₦airaland Forum

They said the suspected gunmen were about 20, with many of them bearded.

Ebubu2:
May thunder lick the lives of your beloved ones for insulting me without any ounce of provocation.

Keep on hating on Ebonyi people, none of your state or local government beats Ebonyi in infrastructural development. You can only hate and cry and insult an Ebonyian on nairaland. Try it face to face and your teeth will all be on the floor.

I am located at Goddy Ogbaga avenue Abakakiki, waiting for your balls to bring you down here to insult me face-to-face.

Ebubu2:
As a staunch Ebonyian and Dave Umahi number 0 (0 comes before 1) fan, I wholly support the infrastructural reconstruction of SE roads by Tinubu and Dave Umahi, alongside Tinubu's passage of South East Development Commission Bill into law.

Also, the supplementary bill passed into law captures the funding for port Harcourt to maiduguri railway.

This railway connects my beloved beautiful and homely Abakaliki(Ebonyi state), to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Enugu, Anambra and Aba, terminating to North East.



God bless Tinubu who will preside over Nigeria beyond 2027.

God bless Umahi and Ebonyi.

May thunder strike whoever insults Ebonyi or Abakaliki people, Amen!

Chinkoalhaji34:
Na true talk! Tinubu and Umahi dey show wetin real leadership be. South-East go soon dey shine like diamond, with better economy and opportunities for all. Progress no be by mouth, e dey show for action!

Ebigwei007:
scam, just to remove our mind from what is about to happen

Salewa97:
Finally, some recognition for Tinubu and Umahi! Revitalizing the South-East economy is no small feat. They are truly working hard to uplift the region. Let's see more of this progress!

DMerciful:
Your working with emotions, I'm working with data. Go and look at the indices of development and compare

Tflex01:
Lol funny enough the poster is an I.pobidient that fully support the protest.

😆

DMerciful:
Tinubu is worse than Buhari who is inturn far worse than GEJ.

Tinubu is running a very corrupt and opaque govt

SocialJustice:
Shut it and bounce abeg. This is very irritating and the protest will hold.

DMerciful:
dumahi

So we should suffer to protect incompetent and corruptTinubu?
Where is the wisdom in this?

Tigernut101:
What did Jonathan’s government do compared to Buhari, but your god and savior led protesters against him.

mecuries:
Because the North Protected Buhari When He Did Far Worse Than Tinubu, we should all turn a blind eye?.... It seems you've gotten your 5k monthly stipend. With the rate of increment in food stuffs, I hope it would last you to the end of next month

JikSneh:
This man will never be president, please rest.
We yorubas don't support you not because we don't know that you are good but we h8ate ibos, ibos will never rule Nigeria, they don't deserve anything good.
After Tinubu's 8 years, north takes over and the cycle continues

Aldol:
I like his comment,at least those Yorubas who voted Obi will be regretting now,We warned them that these people dont like yorubas but were only doing fake love to Yorubas and Hausas becauseof their votes before the election. Now they abuse all yorubas at will including those who didn't vote for Tinubu. What a people

Skooltynz:
There is nothing like south, southwest should face their problems and leave Southeast and south south out of it,face your problems with the north alone cowards

whatisthetruth:
So, in essence, everyone should protect their own criminals?

Then you'd still want Nigeria to progress? A Nigeria that allows criminals to pillage due to the backings of their tribes?

Chai. God, please come to our aid, amen!

Image credit: Medium.com
There is no doubt that the political governance of Nigeria is beyond "bad". And there's no doubt that many key indices of the economy nosedived under the Bola Tinubu Administration. Yet, I make bold to say that any Southerner that joins the proposed #EndBadGovernance protest is totally deluded. Read on and get my points just now.

To start with, I challenge anyone to tell me anything that the Tinubu Administration has done that is a tenth as bad as what the Buhari Administration did when it backed Fulani herders to kill, maim, abduct, and rape Nigerians with impunity across the country for 8 years? Until someone takes this challenge, let me make my points based on the premise I've just established.

In case you don't agree with my points, that's okay. But you will only be fair in criticizing me if you read through attentively first before your criticisms come. Here are my points.

North Protected Buhari When He Did Far Worse Than Tinubu

Southern Nigerians are so complacent that they easily forget the past. So, I won't be surprised if someone thinks that the overall performance of the Tinubu Federal Government is worse than that of Buhari’s just because of the current pain of hunger. So, let me refresh such people’s memory…

The Buhari Administration committed the worst crimes any government can commit against its citizens. Perhaps, the worst of these crimes was about the then President Buhari empowering his own tribe to terrorize the country unhindered, with the help of the legislature, the judiciary, the police, and the armed forces.

Yet, there was never a single protest from Nigerians. When there was a protest at all, it was against police brutality rather than against much much weightier issues that should have pointed directly at the administration.

Imagine what would happen now if the Tinubu Government goes as far as unleashing his Yoruba tribe on the rest of Nigerians to kill, maim, abduct, and rape them under the protection of the Federal Government police and the military and with zero interference from the legislature and the judiciary!

That's exactly what the Buhari Administration did with the Fulani for 8 long years and nobody ever protested against it. And even when Nigerians dared to protest at all against SARS (not even directly against the police or the Federal Government), Northerners were unanimous against the protest. Northern youths even went to the point of organising to fight against those southerners residing in the North who tried to join the protest.

Northern Criminals Enjoyed Kingly Treatment Under The Buhari Administration While Southern Freedom Fighters Were Treated As Criminals

It was more than obvious that the Buhari administration was using the Fulani against other Nigerians. Among other things, what made it most obvious was the fact that any southerner that dared to stand up against what the Fulani were doing, was immediately criminalized and treated very harshly by the same government. Are Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho not living examples of this with us today?

Yet, fellows like Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore’s Bodejo and Sheikh Gumi incessantly made highly seditious public statements but were never even invited for questioning for once by any of the security agencies. Yet, all the southern lawmakers sat so complacently with their overfed brains and bodies, and never spoke up against such clear injustices for once for 8 long years!

Now, imagine on the flip side, Tinubu using OPC to kill, maim, rape, and abduct Northerners right in their Northern communities. As he does this, Femi Fani Kayode comes up from time to time to defend OPC’s terrorism saying it's happening as a result of Southwesterners being largely unemployed (as Gumi actually did). As Kayode is doing that, Gani Adams grants interviews to the press from time to time saying unapologetically that “Yorubas own Nigeria” (as Bodejo and other Miyetti voices actually did)!

You see, Nigerian southerners are so politically naive that I often feel like weeping for them. I blame this on a misguided understanding of the Christian teaching on love and forgiveness. Of what use is love and forgiveness when it works against those closest to you? Doesn't charity begin at home any more?

The #EndBadGovernance Protest Is A Northern Attempt To Oust Tinubu And Install Shettima As President

Haha! Someone will come up and call this a conspiracy theory. But before that happens, let me explain myself with clear points.

The Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu was an irresistible bait he used to take the government from the North. It appealed to the typical northern Nigerian Muslim mindset of dominating others using religion. It worked.

But it did not work for the northerners as expected by them.
For one, due to Bola Tinubu's much publicized ill-health then, northern politicians supported him to become president with the hope that he would die soon and be replaced by the vice president.

Plan B was that, even if Tinubu didn't die, he would at least be so functionally dead that the real management of the country would fall on the vice president. This way, the northern agenda to foist terrorism on the rest of the country would have continued unabated.

Plan C was that, no matter what, Tinubu would be so frail and weak on the seat that Shettima would be controlling him. Unfortunately for them, Tinubu beat all the three plans by refusing to pander totally to the ungodly agenda. This is the actual reason why the #EndBadGovernance protests began to crop up from the North (as it is clear in this Punch Editorial) and southerners are stupidly catching the fever. Don't be fooled by the later statements by a few Arewa leaders who may or may not be aware of the pulsating conspiracy by Northern political gladiators.

That's why one of the hashtags says “#TinubuMustGo”. If Tinubu goes, who replaces him? Your guess is as good as mine. If Tinubu should go because of what Nigerians have passed through under him in about a year, but Buhari did not go because of far worse things that Nigerians passed through under him for 8 years, then, where is the justice?

Conclusion
No one knows everything. I have made my points on this issue. If you think I am wrong or I didn't quite get it, you can say what you think. It's democracy. You can comment your view below or here on Twitter.

And, before you begin to accuse me of having been paid by the Tinubu administration to write this, I also wrote here that "Peter Obi is the only true national political leader that Nigeria ever produced" so far. I'm all for truth and justice and nothing other than these values. Thank you.

OneCandleAway:
Let tinubu first publish national apology for frustrating Jonathan before we can begin to talk about south.

You can't think you can dribble southerners after colliding with north to import terrorist to frustrate Jonathan.

Praktikals1000:
Gbajue that performed below average in 8 years as a governor is whom some people are bent on forcing down our throats as a messiah. Charles Soludo warn them, they won't listen. Mazi Namdi exposed him as a fraud and gay, they won't listen.


Are you more Igbo than Mazi Nnamdi Kanu that exposed Peter Obi and a gay and kleptomaniac?

haslaw:
Trump go take this one do chewing stick.


Democrats had better shop for a serious candidate

OChimex:
You sick malaria infested thing... go to my profile and see my pic... disgusting things like you are reasons Nigeria remains animal farm. Thank God I left animals like you there for my sanity.
I am not laughing at him and will never. Just saying that all of us face the same eventuality which is why we should be kind and do good with our lives, maybe our good deeds will make a difference.
Again, I don't broke shame people. But if e sure for you, let's post our weekly pay and I bet you, whatever you make a year is my monthly earnings, I can post my wage slips

free2ryhme:
The bible was specific, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." Exodus 20:4

blowjohn:
The snake Moses moulded.... Was it to be worshipped?

The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."

OChimex:
That's not the point you brain dead Nigerians.
He was just letting politicians know that the power, muscle they flex and oppress the poor money they steal is nothing, they might not live to enjoy it tommorrow. They should live humbly and do good things with life that is short.

An Online Interview With Rev. Fr. Vitus Nnadi Of The Diocesan Pilgrimage Centre Utuh, Nnewi South LGA, Anambra State, Nigeria

Introduction
In case you are meeting Fr Vitus Nnadi for the first time, he is a Catholic priest who doubles as a professional artist - mainly a sculptor but also a fine artist since he personally paints many of the sculptural works he churns out with his team. We had him do a brief tour of his art studio in this recent video.

The video just cited generated some public reactions on social media. This interview is meant to give Fr Nnadi an opportunity to respond to some of the weightiest of those reactions.

To give him an opportunity to think his answers through and provide rich detail, we collaborated with him on this Google Doc…

Awake Digest: Father, our video of you showcasing your artwork while dressed in your priestly cassock went viral recently. A picture of you getting dirty at work also went viral with the video. Do you know this?

Fr. Nnadi:
Yes, someone called me to tell me before you did. It was also shared on our old boys WhatsApp platform. I realize you put voiceover on one of the videos and you combined them into one, making it beautiful with additions of your own. That's good of you, although I'd rather have you not talk about the charity aspect as you did on one of the platforms where you shared the video. Charitable acts are not supposed to be made public based on the instructions the Lord gave at the Sermon on the Mountain.

Awake Digest: The video got a lot of reactions which we'd like you to address little by little. For example, in Exodus 20 verse 3, it is written that God instructed the ancient Israelites as follows: “Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth” (Today's English Version). You are a Catholic priest and the Catholic Church gave the world the Bible. So, people want to know, since you have made a career out of making sculptures that are mainly used as a part of worship in the Catholic Church, why do you do so apparently in disobedience of the Divine instructions on Exodus 20:3 as just quoted?

Fr. Nnadi:
Thank you for using the word ‘apparently’ to modify ‘disobedience’. The truth is that there is no disobedience here, it all depends on how you understand it.

Let me start by referring to a source that we can all agree is neutral on the subject, that is, Wikipedia…

You can access that link to enable you to get a more balanced view of the First Commandment. Meanwhile, I hereby basically run a commentary on that Wikipedia entry.

I think it's better to use such a neutral source because if I base my explanation on Catholic documents, non-Catholics out there might find it difficult to accept. And, if I use just the Bible, non-Christians out there might also not accept it. So, hoping you're okay with this explanation, I go ahead.

Here are excerpts from Wikipedia that we can dwell on shortly…

As you can see, the lines you quoted from Exodus 20 verse 3 is an “abbreviated form” of the full command. That is the unanimous understanding over the centuries that the Wikipedia authors convey to us so categorically. Based on this therefore, the verse you quoted is still a part of the full Divine instruction. You didn't include the last sentence of the remaining part as per the Wikipedia account.

Until you include the last sentence of the command, it hasn't made a comprehensive sense as clearly intended by God. And what's the last sentence I'm talking about here? It says that “thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them”.(see screenshot above)

So, in essence, what God is saying is not just that we shouldn't make images but rather that we shouldn't worship the images. And, it's not just images that God says we shouldn't worship but whatever or whoever else that isn't Himself, God Almighty Creator of the Universe.

The instruction about not making images may look isolated to you from the instruction on not worshipping the images because of a difference of writing or general language use between the era in which this was recorded and today. The style of writing then and now are not the same.

So, you need to look beyond the letters of the law and instead try to grasp the spirit of the law. The spirit is what God actually meant by what is recorded in human words.

Awake Digest: How can one be exactly sure that what you said is “the spirit’ of the Law, that is, what God actually meant? Like, is there any scriptural backing or a rational explanation?

Fr. Nnadi:

You can be sure that this is what God meant based on 4 counts:

In this world, it is not possible for us not to make images. For instance, every house we build is an image. Every 3D model created by an architect is an image of a house. So, God couldn't have told us to do something that he knows is impossible for us to do, like telling us not to make the image of a house or an image of a pen. Every manufacturer is making one image or another. Indeed the word translated as “graven” in many English versions of Exodus 20:3 can be translated as “manufactured” in today's use of English, even as the Wikipedia account explained…So, God couldn’t be telling us to do the impossible by abstaining from any form of manufacturing. Rather, what God clearly forbids is a situation where you begin to worship a 3D model, for example, after you have created it, not the actual making of the model.

If God meant that we shouldn't make images at all, then, he couldn't have contradicted himself within the same Law (Torah) because that's what He would have done when he asked Moses to make an image of a snake and hang on a pole (Numbers 21: or when he asked him to make the images of cherubs on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:18).

Look at the presentation of the instructions on Exodus 20 verse 3. Let's assume that there are two separate instructions there as you seem to suggest. In that case, instruction 1 says “don't ever make an image of anything or anyone”. Next, instruction 2 says “do not worship the images”. Think about this: If God already asked us not to make images, it is expected that we're going to obey Him; isn't it? Therefore, why should God still tell us not to worship the images which he has already told us not to make? If we don't make it at all, there would be no ground to tell us not to worship it. You can see that “don't make images” and “don't worship images” are meant to be two parts of the same instruction meant to be taken together.

Finally, to prove to you that God's commandment against idolatry is far more about the disposition of your heart than just about making images, you see the New Testament Apostle Paul saying the exact same thing on two occasions (Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:5) that “greed is a form of idolatry” (Today's English Version). So, that's for Bible-believing non-Catholic Christians to think about. If you don't make images as I do, but you are greedy, be sure that you are far more guilty of idolatry than someone who makes images but is not greedy. And, it's not just greed, instead, whatever mindset or heartset, for that matter, that denies God His existence or supremacy, amounts to idolatry.


Awake Digest: Ok, we can see that the use of sculptures is in the scriptures. But, visiting any Catholic parish around, or even the pilgrimage center where you are in-charge, one can see Catholics praying before sculpted images similar to the ones you make. Don't you think those people are in danger of having the disposition of their hearts directed to those images as gods or God which would amount to idolatry even in the spiritual sense as you just explained?

Fr. Nnadi:
Yes, the Church knows that that is possible. It's why it is repeated in the church's catecheses again and again that people should never direct their worship to images. Instead, the images are meant only to inspire piety and virtues among the faithful.

I tell you, if I should begin now to teach people that they should worship the artworks I create or any artworks whatsoever, you'll see how the church would sanction me. Or, even you, maybe you can try an experiment by going on air to teach people that it's what the Catholic Church is teaching, and see if you wouldn't be denied officially by the Catholic Church.

Awake Digest: Father, at the start of this interview, you showed a disapproval of our publication of your charity work on the basis that Jesus Christ instructed against making our charities public. But, the same Jesus Christ also said as follows at the same Sermon On the Mountain (Mathew 5:14-16) you quoted: “you are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven” (NIV, emphasis ours)

Fr. Nnadi:
Okay, if your reason for publishing is “that they may see… and glorify my Father in Heaven”, I'm okay with it.

Awake Digest: Alright Father, we are grateful for that acceptance. We are therefore delighted to share with you our article entitled ‘A Catholic Priest Artist In Our Midst’ which gives a personal account of you by a member of our team. Now that you have permitted us to publish your charity work as long as we do so with the right motive, we are no longer afraid to share the article with you since your remarkable charity work is mentioned there. Now, what remains is for you to go through the article and confirm to the public if the account is true or not, or to what extent it is factual or not.

Fr. Nnadi:
Well, none of the things you said about God's work of charity through me is false. They all are true. But I insist that they were not done so that I might be praised, for such praise should go to God, who called me primarily, as a Catholic priest, and on the second level, blessed me in the area of arts. Let me use this means too to thank my good friend, my younger brother from a different father and a big son, whose name I wouldn't mention here for some good reasons, for his consistent and almost indispensable support in the charity journey. Perhaps, much would not have been done without his support. I thank God and I thank him too.

Awake Digest: Father, thank you especially for this answer. It took you days to answer but the wait was worth it. Meanwhile, we are sorry for all the troubles we are giving you. But, as we said earlier, it is for good. It's for God's glory not yours.
This answer you gave last is being celebrated in our team. It is particularly important to us because we feared that it would be difficult for the world to believe the story a member of our team told about you. So, thank you very much for confirming that “none of the things you said about God's work of charity through me is false”.
Alright, Father, one of the things said about you there is that you often go hungry in a bid to feed hungry people. That's as remarkable as it is incredible. But, thank you again for just confirming it true.
Now, we ask: Why not just start a charity organization so that more public-spirited people can help you to lift more people out of poverty? You see, going hungry to feed the hungry implies that you are not doing those charities because you're quite wealthy but because you feel called to do them. And what if you could do more by floating a charity organization of your own and have people contribute to the work?

Fr. Nnadi:

I don't need to float a charity organization to do the charity work nor do you need a charity organization to contribute to God's work. In my last answer, I told you about someone who is helping already and he didn't need a charity organization to do so. The money I could use to register a charity organization, pay for an office space, etc, can be used to lift more people out of poverty.

This short article might be the answer to somebody's prayers👇

A Great Way To Turn Nigeria's Bad Economy Into A Big Advantage For Yourself

Melagros:
COMRADES are speechless, hope wike is taking note