Opinion

Opinion

A New Axis of Power: Women at the Top | By: Tony Ogunlowo

In less than a months’ time the Americans will be heading
to the polls to elect a new President. And unless Republican contender, Donald
Trump, can pull a last minute trick out of his hat or resort to more dirty
tricks, the front runner, Hilary Clinton, is most definitely going to be the
next President of the United States of America.
Not only
will she become the first female leader of the World’s most powerful nation
she’ll be joining two other female leaders – Theresa May of GB and Angela Merkel of Germany –  to form a
new axis of power. This will mean that a third of the G8 nation leaders will be
women. Already Christine Lagarde
heads up the International Monetary Fund and for a while Diezani Alison-Madueke was the President of the all-powerful OPEC
organisation.
The joke
currently circulating around political circles is that the women are coming in
to clear up the mess made by the men. Perhaps.
We are beginning
to see a new breed of female leaders ready to take on the world in a move never
before seen since the Thatcher era. Traditionally women are better leaders (-
sorry guys but its true!) They are strong, decisive and pull no punches. They
are also not as scandal-prone as men, having little or no skeletons in their
cupboards. The Margaret Thatcher era of 1979 – 1990 turned a bankrupt and
floundering Great Britain into one of the most prosperous and powerful nations
that we know today. During her regime she battled the unions, introduced
capitalism across the board, whilst at the same time showing Britain’s military
might in facing off the Argentines over the Falkland and taking the country
into the First Gulf War. Under her rule Britain was a key player on the
international scene earning her the nickname of the no-nonsense ‘Iron Lady’.
With women at the
top of the three most powerful nations in the world we can expect a lot of
change in the world in the coming years. Even though President Hilary Clinton
will initially have her hands full with domestic issues we can expect changes
in areas such as world trade, migration and terrorism. All three are not
novices when it comes to governing a nation and performing on the international
scene: Angela Merkel has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005, Theresa May
is a former Home Secretary and Hilary Clinton was Secretary of State in
President Obama first cabinet. Collectively, with their joint experience, they
can steer the world on to another course.
As any married man
knows fully well you can’t argue with a woman; they are better at putting an
argument across( and getting their own way!), they are better negotiators, more
thick skinned and are a lot better at dealing with(or ignoring!) criticism
levelled at them. Without a doubt there will be feminists out there who’ll
think it’s time to dust off their placards and take to the streets – they’ll be
wrong! These new leaders are not bra-burning feminists but competent leaders
who have proven themselves in a predominantly male-dominated chauvinistic
environment. They don’t have’ to prove themselves any further to make a point
or statement.
Women leaders,
unlike their male counterparts, tend to think of the bigger picture and as a
result their policies will be more diversified. They also well known for their
ability to negotiate peace deals – something the world desperately needs right
now with all the trouble hotspots.
Women
leaders are not scared to fight when necessary; Margaret Thatcher fought the
Argentines over the Falkland’s and when PM Theresa May was asked whether she
was prepared to authorize a nuclear strike, if need be, that could potentially
kill over a 100,000 men, women and children with a nuclear bomb she replied
with a curt ‘yes’.
Women leaders are prepared to fight just wars if need be-
when there is no other option. They won’t rush off and fight an unjust war like
Blair and Bush did. Having said that one of the areas they are bound to focus
on will be the turbulent Middle East – and they won’t be afraid to use military
force if necessary. Dealing with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea will also
be high on the cards.
There are
currently twenty-two female leaders in the world today running their countries
in the capacity of President, Prime Minister or Monarch (the Queen of England).
With the exception of ex-President Dilna Rousseff of Brazil who was recently
impeached all the other leaders are running their countries comfortably.
Come next
year it would be very easy to see Clinton (if she wins) sitting down with
Merkel and May discussing ways on to how to solve the worlds growing problems.

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Opinion

Power, Stewardship and Accountability | By: Isaac Aluko Ademoroti

From what one has seen of late, it now appears that our leaders and politicians are mainly driven by a certain crave for filthy lucre and an uncontrollable lust for power and earthly glory.  All the grandstanding about service to the people has proven to be a mere ruse after all.
Well, you can judge for yourselves.  Fifty six years after wrestling power from the British and serving their people, these leaders have truly excelled in leading the people aright.  This is why all our roads are now motorable and are no longer death traps.  It is why we now have twenty four hours of uninterrupted electricity supply daily in our homes.  It is also why relevant laws are being enacted by our hard working legislators and such laws are always being promptly enforced by the law enforcement agencies.  This also explains why these leaders of ours are now compassionate having finally learnt to lead by example.  At last, our leaders have been able to bring about an agricultural revolution as a result of which sufficient food is now being produced for the people.  It is certainly because our leaders love serving the people that they have created millions of jobs for the teeming population of job seekers in our cities.  This love for service has also compelled these leaders to manage the finances of the country prudently thereby cutting out wastes.  The leaders have also made adequate provisions for the security and safety of the people.
In reality, with the possible exception of the formidable triumvirate of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, most of the leaders we have had since independence have been products of crass opportunism.  It will actually not be out of place to describe these leaders as dealers.  Being merchants of power, they have always traded with the lives and destinies of the people and with the resources of the country.  Without any doubt, these are ominous end-time situations whereby souls of humans have become merchandise.  In their ruthless quest for power, these politicians, like a blinded Samson, would rather pull down the whole house over themselves and others than do what is right.
Our people, however, have often deluded themselves by believing the mantra that power belongs to the people.  This, though, may actually be true in theory.  In practice, certainly, we all know that real power belongs to the gang of politicians who simply found a way to manoeuvre themselves into positions and situations where they are able to exercise absolute control over the lives and destinies of the people and over the resources of the nation.  These leaders appear to have gotten themselves empowered by the people so that they could waste the lives, the destinies and the resources of the very people who empowered them.
It is now certain that our political leaders do not see themselves as stewards of the power which they exercise and which, sadly, they have chosen to abuse.  This is why they seem to feel that they are not accountable to the people.  Surprisingly, the people live in excessive awe of these leaders who are supposed to be their servants.  People need to be informed and be properly enlightened, principally by the Press, so that they can always remind these leaders that they are mere stewards who must always be accountable to the people.
One disturbing trend noticeable in our politics is that a large number of these politicians who seem to have the ability to rule the country are proven thieves.  On the other hand, those among them who appear to be honest and genuinely interested in the welfare of the people often fail to prepare themselves for the challenges of power.  Our people must therefore wake up and earnestly begin to show real interest in those who aspire to govern the country otherwise Nigerian politics will continue to attract mostly criminals or idiots.   
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Opinion

Black Lives Matter in Naija Too! | By Tony Ogunlowo

Recently there has been an international uproar at the number of black people being shot dead by the police in America. The situation has become so bad that an organisation called ‘Black Lives Matter’ has been set up to draw awareness to the problem. Endorsed by a number of top black American celebrities the group is working hard to prevent further extra-judicial killings through peaceful protests.
Far away from the shores of America, and the attention of the world media, the same thing is happening in Nigeria too: trigger-happy policemen – mostly SARS operatives – are shooting and killing innocent people on a daily basis. In most recent months well-documented cases of extra-judiciary killings by the police include:
·         Two workers were shot dead by the police at a rally in Nasarawa state in July.
·         Two protesting youths killed in Umomi in Kogi state in August.
·         Lagos SARS mistakenly kill a 20-year old student while chasing a suspected fraudster in Setember.
·         In September, the blogger Chukwuebuka  Isidore, better known as Ghostmode, was shot dead by the police in Port Harcourt.
These are just a few cases that are documented and mentioned in the press, many others go unreported with only the families of the deceased knowing they’ve lost a loved one. Sadly there is no justice for the victims or their families as the guilty police officers are very rarely reprimanded. There will be no inquiry; no court trial and most offending officers are back on the streets within hours.
Most notorious for extra-judiciary killings is SARS – the Special Anti-Robbery police Squad – set-up to combat violent crime. Adequate firearms training is not given to police officers who carry guns and further psychological tests would reveal that a great many of them are not mentally fit to be in possession of a firearm – there are even unconfirmed reports that many of them operate under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
In other countries extra-judiciary killings by the police are taken very seriously but not in Nigeria where their superiors tend to turn a blind eye.
How can people have faith in the police when they know they’re likely to be shot dead for refusing to give a trigger-happy policeman a bribe? And the police, themselves, knowing they’ll never be prosecuted will carry on killing innocent civilians. And it’s not just shooting people they’re guilty of; because they wear a uniform they seem it fit to beat innocent people to a pulp, punishing others – kicking, punching and torturing – in ways one would not expect a police officer to behave.
A recent Amnesty International report entitled: ‘Nigeria: You have signed your death warrant’ points out that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS) are ‘…subjecting people to horrific torture methods including hanging, starvation, beatings, shootings and mock executions..’ whilst at the same time getting rich by extorting bribes. Armed with guns they become a law unto themselves and use their weapons with impunity. The question on everybody’s lips is how long are they going to go on killing innocent people before the government steps in to do something about it.
The police in their defence will probably argue that there are a lot of armed hardened criminals out there that need to be dealt with properly hence the reason to use lethal force and weapons. This understandable if they’re dealing with armed robbers but not unarmed civilians. If they can’t shoot straight, and are always hitting bystanders, they should be taught how to and if they can’t see properly perhaps they need to take eye tests – there is a big difference between an armed and unarmed person!
But yet again the Nigerian Police are well known for their legendary use of excessive force (- and abuse) when dealing with anyone they deem to be a suspect.
Everybody is innocent until proven guilty and killing people at random doesn’t constitute justice – it’s an unlawful killing whichever way you want to look at it. Armed police should be trained to use their weapons wisely – returning fire only when fired upon is understandable but shooting – dead – unarmed civilians is not tolerable behaviour in a supposedly civilized society. Beating up people for minor misdemeanours or refusal to give bribes is not also acceptable behaviour.
Most Nigerians support and follow #blacklivesmatter in America, condemning the deaths of innocent black people over there, but what about what’s happening on your own doorsteps? They do say charity begins at home. Perhaps it’s time to start a new movement in Nigeria – #blacklivesmatterinnaijatoo!
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Opinion

The Real Trouble with Nigeria | By: Tony Ogunlowo

In his acclaimed publication ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’ published 33 years ago, in 1983, the late Chinua Achebe pointed out that the ‘ the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership’.

Thirty-three years on this is still true but with an added ‘but’.
Nigeria is a very difficult country to govern: if not the most difficult in the world to govern. You have three major tribes with god-knows-how-many sub-tribes. Three major languages are spoken with over four hundred dialects. There are supposedly two major religions – Christianity and Islam – and again god-knows-how-many different heathen gods that are also worshipped.

Again you have over a hundred and eighty million inhabitants, most living below the poverty line and largely uneducated.
So many people to think of; of different tribes, religions, political affiliations and languages under the umbrella of one nation to be governed by one-person – a President.

Being the President of Nigeria is nothing in comparison to being the President of say, Ghana or the United States of America. The people in these countries are not so diversified.

A President of Nigeria has the near impossible task of trying to keep everybody happy which as I have previously mentioned is impossible because the latter in his best efforts (-or not!) to keep everybody happy will be accused of everything from tribalism and nepotism to favouritism.

In the past thirty years we’ve seen the ‘Buhari-IBB-Sonekan-Abacha- Abubakar’ governments and also the’ OBJ-Yar’Adua-Jonathan-Buhari’ governments. Some were dictators whilst others were elected.  It doesn’t matter where there is an APC or PDP Federal government there will still be moaning and groaning. Especially when you still have disillusioned fantasists like Chief Femi Fani Kayode still holding on to the now defunct belief of North-South, Christian-Islam divide. Nigeria has evolved over the years and its current predicament has nothing to do with the North-South, Christian-Muslim divide. 

Nigeria is a mess as a result of poor leadership, going back for decades, lack of foresight and the lack of accountability on behalf of everybody – from the humble market porter to the President. It’s easy to criticize, judge and condemn others without taking a good look at our very selves in the mirror. To borrow a Christian phrase ‘first remove the plank from your eye before you proceed to remove the speck of dust from brother’s eye’. We are all guilty of bringing the country down to its knees.

With the exception of the military juntas that have ruled Nigeria since independence every civilian government has been voted in by the people – NPC-NNDP, NPN, PDP, APC….

When you have a political system where 99% of those in government are corrupt and inept, or intend to be, you have a problem. Money and harmony go hand in hand. If there is no money to go around because someone has pilfered it there will be general dissatisfaction and even if God was President he won’t be able to run the country and keep everybody happy.

For those who still remember the oil-boom years ( Udoji awards, car and housing loans for graduate workers etc.) of the 70s and early 80s when money was plentiful and corruption was minimal the Head of State of the day had no problem running the country. There was little or no talk of religious or tribal differences as everyone got on with what they were supposed to do – honestly.

That was then. Nowadays the President has to struggle to run the country. He has to deal with the politically-correct brigade who’ll accuse him of playing the North-South, Christian-Muslim game. He has to deal with corrupt fellow politicians, current and past, who hide behind fancy lawyers and Section 308. But most important of all he has to deal with the mind-set of the people. As a race Nigerians are stubborn and don’t take to change very easily. 

We want things the way we want it and not the way it’s supposed to be. As a result because we’re stuck in our ways the way forward becomes clouded. Gone are the days when the military boys used to issue decrees forcing us to do things. Now we have democratic governments and everything has to be done by the vote opening the door for us to get up to all sorts, rarely doing the right thing.

If we want change we all have to change. Not just the President at the top of the food-chain but everyone.  Ditching our age-old habits won’t happen overnight as Rome wasn’t built in a day but a will to start will be a step in the right direction.

The failure of leadership in Nigeria is not just down to one person, the President, not doing his job, but our collective responsibility to do the right thing.

It’s one thing to blame the country’s woes on the lack of competent leadership over the years but what about the governed people themselves? It takes two to tango. If everybody is doing what they’re supposed to do, the right way, then the leaders would have no option but to follow suit.
We condemn our leaders but at the same time our mind-sets allows them to continue with impunity. Isn’t Nigeria the only country in the world where we celebrate corrupt and inept politicians? You salute them, praise them, worship them and give them chieftaincy titles and your daughters – the same very people who have STOLEN YOUR MONEY plunging your country into recession, lawlessness and uncertainty!
The mind-set of the average Nigerian encourages the leaders to do what they want because the people, as a whole, are not righteousness enough to condemn them. If a small country like Ghana can consider impeaching its President for accepting a gift (bribe?) of a car what does that say of Nigeria? We have laws and a constitution but some people believe they are above the law – like Patience Jonathan (who wasn’t even voted into office) – and the people let them get away with it – even protecting them!

We may have bad leaders but we also have a bad populace. If the populace that puts them in power demands (I’ll stress the word ‘demands’) accountability they must account for their actions. If any politician has a clear conscience why hide behind lawyers and section 308? It’s not until you have something like the Arab spring before leaders are forced to change their ways – vote them out! 
There are sections of the Nigerian Constitution that can be implemented to impeach a President, a Governor, a Senator or anybody who holds a public office. The sad thing is it’ll never be done. Why? Because we as a people are happy to live of the crumbs of their illicit gains : happy to keep them in power to satisfy our religious or tribal status quo; happy to think ‘someone has chop im own’ from public funds whilst at the same time hoping and praying we ourselves can get into public office and ‘chop our own’.

And when we don chop everything finish wetin go remain for future generations? Nothing!

Now we’re at square one again – no money in the country and a biting recession – and we’re wondering where it all went wrong.

Don’t just blame the leaders, blame yourselves too!

The people who fought and died for this country’s independence didn’t do so in order for a future generation of over-rated imbeciles to come and loot and plunge the country into darkness.
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Opinion

Unlearning: The Top Secret to Being Successful | By: Tony Ogunlowo

Photo credit: realsuccess.net

We all want to be
successful in life; whether it is in our professional or private lives.
We want successful
relationships’, successful careers and we want to be seen as being successful
in everything we do in the eyes of the world.
Schools of thought will
have us believe that to be successful you need to harness your talent; work
hard and it’ll all work out.

They are wrong!

The true secret to being
successful in life is to un-learn everything you think you know.
Un-learning means breaking
with tradition and setting off on a different tangent on your own. Everything
we’re taught at school, college or university doesn’t mean you’re going to be a
mega-success in life – even though it’s a start – no knowledge is wasted! You
might earn more being a graduate or something but the real success only comes
when you strike it out on your own.

From a very early age we
are indoctrinated. We are taught the differences between right and wrong, what
society expects of us and not. Our very lives are moulded in such a way that we
have to conform – or be damned. As a result we find ourselves trapped in a
system that determines what is best for us rather than the other way round or
what we can do to improve the system.

To escape the
indoctrination, that we have been subject to since birth, we need to think
outside the box – perhaps even betting the farm on what we believe is right.
Life’s greatest thinkers,
innovators and entrepreneurs did not get to where there are today by toeing the
line – they gambled and took a leap of faith into the unknown……

When Bill Gates set up
Microsoft in a bid to change the way everyone in the world accessed computers,
the cheapest computer cost over $100,000 and was the size of a room. Apple,
under the tutelage of the late Steven Jobs, introduced us to out-of-this-world
high tech devices we can’t live without. Even Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of
Harvard to gamble everything he knew on a platform that would change the social
media interaction forever. People like Richard Branson didn’t become successful
by following the ‘norm’. He only became successful as a result of him being a
maverick that stood up to the establishment (and still does) and did things
differently.

To be successful in life
most of the things we’re taught at home, in schools, colleges and universities
is sometimes totally irrelevant. Read the biographies of the ten richest men
(and women), in the world today, and you’ll find they are either university
dropouts or people who have stuck a finger up at the establishment and opted to
follow their own gut instincts.
How can you be successful
when you’re following the same path – like goats being led to the slaughter –
like everyone else? You need to be different. You need to be able to push
boundaries and challenge the order of things – not forgetting hard work and
inspiration.

Only a brave maverick
becomes successful in life.

To be successful in life
you need to think outside of the box. You need to be brave to be able to go
rogue, bet the farm, and follow your gut instincts. People, without any doubt,
will laugh at you, put you down and criticize you and why won’t they? They will
because you’re the only one who’s brave enough to venture out into the unknown
– and stake your reputation and everything you have on it.
It doesn’t matter what
talent, financial backing or connections you have if you’re not prepared to
un-learn everything the establishment has taught you over the years, believe in
yourself and what you’re doing, and strike it out alone following your
gut-instincts you’ll never be successful.

Now the next step is to
discover your niche – something you’re good at doing. Everybody was born with a
unique talent of their own. It could be playing football, music or acting.
Others are talented in science, teaching, banking or being political maestros.
Everyone has something they’re very good at.
Once you’ve discovered your
niche – work on it! Rome wasn’t built in a day! The mere fact that you’re the
world’s greatest programmer does not mean you’re going to build the next
Facebook or Microsoft without putting in the hard work of which most of it will
go unrewarded – initially! 


There will be distractions. People will laugh at you
and put you down – a young David Beckham was once advised to go and learn a
trade like bricklaying or motor mechanics instead of kicking a ball around!
You will need to be
disciplined. If you can dream it you can achieve it. To be successful you have
to follow a rigid pattern of hardwork-hardwork-hardwork-hardwork – there is no
rest until the objective is achieved. There will be unlimited sacrifice – the
loss of your social life, for instance, lack of sleep – perhaps even financial
and relationship problems – all of which must be surmounted.

Statistics show that out of
every hundred people who start out in life only five will be successful by the
time they retire – the other ninety-five would have fallen by the wayside. So
which category do you want to be in? Among the successful five per cent or the
ninety-five per cent who didn’t make it?
Do the maths! 
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Opinion

Patience Jonathan and her $31 Million Skye Bank Accounts | By: Tony Ogunlowo

The former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has written to the Chairman of the EFCC claiming the ownership of more than $31 million found in various Skye Bank accounts. In an affidavit sworn before  the Federal High Court in Lagos she claimed the money was for her medical expenses.

So Mama Peace claims the money was for medical expenses?  Even though the whole of Nigeria finds this difficult to believe I don’t – she really needs a lot of money for her medical condition(s).
The sum she quoted for medical expenses is understandable when you realize she needs a full-time language therapist ( trying to teach someone to say ‘are you the only one who came?’ instead of ‘na only you waka come?’ can take forever!); an anger-management specialist( since she’s known to fly off the handle frequently); a travel-sickness specialist( since she spent most of her tenure as First Lady frequently jetting between Britain, Germany, Abuja and Bayelsa); an etiquette specialist and a relationship expert(after all she’s married to ex-President Jonathan Goodluck, PhD).

Now how she came about the money in the first place is still a mystery since the First Lady doesn’t earn anything and being a Permanent Secretary in the Bayelsa state civil service, at the same time (she was a superwoman who held down two jobs, one in Abuja and the other one two hundred kilometres away!) doesn’t pay that much. But yet again she could have dipped into her husband’s savings since she wore (and still wears!) the trousers in the house.

The EFCC claims the monies found in her account are the proceeds of gratification – a gentle term to describe the proceeds of fraud, money laundering and bribes.
Considering the fact she believes that if ‘somebody come dash you something shay na payment be dat?’ she’ll have a hard time explaining to the EFCC boys who actually ‘dashed’ her such a colossal sum that enabled her to own a magnificent hotel and several luxurious properties. And what could she have done for this person or persons that they were so grateful to ‘dash’ her so much to spend on her health. As the First Lady of Nigeria wasn’t she entitled to free medical care anywhere in the world? Why did she have to, allegedly, pay for it out of her own pocket? And what treatment was she receiving abroad that cost so much? With the money found in her account she could easily buy a clinic in London or Bonn!
If she was ‘dashed’ this money she could have put it to good use since she obviously didn’t need it being the President’s wife. She goes on about how charitable she is and she could have donated this money to the under-funded IDP camps or to the Nigerian Health service.
If $31 million dollars has been found in accounts belonging to her meant for her medical expenses how much is going to found in other accounts, yet to be found or unearthed, for her travelling expenses?
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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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