Nigerian Christianity…

Woke up this morning with this great emptiness inside; its December again and every one is going to one camp or the other, making resolutions, going to night vigils, just to make sure they get to see the New Year.

But what is the purpose of all this; I honestly do not think the bible wanted us to practice religion, but have Christianity as a way of life. It honestly freaks me out that Nigeria is one of the most religious countries in the world yet we have bountiful problems.

We pray hard, worship hard, go to church regularly, pay tithes…hold on; does that sound familiar, a little Pharisee and Sadducee ring to it.

Honestly, even though our great vice president, Sambo, shared laptops and LCD TVs as souvenirs on his daughters wedding, I think the church is a major part of this problem. You may ask why I didn’t say mosque; I am not a Muslim so I would not be able to write from their perspective, even though they too are part of the problem.

I was reading a paper on how much covenant university pay for school fees and I honestly was shocked; N 640,000, WHAT! I got angry in my spirit, Winners Chapel has a congregation of way over 1,000,000 members, how many can go to a school that pay that much with the current poverty status of Nigeria? Bishop, himself, went to a missionary school and missionary schools then didn’t pay feess or they were heavily subsidized. How come his schools are one of the most expensive in the country? Is Covenant University not a missionary school?

Every Sunday, they will listen to preaching on sowing seed as a divine upliftment to enjoy ‘Abrahamic’ blessings, but even though I am not against sowing seeds, how many of the people are living like Abraham.

Bishop Oyedepo is the richest pastor in Nigeria, a british mag dubbed him a Pastorpreneur. He owns four private jets, a rolls Royce, two private universities, an airline company, to mention but a few and he is worth $150,000,000; do not forget that it is in dollars.

For God’s sake, if he could have that much, how come people around in Nigeria still suffer, the early apostles sold things to give to the poor, Judas got angry with Mary when she poured oil on Jesus leg because they could have sold such an expensive oil to give to the poor.

Bishop is not the only one guilty of these things, a lot of other pastors as well. Pastor Tunde Bakare said maybe if the could lock up all the pastors, including him; in prison for a while maybe they would understand what the people are going through.

Pastors now acquire so much wealth from the tithes and the offerings people pay,yet with so much riches they claim to be humble. It would have been a lot better if they were always giving to the community. At least with so much worth, every town that there is winners, redeem or any other church should feel the impact of that church in their surroundings. People complain that they pay tax and see no dividends; shouldn’t you see some changes when you pay tithes and give sacrificially?

You see government officials in their long convoys and we shake our heads; saying they are corrupt. But our pastors also have long convoys and fierce looking body guards, what are they afraid of. Jesus walked through crowds; they don’t even want to be touched, maybe except during the service. They drive the best of cars, Jesus trekked, He didn’t even have a horse or a donkey

Our community is dying, people are hungry, there are little or no youth empowerment programs, yet they live rich, advice people to pay tithes and quote Malachi 3:10 every Sunday. Fela Anikulapokuti said ‘Pastors house n aim dey fine pass, ma people never see where to sleep, pastors dress na im dey clean pass, ma people never see money to buy soap…and dem go dey bad bad bad bad things, through Jesus Christ our Lord’

I wasn’t born when Fela sang that song, but isn’t it what is happening now?

I feel the pastors, should engage in youth empowerment programs, they shouldn’t wait for government infrastructure before they do anything, they should collaborate with the government for infrastructure, the church can’t give every body money, but they can help make a change in the society, moving Nigeria up in from being a broke ass third world country.

If any pastor would be reading this, ask youself one question… if Jesus was born in our time, do you think he would drive a hummer jeep, have a Rolls Royce, a fleet of planes, wear the most expensive suits and write so many books on prosperity?

Woke up this morning with this great emptiness inside; its December again and every one is going to one camp or the other, making resolutions, going to night vigils, just to make sure they get to see the New Year.

But what is the purpose of all this; I honestly do not think the bible wanted us to practice religion, but have Christianity as a way of life. It honestly freaks me out that Nigeria is one of the most religious countries in the world yet we have bountiful problems.

We pray hard, worship hard, go to church regularly, pay tithes…hold on; does that sound familiar, a little Pharisee and Sadducee ring to it.

Honestly, even though our great vice president, Sambo, shared laptops and LCD TVs as souvenirs on his daughters wedding, I think the church is a major part of this problem. You may ask why I didn’t say mosque; I am not a Muslim so I would not be able to write from their perspective, even though they too are part of the problem.

I was reading a paper on how much covenant university pay for school fees and I honestly was shocked; N 640,000, WHAT! I got angry in my spirit, Winners Chapel has a congregation of way over 1,000,000 members, how many can go to a school that pay that much with the current poverty status of Nigeria? Bishop, himself, went to a missionary school and missionary schools then didn’t pay feess or they were heavily subsidized. How come his schools are one of the most expensive in the country? Is Covenant University not a missionary school?

Every Sunday, they will listen to preaching on sowing seed as a divine upliftment to enjoy ‘Abrahamic’ blessings, but even though I am not against sowing seeds, how many of the people are living like Abraham.

Bishop Oyedepo is the richest pastor in Nigeria, a british mag dubbed him a Pastorpreneur. He owns four private jets, a rolls Royce, two private universities, an airline company, to mention but a few and he is worth $150,000,000; do not forget that it is in dollars.

For God’s sake, if he could have that much, how come people around in Nigeria still suffer, the early apostles sold things to give to the poor, Judas got angry with Mary when she poured oil on Jesus leg because they could have sold such an expensive oil to give to the poor.

Bishop is not the only one guilty of these things, a lot of other pastors as well. Pastor Tunde Bakare said maybe if the could lock up all the pastors, including him; in prison for a while maybe they would understand what the people are going through.

Pastors now acquire so much wealth from the tithes and the offerings people pay,yet with so much riches they claim to be humble. It would have been a lot better if they were always giving to the community. At least with so much worth, every town that there is winners, redeem or any other church should feel the impact of that church in their surroundings. People complain that they pay tax and see no dividends; shouldn’t you see some changes when you pay tithes and give sacrificially?

You see government officials in their long convoys and we shake our heads; saying they are corrupt. But our pastors also have long convoys and fierce looking body guards, what are they afraid of. Jesus walked through crowds; they don’t even want to be touched, maybe except during the service. They drive the best of cars, Jesus trekked, He didn’t even have a horse or a donkey

Our community is dying, people are hungry, there are little or no youth empowerment programs, yet they live rich, advice people to pay tithes and quote Malachi 3:10 every Sunday. Fela Anikulapokuti said ‘Pastors house n aim dey fine pass, ma people never see where to sleep, pastors dress na im dey clean pass, ma people never see money to buy soap…and dem go dey bad bad bad bad things, through Jesus Christ our Lord’

I wasn’t born when Fela sang that song, but isn’t it what is happening now?

I feel the pastors, should engage in youth empowerment programs, they shouldn’t wait for government infrastructure before they do anything, they should collaborate with the government for infrastructure, the church can’t give every body money, but they can help make a change in the society, moving Nigeria up in from being a broke ass third world country.

If any pastor would be reading this, ask youself one question… if Jesus was born in our time, do you think he would drive a hummer jeep, have a Rolls Royce, a fleet of planes, wear the most expensive suits and write so many books on prosperity?

SLIP OF 'THONGS'

Dear eyes,

My eyes, I must confess that I am not too pleased with you. Your actions in recent times have become a source of concern to me. efforts to caution you have failed. you've thrown all caution to the...well, wind.

Remember what happened recently? we were riding an okada and the okada man's eyes were long on the thong of a lady on the okada alongside us.

Rather than scold the okada man to overtake them and save us from the sight of the pink scrap of lace. you conspired with him and followed 'bumper to bumper' i watched helplessly as you fed yourself to the brim and gave yourself a treat.

you made me late for an important meeting. Thank God that I didn't lose my job that day or you would have lost yours.

we have come a long way though haven't we? from that time, those many years ago in the delivery room, when you opened my mind to a whole new world as the nurse grabbed my legs turned me upside down and gave me a hard slap on the bum_ just to be sure i was alive.

Since then, you've been with me every step of the way, helping me navigate this colorful world. without you, how would i have known in nursery school that A is for Apple! since then, i have come to trust you as a companion whose opinion counts. behold my honorable special adviser on aesthetics. Every day, you help me choose what to wear and what colors to mix and match. You are Mr. Style in me. I'd be an ingrate if i didn’t give you credit for my excellent taste in beautiful damsels.

But yet again, the other day you embarrassed me when you were caught in the act; looking at an angel tattoo above the blue thong of the innocent girl that just came down from a bus. And i covered my face for you. In shame.

My dearest pair of eyes, i put it to you that you are fast becoming very flirtatious and i want you to turn a new leaf. for you to understand the times we live in, i will show you a witty email that my friend Dayo sent to me. In form of a graph, it showed different pants and the way evolution has affected them. The shapes and the sizes of panties continually shrunk from Kembe of the 70's and 80's to the threads that these women now call pants. the mail asked "what would pants look like in the future"

In case you are contemplating a response my eyes, i would like to tell you to mind your business; shut your retinas to the tempting sights of those ladies whose pink, black, green, and even blue lacy thongs slide above their waist due to inadequacies of scanty tops and low waist jeans. while I am grateful that the hands of some of these girls have a conscience and constantly push the offending thong out of sight, i want to appeal to you to look the other way ant time there's a slip of thong on any lady or i might take drastic measures.

As the good old book says, " if your eyes causes you to sin...pluck it out" I hope it wont have to come to that.

Yours Sincerely

Ijesa boi

EVERYBODY ELSE…

Is it selfish to think of only one self or in other words to put yourself before others?

If it is, why? Why must you care about everybody else? If Jesus had cared about everybody else his ministry would have flopped but he cared about just one being…God. I think part of the problems we have today is because we care about everybody else.

What would people think if I blew my nose in public?

Oh Shit! There is an oil stain on my shirt… I can’t go out like this.

How can you wear that kind of trousers…People would laugh at you.

But what if that was the only pair you got, would you and steal? How far would you go to satisfy people?

Let me tell you… what you call normal today is what someone called abnormal a while back, but all that has changed now, hasn’t it?

If they had been told in the time of the gladiators that men would wear trousers instead of butt flaps and gowns would they have believed?

If the Wright brothers had listened to what the other scientist were saying their heavier than air machine wouldn’t have lifted off the ground?

If Ben Carson had listened to the people who called him the dumbest student in class, he wouldn’t have been the surgeon in charge when Siamese twins connected by the brain were successfully separated.

You don’t need superman, batman or even voltron to be a hero…there is one embedded in you. So come out of your shell, show what you got regardless of what everybody thinks.

Remember, don’t ever worry about everybody else…the world is full of everybody else,

 Only a few make significant achievement….

And you and I could be one of them

SOVERIEGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE

This has been a very elusive phrase in the mouths of the Nigerian politicians and even though the activists are, everyday, calling for it; they have gotten no response to their cries.

So why is the government shying away from the conference…

Simple

Less money to embezzle… the revenue generated in each state of the federation is sent to the center and the federal government in turn shares out a percentage of what has been given to it to the states.

But is the sharing profiting the masses that are suffering, does the money that is been shared ever reach the grass roots?

Governors collect over 50,000,000 (fifty million) per month security vote while the average house of reps member makes about 1,000,000 (one million) a day.

I believe that if the conference is held, the power would be shifted from the center. Governors would only donate a part of their revenue to the center and the Northerners who control most of the power in Nigeria would be the losers.

Now, you may want to say that I am prejudiced against the Northerners but I am not.

I am just tired of injustice to the south-south people (even though I am a westerner), people who have the oil, people who suffer because of it and then they can’t even enjoy the dividends derived from it.

Our president is a member of the south-south but his influence is largely missed to say the least. If he has plans for them, we can’t see it yet.

This is a call to the Nigerian government…

You are spoiling our future…please change

Nigeria o ni baje…. Ju bayi lo

COAT OF ARMS…psyche

The Nigerian coat of arms…. A beautiful work of art; with two horses, one eagle, a shield and a garden.

It has some words inscribed on the banner beneath

PEACE

PROGRESS

UNITY

FAITH

I have in one of my blogs written n faith, so this time I would love to tackle peace.

Peace: An word that has been almost totally deleted from the Nigerian dictionary.

Our country used to be a very peaceful place, until the 2011 elections and things began to go out of hand. The Northerners saying it was their time to rule, the southerners not agreeing.

A prominent Nigerian saying let the Muslims vote for Muslims and Christians vote for themselves.

Finally, the insurgence of boko haram

Is that what Nigeria needs right now, a bunch of vigilante suicide bombers who believe in seventy two virgins waiting for them in heaven. They said they were fighting a jihad, that the president should become a Muslim.

Should the country’s development be based on some idiots’ libido or is inability to be sexual satisfied on earth that he seeks women to satisfy him in heaven.

Or his inability to get some on earth and he decided to try his luck in heaven.

Is this what Nigeria needs right now?

Gone were the days when bombing used to e a big deal in Nigeria. Now Nigerians have totally adapted to bombing.

We need to flush out the disease called boko haram, we need to take this country back to the drawing board and establish a new and ‘corrupt-less’ blue print for this country.

It all begins with us.

God bless Nigeria.

Schools of 'theorilogy'

I have looked at the situation in the educational system with my unexperienced eyes and what i have seen is problematic. Part of the problem with Nigeria is our educational system is filled with theories. Pure and simple avogardo's law ohms law biot-savart law and a million other laws that were rammed up our brains so that we could get good grades and 'graduate'. These good grades is the difference between the good and bad students. What if he/she wasnt good in maths and was good in music or fine art. Waec says maths, english and any three subjects must be passed, why maths? Why english? Why not accounts and yoruba? Most youths have no sense of why they want to go for masters degree.."make i add to my C.V." One said. Some believe that it would enable them get good jobs. True... But not totally. U go for masters and you learn more theories. Then you in your way begin to educate yourself.The labour market is overflowing, we, the youth, should start employing each other instead of waiting for goverment or large firm jobs The difference life and school is that school teaches you then gives u a test. Life tests you and then you learn a lesson. Our labs have more chairs than apparatus and some computer science university students cant even couple a computer. We have gotten to a stage where we have to revolutionalize our educational system. Heads have to literally roll for us to achieve this. Let us not forget... God does not create stupid people...Our educational system does.

NIGERIA: the 'BOMB'

This our great country cannot be called a land for the free but everything goes here.
Imagine our security head quarters being blown to smithereens by a bomber who just walked in to the building with a bomb and no security was available to search this young man.

funny, how we get to spend 25% of our budget on the legislators alone and we cannot even face our security. the average Nigerian's life expectancy would have dropped since the security around us is so low our whole country can be blown to pieces in an instant

In the Niger Delta people are being kidnapped per second, in the north, boko haram people are slaughtering Nigerians like cattle and yet our legislators sit in a meeting for hours and collect at least 1million Naira a day.

Is this the so called dividends of democracy that we are meant to be enjoying
Our saviour president...Jonathan Goodluck... has decided to turn his name the other way round by increasing the electricity bill and the fuel price.

The Nigerian government are always the first on the international scene helping other countries with problems.

The bible says remove the log of wood from your eyes before you try to remove the spec of dust from another mans' eyes

Nigeria, we have just more than a log of wood in our eye but the whole tree in our eyes and we would need experts to remove it.

Nigeria; a people united a future assured...psyche.

DEBT

If you no pay me before Friday…walahi… I go kill you”

What if he doesn’t have the money and it probably was not his fault that things went out of hand. If you end up killing him, then what next…would the money materialize?

He, who goes a-borrowing, comes a-sorrowing; that is a popular proverb that the English say, the Yoruba say ‘pekele pekele…arugbo jo gbese…ta ni o san?’

What people fail to realize is that most Nigerians live below the poverty level, and it is very difficult feeding the family and paying fees or even sometimes just to feed is very hard.

A man who had over 20 million naira in his account and was living very fine, had his kids in private universities because of the incessant ASUU strikes and invested heavily in shares. Then came the economic meltdown, and he lost all, he would have to borrow with the hope that the stock market would have improved, and when it didn’t he would borrow more and at the end of it he would have high blood pressure and end up six feet in the ground.

The problem of financial disaster has arisen in Nigeria because everyone directly or indirectly depend on oil money, and only a selected few are benefitting from it. The so called cabals are making so much profit from the oil proceeds that it hurts to see that areas where we have the oil wells the people there are suffering maximally.

Should we keep hoping and waiting for what our failed government officials can do for us or what we can do from the selfish laws that they have passed to benefit our situation.

Should a majority of Nigerians keep living in debt? Is it something that can be stopped presently, only God knows?

Debts are different from debts, Dangote’s debts are different from mine, some people try to pacify themselves by saying that ‘even Dangote is in debt’. But then remember Dangote is one of the richest men in the world, and he didn’t make his money from oil. He invested in other mineral resources and today has become a household name in West Africa.

A lot of times people try to live above their mean and sometimes borrowing money is inevitable, but the lenders should take heart and try to make their debtors less anxious as to the point of killing himself or trying every means to escape the debt even to extent of killing the lender.

To finish this off, Nigerians we should try to live within our means and borrow money when it is inevitable. We should learn to save before we spend instead of saving what is left after spending.

Remember if the money is not flowing from up, we at the bottom can make a channel to make the money flow down, instead of wasting our time grumbling and creating excuses we should put it into creating opportunities.

People say opportunities come but once… but I say it comes a lot of times; just in different shapes and forms.