₦airaland Forum

LT26 | Atheist, Theist, Agnostic? —Believer.

Part 1

The Stillborn?

I of all persons should have known that man is not purposeless on earth; that God truly knew us from the womb and called us. But I guess we sometimes choose to deny obvious things in our lives whenever it feels convenient to do so.

The story of my birth is a dramatic one: A picture of the dead being raised to life again; given a second chance at life – a life that’s not theirs to live [as they want]. My parents were told that the child being carried was dead – it would be still-born; and the most logical thing to do was to carry out an abortion to remove the decaying organism.

This process went according to plan. But the twist in the plot came when I was found to be breathing. Now this is no time to berate medical practice for their misdiagnosis because in actual fact, my body was decaying – I have some marks of that to this day. I would later have a plastic surgery to correct some of these anomalies. I don’t mean here to sound petty, but I would later learn that the surgeon died barely a week after conducting that procedure. I was told that one role he had in life was to give me a chance at a normalised life – he did his part and signed out of this world. I therefore must see clearly that God had put him in place to help me get this far with life.



Growing Up

I grew up feeling very effeminate. If the cause of this was that I was groomed by a lot of aunts and my mum; or that the manly figure in the family was working from a distance to maintain us – I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.

I thought very little of this until I stepped into higher classes at Primary School and I became the taunt of the “manly boys.” For the first time, I couldn’t accept myself as I was and there is no doubt to a purposeful life than the thought that there is a fundamental emotional or psychological error in ones composition. In my case, it had me raising questions: What have I done wrong; did God make a mistake; was I inadequate; was such a life worth living anyways? Questions turned into doubt about God’s creative ability; then anger brewed! Rage formed within me for all who taunted and I spent time hating going to school more than concentrating on the issues at hand.



Mind battles: down the lane of corruption

A moment came in my growth process when I used to hang out with my uncle to watch late-night Nollywood movies. One can, of course, imagine that a child of 7 had acquainted himself with the popular thematic issues of rape, adultery, ‘cheating’, and romance for which the industry was famed for. Then I noticed how much I loved the coziness that those intimate TV scenes created within me and there was the beginning of the end of sexual innocence and the start down a terrible road of years of masturbation. I would never realize early enough that doing things to change our perceptions in front of people to gain the favour of men, could lead down roads of disasters and irrecoverability.

At school, I could not perform well in my academics. If I looked at the board, I was almost seeing through the teachers’ clothes. To make matters worse, I could even fantasize about female and male teachers. And to think that this is what it meant for a child to do things men did! In class results, I had a consistent position/grade among the second tier of 10 and our class sizes were not large. I then began to think (and seriously too) that my brain was dysfunctional.

Strangely enough, I carried on with my movie nights; with watching music channels and doing all the things DSTV premium could give the viewer. I had a fun experience with growth and grooming: I spent a lot of time at my Uncle’s. He was a legislator and lived in a large house; there was stable power; the freedom of DSTV; the pleasure of not having him around till late at night; the vast network of people to help with chores; the air of aristocracy. Without anyone to regulate me, my viewing interest became gravely corrupted.

PFN Elects Bishop Wale Oke as President

Nigeria_News


Juwel Peter in Enugu

The President and founder of The Sword of The Spirit Ministries International, with headquarters in Ibadan, Bishop Francis Wale Oke has emerged President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN). The AbujaCityJournal can authoritatively confirm.

Oke, who was until this evening the Deputy National President of PFN was elected unopposed at the organisation’s ongoing national conference in Enugu. He succeeds Rev. Dr. Felix Omobude.

For over thirty years, Dr. Wale Oke has conducted mass crusades all over Nigeria with crowds of hundreds of thousand people in a single service.

He also conducts a prayer and intercession programme at the Federal Capital Territory Abuja Nigeria tagged The Nigeria Turning Point, this programme has brought millions of people together to pray for the peace and prosperity of Nigeria.

He hosts a daily broadcast on Nigeria national radio and television stations FRCN and NTA, Ibadan. He is the founder of the International Bible College of Ministries and Seminary (IBCOMS).

https://abujacityjournal.com/news.php?uin=acj0203214295

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MILLIONS OF NIGERIANS IMPACTED BY ESP/COVID-19 STIMULUS PACKAGES

How FG is preventing retrenchment in the Private Sector

Over 5million farmers enumerated

30,000 N-power exited beneficiaries hired as Agric enumerators

About one million already received govt’s cash under Survival Fund, CBN intervention

3200 hectares being cleared for farming

344km roads under construction to link 500 markets

Broadband penetration now 45%

Federal ministers and heads of agencies are reporting further progress in the implementation of the Economic Sustainability Plan of the Buhari Administration as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, presides over a meeting of the Economic Sustainability Committee earlier today at the Presidential Villa.

Highlights of the reports presented to the Committee include the release of N37B for the Survival Fund covering such schemes like N50,000 Payroll Support for three months to over 300,000 beneficiaries, one-time grants of N30,000 to about 100,000 artisans, and 100,000 business name registrations paid for by the Federal Government.

While the Minister of State for Industry, Trade & Investment Ambassador Mariam Katagum reported the progress of the Survival Fund to the Committee, the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele also reported on the bank’s intervention including disbursement of over N192B for household/MSMEs grants to 426,000 beneficiaries across the country, with plans to do over N100B more in that category named Targeted Credit Facility.

The CBN Governor also disclosed that under the collateral-free Agric-Business/Small & Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme, there are ongoing grants of concessionary loans from between N150,000 to N2.5million. In that category, the Governor disclosed that over N106B has been disbursed so far to over 27,000 beneficiaries.

In the Agric sector, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Alhaji Sabo Nanono also reported that under the ESP, a total of 5.4million farmers have now been enumerated to get the support under the plan. He added that for the enumeration which involved geospatial tagging, almost 73,000 N-Power volunteers were trained and 30,000 of them deployed to 774 Local Government Areas. For the purposes of funding through the CBN, the Minister disclosed that 2.9million of the farmers have had their BVN enrollment validated.

Also, the clearing of 3,200 hectares of land for farming is ongoing in several States including Edo, Plateau, Ekiti, Cross River, Ogun, Kaduna, Kwara, and Osun States while rural road constructions have reached about 28% completion covering 344km, linking about 500 markets across the country.

The Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami also briefed the Committee that broadband penetration in the country has moved from 38% last year to 45% now, while over 170 institutions have been registered to conduct the NIN. He also said Telcos would be licensed for the enrollment, while over 1060 registration centers have been activated across the country for the NIN. He reports that a total of 56.18million NINs have been collected by mobile network operators.

Others who briefed the Committee included the Labour, Employment and Productivity Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, and his Minister of State colleague Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN. In his presentation, Dr. Ngige listed the Federal Government’s efforts to prevent the retrenchment of staff in the Private Sector because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He listed some hotel companies who agreed not to retrench and it was also disclosed that bankers have all committed not to retrench staff at this time.

Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola reported on the ministry’s coordinated FG Public Works Programme, while Mr. Keyamo reported on the progress of the Special Public Works that hires 774,000 workers across all Local Government Areas of the country.

Other presentations were made on the Rapid Response Register launched recently by the Vice President and the Social Housing Scheme of the ESP.

Other ministers at the meeting were the Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Petroleum Resources Minister of State, Mr. Timipre Sylva.

Laolu Akande,
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity,
Office of the Vice President.
8th February 2021