ecalling when I was in primary school class 1, and we were taught the primary school rhymes, this was at the time when nursery schools were hardly found in Nigeria, I recalled when my class teacher taught us the popular school rhyme: "Oh My Home". The lyrics of the song reads: Oh! My home, oh! My home. When shall I see my home? When shall I see my native native land? I will never forget my home."

My school then was the Army Children's School, 18 Depot NA in Sabon Gari, Zaria in Kaduna State. This was in 1971. Just like any teacher would teach a school rhyme: Teacher Audu would sing out the stanzas of the rhyme, and after him, he would ask us to repeat each stanza.

When we do, he would ask us to repeat them by saying "again!". And so we continued until he was persuaded that we have got the stanzas he taught to his satisfaction. So we continued: "oh my home", and Teacher Audu would say again! We would repeat, "Oh! My home.." and he too would repeat "again". So we sang every stanza of that rhyme until he felt we'd got him well.



At the end, Teacher Audu asked the whole class to sing the "oh my home" rhyme together. While we were on the rhymes, Teacher Audu spotted Zubairu Aliyu adding "again" to his own, coming out distinctly from the chorus. So Teacher Audu called him out to sing it alone before the class.

Zubairu Aliyu, a Muchian Dan Autan Zaria boy, walked to the front of the class, and bowed his head to the whole class. We all also clapped in acknowledgement of the honour he bestowed. Locking his fingers behind his back, he swung his body in a gyration, from one side to the other, raising his head up and he began...


"Oh! My huom, again; oh my huom again. When shala see my huom, againnn...

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Let me personally appreciate and commend the recently appointed Chief of Army Staff, Major General Attahiru Ibrahim, for his strategic deployment of female troopers to the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway to ensure the security of citizens on transit between the 2 major cities of northern Nigeria.

It would be recalled how bandits have terrorised that expressway, kidnapping, maiming, extorting and killing innocent citizens travelling from other parts of the country to the far northern cities, and they have continued to terrorise areas around Kajuru and Brinin Gwari. The acts of these bandits had continued to embarrassed the federal government, challenging our State security architecture.

It was the repeated and unmitigated attacks of citizens unwaringly and invariably that led to the outcry to Mr President to excuse the out gone Service Chiefs. Notably, the service chiefs resigned their appointments recently, and new service chiefs were appointed, among whom is Major General Attahiru Ibrahim, who became the first to take over his duties from Retired Leutenant General Tukur Burutai, in a handover ceremony.





On resumption, General Ibrahim ensured the deployment of 1000 women troopers, trained to kill, to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria and to protect her citizens. It was discovered that the modus of success enjoyed by the bandits on that expressway was their disguise as military men at road blocks set up by them, but ending up in kidnapping and causing so much havoc to law abiding citizens.


It is to neutralise the gimmicks of bandits appearing like military men that necessitated the intelligence that led to the deployment of women troopers to the Abuja-Kaduna expressway with orders to shoot any man in army uniforms found to be parading at any point on the expressway. As it seems, no male trooper is deployed by the Nigerian Army to work on the Kaduna expressway, making it easy to identify and neutralise the criminals.

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I seem to wonder at the energy Mr Femi Fani Kayode dissipates in always shooting himself up to the pedestal of being the man with the best opinion on all issues of life. He seems to be a Jack of all opinions but masters none in his own characteristics. Femi Fani Kayode advises everyone and every issue: from the North to the South, from Muslims to Christians, in politics and in social studies...he is into everything, and yet he is clearly stagnant.

He got me thinking about how he got to accusing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his recent open letter to the vision-bearer of the mega-merger strategy that brought the ruling APC to the ruling status in the governance of Nigeria. Femi Fani Kayode was clearly carried away by his sense of reels, and his verbosious mindset, in a seeming outburst about how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu sold out "everything and everybody". How did that become? And if he did, what else does he seek anymore?

I wondered at what could have beclouded the mind, and belaboured the thoughts of the former Minister of Aviation, to vomit such libellous lies against a man who has no business with him. It is absolutely unethical for anyone to think that he must force another to buy into his advice. This seems to be the grudge Femi Fani Kayode bears against the Asiwaju.

Fair enough, FFK was in the APC just before erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him to handle his media campaign secretariat during the 2015 Presidential campaigns. Before that appointment reached him, it was a daily routine for Chief FF Kayode to lambast the former President until he was appointed the Head of his Media Team and that gave him respite from the heat from FFK. .

Simply put, I see a man who bullies and blackmails his benefactors into submitting to him. But Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not Goodluck Jonathan, neither do they share pedigrees in any sector of life. Asiwaju has never ran is politics on luck. He strategies and invests heavily to achieve the successes he is known for in the political and economics spaces of this country.

I challenge Femi Fani Kayode to show me any politician in this country who has or can match the political height the Asiwaju has ascended. What truly matters is not whether President Muhammadu Buhari throws the Asiwaju under the bus: what truly matters is not how smart FFK thinks the man is, but how clever.

So that will not an issue for the victim who has tested the giving up of political privileges severally, for anyone to cry for, but what should matter to us is how history would judge what is happening now in the future. We are keeping our memoirs and the will of God for Nigeria: what we sow is what we would reap - calamity for calamity; whirlwind for whirlwind.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sown heavily to raise the platform upon which Femi Fani Kayode thinks he has been thrown off. FFK fails to know that no good work goes unrewarded, because even the Holy Books tells of how a workman deserves his wages. Some wages are only rewardable by the Almighty God. The question Femi Fani Kayode should be asking himself is if he has been able to match the contributions of the Asiwaju in the political development of the opposition struggle in Nigeria.

Even if the Asiwaju is retired today, I challenge everyone who challenges him to reach the political height that the Asiwaju has attained: willingly giving up his aspiration to the seat of the Senate President and that of the Vice President, and playing a frontline role in aiding the change in power in Nigeria, a novel history in this country. What about his political relevance 14 years outside political office - FFK needs to show who among Nigerian politician has matched the wealth of his politics in, and his investments to the political development of this country.

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I am in agony of conscience and devastated by the passing on of the HON BITRUS RIMAMNDE NUHU, the quintessential Youth torchbearer in politics who blazed a progressive trail in politics and fired the imagination of all YOUTH in Taraba, The Middle Belt and Nigeria to the possibility of a Youth leadership Rennaissance in Nigeria, Africa and the Black Diaspora! His specie is rare and comes once in a generation.

Our paths crossed in politics in 1999, when he was a federal government staff with the NITEL and my humbleself the protem National Publicity Secretary of the Alliance For Democracy AD as well as the Gen Sec of the Northern Caucus. His accelerated political evolution was a marvel to all who engaged the esteemed sublime presence of this most vital of men.

Before he formally voluntarily retired from the services of the Federal Government , BITRUS RIMAMNDE SIMAN NUHU, the best Governor that Taraba state never had cultivated all the cross sectoral peoples' formations in the Alliance For Democracy AD political spectrum from the Late Uncle Bola Ige, Late Gov Adebayo Adefarati, Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, The Jagaban Distinguished Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Michael Odurinde and of course then National Chairman Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadir.

The then foremost ideological formation in the polity treated his 2003 gubernatorial ambition as feasible and realisable including then Governor of Taraba state Revd Jolly Nyame who hosted us severally.

That BITRUS RIMAMNDE NUHU was a fast rising star in the political firmament of Taraba state is impatient of debate. He was audacious, innovative, generous and basically a bridge builder and was endowed as it were with a commodious inclusive governance philosophy which essentially transcended stereotypes.

The gravitas of His Excellency BITRUS RIMAMNDE NUHU was such that the entirety of the members of the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the Party comprising Elders, Party Leaders, Governors, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives took him seriously.

Together with the late Uncle Hassan, His late totemic Daddy Pa Nuhu , late Alhaji Hassan Maidoya Gassol et al, we traversed all the nooks and crannies of Taraba from Pupule, Pantisawa, Yoro, Zing, Bete, Fete, Mbamnga, Ngoroje, Baissa, Maisamari, Wukari, Ibi, Jenuwa Gida, Jenuwa Kogi etc whilst intercalating with other resourceful political factors like the late HE Rev Father Moses Adasu, Dr Bala Takaya, Comrade Paschal Bafyau, Professor Ibrahim James,HE Alh Abubakar Barde, Dist Sen PASTOR Luka Zayang Zing etc.

The death at such a relatively young age is a great sorbering loss to the Kuteb Nation, the Middle Belt, the North and Nigeria. He shall be sorely missed. May God grant his supportive and amiable wife, fantastic kids and comrades the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

On a personal note, I have lost a brother, a friend and a political soulmate and in-law. After his Senatorial aspiration in Southern Taraba, we regrouped again and visited some leading political lights in the nation.

Together with Ini Morgan, we were received formally by the APC national director of administration Alh Abubakar Suleiman and the National Secretary. The portents were good but ADONAI Knows best! "

Therefore BITRUS RIMAMNDE NUHU hast returned and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy it shall be upon his head for he hast obtained gladness and Joy and sorrow and mourning have permanently fled away from him" Adieu worthy laborer and fighter for noble progressive causes,

Rest in Peace in Jesus Christ Bosom till we meet on Resurrection Morning to part no more!

Barucabah Shem ADONAI YESHUA HAMASHIAC, SHALLOM SHALLOM SHALLOM -

Rt Revd Dr Manzo Abubakar
Former National Secretary of the Alliance For Democracy AD

We are at it again and it is still about our country Nigeria. Our leaders ought to come to realising that material wealth belabours vanity. The end use of material wealth is in its showing forth: because we are in a circle of recurrency, where we get full to get hungry again, where we wake up to sleep back again - all in a circular until the final fall.

For many today, it is better to go hungry at some certain times than to confront the needs that food draws with healthcare challenges. Primarily, not essentially, majority of Nigerians have assimilated the misconception that money spices life.

I would, rather, that health comes first before money. One thing money cannot buy is health, it can pay the health bills but it cannot purchase healing.

Alluding to our depictive coloration that Nigerians as money-loving people, who find pleasure in flaunting personal wealth globally, not minding how other world leaders like they are, see them, which makes these world leaders, as slave masters, use our own.leaders as their tools because ours are greedy.

Look at it well, a lady: a well educated African lady, observed the disparity in foreign exchange rates against African currencies, and wonder why the goldmines and the raw materials are in Africa, and yet the West keeps using our gold and wealths to get rich, then send financial aids to us instead of taxes they should pay.

This picture of Africa awaits Nigerians to introduce another paradigm by changing the present ugly narratives. Until we insist on justice being satisfied, we will go nowhere as a nation.

In the case of EFCC versus Senator Orji Uzor Kanu, which, while it was being heard by the Supreme Court, had already, unfortunately, thrown the Distinguished Senator into prison. Good enough for the leader of the APC in Abia State, the SCON objected to the competence Justice Mohammed Idris assumed to accomplish what he was incompetent to accomplish, trashed the outcome of the ruling of Justice Idris and ordered the EFCC to retry the Ex Governor of Abia State.

The question is clear: was Justice Mohammed Idris aware that he was no longer a High Court judge, by virtue of his elevation to a superior court, when he delivered that judgment? While this opinion wonders where the error of the gap-in-communication arose on the path of the administration of the Judicial Service Commission and an employee judge, who happens to be Mohammed Idris. Why did the trial judge sit when he should not sit? This is what should be investigated and those in error should be punished.

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It may not be the intention of the Ondo State government to ask herdsmen in the State to vacate the forest reportedly occupied by them. It will be illegal and unconstitutional for the Ondo State government to contemplate such eviction, just as the eviction notice virtually served on Bishop Hassan matthew Kukah.

Nevertheless, for security reasons, it is important for the State government to restrain those who sneak into landed areas in the State to occupy them; using them as breeding grounds for criminality, is everything the State government should frown at, and design ways to mitigate the menace of herdsmen's unguarded misbehaviour in lands foreign to their forefathers.

The outgone 45th President of the United State, during his presidency, attempted to alter existing immigration laws that portrays the United States as a "no man's land" - he was vivid about people of colour. And indeed, the apparent country that was established as a "no man's land" - Australia, have had their aborigines protest the erroneous notion depicting their country to be a land owned by no one. The idea of geographical ownership is gaining so much trending these days.

In Sokoto State recently, an Islamic group which was responding to the reaction of the Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), the umbrella body of all Muslims in Nigeria, to the Christmas homily administered to his congregants by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Rt Rev Hassan Matthew Kukah, had asked Father Kukah, as the clergy man is popularly known, to consider leaving Sokoto State at a specified time, among other threats.

The 3 illustrations above, the US, Ausralia amd Sokoto State, the clear demonstrations of apparent ownership of geographical expressions by authorities claiming the rights of ownership of the locations in reference, it surely means that there are facts to follow in supporting the Ondo State government, in the urgent need of the government to ensure the security of lives and properties in the State.

In limiting this discussion to Nigeria, it was certain that Nigeria's presidency, in the face of the eviction threat from Sokoto State, avoided the defence of Bishop Kukah, as it is in the recent case of Ondo State eviction of the herdsmen.

While the presidency frowned at Bishop Kukah's advocacy, in his pursuit of justice for nigerians, avoiding the tenancy eviction of Father Kukah from Sokoto, and unfortunately, covertly approving the herdsmen illegal occupation of the forest in Ondo State to perpetuate criminality, it surely indicates the presidency's different strokes for different folks. This was the message of Father Kukah, which raised dust instead of thoughts.

It is in the light of this altruistic tendencies of government officials having the brothers they accord unnecessary and ungodly defence but strikes at those they consider as not in their cliques of brotherhood, calls at the urgent need for the restructuring of the Nigerian State.

Our leaders have not been able to work to blend the visible mental and sociopolitical differences created by our diversity, and instead of government build up capacity towards this, they actually act like Father Kukah has accused them: of nepotism.

This opinion has never seen the nepotism claims of Father Kukah as a physical expressions of those guilty of it; as much as character is not a hidden attribute of human beings. Those accused of nepotism do so mentally, and the victims are the ones who are the true witness of this vice.

I am sure that if our national governance module reverts to the first republic model, no Nigerian would sneak into the backyards of other Nigerians to claim illegal residency and perpetuate trouble.

Southern Nigeria must never be seen as a region to be occupied by force by any set of people or rules. Our fundamental and constitutional rights to own properties must always be respected, including by government. To cap this piece, let me put it to the Nigerian government that he Ondo State government did nothing other than ask an unknown set of people to stop hiding in shadows to trouble the State.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, South South Nigeria.

When Bola Tinubu stretched his reach to the north, Bitrus was his first attempt at planting a Governor for himself in the north.

Bitrus pooled me in as his Finance/Welfare Director until AD party members in Taraba State and the Bola Tinubu man in the team protested it.

Under intense pressure, which I saw him weather, and of which we talked about most times because we share the same bed always during our travels.

At a point he made me feel like he was degrading me to his aide, creating some distance. On a particular day he sneaked out on me. I go everywhere with Bitrus because he brought me from Port Harcourt. Bitrus relied so much on the advise I gave him: I remained his Chief Planner. Until I left the team I was Head of secretariat: strictly because of my talents. My committed, intelligible abilities create the spaces I occupy in life.

On this day, we had left Lagos after a week long wait to see Governor Tinubu to return from London. He met us on the day we left Lagos at 02:00 hours, we were guests of the Governor of Ondo State, Ade Adefarati (August 2002).

As a member of the AD National Convention Planning Committee, Bitrus had a meeting of that committee, and both of us were to pass on from Akure to Ado Ekiti for the meeting with the Chairman CPC, Governor Niyi Adebayo, then Governor of Ekiti (Incumbent Minister of Trade) while the entourage returns from Akure to Abuja. We were short in cash.

On that day, Bitrus woke early while I was still sleeping, and left for Ado Ekiti without me. I woke up to meet some distasteful responses while attempting to inquire about him: the driver was the one who helped me out - Bitrus was advised to go to Ado without me. And the leaders behaved to me as people who have won over me. Yes! I was Bitrus' brother and not a Party man.

I joined the team to Abuja and the ridicules I suffered throughout the journey, especially from Bola Tinubu's man, Chief Odurinde, led to my making up my mind to leave Abuja back to PH immediately I arrived - the hate was too much.

When we arrived Abuja, I spent that very night preparing my accounts, wrote a letter, went to see Stella, his wife, left whatever I had which were his with her, and told her I need to meet an emergency in PH, and I left at dawn.

I have long regretted taking that action. In the letter I left for him, I told Bitrus that "...even when you become a governor, I will never serve you. I will remain your friend. I am fed up. I am gone back home."

A few months after, Rev Dr Manzo Abubakar, our Campaign DG called and informed me that Bitrus had accepted to step down for Governor Jolly Nyame. Herelies my regret for leaving Bitrus at the most crucial point of his political career. He needed me to make that decision for him.

If I did not leave, there was no way I would have allowed Bitrus capitulate. I would have reviewed Bola Tinubu's commitment to him seriously.

I am convinced that destiny had it that Bitrus would have been the Executive Governor of Taraba State from 2015, if he held his AD team tightly, but we played it offside. I fainted in the day of adversity. I regret my small strength.

My friend sneaked out on me, leaving me in the hands of wolves. This has been my regret with that adventure. I was sure that Bitrus would not win that 2003 election. But I was sure that he would become a member of the Lagos State Executive Council, at the level of a Political Adviser (Rep North). He was already due for that. I was to point that out to him to pursue.

I have never told anyone this story. This is it now. God brought us together to compliment each other. He touched my life deeply, and I touched his own deeply too. We had no secrets between us. It was my decision to leave, what is now in very bad taste.

May his soul find eternal rest in Christ, Amen.

My only brother, the one who knows how my inner self works. The brother with whom I live all my life hoping that we will get Nigeria right together one day. My right hand is chopped, how do I handle my tools. How will I ever learn to use my left hand at this time of my life?

He took me around: to see Late Gov Ade Adefarasin, to see COS Tunde Fashola, to Commissioner Rauf Aregbesola, and he took me to see Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. No be today we start this journey abeg!

Once a Governorship aspirant in Taraba State. Once a Governorship candidate for Taraba State, and just 2 years ago Bitrus again attempted a race to the Senate. As it stands, all toils have passed. All tools are down. This is a dream.

Stella where are you? How are you handling this. Take heart Mother of Hearts. My girls: Deborah, Sarah and Tinde? It had never been easy. How I cry with dry eyes...what a world?

Rimamnde Bitrus Nuhu I am truly loss for words. That from early this morning you stop sharing this world with me is unimaginable. Dying at 56 years is absolutely premature and unexpected. Was your challenge that fatal?

Oooh! Bitrus will not rest until he sees his vision accomplished, now you are forced to rest. What a world!

Rest in Peace my brother. You will never be death to me. Your memory are so rich and indelible.

Rest on my brother. Rest from the wickedness of this world. I understand your struggles brother.

I will remain to love you in death! Only you deserves this. Adieu a faithful friend no man can find.

Congratulation To His Excellency, General Mohamed Buba Marwa, On His Appointment As DG NDLEA

Ranka ya dade Your Excellency

Let me, with a high sense of gratitude to the Almighty Allah Subahana Wata'ala, hereby congratulate you on your appointment as the Director General of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

May the Almighty Allah grant you grace and the wisdom to oversee our national battle against the use of, and trafficking in hard drugs.

You have been on this beat before now, and it will not be a new assignmemt for you. You are indeed a round peg in a round hole.

So congratulations once again Your Excellency.

sincerely,

Ini Akpan Morgan

An Opera News update featured Alhaji Buba Galadima, who led the Reformed APC members out of the mainstream APC in July 2018, as saying that there was indeed a power rotation agreement by 4 leading lights of Nigeria's ruling party. According to him the 4 delegates who endorsed the power rotation agreement of the ruling party were drawn equally from the South West and the North, and they include 2 former State Governors from the South West, 1 serving Governor in one of the Northern States, and a frontline politician from the North, who are those who endorsed the agreement. Has this agreement been denied?

I have never been a proponent of power rotation, nor a supporter of clanish politics. This attitude evolved with me from the circumstances of my birth and my upbringing. My early-years affiliations had exposed me to various cultures, religions and traditions, and this has driven my preference in introducing myself as a Nigerian. I am first a Nigerian before I am an Ibibio man because the outside world knows and would relate more to me as a Nigerian than afford me same as an Ibibio man. The outlook of Nigeria to the entire world provides me the necessary protection in, and allowances within the global community. Nigeria provides me my national identity universally respected, not my tribe.

However, if the frontline leaders of the APC had ever had an agreement on the matters of power rotation, it presently would tasks their self-respect and collective integrity more than the success of whatsoever aspirations nursed, to honour such agreement(s) to the exact letters of it. It is criminal to seek to remove the goal-line through which the party's rare victory as the major opposition party was scored. And I cannot see the success of the party in 2023 if the movers of that agreement in the party show they are untrustworthy. This untrustworthiness of will surely be amplified during the presidential campaigns by those aggrieved and it would be costly. How-be-it too, that the 2020 #EndSARS protest has raised a successful awareness about the challenges the Buhari administration has with the 2015/19 campaign promises.

No one should make it hard for the APC to sustain and retain the goodwill Nigerians showered upon the party to cause her to win the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections. We must all agree that it would have been near impossible for President Muhammadu Buhari to become the President of Nigeria without the numerous, and selfless contributions of the leaders of the party. Integrity does not win elections, neither can a section of this country win a presidential election standing alone.

If it were possible to achieve: that one region (geopolitical zone) can propel electoral victory in Nigeria, the late Sardauna of Sokoto, the first Premier of the Northern region, the President-General of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), and founder of the Jammiyar Mutanen Arewa (JMA), Sir (Dr) Ahmadu Bello Rabbah, KBE, would have no need for the NCNC coalition that formed the Federal Governement under Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, CBE, Nigeria's first Premier and Head of Government.

In those days, there were alliances that informed the political coalitions enter into, and a close study of our history would throw up to us outcomes of such mergers. Like questioning why it was impossible for the North to stimulate the alliance structure of the NPC/NCNC coalition to transform it into the NPN/NPP alliance between 1979 and 1983? Why did the political embodiment of NCNC in the defunct Eastern Region (the South South region) break off to join the NPN in the second republic, refusing to align with the NPP? And how did the then seeming impossible alliance between the North and the South West in the first and second republic become possible and successful to taking power in 2015?

A close study of the frameworks of our past political party coalitions should bear enough information for leaders of the APC to draw a success plan for the 2023 presidential election. Everything possible must be done to keep the APC House as one, otherwise, if the leaders of the party discountenance the need to keep the party as one fold under one shepherd, I will never fear to say that I see a divided party ahead of the 2023 Presidential election if personal ambitions are not set aside for the collective one.

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The True-life Story Of A Survivor From Religion:

It was for the traditions of men that the Jews refused to accept and recognise that Jesus Christ was entitled to his right to life? He was killed for his exercise of his right to hold his opinion against what he called "the traditions of men", and for holding this opinion, they decided to steal his right to his freedom of speech. He was killed because the Jews were afraid of their place been taken from them before the Romans. Politicians in this country behave this way these days.

So if we don't have people to listen to us when we say the truth, our own condition seems better than that of Jesus, at least no one is after us for saying the truth: I am so blessed by God for the opportunity he gave me to find it important to return to live in my village.

Now I know so much about our tradition in this part of the country that I told those who taught me to understand the wickedness of, and inherent in our tradition that I will make so money out of their despicable immoralities: I have a book to write about them, and their practices, mentioning their names in it so that their next generations to come would read about them, and their need to judge the works of their ancestors and the kinds of people they were. I have sworn to this

I now know why Islam looks a more serious religion than Christianity - while the entire lifestyle of Muslims is Islam, tradition in Christianity brought greed and shamelessness to the leadership cadre of Nigeria's Christianity. Recently, they were all scared that a Fulani man woukd be empowered to control the financial accounts of Churches - what is that which joined the Church to any Fulani man? Or is it that all the leaders accepted to register their "Churches" as names of companies, and as nonprofit-making business organisations? Why must business be associated with the Church, even if it is nonprofiting? What is not right is definitely not right!

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A facebook user asked an interesting question: is it advisable for a husband and his wife to go to different Churches? As interesting as the question sounded to me, it drew up another question within, the question which is now the title for this piece, and we are looking at the importance, if any, of our Church-going in our relationship with God.

There are no rules that promote the compulsion of a wife to join her husband in his Church, and vice versa, neither are there any in their going their separate ways as it concerns Church-going. Matters of faith are personal and conscientious; and should be respected as a fundamental right to hold personal belief. It takes great guts to respect how ones right stops where another's begin. This is what is so hard for the Boko Haram insurgents to understand.

Interestingly, it shows understanding, trust and their liberties, expressed in their decision to attend separate Churches, if their decision is mutually agreed upon - this, on personal grounds, is very commendable because looking at it more understandably, almost all Christians inherited Church-going from their parents, as a laid down tradition - we are Christian because we were born by Christian parents. Otherwise we would be Moslems if we were born by Moslems parents, or circumstance can lead to a change in an originating faith. This is why religion must be left as a personal right of choice.

However, it shows the unity of purpose, togetherness, family and submission before public eyes when couples walk together always. Nevertheless, there is nothing spiritual in Church-going if our first and only Church is not well celebrated by us. Our first Church constitutes, for example, me and 1 or 2 others, as Jesus clearly revealed in scriptures: he is the head, and he is present in the gathering in his name of 2 or 3. We must not mistake this 2 or 3 for human beings only, because we have lives outside earthly things which has to do with human relations with the spiritual.

For me, the first being I chose to be "2" with, is "the living word" - the Bible, the only earthly personification of Jesus Christ, the Truth. I chose him for my spiritual conversations. He, in turn, makes me hunger and thirst for the second person, who make us 3. So as the 2nd person in my worship to God, I also have chosen "the living Spirit of God", I chose him for my spiritual instructions, assistance and growth, by and through the Word (Truth).

It is when we are with these 2 beings (The Word {Truth} and the Spirit) in worship that the Almighty God is said, in John 4:20-24, to seek those who worship him. It means God will always visit us when we have an open Bible before us to converse with, and when we are elected of the Holy Spirit, who is inherent also in the word, who opens our eyes to what the word tells us in our conversations - this communion draws the wisdom, knowledge and the understanding of God into our human-framed mindsets, bringing eternal life (John 17:3).

One with God is said to be "the majority". This kind of gathering together is more effectual to us than the whole world gathered together in a physical human-arranged convention, and all those assembled, bearing several and individual expectations in their hearts other than their communion with God, distracted by various things, loving the beatings of musical instruments, enjoying the semantics of men, and joyfully "paying" for the experience, while dancing in a mad, energy-sapping frenzy.

Every worship is to God, and every gathering together of brethren (fellowship) is for the planning of community services. This means that worship is our communion with God in spiritual fellowship with him, vacated by the minimum of "2": you and another, or more - it is a personal duty to choose those who join us in worship. Fellowship is usually the gathering together of like-minds, to plan how to affect communities with their presence therein. We carry light in darkness and we preserve from corruption.

So far, let us ask ourselves how well our Church-going has faired in helping us with our living for God? Let us take this question back, and review our presence in our communities - how impactful have we been, as the Church in Nigeria. Seek how our Churches in Nigeria have helped us as a nation. I will give you a simple example of what to take note of:

While Apostle Paul took offerings from the Gentile brethren (Romans 15:26) to mitigate the famine the Jews suffered in Judea, Bishop David Oyedepo and his spiritual offspring in Nigeria are looking beyond the hunger and poverty in the land, and like Bishop Oyedepo was building 10,000 Churches during the COVID-19 crisis, boastfully saying this to show his capacity in planting concrete monuments around Nigeria, when he should be planting yams, beans, millet, corn, tomatoes (farm settlements), they all target the building of concrete monuments.

Jesus served food, but did not lift a stone to add to the temple building. He rather brought the idea and philosophy of having a Temple down, and gave us his own body. When his attention was turned to the magnificence of the Temple, he said "Verily, not one stone would be left upon another that shall not be thrown down". He took the responsibility for building his Church. The building of his Church is the sole responsibility of Jesus Christ, the head and the husband of the body.

Bishop Oyedepo and his spiritual offspring can use all of Nigeria to build a monument for Christ for the world, but it is not their responsibilities to build the Church which Jesus is Head. If they are rich, they should choose to build farm settlements and do what Aliko Dangote is doing - mitigating our food security.

Nobody sent Church leaders to raise congregations and to take "tithes and offerings" from us: they appointed themselves. Nobody gave them such mandate. And this is to reveal every Church leader "standing in the Holy Place" as "the abomination that makes for desolation". This is the picture of the crisis in Church-going: the propensity for the leaders to compete among themselves, showing forth power, authority and affluence; talking as the mouth of God, forgetting that the only mouth Jesus has on earth is the scriptures, from where they assume their self-confessed authorities.

So if these leaders can assume their authorities from scriptures, then why not us too, as they do? This is how lazy and dependant on men we have been to God, losing the person of God (Emmanuel) in our lives. It is God who should be with us, and in us...not a "Baba" somewhere.

I come in peace!

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria.

https://www./1226829227437691/permalink/3542806195839971/

Tookool:
Every boss deserves commendation, I'll sing same praises to my boss cus I'm under his payroll. I'm an Akwa Ibom man but I'll choose not to make further comments

Tookool, you are very right, however it seems you are quarreling with someone who chooses to do what you can also do but failed to do. Why should you quarrel with someone who does what you can do but do not do? Can you imagine yourself?

Bitterness will take you nowhere. I will be glad to read what you have to say about your principal. If I find it, I will publish it. Treat yourself before you lose your mental life. Bitterness will eat up your mental health.

ChoCho54:
Which kind of asslicking is this one?

Does Udoedeghe the arsonist plan on trying his luck for governor again?

Chocho54, you alone know what it is like to lick ass. I cannot see any ass and I have observed no lick. You do not rob a man his right to holding an opinion.

Pettiness is not a vice that hides, it's like drunkenness. And if one chooses to lick ass, what is your own headache with it? Must you throw up when you have no nausea?

Calling Senator Akpanudoedehe an arsonist is libellous, defaming and you can be charged to a competent court of jurisdiction to show the eevidence you have of how and when you won the appeal against his acquittal in the case of treason wrongfully and maliciously levelled against him by the Akpabio administration.

I also need to say that Senator Akpabio had asked Senator Akpanudoedehe to forgive him for that era. We have pictures and video recordings of the making up of these 2 brothers during the Nsima Ekere campaigns

I am sure you are a church going Christian, yet you are bitter about a man you have no business with. I will come to learn how to lick ass, it seems you know how so well

And yes! Senator Akpanudoedehe has indicated his aspiration to contest the next governorship election in Akwa ibom State. The Akwa ibom NUJ is aware already. It has never been luck for him. He recognises the control of God over people's destinies. Keep having luck, Senator Akpanudoedehe believes in divine blessings and faith in God who blesses all.

Maybe you can stop God from doing his will.

Dear Sen. John Udoedehe,

Thank you for being a friend, a boss and a mentor. It's an honor of a lifetime to know you and share your confidence.

Thank you for the access, thank you for the material gifts, thank you for your insights and perspective to life which has enriched my spirituality.

When I came to you in 2018, some friends and family were telling me that I had gone crazy, that I was going left, while everyone were going the other way, but armed with the knowledge of the events, I knew you were a victim and not the oppressor.

When I listened to you speak at the reconciliation meeting that lasted for several nights, I saw a different man from what the media fed to the society, I saw a man that was intellectually proficient, very witty, humble, and well lettered.

This was in sharp contrast with the brutish picture they've always painted of you. You stood alone and won big in the negotiations. I fell in love with you. There can be NO TRUE LOYALTY WITHOUT LOVE .

With my recent closeness to you, I have learnt more about you, particularly your deep conscience and forgiving spirit. I know that every King feigns religiosity to hold the masses entranced, but yours is practical christianity.

I have witnessed it with you, every day. You forgive those that wronged you and even do good to them. In your political family, it's not how long but how well. The rights, privileges and reward do not discriminate against new comers, I'm a testimony to that. Today I can count my blessings.

I plead with my friends out there never to inherit people's enemies, nor join in spreading untruths about anyone. I urge my friends to please come, let us grow together.

May God bless us and grant us wisdom.

Udeme Ekott Esq.
SA to APC National Secretary

The horror of the recent massacre of rice farmers in Zabarmari community in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria shook the world callously, and it embarrassed the Buhari administration in no small measure. In as much as it is cowardly for the insurgents to choose to attack defenceless citizens, using them as soft targets to prove their meanness needs government must restrategize their security outreaches in the volatile areas. The need to invent their operatives is now more urgent than it ever needed to be.

It is important for Nigerians living in volatile areas in this country, especially areas where military operations are ongoing, to also, and always alert security agencies overseeing their communities for security cover every time they have communal activities which would distract a number of them who may be gathered at a single point in the community. 

It is also recommended that the military conducts awareness campaigns in the communities to teach the people “first aid" needs against insurgents attack.

In Nigeria, the phrase “Ember Months" has become a myth, which promotes the believe that the months of September to December of every year are months with heightened criminalities in our communities. 

These crimes are believed to reach its zenith, each year, as the Christmas Season approaches. It is in regards of this hazard, usually incurred when vulnerable, that this piece comes to the use of a personal experience to advice, and to encourage every Nigerian to “love life and pray for Nigeria”, especially as it is clear that, in the resurgence of the COVID-19 fears, we now have to safely survive our experiences of 2020 to welcome Year 2021 with joy and a great hope. Hope that would take us far from, and beyond the memories of Year 2020. 

 When I had to travel from Uyo to Abakaliki on medical grounds, I deliberately chose to break my trip in Enugu to stretch, and after link my transit to Abakaliki from there. The transit bus I took from Uyo dropped me in an area called Gariki, at the southern outskirts of Enugu, enroute Agwu, where all transit vehicles (and commuters) from southern Nigeria pick and drop their passengers. 

To get to Abakaliki, I had to take a taxi from Gariki to another section of Enugu called “Holy Ghost". With no hint of danger, and oblivious of any possibility of falling into the hands of criminals, I boarded this taxi which had a passenger in the front of the vehicle, with the driver. Another man and a woman sat at the back.

I had stopped the taxi, called out “Holy Ghost” and was asked by the driver to embark, and I got in. I was the third person at the back, sitting by the door. We were yet to take 3 minutes into the trip when the woman, who was sitting at the other end, by the door, called out to the driver, reminding him to assist her drop her off at an address she called out, promising to an additional fare to her initial transport fare. The driver then asked her to persuade the other commuters and it would not be a problem. Something did.not sit well with that in my reasoning of it.

Read more via link below:

https://www.operanewsapp.com/ng/en/share/detail?news_id=bf222f94e6f1b0b1bac80fa069d5a624&news_entry_id=s4d3c9ec3201204en_ng&open_type=tanscoded&request_id=news_45dcefd3-f56a-44ec-811a-41cf5cc0e8bc&from=news

A humbly researched opinion

1. Introduction

The year 2020 came with a lot of fanfare which vanished too early in the year. It is therefore with gratitude to the Almighty God that the living now approaches its end, hoping that everyone would end in peace to welcome Year2021. It is therefore a humble prayer that everyone reading this piece will see the New Year and prosper with it. Amen.

While this is faithfully in our expectations, it is pertinent to recall the popular saying that “he who fails to plan, plans to fail.” This is why we are here together, right now, to reason together with one another. It is, therefore, all together, important for all of us to re-sit the foundations of our political interest as a people.

It is fatally vital to our socio-political emancipation, for us, as Akwa Ibom people to reconsider our leadership recruitment style when deciding on who should be our Governor from 2023. Our collective interests as a people varies, but as fair as possible, this piece will restrict itself to the general grounds, and our review of the kind of leadership we have bequeathed to ourselves shall draw from these grounds that are as constant as truth.

Fortunately, like some other States of the Federation, Akwa Ibom State has enjoyed the democratic leadership under 3 Governors, and if we take a look around the State, it will be onerous on us to determine how forward-going we have been in terms of our human and material resource development.
On this term, we will consider how our former governors were recruited, what promises they made to us as a people, we will also consider their capacities by their score-cards. We will do this in order to build the foundation upon which we can assess and determine what all Akwa Ibom people should be looking for in the next candidates to be recruited by our political parties for our consideration as Governor.

2. Our Governorship Recruitments

On how our governors were recruited, let us recall that there were movers and shakers of the political environment in Akwa Ibom State, and these ones chose to accept the Peoples Democratic Party as the party for the State. We would recall the common political phrase used as slogan in the State: “Akwa Ibom is PDP!".

These movers and shakers of our politics were the ones who brainstormed and decided that on the grounds of his age, his family's positive contributions to the development of the Akwa Ibom people, and his experience in social engineering, Obong (Arc) Victor Bassey Attah was taken over Hon Benjamin Enobong Okoko, as governor.

Governor Attah did not manage his victory enough to bequeath the same united front he enjoyed when he was recruited to be governor, and the PDP, at that time, went into the most tortuous nomination process ever in history in the history of such congress in the State. At the end of it all, it is clear how it was the then President Olusegun Obasanjo who decided that Senator (Dr) Godswill Obot Akpabio should fly the PDP flag with the immense support of Senator (Dr) John James Akpanudoedehe.

Dr Akpabio, a 2-term Commissioner in the Obong Attah administration became governor after his principal. Obong Attah left the PDP in the State divided, with himself losing out in her political equation.

The shock Senator Akpabio suffered in the loss of his second term bid in 2011, the loss which he fought desperately with a murderous passion until he succeeded, led him to his stringent hold on the PDP, and he terrorised the opposition, which was instituted, led and sustained by Senator (Dr) John James Akpanudoedehe.

Unlike in the 2 instances that threw himself and Obong Attah up: the collegiate decision that recruited both of them as our governors, Dr Akpabio decided to transform himself into a political “Sheriff” over the State.

He singlehandedly brought Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, who was without any political aspiration, with no experience in political administration, and imposed him on our people. Today, Governor Udom is on the saddle as governor, and our political recruitment strategy has clearly moved from a collegiate-styled decision-taking, on behalf of the people, to a one-man imposition of his surrogate.

The last Party Congresses of the PDP in the State, and the outcome of the last Local Government elections held in the State sustains this truth, and as we approach the 2023 governorship election, this is one aspect we must watch out for.

Unless we are satisfied with the imposition of Senator (Dr) Godswill Obot Akpabio, of Governor Udom Emmanuel. Governor Udom's scorecard will tell us if impositions should be tolerated in our decisions on who governs us, especially if he chooses to fail. He should not be allowed to choose will build upon his failure. We should all resist him.

3. Goverors’ Scorecard

Obong Attah found himself being responsible for developing the strategic master plan for our infrastructural development, prepared the blueprint for our economic emancipation, and erected the foundations for our socio-political and cultural advancement and redefinition. He did what he could with the short-paid resources he received from Ex Presodent Obasanjo, which were later refunded to the administration of Dr Godswill Obot Akpabio.

Senator (Dr) GO Akpabio was conscientious enough to complete the projects Obong Attah left behind, and went on to prove himself as an “Uncommon Transformer” of our State. Not only did he transform our State, he also transformed our people into “lovers of money”, hence the evil we find all around us.

Governor Akpabio transformed Akwa Ibom State according to the blueprint laid down by Obong Victor Attah. And until Governor Udom Gabriel Emmamuel completes his tenure as governor of Akwa Ibom State, this opinion will be hasty in assessing his milestones, his energies, capacities and his capabilities. However what is clearly visible is his tending to the imposition of his political interests on us. He is resistible.

And if Senator Akpabio has regretted bringing him as governor, then it is clear how we must ask for the return to the collegiate method of choosing our Governor. One man, whoever he is, must not be allowed to present a candidate to us. They either allow us to choose our representatives in a free, fair, transparent and in an acceptable manner, or if they must choose a Governor for us, we need to see them do so collectively as a college.

4. Who To Look Out For In 2023

As we approach the 2023 governorship election, it is important to streamline what qualities of leadership we would be seeking in whoever will become our Governor from thence. It would be noted that our political elites and the candidates they produce these days, hardly can address their governance manifestos. We would usually see their “number-of-points" agenda posted all around us, but none of them would preach these points: to tell us how possible and feasible their points would fair, and how viable they would avail them for the benefit of the people.

What we have observed so far are campaigns of calumny. Campaigns where the candidates go to wash their slum linens before us. If we must agree, our political campaigns of late have been uncertain jamboree where our leaders descend into the gutters to bath with mud like pigs. Akwa Ibom people must look out for a governor who has programs he can handle and accomplish.

We will not only read about their points-agenda, we will expect them to reel to us how they would achieve their promises and within what space of time they would accomplish them.

As for any candidate that has been in the political space before his aspiration to be governor, we will consider how many years he has spent in government since 1999, we will consider what he has done in his immediate community in the number of years he has spent in government so far, what he has achieved in his Local Government Area of origin, and what contributions he has made to the development of our State. We will also seek to know how many people he has made relevant according to the number of years he has spent in government.

One mistake we must not allow as we approach the 2023 elections is that we must be focused on electing a politician who has been in the political space for a while and understands what the political administration of people means to human capital development.

We must understand how different the corporate world and its operations are from that of the political world. If anything, we ought to seek a leader who has proven his success in both worlds: a man who is a successful corporate player and also a political juggernaut.

We will also seek a Governor who would not be seeing an advantage in the zoning arrangement tolerated in the State. The next governor must be seen to be formidable, not one who would choose to hide under a clannish, separative, and childish considerations. His antecedents around zoning must show him off as liberal, collective and inclusive. Any candidate who preaches zoning as what will throw him up for political relevance is a weak but greedy leader.

The next governor must be one whose leadership outside political party spans the entire 31 LGAs in the State. I pray that Akwa Ibom State would be bequeathed with a Governor who would change the entire destiny of Akwa Ibom people, transforming the life of the average man and woman, young and old, women and youth in our State for the greatest goal.

Our decision on who would become the next governor of our State must go beyond seeking who the highest bidder is: this leads to our continuous servitude and the arrogance of individual imposition. We must say NO to imposition. Our leaders must also allow the candidates emerge by themselves. We must not allow selfish, greedy men to lead us any more by our noses.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp chat via +234 802 3671 979

An average Ngerian Northerner is a very bold person, and his religious belief is primarily around his total submission to the will of the Almighty God. At the centre of a Northener's life is the will of the Almighty Allah, Subahana Wata'ala. In contrast to, especially a average Nigerians from the South South region, we would find a man who is determined in his mindset, and upon his believe in the grace of God, abundant and sufficient, being a Christian, possesses a vast sense of pride that takes his relationship with others for granted.

This opinion happens to have been raised in Northern Nigeria, and went very far in the North until he started living alone, from when he moved to Abuja, Nigeria, and lived there for more than 8 years. After that, he relocated to Port Harcourt, Nigeria. By this revelation, he finds himself able to decipher between the mindset of an average Northerner and that of a Southerner. This is the reason for this piece, and he is here in peace, and for peace.

It was in the story that conveyed the protest by some elites from the South South accusing the Buhari administration of supporting the Zamfara State government in demanding from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sums amounting to billions of Naira, in terms of compensation, for the mining of gold in the State that this opinion first learnt of the matter of the Zamfara State gold-demand and the CBN's debt.

The protest was on why the federal government would mine the oil minerals in the South South, remit 13% deviation from oil revenue to host communities in the region, while Zamfaqra State government is allowed to sell the solid mineral mined in the State to the federal government. This opinion was troubled about this submission. The question that propped up to raise this opinion was on how true the position of the South South elites was.

This opinion asked to understand the disjointed argument raised by that submission because there are issues in our constitution that confers exclusive legislative powers to the federal government to singularly deal with. This is why the exploration of soild minerals are carried out by government licenced mining companies, without huge investments by the federal government, as it is in oil exploration. In the area of mineral resource exploration and exploitation, the federal government controls solid and oil minerals development in Nigeria through the Ministries of Solid Minerals and that of Petroleum Resources.

There are visible reasons why the federal government handles the operations of her two mineral resource policy supervisory arms differently, but we will take just one of them: it should be very clear how the investments it took the federal government to develop the two mineral resource sectors are far apart. The federal government investment in the oil sector is not the same as that invested in the solid mineral sector because the oil mineral development is an earth crust-depth exploration, while solid mineral is a near earth surface adventure.

This is why the federal government through the Petroleum Ministry handles crude exploration and disposition, and through licenced companies collaborations handles the marketing of the product, and then remits revenues therefrom to the national purse. In the solid mineral sector, the federal government's responsibility ends with making the right laws and providing the conducive environment needed for private companies to obtain licences to privately mine the mineral and remit revenues accrued a accordingly to the federal government.

What Zamfara State government may have demanded could have been their own equivalent of the 13% derivation paid out to host communities in the Niger Delta region. What percentage from the gold mining revenues accruing to Nigeria is Zamfara State demanding? This should be what our South South governors should have worried about. So Governor Matawalle assertion that his governor-colleagues in the South South States are putting him through "difficult times" is understandable.

The governor is right because the right thing for his colleagues to have pursued was to investigate the depth of what the Zanfara State government was demanding, and elect to hear also from the governor himself. Very instructive was Governor Matawalle's commendation of the defection of Governor David Nweze Umahi of Ebonyi State from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), calling it courageous.

This clearly shows how the crack in the main opposition party, the PDP, is caused by the party's elites in the South South. They appears to be authoritative with controlling the affairs of the party, against the visible interests of two of the party's governors - one from the South East, and the other from the North West, as it has emerged. Without an iota of doubt, it is clear the reason why it is now widely believed that many governors and members of the PDP will soon defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

This opinion came this far in order to show how the myth that "the North is born to rule" is the creation and the reality of Nigerians from the South, though the South West has remained attempting to prove that it does not believe in the myth that "the North is born to rule", so the region continues to press hard to find political self-relevance even if they have to go it all alone. These defined the struggles political parties like the Action Group (AG), the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) endured.

This is the example of a Southerner's mindset, and the reason why Senator Ike Ekwerenmadu recently called his brothers from the South East to seek alliance with the North. The question to answer is why would Nigerians from the South South/East regions always think that they need the North to align with in order to prosper politically? This is the answer this opinion came this far to answer.

It is true that Nigeria is an amalgamation of diverse people, and it is a very vital demand in every relationship for the partners in the relationship to study and understand one another. It is in this duty that I see how the average Northerner has done his homework well and he is prospering in the Nigeria of his making however it turns out in anyone's psyche. The North appears settled in the Nigeria we have today, but it is not the same thing with the other regions.

In the very beginning it was the North that pressed for "araba" (separation), but as it is today, a part of the South West is agitating for the Oduduwa Republic, and a part of the South East is asking for the Indigenous Republic of Biafra. When did the switch happen, and how did it happen that the one who wanted separation in the beginning is now the one who is forcing the union?

It is simply because when the North saw their disadvantage in Nigeria, they protested against her independence; but after been persuaded by the British, they entered into the amalgamation with their senses at, and on alert. It was not the same approach of studying the North that the Southern leaders approached the Nigerian marriage. Today, the South defers to the North politically: this informed the victory of the APC, the main opposition party before 2015, in the 2015 Presidential election.

So while the average Northener was studying the mentality of his Southern brothers, to understand them in order to subdue them politically, the Southeners were showing off their advantage over the North, until they lost it. In Nigeria, the North stooped to conquer, it is not that the region was born to rule. So if this leadership role the North has assumed must be addressed for the political balance we direly need to be achieved, our leaders in the South must also learn to stoop, as it is unseeming, to also conquer.

I fear that sooner than later, the ambition of "the landlord" of the PDP will melt off like wax before a furnace. He failed when he thought that he could spend himslef dry to control the party, but forgot that the party is not run on money but upon the aspirations of the people making up the membership of the party. It is clear that whatsoever defections the PDP will suffer from in the coming days would arise because a forceful "Sheriff" is in charge of the party.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp chat via +234 810 2466 347

Charles Oputa, popularly referred to as "Charly Boy", was driven by his own personal experience to surreptitiously concede his love for his daughter, after she had responded to his acceptance of his new mental experience with her. This made him to submit that in raising children, it does not matter what a parent does, good and bad parents canmot be categorised. This is not true. As Charly Boy laid his bed, so he is lying on it.

Wow! I just could not help but empathize with "the grandfather that is still a 'boy'". Our own (Charly) "boy" is the only one of his type in the black world. I am in love with his resolution to embrace his "princess" again. At least, we know that his own father, our ever revered examplary jurist and a legal luminary, Justice Chukudifu Oputa, also had, at a point in his life, made up with Charly Boy, and accepted him for who he designed himslef to be.

I am coming into this very personal matter made available on the worldwide web because I am driven by Charly Boy to again identify, and enthuse my appreciate to the efforts of my friend, Daramfonabasi Okuku, efforts for which I have volunteered my passion to follow. Dara, as I call her, believes that parenting is an godly duty parents owe their children. This believe drove Dara into a broadbase networking of youths through lectures, scripting and audiovisuals, taking them on the basis of parenting.

Yes! Unlike Charly Boy believes, there are good and bad parents, just like there are good, adorable children; and there are embarrassment filled, wayward children. Dara is concerned about this, and she is at her beat in Uyo, Nigeria. However, I agree totally with Charly Boy that varying sectors of living, and social participations contribute immensely to how a child grows up. The home, the school, religion, social media, recreative peer demands, and all others allied to these, but the molding of a child mindset begins with parenting, and continues with parenting until the child decides to leave home, when he desires to procreate.

An appreciable number of people think that to relate with an unseen God who is somewhere is an afterthought that is wishful. However, whoever tells about the One True God must explain him to others who do not know him according to whom he has revealed of himself. I do not know how those who do not believe in God explain the existence of the visible earth, the vegetation, the water bodies and the galaxies.

We will limit arguments to these, in order to halt arguing with Evolutionists who thinks that men came from baboons. The question we may be driven to ask then will be, from what, therefore, did baboons come from? That kind of argument in focus is to be avoided! We leave that out, and rather ask from what the earth come from, from what the galaxies, the vegetation and the water bodies come. Let us leave out anything that looks like animal - because to Evolutionists, man is the fulfilment of the of creative advancement of ants, or which one is their smallest spring?

A point came in existence when men began to contest the authority of God, and as it seems, we have seemingly accepted that those things God has ordered in existence, should be altered and remade in our own images, this is what, and which LGBTQ signifies. If people do not believe in a God who has ordered the existence of the earth, and the existing existentials, they would not likely believe in self-accountability and in personal responsibility. To them attitude, character and morals are accidents that happen to people, not a buildup of character over time, as signified in the living of a new born. He grows to sit up and crawl, to stand up and walk.

This progression can be guided, guarded and directed by a more expansive experience. This is why those who do not believe in God, are so, because they have refused to give God the time needed for them to meet him. He says "draw night unto me". And the same said "train up a child...that he would not depart from it when he grows up." Until men seek God by whom he has revealed of himself, this system of things will lead this world into perdition. I think we should be scared!

So returning to Charly Boy and his "Princess", referred to in the article that brought me here as "the lesbian daughter of Charly Boy". That sounded so unfortunate to me. Why choose the headline to sound like that? My sympathy leaped up for Charly Boy. Indeed, what goes around, comes around. Justice Oputa came out telling Nigerians on "Zoom Time, Charly Boy's televised program, how he tried to cope with a wayward son, but who he later realised had made a great success of himself.

This story tells of Dewy Oputa calling out her father as a "hypocrite" because he revealed that he is "proud to have a lesbian daughter". She reminded him of how she was thrown out of home, left homeless and hungry, until her friend took her in. It was this calling out by his daughter that brought Charly Boy out to say "parenting" is not an easy task, advising parents not to force their desires on their children.

While Charly sounds persuasive, he may have failed to realise that human beings have 3 components of their will, freely given through the frameup of their being, for which accounts would be demanded and rendered at the time of accountability. This world is called "a stage" because people die and leave. We act and exist. Our individual desires, decisions, and determinations inform the summation of our individual will, always readiness for execution.

So it is the relational distance human nature creates from associating with the bodily revelation of the Almighty God, as he has given of himself through his word that is quick and living, that informs the reasons for the depravity of human beings. God's word brings into being ALL THINGS, he a avails the ability for humans "to do all things through Christ". It is not about our being, but about our doing, meaning our being confers on us duties.

I preach liberty and the accounting for liberty. I sympathise with whoever is LGBTQ spirited, I have no authority, nor permission to judge any one because I know we have various means by which we attain our senses of righteousness but what matters in the matter of righteousness is its dependence on the principle of the faith that caused every existence and every existing existential.

If our consciences are subordinate to the Almighty God, and he can deal with us, either to excuse us, or to accuse us, then he is far more capable to handle our feelings, whatsoever it is. As long as we are drawn into temptation, it is not for us to fall by it, but it is for us to rise up passing through it. The sense of a growing child sees his trying to sit up as trials, he launches and falls back and so on, until he gets it. Every temptation, therefore, is an avenue to climb into an advance. We mature out fast that way, accepting our responsibilities, than always crying back regretfully: "Oh, it is the devil again!". When we do this, we accept that our desires, our decisions, and our determinations, on your way to your regrets, is the devil we toyed with.

No matter how empathetic Charly Boy is for the great number of young people who reached out to him because they are either, or all of LGBTQ, he cannot encourage them to prosper in their weaknesses. I will never encourage a parent to accept the weaknesses of his child, he must deliberately call out his strengths. How can we be so determined about sex (pleasure) female shameful noise about it, when the world is dying without attaining the expected potentials, because men are lacking to dominate spiritually. This is why I see the imminence of the destruction of this system of things.

We must encourage one another, not according to our self interests but according to our collective interests. The creator of humanity did not seek to compartmentalise humanity against his will. There was a dire need for the woman to compliment the man. Would be the reason for the ungrateful depravity of humankind, for find reason against overall will of the Almighty?

Noooo!

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria.

Now what is the business of the "blood of Jesus" in this matter now abeg?

Heads of Christian denominations are responsible for the traditions imported into the congregations of ignorant people.

Let it be known now, and forever, that in a continuous, and unstoppable manner, the Holy Spirit is servicing the Church of Christ as the air we breathe into our souls to keep us spiritually alive, this assignment is not given to natural men. No man has the capacity to vacate that.

The responsibility to raise children in Christ, the born-again experience brings us into the life of God.

And as newborns, we are watched (Pastored) until we begin to take charge of our lives. No a y loving parent forces any child out of home.

Every child grows out of the home of orientatio, onto the home of procreation, or even choose the life of the single. A child who deliberate refuses to leave home is tainted at home

How many of us are in our procreation state in your spiritual lives? That is if we know what I mean.

I visited a family who had a new born so many years ago, a relation, and on the head of the new born's pram, was a medium size Bible, placed visibly, probably to ward off evil energies.

But I know that the Bible contains dead letters (the shedded body) of the word (Jesus), what matters therefore, and draws divine power and ability to perform, is what the dead letter does when imbibed, bringing it in contact with fleshy hearts (prepared law tables) of natural men.

There, the dead letters imbibed gets imprinted upon the heart by the fingers of the Almighty God, as personified by the Holy Spirit (who is God with us, the representative of Jesus on earth), who acts on the imbibed letters to produce the life of the resurrection in the hearts of men.

John 21:26 simply says that it is possible not to die. What if God destined me to see his naked glory without seeing death, I have examples and I have a promise? But I submit to the will of the Almighty God.

And in doing this, I seek his will daily, this is in spite of how I live. I judge myself a d those who have to do with me know that I have my ways and I do not permit human validation.

A renown Philosopher enthused "cowards die many times before their death..." I think we should know when we have refused to grow in our spiritual lives.

How can you fight spiritual warfare if you are still behaving like a newborn in the spirit, not realizing such growth is stunted? Such is spiritually challenged when in the expectation that one should be a warrior, we find him enchanting the "blood of Jesus", as in an incarnation?

Let us stop the stupidity abeg!

Jesus was focused and decisive in all his ways and acts. When Magdalene was to be stoned, he refused to look up at anyone until he was left to look up at Mary, while she remained standing alone. Her life was never the same again.

Two sisters sent men to Jesus while he was on his way to visit them, but delayed his advance by divine impulse. He was met ahead of his arrival by emissaries from his usual lodge in Bethany, and asked to hurry up because the brother of two sisters was dying. He sent the emissaries away, and remained where he was for another 4 days.

I listened to a song which rightly described what happened afterwards: Jesus was 4 days late, but he was never too late to help the situation, as he promised he would do.

And it was the people who saw Lazarus come out of the cave, and jesus instructed "loose him". Jesus touched nothing, he only spoke the word.

Given this scenario in the shared video, I see how calm Jesus would have looked at what was happening. Like Abraham, he would believe that "God was able to bring up Isaac from the dead."

In some Assemblies I hear Pastors ask for 7 "Amens", and you would hear loads of serial Amen(s) in a chant, with some making it 8 Amen(s).

What are those for, if a Gentile Centurion, at a time when the Holy Spirit was in scarcity, looked at Jesus and said "Master, just speak the word" because he was used to seeing Jesus do nothing but "speak the word".

The blood of Jesus belong somewhere, taken there once and forever, and it is no more applicable on earth, except a man comes to the mountain that can be touched with hands.

What a Mighty God we serve!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=704502920495027&id=100028059758402

https://www.more.buzz/s/blIOZGTtmF

It is the deliberate choice of opportunity taken to start this piece with congratulating His Excellency, Governor David Nweze Umahi of Ebonyi State, Nigeria, for his courage in seizing "the PDP-bull" by his horn to deal a heavy, near deadly blow on him. Like it is widely suggested upon the event, this opinion agrees that the defection of the Governor of Ebonyi State, Nigeria to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was very long overdue.

This opinion also congratulates the South East Nigerians for the over 2 decades of unshaken loyalty, onerous commitment and superlative dedication to Nigeria's main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). More than any other region in Nigeria, the South East region should be the region with the loudest voice in determining the direction of the PDP, heading towards the 2023 Presidential race.

This is in considering that their son, the late Arc Alexander Ekwueme, Ph.D, a one time Vice President of Nigeria, was one of the foremost, and founding fathers of the PDP, and one who narrowly missed being President of Nigeria in the year 2003 due to the conspiracy of, and his betrayal by his party leaders. This opinion believes that just like majority of Nigerians supported the compensation of the South West for June 12, the PDP ought to consider the South East in the party's permutations for 2023, as compensation for the contributions of Dr Alex Ekwueme, may his soul find peace with God, Amen, to the development of the PDP.

This reasoning is what is lost to Governor Ezebuwon Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. Also lost to him is his ignorance of his bad sense of loss. Remembering how he was grinning from jaw to jaw when Governor Godwin Nosa Obaseki was forced to seek refuge in the party, Governor Wike has continued to hold down the PDP by the jocular. He lives to claim victories, like the vain victory he bath under, which was freely delivered by the PDP because of the irreconcilable differences between leaders of the APC in Edo State. This opinion feels that Governor Wike should have learnt the lessons of partisan inclusiveness.

No human on earth can tell another how s/he looks and appears externally, he can only tell another about his thoughts. Even the telling of thoughts could come with varying pathetic lies added to it. This is the error of Governor Wike: he thinks he sees himself better than he appears to others. What did he think led to his loss of bid to impose Reps Kingsley Ogbundu Chinda as House Minority Leader? Did he even realise that it was when the governments in the South East supported Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta to resist Governor Wike on the issue that they quietly overruled him?

Why the House Minority Leadership may not have appeared so to interested watchers of that event then, may have been because the governors who resisted Governor Wike's imposition, are all civilised gentlemen, they always refuse to show off the mentality of street fighters. It is for this characteristics of street fighters that Governor David Nweze Umahi decided to leave the PDP as a honourable man, not intending to engage Governor Wike in a match of words. Even at that...

It may not really have been the sense of injustice engendered by the PDP's neglect of the South East region in the party's consideration of the region to produce the next Presidential candidate of the party, as Governor Umahi suggested. "Something must kill the man who dies". Neither also could it be a Presidential ambition that Governor Umahi has, as wrongly insinuated by Governor Wike. A loser would always have his complaint for losing.

This opinion believes that Governor Umahi, not intending to make his defection one that he would blame an individual for, decided to personify that individual with "the party" the individual represents. So if Governor Nyesom Wike thinks he should be offended because Governor Umahi blamed the PDP for meting injustice on the South East wing of his party, he should understand how that relates more to him, who is personified by the party.

And why should it be Governor Nyesom Wike that should worry so much about Governor Umahi's defection to the APC? Is he the only PDP governor in Nigeria? Why was Governor Wike the first person Governor Obaseki deferred to when he sought to join the PDP? Why was Governor Wike the determinant factor in robbing the South West of the PDP National Chairmanship seat, insisting on holding it down in Rivers State, and giving it to a veteran party functionary indigenous to him, Uche Secondus?

Governor Wike has refused to realise that ambition is made of sterner stuff. And as he has rightly predicted, his house would soon be left to him desolate, until he realises that political party operations and participation must always ensure inclusivity, and the carrying of everyone along.

The prayer is that Governor Wike would not be abandoned to remain all alone with Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, as the only governors remaining in the PDP, to prosecute the 2023 presidential race. Governor Tambuwal's presidential bid has been the personal project of Governor Wike in the PDP. And why should Governor Wike make the Presidential ambition of Governor Umahi his point of hammering? As a first term governor, he nursed a Vice Presidential ambition, and armed twisted his party into being his image until he was sabotaged in his backyard in Elekahia.

Would Governor Wike not be promoting the imposed Presidential ambition of a northerner against power shift to the South - who is selfish? Is that not an obtuse presidential ambition he has chosen to pursue? Why is Governor Wike afraid to aim his target on the Seat of the President, himself? Why does he think Governor Tambuwal is better than him?

A dramatist personae that he is, Governor Wike enumerated how the South East was allocated the office of the Senate President so many times, but forgot that the opportunity was zoned to the South East legitimately, like every other zone enjoyed. It was not as a compensation. And as for the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, handed to Semator Anyim Pius Anyim, it is hoped that Governor Wike understands that the South South held the same office for 8 years, held the Vice Presidency for 3 years and the Presidency for 5 years. Should he, a South Southerner, be lurking his interest around the presidency? He, again, forgot that there was a time Port Harcourt answered to Enugu.

Why should Governor Umahi not complain of an injustice against the South East, if he thinks Governor Wike has set himself up to trade the opportunity the South has, as it seems, to produce the next President in 2023 to the North, in order to satisfy his own Vice Presidential ambition? Unfortunately, this opinion sees Governor Ezebuwon Nyesom Wike as a very selfish, and self centred politician who is always at war with anyone who would not submit to his domination and subjugation.

Once again, this opinion congratulates Governor David Nweze Umahi for offering Governor Nyesom Wike an early understanding of how politically irrelevant the South Easterners have designed for him to become from 2023. And I pray he does not let the possibility of his becoming a Senator from 2023 slip by, and that he may not be jailed after all.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp chat via +234 810 2466 347

I have never shown so much interest in an election to elect the POTUS until the 2020 presidential election. All I knew before now was the 270 mark reach of Electoral College votes by the first candidate in a 538 count - making 270 x 2 to be 540, 2 less for majority electoral votes. That was all I knew! I also gave focus to the GW Bush and Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential election, and I felt that Al Gore, the candidate of the Democratic National Congress, was robbed of a deserved victory. But that is long gone now.

The first swing vote President Donald Trump won to himself was me: I was not conscious of when I switched my political interest in the victory of the Democrats for President Donald Trump. For the first time, I am finding my interest falling to him, and not even the Republican Party. I tend to see a more drastic turnout of a Trump’s second term. I see a great restrain to international unrighteousness.

President Trump is not as dangerous in my opinion as some of his citizens have brandished him, he is only a man who thinks he has seen it all, and there is nothing anybody can tell him about America. Nothing would have stopped a Trump landslide in this election, and he knows it, but from another view, I have chosen to see it as an act destined from the antecedents of humankind to happen for a divine purpose. Everything works together for good.

Many would choose to say “never has it been this bad with the image of the United States" but I have chosen to see it differently: I saw Al Gore do it in the year 2000: he put how the world would see America first, and conceded on electoral votes count at the mark of 270 for George W Bush. What President Trump has been able to achieve with this election is that he has been able to reveal to the world that America has been fooling the entire world by portraying herself as the example of democracy. How does democracy thrive without a free and fair electoral process?

President Donald Trump is not responsible for determining who emerges the President-elect in the last election, however as a candidate in the that election, he has a right to contest what he calls "electoral fraud by processing his complaints through the COTUS, and to expect a fair hearing from the JOTSCOTUS. At the end, if the legal process is undertaken, and the issue of the President-elect is overtaken by a decision, the next POTUS will be made known and ratified by the joint session of the US parliament. And if the decision is not in favour of Donald Trump, he will submit to the transition process.

The citizens of the United States should be grateful to Donald Trump because in future elections in the US, things will be done differently: people will approach the electoral system with more scrutiny. I am sure now that the same challenges in the electoral system all over Africa, is the same happening in the US too, but because they understand how to hideout their dirty linens from the public, they all keep straight noses, expecting us, the rest of the world, to democratise. However the outcome of this election, I give it to Presidemt Donald Trump for refusing to cover up for America, just for the sake of watching how the world would see America.

President Donald J Trump does not bloody care, and just as everyone thinks that such a President can, in his feats of emotions, hit on the nuclear reactor button, I say such men do not turn out to be exceptionally successful in business, as Donald Trump has clearly shown he is a successful business. Mad people do not make the kind if wealth DJT has made. And I say it again that God allowed the COVID-19 Pandemic to test drive the demonstration of his authority to make happen. God permitted the second term ambition of President Donald Trump to be this difficult, to put the entire world in awe!

The world is still awaiting Russia, and a few other countries to congratulate the President-elected, as projected by the media. How some Americans came to despise President Trump is still a surprise to me. He has shown to be the most daring American President in history, and he achieved this without going to war with any nation.

Having confessed China as the adversary he sees for the US, and blames the Communist Republic for the Corona Virus Pandemic. which he calls the “WUHAN VIRUS", the Chinese authority has congratulated Joe Biden. Even the Nation of Israel also did. But Russia is still holding by, like President Donald Trump.

Coming back home, it is time to learn to allow charity begin at home for us. Africans have seen how the West organize themselves, however imperfectly but respectedly, and I believe if our brothers and sisters would only look inwards, and choose rightly, even the US would be envious of our sociopolitical outreaches across the world. Our problem, as black people, is that we do not believe in ourselves. We live and love the white man’s nature and his mindset, however unfitting, and contrary to how God created us to be. We love the fake living and elections of the West.

If we must agree, we will agree that our ancestors ran more decent self regulated societies than any government can offer us these days. We must return to ourselves. Many coloured people, especially blacks, who hate President Donald Trump, do so because of his immigration policy. How can any man make another man’s home his own home, and calls it a “no man’s land?”. Were there no inhabitants of that geographical location before the influx into it of the multinationals?

I live in my village deliberately. I return from living in the city to fulfil a local proverb in my dialect. It says “it is better to grow from inside out, than to grow from outside in, because the door into your house might constrain you for your size". Everyone living in America and loving the life there, does so because s/he has lost hope of making any contributions to helping our country by staying in. Why should anyone fear President Trump’s immigration statutes, when s/he can return home and farm? Whose home is this world?

So let the entire world give the newness of America in our eyes a round of applause and give our gratitude to Donald J Trump for his unveiling and unravelling what America represents. I wish him well because I know he will redefine what America would become, in his second term in office.

All I will say from this end is: “God’s Will Be Done" for Americans, “Insha Allahu!"

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp Chat via +234 810 2446 347

Sequel to the new reconciliation wind spearheaded by the National Caretaker Committee of the APC vide letter dated 1/7/20, signed by the Committee National Secretary, and the reconciliation programs of General AT Ibrahim, towards uniting the party in Taraba South Senatorial District, and the State at large.

Rimamnde Bitrus Nuhu, an aspirant in the Taraba South Senatorial District in the last election, is set to withdraw his case against the Party and others. This, according to him, is in total obedience to Mr President's directive, the resolution of the party's NEC, the directive of the National Secretariqt of the party, and in the spirit of true reconciliation and unity of all aggrieved members across Taraba State and beyond.

The withdrawal of the case would have come earlier but for the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Rt. Hon. Rimamnde Bitrus Nuhu said he was compelled to go to the court because of the manner the aspirants of the party were treated in the last primary elections after having being asked to pay through the nose, unprecedented sums as nomination fees, in the annals of Nigeria's political history. That he said is now history and past, but added that his decision to go to the court was in order that, people took serious issues seriously noting that that next time nobody will take things for granted.

Rt. Hon. Nuhu said he needed to make that point clear. He enjoined all progressives to put hands on deck to deliver Taraba State from the shackles of deprivation, underdevelopment, ineptitude in Governance and indiscipline in 2023.

The withdrawal of the case comes up on November 18th 2020 at the Federal High Court Jalingo.

Let the world watch a rascal President of the US act to expose, and to deepen the American democracy in his own way. Donald Trump has shown himself to possess the African leadership spirit. Some African heads of government would always insist that they are the best available hands to handle their country's affairs, and so you find some holding on to power for many decades.

This opinion therefore sees Donald Trump as another African leader, in white human garb presiding over the Affairs of the US. Donald Trump is a very smart man: his success as a business man and one of the richest in the world proves this.

He understands the laws of the US, and as a very shrewd businessman he has taken his stock on the recently concluded US Presidential election, and as presently trending, the US President Trump had "specialised" all ballot papers meant for use in the recently concluded Presidential election that produced President-elect Joseph Biden, making it possible for investigators of his alleged "electoral fraud" to separate all the valid ballots from any "invaded" and fake ones likely to have been admitted for counting.

One thing this American President refuses to do is to keep a straight red face, sky-pointing long nose, and allow just anything to happen because America needs to look good before the world as an example for all nations - hypocritical: if you leave it with me. President Trump thinks otherwise, he thinks that the world should look good before America. President Trump does not care how the world sees America, so to him, the issue is not on how America is seen by the world, but on how America must start seeing the world; if that is not what really matters, then the world can go to hell.

This opinion now believes that President Trump has only refused to show the world that the American democracy is the example of the true democracy for the world, and he is doing well with that job. He seem to attempt proving that the American democracy is a pretence of what it is because in the just concluded presidential election, things did happen like it does in weaker democracies across the world. It all started with Al Gore's bid at the American Presidency and what happened to the Califonia votes.

Coming from observing prophecies given by major and renowned prophets across the world, let me start with "The Imam of Peace", who, in a Twitter message on the morning of the US Presidential election wrote to advice the Americans to avoid voting for the "wrong candidate" and thereby sinking the larger American dream. He was clearly referring to Joe Biden as the "wrong candidate. Though the Imam of Peace is not a Prophet, and has never claimed to be, his warning seems to align with some school of thoughts around the 2020 US Presidential election.

Primate Ayodele of the "INRI Evangelical Church", in a press interview in Lagos, Nigeria, had advised Joe Biden to "watch mail-in votes", and he should be wary of "celebrating" his early victory. He further advised that Joe Biden should "watch and pray" because anything can happen. Nevertheless, the most important prophecy this opinion is presently following, is the one which prophesied the outcome of the recently concluded US Presidential election as inconclusive, though seemingly conclusive.

Prophet Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj of India had prophesied, on 18 October 2020 (link shared below) that the interesting part of the recently concluded US Presidential election would happen between 3 November 2020 and 20 January 2021, when, in his own word, "Donald Trump would be sworn in for his second term". He said "Donald Trump's second term bid is the will of the Almighty God".

According to Prophet Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, God has not finished his plans with President Donald Trump for America and the world in general. He insisted that President Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

Creditably therefore, with President Donald Trump's insistence on contesting the "return" of Joe Biden as President-elect, with his notice that he was contesting some returns that counted for Joe Biden's victory, this opinion agrees that Donald Trump, by so doing, is deepening the democratic tenets of the US. Once, in a very long while, the US Supreme Court would be dealing with a Presidential election petition like the Nigerian Supreme Court has been dealing with more of Presidential elections than one - that of 2015.

This is why this opinion believes that though President Trump despises Africans, sometimes using Nigeria as his example, he could have, unknowingly, had an ancestor who was a Nigerian politician. Donald Trump has done nothing wrong with refusing to concede defeat and to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. He has only refused to behave like the conventional American politician who would insist on keeping the "American dream" by accepting defeat without contestation, like Al Gore did.

Donald Trump believes that there are those who are not Americans but settlers in America by law, and he insists that there is no problem with these people living and doing business in America, but they must do what they do, understanding that they too have their countries of origin. I do not think Donald Trump has done anything wrong by insisting that America is no "everybody's land". This opinion sees nothing wrong in Donald Trump thinking like he does. Why would not those who love America return to their countries to make them like America? Sometimes using America to launch attacks on home governments.

Let me talk to Nigerians home and abroad. The Nigerian government is pursuing livestock and water policies, and seeking the enabling laws to implement the "Ruga Project" and the "Water body Policy".

However, these bills have been attacked severely by citizens in some part of the country, who believe that the federal government was trying to use power to confiscate "ancestral lands" for Fulani men because President Buhari is a Fulani man. Why would anybody blame Donald Trump for fighting immigrants to the US and tracing some problems Americans have been dealing with due to the lives and mannerisms of these immigrants.

This opinion is looking at the progress in the outcome of the US Presidential election, its handling by the US Supreme Court, and what would happen on 20 January 2020. Should Donald Trump be sworn in as the 46th President of the US on that day, what would happen to the people of colour in America? Those who are settlers but clearly turned their backs against their President by rejecting him. I know Donald Trump: he will return with a fury.

I believe in the power of prophecy, being a prophet too, and if what is presently speculated is true, that President Donald Trump, in his smart expectation that the Democratic Parry could connive with leaders that do not need Donald Trump's return as the number 1 American citizen to "rob" him of his second term bid, then the world should be expecting a more daring American presidency from 20 January 2012.

Of all the prophecies concerning the 2020 US Presidential election, only that of Prophet Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj leaves us with what to follow: events leading from election day, 3 November 2020 to the swearing in of the 46th President of the United States, which will culminate to the swearing in of President Donald Trump, is what this opinion is present looking forward to see happen, as the prophet is one of those this opinion holds so much respects for, with utmost dignity.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp chat via 08102466347

Browse link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4pVBeWWlfo

This opinion would not waste time in beginning with advising Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to, more than pursuing what each member would take home from Nigeria's national purse, rather pursue the cutting down of the financial benefits of all civil and public servants, benefits by, and with which members of the noble academic union, in a moral error, measure their own present demands.

The highest common factor and the least common multiple of this mathematical dilemma of our poverty index, is that it is the common Nigerian who suffers at the end. And nobody, especially privileged Nigerians, seem to care.

Truly speaking, members of Nigeria's ASUU, and so for other labour unions, like the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), should not think of themselves when they need to keep our children at home, or when they need to frustrate government, while they, like ASUU, continue to occupy our universities staff quarters, using part of the land for their farms.

And even if they must keep our children at home, at all, they must relate their self-thoughts to the available privileges of the very common and vulnerable Nigerians. What better privileges do those Nigerians, who have nothing to hold government for, have, like the labour unions have?

How would ASUU, NLC and other allied unions blame miscreants and hoodlums for the kind of looting and wanton destruction we witnessed recently? That is the only way the unprivileged and the underprivileged also can hold government to ransom like the unions are presently doing, or threatening to do. This opinion thinks that considering th number of union members across the country, expressed in a percentage, and compared to the rest of Nigerians who are either underemployed or unemployable...what happens to this larger number of unfortunate Nigerians, who hardly have any slice from our commonwealth?

The consumer, and consumption mentality of our people, even of those who should know better, in a challenged immoral economy like ours, makes it very troubling that Nigerians always, and have continued to choose the wrong things that continue to make life very difficult and near impossible for our poor.

We forget that we are given ourselves (our human communities) as the mirror we are availed to have the backs of our fellow men. This is why love remains the first and the most demanding law for humanity, and it is what can cause the equality, and the balance of human needs and lacks, in every sociopolitical and economic endeavour, especially as it concerns nation building and national development.

Our economy is already having too much money pursuing - too little, or non-locally produced commodities - more of imported goods and services. As much as the Buhari administration has tried to plug all leakages from imports, gearing his policy at promoting self-sufficiency, and the self-love of a people for each other, his efforts have, in a continuous manner, been sabotaged by those who think they should be the ones in power.

This opinion believes that the Nigeria's ASUU would have done better fighting with other Nigerians against:

1. Getting serious with our national assembly, hitting on their primary responsibility: that of making good and effectual laws for the good governance of our people. Laws which should unite us by recognizing and respecting our heterogenous diversities.

2. Challenge the continued payment of the outrageous "severance allowances" to past governors and their deputies, as long as they remain in public service after their seeming "severance" from public and civil service, they must be hindered from multiple earnings.

3. Pursue the downsizing of monetary benefits of our politicians. The job of lawmaking should be made a part time business for our lawmakers. No Nigerian need the lawmakers for a day-to-day occupation and vacation of their representations and oversight functions. Nigerians cannot continue to pay for gross redundancy.

4. Insist on the review of the function and responsibilities of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to include mobilising, allocating and fiscally committing a certain amount, expressed in a percentage, from our commonwealth, as a first line deduction, and paid to every adult Nigerian.

5. Call for a pyramidal architecture for our national security outlook, making it possible for every equivalent of our electoral polling unit, across the country, to have a well furnished "national centre", with all federal presence availed every community in a miniature structure, made available to take care of "community policing" and the leaving of security of a community in the hands of the people.of the community. This way, government holds community responsible for crimes committed there.

These are issues ASUU should rather keep our children at home to fight, and not for what they need to personally take home. How long would our privileged citizens continue to make life very bad and terrible for the underprivileged and the unprivileged?

Our government need our collective cooperation to deal with the myrade of problems we are bedevilled with. We are a people who pursue our self and sectional interests above national and collective interests, just to take personal advantages over others. Our elites continue to see themselves as masters and the less privilege, they treat as their slaves. This is what the personalisation of our collective heritage has caused us as a people.

The Nigeria ASUU and the NLC need to be careful about promoting more money for self. Its worthwhile and responsible for those who build human minds to show less of the seeking of the parochial and the primitive. They all must recognised how their situations are better than that of most Nigerians, and how their actions cannot be morally justified, if it brings pains and neglect to those they are far better than. There is no justice in pursuing personal rights that further endangers the already dangerous situations of most Nigerians.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp chat via 08102466347

“Self Interest: The Problem With Nigeria - Demonstrated By ASUU And Other Strikes” by Ini Morgan https://link.medium.com/p8J5JlfRabb

I came across this inspiring letter written by a mother, likely a single mother, considering the tone of her outpouring of her love and affection for her daughter, and it was so so touching.

Just maybe, she would have loved to share this day with her daughter, yet, state assignment needing her inputs, and integrity, has called for her attention, and she needed to choose serving the State to spending quality time with her eldest child as she turns 21.

This is the sacrifice our mothers go through to make us worthy of their love. A working mother, likely a single one, being a father and a mother all in one, and choosing to contribute to State building is an example every woman should examine and buy into. We must deliberately raise our children into those who would not join the looting of what other people have built for themselves.

Reading Ekereobong Garretts' letter to her daughter, Eghosa, moved me as a father, and I could not resist sharing this moment to all who would be blessed to understand how it is necessary for us, as tenders of families, and members alike, to drive the Nigeria of our dreams from our very homes, in the hearts of our children. We must be patient with our leaders and we must pray for them.

We must also ensure we find the capacity to meet the needs of our love ones, and these include, their emotional, psychological, physiological, spiritual and social needs. We must not limit our care-taking for our children to supplying their physical and mental needs alone, there is more to parenting.

In this year 2020, so many things have happened to us as a world, as a continent and as a nation. We have also happened to ourselves in the last few weeks. We must appreciate the families the Almighty God, Subahana Wata'ala has blessed us with:

Starting from our old parents, our own immediate family, our workplace family, our community, as our family, our government, as our family and our heritage as our family. It is God who brought and kept all of us here for himself and for ourselves, no one is here for himself and so less of self and the needs of self and we will see a greater, more prosperous and a virile Nigerian nation.

God bless Nigeria, and all Nigerians, Amen!

Link to read Ekereobong Garretts' Facebook letter: Press, hold and select to browse

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10218397712366241&id=1596136753