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 Christianity Etc › Re: The Beatification Of Suleiman Johnson By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 4:12pm On Feb 08, 2021 |
Shelumiel:Jesus calls Christians to judge, to discernment. Matthew 7: 15-20 |
| Christianity Etc › The Beatification Of Suleiman Johnson By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 3:17pm On Feb 08, 2021 |
The Beatification of Suleiman Johnson By: Deji Yesufu The last has not been heard of the unfolding drama between “Apostle” Johnson Suleiman and his erstwhile sheep Mike Davids. The drama began, a few weeks ago, with a publication in Punch newspapers where Mike Davids accused Johnson Suleiman of sleeping with his wife and barring him from seeing his children. That accusation was followed with a series of videos from Davids’ estranged wife, Faith Edeko, who, amid much weeping, said that Suleiman was not to be blamed. She claimed her husband abandoned her and wished the worst for her until she found refuge with Suleiman. Johnson Suleiman appeared to have been washed clean of that allegation and Nigerians returned to other pressing national issues, like the menace of Fulani Herdsmen in the country. Yesterday, Nigerians’ short attention span was invaded again. This time it was a short audio tape of no more than 90 seconds. Suleiman Johnson is heard berating an individual on the tape. We will learn later, that the person is Mike Davids. When Mr. Davids requests why Suleiman was cursing him, the revered pastor replied “… you are a bastard… get off my phone…” It must be noted that in the first installment of this ongoing drama, Suleiman said nothing in his own defense. It appeared he didn’t even know of it. But this second tape was way too devastating. Suleiman Johnson immediately replied with a video, with his wife by his side, saying that he was the person on the audio tape. He said “anger” led him to say those things. He was sorry. But, he continued, it should be noted that that conversation was between himself and a lady. Suleiman had not spoken to Davids in years. Davids doctored the audio. Here is what a careful observer of the two drama scenes will notice: note that Mike Davids is on a mission to destroy Johnson Suleiman’s reputation. In the first video, Davis provided an edited photo of his estranged wife in the arms of Suleiman. Unfortunately we discovered the real photo and saw clearly that Davids was up to mischief. In the second publication, the audio, Davids implants his voice in the very response by the lady Suleiman was berating. This has actually rendered Mike Davids mission useless and I hope he has N5B to pay Suleiman when the courts eventually find him guilty of maligning the reputation of another man. My essay is really not about Davids and Suleiman; it is about how many have sort to beatify Suleiman Johnson. Beatification is a ritual the Roman Catholic Church carry in rendering people, mostly dead, saints. They look at their life works and say they are saints: without sin. I want to examine a few instances in which many have sort to beatify Suleiman Johnson and then draw out a worthy conclusion. Follow me. In April 2017, Johnson Suleiman visited University of Ibadan for a crusade to students. That Tuesday, I carried out a one man protest against his presence in the University. I was arrested by the police and before I was put in detention, one particular cantankerous senior policewoman asked me “why are you protesting a man of God?” My protest was about the time of his scandal with Ms. Otobo. I said nothing to her. She looked at someone next to her and said in Yoruba: this man is not a good man o… please get him out of my sight and lock him up. In other words, I was the devil and Suleiman was the saint. I write this to show that there is a societal Beatification of pastors in this clime. Men of God can do no wrong, we appear to believe. Notice also that when the first drama with Mr. Davis broke, the first person to speak was another apostle friend of Suleiman. This person published a video where he whitewashed Suleiman and made it clear that Suleiman could do no wrong. As we were grappling with his own revelation, Davids’ wife came forward and showed the world that her husband was a devil while Suleiman was an angel. There appears to be no end to the Beatification of Johnson Suleiman. Just when we thought the Suleiman’s response to the audio was sufficient, the mercurial Daddy Freeze came forth and said that Suleiman should be forgiven. Freeze said that anyone can be angry and anyone can curse people in the manner that Suleiman did. He should be forgiven and restored to ministry. Saint “Apostle” Johnson Suleiman can do no wrong. Or so they think. The latest drama emerging between Suleiman and Mike Davids has not shown the former to culpable of anything obvious. It is the normal sort of crisis that Nigerians deal with everyday. It appears we are being told that Suleiman can be left off the hook because he is not just a normal Nigerian, he is also an annointed man of God. Unfortunately this should not be the case. First, we should examine Suleiman’s conversation with the said woman. This is what scripture says about curses: Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. 1 Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 3:11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. When Peter and Paul wrote those scriptures, they were not describing a high and mighty standard unattenble by men; rather they were describing the normal Christian Life. CHRISTIANS DO NOT CURSE PEOPLE. I have long argued that men like Suleiman Johnson and a host of others who preach a Prosperity Gospel and Word of Faith Pentecostalism are not Christians at all. What Suleiman did on that audio, cursing a church member, is the consistent lifestyle of these pastors in these churches. In fits of anger, they are known to curse people and even hit defenseless persons – like David Oyedepo, their revered example, did to a poor teenager in his church years back. Thus the trouble with Suleiman is that he is not just a rank heretic, he is not a Christian and cannot bear the normal fruit expected of Christians. If his church members will be true to us, they will admit that the tradition of cursing and physically abusing people is the normal way their pastor operates. Suleiman Johnson is not a Christian, talk less of enjoying the Beatification he is enjoying at the hands of Nigerians. Having made this point, we ought to ask ourselves: why is Johnson Suleiman never ceasing to give Nigerians drama scenes to watch? Is he the only pastor in the country? How did Mike Davids loose so much respect for his Pastor that he is ready to destroy his reputation? Where is sanctification in Suleiman’s church because it appears that those who attend his church, including himself, are never bereft of scandals around them? As we await a third installment on this melodrama, Nigerians should note that Johnson Suleiman is not a Christian talk less of being a pastor. His church is a social gathering and those who attend churches like that will do their souls a lot of good by leaving them and finding Christian assemblies to join. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/the-beatification-of-suleiman-johnson/ 1 Like
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| Christianity Etc › Re: RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 8:11am On Jan 30, 2021 |
Image123:Never knew the day will come I'll agree with Image123 on NL |
| Christianity Etc › Re: RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 1:56pm On Jan 28, 2021 |
MuttleyLaff:You know very well that Deji Yesufu and I share practically every thing together based on our knowledge. I agree with this article he wrote and thus shared it. Please accept that Deji's article is my response to you. In other words: God destroyed Sodom and Gommorah primarily because of the sin of homosexuality and for other secondary sins also. If you dispute this, make your point. If not, then accept you are wrong on this. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 6:41am On Jan 28, 2021 |
MuttleyLaff:Boss, I'll appreciate you go first. Thanks |
| Christianity Etc › Re: RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 7:29pm On Jan 27, 2021 |
MuttleyLaff:What was the sin of Sodom and Gommorah |
| Christianity Etc › Re: RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 5:40pm On Jan 27, 2021 |
Righteousness2:You are saying the same thing 1 Like 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 5:04pm On Jan 27, 2021 |
tamudabu:"Diarrhea of Words" ☹️ |
| Christianity Etc › RE: A Gay Man In Biden’s Cabinet By By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 4:10pm On Jan 27, 2021 |
RE: A Gay Man in Biden’s Cabinet (A Response to Senator Adeyeye’s Essay) © Deji Yesufu When I read Sola Adeyeye’s “A Gay Man in Biden’s Cabinet”, I knew immediately I must offer a rejoinder to the article. Senator Adeyeye is not someone whose opinion anyone should dispute, as he has not only carved out a niche for himself in the hallowed chambers of the higher legislative house in the National Assembly but he is also an intellectual whose submission on sundry national and international issues cannot be easily faulted. In this essay, however, I found the erudite Osun State politician greatly wanting and I trust I can point some points in his essay that where not only erroneously but pandering to heresy – especially when one considers that the piece was written by a professing Christian. For those who may not have read the essay, Senator Adeyeye was saying that Christians should not fault President Joe Biden for electing a gay man into cabinet. Among other reasons he raised, the Senator said that America was a democracy and not a theocracy. He also pointed out that Biden would not be the first US President to appoint a gay person to office; former President Trump, who many evangelicals love to extol, also appointed a gay person to his cabinet. Senator Adeyeye wrote that homosexuality is a sin but it may not be a crime. That in Nigeria, where there is a subsisting law against homosexuality, it is both a sin and a crime. But in the USA, where many states have passed laws endorsing homosexuality, while the act remains a sin it is not a crime. Senator Adeyeye ends his essay with these strong words for his target audience: “The Church’s sure foundation was, and remains, an ever-prevailing person, the Solid Rock. His name is Jesus Christ.” If the evangelicals had disputed anything the celebrated Senator had written up till that paragraph, we should at least agree with this one which is a clear word from the Holy Writ (1 Peter 2:7). The great advantage of essay writing is that a person can state his argument uninterrupted and most times if it is well written, one essay can end all arguments. The story is told of how the 16th century Greek Scholar and Roman Catholic theologian, Erasmus, was coerced to respond to Martin Luther’s writing that had begun to shake the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church. When Erasmus would eventually write, he wrote a treatise disputing Luther’s doctrine of God’s Sovereignty. He said in essence that Luther appeared to be right in many of his arguments but that element in his theology where he appears to paint man as helpless in the matter of salvation was faulty. Erasmus taught that whatever else may be found in the doctrine of salvation there remains an active free will in every man. When Luther responded to the book, he wrote his mighty treatise: “The Bondage of the Will”. Luther said in essence that the will of every man is held captive to sin and except a sovereign God wakes the dead sinner to spiritual life, such a man remain helpless. Salvation was a hundred percent the work of God and nothing of man. Erasmus responded to Luther’s essay with a longer book but Luther never returned to the argument. He explained that everything he had written in his book was sufficient to counter any argument on the subject. I am of the opinion that Senator Adeyeye’s essay has not answered all the questions on this subject and that he has actually left himself vulnerable for a response as I hope to give in a moment. Since the Senator has referred copiously to the Bible in his essay, perhaps I should remind him that the Bible refers to Satan as the Prince of the power of the air (Ephesian 2:2) and that there is a sense in it that the kingdoms of this world are under his power and influence (Matthew 4:8-9). I want to suggest here that every nation, state or people are ruled by a god. That God may be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or that god may be Satan and all of his various influences. It is true that America is not a theocracy like Old Testament Israel was but America, like any other country on earth, is ruled by a god. It is left to the people of that nation to allow for the Christian God to rule their nation or to allow the Prince of the power of the air to reign supreme. When evangelicals rail against a President appointing a gay man to public office, they are refusing the god of this age to reign over their nation. When Christians make excuses for gay people in government, they are allowing the devil reign in their government. I could easily be asked: what did the evangelicals do when Trump appointed a gay man to office? We should remember that most thorough going evangelicals never consider Donald Trump a Christian in the first place. They tolerated him because he did their bidding. If Trump, at some point in his administration, went on to appoint a gay person into office, they would consider it as his pandering to the 9 million gay population of the United States. Trump played politics with his appointments – just like any other politician will do. But Biden appointing a gay person to office has greater implications than Trump because the Democratic Party is a party that flaunts its supports for gays and the LGBTQ communities; and if Biden considers appointing gays to office at the very beginning of his administration, you already have an inkling of what his government will look like. If we believe the Bible, we had better allow it to rule all our lives and not just some portions of it. Homosexuality is a sin not because it is any worse than lying, adultery, fornication or stealing, but because it is a sin against nature itself. A cursory look at Romans 1:21-25 will reveal that homosexuality is a product of a particularly base and dark mind; a result of God abandoning a man or a nation to the basest of sins. While the sin of adultery and stealing are the product of men’s natural evil inclinations, homosexuality is a learned act. It is rebellion against God and we should be reminded that God indeed overthrew nations in the Bible for this very sin. If these times of grace will not allow God to rain down sulfur and brimstone on countries that allow homosexuality to flourish in their midst, we should remind ourselves that the God we serve is unchanging and will someday judge these very grievous sin. I will not want to be part of those who were making excuses for sins that God considers particularly despicable. Something else we must keep in mind in these modern times is that while the Church is in the world, the Church is not of this world. We do not pander to the system of this world, our kingdom is not of this world; our goals and priorities are very different from this world. We must realize that ultimately every political system in the world today is going to become increasingly antichrist. While the Democrats may have sold all their platforms to the devil, the Republicans are still trying to keep some of their Christian conservative values. Ultimately, they will also give in to the demands and wants of the time. The Church would however be preserved by only one element: a commitment to the tenets of the Holy Scriptures. The real meaning of the reign of the Antichrist is that by the time our Lord is returning, the devil would have taken over every system of the world and only the Christian that is truly committed to God’s law will remain standing at those times. This is why Jesus asks that when he returns will he find faith on earth? If in the mere matter of international politics, we are already kowtowing to the thinking and preferences of a liberal and antichrist people, what will happen when the Antichrist is ruling the earth and demanding the devotion of all men? Just as Senator Adeyeye concluded his essay, the church’s foundation is indeed Jesus Christ. Our Lord rules the nations of the earth even today, but it is left to the Church to allow for his influence to pervade their communities. The evangelical churches in America are standing against a steep mountain of satanic, antichrist and demonic influences in the political system that governs their country today. I sure hope that none of us will be found siding with such a system. Like our Lord said, we cannot serve God and serve mammon at the same time. Even today, our Lord demands we take a position: we cannot be hot and cold at same time. When we do take a side, may it be that we are siding with a righteous course and there is no righteousness in a government that celebrates homosexuals. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/re-a-gay-man-in-bidens-cabinet/
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| Business › Re: Concerning Cheap Labor In Nigeria By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 6:30pm On Jan 21, 2021 |
MuttleyLaff:  |
| Business › Re: Concerning Cheap Labor In Nigeria By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 5:06pm On Jan 21, 2021 |
^^^ I always enjoy reading your responses MuttleyLaff... Thank you |
| Family › OLIKOYE By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie by VBCampaign(op): 4:52pm On Jan 19, 2021 |
OLIKOYE By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie How softly the rain fell that Monday morning when my water broke. Because I was used to the raging downpours of Lagos, this quiet patter calmed me, filled me with peace. My husband Omoregie was at work and so our neighbor took me to the hospital, my dress slightly damp, my heart full of expectation. My firstborn child. The nurse on duty was Sister Chioma, a woman with an unsmiling face who liked to crack sharp-tongued jokes. During my last check up, when I complained about the backache brought on by my pregnancy, her retort was, “Did you think about backache when you were enjoying it?” She checked my cervix and told me it was early. She encouraged me to walk up and down the ward. “You must be happy that your first is a boy,” she said. I shrugged. “As long as the baby is healthy.” “I know you are supposed to wait until he is born to decide on a name but I’m sure you already have something in mind,” she said. “I will name him Olikoye.” “Oh.” She paused. “I didn’t know your husband was Yoruba.” “He’s not. We’re both Bini.” “But Olikoye is a Yoruba name.” “Yes it is.” “Why?” she asked. My contractions were slow. I told Sister Chioma to sit down and I would tell her the story. My father’s first child was a girl. He said she was a loud squalling baby who grasped his finger with surprising strength, and he knew it meant she would be tough. But she died at the age of four months. The second, a boy, was not yet four months old before he died. Some people from my father’s family said my mother was a witch, eating her children, trading their innocent hearts in exchange for her own long life. But, at that time, other babies in our village in Edo were dying too. They got sick with watery shit and weak eyes. Some people said the diarrhea was punishment from God. The Christians prayed in church. The Muslims prayed at the mosque. The old people performed sacrifices. Still, babies died, and their tiny still bodies were wrapped in cloth and buried, and it seemed senseless that they had even been born at all. It was 1985. My father was working as a driver at the Ministry of Health. He was in the general pool, a lowly position. One day, he picked up a visiting dignitary from the airport, dropped him at his hotel, and then discovered, lodged in the back seat of the car, a thick envelope of cash that had slid out of the man’s bag. He returned it immediately. The man was so pleased — and surprised—that he told the new Minister of Health about it. Two days later, the new Minister asked for my father. “I want you to be my driver,” The Minister said. “I value honesty.” The Minister’s name was Dr. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. He had big sleepy eyes and seemed to come from another time in the past when old-fashioned integrity was easy. His simplicity surprised my father. He was not interested in the usual carousing of the powerful, no late nights and drinking and trysts, and my father did not have to guard any secrets for him. He ate breakfast with his family every morning, and took walks with his wife in the evening, and played tennis with his children on weekends. He listened attentively, those half-closed eyes so intent that my father, at first, felt uncomfortable when they were trained on him. The Minister asked my father about his family, and my father told him everyone was fine. The Minister asked how many children he had, and my father said none yet, but that his wife was pregnant and due in a few weeks. (My mother was pregnant with me.) Then the minister asked a question that startled my father. “How many of your children have died?” My father stuttered and said, “Two, sir, but we are praying that it will not happen again.” The Minister told him it was good to pray, but there was something else he had to do. “Our children are dying of simple illnesses and that must stop. I want you to take me to your village. I have started a program in Lagos but I want to start others in different parts of the country. We will go to your village next week.” It took my heavy-tongued father a while to find his voice and say, “Yes sir.” In my father’s village, the Minister walked around with his assistants, meeting people and asking them questions and listening to them. He showed women how to mix sugar and salt and clean water to give their children who had diarrhea and he told them about washing their hands with soap and he told them the Universal Primary Health Care center would be open in a month. Once it was open, every baby would receive vaccines. He showed them photographs of bright-eyed babies in Lagos and he told them immunizations were like small precious gifts for babies. They cheered and clapped. In the eyes of the villagers, my father was a star. No minister had ever come to them before. Who even knew that our small village existed? But my father kept telling them that he had done nothing, that it was the minister who insisted on coming. Years later, when my father told me the story, I could still see his eyes full of things I could not name. “The Minister treated all of us like human beings,” he said. “Like human beings.” It took mere moments. A baby’s small open mouth and a drop of liquid. A baby’s warm arm and a small injection. It took that to save the lives of the babies born that year in my village, and in the villages around us and those far from us, in Calabar and Enugu and Kaduna. It took that to save my life. I was born in 1986. I often tried to imagine myself being immunized, in my mother’s arms, in the new clinic the minister built. Women filled the passages. The treatment was free. At the other end was the family planning unit where nurse was talking to a roomful of women, sometimes making jokes that made them laugh. My mother joined them. Years later, she told me that the reason I did not die was that small injection in my arm, but the reason I was able to go to school was family planning. My sister was born two years after me, and my brother two years after her, and my mother remembered the words of the family planning nurse who told her to “have the number of children that you can train well. Otherwise you will not be able to train even one of them well.” Because of the Minister, my father came to know Nigeria well. The Minister went to other interior villages and towns, and my father drove him through the flat roads of the North and the undulating roads of the south. He followed the Minister to the clinics, watched him speaking, gesticulating, explaining, cutting ribbons to open health centers. Everywhere they went, people followed the Minister. Some just wanted to touch him, to shake his hands. Others brought gifts. “No, no,” the minister said to my father, when he saw the yams and plantains and chickens. “Give it back to them. Tell them that they should keep it for me.” I first met the Minister when I was six years old. I was in Primary One, and my father told him I came first in class and the Minister asked him to bring me to his house. I expected to wait in the kitchen, and felt awkward to be asked into the living room, into the sinking softness of the carpet and the smell of clean and new things. He appeared with his wife, both of them smiling. They gave me a book. A Childs Illustrated Book About The Body. “Thank you, sir, thank you, ma,” I said, holding the book tighter than I had ever held anything in my young life. Sister Chioma was squeezing my hand. “So you knew him personally,” she said. “I finished nursing school the year he was appointed Minister.” Her tone was different, less flat, more emotional. It was then I noticed that Sister Chioma, unsmiling, hard Sister Chioma, had tears in her eyes. “It was because of Olikoye Ransome-Kuti that so many people in Nigeria did not die,” she said quietly, and I knew she had her own story about the Minister. Perhaps she would tell me the story later, or perhaps she would not, but it pleased me that we had a story in common. “He was the best health minister this country has ever had,” she said, standing up and hastily wiping her eyes. My contractions were now shorter and sharper. Sister Chioma said it was perhaps time to push, and she got up to call the doctor. Outside the rain continued to fall gently until Olikoye was born. This story originally appeared in The Art of Saving a Life, a collection of stories about how vaccines continue to change the course of history, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/olikoye/ 1 Like
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| Business › Re: Concerning Cheap Labor In Nigeria By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 10:49pm On Jan 17, 2021 |
tunjilee003:Noted. CC: Seun, Lalasticlala, Mynd44 |
| Business › Concerning Cheap Labor In Nigeria By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 8:16pm On Jan 17, 2021 |
Concerning Cheap Labor in Nigeria By: Deji Yesufu Throughout December the company that usually removes the garbage can from my home was unable to do so. When I finally reached the lady in charge, she told me that the Hausa boys they use to collect the dumps from each home had gone for Christmas holidays and they were still not yet back a week into January. When their company could no longer wait, and with incessant calls by customers to come and remove the overflowing garbage in their homes, they eventually settled for Yoruba boys. “So why didn’t you use them earlier…”, I asked her. “Ha, our boys charge higher o…” she exclaimed. While the Hausa boys will take something between N1,500 and N2,000 for a day’s job, Yoruba boys take nothing less than N3,000. I was happy to hear this. It means that the cost of such labor is not too cheap south of Nigeria and anyone who is interested in employing young men from here would have to pay well for it. Yet, I was concerned that Northern Nigeria is still a source for cheap labor in Nigeria. The phrase “labor is cheap” in Nigeria was brought to my reckoning by the brilliant Ibadan mechanic, Tunde Onokoya. In his morning radio program, he often explained that cheap labor is the reason many Nigerians know very little about DIYs on their vehicles. When it will cost you about a week’s wage to change the oil in your car, you are likely to learn how to do it yourself. I’ll return to this matter of lingering cheap labor in Nigeria. For now I must position this article with more anecdotes. During the six-month lockdown, my children became increasing restless at home. My wife told me that she had learnt from a Zoom seminar that children will need to burn off excess energy by taking long walks around the neighborhood. So, one evening we took a stroll through my estate. I have a terrible nanner of never venturing beyond my house or the street I live in. I could live years in a neighborhood and not know what the adjoining streets look like. So while walking through the estate, I discovered the share number of young able men either sitting by an estate gate or sitting by the gate of the house. They are usually referred to as “gate-men”. All they do is to open the gate when their employers arrive home and shut it when they leave. They also act as security guards. They run errands for the employer and they just sit around the gate – all day long doing practically nothing. We can afford to employ these men because they offer cheap labor to us. Yet we do not realize that what we have on our hands is a ticking bomb. So they say we should travel so that we can learn how other climes function and we can imitate them. Permit me to bring my overly told story of my travel to Germany in March last year here again. Fortunately or unfortunately it is an experience I am yet to get over with. The German economy is super rich; I understand it is richer than that of the United Kingdom. I noticed that everywhere we went in Berlin there was no such thing as a gate man. Truth is that even if there was, this matter of a minimum wage will force you to pay him for doing practically nothing. So when you drive into a hotel parking lot, your room tag open opens the gate to the place. Whatever neighborhood you live has a gate tag that opens the gate automatically any time you drive in. The company I trained in was situated in a university campus. Everyone that owned a car came into the campus with a tag that you swipe through a computer, which then opens the gate for you. The gate man is not needed in such a country. Now back to this matter of cheap labor: the southern part of Nigeria has built its work force to a point that the least degree any adult here has is a Primary School Leaving Certificate. Gentlemen, that certificate will be over qualification for the job of a dumpster or a gate man. So we will need to employ people from other parts of the country who have no education at all. We see then that if our nation can commit itself to building a populace where the least educated person has a university degree, then every employer will be forced to pay a minimum wage to their employees. Or else, you will do your job yourself. The next thing that we can do to fix this matter of cheap labor is for everyone of us to have some milk of human kindness in us. We cannot say because there is unemployment in the country we can then employ people and pay them peanuts. How exactly would you distinguish yourself from the Lebanese overlords who employ Nigerians and use them like rain water in their companies. We will not be any different from them and we will earn the same judgement from God – which he has destined on such evil fellows. My children are seven and nine years old. Their mother just designated them to begin washing the dishes on alternate days. Before this time she washed the plates and I helped her often. When we got married I told her I will not bring a curse on myself by employing under-age children to work in my home. For about a decade of marriage, my wife and I labored to keep our home – doing all the menial jobs ourselves. Only employing a woman to clean the house on alternate weekends because we cannot afford to pay her every weekend. This woman is not educated but we pay her well. I will not join those who employ people at whim and pay them peanuts because labor is cheap in the country. Maybe this is the reason we have kept this woman’s services for close to a decade now. What is the point of my rant? It is two fold: the Nigerian people should commit themselves to building a nation of educated elites. I have purposely not said government because I no longer believe that government should be the sole builder of a nation – the people should. When we understand that an enlightened mind can do a lot more than just getting a job, getting a salary and living fine, we will realize that an educated populace has a way of naturally building the country inside out. This matter is not just government not creating jobs; the matter is that Nigerians are not brilliant enough to be creative enough, to produce goods and services that people from all over the world will fall over themselves to pay for. And we are not there yet because oil is still servicing our incompetence – a subject for another day. Suffice to say here that a productive economy will naturally produce employment for people. Money will come in for goods produced, people will be employed in these companies and they will be forced to pay them well because the employees will have basic education you cannot just take for granted. Second, Nigerians must develop a sense of patriotism and nationalism. When I wrote my book Victor Banjo, a Nigerian from the UK got a soft copy of the book off the internet. He said the mere fact that the book was written by a Nigerian propelled him to get a copy. If we all think Nigerian, if we realize that employing someone and paying that person well, is empowering this person to do more for his community, we will realize that what goes around will come around. A nation where its citizens are not paid peanuts will develop to be a strong nation within and without. Nigerians will remain in Nigeria; no one will need to go to Libya to live as a second class citizen. And when our people venture out of the shores of this country, they will be respected and paid well for the jobs they do. Of course the other option is to continue with the stratified soceity that we have. Where we have the super rich and the mindless poor. And like they say when the poor find nothing else to eat, they will turn around and eat the rich. We all have a duty to do something about cheap labor in this country. You can start by paying that mechanic his due for what he did on your car. Employ an adult help in the house and pay them a reasonable wage – if not a minimum wage. If all you can get is an underage worker, commit to giving her an education as long as he or she is under your roof. Let us as a people take some radical steps at eradicating poverty around us and we can be sure that we will be building a future for ourselves and one that our children will be proud of. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/concerning-cheap-labor-in-nigeria/
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| Family › Re: Concerning The Tragic Death Of Renua Giwa-amu By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 4:09pm On Jan 06, 2021 |
CC: MuttleyLaff |
| Family › Concerning The Tragic Death Of Renua Giwa-amu By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 4:05pm On Jan 06, 2021 |
Concerning the Tragic Death of Renua Giwa-Amu By: Deji Yesufu Renua Giwa Amu killed herself on the 26th of December, 2020. She was only 26 years old. Renua is the last child of Femi Giwa-Amu, a lawyer and also a pastor. Renua had taken to social media to share a bit of her anguish. Over the years she had been sharing bits and pieces of her story on her numerous social media handles, but on the 18th of September, 2020, she finally barred it all. In an open letter to him, Renua called out her father for sexually molesting her at the age of seven. She said the physical trauma was so bad she nearly died of sepsis. Having gotten over the physical pain, Renua obviously did not overcome the emotional and psychological trauma that the events caused her. As a child all she had to contend with was the pain of sexual abuse but as she grew older, Renua had other issues to deal with. She explained in her letter to her father: “Entire chunks of my memory were once lost and taken from me, entire friendships and interests and hobbies and goals I had just vanished and might still not fully ever come back… Instead I carried around such intense feelings of shame, regret and self-loathing disgust that it consumed me most times… Good or bad, traumatic or not, those memories of mine that hurt me and triggered me for so long have finally woken me up and reminded me that I promised myself if I survived you, escaped, and somehow found enough sanity to be willing to return home that I would never set foot in Nigeria unless I had publicly acknowledged that fact that you continually raped me as a seven-year old child until I had a possible prepubescent miscarry and almost died of sepsis. I wasn’t even in primary 4 yet.” Renua will later warn the public to beware of her family shedding crocodile tears at her passing. Following her death, however, the family blamed her death on her psychological imbalance. Ezim Giwa-Amu Ede, one her aunts, wrote on Facebook on the 1st of January, 2021: “… In September (2020) Renua started having her crisis again because she wouldn’t take her medication. She accused my brother, her father, of Rape, incest and abuse… The story went viral. All the gossip mongers thrived in circulating it. It became trending news nationwide…” In other words, Renua’s suicide should be blamed on her psychiatry history. I did not learn of Renua’s story until after her death when various online news portals begun to publish the story. My first reaction to the story was one of deep grief. I did not know the girl but somehow I could identify with her struggles; except that I do not think that suicide was the route she should have taken out of it. I browsed through her Facebook wall and saw the video of her conversation with her mother. I saw that all that concerned the mum in that conversation was Renua taking down the September 18 open letter she wrote to her father. It was obvious that all that concerned the Giwa-Amu family was the preservation of the family name and thier integrity in the public; not the restoration of a broken and battered young woman. Renua had accused her parents, uncles and aunts in the letter of various things and I am not surprised that following her death they will be making every effort to preserve the family name. When Ezim Giwa-Amu Ede made reference to Renua’s stopping to use her medication, she was making an argument that is very familiar to me. When I began to criticize churches on the practice of tithing, one church that had suffered the brunt of my criticism the most begun to suggest that I was psychologically imbalanced. They sold this line to a number of people and it eventually reached my wife, who then told me. Thankfully I have no records of visiting any psychiatric clinic in my life and I do not use hard drugs or anything that might warrant imbalance in my thinking. The “psychological imbalance” argument is cheap blackmail that only low thinking and defeated individuals employ to dispel sound arguments on the lips of their opponents. It does not always work but where it sails through the victim is quite easily discarded as one whose utterances should not be taken seriously. I have not said that Femi Giwa-Amu raped his daughter. What Renua said, and went further to accentuate with her suicide, still remains an allegation. Unfortunately allegations of sexual molestation that happened some twenty years ago is almost never proven – even if it were to get to hallowed chambers of a competent court of law, as we saw recently in the Biodun Fatoyinbo/Dakolos rape case. My issue with the Giwa-Amu family is not that they were accused of doing many sordid things; my issue with them is thier almost graveyard silence and nonchalance when their daughter was making these allegations. When Renua began to talk about her funeral was when the family should have stepped in and ensured that she did not hurt herself. Unfortunately and probably coupled with the fact that she was living outside Nigeria, the family left her to herself and then published the news of her passing – referring to her as some beautiful soul. It is this attitude of trying to cover up a family name at the expense of the psychological damage that a person has experienced that causes some of us to be a bit sympathetic with Renua’s story and to regard it as almost certainly true. The Giwa-Amu family is a very educated lot and perhaps the trait for argumentation which Oje Giwa-Amu (another of Renua’s uncle) has for religious issues on Facebook is a family trait they now use to defend their integrity in public. I understand quite a number of them are lawyers and they may wish to dispute this position of mine but whatever else they may say, I would really want to know what any of them did at reaching this young woman when she began to suggest suicide. If they did nothing, I will have to conclude that they are culpable in this young woman’s death. I would never understand the psychology behind pedophilia. It is enough to know that it is a psychological problem that needs medical attention. Perhaps as the Giwa-Amu family explains what they did to forestall Renua’s suicide, they should also explain what they did when this young woman began to make these accusations of her father. If all they did was to seek to cover it up and preserve the family name, they have her blood on their hands. Incest did not begin with our day; it is a long established sin that comes with the effect of the fall on human beings. Nevertheless the internet has helped to make us more aware of the evil all around us. In cases of incest, there are two victims: the perpetrator and the victim. Both of them will need medical attention and psychiatry evaluation. The Nigerian government may also help by enforcing laws instituted against this evil. Nigerian families should realize that some evils are not better solved by covering them up. When we cover up issues like incest, we allow the victim’s pains to fester to the point that many of them might begin to consider suicide as a way out. Renua Giwa Amu’s death is a perfect case in point. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/concerning-the-tragic-death-of-renua-giwa-amu/ Attached photo: Renua Giwa-Amu
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| Politics › Re: Tunde Bakare’s Achilles’ Heel By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 10:32pm On Jan 01, 2021 |
MuttleyLaff:  |
| Politics › Re: Tunde Bakare’s Achilles’ Heel By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 3:41pm On Dec 31, 2020 |
Acehart:The True Gospel... Lalasticlala, Seun, Mynd44 consider for front page |
| Politics › Re: Tunde Bakare’s Achilles’ Heel By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 1:36pm On Dec 31, 2020 |
culf:Like many preachers like him, he does preach from the Bible. The problem is allowing his bias sip into his ministry. When a preacher focuses on exposition of the Bible, he finds little time for his biases 1 Like 1 Share |
| Politics › Tunde Bakare’s Achilles’ Heel By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 12:59pm On Dec 31, 2020 |
Tunde Bakare’s Achilles’ Heel By: Deji Yesufu Tunde Bakare has been in the news in the last two weeks. Bakare came under severe criticism following his comments on the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Bakare had predicted in the video that his words will be twisted and taken out of context, and true to to it that was what happened. People felt that Bakare was laundering the image of Tinubu and preparing him for the Presidential elections in 2023. When I watched that video, I saw something else entirely. In 2004/2005, I was in Lagos searching for job after finishing school. I had to undergo surgery and my parent instructed me not to use my recuperating period for job search. Instead I spent that time going to Bakare’s Church, Latter Rain Assembly – while they were still in Akilo Rd. Ogba. I never regret the time I spent there. For some strange reasons, Bakare’s sermons centered on empowering jobless graduates to making a living. He taught us how to do things even with practically no resources. Everything I do today, besides my 9am to 4pm job, was inspired by my time listening to Bakare in that time period. For a while, after that, I regarded myself as a “Bakarite”. I have since jettisoned that label and I’ll return to that matter later. My point at this juncture is to state that Tunde Bakare was certainly not laundering Tinuhu’s image in that video. Those of us who listen to Bakare’s sermons know that his words were more like adages and they require careful listening and not hasty conclusions. Whatever anybody may have against Tunde Bakare, whatever he might be accused of; one thing you cannot accuse Bakare of is financial fraud. Bakare is one man that is above board concerning financial matters and every effort by people to rope into some financial misdemeanor has never succeeded. Having said that, I have this thing against Tunde Bakare; it is the reason I stopped referring to myself as his disciple or a Bakarite. It is my sincere hope that Tunde Bakare or some of his assistants will read this essay and help him to refocus his ministry. It is the matter that concerns the heart of his preaching. When Archbishop Benson Idahosa was alive, Tunde Bakare preached series of messages where he accused the Archbishop of “loosing his vision”. He said Idahosa has allowed the gospel of prosperity to make him loose the true vision of ministry: which is seeking the lost for Christ’s kingdom. Incidentally, and by a strange turn of events also, it appears to me today that Tunde Bakare himself has lost the vision of true Christian ministry. Bakare has replaced the faithful preaching of the word of God, the Bible, which alone can bring sinners to repentance and faith; and is rather preaching a social gospel – a gospel of a better Nigeria. Which in a real sense is not a gospel of Christ but another gospel. Let’s be clear at this point: I am not one of those who think that clergy men cannot comment on national issues or things that concern the well being of a people. I think it is plain hypocritical to say that pastors should face ministry and leave politics. The truth of the matter is that pastors oversea the lives of ordinary people and when these people are suffering because of some harsh economic realities, pastors must be able to say a word or two to caution government. This is why the recent comment by Bishop Matthew Kukah are quite welcome in our body polity, and the Nigerian government will do well to heed his warnings and not criticize the Catholic Priest. However something becomes fundamentally wrong when most of a preacher’s utterances concern social matters and not gospel realities. I am of the opinion that Tunde Bakare has left gospel preaching and is now wholly concerned with a social gospel. My departure from “Bakareism” followed my renouncing of Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism is not a heresy; however it harbors many erroneous positions that leaves open opportunity for Satan to take advantage of the unwary in the movement. Pentecostalism does not offer a critical edge to guard against the encroachment of heresies, this is why less than half a decade following the birthing of this denomination, it was taken over by the heresy of the Word of Faith. While Tunde Bakare repudiates Word of Faith, he left himself open to another error: social gospel. Pentecostalism is prone to these errors because of an element within it’s movement: its tendency to glorify experience and minimize Bible teaching. In seminary my teacher told us that a faithful minister of Christ has no business with topical preaching. Preachers should center their preaching on the word for word textual preaching of biblical texts or what is known as expositional preaching. When ministers do this, they are forced to remain within the text of scripture and not say things outside of it. Of course there are some texts that might warrant the preaching on a social issue but because the Bible is chiefly teaching Christ and the salvation he brought to humanity, Expositional Preaching will lead a minister to center on Christ and him crucified. This is where Tunde Bakare errs. He preaches topically and not expositionally. And topically preaching will lead a minister to preach his own bias. Bakare’s bias is politics and unfortunately he makes the Bible preach what his bias. I genuinely pray that God opens his eyes to see this. I hope he repents and traces his path back to genuine Christian ministry. The trouble with Tunde Bakare was not his speech on Tinubu, which clearly was not his endorsing Asiwaju for 2023. Bakare’s trouble is his social gospel: his belief that Jesus died to make Nigeria better. Rather, Jesus died to save men from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Period. Jesus did not have to die to make Nigeria better; hundreds of countries around the world are thriving without Jesus Christ and his gospel. What humanity needs is salvation from sin. A message that Tunde Bakare used to preach heartily sometimes ago but which he has since replaced with a social gospel today. This social gospel, Bakare’s quest for a better Nigeria, is his Achilles’ heel. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/tunde-bakares-achilles-heel/
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| Sports › Re: The Story Of Giannis Adetokunbo By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 3:45pm On Dec 16, 2020 |
Giannis Adetokunbo becomes the highest paid player in NBA history |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Timi Adigun: When “sorry” Is Not Enough By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 7:23pm On Dec 13, 2020 |
MuttleyLaff:See the paragraph following the one you circled |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Timi Adigun: When “sorry” Is Not Enough By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 7:12pm On Dec 13, 2020 |
MuttleyLaff:He stepped down to return in January |
| Christianity Etc › Timi Adigun: When “sorry” Is Not Enough By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 7:08pm On Dec 13, 2020 |
Timi Adigun: When “Sorry” is not Enough By: Deji Yesufu I only learnt of whom Timi Adigun is when the scandal around him broke into open. A few days ago, social media began to buzz with the story of a Lagos Pastor who had gotten into another sex scandal and is at this time under discipline. Timi Adigun’s case is a little different because his ministry centers on the matter of sexual purity among teens. Pentecostal churches have this thing for “specialties”: so you have this minister who has the “anointing” for marriage, another for prosperity, another for praying for barren women to get pregnant; then you have those who have the knack for motivational speaking; there is one whose prophecies focus at bringing about a better Nigeria, and so on. Timi Adigun, on his part, teaches young people sexual purity. Unfortunately he failed in carrying out his own counsel and fell. He has published an apology note to the public where he wrote:Source: https://textandpublishing.com/timi-adigun-when-sorry-is-not-enough/
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| Literature › Re: Finally, I Met Wole Soyinka By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 2:22pm On Dec 13, 2020 |
illicit:Supporting Amotekun |
| Literature › Re: Finally, I Met Wole Soyinka By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 12:14pm On Dec 11, 2020 |
Officialgarri:Seun, Mynd44, Lalasticlala - a Nairalander met Wole Soyinka |
| Literature › Re: Finally, I Met Wole Soyinka By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 6:04pm On Dec 10, 2020 |
longetivity:Thank you  |
| Literature › Finally, I Met Wole Soyinka By Deji Yesufu by VBCampaign(op): 5:42pm On Dec 10, 2020*. Modified: 6:08pm On Dec 10, 2020 |
Finally, I Met Wole Soyinka By: Deji Yesufu At about quarter to 8 yesterday morning, I received a message from a friend that Prof. Wole Soyinka was going to be at Booksellers, Dugbe, Ibadan, later in the day. My friend knows I am a fan of the Nobel Laureate and he was almost sure I would give everything up at short notice to see Kongi live. After reading his message, I was not sure I would be able to make it to Dugbe that evening. The event, a book reading session and signing of Soyinka’s latest book: Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth, published by Bookcraft (Ibadan), was going to start off at 5pm. I was billed for school runs between 2 and 4pm and I live in a part of Ibadan that is quite some distance from Dugbe. But the temptation of seeing Nigeria’s first and only Nobel Laureate was too much to ward off. Immediately I did a mental re-organization of my day and I was almost sure I would be at Dugbe by 4pm. I replied my friend: I will be at Booksellers at 4pm, latest. There was also another reason to go to Boosellers: I had supplied the bookshop some copies of my book, Victor Banjo, in January and I was almost sure that they would be out of stock by now. I needed to check on them and see whether I could get some extra change for this Christmas period. I got to Booksellers at 4:30pm. The atmosphere was alive with preparation. The organizers had wisely chosen the open spaced car park for the program. Chairs were arranged wide enough in keeping with the social distancing rules that the COVID-19 public health pandemic had cast on the entire world. In spite of the separation, the seating could still take no less than 500 people. Security was in place and people had already begun to arrive. I realized I had some time to spare so I went into the bookshop to enquire about my book: “it has sold out…” – the best news I had received that day. I should be returning for a cheque soon enough: these are just some of the little blessings that writers get in life. I have always said that no writer lives off his written works – except you are Wole Soyinka or Chinamanda Adichie of course. And it was because some of us want to be like these people that we make the effort to see them when the opportunity arise. Prof. Wole Soyinka did not enter the arena until a few minutes after 6pm. He explained that he had been in the Lagos/Ibadan traffic for seven hours! After that remark, Soyinka did not say anything more; it was obvious that the whole business of criticizing poor governance has become trite to the sage and the audience were better off reaching their own conclusion on the matter themselves. The program began with soft music being played in the background by a live band. There was very good lighting and a viewers’ screen was also provided that enlarged the scene on the podium better. In my years of attending public events, including churches, I could swear I had never seen such a clear screen; the images on the screen, expectedly larger, were even clearer than the live images we were looking at on the stage. I brought this to the attention of my friend, whom I had met at the venue, and he agreed also. There were four book reading sessions – three ladies and one guy. There was a drama skit also performed that portrayed a part of the book – the duplicity of Nigerian prophets. The drama was very well done except that the microphones were not properly placed and those of us at the back could barely hear what they were saying. Then entered the Nobel Laureate himself dressed in his customary jacket laced with “Amotekun” insignia: Wole Soyinka is 86 years old but still walked briskly and smartly. From where I sat I hazard a guess that the revered literary Prof would be about five feet, nine inches tall. His signature wooly and grey hair was pointing conspicuously from his head, while he was lead to his seat at the front row. I noticed one thing about him though: Soyinka’s skin was glowing with some unknown youthful strength; he was surprisingly very fair skinned. I have seen many pictures of Wole Soyinka but I never envisioned him as fair in complexion. I suspect however that while Soyinka may not be regarded as fair in complexion, this man has worked hard enough in life to enter into a well-earned rest that now manifests in his elderly but youthful look. Dr. Musuro, the CEO of Booksellers, mentioned that while the whole world was lockdown in their homes because of the Coronavirus, Soyinka was “locked-in” completing this book. And as we emerged from the lockdown, Soyinka emerged with his book. Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth is a novel that tells the story of the Nigerian people with a perspective from every part of the country. It is Soyinka’s first fictional work after about 40 years but it is enjoying the normal literary acclaim that the Nobel Laureate’s works usually enjoy around the world. The program was concluded with a book reading from Soyinka himself and a question and answer session led by the young Edem Osai. I could not wait till the end of the program as it was nearing 8pm and I needed to get home. I was given a food pack and some souvenirs, with the hope of returning to purchase the book soon. Seeing Soyinka was sufficient an adventure for one evening. The only little let down about yesterday was that COVID-19 protocols prevented Soyinka from signing the books people purchased and it also meant that he could not be approached to take pictures with. I had hoped that I would have the opportunity of giving him a copy of my book, Victor Banjo, which contained a lot of references to the heroic deeds of Soyinka before and during the Nigerian Civil War. Unfortunately I could not do this. So when I say I met Wole Soyinka, I actually mean I saw him from a distance and only came about 20 meters close to take a picture. It is however a dream come true and hope that when my grandchildren ask me about this great literary giant, the man I once argued is the most accomplished Nigerian that ever lived, I would be able to tell them about yesterday, Wednesday, 9th December, 2020, – the day I met Prof. Wole Soyinka; albeit from a distance. Source: https://textandpublishing.com/finally-i-met-wole-soyinka/
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| Family › Re: Deji Yesufu: Resolving Marriage Crisis The Governor Ortom Way by VBCampaign(op): 11:14am On Dec 09, 2020 |
Ejiod:YES! G.O.A.T: Greatest (writer) of all time!! |
| Family › Re: Deji Yesufu: Resolving Marriage Crisis The Governor Ortom Way by VBCampaign(op): 9:59pm On Dec 08, 2020 |
efighter: Mryacks:Compare and contrast the two comments. Seun, Mynd44, Lalasticlala consider for front page 10 Likes 1 Share |
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