₦airaland Forum

This is not a crowd worthy of note, let alone praise. One natuarally expects not to see the pitch, and less of branded wears which indicates that such people are either rented or party members already.

The strength of rally crowds depends on how many ordinary citizens, who are the neutrals or undecideds, are drawn by the candidates. Not of party members dressed in party wears and carrying flags

PDP are baffled that their plans to discourage the people of Northeast (and North in general) from voting en-masse for APC (Buhari) by encouraging insurgency to reign supreme there has failed.

Instead, it has gingered them up to collect their PVCs massively, and Obanikoro whom I believe knows much about that plan as a former Defence Minister, is shocked.

So, PDP has concluded that 80% PVC collection rate in the North is against their interest, abi? Should they not be happy that collection rate is high anywhere and everywhere in Nigeria? Or who says those cards cannot vote for them?

These PDP guys have accepted defeat before the contest begins!

That I should never join anyone in planning or ganging up against anyone in rebellion, as the end of all such people is always bad, irrespective of whether they were successful with the plot or not.

Surely yes, they are.

It all starts from the moment of birth now. In the past, babies don't open their eyes until some days or even a week after birth, but now, their eyes are wide open as they are coming out of the womb.

This is a pathetic view, and extremely insincere from PDP.

They should tell us what the purpose of a political party is, if not to gain power through every legal means, using every strategy in the book.

It is a big aberration when a political party does not seek power, the way most of the other opposition parties do. Obviously PDP prefers that ALL oppositions should be too weak and lack ambition for power, so that they will be de-facto ruling party for ever, and turn Nigeria to a one party state.

If they too are not desperate, let them relinquish it.

If Obasanjo killed Murtala, why will Dimka & co implicate all others and refuse to mention his name? General Bisalla was from the middle belt like them and about the same rank with Obasanjo, yet they implicated him. Did they like Obasanjo that much as to die for him?

Considering the Hausa-Fulani's domination of the army's top echelon then, could they too have compromised and shielded Obasanjo if he was involved with the middlebelters' coup?

If you knew the setup then, you will know that Obasanjo had no sets of officers or soldiers loyal to him, even to the extent that Sheu Yar'Adua (the 2nd in command) was more powerful than him in terms of influence. If he was involved, they would have easily made a mince meat of him.

Jonathan should not desist from mischief of re-writing Nigeria's history upside down, and face his job properly. Otherwise, sooner, he will be accused of killing his own boss to become president too.

I'm not surprised with Jona's response. I knew he will commit fallacy of evading the issue and throw in a distraction from the question, instead of using facts to defend himself.

How has this exonerated him from Obasanjo's accusation?

What this mean is: OK, I did it; what about your own too?

PDP may not miss them, but they won't be stronger for it.

Jonathan's support bases are getting thinner by the day in all the zones. Who will be celebrating that, PDP or their opponents?

Yoruba proverb says "O ba mi, sugbon ko dun mi; ko dabi ara ofifo" (Translation: It hit me, but it did not pain me; cannot be compared with someone who was never hit)

"Oju apa ko dabi oju ara" (Translation: A scar from a healed injury is not as pleasing as a normal skin)

All I can think of now is this song:

Time will tell.
Time will tell.
Time alone, will tell.

- Jimmy Cliff (Circa 1977)

Has any PDP politician ever apologized for any wrongdoing before?

Or is it that they're all angels?

To err is human, to apologize is angelic, and to forgive is devine.

Two things are very sure:
1. The woman will soon have many toasters.
2. Her inlaws that abandoned her will start courting her attention and favours.

SURE-P itself is a scam. Imagine them still at "promising" to do something stage 22 months after it started, and barely a year to the end of the tenure of the initiator!

Compare and contrast with PTF - both were from extra revenue made on increase in petrol's pump price.

If you want Nigerians to distract from any issue, leaving the main topic of discussion, and derail into inconsequentials, and even start "yabbing" themselves; just add ethnic colouration.

I'm amazed that some people will find nothing wrong in her corrupt act, and indecent public behaviour by her reported speech, all because she says she is hated because she is Igbo.

What a fallacy of evading the issue!

Tell me, is she saying embezzling public funds, buying what is not needed, by-passing due diligence, procuring without an approval, and inflating of contract prices by about 600% is synonymous with being Igbo? And as such, because it is her tribe's nature, it is therefore not her fault because there is nothing she could do about it, and should be excused and left alone?

Is Dora Akunyili not Igbo?

She should honourably resign or be booted out - fast! But unfortunately, Jonathan is not the "commander in chief". Besides, he does not have shoes, let alone boots, to employ in kicking her out.

My bet is, like her sister in the Petrol Ministry, she will never be removed, no matter her level of attrocities. The president will simply give no damn!

I'm not saying real speaking in tongue does not exist, my point is that about 99% must be fake!

Speaking in tongue is the least of gifts in worth of value, but modern Nigerian christians concentrate on it more because it is the most glamorous of all gifts. I mean, you tend to earn instant shine and respect more in the eyes of others with it, even if nothing comes out of it.

As for me, I'd rather have any of the other gifts and not speak in tongue any day.

Another angle to it is that one has to be very careful not to fall prey of devil's pranks, which the Bible warns us about, where we were told to test all spirits. This is particularly important because since "speaking in tongue" is controlled by the spirit, the devil, being the smart alec that he is, will easily infilterate that aspect, and since it is hard to tell the fake, especially when babbing of incomprehensibles are involved. Don't discountenance this possibility because the devil always mimicks the real and even misleads, even the elect.

I have learnt not to trust people "going into the spirit" because there are spirits and there are spirits too. I've witnessed more than twice where traditional religionist went into the spirit, and even fell under anointing into trance while carrying out idol worshipping. No be say dem say, dem say. Na my korokoro eyes I take see them.

What if this sort of spirit is the one making some people blab?

While Abel chose the best of his flock, Cain brought just something.

What they call "speaking in tongue" in new age Nigerian pentecostal churches today is nothing but fraud.

I once attended a congregation where they made it a compulsory evidence and proof that one was "born again". It promptly became (and it still is) a fad. Anyone who didn't (and doesn't) "speak in tongue" was (is) not cool, and did (does) not belong.

The result was (and still is) that blabbing and gibberishing became (and still is) the in thing. And so members get pushed to become desperate to start faking and blab jargons. And to avoid embarrassment, many just copy and paste each other, or the pastors' way of "speaking in tongue"

However, as I did not see a reason why I should attempt to deceive God, besides, I desired better gifts that, I remained the odd man. I guess the pastor was uncomfortable with my stand, and so decided to help. That was when he arranged for me to join their "tongue speaking training class"

Wow! it was an eye-catching and unforgettable experience. If not that they had assumed that I was then a full member, they probably would not have let me into the secret. That's right, "tongue speaking training class" it was!!! There I met some new members and older ones who had just started to speak in tongue in the cingregation doing their practices, as the pastors and some elders mentored one person at a time, in repeat-after-me sessions.

I was asked to do same, but I refused, and I told my "teacher" that he was not Holy Spirit, which the Bible says will teach us! He complained to the senior pastor, the head of the school, and I remained adamant, and afterwards asked to go out and excused them.

From that moment on, our relationship became frosty, and I knew my days in the congregation was numbered. Eventually, I left, labelled a rebel.

Ever since then, I have since known why all members of same congregations "speak alike" in tongue. But the question that comes to my mind is that, why should people desire what has no beneficial value - especially to others, but only earns the speaker psychological benefit in form of respect?

The Bible makes it very clear that on the day of pentecost, when the christians started speaking in tongues, other people and strangers who heard them understood their different dialects and native tongues and languages, which the speakers did not speak or understood before Holy Spirit descended on them. What this tells me is that they spoke many foreign languages they they themselves did not understand, but which the natives and owners of such languages did decipher clearly.

Compare that to Nigerian "speaking in tongue" of today, and check for yourself; who is fooling whom?

Wow!!! God2man, you just manifested profound ignorance and gullibility by this statement of yours:

"you should respect your elders in the Christiandom, they are not Jesus, but they are the respresentatives of God on earth"

So at this time and age, with the amount of knowledge and revelation of God we have as christians, you still believe that someone is a representative of God on earth? That is hero-worshipping, and pure idolatory!

Jesus has made all of us equal before God. He is the only representative between man and God now.

Please wake up from false teachings and doctrines you have evidently been subjected to.

I'm happy you called it christiandom (or christianity), if so then, tell me where Jesus or his disciples paid tithe to anyone. Did the scribes and pharisees not accuse the disciples of not paying tithes?

Where is it written in the Bible that tithes should be in monetary value or paid as money? And even if we should ignore that fact, who did the Bible say should collect it? Definitely not pastors! Did you read in anywhere that Apostle Paul and others ever collected tithes from anyone? Are pastors of today more devoted than them?

Do the collectors of tithes today follow biblical instruction on how to apply collected tithes? If they disobey that simple instruction on whom should collect, and whom should enjoy tithes, what moral right do they have to ask followers to obey them and pay?

God cannot be fooled. When you "pay" your tithes to a wrong collector and it is used for a wrong reason, your work done is zero! You can't armtwist God for a reward, after having erred. What you get is mere 'feel good factor" Shikena!

I said it then in January 2012 that SURE-P was a fraud. This is because it was devised to con Nigerians off the street during the Occupy Nigeria operation.

One major thing that was always going to make it fail is that it lacked honesty of purpose, passion and convinction in its planning. Definitely, those elements were bound to be missing in its execution.

PDP was never in charge in the Southwest. They stole AD's mandate by trick under OBJ, by cajoling them to adopt OBJ as joint presidential candidate, while scheduling both gubernatorial and presidential elections together. Voters eventually elected both OBJ and PDP's governors by proxy in confusion during thumbprinting.

The rest is now history, how PDP governors misruled and misbehaved before they were voted out one after the other.

It is however a joke to hear them talk of "re-dominating". How that will be done, with their reputation waning everyday is mysterious to imagine. Especially with their clueless president - who is on his way out, having only the South-South and Southeast as the only remaining base out of 6 zones in the country.

Worse still, they lack any personalty with charisma or credibility to sway people to vote for in all of Yoruba speaking states.

@ sleekymag:

Note that giving scholarships to Agric-related courses is not the same as making university education accessible to children of poor members of Winners Chapel (and perhaps other non-members)!!!

Since you insist on like-for-like examples of how a church leader should use God's money (abi na Oyedepo get the money?) Then go and see what Catholic Universities do in Europe and revert.

Church leaders o, government officials o, what's the difference between them in Nigeria? Don't they both misappropriate commonwealth of their followers, and amass stupendous wealth for themselves, including private jets (a fellow just crashed one recently), and expect the whole world to applaud when they do some fraudulent projects, which is actually a pitiance in relation to how much they have embezzled. They all suffer from megalomania, and assume tin-god statuses and are hero-worshipped by millions of brainwashed & banboozled sychophants who cannot imagine them do anything wrong.

Wait a minute, people; some aspects of this news sounds impossible, which makes one wonder about the credibility.

How can a sitting governor be said to have travelled out of the country 42 times out of the past 17 months, i.e. 72 weeks?

That's at the rate of a foreign trip every 12 days?!!! that is if he goes and returns same day. But if he spends up to 2 days on each trip, it means he travels every 6 days. And that will make some weeks that he travelled twice; beginning and end of the week!!!

This does not sound feasible to me, as it means he practically lives abroad.

@ sleekymag:

I've said what a sane person should do with public money when there is apparent excess of it twice in this post:

1. Spend the money for the 2nd or 3rd up to 7th university to expand and improve the 1st one.

2. Make tuition free for all students who pass the entrance grade - of course with the church's money.

3. Make accommodation free - if possible.

Then, he would have done what Jesus would do.

Note that Oyedepo would still have achieved all that you are praising him for now (infrastructure, employment and empowerment for thousands), and much more in form of not alienating the poor and average worshippers, whose sweat and blood provided the resources to build the universities in the first place.
Go and read about the present presidents of Bolivia and Malawi, if you need example of how to be a visionary leader in a 3rd world country, and stop all these sycophancy and hero-worshipping. The same behaviour that is making our politicians go astray.

@ sleekymag:

So, as far as you are concerned; the end justifies the means!

No wonder our country has sunk into the lowest level imaginable because of marchiavellian mindset of the supposed elite.

This won't take us far, at all. We have seen where it has taken us.

@ dare2think:

GOD BLESS YOU!!!

We have too many educated illiterates in Nigeria to appreciate or perform simple reasoning, and not just follow bandwagons for the "feel good factor" effect.

In a saner country, Oyedepo will be behind bars for misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds to build his personal empire and acquire private jet. Now, "public funds" does not mean government funds as many Nigerians think.

If you don't understand it, ask Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo about his escape from UK because of church's funds.

For all you rapping about the standards of Oyedepo's universities, scholarships, and all what not as justification for him to continue to amass personal wealth and blow his ego out of proportion on the platter of church members' contributions, answer this simple question:

Now that he has amassed much money, enough to build a 3rd university, will it not be more beneficial to concentrate on just one university, using the money to expand and upgrade facilities there, and make tuition and accommodation free, leaving feeding only to the students' parents to cater for?

By so doing, will the indigent children of the poor and average members of the church, as well as non-members in the society not be better off for it?

Check out what Catholic University in Europe is doing; free education for all (i.e. tuition and accommodation free, leaving feeding only to the students), non-citizens inclusive, as long as you pass the entrance grade. Let Oyedepo emulate this and we shall be first to clap for him.

The problem with the Blackman is simple; lack of ability to organize to benefit the weak on a corporate and government level. So if a few rich kids can enter Oyedepo's schools, and get schorlarships, the rest of his congregation are ok? What is wrong with our thinking in this part vof the world? Once we can afford something for ourselves, and settle our families, we believe all is well. How about that pepper seller, the vulcanizer, the bus conductor's children who may be the next greatest scientist or economist, but languishing out there because their parents, who are members of Oyedepo's empire, can't even afford to buy the admission forms?

Yet some are here praising the multi-trillionaire motivational speaker as a messiak man of God! While he hasn't scratched the surface of what he can potentially do to impact on the next generation?

Make no mistake about it, check out history, the people who lead countries or peoples in all fields of human endeavour, and create greatness needed in every generations don't come from the homes of the rich, the aristocrats, or from palaces. They are raised from the squallours of life. This is because the experiences and wisdom required to breed a generation changer are found in the hardship of life of the less priviledged. If it were not so, even Oyedepo himself will not be where he is now, only the Children of Samuel Ajayi Crothwer should be the greatest church leaders of today - like the Winners Chapel.

Herein lies the danger for Nigeria that has neglected the poor and their children to rot, yet want to develop!!!

Mtcheeeeeeewwwwwwww!!!

It is only in Nigerian brand of christianity that money and riches are taken as synonymous with God's blessings.

What Oyedepo and his type of prosperity preachers do is nothing spiritual or act of God. They are merely motivational speakers, and are poorer versions of those that litter western nations, especially USA, who have been at it for centuries. The difference is that they operate in an impoverished economy, and so can easily bamboozle people and get stupendous wealth out of it.

In a well structured and lawful country, 5% of what the worshippers of Oyedepo (not worshippers of God) count as the guy's wealth will not be in his hands. He dares not come a mile near such monies. If you doubt me, ask Matthew Ashimolowo why he fled the UK

Megalomania in motion!

Now that he has amassed much money, enough to build a 3rd university, will it not be more beneficial to concentrate on just one university, using the money to expand and upgrade facilities there, and make tuition and accommodation free, leaving feeding only to the students' parents to caterv for?

By so doing, will the indigent children of the poor and average members of the church, as well as non-members in the society not be better off for it? As is now, only children of looters and politricians, economic saboteurs, drug peddlers, ritualist, oil bunkerers, armed robbers, etc who are either members or non-members of his church can afford the gaddemn schools.

mtcheeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!