doors against its brightest stars like Godswill Akpabio and Adamu Muazu. APC has in its top four: General Muhammadu Buhari, former Head of State; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President; Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, former Minister of Defence and current Governor of Kano State; and Waziri Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker, Federal House of Representatives and latecomer to the Presidential race. There are other distinguished aspirants but let’s limit ourselves to those four for obvious reasons. I’m certain that Nigeria would benefit immensely from their wealth of experience.
Let’s now attempt a characterisation of each of those four. We shall begin with General Buhari who’s breaking his own world record by contesting for the fourth time in rapid succession. No Nigerian currently has his cult-followership. He has ostensibly become an idol of sorts to many Nigerians old or young, an Icon to be emulated. He suffers three major setbacks.
The first is on account of his age. If he gets the ticket, he would be running against a much younger PDP candidate, President Jonathan. Many have dismissed the age limitation as irrelevant by citing examples from other parts of the world even in this modern era.
Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 and became President of the United States of America on January 20, 1981. He was on the knock of 70 and went on to rule for eight years. Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947. By the time she runs her Presidential race, if she gets the Democratic ticket, in 2016, she would be close to 70. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana has just been picked as Presidential candidate by his party NPP to run for the third time in 2016. Nana was born on March 29, 1944 which means he’ll be 72 by the time he runs the race. The great Madiba Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 and became the President of an independent South Africa on May 10, 1994. He was close to 76 and he governed for one term of five years. So there is nothing new under the sun. The supporters of Buhari are saying it is better to have a responsible octogenarian as President than to have an incompetent, reckless and profligate youth in power.
The second issue about Buhari is on religion. He’s perceived to be a Muslim fundamentalist, an allegation that has not been proven by his accusers till this day. He is a devout Muslim who would defend his faith like any Christian would defend his. Our President has been meandering from church to church and jetted to Israel several times on pilgrimage, yet no one has called him a Christian fundamentalist. Buhari has related well with Christians all his life. His first daughter was married to an Igbo man, a Christian. Both his drivers and cook were Christians. He allowed Christians to observe free days on Sundays and told Muslims they can’t be exempted from work on Fridays because there was no such mandate in the Koran. As Head of State, he even reduced the number of Muslims going on holy pilgrimage by half in order to find money for developing the nation.
The third issue is psychological in nature: the fear factor. The Nigerian Mafioso is united in its pathological hatred and or trepidation for Buhari. Despite the fact that Buhari would have to govern under a different democratic climate, those folks are still scared to their pants about what Buhari’s government portends for members of the privilegentsia. As a matter of fact, this is the veritable source of all smear campaign and fear-mongering against Buhari. But APC has more than enough technocrats in and outside its fold to help Buhari do his job in a civilised manner. There is no doubt that PDP is hoping that APC would indulge in some fanciful experimentation by picking a candidate less formidable than Buhari.
I will not write off the chances of other aspirants but none could be brighter than that of Buhari. In Buhari, APC has a ready candidate who can go to the battlefield with passionate troops. The others are still too scattered to assemble both the troops and arsenal of war. The almost bizarre and blistering attack against Buhari is symptomatic of one fact; that he is the best choice against a Party as entrenched as PDP. I believe the ship of Atiku has almost hit the rocks after sailing repeatedly in the stormy sea of PDP. As for Kwankwaso, his boat is not yet big enough to navigate in the wild waters of Nigeria.
I love Tambuwal. He was my first choice over a year ago but he has become an after-thought to his promoters who ditched him earlier. Those dragging him into the Presidential race at this late hour are doing so purely for selfish reasons. Even a novice would know that the race ahead is an unusual one that would be fought like a third world war. It requires a well-tested combatant. If APC picks Tambuwal, his exit from PDP is still too recent and clinically fresh that the Federal Government would have more than enough rope to tie around his neck. I would advise him to pick his Gubernatorial form and wait for another day.
APC has the brightest chance ever of dislodging PDP and that is why the stakes are so high. The control freaks in the Party should kindly give Nigeria this one chance. The country has been very kind to them. There is nothing more they should desire other than a greater nation before they all depart this sinful world. Who knows the appointed date and hour with our Creator when we shall all return to account for our good or evil deeds on earth! Let’s all join hands and make this dream realisable even if we won’t be the direct beneficiaries at the end of the day. That is the reason kingmakers are often more relevant than the king.
The time has come for APC to make up its mind about winning the next election at the centre or whether to waste everybody’s time and sell out to the highest bidder. It is one poser that would haunt the APC apparatchik in the future if they mismanage this incredible opportunity. I can see something wonderful in my crystal-ball: what APC is looking for in Sokoto (the far end of North West Nigeria) is right there in their sokoto (trouser pocket).

May God open their eyes soon enough.

PENDULUM BY DELE MOMODU, Email: dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Response of a brother to Doyin Okuigbe's (okupe ..sorry ) stupid talks
Any Supporter of President Jonathan and PDP here? Pls say amen to this prayers as follows:
A PRAYER FOR G.E.J. and PDP SUPPORTERS
1.) May God run your Life the way GEJ is running this country.
2.) May God give u and your family the kind of peace GEJ gives to this country.
3.) May God subsidize your blessings the way Jonathan subsidized the Nigerian Oil.
4.) May God secure u and your entire family the way GEJ secures this country.
As a Good supporter of GEJ and PDP all u have to do is to Quote this and reply "Amen" and disgrace the ‘Misinformed’ General public that he is God Sent.

From Ipaa Percy Ipaacomm Timeline Page

The Presidential bid of the All Progressives Congress chieftain, Major-General Mahammadu Buhari gathered momentum in Lagos Sunday as he paid a visit to the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, to deliver a special invitation to the formal declaration of his intention to contest the nation’s 2015 Presidential Election.

Gen. Buhari, who arrived the Lagos House, Marina, in company with members of his Team, said he decided to convey the invitation personally because Lagos is the biggest and most viable constituency of the APC adding that he would also do same to all the other Governors in the Southwest.
According to the APC Chieftain, who was national leader and Presidential Candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011, he would also visit Oyo and Kwara States and go round to the other States before Wednesday, which according to him, is the D-Day.
In his short remarks, Governor Fashola thanked the retired General for the honour of delivering the invitation himself. He prayed that God would honour the APC Chieftain in his bid and grant him the grace to realize his ambition.
He declared, “Let me say that we are pleased to receive you. We feel honoured by your presence and God will honour you and His grace will continuously be sufficient for you in the undertaking that you are about to commit to”.
Also present at the occasion were Lagos State Commissioners for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal; Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ademorin Kuye; Rural Development, Mr. Cornelius Ojelabi and Special Adviser, Youth, Sports and Social development, Dr. Dolapo Badru. On the team of Maj-General Buhari were former Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, former Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Silva and former Minister of the Federal Capital territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai among others

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2014/10/buharis-presidential-bid-gathers.html

Tungba Gospel music singer, Yinka Ayefele & his brother Laolu Ayefele (L.A Flexy) lost their dad today. Pa J. T Ayefele died this evening. May God give the entire family the grace to bear the painful loss.Our sympathy and condolence.

More details later.

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2014/10/breaking-news-yinka-ayefele-laolu.html

Blackberry Passport

If there is one criticism of today's smartphones that I hear the most often, it's the dearth of physical keyboards.
For those who began typing on phones when BlackBerry and Palm ruled mobile, the move to pure touchscreen design has been a mixed blessing. They're responsive and natural, but nothing lets you crank out an email at top speed like those trusty QWERTY keys.
BlackBerry, which never fully went away, now has something new for that crowd: theBlackBerry Passport, a huge phone with a big screen and the most sophisticated keyboard you've ever seen on a mobile device.
Big and bizarre

The Passport isn't just big at 3.6 inches wide — it's weirdly big, with a square display perched atop a few strips of keys. There really isn't any other smartphone like it. BlackBerry says it picked this size for two reasons: One, the display can display 60 characters per line, which is supposedly very good for reading. And two, it's actually the exact same size as a real passport. I guess that's a feature.
BlackBerry's latest phone isn't just a curious-looking face, though: This is BlackBerry's new flagship smartphone, powered by a speedy 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of RAM with 32GB for storage (there's a microSD card slot if you want more). The 4.5-inch screen is 1,440 x 1,440, which makes for an impressive (and ultra-sharp) 453 pixels per inch (ppi).
BlackBerry phones
The Passport's keyboard is different from all previous BlackBerry phones: It's still QWERTY, but it's just the basics — the period and symbol keys are missing. Where did they go? BlackBerry moved them to the display, and they appear whenever you start typing.

The big advantage here is the keys are adaptable — they can change depending on whatever you're doing. You'll see different keys when you're filling out an email field, for instance, than when you're writing body text.
Relocating the keys also keeps the keyboard as small as possible, maximizing your screen real estate. It's a good idea, although moving your fingers up for punctuation takes some getting used to. I also found it takes practice to ensure your fingers are targeting the right keys… my thumbs kept hitting the row below the one I was aiming for.
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If the keyboard has a killer feature, though, it's the fact that it's also a touchpad. BlackBerry built a capacitive layer underneath the keyboard, making all the keys touch-sensitive. That means the Passport can actually take advantage of the cool "swipe-up-quickly-type-a-word" suggestions on phones based on BlackBerry 10 software (the Passport runs BlackBerry 10.3).

Once you get past the strange form factor and the unusual way the keyboard works, you can find the powerful device beneath those first impressions. The touchpad can improve your experience in some subtle ways; you don't know how much screen space your fingers cover while scrolling until they're gone.

I find it hard to decide if it's a better experience to type on the Passport than its predecessor, the BlackBerry Q10. While the Q10 was closer to classic BlackBerry Curves of old and was easier to transition to, the Passport's keyboard is analogous to a major software upgrade. It changes where things are and how some stuff works, but once you get used to it, you enjoy the benefits.
The big one is simplicity. After a couple days' use, your fingers start to stab at the display for punctuation and special characters, and the benefits of the stripped-down keyboard really take hold. Not only does it leave more room for screen, but your mental picture of the keys is that much cleaner.
Camera upgrade

The Passport's camera is great. It's a 13-megapixel sensor that focuses quickly and even includes optical image stabilization (considering the phone weighs 6.9 ounces, it had better). The images I took were very good — comparable with pics I've captured with the iPhone 6 or HTC One M8.

BlackBerry included some extra camera features this time around. Its famous time-shifting ability — where you can rewind or move forward in time to find the best smile on a person's face — is still there, but now you can save those pics for later and retain the time-shift ability. There's also a panorama mode, a timer for selfies and a tip bubble that will recommend what mode to use for a particular scene.
The problem with BlackBerry phones — and the big reason their recent ones couldn't get any traction — is that they can't run that many apps. That's not so bad on the Passport because it has access to Amazon's Appstore. You may not be able to find Minecraft in BlackBerry World, but it's waiting for you over on Amazon. That's cool, although Amazon apps won't run like they're native. To share anything from them, for instance, you'll have to resort to copying and pasting.
Besides the keyboard and wide screen,
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the other big thing the Passport has going for it is battery life. The battery spec is a massive 3,450 milliamp-hours, and BlackBerry rates it to last 25 hours with typical use. I found that to be conservative — I forgot to charge it overnight once, but it powered through most of a second day no problem.

The Passport is the first device to work with BlackBerry Blend, which is how your BlackBerry talks to your computer. Similar to Apple's Continuity, and bridge solutions from Motorola and Samsung, Blend lets you see texts, missed calls and other notifications on your bigger screen. You can't take calls yet, but BlackBerry says it's working on it.
Too weird

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