₦airaland Forum

Babinski:
You are wrong. That kind of division cannot lead to any meaningful development. Development comes from people pooling their strengths across ethnic divides.

What did thousands of years of ethnic-based groupings do for African development aside intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic supremacy and subjugation battles?

The Europeans came to trade with us in the 15th Century and met us underdeveloped and that was what led to colonization. We weren't advanced then even to the level of making a Dane gun.

Have you read Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu? You sound like you've read the book.

Hello everyone!
Thanks for your explanations on my last post. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.

So I have entered the book of Deuteronomy, and I have some questions. On the surface, it seems as though there are some discrepancies when Deuteronomy and Numbers narrate the same events.

1. In Deuteronomy 1:9-18, Moses said he was the one that suggested the Israelites split themselves into groups and select leaders to judge the case, but Exodus 18:13-27 said it was Jethro's idea. Now that I look at it, it makes sense. Perhaps it was already a known fact that Jethro gave the idea and there was no need saying it again in Deuteronomy.

2. But in Deuteronomy 1:19-25, the Israelites were the ones that suggested they send spies to explore the land and bring back a report, and in Number's 13:1-3, it says it was The LORD. In fact, in verse 3, it said Moses did as the LORD commanded him to choose the spies and all, but in Deuteronomy, Moses was like "it seemed like a good idea so I selected the spies" (1:23).

The thing is in Deuteronomy it seems as if the narrative is different. While the account in Numbers shows the great rebellion because the LORD commanded the spies to go, Deuteronomy makes it sound as if the people did something God wasn't a part of, and then it went wrong and they were forced to wander for 40 years.

Could anyone please explain to me?

Hello everyone!
Do you remember I planned to read through the Bible this year? Well, I got bogged down in Leviticus and early Numbers but I'm back now and working hard to meet the goal.

Yesterday I read this disturbing passage in Numbers 31. After the Midianite women seduced the Israelites and they started worshipping their idols, God sent a plague that killed thousands of people until Phineas, the son of Aaron, killed one of the men and women while they were having sex.

Later on, God, through Moses, commanded the Israelites to kill everybody in Midian. Utterly destroy them. But the Israelites kept some women and children alive. When they got back to the camp, Moses was angry. He made them kill all the male children and the women who were not virgins. They kept the women who were virgins for themselves, and some were given to the Lord.

So these are my questions;
1. Wasn't Moses somehow related to the Midianites? His father-in-law Jethro was a Midianite. His wife Zipporah was a Midianite. Didn't he have family there he cared about when giving the instruction to totally wipe them out? In fact, the Bible mentions his brother-in-law Hoban in Numbers 10:29. Moses begged him to stay with them, but he decided to return to Midian to stay with his family. Was he killed too? That's wild to me.

2. I understand why God would ask them to wipe out the entire tribe and all, and I even get why they had to kill the male children too. But why did they have to share the female virgins amongst themselves? In fact, in Numbers 31:28-40, it talked about the Lord's share of which included 32 virgin girls. I thought only Levites were permitted to serve in the temple (correct me if I'm wrong) so why ?

3. I'm not comfortable with the whole genocide and all. I get it, but it's disturbing. Or maybe I'm just reading an ancient book with my 21st century mind. But then people would say the word of God remains constant. So how is it OK for the Israelites to own slaves, and even commit genocide back in the BC era and it's an abomination in the 21st century?

I'm not an atheist. I believe God is good. I'm just trying to understand. Thank you very much for your time.

Hello everyone! I have some issues with my PC. So I use an Ubuntu 16.04 because I use a 32-bit machine (I know it's old, but it's what I can afford and it has been serving me well since I got it except when some products that no longer support 32-bits), and recently, it's as if the right click button clicks itself.
Like, I'd be browsing or coding or doing anything and then the menu that would come up if I right-click would come up on its own. When I left-click to get it out, it would still come back over and over again until I restart the laptop. After I restart, it would behave well for some time, and then the issue will start again.
I have tried using a different socket, I have disabled the touchpad and gotten an external mouse, I have tried that testing command from my terminal to check for ghost touches, I have tried all I know to do and yet the issue persists. Please what could be wrong? How do I fix this? Is this an OS issue? Do I have to reinstall a new OS? If I have to, could you recommend one that would be best for a 32-bit laptop? Right now, I can use Python 3.8 and React 14 on my Ubuntu 16; if you can recommend one that would still let me run the same versions or even something higher, I'd be grateful.
Thank you for your time.

Hello!
So I'm waiting to go for Batch A 2025 NYSC, but I just got an opportunity to intern as a front-end developer with a company in Port Harcourt. It's not a big place and I am yet to discuss pay and all with them.

I know this current batch will finish their camp on the 11th. I would like to ask some questions to help me make a choice here.

1. What's the estimated time difference between the end of camp for one batch and the start of registrations for the next?

2. I heard that there would be Ramadan fast from February ending to March, and there's no camp within that period. How true is this?

Thank you for your time. I genuinely appreciate.

danvon:
Okay, in ancient Sparta there were lots of slaves, the slaves were called Helots. The thing is that these slaves were not kept in chains, they even outnumbered the Spartans and they were organized but still they were slaves. They organized revolts occasionally but they were always beat down.

Why could they not fight back?

Because they didn't have the military knowledge or training, Spartans however began their military education at the age of seven which meant they would win any battle with inexperienced slaves.

Sparta also had a specific culture of closely watching the Helots, paying attention to those who seem to have military potential and executing them.

So the reasons why the Israelites couldn't fight back was because they couldn't, any attempt to fight back would lead to serious massacres.

Moses however could fight because he wasn't raised as a slave but was raised as a prince in the palace, he probably had more military knowledge and experience than the average Israelite.

It makes sense. Do you think there's a chance they could have tried before?

iamnotillicit:
They were not organized...

They were like in jail

I don't think so. When Moses came to deliver them, he met their leaders and stuff. They were.

danvon:
Because the story is fictional and was written for propaganda reasons.

Egypt was one of the greatest civilizations at that time, writing about how your God humbled the great Egyptians for you is fantastic propaganda.

Ps: There is no historical evidence that hebrews were ever slaves en masse in Egypt.

For the sake of argument, let's assume it wasn't. Or even if it is fictional, we can still analyse literature and comment on it can't we?

Kobojunkie:
You mean kind of like Nigerians are today fighting against the criminals and dictatorial regimes depriving them and their children of basic needs in 2025?

I see you. But then again, Nigerians have protested some laws they didn't fancy. Like the RUGA law. Or the CAMA bill. Or the one where we were going to be taxed some percentage for cyber protection or something.

Imagine if there was a law to kill all the male newborns of a certain tribe. I'm sure the tribes people would fight back.

So I have finished Genesis and I started Exodus today. I'm at the point where God called Moses from the burning bush.

I'm wondering: couldn't the Israelites have fought back against the Egyptians when Pharoah started his painful laws?

I mean, he actually gave an order for the male babies to be killed! Shouldn't that have been enough for the Hebrews to stand up and be like "This is the last straw" and fight back?

Scripture said they had a massive population, and the Egyptians were even scared of them. Pharoah was scared that if there was a war, and they sided with their enemies, they could take over the country.

Shouldn't they have used it to their advantage, especially after Pharoah began killing their male children?

helinues:
The real richest people can't make the list because their money is not clean.

Is Dangote the richest man in Nigeria not to talk of Africa?

I think I heard Elon Musk say on one podcast that he believes Putin is significantly richer than him.

MaxInDHouse:
Back then who was the finance minister in Egypt?
How many people feeds from the table of the finance minister of the world's richest country?

The Egyptians didn't know what Pharaoh had in mind when Joseph was gathering the food definitely it wasn't for free but they were paid for their services not until the beginning of the famine when they later realized that there is no food elsewhere except in the domes Pharaoh built.

I see your point, but how can we know that it wasn't for free? Couldn't Joseph have just declared that 1/5th of all produce goes to the king and the Egyptian farmers complied?

AbuTwins:
When Jacob and the 66 moved to Egypt was there still famine?

Yes, there was. Jacob and his family moved in chapter 46. In fact, here is what Joseph told his brothers.

Genesis 45:9-11
"Now hurry back to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So come down to me immediately! You can live in the region of Goshen, where you can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything you own. I will take care of you there, for there are still five years of famine ahead of us. Otherwise, you, your household, and all your animals will starve.’”

Then all the wahala with the Egyptians happened in Chapter 47:13-26.

Then this was what was recorded after this fact:

Genesis 47:27-28
Meanwhile, the people of Israel settled in the region of Goshen in Egypt. There they acquired property, and they were fruitful, and their population grew rapidly. Jacob lived for seventeen years after his arrival in Egypt, so he lived 147 years in all.

Meanwhile? Doesn't that mean these things were happening simultaneously? So while the Egyptians were selling their properties to buy food, the Hebrews were increasing in population and wealth.

Hello. It's me again. This time I'm just considering something. I know it's probably silly, but please bear with me.

Could it be that Joseph was an unjust ruler in Egypt and that was why the Egyptians hated Israel and turned them into slaves later?

If you read Genesis 41 where Joseph interpreted Pharoah's dream and started his work, the food he collected belonged to the Egyptian farmers. He told Pharoah to collect a portion of the food planted during the season of plenty, that the Egyptian farmers laboured to plant and harvest.

And then in Genesis 47, he started to sell the same food he freely collected back to the people he collected it from until they could no longer pay with money or their livestock, and they had to become Pharaoh's slaves just to eat.

That doesn't sound fair to me.

And then his people, who did not plant those crops, didn't have to buy them from Joseph, didn't have to sell their livestock, and didn't have to become slaves, but yet had enough to eat. For free.

The text said 66 members of Jacob's family moved into Egypt. 66 people that did not contribute eating for free, while the natives had to buy back their own crops they freely gave to Joseph.

What do you think?

Who saw what Verydarkman said about this Abraham Daniel? It makes me kinda believe that he might not be telling the truth and wants the attention for financial gain. Sha, what do I know? I'm not a member of the church.

Lawly:
Yes, and one of the pastors he mentioned as among the people that "left" (whatever he meant by that) is still serving as pastor in one of the Dunamis church branches in Abuja.

That man is a terrific lier and has decided to dedicate his life to the bad side.

Oh wow. I don't know what's happening there as I don't attend your church, but was he ever a pastor there? If he was, then why is he coming out to say all these things? What must have happened to make him leave?

Did anybody watch the interview Abraham Daniel did about his time serving as a pastor in Dunamis Church? Wow!

gohf:
I must applaud you for finding this out

Okay so in Genesis 26:34 Esau has two wives Judith and Basemath
Then on Genesis 28:9 Esau take a third wife inorder to appease his parents, Maeleth (Machalath don't mind the translation)

But as you said in Genesis 36
4th wife Adah, the daughter of Aelom the Chettite; and Olibema, his fifth wife daughter of Ana the son of Sebegon, the Evite;

3. and Basemath, daughter of Ismael, sister of Nabaioth.

Now I understand that you feel they are the same person, but does it say Esau has only three wives? And the same person can't have different fathers right? So apart from the common case of marrying a cousin which could be the same person of both, I don't see why those hitties and Canaanites, the other wives are the same

It is possible that the wives married later gave birth to the nation called Edom
Genesis 28:9 Ishmael has daughterS

Someone may say it's the same lady having two different names, that's possible but let's focus on the fact that. Esau married first at the age of 40, and the next record of his marriage was after his father Isaac had died. If we are to calculate the age Jacob left to get married he was way older than 40. Now have you considered the possibility that Esau's first wives didn't bear children, it's not like such case was rare in their family.


Now about your first question Joseph was a prime minister in Egypt and Joseph learnt a lot from Jacob who had probably meet Abraham who was alive when Noah also was alive. Now why did I mention Joseph, Joseph had wisdom and there was probably literature and writing in existence and most likely made records of all he had heard and learnt, records that Moses who by God's arrangement would have read.

Remember Moses grew in Pharaoh's house as one of the princes of Egypt, his access to information and their library was highly possible.


Secondly God reveals, we are taking about a man whom God used to conquer a Nation has great as UK, US or China in modern terms and literally crippled them physically financially and military wise with powers beyond human.


Now God spoke audible to hundreds of thousands of Israelites, do you think He couldn't tell Moses what to write concerning the book of Genesis and what to leave out of it.

And yes the Torah isn't solely written by Moses, Joshua is said to have completed it and maybe future scribes edited it, but the copied versions we have now is only slightly different from the Septuagint which is the oldest known direct translation of the Hebrew text to a foreign language, Greek.

This makes sense sir. Thank you.

chucks185:
what is your purpose for reading it?
is it to prove it wrong or for you to learn the truth?

We learn the truth by asking questions don't we?

Hello all!
Like I said in my last post, this year, I would like to read the entire Bible and right now, I'm almost done with Genesis. However, there's something that concerns me.
Everybody says Genesis was written by Moses (the popular claim is that the first 5 books of the Bible have Moses as their author), but how can we be sure?
1. Was Moses present during the events that happened in the book, or were they just Hebrew oral traditions that were passed down all through the times and Moses just happened to be the one that finally put it to writing (remember they were slaves for 430 years in Egypt)?
2. And sometimes it seems like more than one person is talking in Genesis. For example...
Genesis 26:34-35;
" At the age of forty, Esau married two Hittite wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon. But Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah."
Genesis 28:6-9;
" Esau knew that his father, Isaac, had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-Aram to find a wife and that he had warned Jacob, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-Aram. It was now very clear to Esau that his father did not like the local Canaanite women. So Esau visited his uncle Ishmael’s family and married one of Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife’s name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son."
Genesis 36:1-3;
"This is the account of the descendants of Esau (also known as Edom). Esau married two young women from Canaan: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite. He also married his cousin Basemath, who was the daughter of Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth."

If Moses was the only one writing, did he somehow forget the names of Esau's wives? From chapters 26 and 28, we can see Esau had three wives, Judith, Basemath and Mahalath. But in chapter 36 we see Adah, Oholibamah and Basemath. In fact, their names are different.

In 28, we see his cousin's name was Mahalath, but in 36 it says her name was Basemath. In 26 Basemath is the daughter of Elon, but in 36 the daughter of Elon is Adah. And what's the relationship between Judith in 26 and Oholibamah in 36? Where did that one come from? How can you see all these and say Genesis was the work of one man Moses?

Godwin4444:
what's obj n Jonathan influence presently?

What can they influence in politics as at today?

That's not my point. My point is that these Western Media companies would consider a sitting president of any African nation more influential than a past president of an African nation in the mould of Nigeria, or South Africa or Egypt. Like you'd have to be a Nelson Mandela to get past that bias.
So would you say OBJ or Jonathan or even PMB are less influential than Samuel Matekane. Or Talon. Or Gnassingbe? Especially in ECOWAS?

P/S: I know the first guy is not from ECOWAS. I'm just making a point here.

yarimo:
Nigerians are happy and proud to have TINUBU as president

Low-key I have a feeling people would create like 1 million gmail accounts to rank BAT as #1 so the TLDR team would have no choice than to give the Most Influential Person title to Tinubu. They'd rig so Tinubu would be more influential than Putin or The Pope. LOL!!!

Sha the TLDR people can still override it. After all, that list another media organisation released about the most corrupt people in 2025, Kenya's president William Ruto got the highest votes (60k, the highest they've ever received in the history of the ranking), but the team gave the #1 position to Syria's former president Bashir al-Assad and Ruto was #2.

Lumarstone:
Okonjo Iwuala name should be there. Tinubu name shouldn't be there. Some record(s) in Tinubu's career has a question mark. Buhari, Atiku, Obi, are even more influential than Tinubu.

No one should attack me please, my opinion here is personal. You can make yours; no problem..!

I think the TLDR team picked current world leaders or people who are still influential even though they were former world leaders (that's when you consider among the world leaders sha).

For example, Barrack Obama and his wife are on the list, but Goodluck isn't.

From their perspective, it's more like they think an African personality is only influential when he's president of his country. Ngozi is the DG of the World Trade Organisation so she's there. I think they're wrong for that sha because I believe OBJ and Goodluck are even more influential than some of the African presidents that made the list.

You must understand that this is an American media company so...

President Bola Tinubu and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala just made the short-list for TLDR's 25 most influential people on earth. The final results will be announced soon, but you can find the link below to vote. The general population vote carries a percentage of the final results, and then the TLDR editorial team's ranking is worth the remaining percentage.

The shortlist includes world leaders like Vladirmir Putin, Joe Biden, Xi Ji Ping and president-elect Donald Trump, as well as media personalities and tech CEOs like Elon Musk, Mark Zukerberg, Joe Rogan and Taylor Swift.

You can select your top 10 ranking from the shortlist and vote here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoP3mRqM6HJBALIRTNNl6fFM-ZQLFht18Uvs57gb0liXk_hw/viewform

Dtruthspeaker:
And do you not see that Job is many many centuries away from Isreal aka Jacob?

I take it back. I think I might not be correct. I just did some googling and it seems it's possible that Job was younger than Abraham but older than Moses. Or they could have been contemporaries. 😅

Dtruthspeaker:
Beautiful!

His acts thereafter have shown you!

Who has not heard from God? Everyone.

How many follow and obey Him? Nearly no one.

And do you not see that Job is many many centuries away from Isreal aka Jacob?

In other words, God already knew what Abraham would do and then picked him right? His foreknowledge and all? I think I get it.

However, I would have to disagree with you on the Job point. Check it, Job was the oldest book in the Bible. He lived even before Abraham.

Mindlog:
Can't even collate the number but on the high side, regularly picking many books from the library.

Please is it a public library? If it is what state do you live in? I am yet to see a public library in Nigeria.

Hello everyone! Happy New Year!

One of my goals for 2025 is to read through the Bible. Right now, I'm in Genesis 16 and I'm wondering why God picked Abraham to become the most important father in the world (seeing that he became the father of both Christians, Jews and Muslims).

Is it that there was something inherently different about him like Noah who was the ONLY blameless man in the whole world before the flood?

Because Abraham was from Ur of the Chaldeans. And I don't think they were worshipping Yahweh over there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as if God just picked a random sinner man and made him all those promises and then he became father of the monotheistic religions.

Weren't there other people God could have picked?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Job predates Abraham right? Why didn't God pick Job then? He was a righteous man that He (God) even bragged to Satan about his righteousness.

What do you think?

Treborblue:
I’m not calling him evil because of that.
He is evil cause he created “evil” in the first place.

To which I would quote this line from Bizzle's response to Joyner Lucas' Devil's Work:

"I am right, wrong is whatever you're left with!

Like God did not create evil. Evil is whatever is left without God. Like if God has said thou shall do this, for example, evil is whatever you do that's not what God has said you should do.

To this I would quote Shai Linne. He said, and I quote, "God's wrath is a perfection for which He should be adored."

What you call "evil" is not as it seems.

God is a righteous judge. And as a righteous judge He must punish sin. Every ounce of human suffering is just us getting what we rightfully deserve, and any good we enjoy is just an act of mercy that God, the righteous judge, is not obligated to give us.

You can't call it evil if we deserve it can you?

LoopyNigeria:
84 is wild, you're approximately reading 12 books a month.

What genre are you into?

I read christain books (theology and apologetics). fiction, I especially love Nigerian/African fiction (mystery, thriller, suspense, drama). history books. autobiographies and memoirs. I don't really like self-help/motivational books, but I found Cal Newport this year and I read almost everything he wrote.

I have read up to 84 books this year.