₦airaland Forum

Some of the things we see in Nigeria are so hilarious and shocking. Just look at this shamelessness. I heard some people had cards like this during Olusegun Obasanjo's government too. How long has this been going on? Just because you have access to Aso Rock you just print card with Nigeria seal and the name of the president and you are in business. This is simply unacceptable. This is the high of indiscipline, irresponsibility and mediocrity. This is 419. What do people like this do than influence contracts and take people into Aso Rock for personal gains. Is the presidency aware of this?

Hmm, the minds of men.

I have realize that what unites Nigerian masses are always short lived and fleeting.Yesterday I mentioned Football, today I also realize religious celebration unite us. I read a couple of touching sallah messages from christians to muslims and I was moved. Even those who are always involved in rivalry sheath their swords today. We also observe same during Christmas when Christians are celebrating. Sometimes one wish these period last for a long time but No, 24 hours later, its back to business as usual. Lol

Well we are Nigerians, we are a unique brand. Once again Barka da sallah to all Muslims.

Who wants to be a Millionaire is one of the few that is highly beneficial.Aside,the monetary compensation,the value adding aspect of it via knowledge dissemination is noteworthy.My wish is that corporate bodies should endeavour to sponsor and introduce shows like WWTBAM as against the present craze for dancing and singing competitions.

I had wanted to title this confession "my journey into Atheism". But then I felt that this one was going to be more appropriate. As it is, the Atheist I am today did not happen in a day. I went through three different stages of atheism and that process is still continuing. As I describe my journey into becoming the Atheist I am today, I will briefly touch on these three stages.

STAGE ONE
How did I become an atheist the first time? To start with, let me quickly define what Atheism is. Atheism is the lack of belief in God. This is simply what Atheism is. And I will tell you how I first became an atheist. It was a while ago, a young man met a young lady, they fell in love and married. Of course, after a while, she got pregnant. 9 months after this, an Atheist was born! That young man was my father and the young woman was my mother. And yes you guessed it, I was the Atheist they gave birth to. You see, during that period, which comprised the first 12 months of my life, I didn't believe in God; any God for that matter. I was a pure Atheist!

STAGE TWO
This confession may come as a shock to many, but it is true! My second stage of Atheism was due to my parents. Yes, my parents turned me into an Atheist. I was brought up in strict Christian upbringing and soon gave my life to Christ and entered into the then SU movement. During this time, I was taught how God is different from Allah and how Allah is an idol in Mecca. So yes, I didn't believe in Allah and in our local deities like Ogun, Sango and Obatala! You see, Atheism is the lack of belief in the "existence" of a deity. So of one deity or the other, everyone is an Atheist. But I was worse than many others, because I did not believe in Allah, nor in Obatala, nor in Buddha or Krishna. My strict Christian upbringing required it. And so whilst I was a Christian, to all other deities, I was an unbeliever. I didn't believe they "existed"! Of those deities therefore, I was an Atheist!

STAGE THREE
I grew therefore a Christian. And I thought Christians believed in one God. Until I found out that even within Christianity, there were many gods! This is one reason why there are many Christian sects and each one believes the other is in error and going to hell. You see, God is a personality, but also an idea, a concept and a perception. If the name changes will it still be God? I say no. If the definition changes, will it still be the same deity? I think not. And if the perception changes, will it be the same deity? I say no!

That was how I became a full blown Atheist. I began to reject the existence of the Christian gods. I lost belief in the confused god, the vicious god, the greedy for money god, the do-for-me-before-I-do-for-you god, the corruption enabling god, the bloodthirsty irrational god, the man of god (yes that one is a god too), the wear ear ring and go to hell god, etc etc. As different descriptions and definitions of God inherent in my faith became evident to me, I had to decide which God I wanted to believe in and which I wanted to drop. I therefore became an atheist of so many gods within my faith.

This I believe explains why many Christians see me as an atheist. And they are right. Of many of their gods, I am an unbeliever. For example, if your god doesn't bless you unless you bribe him first, I'm sorry, I can't believe in that one. Or if your own sends a devourer after you for missing taxes, (sorry tithe), well, you're not talking about the same God I know. The same goes for the hundreds of gods people peddle in Christianity, these days, too numerous to describe. Once I see we are talking about different deities, I will respectfully reject yours and hold on to mine. My lack of belief in your god therefore, makes me an atheist of your deity!

I believe heaven exists. What it is, I don't know. I doubt its streets are laden with gold, that is rather ostentatious. I doubt it will have large breasted virgins waiting either. That is so depraved. However, I do believe it will be a spiritual plane. Heaven won't be a place for christians, muslims, or any other religion. Only children of God will go there. And I am one of them. Until I transit therefore, I will continue to reject deities that do not make sense to me, whoever is peddling them!

BY:ROLU ADEBOLA

As children, everybody wan grow up fast, become adult and marry. Everybody for him own different reasons. But generally, na about how we see adults dey ‘enjoy’ and how we go like to enjoy like that. Maybe na the extra meat wey you dey see for your papa soup plate or the film wey dem no dey gree you watch after 9 pm or the discovery mama-and-papa play…. Make we leave that one.

When we grow up and become young adults, attitudes dey change small. When we realise say the world no be as we been dey see am. That ‘enjoyment’ wey we been dey look for, dey come with plenty wahala. At some point, everybody done think ‘I wish say I still be small pikin’. Also, attitudes to marriage dey change, especially for guys. Most girls go still want to marry sharply. For the boys, e dey change. Why e dey be like this? I sure say you get you own theories. That na another day yarns.

The question wey I done ask myself and wey some other people done ask too na, why I need to marry sef? I done yarn with a lot of my friends and family over the issue. Most of the reasons no dey really make sense to me. Most times people no even sound like say dem dey sure... Others dey sound like say when dem marry, all the wahala wey dey for life go disappear. For my mind, all of dem their head dey touch. But I sure say for their mind, my own head get problem too!

For this piece, I go talk each of the reasons wey people done give me and then tell you why I think say dem no follow. Some, I actually tell the people straight. Others, I just think and no talk. E no go good for man mama to just tear am slap am at this age….

(a) To be taken care of – Seriously? So as you big reach, you think say you still be baby wey somebody suppose look after eh? Abi you no well? Then you need to go hospital. If you well, then grow up! You fit take care of yourself. You no need to marry for that one.

(b) For financial security – This na mainly from the women and some men wey their own no good. So una dey look for bank or ATM abi? So while he/she dey secure you financially, who go dey secure am? You see your life? Something do your hands and legs? Lazy thing! Go find work do! You no need to marry to dey financially secure.

(c) Society expects it – I hear you. Yes, everybody dey marry and e be like say na wetin dey reign now. Every Saturday you dey wear a different aso-ebi and you done be Chief Bridesmaid or Best Man like 5 times! You no wan carry last. So now e be you like say marriage na Mary Kay abi na Indian Hair? Those things dey comot for fashion, you know…. Afterall, Indian done move to Brazilian/Peruvian and nobody dey really hear as much about Mary Kay again as we been dey hear. Marriage no be fashion and if na because of society and wetin e be like say everybody dey do, then you no need to marry.

(d) To settle down and be responsible – This na one of the yeye reasons. You be dirty water? Why you wan settle? So, for your mind, when you talk ‘I do’ you go change from irresponsible person to responsible one eh? We go forget say you dey thief like nkapi rat, talk lie for no reason, your legs no dey enter house, smoke anything wey you fit wrap inside paper and drink anything wey fit enter cup, abi? Na lie. Bad man na bad man. Same for bad woman. True true you need to change. But no be ‘I do’ go change you. Forget am.

(e) For respect – Really? So if dem no dey respect you now, dem go respect you when you marry eh? You done ask yourself why dem no dey respect you now? If you do, you go find out say maybe you never do anything wey go give you respect. Marriage no be really one of those things o. You need to earn that respect.

(f) Family wants it – Yes I know. But you and me know say no be today you begin dey do things wey your family no want you to do. Yes, your mama no like the cigar wey you dey smoke but you still dey smoke. Your papa no wan take eye see those bum shorts but anytime he no dey, you still dey wear am. So when e suit you, you dey bone family and do wetin you wan do. No need to use family as excuse. Dem never kill you yet for your rebellion. Dem no go start now.

(g) Parents want grandchildren – Is that so? Grandpikin sweet like that na him dem no born dem by demselves? Abeg move! Life na really your own and not their own.

(h) For children and for your ‘name’ to continue when you are gone – Children eh? I dey laugh you. Dem need to flog your Integrated Science teacher, if wetin him teach you na say pikin dey come as a result of marriage. If na only for pikin, then you no need to marry. For pikin alone, refer to that Integrated Science book wey you no been gree read that time. As for carrying your name, I no think say na children you need. You done hear of Herbert Macaulay? Albert Einstein? Diego Maradona? You know about their children? In short who care whether dem get children or dem no get? If you no do wetin you suppose do, so the world go remember you, no be children go help you.

(i) For companionship – So when people no marry, dem dey lonely abi? Na wetin you dey try talk? So from your childhood till now you dey lonely. Sorry, you hear? And when you marry, all that loneliness go disappear? What about the people wey dey come spend every weekend for your place, cook and clean and arrange you well? You, what about that place you dey go like 3 days every week, while you tell your people say na your youth group meeting? You, no lonely now. You get enough companionship. Also, you fit live with anybody wey you want. People dey do am all the time. In fact, after some time, when people come the house to come look for your woman dem go say ‘Oga, abeg I dey look for your wife?’ Na exactly the same companionship without ceremony. You no need to marry for that one.

(j) It’s the Godly thing to do – Yes we be religious people. I know say you dey go mosque well on Fridays or church on Sundays. But all that religion no prevent you from all the plenty plenty sins you done dey commit. In fact, if you just die now, you done go hell straight! You no dey really do wetin you suppose do, as e concern your religion. You know say na true yarns be that. So, na when e reach marriage you wan form good Christian or good Muslim eh? Ok, na because of the pastor eh? So that the thing wey you dey hide dey chop no go come out for open now. Hypocrite! Bone that thing. Just dey freestyle dey go. E no go make any difference. Whether you hide dey chop something or you do am or open, na the same hell you dey go. Exactly, the same hell. Marriage for church or mosque no go save you from that hell.

If I remember any other excuse wey dem give me I go let you know. But I believe say these ones and my argument dey make enough sense. E make sense to you too, I sure. If that girl begin worry you, just tell her wetin I done tell you so. If she begin do anyhow, just…. Hold on, somebody dey knock for my door. Ah, my mum.

‘Jonas! Jonas! Jonas! How many times I call you? The thing wey I discuss with you, you been think say I dey joke? I done dey old and I need to take care of my grandchildren before I dey too weak to carry dem. You no want make I see…’

‘Mummy, na before the end of the year. I dey plan for una to go see her people next…’
http://notfreshlysqueezed..com/2012/07/why-you-no-suppose-marry.html

"God is what we make 'him' or 'her' which is why we have too many religions and ideas of what God should be. If there really was one God that existed somewhere in heaven, Man would not be living in this state of confusion and it would mean a world with one religion and one ideology.

IamaChosen: The Lord's Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement presents a two-day power-packed international crusade this weekend, titled,'ONLY GOD CAN DO THIS', in Lagos HQ Church of the Lord’s Chosen at Ijesha, Lagos (stop at Ijesh Bus-stop).
Date: Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th October, 2013. Time: 8.00 am daily.

The General Overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka will be ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lame will walk, the deaf will hear, the dumb will speak, the blind will see, yoke of barrenness or delay in marriage will break,yoke of sin will break,HIV will be healed...all sicknesses will receive technical knockout...you will be delivered from evil spirit attack upon your life. The God of the Chosen (the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) will visit you. Come all and be blessed.
Jesus is Lord!!!!!!!!!!!

Moderators,Laz Muoka deserves to be banned for spamming.This irrelevant invitation is on so many threads.If Bros Laz believes in the potency of his claims,he should head for the colony of deformed human beings at Ebute Metta.Lazy man feeding on the gullibility of the indolent!

Emmysteve: Una don start again, TB Joshua never predicted anything. Never you lie against the prophet of God

Influential Nigerian Pastor TB Joshua says Ghana will draw with Egypt in the crucial 2014 World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.
The prediction made by Head Pastor of the Synagogue Church will certainly not go down well with many Ghanaians who are expecting a massive win in the game to be played in Kumasi.
TB Joshua has a credible history of predicting football matches.
He is widely reported to have rightly predicted Nigeria's 2013 Nations Cup success as well as Chelsea's Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich two seasons ago.
Joshua who is said to be an ardent fan of the Black Stars has surprisingly predicted against a Ghana win this time around in the crucial match against the record African Cup winners – even though revealing the Black Stars 'will fight like lions'.
“The Ghanaians will fight like lions but they will be matched by the descendants of Pharaohs who have come ready to spill their blood in their quest to join the finest in Brazil,” he said.
“There will be no win for either of them but they'll both walk on with a share of the points.”
TB Joshua's words trending fast on social networking sites is being met by stiff opposition by mainly Ghanaians and sympathizers of the Black Stars.
Some of the comments against the prediction made by the Pastor are geared towards creating awareness amongst the Black Stars players to prove the leading Man of God wrong in a grand way.
Source:ModernGhana
- See more at: http://todaysgist..com/2013/10/pastor-tb-joshua-predicts-draw-in-ghana.html#sthash.tOg1uPOK.dpuf

What a day!! Animals are killed (for sport) worldwide in celebration of a guy that heard a voice in his head telling him to slaughter his son and which somehow that same voice made a ram magically appear for him to kill.

How old did the Bible say the earth is? And did the Qur’an say that the earth is flat?

Ask these two questions and you immediately encounter a vigorous defense by adherents of these two holy books. Their defense is all centered on making sure that their holy books do not run counter to what modern science know to be true.

The universe, we now know, is about 14 billion years old and the earth is 4.5 billion years old. According to a study published last month by researchers at the University of East Anglia in Britain, human race has another 1.7 billion years before the earth moves into the sun’s hot zone. That’s when the temperature of the earth will be so high that it would be uninhabitable for mankind. At that point all lives on earth will come to an end. There is hope that by then man must have figured out how to move to another planet or even another galaxy.

Though the Bible did not say specifically how old the earth is, researchers used biblical genealogies to arrive at the conclusion that following the letters of the Bible the earth and the universe are 6,000 years.

Obviously, that cannot be true. Carbon-dating of human fossils found in Africa has shown that the first modern man showed up on earth some 200,000 years ago. Bible followers do not want the Bible to be wrong so they go to the limit to prove that the genealogies of the Bible cannot be followed on face value. They say that many words of the Bible are deeper than they appear - and that “only the deep are called to the deep.” In fact, some argue that there are some things that God deliberately left vague in the Bible.

When it is apparently wrong, it’s said to be metaphoric or an allegory or a hyperbole or simile and should not be taken literally. At other times, the error is attributed to “something lost in translation”- like mentioning insects with four legs; rabbits that chew their cud; bats that are classified as birds; snails that are described as animals that melt.

Several times, references were made in the Bible about the ends of the earth as if the earth was flat. And time and time again, it says the earth is fixed and immovable. Of course, we now know that the earth moves. The Bible also says that the moon is the lesser of the two great lights God made. The moon of course has no light. It only reflects the rays of the sun.
In Creation story, God made night and day before he made the sun which determines when it’s night and when it’s day. How is that possible? He made plants before the bees and the butterflies that pollinate them or even the sun that will bring about photosynthesis.

It is the same with the Qur’an. The Qur’an says that Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out). That Allah has spread out or flattened the earth on the back of a great fish and used the mountain to keep the earth from shaking due to the movement of the fish.

Believers will go to any length to prove that it was all a misunderstanding of what the holy book was saying. They argue, for example, that the crust of the earth is the carpet in question. And that in any case you can spread a carpet on objects that are round, too, and not just flat objects. They conclude that the Qur’an actually confirms what science now knows.
At one point the Qur’an wonders why and how the sun and the moon do not collide. Did Allah create the stars as missiles to be thrown at the devils?

The Qur’an and the Bible were written to be for all times. They are vague enough for adherents to find verses in them to explain new phenomenon of the new world. But for how long can they provide plausible answers? Despite what Jesus said, the mustard seed is not the smallest seed there is. Just the way atom is not the smallest indivisible particle there is, as Dalton once propounded. This new struggle to align these holy books with modern science is a new thing.

The Biblical age of the earth was not challenged until the late 18th century when researchers abandoned the Bible and, instead, used geological factors like the cooling of the molten lava in their calculation. That was when the church rejected the global flood and the biblical age of the earth.

Because the Bible reported that a rib was taken from man to make a woman, everyone believed it until 1543 when the physician, Andreas Vesalius showed that the number of ribs in a man was the same as the number in a woman. When in the 17th century, the Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei, stated that the sun was at the center of the universe and not the earth, the Catholic Church was alarmed. In February of 1615, the church tried Galileo by Inquisition as a suspect of heresy. The church forced Galileo to recant his scientific finding and kept him under house arrest for the rest of his life. It took almost 400 years before Pope John Paul II expressed regret over how the church handled the Galileo affair.

Different religious groups have essentially abandoned the mission of attacking many of the mainstream scientific findings- with the exception of evolution. They now fall over themselves to ensure that the teachings of their religion conform to these understandings. But for how long?

Nigerians are very church"dustrois" oh sorry i mean industrious, they have established churches almost in the unbelievable places in the world. Put a Nigerian in a cave he opens a church there, put a Nigerian in space he would like to open a branch there too.

This same Nigerians cannot feed the hungry on the streets, they hate each other to the marrow, they are very quick to tell us "WE ARE SPREADING THE GOSPEL" and my questions are to whom? Who needs it more?
You or someone else?

They have populated our streets with religious houses and also polluted the environmental quantity of air with noise yet the basic teaching of love they lack it at a very significant degree.

The gospel you preach should be reflected in your daily lives as an individual and which in turn reflects on the society as a people. Israelis are wining noble prizes we are wining souls plus their pockets.

What do you make of the future of a nation that has more pastors than university professors and more religious houses than scientific laboratories, universities, libraries and scientist all combined?

Dear Nigerians,
I DON SUFFER FOR YOUR HAND O!
Compliment of everything to you o, just as I know that you celebrate everything at every time (from Happy New Month to New Week and then Happy Subsidy). It is with sadness of heart that I write this my letter to you. Dear Nigerians I am not happy at all!

I would have seized Nigerian Television Authority (Largest in Africa) Network medium to air my displeasure but I discovered that you people don’t even know the station’s transmission frequency talk less of watching it. Then the thought of using DSTV crossed my mind, but something quickly informed me that you people are genderly divided on that bouquet; while Female folks view AfricaMagic, their male counterparts are glued to SuperSport.

So the idea of using facebook platform was the perfect thing, at least almost all Nigerians are using the social site either to upload highly overrated make up enhanced pictures, say amen to religious prayers, fight ethnic cause, insult government and then try to dupe people. Knowing fully well that on your seeing this my letter, the most likely thing for you to do is to announce it to your pastors, share it as the sign of the end of age and the imminent ending of the World; hence proclaiming my letter to the very end corner of Nigeria!
Though you Nigerians claim to have defeated me, you still mention my name on daily basis than any known deity.

Oh ye Nigerians what is actually my offense? Why is it that you try to involve me in every bad thing that happen to you?

Now imagine this,
‘…Former Aviation Minister denounces current Aviation Minister for saying air crashes are acts of God then goes ahead to say accidents are caused by the Devil’
This is sickening, I am Devil I am not Omnipotent neither am I Omniscience!

Yours truly Nigerians, I left Nigeria immediately after your Civil War! I and my co-workers have been busy trying hard to hinder American Scientists from successfully launching a satellite (Inquisitive) unto Planet Mars.

You people have built strong religious towers around you, so how do you expect me to operate? For instance, along Lagos/Ibadan expressway you have diverse denominations and religious outfits lined along the road, yet whenever there is any road accident you easily point accusing fingers at me.

Also, you voted for the man with the goodluck but won’t stop blaming me for your poverty. For your information, I have no business with poor people.

All the wars going on in your country are carried out in the name of god not me, please ask Boko Haram and they will tell you that they are not fighting for me.

True, some thousands of years ago, I plotted a coup against the sitting government in heaven which I lost; but with my growing popularity among Nigerians I am being tempted to plot another one soon.

In conclusion, dear Nigerians I neither love nor hate you. I don’t really know the route to your country again as some people here in America have decided to honour me by building a beautiful edifice for my worship. I wish you the best your luck can provide you but always know that I am innocent of all your numerous charges against me.

And one more thing, stop making prayers to kill me. I can’t die…

Yours
Handsome Satan

http://ajisafesview.com/letter-to-the-people-of-nigeria-from-satan/?fb_comment_id=fbc_1427367917485086_135933_1429322970622914#f12d3f6cb693492

Rather than address issues with seriousness, the Federal Government has deployed its crude myopia of reducing the issue to ASUU’s asking for more salaries. But, what, I wonder, is wrong with better salaries? Why should a Nigerian lecturer who teaches — mostly without teaching or research assistants — work and not get high salaries? Are the elected-drones masquerading as legislators more important? For no justifiable reason, the Three Arms zone tenants’ allocation rivals that of education.

When is the better time to advocate better conditions in our public education system than now? How can we force the Federal Government (and respective state governments) to a higher sense of responsibility especially since our (mislabelled) “stakeholders” politicians barely patronise public education? This is one area where we all should be concerned for its own multiplier effects because the day will come when it will no longer matter if our children schooled abroad or in private schools. They will be dragged into the Nigerian morass by the deadweight of half-baked, or even non-baked, minds that passed through the public education system.

The Federal Government needs to give up its recalcitrance otherwise we would be set back by another century. Nigeria/Africa missed the 19th century Industrial Revolution and all its liberating powers; we sat out the Space Age of the 20th century and now, defer to others who do not have double brains. Are we going to miss the train of the 21st century’s Information Age? Must we always lose out? Is our collective future guaranteed, with a dysfunctional public education system? It has not worked otherwise for any country in the world and Nigeria cannot be the exception. Education needs loads of money to function. It is time to stop the poli-trickery and tackle the challenge of failing public education. It is the least they can do.

We no go gree!

STILL ON MATTER OF PROLIFERATION OF UNIVERSITIES IN NAIJA!

Last week, the news broke out that Ex-Militant and self serving freedom fighter, Mujahid Dokubo Asari has opened a private University in Benin Republic, his adopted country after renouncing his Nigerian citizenship and throwing away his green passport.

A while ago, I read with one eye, that as part of his legacy and gift to humanity, Clarkodemus has concluded plans to float Edwin Clark University of Science and Technology, billed to take off in January 2014.

Recall that as part of his Transformation Agenda, President Goodluck Jonathan established 7 new universities with a view of having at least one Federal university in each of the 36 states of the federation.

State governors are not left out in the educational transformation of their political terra ferma as educationally less developed states of Yobe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Zamfara, et al who hitherto have been unable to fill up their quotas in federal universities within their catchment areas, have gone ahead to establish state owned universities.

Now the big question!

What do you think is the missing link in Nigerian university education given the near comatose state of varsity education occasioned by incessant ASUU strike, industrial strife, decaying infrastructures and brain drain inter alia?

Professor Pius Adesanmi speaks for me as he chronicles the spirit behind the university idea in Nigeria! Hear him!

''We have lost the university idea. A state governor wakes up, builds a gate in front of a secondary school in his village, adds a motto in Latin, and a new state university is born.

Somebody lands in Aso Rock and a university is born in his village the following day.

Somebody collects enormous tithes, buys a private jet, and the next emblem of his arrival in the crème de la crème of prosperity Pentecostal pastors is to start a university.

A sitting Senate President finds sufficient time to tuck in the construction of his own private university.

These things can happen only in a country where the university idea is dead.''

And that's just the way it is! As the nation competes in a race with herself to be the country with the highest number of universities in the universe! Come to think of it, what is the quality of graduates churned out from these glorified secondary schools littering the geopolitical landscape? Your guess is as good as mine, because for answer, all I have to do is look in the direction of a relative of mine whose Father is well heeled to afford a tuition fee of over N1 million per session for his ward who is studying Medicine in one of the mushroom private university and I cannot give her my dog to treat!

Something has to give, we cannot continue like this! The emphasis should shift from QUANTITY to QUALITY pronto! Something just have to give for we cannot the way we are progressing in error!-Soni Akoji

Naija sha. Once somebody stumbles on a profitable business, everybody rushes in until there is a glut. Prosperity pentecostal pastors were the first to discover that owning a private university could make your personal wealth less tithe-dependent. Politicians and retired Generals moved in to spoil the private university market for them. Now aspiring militants, incumbent militants, retired militants, and their Godfathers have stumbled on the private university jackpot. Asari Dokubo University. Edwin Clark University. Soon, Government Tompolo will start his own University. And once Boko Haram discovers that private universities are the new gold mine in Nigeria, they'll start fighting to upgrade some madrassas to private universities. They will find a way to say boko is now halal as money is never haram. Anyway sha, I need wise counsel: do I apply for Vice Chancellor, Asari Dokubo University, Edwin Clark University, or wait for Tompolo University? The inevitable Tompolo University of the future has more maritime security oyel revenue potential than the others?-Pius Adesanmi

Fiction?

LETTER FROM A LAGOS CONDUCTOR, TO A DEAR PASSENGER:

Dear Friend, Do not be surprised that I am writing you, especially after our last encounter. I know t...hat I do not come across to you as someone who can put words to paper, but like a wise man once said "Your tenses and verbs do not all have to agree for you to pass a message; you only need to have something to say, that won't stay unsaid". You have no idea how it feels, when you look at me the way you do, when you shout on me for your change and call me all sorts of names. See, I’ve developed a hard shell to ward off your vituperation. There, that's a word you didn't think I had, right? See, I went to primary school, and read a couple of those story books. I also read the papers every morning while I wait for my driver to shack Ogogoro at Iya Lateef's kiosk at the park. My English is not so bad. Don't worry, I won’t mess this up. So this hard shell that I’ve developed, it wasn't always there you know, when I started this job, I went home depressed day after day, because of those things you said to me. They made me feel worthless. But I am not writing this letter to accuse you or anything of sorts. You are human too, just like I am, and we all have our weaknesses. I bear no grudge against you. I simply want to set the record straight. I want you to stop for a moment, and get a glimpse of my world. This job is hard, and if I had a better choice, I wouldn't be doing it, but, like they say "When the desirable is not available, the available becomes desirable". I wanted to be a doctor, please don't laugh at me. I would have made it if Papa hadn't abandoned my mother when I was 14. He left her for Fatimah, a woman that sold food close to his work place. He was a railway worker. His pay was not much but it was enough to take care of his wife and three children. At least we never went to school hungry, and we ate rice with meat every Sunday. He used to buy Suya every evening, and on few occasions, we even killed a ram. Papa would call all our neighbours and we'd all eat together and be happy. He was that kind of man. It all started one night when he came home late, reeking of alcohol. Mama confronted him and he beat her, he beat her in front of us. Everything changed after that. His late night home-comings intensified, and the quarrels acquired a new dimension. He'd beat Mama, and after that, he'd rape her in our presence. We were kids, we couldn't do anything. We just cried and cried and begged him not to hurt our mother but he did anyway. One night, he wanted to hit her with a stick, and I held him back, it took all the courage in me to do that, but I did. I held him by the legs, and we both toppled to the ground. He was shouting and threatening to kill us all, and my mother and sisters kept on crying and pleading with me to let him go, but I held on to him, until our neighbors intervened. He stopped paying our school fees after that, stopped bringing money for food. He became a stranger. One night he didn't come back. We had left the door open thinking that he would come back later in the night but when we woke up in the morning, his place on the sofa was empty. We waited for one week, two weeks, two months, still no sign of him, until one day, Mama's customer at the market told her that she saw her husband at Fatimah's house. They were now living together and he seemed happy to her she said. Mama was devastated but she didn't show it. She is a strong woman. She bore it all in silence, and never complained. Her small income from her petty trade was not enough to pay the rent and feed us, let alone send us to school. I had to stop going to school to help her with family responsibilities. At 14, I had become a man, and I had to take care of my mother. My uncle said that when he visited one Sunday. "kunle, you are now a man, you hear me, you are now a man, you have to start taking care of your mother and little sisters". Baba Seyi, our neighbor owned a bus. One evening, I heard him telling my Mama that his conductor made away with his money, that he couldn't trust any these boys anymore and that he was considering selling the bus to go into Hemp business. I heard there is money there now, he said. I heard Mama strongly advise him against such illegal business. It would land you in prison, she said. When he left, I went to mama, and told her that I would like to join Baba Seyi as his conductor. I would make a lot of money, and she and my siblings wouldn't have to suffer anymore. At first she was hesitant. She said it was too risky and that conductors were touts. No, that wasn't her dream for her son. I was going to be a doctor. You will be a doctor, eh Kunle, you hear me? You will be a doctor! Olorun a ran wa lo wo. (God will help us)You hear? Yes Mami. I joined Baba seyi anyway and lied to him that Mama had given her consent. When I came home with my first five hundred Naira, Mama was overjoyed. She danced around the room and praised me. Okomi, she said, God will bless you. We didn't have the discussion again. I was now employed as a conductor. At first I was polite to passengers, but I soon discovered that politeness isn't a virtue in this job. Many of them stalled on paying for their fares, until you forgot and they alighted. Several times I had to fill in with my own money, because Baba Seyi would not hear of a missing penny. So I put my buttocks down and learnt the trade. I learned to feign my voice, to make it croaky and hoarse. I leant to squeeze my face, to give myself this unattractive and dangerous look. I learnt to hop in and out of moving vehicles, to shout the hell out of any passenger intent on dulling my hustle, to fight any over-ambitious Agbero. I learnt them all. I toughened my skin, because in this our job, you are either on top of your game or you are out. I am not always like this. What you see in the bus is just a front. At home I am the sweetest person you'd ever meet. I have to be like this to keep my job. So when I shout on you, and call you all sorts of names, do not take it personal. You would help matters if you gave me your fare when I ask for it and learned to be a little bit patient with me when I’m still looking for change to give you. Sometimes I may forget or you may forget, and I have to be honest, at times I pray that you do, because when you forget your change, My driver won't know about it. The money goes into my pocket. However when you want to remind me of your change, please be polite, you are supposed to be the civilized person. I apologize for the other day, I didn't mean to call you an Olofofo, but you pushed me, you pushed me. Was it my fault that you entered with 1000 naira? You heard me saying "500, 1000 no enter o", but you entered anyway, and when I could not find change to give you, you started abusing me. I forgive you. I know it’s hard sometimes, this Lagos traffic. It can get to you in ways you can't imagine. See, we don't have to be this way, you and I. We aren't enemies. After all without you I wouldn't have this job, and without me, well, I won’t say you wouldn't be able to move around, but I make it a lot easier for you. We need each other. See this letter as a kind of white flag, and if you can, share it with your friends, I cannot write to everyone. I have to continue my hustle. I just hope I have been able to say something worth saying, I don't know. All I know is that these words that I have so painstakingly written to you wouldn't have stayed unsaid. They would have burned a crater in my heart, and found a way out anyway. I do feel a lot better. Write to me if you can. I'd like to hear your side of the story.

SOURCE:ttps://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/peaceafrica

“There is no money, no work due to the unemployment situation in the country. So football gives me something to look forward to and a reason to leave home. When I’m hungry and I’m watching football, I won’t feel the hunger until after the match. When I’m at home, I tend to quarrel with my parents, but by going out to watch football, it saves all of us the troubles. If not for football, maybe a lot of youths will be depressed today, but somehow, football keeps us sane.”

http://www.punchng.com/feature/how-nigerias-poor-make-the-rich-richer/

Chiamaka01: I hope Keshi included Osaze's name in that list. If not, mtcheew.

1 goal per 9 month striker!

Adikam: I realy miss OSAZE ODENWINGIE...it pains me to see eagles line'up witout him.

What do you miss in a striker that averages a goal in nine month?A period for carrying a pregnancy to term.

I still have a faint recollection of two of the characters,Harry and Sarah.What kind of genre is the film by the way,horror,science fiction ?

IN a swift reaction to the sealing off of the headquarters of the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries by the Lagos State government on Tuesday, the Director of Public Relations of the church, Pastor Louis Chidi, denied the news making the rounds that the church headquarters, located at Ijesha Bus Stop of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, was shut down.

Chidi said the allegation was not true. “The government only marked some areas with red ink and advised us to remove the obstruction. This did not happen on Tuesday but last Friday. So, we were surprised at the mischief behind the media buzz generated by the incident Wednesday. Some of the observations raised by the government had been complied with.

Reports claimed that the church was shut over alleged gross environmental abuse and erection of structures along Odo Asimawu Drainage Channel.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news-metro/135115-lords-chosen-denies-sealing-off-of-headquarters-

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has gone to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is overseeing the destruction of poison gas stockpiles in Syria. Announcing the award in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, the Nobel committee praised the organisation for its extensive work in eliminating chemical weapons. Under its supervision, nearly eighty per cent of the world's chemical weapons stockpile has been destroyed. The OPCW was set up in 1997 to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention -- one of the world's most successful disarmament treaties.

Biblical scholars will be appearing at the 'Covert Messiah' Conference at Conway Hall in London on the 19th of October to present this controversial discovery to the British public.

American Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill will be appearing before the British public for the first time in London on the 19th of October to present a controversial new discovery: ancient confessions recently uncovered now prove, according to Atwill, that the New Testament was written by first-century Roman aristocrats and that they fabricated the entire story of Jesus Christ. His presentation will be part of a one-day symposium entitled "Covert Messiah" at Conway Hall in Holborn (full details can be found at http://www.covertmessiah.com/).

Although to many scholars his theory seems outlandish, and is sure to upset some believers, Atwill regards his evidence as conclusive and is confident its acceptance is only a matter of time. "I present my work with some ambivalence, as I do not want to directly cause Christians any harm," he acknowledges, "but this is important for our culture. Alert citizens need to know the truth about our past so we can understand how and why governments create false histories and false gods. They often do it to obtain a social order that is against the best interests of the common people."

Atwill asserts that Christianity did not really begin as a religion, but a sophisticated government project, a kind of propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of the Roman Empire. "Jewish sects in Palestine at the time, who were waiting for a prophesied warrior Messiah, were a constant source of violent insurrection during the first century," he explains. "When the Romans had exhausted conventional means of quashing rebellion, they switched to psychological warfare. They surmised that the way to stop the spread of zealous Jewish missionary activity was to create a competing belief system. That's when the 'peaceful' Messiah story was invented. Instead of inspiring warfare, this Messiah urged turn-the-other-cheek pacifism and encouraged Jews to 'give onto Caesar' and pay their taxes to Rome."

Was Jesus based on a real person from history? "The short answer is no," Atwill insists, "in fact he may be the only fictional character in literature whose entire life story can be traced to other sources. Once those sources are all laid bare, there's simply nothing left."

Atwill's most intriguing discovery came to him while he was studying "Wars of the Jews" by Josephus [the only surviving first-person historical account of first-century Judea] alongside the New Testament. "I started to notice a sequence of parallels between the two texts," he recounts. "Although it's been recognised by Christian scholars for centuries that the prophesies of Jesus appear to be fulfilled by what Josephus wrote about in the First Jewish-Roman war, I was seeing dozens more. What seems to have eluded many scholars is that the sequence of events and locations of Jesus ministry are more or less the same as the sequence of events and locations of the military campaign of [Emperor] Titus Flavius as described by Josephus. This is clear evidence of a deliberately constructed pattern. The biography of Jesus is actually constructed, tip to stern, on prior stories, but especially on the biography of a Roman Caesar."

How could this go unnoticed in the most scrutinised books of all time? "Many of the parallels are conceptual or poetic, so they aren't all immediately obvious. After all, the authors did not want the average believer to see what they were doing, but they did want the alert reader to see it. An educated Roman in the ruling class would probably have recognised the literary game being played." Atwill maintains he can demonstrate that "the Roman Caesars left us a kind of puzzle literature that was meant to be solved by future generations, and the solution to that puzzle is 'We invented Jesus Christ, and we're proud of it.'"

Is this the beginning of the end of Christianity? "Probably not," grants Atwill, "but what my work has done is give permission to many of those ready to leave the religion to make a clean break. We've got the evidence now to show exactly where the story of Jesus came from. Although Christianity can be a comfort to some, it can also be very damaging and repressive, an insidious form of mind control that has led to blind acceptance of serfdom, poverty, and war throughout history. To this day, especially in the United States, it is used to create support for war in the Middle East."

Atwill encourages skeptics to challenge him at Conway Hall, where after the presentations there is likely to be a lively Q&A session. Joining Mr.Atwill will be fellow scholar Kenneth Humphreys, author of the book "Jesus Never Existed."

Further information can be found at http://www.covertmessiah.com/.

About Joseph Atwill: Joseph Atwill is the author of the best-selling book "Caesar's Messiah" and its upcoming sequel "The Single Strand."

http://www.reunionblackfamily.com/apps/blog/show/33745606-biblical-scholars-confession-found-we-invented-jesus-christ-

I have this weird feeling that some prayers actually are the cause of our problems as individuals and as a nation..the Bible says that, " The prayer of a sinner is an abomination in the sight of God"..when i hear our leaders asking us to pray and even our Lawmakers now 'GETTING SET TO PRAY AGAINST TERRORISM AND AIR CRASHES' i can't help but ask if God actually has answers for such prayers from a people terrorism and corruption has come to live with..do we need prayers or do we need to work hard and fix whatever is needed to improve the life of every Nigerian?..did people like Dangote, Bill Gates, Oprah and so many rich people get to where they are now because of how hard they prayed? what about the developed nations? was it prayers that fixed their infrastructure and developed their countries especially those hotels our rich citizens stay in and those hospitals they visit when they are sick??.. if what is needed is prayers why is Israel the chosen people of God always under attacks from her enemies?

This Friday, the Nobel committee announces the 2013 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. As far as global opinion is concerned, the award is a 16-year-old Pakistani girl’s to lose.

Long before she became a global symbol of children’s education, Malala Yousufzai was one girl squirming under the thumb of the Pakistani Taliban, whose draconian interpretation of Islamic law saw girls’ schools closed in her hometown of Mingora in early 2009. In a frank and witty blog published on the BBC Urdu website under a pseudonym, Malala, then 11-years-old, chafed at the new regulations that limited her freedom, stopped her from learning and kept her from seeing her friends. The pseudonym, of course, was meant to protect her identity, but it was not long before her private persona—the outspoken daughter of a prominent school administrator—meshed with her public one, and she took her demand that a girls’ right to education be recognized across Pakistan to a national audience, appearing several times on TV talk shows and eventually in an international documentary. “I wanted to speak up for my rights,” she told the BBC on Monday, when reminiscing about her early activism. “And also I didn’t want my future to be just sitting in a room and be imprisoned in my four walls and just cooking and giving birth to children. I didn’t want to see my life in that way.”

Malala’s adolescent campaign to educate her country’s girls might have stuttered along with little more than a condescending pat on the head for years—after all, Pakistan, riven by insurgencies, beset by economic crisis and threatened by the advance of a fundamentalist uprising in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, was simply struggling to maintain status quo—but for the fact that the Taliban tried to keep her quiet. On Oct. 9, 2012, long after Malala’s quest had faded from national headlines, a gunman bounded into her school bus one afternoon and shot her point blank in the face. That Malala survived, with her mind, her voice and her luminous smile still intact, is nothing short of miraculous. Whether that miracle is attributable to God, as Malala says, or to the doctors in Pakistan who performed the initial surgery to relieve swelling on the brain and the surgeons in Birmingham, England who followed up with reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation therapy, is immaterial compared to what she did next. She kept fighting.

Less than four months after the shooting, Malala appeared in a video announcing that she was taking her campaign for girl’s education global through a new charity: “I want every girl, every child to be educated. And for that reason, we have organized Malala Fund.” On March 19, 2013, she returned to school, this time in Birmingham. On July 12, her 16th birthday, she appeared before the United Nations at a specially-convened assembly of 1000 youth leaders to exhort nations to make education a priority. “Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons,” she said in a voice ringing with strength and conviction. “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.”

(MORE: Malala’s global celebrity not matched at home.)

By winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala would join a long list of recipients that have sought to achieve peace through human development, from Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank in 2006 to Médecins Sans Frontières in 1999. To Malala, peace and education are inextricable; without one, you can’t have the other. “I hope that a day will come [when] the people of Pakistan will be free, they will have their rights, there will be peace and every girl and every boy will be going to school,” she told the BBC. Peace, she suggested, starts with a conversation. “The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue,” she told the BBC, an exhortation that she hopes her Taliban attackers will follow as well. “They must do what they want through dialogue,” she said. “Killing people, torturing people and flogging people … it’s totally against Islam. They are misusing the name of Islam.”

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman quickly rejoined with a threat, telling AFP “We will target her again and attack whenever we have the chance.” It’s a threat that Malala easily shrugs off. “I don’t know why, but hearing I was being targeted did not worry me,” she wrote about earlier Taliban threats against her and her family in her recently-released autobiography, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. “It seemed to me that everyone knows they will die one day. So I should do whatever I want to do.” In an appearance Tuesday on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, after he offered to adopt her, Malala recounted an early conversation she had with herself when she first heard of Taliban threats to her life, when she was 12. First, she said, she thought she would hit any Taliban attacker with her shoe—a comment that drew hearty chuckles. She added: “I said to myself, if you hit a Talib with your shoe, there will be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with that much cruelty and harshness. You must fight others, but through peace and through dialogue and through education.” Then, she said to herself, “I will tell him how important education is and that I even want education for [his] children as well.” Even Stewart choked up.

Little seems to have changed in the wake of the shooting. “I was spared for a reason — to use my life for helping people,” she writes in her book. In the BBC interview, she reiterated her desire to return to Pakistan one day to become a politician. One that will make education compulsory for both boys and girls. If anything, she says, the Taliban attack only amplified her voice. “When I was shot they thought the people would be silenced, they thought that no one would talk,” she told the BBC. “I think they might be repenting why they shot Malala.”

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/10/09/malala-marches-on-toward-the-nobel-peace-prize/#ixzz2hKqJes7r

A boss and his subordinate!