₦airaland Forum

Tochitee:
The only criminal in this situation is dele! As a lawyer,you win some and lose some! But when you feel that the one you lose was as a result of your opponent bribing the judges,then you have to provide an admissible evidence! Anything short of that,be ready to face the full wrath of the law!

.

We will see

Xisnin:
This people don't get it.
Farotimi wasn't the first to claim that the Nigeria judiciary is corrupt.
In fact, I don't think you can find a single Nigeria that would claim otherwise.
But Dele is not on trial for stating that the Nigerian judiciary is corrupt but for
assuming that the opponent he lost a case to must have bribed judges.

He even went further by stating the names of the alleged bribe givers and receivers
even though he has zero evidence other than the fact that he lost a land legal tussle.

Yes!

Xisnin:
The evidence doesn't exist.
Mind you, there is what is considered an admissible evidence in any country
with civil judiciary.
Hearsay like: I heard from Mr. B that Mr. A did it is not an evidence unless you can get Mr. A
to give credible testimony on your behalf.

Dele has won many cases for his clients under the same "criminal judiciary".
I am wondering how he won and how much he must have paid in bribe to get such favorable judgments.

Interestingly, he never talked about those instances where he won.
Only when he loses does he conclude that his opponents must have bribed judges.

We will see how it plays out

Xisnin:
This people don't get it.
Farotimi wasn't the first to claim that the Nigeria judiciary is corrupt.
In fact, I don't think you can find a single Nigeria that would claim otherwise.
But Dele is not on trial for stating that the Nigerian judiciary is corrupt but for
assuming that the opponent he lost a case to must have bribed judges.

He even went further by stating the names of the alleged bribe givers and receivers
even though he has zero evidence other than the fact that he lost a land legal tussle.

Dele understood what he was getting into. The problem is not absence of evidence. The problem is whether the evidence available will convince a criminal judiciary.

descarado:
Guess I have to buy this book.

Who is this man?
See his office

This will be a Bookshop. He autographed books for sale

Multipurple:
What are trying to say? Weren't America colonized by the same people? Is America the independent today or not? It is the choice of our leaders otherwise we can be truly independent. And you cannot say it was because of that judgment that the war came, that part of the story is just somebody's perspective, every military coup based on selfish ambition.

... I agree it is the writer's perspective and I agree with it. Peace is always worth it. And laws promote peace.

Seun, I believe this thread would add to constructive public discuss on this subject

Multipurple:
The what makes you independent if you are still answerable to them?

We cannot genuinely claim independence to a system and document we just received, and for which we have benefited from.

I'll tell you this, if the judgement had favored Balewa, they would still have stuck to the Privy Council.

Such appeals were not cheap, nor were they frivolous. The state of the nation's peace dependent on it.

If Akintola had been removed, Nigeria would never have gone to war.

Law determines peace and prosperity. Lawlessness is the mother of chaos.

A response to this article by a reader:

Your article, How a Failed Judiciary Triggered the Nigerian Civil War, invites the reader into a profound contemplation of Nigeria’s judicial history, tracing the origins of systemic decay back to both colonial and post-colonial circumstances. There is an inherent wisdom in your recognition of the intertwining between legal history and national identity, and the reflections on figures such as Macaulay and Nzeogwu anchor your argument with depth and context. This is a commendable philosophical move, as it demonstrates that the current state of the judiciary cannot be understood without a broader consideration of its historical evolution.

Yet, like any critical work, its strengths lie not only in the questions it asks but also in how it responds to them. In this spirit, I offer the following considerations from my own philosophical standpoint and without prejudice.

1. Overgeneralization: Your description of the judiciary as “criminal” strikes me as a bold and impassioned critique, but it runs the risk of obscuring the complexity of the issue. While the failures of the system are undeniable, a more nuanced exploration of its moments of integrity and legal resistance could enrich your analysis. In this, you would echo the philosophy of Hegel, who recognized the dialectic between moments of injustice and the striving toward justice. A recognition of the judiciary’s potential for reform would reinforce your critique without sacrificing its severity.

2. Causal Relationships: The nexus you propose between judicial failure and the Nigerian Civil War is thought-provoking, but the narrative could be expanded to consider the multiplicity of forces at play—ethnic tensions, political divisions, and economic challenges—each of which plays its part in the broader tapestry of Nigeria’s history. This would align your argument with the dialectical method of Marx, who argued that historical events are rarely the result of a single cause but emerge from the interplay of multiple, often conflicting, forces.

3. Absence of Prescriptions: Your essay illuminates the judiciary’s failures, but leaves us with the existential question: What now? A philosophical critique, no matter how profound, is always made richer by a vision of transformation. Proposals for judicial reforms, whether through institutional independence or broader public engagement, would move your argument from critique to constructive possibility, echoing the vision of thinkers like Rawls, who saw the need for both critique and the design of a fairer system.

4. Evidence and Data: To elevate your reflections from compelling narrative to a broader philosophical discourse, one might consider introducing comparative analysis—drawing on examples of other post-colonial societies or contemporary judicial systems. The inclusion of empirical data would allow the reader to ground your reflections in something more substantial than the merely philosophical, and might invite a dialogue between theory and practice.

In conclusion, your piece acts as both a critique and a call to action. It challenges the reader to reconsider not only the judiciary’s failures but also the very structures that allow such failures to persist. By expanding on these suggestions, your work might evolve into an even more compelling philosophical inquiry into the nature of law, justice, and social transformation.

Warm regards

- Adeola Adeniyi

kingceejay:
And talking about obeying laws, from this writeup we should thus urge the FG to release Nnamdi Kanu if the court says they should.

The consequences of any hazard with him might lead to crisis like what happened in the past.

And from this post its obvious the coup plotters in 1966 never had an agenda to promote Igbo supremacy but were purely focused on redirecting the path of the nation.

For Mr Dele he has already left an indelible mark in the sands of time.

He now has a name..

Yes

Dalohad:
A lawyer told me that the reason why you can get one judgement in Lagos State from a High court and your opponent goes to Birmingham Kudu and get another Judgement from another High court on the same matters, is because the high court judge in Birnin-Kudu is aware money was paid to the Lagos Judge. Therefore, he will give his own judgement, injunction or ruling on the same matter collect his own largesse from politicians.

The Judiciary is rotten and there will be more exposé going forward starting from CJN. All the evil they did in the dark will come to light soon.

Pure and simple!

Blazebond:
The moment Nigeria became and independent state the ruling of the British privy council stopped being relevant in Nigeria,the Nigerian supreme Court ruled in favor of akintola and that's the final ruling.

That is not true.

The Privy Council served all Commonwealth nations. Our Supreme Court had long existed, and the Privy Council always over ruled them. Why not then, again?

Multipurple:
I get the point you are trying to make and you are correct on it but I actually support the action of the of the Balewa government in ignoring the judgment of British court as that would made us their puppet (though we still ended up being one).

The judiciary/justice system is exactly the problem of Nigeria.

You cannot have peace without justice.

Balewa cannot come to government and do something other than others have been doing.

What has made the country functional up till that time were laws that even the British obeyed.

Is it any wonder that governments of today flaunt court orders with reckless abandon? It began with him.

And, beware of what you wish. Balewa paid for all this with his very life.

rinzaugustine:
They are trying to kill that good spirit in Dele farotimi

They will fail...

ibechris:
Thank u to whomever brainstormed on this all-important discuss.
The poor need justice,the needy need justice and those whose land and properties have been confiscated illegally need justice.

I wonder why the poor and needy out of ignorance are supporting those who are killing them?

Thanking u in a big way.

The law that govern a land should be blind...

OkCornel:
Hmmm

Yeah...

Dele Farotimi: How a Failed Judiciary Triggered the Nigerian Civil War

By: Deji Yesufu

Obafemi Awolowo explains in his writing that British rule was not entirely negative. Before the coming of the white man, for instance, most of Yoruba land was at war with each other. When the British eventually integrated the many warring factions and created a modern nation-state which would ultimately be called Nigeria, they did this solely on some specific laws. The white man, Awolowo would learn with time and did not take documentation lightly. Whatever is written carries weight. This was why the first set of people the British began to take issues with were those who criticized the British government through their writings. The highest form of documentation for the British was the nation's laws. They understood that the law was blind and that the same law that stood against you today, could work for you tomorrow. Therefore, the British always obeyed the injunctions of the courts of law.

Between 1921 and 1928, two celebrated legal disputes pitched Herbert Macaulay against the British rulers of Nigeria, which eventually propelled Macaulay to celebrity status. In 1921, Herbert’s Macaulay supported Chief Amodu Tijani against the government of the day. Tijani had argued in the Nigerian Supreme Court that he was to be compensated for land in Apapa (Lagos) that the government had forcibly taken from his family. The Supreme Court ruled against him, but Tijani took his case to the British Privy Council, a body of legal luminaries, whose decisions were respected in the British Commonwealth. The Privy Council overturned the ruling of the Nigerian Supreme Court and Tijani got compensation for his land. 1928, Macaulay supported Echugbayi Ekeko, the king of Lagos, against the British government in Lagos. The government had deposed Eleko and installed Akintoye. Macaulay joined Eleko in his trip to London to argue his case, again, at the Privy Council. The Privy Council weighed the matter and ruled in favour of the Eleko. Macaulay returned to Nigeria a hero.

As the British departed the shores of Nigeria in 1960, the first thing that suffered was our nation’s commitment to the rule of law. The resultant effect of it all was that the country experienced a bloody thirty-month civil war that ended exactly one decade after the staff of government had been handed to us by the British. A lot of things could be said to have contributed to the start of the civil war, but the contributions of the judiciary can not be overlooked. In less than two years after independence, the ruling party in the Western Region, the Action Group, found itself in an imbroglio – the party had expelled Chief Ladoke Akintola, who was the Premier of the region. The party was convinced that Akintola along with a few people in his caucus, were no longer following party guidelines for the development of the Western Region. Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the party and also the leader of the opposition in the Federal Parliament in Lagos, had been unable to get the cooperation of Akintola – his erstwhile deputy.

The government of Tafawa Balewa stepped into the matter and declared a state of emergency in western Nigeria in 1962. The matter was taken to a Nigerian court which ruled in favor of Akintola. Akintola was restored to office based on this ruling, but the Action Group took the case to the British Privy Council, which acted as a court system higher than even the Nigerian Supreme Court then. The Privy Court dismissed the ruling of the Nigerian court and declared the Action Group to be in the right. The government of Akintola was declared illegal, and Chief Adegbenro of the Action Group was declared the lawful Premier of the Western Region. The Balewa government rejected the Privy Council ruling, declaring that Nigeria was now an independent country and no longer bound to obey the British. That singular action ended all appeals to the Privy Council in Nigeria.

At about the time the country was rejecting British lawful counsel, a young man by the name of Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu had just been appointed the first military intelligence officer in the Nigerian army. Nzeogwu had been trained by the military in the prestigious Sandhurst military academy in England and was appointed to head the army’s intelligence unit in Lagos. Nzeogwu was a conscientious person who detested oppression. He had imbibed socialist ideas while in England, and was convinced that these ideas could change Nigeria and the whole of Africa. As a military man, he had the option of carrying out his revolutionary thoughts using weapons. He hoped to bring positive change to Nigeria, and then head to South Africa to overthrow the apartheid government of that time. Nzeogwu, via his work at the intelligence office, had access to classified information and could tell that the government of the day was persecuting Awolowo – a man whose socialist ideas he shared. It was at this time that Nzeogwu met up with Ifeanyi Ifeajuna and Adewale Ademoyega to hatch a plan to violently overthrow the government of the day. When peaceful means of change and development are rejected by a people, violent means become inevitable. I am arguing here that the seeds that set the tone towards the Nigerian civil war were a brazen rejection of the country’s laws by the Nigerian ruling class in the first republic.

____________

These thoughts bring me back to Dele Farotimi and his book “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System”. You will be living on Mars if you believe that Nigeria has a functional justice system. Farotimi may have exaggerated his point by stating that the nation’s judiciary was criminal. However, we all know that the best way to make a point is to employ something of hyperbole in our words, and this is what Farotimi has done. What is abundantly clear with the Nigerian judiciary is that money talks; the poor and ordinary man cannot argue a case on its merit alone – you must be able to back up your claim with money. Most people who run foul of the law in this country, and go to jail, are usually persons who don’t have money or don’t know somebody – or both. No nation can move forward where there is a brazen disregard for the law. How many times has the government refused to obey court orders in Nigeria? It appears that the government operate by its own rules, and only obeys court orders that suit them.

Now, whichever way Dele Farotimi’s case goes, the man would remain a winner. His book is shedding light on a fundamental problem in this country. And whether he wins or loses his case, we all know now that there are fundamental problems with the judiciary that must be fixed ASAP. Another thing we must keep in mind is that Farotimi is a continuation of the #ENDSARS revolution. What #ENDSARS failed at achieving, this Farotimi case will succeed at. By helping Nigerians rethink the trouble in this country, hopefully, we will find workable solutions.

I have provided the civil war twist to this matter to warn us in this country: the things that drown a country in perdition are usually little things. Top on that list are brazen disregard for the rule of law; cheating the weak; stealing from the poor; and disobeying court injunctions. Dele Farotimi, in one book, has provided this country with a synopsis of her problems. We will avoid greater trouble by attending to the issues raised in the book, rather than crucifying the prophet God is using to speak for the betterment of the country.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

Source

https://www.youtube.com/live/2cvzS8YyEVw?si=9rnFIHqxYTNsSXxG

Fisayo Soyombo: Dear President Tinubu

By: Deji Yesufu

My name is Deji Yesufu. I am a Christian missionary and a die-hard lover of Nigeria. Besides who I am and what I do, I have had opportunities to leave this country. For the first time after evading many temptations from many quarters, I am considering leaving Nigeria. What has occasioned this thought is what happened to Fisayo Soyombo a few days ago. This is what has also led me to write this open letter to you with the hope that it will get to your table eventually. Just in case you didn’t hear what befell Soyombo, I will use the next few paragraphs to describe it.

Fisayo Soyombo is a household name in Nigeria. He is an investigative journalist – who has carried out tens of ground-breaking investigations, revealing the rot in many of our public institutions, and calling on government to reform them. In his latest investigation, whose report is yet to be unveiled, Soyombo gets involved in oil bunkering to find out who and who makes this illegal business possible in Nigeria. What is clearly in the public domain, following his three-day detention by the men of the 6-Division of the Nigerian army, is that many highly placed men in the military are involved in this business. Soyombo has put his life on the line so that this country can stop the bleeding of her commonwealth; so that resources can be available to develop infrastructures in the country; so that this country can become productive and then give strength to her naira; and so that a gleam of hope can arise in the minds and hearts of Nigerians who are committed to the good of the country.

The military is an institution that is extremely dear to my heart. I pray for the Nigerian military every day. It is a career choice I might even consider for my now eleven-year-old son because his late maternal grandfather, Prof. B. E. Olufemi (former Dean of Students at the University of Ibadan), used to call him “General”. I fell in love with the military after I did research on it to write my first book “VICTOR BANJO” and saw how much these men do to keep us alive in this country. No other institution in this nation has her men and women protecting us with their very lifeblood. No one has the right to spoil the good name and achievement of a nation’s military. But there have been strong allegations linking the military to the continuation of the violence of Boko Haram – people alleging that as long as that crisis continues, resources would be made available to buy weapons and people at the highest echelon of the army would make money out of it. Now if we assume these allegations are false, how do we reconcile it with what has just happened to Soyombo?

Fisayo Soyombo, as he is apt to do, went undercover and linked up with oil bunkerers in Portharcout. He says that he paid a lofty sum of twenty-three million naira to get crude oil transported from Portharcout to Enugu. While he could easily have cosied up in his home in Lagos, and allow the smugglers to do the job he had paid them to do, Soyombo puts his life at risk and joins the team to transport the crude. It should also be understood that a lion's share of the money paid would be used to “settle” security officials whose job it is not to allow for bunkering to take place. Now, while they were transporting the goods, someone who was not settled – someone high up in the army, sent his men to burst the deal. Soyombo is discovered and arrested. In the process of interrogating him, Soyombo reveals details of the bunkering process to the army. But in a twist of events, the army published a statement linking Soyombo to oil bunkering; they also revealed the details they had to the bunkerers – intending obviously to tarnish his image in the public and to endanger his life. This is the reason why, sir, you must use your good office to investigate the people who are behind this in the army and have the guilty ones punished.

A few months ago, I discovered all the written works of Obafemi Awolowo, and I have been consuming the man’s philosophy. I now understand why true federalism is at the root of the numerous states we have in Nigeria and why it is the best way to develop the country. I see the “Awoism” worldview and one can say that you are the fulfilment of that goal that our fathers sought both for the south-west Nigeria and for the country at large. Awo did not become president but he left a legacy we are proud of. You are president today and you have the opportunity to leave a legacy for the unborn Nigerian child. The raging corruption in many Nigerian public institutions will not let this happen. The EFCC and the ICPC have all the resources to investigate corruption in the Nigerian army. They only need a nod from you and that legacy of a New Nigeria will be a reality.

You can make this happen, Mr. President. You can write your name in gold in the history of this country and encourage a myriad of committed Nigerians to remain within the country and help build it up. One such person is Fisayo Soyombo – this country cannot afford to allow anything to happen to him, and we must do everything to fix the troubles with our public institutions. Thank you for reading.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

Source

Sinai

By: Deji Yesufu

In the late 16th century and early 17th century, Europeans – mostly English men – began to go to the New World to escape religious persecution at home. Many people who came to America in those days were Protestant Christians. When these people settle into a community to live there, three things become essential to their communal life: the land they work to grow the food they eat; building community with their neighbours who sometimes could be far or near; and the local church. There would usually be one local church in a given community that served all the people. This church could be Baptist, Methodist, or Anglican – the three leading protestant denominations in those days. Roman Catholicism is a later development in American history. If you were Baptist in persuasion, you live in a community with a Baptist Church, etc. In other words, the local church, not where you work or how much you earn, determines where you live.

At Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan, the local church is becoming increasingly central to our lives. The reason is that we began the year 2024 with a commitment to expositional preaching, and we have found out that all of our lives revolve around what we are learning from the scripture. One thing this engenders in us is obedience to God. Another thing it does is make the Bible more and more real to us. At some point in the life of our local church, we saw the need to engage in apologetics through our para-church ministry – Reformed Naija TV. We began to teach the “doctrine of God” and that led us to study Moses – his encounter with God; the wrath of God on Egypt; and then we came to Sinai. At about the time we reached Sinai, we were also studying the London Baptist Confessions 1689, and we saw written in chapter 14, paragraph two:

“By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word for the authority of God himself, and also apprehendeth an excellency therein above all other writings and all things in the world, as it bears forth the glory of God in his attributes, the excellency of Christ in his nature and offices, and the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit in his workings and operations: and so is enabled to cast his soul upon the truth thus believed; and also acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come…”

This part of the confession deals with the characteristics of those who have true saving faith. It says among many things that they hold the Bible as true, they obey the command of scriptures, and they tremble at God’s threat. As we meditated on what it meant to tremble at God’s threatening, we came to Sinai. Why is Sinai significant to this discussion? I will explain.

When God sent Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, he told them that he would bring them to a mountain where they would worship him. He said all these things to them without giving them any other details. Up until Israel’s encounter with God at Sinai in Exodus 19, these people had been riding high on the wings of God’s grace and mercies. They had stood by watching God bring all his terrors on their oppressors; he even killed all their first-born sons; and it all culminated in the dance, singing and rejoicing of Exodus 15 which Mariam led: “… sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its riders have he thrown into the sea…” What they did not factor was that Sinai was going to be a different kettle of fish entirely. While God had terrorised his enemies in Egypt, at Sinai he came down to terrorise his people. Three aspects of this encounter are worth examining:

Stated Purpose of God Appearing at Sinai – verse 9

“I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.”The first and chief error and sin of all humanity is this: “Did God say?” This was how Satan deceived Eve, and this is how he deceives all humanity today. If you and I are sure that something is a clear commandment from God, there is a likelihood that we will obey it. It will be doubly so if God were to appear to us today and speak from heaven in all of his glory and state to us what he wants us to do. This is the purpose of God appearing at Sinai to the children of Israel: that they will hear God speak to them directly, and that they will appreciate the fact that Moses was God’s spokesman.

Whatever Moses says to them, they must obey. In a similar vein, this was the challenge with the Jews in the days of Jesus’ ministry: they simply would not accept that Christ was God’s spokesman who had essentially come to fulfil God’s word through Moses to them. And today, while we no longer have Moses on earth, and we no longer have Jesus and his apostles on earth, we have the very words of God written for us in the Bible. The point of coming to Sinai is to appreciate the fact that God has revealed himself; he has spoken and has ensured that his words are written in the Holy Bible. Our duty, as God’s people, is to hold scripture sacrosanct and obey its commands. We ought not to just obey it, we must also tremble at its threat.

2. Holiness and the Third Day Encounter – verse 10-13

As the God of the whole earth announces his coming encounter with Moses, he also leaves numerous injunctions to the people to the people to sanctify themselves. In other words, they were coming to meet a holy God and he would not tolerate any disorderliness or unholiness. Along with this, he gives them a stated time that this encounter will occur: on the third day. Thinking deeper into this matter, I realize that if the Bible is true it means that all of us human beings have only three days to meet with our God. That this awesome and holy God is going to call us into an encounter with him in three days. These three days, by biblical numerology, could be three hours, three days, three weeks, three months, three years, thirty years, or three hundred years. The point however is that our time is already ticking: prepare to meet with this awesome and holy God.

3. God Appears in Terror – verses 16-19

Finally, God appears to these people and he appears not as a loving, cuddling Father; but as a terrible God. The people are shaking; the New Testament records that even Moses was shaking (Hebrew 12:21); there is smoke on the mountain, bellowing up like from a furnace; and God finally speaks. And when he speaks, he continually warns that the people do not break his commands, lest he breaks out against them. Hebrew 12 describes it best: our God is a consuming fire!

__________________________________

When I write about “coming to Sinai”, what exactly is the point I am trying to make? It is simply this: I wish to remind my readers that Exodus 19 is a precursor to Exodus 20. In the latter, God enumerates his ten commandments. That chapter tells us that Exodus 20 is a continuation of the Exodus 19 encounter. God speaks the Ten Commandments to these people – and leaves them shaking in terror. The point of it all is that the fear of God may be etched upon the hearts of these people, and that way they would not sin. It is the same with us today: The God of Exodus 19 has not changed. He is still the same God we will have to encounter when we die. We had better have found cover for our sins in Christ Jesus.

The most important point of this encounter however is that nobody is living that can come face to face with this holy God: no one. We are sinful creatures, and if we are to encounter God even in our best deeds – we will walk away from him happily and embrace hell instead. The only way to meet with this awesome and holy God of Sinai is to meet with him through an Advocate: Jesus Christ. Coming to Sinai is a reminder of the Christian gospel. It is a reminder of the blessing of the deeds of Christ in becoming our substitute on the cross and taking the wrath of God upon himself on our behalf. We need not fear meeting an angry God at our death – Christ has taken his wrath. If, however, we have rejected Christ as our Saviour, we have every reason to be afraid of what lies after now.

Finally, Sinai reminds us of the kind of attitude we must have as we come to God’s presence, particularly in church, to worship. Our worship must carry some gravity, fear, and reverence. We must never forget that despite the blood of Jesus that speaks better things on our behalf, we cannot take God for granted. Our worship every Sunday must be biblical – as God has commanded in the Bible. We must also have reverence for the preached word. We must commit to obeying God’s commands to our hearts. The preacher must be grave: understanding that he is God’s mouthpiece to the congregation. Church is Sinai; the church is serious business – when we come to church, we come to Sinai. This is why God’s people of past generations took the church seriously. They made the mountain on which they worshipped a priority wherever they lived. We can imitate this also.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

Source

janetakan:
The part that you cut people off for not sharing your belief is wrong. Those people were sent your way for a reason. How about, instead of cutting them off, talk to them and try to make them see reasons with you and share in your belief instead?

What the author has in mind is actually not something malicious, but the fact that many of such people are either better left to themselves; or, God has brought such relationships to end. To continue to whip a dead horse, would be a complete waste of everyone's time

Every Moment with Jesus

By: Deji Yesufu

A few months ago, someone gave me a copy of Selwyn Hughes’ “Every Day with Jesus”. It brought a wave of nostalgia to me. Studying Electrical Engineering and graduating from that department at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was the first real trial of my adult life. It taught me to pray; it taught me to hear God literally from the pages of scriptures; and it led me to Selwyn Hughes. Hughes was still alive when I was at the University, and I used to buy those bi-monthly devotional booklets religiously because they gave my life balance in those days. In recent times, however, the Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that more than having an encounter with him “Every Day”, he wishes that my fellowship with him is “every moment”. I wish to relay how I entered this state of mind.

I am forty-seven years old, and this year alone I have had close shaves with death twice. The first was on a particularly dangerous late-night trip as I returned from Egbe. The second occasion was a bike accident I had and was saved by the wise counsel I got from my trainers that I must always have my helmet on. On these two occasions, my mortality was shown clearly to me like the morning sun. I am not too young to die and for this reason, I am taking every moment of my life more and more seriously. I am intent on how I use my time; I have cut television completely out of my life; I am working on reducing my screen time on the mobile phone; I am creating more and more time for my wife and children; I am devoting myself to my ministry – and labouring hard to fulfil it; and, sincerely, I am no longer wasting my time with relationships that are not beneficial. The moment I discover that you are not in tandem with what I believe I am called to do in this life, I will cut you off my life completely. This is what every moment with Jesus means to me personally. I will now turn to what the Bible has to say about this idea and I would conclude with thoughts on how you and I can make each moment of our lives count with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In our Lord’s ministry on earth, he had twelve men that he called to come and live with him. It was not uncommon in those days for men of great thinking to have their disciples live with them. For Jesus, it was a lot more than engaging in a ubiquitous practice. Our Lord knew that his time on earth was short, and it made sense that he made every moment with his disciples count. The book of John shows us that Christ needed to pass a certain message to the world that would have been practically impossible for the Jews to believe. The Jews understood the oneness of God. How would they grasp the idea of God having a Son – who himself is God? Jesus did miracles that pointed at his deity, but the way his disciples grasped these truths was not necessarily because of the miracles he did. They understood these realities because they lived with him – they spent every moment with him. John opened his epistle this way: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” The disciples grasped the fact that Jesus was God because they lived with him.

It was this moment-by-moment with Jesus that the disciples felt threatened they would lose when our Lord told them in John 14 that he would be leaving them. But he quickly added, that he would not leave them as orphans but “…I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth…” (John 14:16-17a). In other words, while the disciples enjoyed every moment of Christ’s life with him, something even greater can be experienced if we have the Comforter – the Holy Spirit – with us today. The Spirit can make every moment of our lives even more real with Jesus. The greatest gift that Christ gave his Church is the gift of the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings Jesus alive to us. The Spirit makes every moment of our lives as if Jesus is with us. The Spirit guides us. The Spirit speaks to us. The Spirit gives us a mouth and a wisdom to dispel detractors. The Spirit fellowships with us. The Spirit comforts us. The Spirit makes every moment of our lives as if we are living with Jesus. The Spirit reveals the Lord to our hearts. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus alive to us today. While Jesus spent three and a half years with twelve men on earth, the Holy Spirit can make Jesus real to each of us – every moment of our lives.

These thoughts come to me very forcefully as I have to battle challenges in my life even now. Most times I have to make quick decisions. Many times I need my temper tampered. All the time I need supernatural enablement for life issues. When I preach, I need wisdom from above to guide my speech. When I listen to a sermon or read a book, I need insights that only God can give. I have just returned from a trip to Port Harcourt where I supervised a workshop with very lean resources, and had to practically invent modalities for its successful prosecution because I have never been involved in a program like that before. It was Jesus that helped me make a success of it. I woke up every morning, almost hearing in my ears: “This is the way, walk in it”. I will find ideas and I will immediately implement them. Only the Holy Spirit can do a thing like that.

Friends, we can have Jesus involved in our lives every day. But even better, we can have the Lord direct our lives every moment. What militates against this kind of living is the tyranny of money. Many of us think that what we need in life is more money. I have realized that when you have Jesus, you have it all. I have seen the Lord multiply loaves of bread in my life. I have seen the Lord use very lean resources to do so much – and one has a lot left over. Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever. The poor are said to be rich in faith because they have only Jesus to go to. And the Lord has never failed the poor. The problem is, however, that when the Lord delivers us from our poverty, we then return to our strengths again to make it through life. We forget the lesson that God was trying to teach the Israelites when he said that he led them through the wilderness, and made them suffer hunger so that they may know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). This “every word” is every moment with Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God, and a man who has learnt to live with Jesus each moment would know what it means to survive difficult times with Jesus by his side.

You cannot experience “every moment with Jesus” if you have not committed your life to Christ in a meaningful way. You cannot know every moment with Jesus if you still have a besetting sin in your life. You cannot know every moment with Jesus if you are concerned with the opinion of men – Christ would almost always lead you against the opinion of the many. You cannot know success in Christian ministry, in a very dark and defiant world, if you are not walking with the Lord to guide you through life and ministry. Only Jesus by one side, can give wisdom to weather a difficult marriage. Only Jesus can give ideas to discipline a recalcitrant child. Only Jesus can give ideas to bring success to a business plan that lacks the resources to implement.

We will live life more meaningfully, and die deaths more gracefully when we have made Jesus occupy every moment of our lives. Amen.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

Area G, No. 59 ABU Living Quarters Fifty Years After

By: Deji Yesufu

My father sent me this video. It is the house I grew up in Zaria. My baby sister, Marian Yesufu, was born here. Dad says Uncle Tunde Yusuf got somebody to video the environment, and they sent it to us.

https://youtube.com/shorts/TpbaFc57N7A?si=gY1OaEvMGEs5HBnc

When you look at the video, you think there's nothing wrong with the house. It is painted. I think the roof was redone. Etc. But this is not the house I grew up in. Nigeria happened both to the house and it neighbourhood.

In the WhatsApp group My brothers and I keep, the question we were all asking was: where are the roads? My family and I were the first to be alloted that building after the government built it sometimes in 1980. We lived there till 1994 when my Dad left the services of ABU Zaria. Where are the roads? Where are the trees? What happened to the blackberry tree we used to feast on? Nigeria. Nigeria. Nigeria.

Area G has no less than 200 of these three bedroom flats built for staff of the University. Then there was Area A (about 300 houses), BZ (200 houses), Area C (300 houses), Area E (200 houses), Area F (200 houses). These are approximatses. I don't believe any university in Nigeria has that number of houses for staff. Don't forget the school is named after the great Ahmadu Bello.

There are many ABU people on my list here. Please, my people, what happened to those roads? Should we begin to do gofundme to preserve government quarters? I rest my case.

- Deji Yesufu

Source


Attached photo of my siblings and I in 1987

CC: Seun

MightySparrow:
All the new waves of pentecostal churches are still green and wanting experience and traditions. Somehow as time goes on, they will evolve good constitutions. A study of RCCG about change of leadership has passed a generation but the future is not clear. I have been thinking of this. The same goes for GOFAMINT. All others are still playing. Deeper Life, Christ Life, and a host of them are still playing, not having any reasonable succession plans.

The same problem was encountered by Celestial Church of Christ. Many things sprang up after the death of Oshoffa, even not too popular Celica church. Cherubim and Seraphim today has five factions, CAC, has two, the initial body being a splinter group of The Apostolic Church. What is happening is still normal.

However, making retirement age for a minister of the gospel fifty - eight years is disturbing. On one hand, where does the fellow who retired start from? All his life, he was on transfer from one location to another, meaning, such pastor if he started a ministry in an unknown area he is starting afresh and only few people would know him. On the other hand he has used the prime of his age to serve in a place where he cannot be a stake holder- a used and dumped instrument. I believe a church should be a family thing - generational thing. My Anglican priest still have the names of our family members in the village. The still believe we have responsibility to our fathers' churches. They never forget the labour of our fathers, though many of us are no longer with them. I remember, the oldest of my father's children, an octogenarian, before his death, a priest would come and serve him communion bread and wine at home. That is a church that has generational plan. Living Faith Church seems to see their workers as mere contract workers.

Good to hear from you

Postscript

Somebody who works in CAPRO, who I have known for a long time, and whose judgement I trust, has explained to me that Bro. Bayo Famonure was not actually eased out of CAPRO as my report indicates. Famonure led CAPRO for close to ten years as executive secretary. At some point, it became obvious that there was a need to have a change in leadership, as the constitution of the organization stated. A new executive secretary was elected, and Famonure was offered the office of a chairman of the organization. Bro. Famonure declined this offer, and subsequently left CAPRO. In about three years of publishing this blog, this is the first time I am writing a postscript. I have therefore used my editorial judgment to leave the two accounts of what happened in CAPRO here in the report. I believe that a careful reader will understand what really happened by examining the two claims.

The End of David Abioye and Church Government

By: Deji Yesufu

I met David Abioye once – through what you may call a very unlikely situation. The year would have been either 1990 or 1991. I was living in Zaria then and I had developed religious fervour. I learnt that the then young Bishop, known everywhere as a protégé of David Oyedepo, was visiting Zaria, as guest of David Bakare – pastor of a church known all over Samaru (Zaria) then as “JAWOM”. My parent were out of the country then and my brothers and I were left to the care of a family – a story for another day. The woman of the house had told me that I was not permitted to go for that program at JAWOM. She was a Muslim and cared very little for a visiting minister from Kaduna. I thought otherwise. I went for the program – “a revival” as we used to call it. What I remember about David Abioye’s visit to Zaria is faint now, but I remember that there was a lot of razzmatazz around the visit. It was as if Oyedepo himself was in Zaria that day. The church was filled to the brim. He arrived late – like pastors of his status tend to do in Pentecostal meetings. There was a lot of fanfare; David Bakare was grinning from ear to ear – it was as if he was welcoming the head of state to the church. A large entourage followed Abioye into the church. He preached a very short message – not more than half an hour, and in no time, he was gone again. What I remember most about that night were two things: there was no revival that day in that church and I returned home to the chagrin of my Muslim guardian. I would not have been more than thirteen years old.

This article is based on the recent announcement by the Living Faith group of churches, led by David Oyedepo, that David Abioye is to retire from his position as a leading pastor at the Living Faith. Abioye has long been known as Oyedepo’s right-hand man, and where you see Abioye – you have effectively seen Oyedepo. Abioye’s favourite story in the Bible, which I believe he recounted when he visited Zaria that day in the early 1990s, is the story of how Elisha faithfully served Elijah until it pleased God to take Elijah away. The trouble with that analogy, today, however, is that rather than Abioye inheriting a double portion of Oyedepo’s anointing, he is being let go of the church system both of them laboriously built together; and therefore, ending up getting nothing.

Close watchers of happenings in the Living Faith churches knew something like this was about to happen when two phenomena began to emerge. A few year ago, David Oyedepo announced to the congregation that anyone who had served in leadership positions in the church was now free to go and start off their own churches. He made it clear he was willing to pay them off. This arose because there were certain talks regarding what would happen to long-standing ministers in the church. The organization they had all helped nurture, had grown way beyond their dreams. Was there some kind of inheritance being set up for them? This was the question in the minds of these men. These questions began to arise when it became obvious that Oyedepo’s two sons, David and Isaac, were now mature men in their own right, and their father had placed them in strategic positions in the organization. Talks began to make the rounds that “Papa”, as Oyedepo is known among his devotees, was not likely to pass the baton to anyone else but his sons. Many eventually took advantage of Oyedepo’s offer and went on to start their own organizations. Bishop Mike Afolabi, before his death, had left his position as the substantive Bishop in the Ibadan chapter, to go on and plant his own church in the Akobo area of the city – where I used to live. Somehow, and perhaps, due to some loyalty, Abioye did not go with that particular purge. No one knows the exact relationship between Abioye and Oyedepo. Someone even told me that Oyedepo had once proposed handing over the organization to Abioye, while Abioye dutifully declined the offer; making it clear that he was called to serve the Oyedepo, and never the other way around. Whether the story is true or not, the recent announcement of his retirement from the Living Faith organization does not support this narrative.

My concern in this essay is not to rue the situation with Abioye. I am very sure that his retirement package will take care of any need he could ever have. My real concern is with what a biblical church government should be. To be able to explain this, I must tell another story. Rev. Bayo Famonure is a close relative of mine. He is the older brother of my mother-in-law. When Famonure concluded his National Youth Service in the mid-1970s, he felt the call to go into full-time Christian missionary work. He and a few others, who bought into the vision, started an organization called “Calvary Ministries” – mostly known as CAPRO. It is an organization mainly concerned with evangelizing northern Nigeria. With support from Christian friends abroad, CAPRO grew to become the number one missionary group in Nigeria. Then the need arose for a chairman to be elected for the organization. It was taken for granted that Famonure would be given the position. Unfortunately, he lost that election – resulting in a bitter split; with the man of God going off to start another organization. It is said that those people who eased out Famonure themselves are no longer in that organization today. Now, the CAPRO story got to the ears of the likes of Oyedepo and other Christian organizations, and everyone began to shield their investments. The question that arises is this: how do you lead a Christian organization in a way that on one hand it does not become a personal fiefdom, and on the other hand it does not fail to reward the initial persons that made the effort at planting the church or organization? It is at this point I would like to take a cursory look at the matter of the government of Christian organizations.

Christian missions, anywhere in the world, usually begin with one man preaching the gospel to a community. Often, God is pleased to open the heart of that community to the message and the mission grows. As the number of people under the mission increase, so does the name, prestige, and resources of the man at the helm. It is when the matter of money comes into question, that the real nature of the people involved in the organization begins to show. My experience tells me that most missionary endeavours in Nigeria never started with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Most of these people are themselves false apostles, preaching a false gospel, and raising a herd of goats under them. The implication is that rather than the Holy Spirit dictating the direction the organization will go, it is men’s ingenuity that direct them. What this leads to is that like any investment or company in the land, these so-called Christian organizations grow to become bigger than what those who initiated them ever thought they would be. The challenge is not with the growth; the challenge is that the people growing these organizations did not grow with them. If the Spirit of Jesus was involved in the planting of these organizations, he would direct its growth – sending men and women to the organization, who themselves will serve the organization, find their reward in service, and most of all look towards heaven for the greatest reward. The challenge, however, is that when churches become big business, the attitude you see in the “founders” is that of investment and owndership. And those who invest look forward to not just a profit, but to succession. And the people they hope will succeed them would usually not be the people they started the work with; but their own children.

I am beginning to feel the weight of church life upon having only sought to plant a local church here in Ibadan for a year plus. First, there are the individuals who come to church to get positions. They believe that if they serve in the local church, then a kind of agreement must be reached, prior, that will ascertain what their future will be in the organization because of the likelihood of growth and success. They fear that if the church becomes suddenly successful, they will have no space in the investment. There are others who think that the church is a place where they should get help, and the moment they find it, they leave. All kinds of warped ideas with regard to how the church must be run can be found in the minds of people. What I have learnt so far is that it is the Holy Spirit that builds a local assembly – we must beware of building a church by our own effort. When the Spirit is at work in a church, he sends people to that church to build it. Hopefully, everyone will give their best to the organization, and the Lord, not the organization alone, must reward every effort. Our prize is in heaven – it should never be on earth. Where, however, you have not taught your people to look to the glories of heaven; where you have taught your people to seek prosperity on earth – by all means; these people will begin to look for their inheritance in the church and not in heaven. And when they cannot find the inheritance in the church, they are retired from a service they have worked very hard at building.

There are hundreds of church governments in the world today. The important thing is that whatever is agreed upon in a local church, should be a decision that is reached by all the people in the local assembly. A church cannot overlook the place of a working constitution. As churches grow, so also the resources of the church increase. Members of the church should be involved in making salient decisions with regard to how money is spent, what money is spent for, and what structures are put in place. A minister leading the organization should never fear a coup. It is not that it does not happen, but if the local church is planted by the Spirit of Christ, the minister would be preserved. If the coup succeeds, and the minister is removed, it should never be a problem. The person with the original idea simply goes somewhere and starts something similar. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas split over an issue. What we saw was two brothers divided over an issue; what the Holy Spirit was doing was planting two missions to reach the nations with the gospel. Where the Holy Spirit is working, Christian missions edify and build a society. Where the Spirit is absent, there are endless talks on succession; there are all kinds of evil outwitting of each other, along with selfish ambition. I leave the readers to reach whatever conclusion they wish on what is happening in the Living Faith group of churches.

Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

Source

Testing...

The House-help and the Rat Poison

By: Deji Yesufu

I saw a video online that is again reporting a house-help poisoning the meal that a family was supposed to eat. This would be the third or fourth video of such an incident I have seen, and I am becoming wary of it all. There are so many things wrong with those videos that begs the question of how the people making them have the audacity to put them in the public space. In every one of these incidents, the person involved is a minor. I thought there was a law in Nigeria against employing children as house help. Who are the persons meant to enforce these laws? Oh, I forgot. We are a nation that love to make laws but have little ability to enforce them. Perhaps if we remind ourselves that it is enslavement and abduction to have an underage child as your house help, these videos will stop surfacing. And, you know, nature is real: whatever men sow, they will reap. If you have been evil to those children, they will return and poison you. There is simply no way you will love a child and they will do such a thing to your family. And proof of the fact that you have no love in your heart is your continual harbouring of a child as house-help in your home. Would you like to be killed and God ensures that your children become house-helps to other people?

In the biblical book of Second Kings, chapter five, Naaman is said to be a mighty man of war. The only trouble with him, however, was that he was a leper. One day, a girl who had been captured by Syria from Israel, and was now working as a slave girl in Naaman's house, informed the master’s wife that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal Naaman of his disease. That prophet was Elisha. Long story short, Naaman visits Elisha and finds healing. The trust of that story is this: if Naaman’s family had not been kind to that child, she would never have told her bosses a possible place to find help for their problem. Now, I understand that there are some demonic individuals in this life. You do them good, they pay you back with evil. That is a fact. The problem here, however, is that a minor poisoning of a whole family’s meal should never have happened in the first place. Children are called children because their thinking is still not sufficiently developed. They do not know the implications of certain actions. If you take such a child, and you put them in charge of the source of the meal of a whole house, and then you add to it your evil of maltreating them, whatever you get out of it – live with it. For adults, who choose to pay good with evil, they will reap their reward in the days to come.

I have observed children being maltreated so much in homes that when I got married, I committed not to have a child house-help in my house. What we did was to get Iya Ranti – who would come to the house every weekend and clean, and then return to her business. That woman has worked with us since my first child was born. I do not know how I would handle another person’s child. I fear I would maltreat her, and then God would cause my children to be abused by someone else. That is the reason I never kept house-helps. Then I tell people who need such help in their house, and cannot afford to hire older people – ensure that you treat that child the same way you treat your child. It will mean the child help will eat the same food your children eat; they will go to the same school your children go to; wear the same clothes your children wear; etc. If you cannot do this, with every good conscience, please do not keep child house-helps. I have seen people who had such housel-helps who later became their adopted children. One, here in Ibadan, even married in her master’s home and now has her own family. The only possible reason I can deduce that a minor, who is a house-help, might wish to poison their host is if they have been maltreated in those houses. What baffles me, however, is that Nigerian law enforcement will arrest Bobrisky for spraying money at a party through a video they see online, but they will overlook househelps who are being maltreated by their bosses.

On a final note, when you watch these videos, you hear the woman of the house lamenting in the background. I have often said that women who complain of being abused by their husbands underestimate their tendencies to abuse others. Abuse is simply the ill use of power. Men who have strength will use it to oppress their wives. Similarly, women bosses are the ones that mostly abuse these servant children and then drive them to do these dastard acts. And when it happens, it is the same woman that would be screaming the most. Most human beings respond to love and kindness. Most people reciprocate whatever is given to them. Even demonic-possessed children can experience the exorcism of those demons if they enter a godly home, that loves them and cares for them. A child servant can enter your home, and leave your house as a king. It appears to me that just as the country oppresses its citizens, the men return to their homes to oppress their wives; while the wives also oppress the house-helps. And the circle continues. Perhaps the only way to break that circle is for the house help to poison their masters.

On a final note, I would like to appeal to those people making videos of house-helps seeking to poison them: please save me the headache. Or, someone should arrest somebody and relieve us of these nonsense.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

Source

Softmirror:
No they didn't. Israel attacked America.

Precisely

Softmirror:
Iran retaliates not attack.

Did Israel attack Iran

Reported by Ben Shapiro live

https://www.youtube.com/live/vNEqR9dauY8?si=_k1HwRPOwnjBhAoE