₦airaland Forum

Hello Fifi,

Peace be unto you from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My intention is not to attack any pastor in particular but I just felt the need to post what I posted and please do not attack me for it. I appreciate the fact that you have used a scripture to respond. if you actually read what I posted, it says that it is those who are perishing that are decieved, not those who are saved.

Anyway,

Matthew 7 :21 - 23

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Ok. Thanks you and we can forget it.

I think it's always better not to make claims that cant be substantiated with evidence

I dont know if he said God told him about Yar Adua but he said he supported him. Nothing wrong in supporting a president.

With regard to lies, what do you think the people of Nineveh thought of Jonah?

I also agree that we should not always follow everything introduced to us simply because they introduced some good things to us.

naomijt:
Hi,
About the long arguments, that makes two of us. I also don't like long argument. What you have stated about Poju - your friend is beside the issue. Have you for once taken time to compare what he teaches with scriptures?

Did Jesus and the apostles teach economic reformation?

Did they teach the gospel as a means of attaining financial prosperity or social status?

Does the Bible teach renewal of the mind (Romans 12) as a change of mind from a "poverty mentality" to "riches", or as a change of mind from unrighteousness to holiness?

Please be sure not to quote Scriptures out of context in your reponse.

No specifics here. Do you have any specific evidence so that the truth of your allegation can be established?
Let it be known that I dont attend his church so I have no particular reason to want to defend him unduly.

If anyone attends a church where they dont feel comfortable, they should leave. Christrianity and salvation is an individual thing.

As much as I dont like the excessive emphasis on materialism in many churches these days, I dont really bother myself because no one is forced to give any church or anyone any money. If I pay any tithes/offering, it is of my own accord.

I dont believe in referring to anyone as a phoney. I was involved with BLW when I was in Uni and I saw the desire for God there. Although I dont like the idea of people only going to church seeking some miracle or the other, it does not make anyone a phoney.

God is the one who sees the heart and can determine the contents of every man's heart.

If I make a mistake while trying to achieve something, no one needs to read meanings to it

naomijt:
Indeed!!!

Check your bible dear. What it reads is clearly different from what Poju teaches.

I have never been known to involve in long arguments here so I dont want to start. Please could you substantiate what you wrote above.

Pastor Poju is someone I know quite well, even on a personal level. We were in fellowship together @ Unilag, lived together, ate together, prayed together, shared the word of God together and generally did many things together in Mariere. Although we are friends, I have the utmost admiraration for his desire for the undiluted word of God and his complete dedication to the word of God. These things had been evident since we were young guys.

My belief is that we chose our partners and pray for God's blessings. If we are well connected spiritually, we may see signs confirming or warning us. Many christians, get some form of spiritual signs with regards to their partners. whether we are alive and willing to respond to those signs is a different matter altogether

2 Thessalonians 2
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

NIV
And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

There is nothing wrong in giving praise where praise is due. What is wrong is when we put man above Christ.

Pastor Poju teaches very good doctrine. I attended his church for a while in 1999 and I was superbly blessed because he had a style which was different from all the miracle and sign-seeking people that were present everywhere at the time.

I remember his teaching from Jeremiah with regard to false prophets who decieve the people about blessings which are not from God. wonderful

He does not preach for anyone to praise him and I can say that categorically.

What's the hoopla with Pastor Okotie's marriage? I dont want to debate scriptures here but he is a man. His wife left him because she did not want to live in Nigeria (yes, please quote me on that); and I know that it's not humanly easy (I did not say impossible) for a man to stay single when still young.

He teaches the word of God very well and there are many christians who owe their salvation to Jesus and the fact that Pastor Okotie is a teacher. He is undoubtedly one of the best teachers of the word of God in the present world. His teaching is undiluted and without fear. He also does not get into this materialistic style of preaching/teaching that seems prevalent in christiandom at the moment.

Does anyone know how I can contact Brother Ayo Arise? We used to attend the same church and lived in Okupe Estate as well.

any information will be appreciated or send it to me through: bhscott50@hotmail.com

I think it's madness that a government will allow monkeys to destroy the lives of it's people in the name of some conservationist law. The law needs to be rescinded for the period in order to allow the people deal with the menace

PTH:
I have to agree with you here. What really is the Nigerian identity? yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Itshekiri, Ijaw, or Urhobo? How many Nigerians home or abroad identify themselves FIRST by their ethnic origins and Nigerians second?
We don't even have a unifying national identity in Nigeria, every attempt to do so is jeopardised by useless government policies like Federal character designed to keep us forever in remembrance of the fact that some Nigerians are more equal than others.

We have private schools were speaking the "vernacular" is banned or frowned upon. Children are taught to speak English like American or British citizens and we blame those abroad of trading away their identities? What identities are they trading away?

I dont think the Nigerian identity is such an easy one to define. It's as complex as the nation itself. I believe that a combination of the various identities is what can be termed a Nigerian identity. Each society needs to try and protect every one of it's heritage.

The westernisation and our collective sense of subordination contributes to the situation which makes us desire foreign languages and ways of life over ours, even where these foreign languages and ways are very unsuitable to our own peculiar society

Bankole01:
All this tok about Nigerians abroad na so so jelosi jelosi. Hao pesin wey be dokter or lawyer go begin smoke crack.

Nigerians at home are worse let me tell you. I have seen families with children unable to speak their native language. The family pretend to be like Americans or other and speak only Enlglish to their children.
We end up with little brats who don't listen to their parents and parents afraid to discipline their wards.

Now tell me who is the maradona, eroding their heritage!!!!!!!!

who exactly is jealous of who?

I can imagine what your thought system is like by your belief that being a lawyer or doctor precludes anyone from being a drug user. I posit that the reason many families tend to teach their children English to the detriment of their own language is because they see a society where English is everything; a society where we have started believing that a person who speaks/writes better English is necessarily better and more intelligent than the other.

If you see families where children dont listen to their parents in Nigeria, that's not what my experience is. I think you'll find that children are more likely to disregard their parents in Europe and America than in Nigeria.

TayoD:
@Easyy,

In order to be crystal clear, maybe you need to list the identities you really think Nigeirans abroad have betrayed. What stands you out as a Nigerian compared to other Nationalities? Your mentioning crack smoking seems way unfounded to me as I am yet to meet any Nigerian here that is that irresponsible. Maybe it is your neck of the woods. I will advice you introduce our local snuff to these our people so they can maintain our national heritage in diaspora.

Thank you Tayo

Nigeria is not homogeneous in that sense. However, it is the different attributes that I allude to. I do not want to start naming each and every one of these attributes: as a matter of fact, I am incapable of it. If I name some of them, I will open this up to too many unnecessary arguments.

There are indeed several aspects of Nigerian life, Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa, that are gradually being eroded by western influence. I am old enough to realise that many aspects of our lifestyles are no more. I am at risk of being accused of trying to prevent change but change needs to be tempered with some measure of appreciation for hitherto existing traditions or practices.

I did not mention crack. I said weed. And yes, you may not see Nigerians who smoke weed but they do indeed exist plentifully and there are many professionals who do this; and I think they do tend to mix more easily with those of other nationalities who engage in those habits as well.

I honestly do think they are all equally corrupt. Some just have more avenues or opportunities than others. If you were to swap all the personnel, you'll discover that there is no difference.

"We are left with a president who cannot actually govern,
because he is incapable of reasoned thought in coping with
events outside his control, like those in the Middle East.

I found this particularly amusing

How can you renovate an official residence of a politician with over £1m?

I was under the impression that we are beginning to awake from our slumber but this is nothing short of madness.

RENOVATION

I have observed a trend in which most Nigerians who leave the country in search of greener pastures, in their eagerness to embrace the cultures of their new environments, not only take in the new cultures but also denigrate Nigerian ways of life outrightly. Whilst there may be aspects of our new found cultures that seem appealing to us, we do not have to take it for granted that such aspects will necessarily be of benefit to our own unique society.

Every society needs to devise ways of progress to suit it's own unique values, ways and aspirations.

The rest of the world mainly mirrors Nigeria from the view presented to them by those Nigerians who live abroad, no matter how much those Nigerians do not reflect the majority view or pattern. For instance, in my city, many people tend to think that Nigerians drink a lot and smoke a lot of weed because they meet many Nigerians who smoke weed. It is therefore imperative that Nigerians abroad think about the image we project to the rest of world by our utterances and our actions because these will ultimately affect future generations of Nigerians.

We, as Nigerians, have things which stand us out from the rest of the world. We have many things that we should celebrate and applaud about our ways of life. Of course, we also have negative things that need to be expunged. The attitude which seems to be prevalent with many of us who live abroad is one of disdain and contempt for anything that has a Nigerian touch. This is pathetic, to put it mildly. We cannot be what we are not, so to try and deny or denigrate what we really are will, in the long run, leave us with nothing to identify us. This will painfully mean that we are striving to be like other people and we will remain nothing but second class humans in the world.

Do we need to sacrifice everything that stands us out on the altar of some of us who believe that 'our' destinies lie away from home?

If our future generations have nothing which identifies them uniquely, they will always struggle to be like other people and they can never be natural. It is akin to what happened to African Americans but theirs was inflicted against their will whereas we seem to be unwittingly mortgaging the humanity and identities of our future generations. They are NEVER going to become Europeans. They will always have the Nigerianess in them but they will struggle when what they should be naturally has been mortgaged by their so-called fathers and mothers.

Please let us preserve our identities

I personally dont agree with this re-denomination or re-decimation.

After the exercise, how long will it take for anyone to convince the market woman to sell what she hitherto sold for 200naira at 2naira? Before it is achieved, a lot of damage may have been inflicted on the economy. Nigeria does not really have a stable enough economy for this kind of solution at the moment.

I hope the guy is not jumping the gun

I have not been able to read all of these posts but I have read some.

I do believe that the best people to know what Nigeria is like at any time are those who live in Nigeria. There is absolutely no way that anyone who doesn't live in Nigeria can feel the real pulse of Nigerians.

International organisations are well respected and do very good jobs but they are not infallible. This is not to say that I want to disagree with them. I can only accept what majority of those who live in Nigeria tell me.

The antics of George Bush are the reasons I have lost respect for Americans as a people. If such a man is able to manipulate their minds so much and blind them with fear, then they are not smart.

George Bush uses scare tactics to hold the American people in his grip. In the process, he has led several thousands of people to untimely deaths and rendered several other thousand lives hopeless.

He is a man on a vendetta that I can only describe as one designed to destroy the world. If there is no conflict, he creates one from his dangerous mind and pitches it with the help of his media savvy aides.

I grew up loving America and everything America stood for but in recent years, I have lost all of that respect for American leadership. They are always quick to point to the eradication of Saddam as the pointer for success. They never refer to the several thousand lives that have been lost as a result of their invasion. They dont refer to the several families that have been decimated as a result of their greedy invasion. They never refer to how much more hatred they have helped to stoke up around the world as a result of their invasion.

George Bush is the worst human being I have ever had to see on earth.

http://discuss.glasgowguide.co.uk/American-Investment-Iraq-t8548.html

Some interesting figures coming out of the White House.
Since 2003 the US. has spent 20 billion dollars ( Yes Billion) on efforts to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure.

Medical: only eight of of 142 planned primary health-care centers are currently open.
And pricey equipment is misused or not used at all.

Oil and Gas: Oil output is down 25% from the last quarter of 2006 because of repairs to a key offshore terminal. Iraq has missed every production since 2004. By the end of 2006, it was still not enough fuel to heat its homes.

Water: projects are unfinished because of security problems.

Afam,

Thanks. I've been quite busy in recent time. We were changing schools for my son in Nigeria and it's not been easy shuttling between here and Lagos.

And this,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464629.stm

In Baghdad, the most common sound you hear in the streets today is the insistent racket of small private generators.

The most common sight, apart from police and army roadblocks, are the black banners on walls and fences announcing people's deaths.


And the most common feeling you come across is a kind of slow-burning, gloomy anger.


These things represent a major failure of the hopes and expectations which many Iraqis entertained four years ago.

The generators are there because the Americans and successive Iraqi governments have failed to sort out the power situation. And the deaths happen because they have not established peace here.

'They will help us'

It is easy to forget how high the expectations once were.

"I don't like the feeling that my country has been invaded," a shopkeeper in Haifa Street told me, a day or so after the fall of Baghdad.

"But thanks to God that it is the Americans who have done this. They are the richest country on earth. They will help us."

But they did not. They did not even protect the ministries and public buildings and museums from being looted.

We filmed as people shouted "Do something!" at an American soldier, while thieves were running out with valuable medical equipment from the hospital behind us. He just shrugged his shoulders and turned away.

Iraqis were infuriated by the gross mismanagement and open theft that American contractors and Iraqi politicians carried out in the first year after the invasion.

They had little but contempt for the feeble administration of Paul Bremer, the American proconsul whose only previous senior job had been as US ambassador to the Netherlands.

Then and now

When I went to see the shopkeeper in Haifa Street in May 2003, I walked there on my own.

There was the occasional rattle of small-arms fire, and groups of people sometimes looked at me angrily. But I did not feel my life was in any kind of danger.

A couple of days ago I went back to Haifa Street. It has recently been the scene of a series of battles, with Sunni gunmen being winkled out of their positions by the Americans and the Iraqi army.

It is difficult for an unarmed Westerner to go there now, and I had to travel in an unmarked van with dark curtains at the windows and two British security men to protect me.

The shopkeeper I had met four years before had long gone. There was no-one to ask: all the other shops in the row had closed down as well.

Early next day, I went to film at a big city hospital. During the hour I was there, six bodies, found in the streets that morning, were brought in. All had obviously been tortured, and one had had his feet sawn off. It was just a normal morning.

After Baghdad fell, I would satellite reports back to London about attacks in which one or two people were killed. It was big news in those days. Last Thursday, a bomb exploded near the end of the street in central Baghdad where the BBC has its office. Eight people were killed and 25 injured, and we had rather good pictures of it.


But I did not ring London to offer a report about it. To get on the news, or the front page of the newspapers nowadays, a lot of people have to die. I would say the current figure is 60 or 70; and it certainly wouldn't be the lead.

This is not because editors do not care; it is because it happens so often it scarcely seems like news.

Cynicism and anger

After four years of occupation, this is a dangerous, callous, frightened, anxious city.

Its people are wearily sceptical about the current dip in violence which the current American troop "surge" seems to have brought.


Two separate bombs in Baghdad killed at least 10 on Thursday
They mostly believe that the various warring militia will keep their heads down while the surge lasts, then come out again when the Americans have left.


But cynicism and anger are not the only emotions.


At the hospital I visited, I interviewed a vascular surgeon who had succeeding in patching up a young girl's arm after a bomb attack.

"You must get sick of all this," I said. "Are you tempted to leave the country, like so many of your colleagues have?"

"No," he answered, "Even if I knew I was going to be killed tomorrow, I would stay here. It's my duty."

One day, that kind of attitude will turn this back into a vibrant, effective country again. But it will not happen for a while.

4play, You do bring subjective polls and opinions here.
Check the latest here  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464277.stm

Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis' 

Iraqis have become less optimistic about their future, the poll suggests
A new survey paints a pessimistic picture of Iraqis' confidence in their own government and in coalition forces.
Only 18% of Iraqis have confidence in US and coalition troops, while opinion is almost evenly split on whether to have confidence in Iraq's government.

About 86% of those questioned expressed concern about someone in their household being a victim of violence.

More than 2,000 people were polled, which was commissioned by the BBC, ABC News, ARD German TV and USA Today.

The survey was conducted by D3 Systems.

The latest findings contrast strongly with the outlook among Iraqis in 2005, when respondents to a similar survey were generally hopeful about the future.

Asked whether they thought reconstruction efforts in Iraq had been effective, some 67% said they felt they had not.

Religious divide

The poll paints a picture of an increasingly polarised Iraq, with acutely diverging views between Sunnis and Shias - Sunnis appearing more pessimistic.

Pessimism is most keenly felt across central Iraq, including Baghdad, where Sunnis are most numerous.


Religious differences are particularly displayed in attitudes towards the execution of Saddam Hussein.

Sunnis questioned largely regarded the manner of the former Iraqi leader's death as inappropriate and unlikely to help the cause of reconciliation; Shias predominantly took the opposite view.

No one however wanted Iraq divided along sectarian lines.

Full details of the poll will be available on this website at 1200 GMT on Monday.

Although my opinion would be that omo boy should have given the child preliminary upbringing in Nigeria, I hope it's not too late for him to go there and start now.

My belief is that an early Nigerian style education is much better than the UK system. In Nigeria, the child is learnt to work hard and study hard whereas, in the UK, studying is done during play. If your child has learn to work hard very early in life before you bring him to the UK, when he gets here, he will excel and shine like a star.

I speak from experience.

I wonder why you are defending an obviously incapable leader? Shouldn't you rather be defending capable leaders?

Hope you're not on akepteshi. where exactly did I defend him? Do you lose sight of facts simply because you are trying to crucify a mad person?

There's nothing 'just' about a dictator, he was trying to score cheap support for his unjust rule

so you mean it was not an injustice that the land was forcefully taken from it owners?

That is precisely what we are saying. Why should you impose a policy without thinking about its demerits?

Yeah. He is a daft man

The problems were there before he seized those lands, but they only got worse when he added fuel to fire.

I hope you know what it means for something to come to the fore.

Spare me the bullshit; do you think a dictator cares about justice? Perhaps you should interview all those who have been killed or jailed for opposing his unjust rule and ask them what they think about Mugabe's "justice".

Now, you're the one who seems full of B/S. The fact that the man has been acting like a lunatic is not to say that Zimbabwean land was not unjutsly taken in the past. Even some of the former white settlers agree to that but they claim Mugabe's methods are cruel and barbaric, and they are right.

If you have a knowledge of history, you'll realise that almost every land we have today was taken unjustly at a point. The ancient Israelites, muslims in the north, Americans, all took their lands 'unjustly' in the past. So what? It's just history. Must northern muslims vacate their lands for the descendants of the people originally living there? Must Americans vacate the US for the native Indians they took it from? Such thinking is retrogressive!

Does this then make it right? So because a lot of people have been doing something wrong makes it right

If he was not such a bad ruler, his country would be able to survive without aid. The West doesn't owe him any aid! Foreign aid is a gift that comes with stringent conditions. If you refuse to satisfy them, they take it. Justly.

There are many nations who cant survive without aid because of their particular circumstances.

I wonder why they didn't kill Robert Mugabe. Maybe its because his economic illiteracy is already doing that for them?

They have no need to kill him because he doesn't have what they need.

The humilation which any Nigerian passport carrying individual gets subjected to is very lamentable and it is the duty of everyone of us to do something about it.