₦airaland Forum

People are unpredictable... Such is life

Our miseries in this infernal dungeon are of two kinds: what we have lost , and what we suffer. I will first speak about what we have lost

1. In this sad. Dark place. Of misery and sorrow, we have lost the presence of the ever blessed God. This is what this dungeon hell. Though we had a thousand worlds,it would not be. As important as this one greatest loss. Could we but see the least glimpse of his favor here,we might be happy;but have lost it to our everlasting woe.
2. Here we have also lost the company of the saints and angels, and instead have nothing but tormenting devils.
3. Here we have lost heaven,too,the center of blessedness. there is a deep gulf between us and heaven,so that we are shut out from it forever. Those everlasting gate that let the redeemed into heaven are now forever shut again us.
4. To make our wetchedness fa worse, we have lost the hope of ever obtaining a better condition. Well we may our hearts now break ,since we are both without hope and help. This is what we have lost;and if we think of those things,it is enough to tear and gnaw upon our miserable soul forever. Yet,oh,that is this were all that our torment were!
To be continue... Drop your comment if there is any

Kia hope we are save o

Yola - Nigeria's Islamic extremists of Boko Haram have seized more towns along Nigeria's northeastern border with Cameroon and are adopting a new strategy of encouraging civilians to stay, witnesses said Sunday, as the militants pursue their new aim to carve out an "Islamic caliphate" under their black and white flag.
Nigerian army soldiers fled when hundreds of insurgents in stolen military armoured personnel carriers, trucks and motorcycles attacked Gulak, an administrative headquarters of Adamawa state, said resident Michael Kirshinga, who also ran away. The nearby towns of Duhu, Shuwa, Kirshinga and others also fell in assaults over Friday night and Saturday, witnesses said.
Further north, soldiers fought off rebels advancing on Saturday on Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, headquarters of the military campaign against the insurgency and the birthplace of Boko Haram. The military attacked the rebels' camp at a village outside Kondudga, just 40km from Maiduguri.
Thunderous heavy gunfire could be heard in Maiduguri throughout Saturday, instilling fear in already panicked residents. Hundreds fled the city even before hearing the frightening sounds of battle.
The soldiers killed dozens of the extremists outside Konduga, said a member of the vigilante group that fights alongside the military. The soldiers were sent to retake the town of Bama, which fell to Boko Haram a week ago, but stopped at Konduga and refused to advance, said a vigilante commander. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
Bama is littered with bodies, residents who fled the town told the AP. The extremists were killing men, but sparing women and children, they said.
In Gulak, however, the insurgents were trying to persuade people to stay, said resident Michael Kirshinga. "They assured us that they will not attack us, but people begun to run for their lives, some of us have fled for fear that, after subduing the soldiers, the insurgents will turn their [gun] barrels on us," Kirshinga said.
Looming food crisis
Nearly 26 000 people fled Bama, the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency reported. Those fleeing joined 1.5 million people forced from their homes since Nigeria declared a state of emergency in May 2013, according to UN figures. They need shelter and food, and officials warn of a looming food crisis since most refugees are farmers.
A Ministry of Defence statement on Friday tried to reassure residents without success. Most fearful are students and staff at the University of Maiduguri, which is alongside a dry riverbed and on the road from Konduga to Maiduguri, a route Boko Haram has used in past attacks on the city.
"We are so very scared. If they are to come attacking, as has been rumoured, we doubt if they would spare us because they have to pass in front of our school before getting to the town," student Halima Muhammad told The Associated Press. He said students writing end of term exams can barely concentrate. In December, Boko Haram attacked the main Air Force base used for bombing raids on their camps, destroying five aircraft. In February, the militants assaulted the main army barracks in Maiduguri and freed hundreds of detainees. Boko Haram's April kidnapping of more than 300 schoolgirls,of who more than 200 remain captive,attracted international attention and promise to help from several countries including the united state,china and former coloniser Britain. Nigeria has a large army of some 80,000 troops with a budget of $2.3bilion but demoralised soldiers say they are outgunned by Boko Haram and that some of their colleagues are colluding with and even fighting for the insurgent.
Endemic corruption has offices stealing some of the pay of the ranks and tiles who complain they are dumped in remote areas and ordered to fight without food and water despite blistering temperature.
Boko Haram now holds a string of towns in all three of the notheastern state that have been under the military emergency since May 2014- Adamawa,yobe and hardest- hit borno.
The seizures comes as the united state announced that it is about to lunch a major border security programme for nigeria and it's neighbours to fight Boko Haram.
Us assistance secretary for affairs linda tomas-Green field made the announcement on Thursday when she and the united nations expressed deep concern about the deteriorating security situation.
In an apparent rebuke to the Nigeria government and military's denials of the perilous situation, she said it was "past time for denial and pride" AP

Christians fear persecution from Boko Haram. rampage
Lagos - Christians in northeast Nigeria are paying a heavy price at the hands of Boko Haram, even if they are not being targeted specifically by the militants in their bloody quest for an Islamic state.
Several towns in the northeastern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa have been attacked in recent weeks, sending thousands of residents fleeing and raising concerns about the speed of the Islamists' deadly rampage.
Madagali in Adamawa has a large number of Christians and was overrun last week. The Islamists also seized Gulak, the headquarters of Madagali local government council, this weekend.
The extremists vandalised and destroyed churches and church buildings and singled out Christians who remained, according to residents.
Also Read: Officials reassure as extremists rampage
"Christians in the town are really in a terrible situation, a moment of great persecution," said Father Gideon Obasogie, the spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, which stretches from Yobe, through Borno to Adamawa.
"Christian men were caught and beheaded, the women were forced to become Muslim and were taken as wives to the terrorists.
"Some Boko Haram sympathisers around the town identified Christian homes to be occupied and the Christians hiding were also identified and killed. Strict Sharia law had been promulgated."
Schools, Christian churches and religious buildings have been repeatedly attacked and razed during the five-year insurgency.
A declaration by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a video released last month that the captured Borno town of Gwoza was now part of an Islamic caliphate has only heightened Christian fears of persecution.
But the Bishop of Maiduguri, Oliver Dashe, told AFP: "Both Christians and Muslims are always killed because a bomb blast does not discriminate between who is a Christian or a Muslim.
"However, from the waves of recent attacks, you could clearly say that the Christians are worst hit," he said in an email interview.
'Out of control'
Figures compiled by the diocese based on the testimony of residents and parishioners who have fled make for sober reading.
Bishop Oliver said that more than 90 000 Catholics had been displaced in the recent fighting.
Between 2009 when the insurgency began and this year, more than 500 Catholics have been killed, 50 churches destroyed and three schools, including a seminary, razed. Nine other church schools have been shut.
According to the United Nations, at least 650,000 people have fled their homes in recent years because of Boko Haram violence, fear of attack but also the often indiscriminate and violent reprisals by security forces.
Also Read: Military under fire over Boko Haram response
"The situation for now seems out of control," said Bishop Dashe. "The terrorists should embrace dialogue and drop their arms."
Nigeria specialist Marc-Antoine Perouse de Montclos, said the Boko Haram insurgency is not an "inter-religious" conflict pitting Muslims against Christians.
"It's mainly a war between Muslims, an insurrection of Islamists against those who they consider bad Muslims," said Perouse de Montclos, from the French Institute of Geopolitics in Paris.
"Boko Haram has existed for about 15 years and they have attacked Christians but the majority of the victims are Muslims."
The heavily-armed group has previously attacked senior Muslim figures for recognising and working with the constitutionally secular Nigerian government.
In Gamboru Ngala, a border town in Borno's far northeast which was overrun last week, the Islamists executed the town's most senior Muslim cleric, residents said.
The Emir of Gwoza was also killed in May during an attack on his convoy. Two other traditional rulers were attacked but escaped unharmed.
Boko Haram has even tried to assassinate two of the most senior and influential Muslim figures in Nigeria: the late emir of Kano and the Shehu of Borno, the number two and three Muslim leaders in the country.
The most senior figure, the Sultan of Sokoto, has also been threatened.
"Boko Haram's agenda has not changed since its beginnings in 2002," said Perouse de Montclos.
"The insurrection aims to establish a caliphate under Sharia (Islamic law), an enclave from a corrupted Muslim world."
US Assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday in Abuja that her country was concerned by increasing Boko Haram violence and territorial gains in Nigeria, warning that the deteriorating situation threatened the African giant's future.

How politicians are trying to break the Internet

A stark warning about governments' ability to abuse technology to muzzle citizens, track movements, and shut down peaceful protests has emerged at this week's Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul.
We are in a post-Snowden reality and his revelations of mass government surveillance programs continue to rattle people around the world. He demonstrated how governments -- the U.S. chief among them -- were conducting broad, unfocused surveillance on individuals.
While reform is needed we cannot allow policymakers to play engineers and break the Internet. Unfortunately, many leaders are proposing to do just that.
They are calling for all of the data of their citizens be stored locally, or in-country. That would fundamentally change how the Internet works.
It would go from a flexible, efficient, and open global network to a rigid, failure-prone network with walls. Worse yet, the proposals would lead to a system even more ripe for government abuse, that would paradoxically have little effect on surveillance.
This policy could create what some are calling a "splinternet" -- a world with country-specific "internets" that don't connect with each other to form today's global network.
Today, the Internet allows information to flow to all parts of the world, with no particular regard for state boundaries. It is a resilient network of networks that enables communications to take the fastest and most efficient routes, and to route around blockages and broken connections.
Since communications do not have to follow pre-determined routes, data can be stored potentially anywhere and accessed everywhere.
This won't be the case under data-localization laws governments are proposing. Requiring Internet services to store data in each user's home country will create huge barriers for providing globally accessible services.
Perhaps the current Internet giants could afford to build servers in each country, but small and medium sized enterprises won't be able to compete.

WHO AM I?
-I am your constant champion.
-I am your greatest help or your heaviest burden.
-I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
.
-Half the things you do,you might just as well turn over to me.
-And I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
-I am easily managed;you must merely be firm with me.
-Show me exactly how you want somethings done,
-And after a few lessons I will do it automatically.
-I am the servant of all great men
-And,alas,of all failures as well.
-Those who are great,I have great.
-Those who are failures,I have made failure .

QUOTES
1:He who swims with GOD never get to the bottom.
2:Light your lamp before it becomes dark.
3:the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal; the tragedy lie in having no goal to reach.
4:the beginning of anxiety is the end of faith;and the beginning of true faith is the end of axiety.
5:be not afraid of going slowly, be only afraid of standing stil.
6:you can be anything you want to be,if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith;for whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achive.
7:until something changes within you,nothing changes around you.Every change begins from within,without a change within,there can never be achange withous(DR.Bishop David Oyedepo)

Think of it,so bright think of asnothing but light so sweet like heaven.that grows just so carefully with sweet fragrance given cheerfully by it's maker in different colours it appears.with a great significance it forebears Red for Love and Care.white for purity so dear and lovely.Pink for sweet people like you,i will love to give it to some1 i care for n cherish so much.my heart desire is to be as good as that.with it's beauty so genuine and it's radiance so ever new. How beautiful and wonderful you can be that's the nature of o rosers Red for Love and Care.white for purity so dear n lovely.Pink for sweet people like you,i will love to give it to some1 i care for n cherish so much.my heart desire is to be as good as that.with it's beauty so genuine and it's radiance so ever new. How beautiful and wonderful you can be that's the nature of o rose