Opinion

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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Opinion

Boko Haram Survivors and the Stockholm Syndrome | By: Tony Ogunlowo

Right now more and more people, hostages, are being rescued from the clutches of the Boko Haram sect. Many of them who were abducted as girls are returning as mothers having had children with their abductors.

Unfortunately many of the returning women are being ostracized by their own families and communities for having kids with their kidnappers. People can’t understand why they had relationships with their captors. Rejected by their own many of these women have expressed their desires to return to their ‘Boko Haram ‘husbands’ and people can’t understand why they would want to go back to such a dreadful place to live with equally dreadful people.

The answer is very simple and it’s called ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ or capture bonding where people held against their will, in time, start to bond emotionally with their captors.

When people have been in captivity for long periods of time the hostile relationship between captive and captor begins to break down and they begin to have feelings for each other. Sometimes hostages feel empathy for their captors and begin to feel sorry for them and think like them. Notable cases are the Stockholm bank robbery of 1973 where hostages began to feel sorry for the bank robber who had captured them and Patty Hearst who was kidnapped by the SLA in 1974 and later joined them on bank robberies and helped them make propaganda announcements.
It’s not just hostages who suffer from ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. People in abusive relationships, mostly women and children, are known to suffer from it too. After being abused for so long they begin to reason with their abusers, seeing things from their point of view until they start to blame themselves for their abusers often violent actions towards them.
Women kidnapped by the Boko Haram would initially be scared of their kidnappers but as time goes by (-and some of them have been gone for a long time) they will become friendly with their captors. Its human nature to seek out a friend. From time to time when we’re going through a rough patch in life we all need a friend or a shoulder to cry upon – and that shoulder could belong to anyone, even a Boko haram murderer.

To integrate them back into society we have to understand they’ve been away for a long time and would have become friendly with who we regard to be the enemy – even having offspring with them – because to them, over time, they became close – something that was beyond their control.
The people coming back from captivity will be strangers, shadows of their former selves. Their ways, mannerism and habits will all be different to what they used to be and they will have a general mistrust of the people around them. They will be scared – even of their own families and shadows – because they would have lost the ability to trust another human. They will need a lot of TLC, tender loving care, and without any doubt therapy to help re-integrate them back into society, to de-programme their confused minds and help them become themselves again. And to the authorities concerned leaving them on their own or dumping them in IDP camp doesn’t constitute help or therapy. Sadly our health authorities do not have specially trained psychiatric units standing by to provide the required therapy for people recovering from ‘Stockholm Syndrome’.

Also their families and their communities have a big role to play. Instead of shunning them because they’ve been with the Boko Haram for so long every effort must be made to help them. Remember none of them willingly went to live with the Boko Haram fighters and have kids with them. They were abducted and most likely subjected to un-imaginable abuse before their wills were broken. To help them back to their former selves will require a lot of effort from everybody around them – stigmatizing them won’t help. If for one minute they think they’ve been rescued from one hell hole to return to another they won’t think twice before indicating their desire to return to their former captors. 

Their children shouldn’t be ostracized (- or thrown away or killed as some reportedly have been!) but welcomed into the family and the community. You cannot blame a poor innocent child for its conception, something of which it has no control. And the same goes for children conceived as a result of rape or from an abusive partner – DON’T TAKE IT OUT ON THE INNOCENT CHILD! They might be created as a result of an un-holy union but every effort must be made to ensure they are given an equal chance to live a normal life.
You waited a long time for your loved ones to return from captivity, now they’re back don’t shun them or drive them away because they are slightly different. If you force them to run away you’ll never see them again.
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Opinion

Opinion : On Daddy GO Adeboye and a Spoilt Generation | By : Oluwole Aguda

 For now, I may be the most less-than-capable person to discuss anything marriage related but I find it disturbingly amusing that we are losing our common sense as youths because of cheap data and Samsung phones. I am yet to watch the video clip that generated the nauseating hues but I have read news about his position along lines of women and the chore of cooking among some other remarks attributed to him. When I see and hear from a man who has been married for more than 40 years, African tradition teaches me that the words that come from such a person may be 99% wise to follow.
We are the generation that now celebrates 5th wedding anniversaries like the Oscar Awards because the tenets that held our parents marriages together and which resulted in the enduring, refined and long standing unions that we emerged from have been eroded by fantastically corrupt “civilization” and odoriferous westernization.
For many of us, we never even made it to our 5th anniversaries before the roofs came down yet we have the electronic guts to punch nonsense from minds fed by education earned in ASUU strike-stricken schools and silly television series. A man that has been married for over 40 years should never find himself become subject of discussion from anyone less than 50 (this is still Africa) except for praise and admiration.
To the issues: should a woman cook or not? No she shouldn’t. It doesn’t make sense. Her hands are made for manicure and feet for pedicure. Her fingers are not to cut onions but to tweet about feminist rights and their “abuse”. Her mind doesn’t need to work with that of her husband, she is independent – what is she smart for? Why even bother to marry in the first place.
And prayers for 1 hour? Nooo….that is way too much. A whole one hour to pray? Is God that prayer broke to need a complete 60 minutes of prayer from a woman? Hannah is old school. Sarah is old school men. Even Mary in the temple is super old school. One hour is enough to dress up with geles and for stupid eye lashes but insufficient for supplication. Daddy GO, sorry sir, this is 2016 and the Bible is now an app so…
About guys working before marriage? I had worked in IGI Insurance, Image Consultants, First Bank of Nigeria, Oceanic Bank Plc, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc before anything like “I shall” happened some years back. I will feel very insulted to hear or read a debate about any guy not willing to till the earth before taking on marriage responsibility. Medical fees alone for a child in Yankee will leave you (oops me) without a choice but to be a Workaholic! I am one and I don’t care what you say about that. All die na die but when a man should be a man, it is wrong to be a sissy.
I ask, if Daddy GO was wrong, does the Bible qualify him as wrong or you do? After that I’d ask: who are you? You that a smart phone is almost “smarter” than? Oh please!
Data and a phone are no excuse for rancorous social disintellectualism. We are STILL Africans. Even if you do not cook, do no’t mislead others who choose to. Leave a Prophet alone and do him no harm.
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Opinion

Dear Woman, It Is A Lie | By: Florence Ozor

Husbands
Every woman should have a husband like Bill Clinton. 
I do know about the sex scandal….Yes I do. I do not condone nor trivialise It……I do not stand in judgement of anyone, we are all genetically wired with flaws.
It was with his scandal that I got to know how grievous it can be to everything else. In my young mind, it only bothered on trust and betrayal until I saw and read the reaction of Americans to a cheating president. I thought to myself….what a world!
In Nigeria culturally till date it is not  an “issue”. What a tragedy.
Confidence and intelligence has its place. Being self aware and ambitious has its place also.
Motivation from one you love can birth confidence amongst other things; likewise the wrong words from the one you love can erode confidence amongst other things.
A woman who is getting the right dose of praises, support and push from her husband glows and blossoms differently.
I watched Bill speak about his wife and you register the fact that he is still in awe of Hillary……same with Obama to Michelle.
The strength of a woman is the reflection of the strength of her husband. The weakness of a woman is a peep into the soul of the man who husbands’ her.
Only great men help women be Greater.
Though few,  there are so many men holding the ladder of success for their women knowing her success is a mirror of his greatness.

       Dear Woman, it is a lie
When you are instructed not to have a voice in a gathering or an opinion on politics, business, economy, foreign policy but should only be heard when it concerns housekeeping, cooking and laundry….. it’s a lie.
When you are acquainted with the fallacy that your well put together and sometimes expensive cloths intimidates the man…it’s a lie.
When you are told that your ambitions are not valid and neither are your goals relevant….it’s a lie.
When you are told to intentionally exhibit weakness in other to make him feel strong….it’s a lie.
When you are told to act unintelligent because your intelligence will put him off…it’s a lie.
When you are told that telling your spouse how to pleasure you sexually exposes you as a whore…..it’s a lie.
When you are told: Do not buy that first car, that house and do not get that degree as men are going to run…it’s a lie.
When you are told that having your own money, owning your own company will make you scary to men..It’s a lie.
When you are made to belive that your divine and sole purpose is to make babies and that all there is to you is your virgina….it’s a lie.
When you are told that ambition is bad and a show of Strength is repulsive to the man….it’s a lie.
When you are told that you should be confined to a small corner, a taped box and should not pursue your dreams because he feels threatened….It’s a lie.
When you are made to belive that your dependence on a man is your sole ticket to relevance….It’s a lie.
When you lose yourself and it is said to be an injustice to humanity……it is true.
The greatest gift of the world is being a woman, the greatest blessing For the world is being a strong woman. 
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