₦airaland Forum

I assume this photo is real. It is outlandish to me. If the man feels insecure our is responding to any specific threats, it would be more appropriate to secure the perimeters of the church, scan the congregation as they enter the building, install intelligent cameras that are scanned for unusual movements.
It does seem to me that he is ready for assault, while delivering a sermon. How can he concentrate?

Why haven't the banks gone to court?

AnanseK: He is in second term my friend. He was sworn in twice and if sworn in again he will be president for 10 years. The limit is 8 years in 2 terms.

Are you serious about this interpretation of presidential tenure?
Does being a vice president foreclose any hopes of running for two terms if your superior dies in office, reasons or is impeached?
The evil politicians are having a tough time among themselves choosing who will continue the raping of nigeria, the raped find it amusinp.
Shame!

I believe that truth should be accepted every time, every ounce of it, not to be based on its ratio with falsehood or ignorance. What the foreign media (BBC and others) air most of the time are the truths about our dark sides...the slums and jungles and wars. If they choose to keep silent on our finer sides, it doesn't mean we should reject the truth of our dark sides. What it does for me personally is to strive to make things better where they are not.

Africans who have seen the world also know that there are dark sides everywhere, homeless people in UK, people without electricity connection in the US...stuff like that. For instance, I have observed that Aljazeera uses a lower camera resolution when filming parts of the US. When I see US streets and buildings on Aljazeera, it doesn't look quite as glossy as it is on CNN or BBC. When they did a report on the electioneering system in the US during the last presidential elections, I heard ordinary US citizens complaining about corruption, dirty money and all sorts of intrigues, you'd almost think they were paid by Aljazeera to say those things...but behold, they are true! It doesn't make americans complain that Aljazeera is showing their dark sides. They simply notch up their own propaganda and make it louder than Aljazeera's.

I'm not bothered at all by any report by BBC, skewed or not. I'm only bothered by the level of our resolve to make things better and better...and better for ourselves.

icebeatz: In this shocking report by PM news, pastor Okotie of HouseHold of God Church openly condemned catholics during his sermon last week

''All Catholics in the world will go to hell because they worship Satan and are led by an Anti-Christ Pope who is a friend to the devil.They are not Christians and have never been. They don’t know Jesus.They believe thatwhen they eat bread on Sundays, they are eating the body of Jesus. It’s ritual. The pope is an Anti-Christ and the Catholic church will soon declare for Satan. This is the end of times..“They don’t believe in heaven. They believe in purgatory, the purgatory that they invented,” Okotie said.

Luke 22:19 [quote KJV Bible]And he (Jesus) took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you; THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.[/quote]If Okotie really said this, please let him explain the passage also.

I know a member of his congregation who is full of interesting insights from his sermons. From what I learn from him, I strongly doubt Okotie made these remarks...perhaps the context is missing...I judge not.

Symphony007: Chei ya! Stella oduah must think nigerians are a bunch of simpletons. This is the length you'll go to justify your having amoured cars. You must have a fetish for those cars. Don't worry. You have convinced us. The nigerian army will soon dash you one tank. I'm sure that's even safer that amoured BMW's.

A spokesperson for the police has confirmed this report and says an investigation is underway. Why would you make such a comment while ballistics results are awaited?
Does this mean you are omniscient and already know for sure nobody shot a projectile at the vehicle. Aren't you biased then?

Not only oil companies in Nigeria request Masters/PhD. Many job add for geosciences require this, the reason is best known to them.
If you can afford a Masters, anywhere, go for it. If not, don't let the barriers hold you back. Do a deep introspection of your capabilities and move in other directions. Anyone who really studied geophysics can also be a good algorithm developer, a programmer...etc. The world isn't fair, just keep moving while you throw in applications when you see them.

iamswizz: Believe me....Nigeria might divide

Believe me...Nigeria will not. During the next elections, muslim politicians in the north will plot hard to be installed as president. If they succeed, they will negotiate with BH. Because they have no principles, they will shove amnesty down their throat, give them a free hand to install whatever sharia law they want in the north eastern states, turn a blind eye and continue the looting from where their predecessor stopped...but this time they will be looting in peace.

Asari down south could have a second jail journey if this happens, and if he is lucky.

My take.

ShehuAba: Okay sir, let me first of all say that the article is meant to learn from a person's mistake i.e From an Islamic angle.
I stated categorically that many muslims are in this same situation but just don't do anything about it.
As per the hatred you said you perceive in it. I dare to ask you. Hatred for what or for who?
As regards a muslim marrying a non! Muslim, that is the teachings of Islam, and if you look at it from a realistic point of view, compatibility is needed for a succesful marriage, except that's met, it's contrary to islamic teachings.
Thanks for contributing

I know an Ibo christian woman who is married to a hausa muslim man. They have an enviable marriage going for them. Surely, someday, both of them shall know the incontrovertible and incorruptible truth....together.

MAYOWAAK: The civil resistance to Christianity in China, India and Japan says something about the differential resilience and tenacity of different cultures and peoples to resist foreign assaults on the integrity of their essences.The resistance is of course through the agency of the people and community who protect their institutions.This tenacity of other people's resistance to foreign imposition,no matter how well packaged,contrasts the case of black humanity globally.African communities have proven to be the least loyal to their corporate essences-the integrity of culture,including religion.Africans,both at home and in diaspora,may thus be said to have a high gullibility quotient.We are willing clients to every nonsensical garbage from abroad sold to us.

Surely, this doesn't apply to everything. In this same black africa, we killed twins because we thought they were evil, but we were made to learn the biology that produced them. In this same black africa, we trekked miles and miles, until we were introduced to bicycles, cars and trains. Dare think of airplanes

Regarding faith, you could be left to your own convictions. However, I do know that I have profited much from dropping Ikenga and Amadioha and believing in Jesus, as the son of the Most High (I have read a muslim forum that questioned how god could have a biological son, and I simply shook my head and left).

Femmyfamous4u: I weep for my country Nigeria for such profligacy of the highest order $8bn?? When Dangote is to build the largest refinery in africa and biggest fertiliser plant with $9bn. When will GEJ stop the milking of Nigeria's economy. This is way way too wasteful. Believe me, all this is for his personal gains . We have Four refineries in the country and they cannot all be repaired to full capacity? Or build another even if he has to borrow? He keeps borrowing with nothing to show for it. This is so heart-wrenching. GEJ has really brought badluck to Nigeria.

Not only GEJ, but every single one of them before him. You now live in an internet age where you get information as it happens. In the AFRC days of IBB, you would hear this information one month after...if you haven't missed any news bulletin and buy papers everyday.

smithsammy: you try ooooo! You typed this long in other to show your foolishness. The fact that you are educated does not mean your are knowledgeable figure. All your assertions here has no single usefullness. Mind you, "Different data for different purpose" so, you want to prove that you are smart right? Taaaa!

Is this a response to an intelligent discussion or is this a rant and insult? Is this what nairaland is for?
Am I restricted by any forum rules on how long I must type? How do you know I am educated? How do you know I am not knowledgeable?
How do you know I want to prove I am smart? Are you nervous about something?
I think you have made some really questionable assertions

Let me ask you, how do you think Google has managed to gather so much data on any single internet-ready individual than any corporation or government in the world? Did they sound a registration gong for everyone to respond to? Google knows the make of the phone you use, and the record of apps you have every downloaded with dates and location. They know you phone number, even your own government can't match your face to your name because of endless data registration exercises that last only while a man is in power.
Lagos should get smart, not get loud.

Lagos State is proceeding with signs of half-measures and official nervousness...whether this will be good or bad depends on a lot of variables that are yet to unfold.

I worked in a formal sector for five years until a three years ago. My PAYE tax was deducted at source and it was reflected in my payslip. I also got a tax identification from the State for one year, I didn't get for the rest of the five years due to several administrative and collaboration incompetencies between the formal sector and the State government.

When I stopped working three years ago, of course my tax stopped going to the government, because there was nothing to tax anymore.
Now I wonder, does Lagos still have my data in their tax database? Did they observe that my tax ID had suddenly stopped spitting taxes? Did they transfer my data to an unemployment database due to inactivity? Did they write me a letter, SMS, phone call to inquire my status? None of the above. Did the State care that I had suddenly become unemployed?

Now this brings me to my question. What is the essence of this exercise? I understand the setting up of the agency - LASRRA, but I don't get the urgency or need to for the mass action. This has always been a major bane of Nigeria, attempting to round up solutions, as opposed to gathering discrete solutions. Let me give you numerous examples, and add this to the tax story I started with.

My two kids were born in a private clinic in Lagos. A day after their births, over two years, I promptly registered them at the population office a stone throw away, located in the same compound as a police station and LCDA. If Lagos has a regulated health sector, then even private clinics are obliged to report births every week. Lagos has a data entry point here.

I live in an area that is fast developing in terms of physical houses and shops. Within the enclosure (which we commonly refer to as 'estates' in Lagos), there was no form of layout or planning, consequently, residents have built houses on irregular-sided streets, making for a nasty and unsightly development. Each time when I have courage to ponder it, I wonder where the government was when these smash-and-grab developments were coming up. Of course we have no paved roads or water supply (as it is in Ikeja and environs, you have to dig your own borehole). However, a waste disposal concessionaire covers the estate, and residents are subscribed to them, paying N1,000.00 monthly. I get receipts from these guys every month, and I wonder, if Lagos State regulate these waste concessionaires, then Lagos will have an accurate demography of the residents in my estate, through our waste disposal subscriptions. Most, if not all of these 'estates' have vibrant residents' associations with elections that produce their excos, and they meet every sanitation saturday to discuss mutual issues. Another data entry point.

I update my vehicle's registration every year, through the popular Autoreg scheme. As part of my fees (N1,500.00), I am charged for SMS notification. My phone number is also entered in this data. Since 2008, I have only received one SMS notification (2009), and after that have never received for the next 4 years. The money has gone somewhere, hasn't it? (but let's leave that for now). Another data entry point for Lagos as a State.

During every election, we pretend it is our first election and vote huge sums of money for voter registration. Meanwhile, right under our noses, thousands of students just passed out through our secondary school system and commonsense demands that we sanction NECO & UTME to furnish us with the list of registrants that year, so we can add them to the eligible voters list. The State can also add the registrants/students of school within the State and correlate their guardian/parent information with whatever existed previously. This is another data entry point.

For those who drop out and continue to learn some trade, if the State has got its acts right, they would learn a trade/do apprenticeship under an already tax-registered artisan. If artisans are required by State laws to divulge certain information (e.g number of apprentices working under you and their names) every year in their tax returns, then the State can source an applaudable percentage of the demographic data it requires to do anything. Another data entry point.

When cases are brought to the State magistrate courts (and other courts in the State), another data entry point is available.
There are many more potential data entry points for Lagos, but these will do for now. My point is restated, why do we enjoy rounding up solutions in Nigeria?

The police does it through mass arrests instead of putting together discrete pieces of evidence.
FRSC does it through en masse vehicle re-registration instead of collecting individual data on every vehicle license and DL renewal across the country (facilitated by honest collaborations with State governments).
INEC does same every four years instead of collaborating with hospitals/morgues (for death certificate data), schools (for SSCE/NECO/UTME registration data), Immigrations (for passport application/renewal data). Countless agencies of government engage in the same en masse, knee-jerk and momentary solutions.

We often accuse the FG of practicing a unitary system, in turn, the States also practice unitary systems by stifling the autonomy of the LGs (even through their laws and the ones sponsored by their senators and reps) and concentrating everything upon the executive governor's office, instead of strengthening the services and institutions I mentioned in the examples above. Lagos, and indeed any other State can generate all the demographic data it needs by strengthening and reforming its local institutions, not by the unitary act of registering residents en masse, as if there is about to be one huge roll call event...or is there?

How is it going with the Lagos drivers' license thing? Active or dormant?

I wish Lagos success in another en masse, rounded-up, unitary solution to the challenges that come with statehood.

OP,

Who do you mean by 'The Church'?

The church is the body of Christ. Consider the reality that many groups of christians have gone ahead to set up their 'church companies' and gone on to teach whatever that makes them popular. Also consider that many christians still learn everyday and do their best to teach and follow the truth.
Therefore, it will be unfair to just use the phrase 'The Church' to refer to all christians, although this should be true ordinarily, but it is a well known fact that false teachers, careless teachers and blind followers abound these days.

The anglican communion has ordained women priests in some dioceses. Women preach sermons in the anglican communion when they are appointed or they ask for the opportunity, just like anyone else. In my history so far in the anglican communion, I have not seen women treated to or told these misinterpretations. The anglican communion is not perfect, and has its shortcomings, but I am not led by institutions, I am only led by quiet meditation on the truth. All christians should learn this way too.

A human being is kidnapped (snatched away physically)
A ransom call is made (connected via telecoms infrastructure under the regulatory control of the Federal Republic of Nigeria)
Money is put together by the family or company (Physical cash)
Money is dumped or placed in a predetermined space (physical location)
Money is picked up by a cash rat (physical collection)
Police lays ambush and waits for money to be picked up.
Police team also keeps an eye out for the release of the victim.
Police team splits into two, one secures the victim and transports him/her to an appropriate debriefing area. Second team tails the cash rat until it enters its hole.
I see no rocket science here, only the art of weak will and selective application.
Hello Nigeria...see you in the thrash bin if we as citizens refuse to wake up, ask questions and follow it up.

Adejoro74: Politics and leadership (for good or bad): Obasanjo
Wealth and business acumen (whether real or fronting for others): Dangoge
Literature: Achebe: most roundly accomplished and most read literary giant
Sports: Kanu Nwanko
Highest degree: Ndubuisi Ekekwe: holds two PhD degrees and contributing to Africa's IT development in ways no other Nigerian has
Selflessness (as far as the eye can see): Dora Akunyili
Service to their people: Awo and Ojukwu
Religion?
Culture?

It's quite easy to agree with you...

@amansu,

I sound like a GEJ/PEJ PR hireling by asking Nigerians to build their electoral character? Or by reminding Nigerians of the chronic abuse of power and privilege by past first ladies?

If you won't have a rethink, then I can tell you that it is short-tempered, narrow-minded opinions like yours that cause our chronic memory loss as citizens.

PEJ has carried about her business of being first lady in ways that are considered below par by most of us, yes that is true. But attacking her as if she is the problem with our democracy or development is hypocrisy. Instead, attack the structure of governance that condones the use of state funds for personal business, or the dumbness of a senate or state house of assembly that is simply an appendage and annex of the executive. There are many things we ought to salvage here, not hipping curses and haranguing PEJ. She as an individual is far from the problem we wish to solve. When we elect real constitutional watchdogs in the senate and house of reps, then show me how a PEJ alone can desecrate the constitution without the hammer falling on her.

In my objective opinion, Gej and Pej are unlucky to be occupying Aso Rock in this era of unscripted media and unrehearsed motions.

I think this era should dramatically change the way we view our leaders, elect them and eject them...but Nigerians are failing at that...and thriving at hypocrisy and shadow chasing.

In the abuse of power or political privilege, a miss is as good as a mile.

Many of the things our elected executives do today are unconstitutional. From annexing local government funds to appointing interim local councils and delaying elections forever by state governors. Everybody is guilty.

Pej's actions seem very outlandish only because of how we receive the information and are made aware. The internet.

The shadow we are chasing here is thinking that she is the worst thing that has happened to the office of the presidency.

Our democracy is sick, nobody asks questions and acts upon it.
ACN should democratically explain why there are no primaries in their party.
Again my point, Pej is no different from our past...let us deal with the culture of abuse of power, not by pointing her out and personalizing it. But by pointing all of them out and showing them the door.

ewet: In wht way culd you have compared your hippotamus jesus christ on earth cald PEJ with the honurable and yet graceful Fati Abubarkar or the delectable mariam babangida or resplendent stella Obasanjo even the very beautiful and quite mariam abacha.Josephine Gowon who even got wedded in the state house,we also had hajiya buhari and Ajoke o Mohammed.

Your PIG does not in anyway measure up to any of these real ladies mentioned.

Your resplendent Stella Obasanjo also shut down state capitals when she travelled to states.

Your delectable Mariam Babangida was perhaps the advent of the blurring of lines between state funds and personal funds.

Beautiful Maryam Abacha...had beauty become a model to emulate or copy? She simply and quietly followed the footsteps of Maryam Babangida in the use of state funds for personal agenda.

I am incompetent to comment on Josephine Gowon...I wasn't even born then.

Fati Abubakar seems to be the rare exception...her husband's regime went straight to the point of return to civil rule. I think she can and should be emulated. The others are equally poor examples of first ladies that should be emulated...please...except we are more chasing shadows instead of the essence of the privilege.

How short and deficient can our national memories really be? Smh.

I disagree with Joe Igbokwe.

These kind of men tempt me to label mankind as a brand of hypocrisy.

I am really appalled by our intractable first lady's machinations, however, in response to Joe Igbokwe, I must state that PEJ has introduced nothing new in this continuum of abuse of power by incumbent Presidents, Governors and their wives.

I have always pointed out that in the times we live, situations seem more dire, actions appear to be more widespread, effects seem more impactful on our psyche all because of the internet and information super highway.

Have we forgotten all those sudden removal of military sole administrators without explanation or reason? Can we ever know the source of the intrigues that characterized so many regime changes and power play right from the IBB regime (he started this subtle inclusion of office of first lady into our national consciousness).
We become aware of situations today almost at the speed of light. If this Rivers saga had happened under IBB, assuming it was a democracy, only a handful of Nigerians would have heard about it one month later.

My point is, let us drop this hyper hypocrisy. Everyone we have ever elected since IBB's transition program has indulged his wife in one scheme of abuse of power or the other at all levels of the executive. What we ought to do as citizens of Nigeria is to this modern tool of information (internet and social media) to build our electoral character, take hold of our full powers to recall elected individuals or reject them in subsequent rounds of elections...not to spread hypocrisy.

emk4lif: Thank goodness she din't claim some God was responsible....the beauty of science.....

God has formed the universe, created all its consistent laws. If mankind has existed for so long, it has taken humanity as long to discover scattered parts of this law. A3 ever discovery, mankind celebrates his quest, and largely ignores the intelligence that created the elements of those laws.
Newton discovered gravity and is being celebrates, the celebrants don't pause to contemplate the glory of the intelligence that formed the great magnet at the earth's core.
Science is only a quest, and in due time, we will understand the harmony of all things. Celebrating science alone is a show of great ignorance.

GenBuhari: Whilst the professor has a record of speaking against human rights, he seems very content with accepting massive looting and corruption.

Looting and corruption in governments (around the world) are like the heat of the sun. While the sun if necessary for many purposes on earth, its scorching can be unbearable and dangerous. Only concerted endeavours and vigilance can save you (a nation) from the scorching sun, while utilizing its presence positively.
Casting such aspersion on Soyinka (the way you did) is like asking a man putting out a nearby consuming forest fire for not first putting out the heat of the sun.

Afam4eva: This may be a case of putting the cart before the horse but look at it this way. These generator importers have been the ones responsible for frustrating the power efforts of previous governments. So, putting them out of business will go a long way in putting them in their place so that the government will concentrate more on getting the power situation fixed.

When the government is insincere about a project, they are quick to build the argument that there are people frustrating their efforts...some unseen, intractable spirits huh?
When they want to build the vice president's house, do the 5 star hoteliers in abuja frustrate their efforts do that the VP and his retinue of entourage will continue patronizing the 5 star hotels?
That kind of reasoning...

Buhari has been running since last decade. In that time, it has just been him. I don't see young followers around him. He doesn't cut across the spectrum of nigerians. Why did he limit his campaigns last time? It's not funds, its something else.

That classic nigerian response to elections and parties and politicking...seekung change where it does not exist.
As we debate, there is no law, written or unwritten, that prevents any politician from switching political parties. At the flick of his kleptomanic fingers, upon the whims of his selfserving wishes, he can decamp to the standing ovation of another political party at the right signs of opportunity.
Having said that, what stops major pdp members today from decamping to an "APC" (Any Political Camp) after 2015? Atiku has done it, Ngige has, so has the senator from Abia too, Uche Chukwumerije...there are many more and they won't be the last of them. These men must have a colour coded calendar by their bedside to remind them of which side they are on everytime they wake up in the morning.
My point is, Nigerians must learn to hold leaders accountable. Gej may be performing below expectation today, but because we continue to fail to hold him and his ministers,imperial governors accountable, we will also fail to hold Tinubu and co accountable.
If they oust PDP, the latter's members retail simply switch parties, it doesn't cost a thing!
This is the reason americans and america have continued to prosper come Democrat or Republican.
Buhari should back a younger politician whom he has mentored. If at his age now he hasn't mentored anyone, then we cannot have him, because his leadership would be all about him, and I wonder what will happen when he leaves too.

No matter how loud the G8 gets on this matter, they cannot do what Nigerians ought to do for themselves.
Nigerians are not ready to look beyond their noses. Every view point is blurred by mythical ethnic differences that only exist in the dirty minds of evil politicians and their cloned followers.
I weep and pray and hope...

Must say these are quite witty answers from the sheikh.

I'm not a muslim. I have often wondered the reasons behind some customs in Islam. I imagine o could ask the same questions if I were to meet the sheikh. Below are further questions to the sheikh:

1. Not everyone is allowed to approach or shake the queen Elizabeth, but she may choose to shake our honor whomsoever she wishes. As the british queen has been introduced into this logic (even though Islam is older than the emergence of the british queen as a powerful monarch in the absence if a make successor to the british throne), are women in Islam allowed to utilize this privilege too?

2. If sweets can used to symbolize women, does this mean they are consumables? Especially as no mention of the covering or exposure of men was made.

3. I agree with the logic that the glory of God is too bright that when out of present, you do not require the sun. No man has seen God.

4. If the wine is forbidden, and is at the same time referred to as the "daughter", does this imply that muslim men are not allowed to marry muslim girls? Or conversely, that muslim girls are meant for non muslims to marry?
This arises directly from the sheikh's response, because he rejects the wine (daughter) that came from the grape (wife)...but the wine (daughter) must get married some time.

I'm not in any way ridiculing Islam, I'm simply responding to the specific analogy used. Perhaps there are better answers out there to the non muslim's questions.

Must say these are quite witty answers from the sheikh.

I'm not a muslim. I have often wondered the reasons behind some customs in Islam. I imagine o could ask the same questions if I were to meet the sheikh. Below are further questions to the sheikh:

1. Not everyone is allowed to approach or shake the queen Elizabeth, but she may choose to shake our honor whomsoever she wishes. As the british queen has been introduced into this logic (even though Islam is older than the emergence of the british queen as a powerful monarch in the absence if a make successor to the british throne), are women in Islam allowed to utilize this privilege too?

2. If sweets can used to symbolize women, does this mean they are consumables? Especially as no mention of the covering or exposure of men was made.

3. I agree with the logic that the glory of God is too bright that when out of present, you do not require the sun. No man has seen God.

4. If the wine is forbidden, and is at the same time referred to as the "daughter", does this imply that muslim men are not allowed to marry muslim girls? Or conversely, that muslim girls are meant for non muslims to marry?
This arises directly from the sheikh's response, because he rejects the wine (daughter) that came from the grape (wife)...but the wine (daughter) must get married some time.

I'm not in any way ridiculing Islam, I'm simply responding to the specific analogy used. Perhaps there are better answers out there to the non muslim's questions.

I believe Biafra stands for the
"Bia Fraternity".

The ceremony ought to have commanded decorum from anyone invited or wishing to attend.

I would call in the police if I was an Ojukwu. Again, if all was well between the sons of Ojukwu and the MASSOB leader, one quick word or phone call between them would have killed this headline.