Opinion

Opinion

Evil Spirits, the Nigerian Culture and The Rule of Law | By : Isaac Aluko Ademoroti

                       
Nowadays, even children are aware of the existence of the supernatural realm.  There is indeed more to the physical world than meets the eye.  Frighteningly, it is not unusual to find young people queuing up to join cults, secret societies and other esoteric groups.  

This shows that it is not just adults who know what is going on in our world.  Most people have realised that in order to be relevant or be able to wield some sort of influence in the physical world you need to have access to the supernatural world.  This brings us to the issue of evil spirits who are supposed to power the so-called supernatural world.  It is now fairly common knowledge that billions of evil spirits, beings without physical bodies, live on earth as we humans do.  It has been estimated that humans are outnumbered 1000 to 1 by these spirits.  However, the last thing the spirits would want you to know is that they exist.  Some ‘educated’ people actually believe that they do not exist.

You do not need to be told about the mission of evil spirits.  As foot soldiers of Satan, these spirits are out to tempt people to steal, to kill and to destroy.  Most, if not all, accidents, armed robberies, disasters, wars, crimes and killings that we hear of, or read about are directly perpetrated by these fiendish spirits who have taken abode in humans.  Referring to these bellicose spirits, Paul, a prominent bible writer, refers to them as principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this age and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Although evil spirits have won the legal right to operate freely on earth and dabble in human affairs as a result of the fall of man, they are often hampered by their lack of physical bodies.  As they need physical bodies to operate effectively on earth, they find unwitting and sometimes willing allies in humans whose minds and bodies they use to perpetrate their evils.  Therefore you should not be surprised by the murderous activities of cultists in our cities, colleges and universities.  

You should no longer be shocked when you hear of the exploits of kidnappers who kill people for money rituals.  You must also understand what is happening when you read about our military officers and politicians stealing our common patrimony so that they can fund their hedonistic lifestyles.  Knowingly or unknowingly, most of these people are controlled by these nefarious spirits.  Evil spirits operate more freely through people in lawless societies where they create.

You must have noticed that the kind of madness we referred to above where people empty the nation’s resources into their personal coffers, where people disappear without trace and where unexplained deaths happen are daily occurrences in certain places.  These things have become commonplace in Africa, Asia and the banana republics of South America where voodoo is still practised.  

One thing that is common to all these places is the absence of the rule of law.  Sadly, this is despite the countries in these continents having parliaments, police forces and executors of the law in place.  The main difference between what happens in the places mentioned above and what takes place in advanced societies is the rule of law.  What I’m saying is that there is no difference between a man or a woman who lives in London or New York and his/her counterpart who walks the streets of Abuja, Lagos, Enugu and Ibadan.  The one who lives in London or New York generally fears the law and is at his/her best behaviour.  

The one who lives in Ibadan, Enugu or Abuja knows that, in most cases, he or she can get away with anything either by bribing their way out or by pulling rank.  The one who lives in London is less likely to commit a crime because he/she knows that he/she may not be able to get away with it.  I’m not saying that there are no evils or crimes in advanced societies, what I’m saying is that the scale of evil in advanced societies is considerably smaller compared to what happens in our societies in Africa.

This again confirms that in most situations, evil spirits cannot force or compel people to do their bidding. They move in and operate wherever they are allowed.  Therefore, societies that are ruled by fear, that is, the fear of the law are more likely to witness fewer crimes, for instance, fewer killings than a society where anything goes.  Most Nigerians suffer and live in fear, not because the country lacks resources, it is easily because of the absence of the rule of law…
Hence, my argument is that those who make the laws in Nigeria, those who are tasked with executing the laws and those who are mandated to enforce these laws hold the future of the country.  Unless and until we get the right people to make the right laws, people who would execute the laws without fear or favour and people who would enforce the laws, Nigeria may be in for a long night.
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Opinion

The Illusion of our Earthly Lives | By: Tony Ogunlowo

Every three years in the village of Toraja in South Sualwesi, in Indonesia they hold a very strange festival.

They exhume the bodies of their deceased relatives, clean them up, dress them in new clothes and put them on display.
While this might be grotesque, disgusting and not to everybody’s taste  the Cleansing of the Corpses festival is held so that the spirit of the deceased can return to its place of origin, hence the dressing up and all that. While this might conflict with everyone’s view of life after death it highlights one important fact – when we die all that we leave behind in this world is just a shrivelled corpse. It doesn’t matter how rich, famous, beautiful, handsome, good or evil you are, when you die the only thing you leave behind is dried-up flesh on a skeleton.

I like to liken the human being to a car. It could be any car from a cheap Skoda to the top of the range Bugati. Without a human driver behind the wheel (or a human to program it as regards the new driverless cars) it’s nothing but a pile of fancy metal on wheels on wheels that will just sit there without moving. Likewise a human being is nothing but flesh and bones until you insert a soul to drive it.

Before we are born  we sign a contract that when we come into this world, as a new born baby, we will come with nothing and when our earthly time is up we will leave with nothing, just leaving behind a shrivelled corpse to be buried or cremated(- and hopefully not exhumed and displayed as the Indonesians do!)
From the time we are born to the time we depart we live an Earthly life. Our souls are in a physical body that grows from that of a toddler to that of a fully grown adult. In between birth and death we learn and grow, contributing to this earthly world, good or bad, before we depart. We are like people who emigrate to live in foreign lands before one day returning home; the foreign land will never be your home and you can’t stay forever – you have to return to the source – and with nothing as promised before you came to life.
Shakespeare once said ‘All the Worlds a stage. And all men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances’. We are born to play a role or roles. What this role is depends on the individuals’ destiny. Some are born to be teachers, pastors or leaders. Others are born to be rich or poor, good or bad. Some might be builders, inventors or market porters. We all have a role to play in the upkeep and development of this word.

Whilst we are Masters of our own destiny (to a certain degree!) we are in the habit of changing our direction, from time to time, to worship the insatiable demands of our physical bodies and the material world around us. We want more money (at any cost!). We want bigger houses. We want more fame. Everything we want, want, want is just to satisfy the vessel we call a human being, which in many cases may not be in accordance to the ‘driving’ soul’s directive. When things are not done in accordance to the soul’s reason for being on Earth it upsets the balance of things. This is when people sin (- and there’s a long list of naughty things we do!) with their sins affecting the lives of others and even the physical world we inhabit – people start wars killing people, destroying property and habitats. We deprive others of what is rightly theirs and so on and so forth.
And all for what?
We do all these things because of our want for the material things of life. We have basic needs and things we don’t need or could do without – but still clamour to get – things you can’t take with you when you go.

The sixth richest man in the world turned up in Nigeria the other day and people marvelled at how simple he looked clad in T-shirt and jeans, no watch, no designer trainers, nothing.

It’s because people like him realize that life on this planet is an illusion. You’re probably here for a short period of time, probably not more than a hundred years. You might have money to fly in private planes, drink the most expensive champagne and eat caviar but when your time is up you’re not taking any of it with you. Which is why we probably have these new breed of billionaires who are giving their wealth away to those who need it.

The average Naija man will argue that if you have money its best to live like a glutton and live life to the full, sparing no expenses, because you only live once. Hence the reason why he’ll accumulate expensive cars, wives, houses and money – his or not. This might be true, from his point of view, but yet again he’s wrong. Your fleshy human body (like the ones exhumed in Indonesia) lives once and can enjoy all this but your soul – which never dies – carries on into the afterlife.

Now what happens to our souls in the afterlife which could be in Heaven or Hell or something else is for eternity. Is it worth risking the wrath of what might be out there through our misdeeds, selfishness and naughtiness, in this illusionary material world we call Earth?
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Opinion

Patience Jonathan, Her Money Ritual and Her Meaning of Peace | By: Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

You know in your head that you
should be inured to corruption stories by now. Since the defeat of President
Goodluck Jonathan in the election of March 28, 2015 and the change of
government that was consummated on May 29, 2015, you have been inundated with a
staple of scandals that confirm he ran Nigeria like a kleptocracy. You have
seen a glut of evidence that proves that “corruption is not stealing”
was not a gaffe but a directive principle of state policy. You have read of
countless, jaw-dropping plunders in the order of billions of naira, of loot
packed in septic tanks, and of some salted away in offshore tax havens.

But you are shocked by this umpteenth scandal, nonetheless. You are appalled –
in spite of yourself – by reports that former first lady, Patience Jonathan,
has gone to court to lay claim to ownership of $15 million deposit in four bank
accounts frozen by the EFCC. She is standing on the premise of her
constitutional right to “own property” to assert that the curious
accounts opened and maintained in the name of the houseboys of her former
domestic aide were hers, in actual sense. And she is demanding 200 million
naira in damages for the anti-graft agency’s infringement on her convenient
money laundering scheme!
And, while you are trying your level best to process this obscenity without
compromising your sanity, a corrective arrives to complicate matters: The EFCC
has found a fresh $5 million in another Patience bank account. Which means that
the balance of her deposits in the Nigeria banking system, as we know it today,
stands at $20 million –‘only’!
You remind yourself that you know the Patience in question. She has never been,
at any time, a household name in the Nigerian business environment or
elsewhere. The highest position she ever attained in her almost non-existent
civil service career was permanent secretary. Bayelsa State Governor Seriake
Dickson gave her a ludicrous ghost worker appointment for the sake of his own
political survival. Beyond that, she was nothing more than the wife of a man
who became president by a stroke of fate.
So you find yourself wondering how she managed to earn $20 million. Has she
been paying her taxes? What investment yielded her such abundant profit? Where
might one locate a trail of sweat or handprints of labour or any in-demand
product or service that could account for her Olympian dollar heap?
It turns out that the companies Patience used to launder money were fairy tale
entities. They had no earthly address, no staffer, no robot. The firms did not
exist. She conjured $20 million out of nothingness – by sheer magic!
Patience Jonathan’s $20 million is the stuff of occult fortune. It is not
anything like the quotidian case of personal enrichment at the expense of the
Nigerian treasury. It’s something more mysterious, more ambitious, more
audacious: it’s a money ritual!
Money ritual is a fabled protocol for getting rich in an alternate world where
avarice answers to mysticism. It’s a grand Faustian exchange of one’s soul for
mammon. It entails a series of sacrifices whose nature is known only to the cult
of initiates.
Patience couldn’t have gotten $20 million from anything except a voodoo mint.
She had to be printing dollars by herself to come about that amount. In a real
world where money flows in the direction of value, it’s impossible to imagine
that she could have amassed tens of millions of dollars without producing or
offering anything of relative significance.
Her so-called $20 million balance, mind you, is not a picture of the total
leafage on her money trees. It’s only a pruned remainder. Patience had been
cutting off many branches since the Nigerian electorate evicted her husband and
her Aso Rock.
An affidavit deposed on her behalf by her aide, Sammie Somiari, said Patience
discovered she could no longer access her accounts overseas. She was abroad on
medical treatment. It was at the time she needed to access her accounts most
that they had been frozen.
This goes to show she had been disappearing money from those accounts up until
when they were frozen. EFCC placed a No Debit Order on the four accounts on 7th
July, 2016. The fourteen months between May 29, 2015 and July 7, 2016 is an
ample period for her to significantly reduce her lodgements to a pittance. And
given the demonstrable zeal with which the Buhari presidency has pursued the
probe and prosecution of figures that served in her husband’s administration,
common sense would have suggested to her to empty her loaded, smoking gun as
fast as possible.
There is no way to make sense of the phenomenon of a Patience Jonathan boasting
$20 million as part of her net worth. More so, you cannot understand the
surpassing stupidity of her public declaration that she is the owner of an
amount of money she is absolutely incapable of earning legitimately. Her coming
out of the closet as an amazon of money laundering is as outrageous as it is
stupefying.
The Patience Jonathan that Nigerians know cannot make a clean $1 million except
through a lottery. She has won none. Her claim to ownership of $20 million she
obviously stole from the Nigerian treasury is the salt of a lie on the wound of
a heist. Her preposterous possessiveness resembles the spectacle of a thief
pleading that the stolen goods that represent the collective wealth of an
entire neighbourhood belongs to him!
It’s clear that keeping those millions of dollars for too long gave Patience a
false sense of ownership. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. But, the truth
is that the number of years she has had the spoils doesn’t make her the
rightful owner. Neither does it make her less a thief. If anything, every new
day she kept the stolen goods made her a more impenitent thief!
And talking of repentance, Patience is impervious to it. Even a close shave
with prison has not transformed her covetous core. In 2006, during her
husband’s term as governor of Bayelsa state, EFCC caught her twice trying to
launder money.
First time, Patience tried to launder 104 million naira through her ‘business
associate’, a certain Nancy Ebere. Ms. Ebere implicated Patience in a sworn
affidavit.
Second time, Patience was intercepted at the Murtala Mohammed International
Airport while trying to smuggle out a baggage of $12.5 million cash.
She escaped prosecution on the two occasions. She was allowed to go home and
sin some more. Obasanjo had, before then, decided to make her meek-looking
husband the running mate of Governor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. So he declined to
authorize EFCC to expose the wife of the future vice president as a
kleptomaniac!
The free pass gave Patience the impression that she was above the law. She could
steal without fear of any repercussion. If she was caught, she would not do the
time. She would be set free to relearn the art of stealing and escaping with
the booty!
An excursion into the land of the dead also proved insufficient to educate
Patience on the vanity of life. By her own telling, she once fell sick and had
to be rushed to a German hospital. Her condition was bad and it so worsened she
‘died’ for one week. It took 13 surgeries in a world class health facility to
bring her back to life.
At a thanksgiving service in Aso Villa chapel, Patience testified that her
aides stole her jewelleries and personal effects because they thought she would
come back in a coffin. She said she owes her survival to divine mercy. God gave
her a second chance. And in appreciation of that grace, she would be a better
human being. She would serve the society. She would help humanity.
We now know that vow she made in a place of worship were empty words. She
didn’t become born again. She continued in her money laundering habit.
During her husband’s re-election campaign, Patience fought like her life
depended on her extended stay in the presidency. She was more desperate and
aggressive than her spouse. She militarized her home state of Rivers. She asked
her husband’s supporters to stone members of the opposition. She called her
husband’s main rival “brain dead.”
Now, we know why. She was fighting to protect her bloated bank accounts. If her
husband had won, she wouldn’t have had any reason to fear she might be found out
and disgraced. She would have had four more years… to launder more taxpayer
money.
Patience thought a big deal of being the first lady. After her husband became
president upon the death of Yar’Adua, she began to contend with Yar’Adua’s
widow, Turai, over a parcel of land. She had to announce her apotheosis with a
land grab!

Patience was intoxicated by privilege. She pushed back criticisms of her pride
and power show. A frustrated then-governor Babatunde Fashola complained several
times about an unelected official’s penchant for forcing a proper lockdown on
the biggest city in Nigeria each time she came to Lagos. The lady refused to
make her visits less painful. Instead, she called for a constitutional
amendment so that the names of she and wives of other political office holders
will be officially entitled to enjoy their own perks and “retire with
benefits” like “our husbands.”
The amendment she asked for did not happen. So, she seized the initiative. She
awarded herself no less than $20 million dollars in retirement benefits!
What’s saddening in this matter is not she stole from the Nigerian people. Very
few Nigerians can hold on to their integrity in the face of the temptation to
steal “government money.”
What makes this case very grievous is that Patience is insisting on her right
to squander all the money she has stolen. She says she has a right to ‘own
property.’ She implies that the Nigerian people have no right…not even to the
right to reclaim what is left of her loot!
Patience Jonathan once requested Nigerians to call her by the new name of “Mama
Peace.” Her concept of ‘peace’ is totally divorced from justice. She wants to
be left alone. Her definition of ‘peace’ is a state of respect for her ‘right’
to consume millions of dollars of Nigerian taxpayer money!

Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu is a columnist for SaharaReporters. You can reach
Emmanuel at [email protected]

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 Opinion

Opinion : Pastors and the Poverty Debate : A robust response | By: Victor Olugbemiro

This is an address to Christians and it has been written within the confines of what is central to Christianity. Because I am speaking to Christians, let me make the following assumptions for the purpose of responses.
  • That because you are a Christian, you Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross, was buried in a tomb and rose on the third day to take away the sin of the world after man had been condemned to die following the sin of Adam.
  • Having been convinced of your sins by the Holy Spirit, have repented and accepted God’s forgiveness.
  • Believe the bible to be the infallible word of God and you strive daily to live by the precepts therein.
  • Believe in the mystery of the Holy Trinity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
  • Attend a bible believing church where the word of God reigns supreme with the aim of joining other believers to build your life after the pattern of Jesus Christ.
  • Have the overall hope of making heaven and being with God either through death which is inevitable for all men or at the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Having laid this foundation, let me put forward the question that this write-up will attempt to answer and in answering this question, I may be focusing on pastors, but I am also addressing church members too. Because just as your pastor is supposed to be an example to you, you are supposed to be an example to unbelievers and they hold you to the same expectation of perfection as you hold your pastor to. Simply put. We are all pastors.
“Should a man of God reek of poverty?”
The simple answer to this question is no, but the underlying issues that prompted this question go beyond a yes or no answer. This is because a popular man of God in Nigeria trended yet again on twitter due to what some termed as an excessive display of wealth which by implication is unbecoming of a pastor. Others vehemently supported him on the basis that he is a man of God and must not be criticised because those who do so, risk God’s judgement (I Chronicles 16:22 – (Saying, Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm) and that God is not a poor God so it is only expected that he blesses his servants with exceeding riches. Both arguments are faulty
Firstly, God is not rich, neither is he poor. God is God, and God is spirit. (John 4:24 – “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”). Poverty and wealth are human conditions based on the absence or presence of money. God cannot be classified into human social classes. However, Jesus Christ came to earth and lived as man and his life here on earth has become the perfect example for us to follow as humans.
Secondly, the biblical standards that apply to pastors, apply to church members as well because essentially, we are all Christians but as humans, we hold them more accountable because we believe that they are chosen by God to lead other Christians. Indeed, God has given them some authority over us (Hebrews 13:17 – Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account…) but they are no longer middlemen between man and God. The curtain, screening the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament temple, which represented the barriers between man and God was torn at the crucifixion of Jesus, thereby granting every Christian direct access to God. We must obey authority as instituted by God, but what do we do when that authority is going outside of God’s expectations? We should be able to correct from the scriptures (Galatians 2:11 – “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed ;”)
As I read various arguments, for or against extremely wealthy pastors who flaunt wealth, I couldn’t shake several questions out of my head. What is God’s view on all this? And when I say God’s view, I mean what the bible actually says, not some intellectual or motivational interpretation of the bible. If Jesus was a modern day pastor, will He own jets and live in multi-million naira mansions? Will He be fashion conscious, wearing only the most expensive fashion outfits? Will He have social media accounts where He updates His followers of His latest acquisitions? If people do so on His behalf, what will be His response? Will He employ a security outfit and have multiple bodyguards? Will He upload pictures of expensive vacations on Instagram? If He throws lavish parties, will He invite the crème of the society or the down-trodden? Will He publicise acts of kindness that He has done? If He was to preach for fifty-two Sundays in a year, how many weeks will be devoted to teaching his members how to make wealth?
The bible says we are in this world but not of this world. Which means what applies to unbelievers cannot and must not apply to us. So when unbelievers are wealthy and they flaunt it, no big deal. But when Christians are wealthy, we understand that there is a purpose to the wealth and we must use it accordingly.
One thing that bothers me greatly is that members of churches whose pastors openly display great wealth vigorously defend their pastor’s wealth. The wealth then becomes a distraction because God has not called us as Christians to justify our wealth to unbelievers. God has called us to make disciples of all nations. In other words, preach the gospel. What gospel does wealth preach? Is it the gospel of salvation or the gospel of prosperity? Jesus told Peter, ‘feed my flock.’ What does a display of wealth by pastors feed the members?
Let me state categorically that I am not against Christians or their pastors attaining wealth. God himself desires that we prosper (3 John 1:2 – “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”) but not at the risk of our salvation (Matthew 16:26 –“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”)
When wealth becomes detrimental to the gospel of salvation, then something is definitely wrong somewhere. In fact, we are not supposed to pursue riches because our attention will be divided (Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”).
So does this now mean Christians shouldn’t get jobs and make money? No. What it means is that your life ambition shouldn’t be to make money but to please God and when you do this, he will bless you with all material things that you need (Matthew 6:31-33 – “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”)
This last verse of scripture that I quoted is also used to justify wealth of men of God. ‘You do not know his story so don’t criticise his glory. You do not know how he suffered as a young man, preaching the gospel up and down. Now that God is rewarding him, tap into the anointing so that God will do your own.’
There were extremely wealthy men in the bible (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job and Solomon) but what do we remember them for? These men loved and served God all their days and He no doubt blessed them, but what did Jesus say to the rich young man who came to Him? Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Matthew 19: 21).  What that response tells me is that no one can successfully follow God without de-emphasizing worldly possessions to the point where the absence or presence of wealth makes no difference to him or her. Your wealth should mean nothing to you compared to your love for God. If your wealth means nothing to you, will you go to great lengths to flaunt it?
Job was tested and God saw that poverty did not make him turn his back on God despite the fact that his fall from grace was absolute. Despite Abraham’s wealth, no reference was made to it in the New Testament, rather, we are reminded that Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ (Galatians 3:6). Despite the fact that Solomon was the richest man ever liveth, we make reference to him more for his wisdom than his riches. His wisdom benefits us as Christians more than his wealth. He himself made the assertion more than once, that ‘…all is vanity and grasping for the wind.’ (Ecclesiastes 2:17). We remember Jacob (Israel) as the father of the twelve tribes that became the great nation of Israel and a symbol of our inheritance through the promise made to Abraham.
For those who say that wealth attracts people to Christ, it shows that God is not poor and He has the power to prosper you. I am categorically telling you that you have believed a lie from the pit of hell, copyrighted by Satan and distributed to churches. When God is convincing a man of his sin, that man is not thinking of wealth, but of how unworthy he is of God’s love. Isaiah 53 from verses 2-3 says ‘…And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our face from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
It is the Holy Spirit alone that can convince a man of his sin. Not even the most anointed man of God can do that on his own. Paul says ‘For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God… that no flesh should glory in His presence. …And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (I Corinthians 1: 21, 29; 2:4-5).
If God had to rely on wealth to attract unbelievers, then every pastor and Christian will be rich, and those who are already rich need not come to Christ. For those who say you need to be rich before you can have access to rich people and so preach the gospel to them, that is another patented lie from Hell Inc. marketed by foolish Christians. Paul stood before Caesar, the most powerful ruler in the world at the time, and declared the gospel fearlessly. Though he did so under circumstances that we pray against in churches today.
The truth is that who we are in Christ does not fit into popular culture. The message we carry is not popular either, because it entails self-denial and a disregard to what the world holds dear. But the message we carry is powerful in itself (Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…”) to do what wealth, oration, packaging and feel-good approaches cannot do. It is the power of Christ and the mercy and grace of God, bringing salvation to those condemned to die. It is the hope of future glory with Christ. Nothing can substitute it. Let us not get carried away, let us not lose focus. Let us continue to disregard the things of this world, and constantly look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And He will keep us, body, soul and spirit, till the day of His return, Amen.
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Opinion

Opinion: The change Nigeria truly needs | By: Ugochukwu Amasike

For Nigeria to move forward, we need to change and move beyond a number of things, beginning with our unproductive mindsets and defeatist cultural dispositions. The criminal thinking of “the oil in the Niger-Delta belongs to Kano” or “let’s all share the money Lagos State makes from its wealth creation activities” or “the lush green farmlands of Plateau State belongs to Bayelsa state farmers“, is asinine, petty and unproductive and the truth is that they do not. This sort of thinking is the premium product of a lazy person or society.

For our beloved Nigeria to succeed and grow, it MUST ammend the 1999 constitution to free up our potentials, via the devolution of power to the States to enable them become effective contributors to the national commonwealth, through the exploitation and maximisation of their comparative advantages instead of having them remain perpetual parasites and impoverished dependents of a currently struggling taskmaster.

The new political-economic system of Nigeria must ensure that States finance their recurrent expenditure from their internally generated revenue. This will ensure fiscal discipline on the part of our rock star governors.
The situation where a former Governor of Bauchi State had 600 plus aides, whom he financed with his state’s share of the proceeds of oil revenue – located in the Niger-Delta, must stop and only the adoption and practice of political and Fiscal Federalism will ensure that.

When the Governor of a state has to think of ways to develop and grow his state’s economy and IGR, he will have little time for folly and frivolity. Lagos State has succeeded because it was forced to look inwards after its federal allocations were withheld by the Obasanjo government over disagreements between the duo, vis a vis the creation of new local governments by the Lagos State Government.

Lagos began to broaden its tax base, became more fiscally disciplined, invested heavily in infrastructure and sundry capital projects and security, in order to attract and retain both local and foreign investments and today the internally generated revenue of Lagos is able to meet 70% of its needs, with federal allocation accounting for less than 30%.
Furthermore, the legal and regulatory framework governing the oil and gas sector needs to be reviewed, in other words, the Petroleum Industry Bill which has lingered at the “patriotic National Assembly” for almost 10 years needs to be passed into law.
A lot has been said about the revolutionary nature of this bill and it’s nationalistic intent, we must pass this bill into law in our own interests, the urgency of this action is more imperative at this time of dwindling economic fortunes.
It is tragic to note that one of the reasons for the delay in the passage of this bill into law has been the “view” of certain Senators from certain geo-political zones, who have insisted that “Host Communities” must include not only oil-producing communities that suffer the brunt of oil exploration activities, but also every community that hosts a gas station. Yes, a gas station (petrol station, filling station). This is unfortunate.

If Nigeria is to move forward then we must reconstruct our national political-economic architecture, and remove this system that subjugates economic development to sentiments and petty ethno-religious considerations, as the imbroglio surrounding the PIB has shown us.
Nigeria currently practices a system that ENABLES corruption and ENSURES bad governance and we need to change that. Nigeria can not continue to trust and depend on the good intentions of the men and women we elect into political office.
We must evolve and develop a system that incentivises hardwork, merit, good governance and sanctions stupidity, prebendalism and nepotism, irrespective of the good intentions or lack thereof of the political operators we elect.
The Bible says “that he that refuses to work, should not eat“, Nigeria runs a system that ensures that those who refuse to work, not only eat, but eat MORE than those that work, and this injustice has been our bane and the major, if not the sole reason we have been burdened with poor nay despicable leadership across all tiers of government in Nigeria since the return of democracy.

This must CHANGE.

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Opinion

The Impact Of Facebook Founder Mike Zuckerberg’s Visit To Nigeria | By: Tony Ogunlowo

According to CNN Mark Zuckerberg has just made his first visit to ‘Sub-Sahara-Africa’ to witness the impact of his Facebook social media enterprise and to promote his Express WIFI internet service.
One should point it out to the CNN journalists and researchers, probably graduates from fourth-grade American universities, that there really isn’t a place called ‘Sub-Sahara-Africa’ anymore as it’s populated with countries that have names like ‘Nigeria’.

So Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg arrives in Nigeria, incognito, wearing his trademark low-key T-shirt and jeans and casually strolls into the Yaba offices of Co-creation Hub and Andela.

For future reference someone ought to tell him that if you’re 54 billion dollar Golden Goose you don’t go walk about in Yaba. The area boys there will jump you, mug you and kidnap you – bodyguards or not! But yet again nobody probably told him that if you’re a Tech Giant in Nigeria ( – do we have any?) you’re supposed to arrive in an entourage comprising of gun-toting policemen, bullet-proof 4X4s, a bevy of hanger-ons – and of course the full red carpet treatment.
But yet again our mentalities are different. When a Black Man has mega-money he suddenly thinks he’s the King of the Universe, struts around like a peacock on heat, reeking of ostentatious luxury and expects everyone to bow down and kiss his feet. Whereas the White Man thinks ‘well I’m stupendously rich but I still want to live my simple life’. Big difference. Money doesn’t make a person!
Whilst we might be ‘fantastically corrupt’ as ex-PM British Cameron once referred to us, the world – and tech giants – are watching us carefully, especially our youths who are a dab hand at computers, coding and social media( – not forgetting the antics of the yahoo yahoo 419 boys for which we’re infamously known worldwide!). Nigeria has the largest online social media base and its growing, perpetuating every aspect of lives. Growth is greater in Africa than it is in the rest of the world. For marketers and developers this is paradise: a vast untapped market.

The Western world is finally waking up to the fact that we’re not just a bunch of tree-climbing, monkey-chasing, goat-herding imbeciles as previously thought. We have as much raw talent as they do, hence his visit.
Zuckerberg wants to get the whole world on to social media. To do this he is interested in sponsoring the next generation of developers and start-ups. Andela  recently received funding to the tune of $24 million from the Zuckerberg foundation. To get everyone online poorer nations need a reliable internet service. His organisation,Internet.org, intends to get 4.5 billion unconnected people, worldwide, as soon as possible. To achieve this he has funded research into solar-powered high-altitude mobile relay platforms and a new breed of satellites. Unfortunately his flagship satellite, Amos-6, was destroyed in the Space-X rocket explosion a couple of days ago when he was in Nigeria ( – abi you naija people don curse am?)
Kenya, Zuckerberg’s next port of call, is a world leader in mobile payments and he was keen to learn all about it. Just like in Nigeria Kenya has its own silicon valley called iHub and many of the developers and start-ups are working on apps geared towards the local populace.

While we have a government and private investors who are blind to the advances being made by our tech savvy youths (- until they hack their bank accounts!) others are watching carefully and ready to invest in them. As Zuckerberg himself admits that Africa will build the future.

This is the third foreign billionaire to visit Nigeria in recent times: one,Gates, came to donate cash towards our ailing and failing health service, another, Bono of U2, came to highlight the plight of people living in deplorable IDP camps and now Zuckerberg. Isn’t it time our own home-grown ‘billionaires’ follow suit, or haven’t they been shamed enough?

Make yourself at home.
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Opinion

Solution to the Niger Delta Problem: How To Appease the Warring Militants | By: Tony Ogunlowo

Ever since oil was
discovered in the Niger Delta more than sixty years ago the lives of the
people, there, has been blighted by widespread ecological and environmental
pollution. It has reduced people’s life expectancy, led to the abandonment of
their primary occupations as farmers and fishermen as oil pollution has
destroyed both land and fishing grounds. There is widespread unemployment and
general unrest. This has led to general dissatisfaction amongst the people and
is partially to blame for the renewed calls for the re-establishment of the
defunct Biafra republic.
Disillusioned
and unemployed youths have taken to arms destroying pipelines and installations
and kidnapping oil workers in a bid to get something back. These groups go by
many names and the notable of all, presently, is the Niger Delta Avengers – who
are currently negotiating with the government. Apart from frequently wreaking
havoc on oil installations they also frequently battle each other. In the past
fifteen years the Federal Government has had to frequently send troops down to
the region to try and restore law and order.
Unfortunately
the damage is done. The multi- national oil companies operating in the region
have been allowed to get away with so much for so long considering the fact
there are no laws in Nigeria forcing them to clean-up or invest in the areas.
Also over the course of over fifty years the oil companies have colluded with
both military and civilian governmental officials to have things their own
way.  The 1995 execution of the environmentalist/writer Ken Saro Wiwa
exposed BPs complicity in his death and connivance with the then government of
the late Sanni Abacha.
In
recent years there have been attempts to appease the warring militants of the
region to the extent of bribing them to lay down their arms and sending some
abroad to gain further education. There have also been feeble attempts at a
clean-up operation.
Unfortunately
both attempts have failed. Paying off the militants hasn’t convinced them to
lay down their arms. Not only is it not a lasting solution to the problem it
has encouraged rogue splinter groups to emerge to earn ‘easy money’ from the
government. Leaders of such groups have become tin gods who have splashed out
money received on 4X4 jeeps and a luxurious lifestyle ignoring the masses they
claim to represent. And the clean-up of the polluted areas will take forever –
if an attempt is even made to start.
Nothing will work until the Federal Government forces the
oil companies to take full responsibility for their actions. When the BP-
operated DeepWater  Horizon oil rig exploded in 2010 killing eleven
workers and causing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the American
government not only forced BP to clean-up but fined the company more than $4
Billion Dollars- and that’s not counting other pending private lawsuits against
the company. This money will be used by the government to compensate and rehabilitate
all those affected by the disaster.
Though it will be virtually impossible to get the oil
companies operating in Nigeria to agree to do a clean-up a forced levy can be
imposed upon them for re-development of the region.
Call it a ‘Niger Delta Re-Development Fund’ where monies
collected from the oil companies will be used to relocate worst-affected
smaller communities(if need be) to new settlements, to provide social
amenities, education and most important of all – employment!
Someone robbed of their health and livelihood by oil
pollution is bound to turn to mischief. The oil industry is a vast industry
that employs thousands of workers every year. Why not make it a priority to
recruit, exclusively, from the local indigenes first? Why not give the job of
clean-up operations to these Niger militants to keep them out of trouble? The
oil industry has a lot of tertiary companies that support their operations. Why
not force these companies to re-locate to these districts or get them to
establish branches in theses improvised areas? If you establish a company, for
instance, that dry cleans/launders workers overalls and employ fifty local
people you are actually taking fifty people off the street who might otherwise
be troublesome.
Also, education is very important here and should not be
forgotten. Most of the militants, currently terrorizing the region, are in
their late teens or early twenties and giving them access to a good education
will give them a better chance in life. Already some schemes are in place that
provides scholarships but it needs to be more widespread.
Establish a tax-free or low-tax zone to encourage both
domestic and foreign investors. Foreign trawlers who come to fish off our
waters would more than likely be interested in owning a processing plant in
such an area instead of having to freeze their catch and cart it off to their
countries.
Since the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta all the
indigenous cottage industries have all but disappeared.  With proper
funding, probably from government backed micro-finance banks, this can be
revitalized. This will give the local indigenes an alternative source of income
to what they’ve lost from farming and fishing.
Bribing militants or confronting them, leaving oil
companies un-governed and un-checked and coming up with impossible schemes to
clean-up the pollution will never solve the Niger Delta problem. Getting the
Niger Delta militants educated, employed and out of trouble and dealing with
the oil companies with a more firmer hand will.

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Opinion

The Love Affair between Young Nigerians and Disruptive Mobile Technology

Young Nigerians are mobile-first people – technology is inspiring young entrepreneurs to create businesses that could not have existed in the past

We are all familiar with the stereotype of the young entrepreneur; technology whizz kids with all the latest mobile devices and the ability to multitask as they type hundreds of words a minute. Sage’s Walk With Me report (http://APO.af/YnHEo3), – which examines the key characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of young entrepreneurs around the world – confirms that there is plenty of truth in this picture of how young people work and interact with technology.

What’s more, our research in Nigeria and 15 other countries shows that we are just at the beginning of a major shift in how businesses are run as the young entrepreneurs make their presence felt. Mobile technology has already made us all much more productive and helped companies of all sizes to reduce costs and become more efficient, but most young entrepreneurs see plenty of opportunities to do even much more with the tools and apps available at their disposal.

Some of the most interesting local findings on Nigerian young entrepreneurs include:

  • 96% say that they still feel the same excitement about their business as they did when they first started it
  • 44% say they will start over 5 businesses in their lifetime
  • 42% say they would have still been able to run their business with the technology available 20 years ago
  • 38% say they socialise with their team once a month
  • 29% say that work comes before life
  • 16% say that they get out of bed in the morning because they want to make a difference in the world and do some social good
Mobile devices are the platform of choice for today’s entrepreneur and, as you might expect from a generation that has been mobile literate from an extremely young age, a large proportion place huge emphasis on technology and are keen to be at the forefront of new trends. Young Nigerians are mobile-first people, so that’s no surprise at all.

Dion Chang, founder of Flux Trends has done a lot of work with organisations in South Africa that are looking to change the way they operate to better accommodate millennial entrepreneurs. The changes can seem daunting to big corporates, he says, because in many ways the new social values of this generation mean throwing out practices we’ve relied on for decades – a 9 to 5 work day, and the traditional desk work space, for example.

Oiling the wheels of a smooth business 

More than a third of young entrepreneurs (38% in Nigeria) say the technology they use is the most important element when it comes to the smooth running of their business; they couldn’t prosper without it. 42% say they could probably not have run their business with the technology available 20 years ago. That’s an incredible stat: far from destroying jobs through automation, technology is inspiring young people to create businesses that could not have existed in the past.

When it comes to networking and new business, nearly 70% of Nigerian respondents say that they use technology rather than a face-to-face approach. Some 39% say that they depend on technology to succeed, while 44% say technology is invaluable in helping them market their business. These are numbers that would no doubt increase if we had to repeat this survey in five years’ time. Put simply, we’re seeing technology being woven into the very fabric of today’s businesses.

It’s also interesting to note how confident Nigerians are about their mastery of technology.  About 80% of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria claim that despite technology constantly evolving, they do not worry about whether they will be able to keep up. Most Nigerians (80%) also say they do not worry about whether they will be able to afford the latest technology.

Will your desk be defunct? 

Looking to the future, in the next ten years, 33% of Nigerians surveyed believe that technology will make the concept of ‘your desk’ defunct and that, in future, everyone will work remotely and flexibly, via a mobile device. Additionally, 45% agreed the workplace will have more virtual staff, working remotely and flexibly, while 23% said that they will save money on office space and overheads.

It’s intriguing to hear how young entrepreneurs are already transforming their businesses with technology, and how they expect to see the landscape keep evolving in the years to come. What we hear very clearly from our research is that young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and the rest of the world greatly value flexibility and want to have freedom over when, where and how they work, as well as with who.

For them, technology is not only a means to boosting efficiency and productivity; it is also a way to achieve the flexibility and work-life balance that they value so much. The future is mobile and we at Sage are giving our customers the power to control their businesses from the palm of their hand and embrace the future of mobility and what’s to come.

Entrepreneurs who understand the ‘giving economy’

Sage’s research showed that millennial entrepreneurs are far more focused on creating businesses that ‘give back’ to local communities and the world. At the recent Sage Summit in Chicago, the largest event for Small & Medium Businesses in the world, Zooey Deschanel and Gwyneth Paltrow spoke about the ‘Giving Economy’ and the idea that today’s consumer want more than products that will better their lives – they want to support companies that are socially conscious.

For big, established companies, this is also an important insight into how they can inspire their employees as well as their customers by having a positive influence on the community they serve. 

By Magnus Nmonwu, Regional Director for Sage (www.Sage.com) in West Africa
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Opinion

#SaveMayowa As A Springboard For Tackling Ovarian Cancer | By: Modiu Olaguro

With Ahmed Mayowa’s death, the angel
of death has once again reminded us of its potency.
As a chronic
latecomer, which it has always been, Asarailu had to wait until she became an
exoskeleton before it opened its compound eyes on the frail little lass.
Let us take a
moment to appreciate her family, Ms. Toyin Aimakhu and all well-meaning
Nigerians who supported and came to her aid.
Now that
Mayowa is gone, it behoves on the family to give back to the society the goods
they received from the society.
In the event a
substantial amount of the N80 million and $100,000 Nigerians donated to the
#SaveMayowa campaign remains, the family will do well by channelling the funds
to combating ovarian cancer.
This can be
done via the setting up of an ovarian cancer foundation or putting the fund
into our already established health institutions whose mandate is to fight
ovarian cancer.
Stanford
University was founded by Leland and Lathrop Stanford when their only child
died of typhoid. With the university, they made all the students of Stanford
University “their children”.
That’s the spirit!
Mayowa has
returned to the great beyond via ovarian cancer, no thanks to the decrepit
healthcare system we have in Nigeria.

Can her family
begin a process of making her the last to experience this?
Modiu Olaguro
can be reached via Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @ModiuOlaguro
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Opinion

Budget Padding: A New way to Steal? | By: Tony Ogunlowo

As the budget padding controversy rages on members of the public wonder what’s next.

When it comes to pilfering public funds Nigerian politicians ought to be awarded a Nobel Prize for the ingenious ways they devise to keep their fingers in the till. They will always find a way to circumvent whatever security firewalls are put in place.
Gone are the days when politicians used to be content with a ten percent commission from contracts awarded to friends and families. Now its widespread looting as seen in the days of the tenure of ex-President Goodluck. Then it was as if certain politicians had a key to the back door to the Treasury and helped themselves to whatever they wanted.

When President Buhari was sworn in last year he embarked upon a campaign to rid the country of corruption.
He was wrong.
Under his watch the sneaky politicians had devised a new way to steal money and without a doubt it’s been going on, for a while, unnoticed. It’s called ‘budget padding’.
To the uninitiated budget padding simply means you indulge in a bit of creative accounting and  inflate the budget of a ministry, department or project, by a number of extra zeros for instance, to accommodate any unforeseen expenses. So if you have budget of N10 Million Naira you add a further N2.5 Million Naira to ‘pad’ it. Legally it’s okay to do this (even though it’s deemed by the experts to be unethical and wasteful) as long as the excess, you no longer need, is remitted back to the Treasury at the end of the financial year and not creamed off into the back pockets of those who intend to steal it.
So the 2016 budget has been inflated by more than 40 Billion Naira and the President is furious. He swiftly re-assigned 184 key budget officials (- perhaps sacked some!) and brought in the EFCC to investigate.
It’s all and fair that the officials will be investigated and punished but the key question to ask is who ordered it. Most of those re-deployed officials were merely just following instructions handed down to them by somebody higher up. As employees who are they to question their employer/Boss’ orders?
There are quite a few key suspects but since the matter is being dealt with by the EFCC and the courts it’ll be wrong to name anyone – innocent until proven guilty! And if the Nigerian judiciary is anything to go by securing a conviction might take till eternity since our politicians are a dab hand at playing the system. Those accused might try to use the legal loophole that what they were doing was legal and the excess money would be returned to the Treasury at the end of the financial year – and not into their pockets as we all know was the true intention.
So budget padding is the new way to steal money? What’s next?
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