Ebonyi State Governor Suspends Attorney General & Two Commissioners for Dressing “Casually” to a State Function

Is there actually any connection between dressing casually to a function and performing one’s duties effectively? The Ebonyi State Governor thinks so.

On saturday the 24th of November, the Ebonyi State Governor, Martin Elechi, suspended the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ben Igwenyi, and two other commissioners for what it called “improper dressing”.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, named the two commissioners as Hyacinth Ikpo, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism andChukwuma Nwandiugo, Commissioner for Works and Transport.

The commissioners were said to have dressed casually to a state banquet organised for the members of the Society of Gyneacologists and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) at the Government House on Friday night.

According to the statement published by The Nation, the suspension was for a period of three months. The statement further directed the commissioners not to attend any state function throughout the duration of their suspension.

The governor was said to have been enraged by the commissioners’ “lacklustre dressing to the occasion which had in attendance members of SOGON from various states of the federation which seemed to portray a bad image of the state in the eyes of the visitors”.

Sources close to Government House revealed that the suspension is without pay, adding that the commissioners have been directed to hand over all government properties in their possession to their permanent secretaries.

What do you make of this news? The report did not state exactly what they wore to the event, but according to the state governor, “casual dressing” is “lacklustre dressing” which implies it is “improper dressing”.

Do you think they deserved a suspension for dressing casually to a state function?

Terry G wanted by the Nigerian police for hit and run

The new papa (just had a son) is wanted by the Nigerian police for a hit and run that occurred on Friday November 23rd.

According to police reports, Terry G hit the victim, Moshood Azeez, with his car while leaving Club Royale located on Oba Akran Rd, Ikeja.

Moshood, whose leg was crushed in the accident, was rushed to General Hospital Ikeja where he is still receiving treatment. Terry G was said to have fled the scene of the accident now making it a police case.

Police at Wemabod Estate, Ikeja invited the Akpako master for questioning but he didn't respond to the invitation. Corporal Linus Reuben who is in charge of the case said Terry G has left the country for the UK. He said they plan to go after him once he returns.

CSR Activity - Day 4

On the 4th day, we went out to look for where we could purchase the tank and incinerator. I must say, that was definitly the most hectic day. We headed to a busy road known as "Mubi Road" where we were able to find tanks in different sizes. 

This tank as mentioned earlier will be placed slightly above ground level so the kids can reach it. The idea behind it is to prevent them from dipping their dirty hands into the whole drum and pouring back what they have remaining in their cups. It is very important health wise.


The incinerator was what really gave us a tough time. We resulted to seeking welders that could make one for us as we checked and asked all over town. 
In the end, we had to compromise, as we could not get hold of one, and all the places we asked for it to be made gave us a minimum of 5days. 
We were directed to a place known as "kasuwan Bola" direct translation of that will be "dustbin market" all the way at the other end of town with temperature at about 37ºc.
There we were able to purchase something as a substitute of the incinerator. 

Me in black and my group member, Mubarak wearing the jersey

CSR Activity - Day 3

We go everyday to check their progress and make sure everything is going well. 
On this 3rd day, we went and they had started putting in the new blocks as a base for the toilet. Also, they were about to begin burying the waste from the toilet into the hole they dug. 

Me in peach and a group member, Veronica 

CSR Activity - Day 2

On arrival at the school on the second day, as expected something came up. they had to dig a hole close to the toilet, so, as they empty the waste from both toilets they can bury it. 

As a sign of appreciation, their principal also had them sing their school anthem for us. 

CSR Activity - Day 1

As we have limited time, we commenced work immediately. We were able to contact contractors that can give them a stronger, presentable, more private toilet. 
They started by breaking the slab off the both toilets so they can clean and take out the weak blocks. 

without the slab

emptied 

CSR Activity - reasons and decisions

So, from the previous post, I mentioned that my group members and I decided to help the school with their toilets, waste bin and source of drinking water.
decision taken- rebuild the toilet
1.

This is what they had in place as a toilet and the kids were prevented from going there because as you can see, the slab is broken and the blocks underneath it are very weak. Therefore, leaving them with the risk of it collapsing at any time. 
2.

The kids all drink water from this black drum and same cup. It was disturbing to see them go to fetch the water, dip their dirty hands into the drum and pour back whatever is left in the cup after they finish drinking the water. 
decision taken- buy a tank that lifts off the ground that has a tap head and filter
3.

After every end of day, they empty all their dustbins just beside their toilet and when it piles up, a little more than we can see, they burn it. The ashes then fly around the school with the wind and litter their environment. 
decision taken- buy an incinerator so they can dispose of their waste there and burn.

CSR Activity- Location to carry out CSR

We first spoke to the director of Community Service from our school, Mr Dabo and he explained how there is a school that they currently visit on tuesdays and thursday to help with tutoring illiterate women during the kids break time. 

The schools name is Universal Wisdom Academy, Yola.

My group members and I went over to the school to seek permission to help them with any problems we could afford. The principal was very much pleased and gave us a very long list of things we could pick from and help. 

Looking and analyzing the list, as the group leader I suggested that we pick something that we can come back after a year and still see standing. They all agreed with this, and so we decided to go with their toilet, waste bin and source of water. 

CSR Activity- Company

Hello people, I'm about to bring updates about a CSR activity we have been asked to carry out as a group from a course I'm currently taking.
The task was to approach a company that does not usually participate in Corporate Social Responsibility, enlighten them about it and make a proposal asking them to be the middlemen between their organization and the people, community or environment.

My group members and I sat and decided to perform charity with the community. We went out and came back with a list of 3 organizations which are as follows:
1. Profile Group
2. Top 10
3. Imad Group
 And here is the story...

The first two organizations surprised us in different ways.
Profile group is a company based in Abuja and so while we waited for their response, decided to visit a local organization here in Yola known as top 10.
On arrival to top 10, we asked to see their manager and discuss what we are to be doing and how they can render help to the community and not us. He said he understood everything and then asked us to pay them to do the job for them. Long story short, we decided to let that go because we didn't have time and he was proving difficult.
Our first choice, Profile group, responded the next day with so much interest. They even called to ask more questions and immediately accepted to help.

The last one, well, we still haven't heard anything from.

So, thats how we got the organization willing to give back to the community which we are currently still working with.
"Profile Group"

Former Vice President Atiku kneels to greet former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo

A rather unusual but interesting piece of news that seemed to be trending as at the 27th of November, till now is that of the former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, kneeling down to greet his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Atiku and Obasanjo, who served as Vice President and President of Nigeria respectively, between 1999-2007, had an estranged relationship during the last lap of their second term in office. However, in a surprising turn of events, Atiku was reported to have knelt down and bowed his head to greet his former boss at a public function on monday.

According to Daily Times, the act took place at the venue of the 2012 Comptroller-General of Customs’ conference in Katsina.

Both men were among a retinue of VIPs invited to the opening of the week long Comptroller-Generals’ conference held at the newly inaugurated auditorium of Katsina State University.

Obasanjo, who arrived ahead of Atiku, was seated next to second republic President Shehu Shagari and the Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade.

Atiku, who arrived nearly 40-minutes after his former boss, first greeted the Emir of Gwandu, Muhammad Iliyasu; Emir of Katsina, Abdulmimini Usman; the Ooni and Shagari who were seated at the podium.

When he got to Obasanjo, the former Vice President knelt down and bowed his head to greet his former boss. The delighted crowd followed the mild drama with applause.

I wonder where all the cameras were at this time. This is one picture I would have really loved to see.

Many have said the unusual public display by Atiku is an attempt to win favours for his political ambition in the 2015 General Elections. Others have said it is just a publicity stunt.

What do you say? What do you make out of this public show of “respect”?

Woman, 95, leaves £8million estate next door neighbor to thank her for buying her milk and bread

It is often said that a small act of daily kindness  goes a long way. But one lucky Australian could not have expected that her good deeds would land her a multi-million dollar cheque. 

The next-door neighbour, who helped an elderly widow with her daily chores, was left with a ‘thank you’ gift of eight million pounds.
Sydney widow Betty Harris, who died at the age of 95, left her an entire estate, worth $12.5 million (£8.18 million) to her neighbour Beatrice Gray.

 

Mrs Gray showed kindness to Mrs Harris in her later years in the wealthy harbourside suburb of Point Piper, buying her milk and bread and taking out her rubbish.
Mrs Gray told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph today that she was ‘extremely grateful to Betty Harris,’ but declined to comment further.

But Mrs Harris, widow of Keith Harris, a former horse breeder, spoke out strongly before her death against her relatives saying she wanted to leave her money to Mrs Gray and her husband because they were not expecting it and she trusted them.

‘The Grays would be surprised, while my family are waiting for me to die,’ she said. ‘I am determined that my relatives, after what they have put me through, will not get one cent.’

 

After the widow’s death a bitter legal battle erupted with Mrs Harris’ s niece challenging the gift in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The niece, Caralie Hart, claimed that a will leaving the estate to Mrs Gray, was invalid because Mrs Harris was deluded at the time.

During one court hearing it was revealed that Mrs Harris had no children and was largely estranged from her nieces and nephews. She told hospital staff in 2005 that she had not spoken to them for 13 years.

Shortly after changing her will in favour of Mrs Gray, Mrs Harris complained that her niece and nephews ‘all want their bit of money.’

Inherited: Betty Harris left her multi-million dollar house in Point Piper, above, to her Mrs Gray

Exclusive: Point Piper, one of Australia's most expensive suburbs, pictured, where Mrs Gray and Harris were neighbours

The court was told that she complained her nephews were ‘a pretty pathetic lot’ and called another niece, Anne Nickolls , a bitch.

Justice Richard White, ruling today that Mrs Gray - a wealthy Sydney University academic and barrister - was entitled to the estate, said there was no doubt that Mrs Harris had ‘some degree of cognitive impairment’ but she was still capable of signing a will.

An earlier will, written in 1996, had left the entire estate to niece Mrs Hart, but then Mrs Harris revoked it after learning Mrs Hart wanted to put her in a nursing home and appoint a legal guardian to take control of her finances.
Mrs Harris lost control of her money through a number of legal moves, resulting in her borrowing money from Mrs Gray.

Mrs Gray and her husband helped Mrs Harris pay her bills, organise her car registration, replace light bulbs and wheel out her recycling bin.
The neighbours also checked on Mrs Harris’s house to ensure she had not been robbed.

Mrs Harris’s late husband Keith was not without controversy.
Although he had made his fortune making radios and televisions, he was a former vice chairman of the Sydney Turf Club and a horse breeder.

In 1987 he was jailed for conspiracy to bribe the NSW Corrective Services Minister, Rex Jackson, over a prisoners’ early release, a court was told.

Nigerian lady sentenced to 80 years in prison over deaths of toddlers in her care

A 24 year old Nigerian/American woman, Jessica Tata, was sentenced to 80 years in prison on Monday November 20th after being found guilty of the death of one of four children killed in a fire at her home day care in Houston.

16-month-old Elias Castillo and three other toddlers died after Tata left them unsupervised at her home while she went to a nearby store. Prosecutors say she left a pan of oil cooking atop a stovetop burner and that this ignited the February 2011 blaze. There were 7 children when the fire started, four died, three survived.

Tata still faces three more counts of felony murder in relation to the other children who died, and three counts of abandoning a child and two counts of reckless injury to a child in relation to three who were hurt. So she will be getting more years added to the 80 as other cases come up.

I'm sorry to say this, it might be a bit too deep, but I think she deserves the sentence.
How can one be so ignorant, to leave kids home alone? 

Meet Africa's Richest Woman - Mrs Folorunsho Alakija

Mrs Folorunsho Alakija used to be a designer back in the day, not sure if she is still at it. 

Anyway, she went into the oil business many years back; she has an oil bloc that pulls in N157 million a day. Yes, you read that right! She is the Vice Chairman of Famfa Oil and Gas limited and has emerged the richest woman in Africa according to Forbes November 2012 edition, with a net worth of $600million, which is about N94 billion.

The 61 year old former FADAN president is married and has four boys.

Gunmen attack Sars HQ less than 24 hrs after attacking military base

So a military base and police headquarters were both successfully attacked in less than 24 hours....

WOW!! Seriously? 

Bomb attack at the Jaji Military base yesterday morning killed at least 11 people, then this morning unknown gunmen attacked the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police headquarters in Abuja.

The details of the attack are still sketchy but there are are unconfirmed reports that detainees, including members of Boko Haram, were freed during the shoot out.

The Sars headquarters is located near several government buildings and security is supposed to be extremely tight in the area. 

What does this say about our security in Nigeria people?

No group has claimed responsibility yet..

N5trillion Stolen Under President Jonathan - Punch Investigation

Over N5tn in government funds have been stolen through fraud, embezzlement and theft since President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office on May 6, 2010, a SUNDAY PUNCH investigation has found.

Our correspondents arrived at the stolen sum after poring over the reports of the various committees set up by the President to probe some sectors of the economy, particularly oil and gas. SUNDAY PUNCHalso relied on disclosures by some senior government officials.

Five trillion naira is the summation of government funds said to have been stolen, according to the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Task Force report; the Minister of Trade and Investment’s report on stolen crude; the House of Representatives fuel subsidy report and investigations into the ecological fund, SIM card registration and frequency band spectrum sale.

The Ribadu report on the oil and gas sector put daily crude oil theft at a high 250,000 barrels daily at a cost of $6.3bn (N1.2trn) a year. This puts the total amount lost through oil theft in the two years of Jonathan’s government at over $12.6bn (N2trn).

Oil theft is common in the Nigerian oil and gas sector. In June, a special naval team impounded a French ship, MT Vannessa, at Brass Loading Terminal, Bayelsa State, for allegedly stealing 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the country.

Our sister publication, SATURDAY PUNCH, had reported that the suspects, in their confessional statements, indicted some political office holders, many fuel marketers and some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Department of Petroleum Resources.

In October, Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, in a letter to the President, said 24 million barrels of oil worth $1.6bn (N252bn) was stolen between July and September.

According to Aganga, his signature was forged on the Export Clearance Permit that was used to export the crude oil from Nigeria.

Confirming that oil theft was depleting Nigeria’s resources, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in May, said the government lost a fifth of its oil revenues to theft in April.

Apart from income lost through oil theft, the Ribadu report also said ministers of Petroleum Resources between 2008 and 2011 handed out seven discretionary oil licences and that government lost $183m (N29bn) in signature bonuses via these deals.

n-Madueke, however, denied knowledge of the discretionary awards.

The Ribadu panel discovered that three of the oil licences were awarded under the current petroleum minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who took up her position in 2010. Aliso

Shortly before the Ribadu report, the House of Representatives had raised the alarm that the N2.6trn the Federal Government paid for oil subsidy in 2011 could not be properly accounted for.

The House said, “Fuel subsidy payments amounted to N261.1bn in 2006, N278.8bn in 2007 and N346.7bn in 2008, but, even after the subsidy on diesel had been removed, the ‘subsidy’ payments jumped to N2.58trn in 2011 — more than 900 per cent of the sum appropriated for the year (N245bn).”

A subsequent report by the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments, led by Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, revealed that in 2011, 197 subsidy transactions worth N232bn were illegitimate.

These frauds are not limited to the oil industry, as similar probes have shown that almost all sectors are involved.

In July, the House of Representatives Committee on Environment discovered a tree seedling fraud worth N2bn awarded by the Ecological Fund office.

Chairman of the committee on environment, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, said this during an investigative hearing on the mismanagement of ecological funds for the development of tree nurseries and seedlings in the 36 states.

According to her, out of the N3bn approved by the Presidency in 2010, N2bn was released to the contractors and consultants without government getting value.

Minister of Environment Hadiza Mailafia, however, said the contract was awarded by her predecessor.

In the telecommunications sector, the House instituted a probe into the sale of the frequency brand spectrum, which was reportedly sold for less than its value.

The 450MHz frequency, which was valued at over $50m, was allegedly sold for less than $6m (a difference of $44m or N6.9bn) by the Nigeria Communications Commission.

In the same sector, the reps, earlier this year, commenced investigations into the N6.1bn SIM card registration project embarked upon by the NCC in 2011.

The investigation followed the delay in completing the exercise and the request by NCC for additional N1bn for the project in its 2012 budget.

The lawmakers insisted that the NCC had no business embarking on the project since various service providers were already registering their subscribers.

Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Mr. Usman Bawa, had said, “The NCC has no business with SIM card registration. Apart from that, the service providers have done about 80 per cent of the registration because they started before the NCC. To me, for the regulatory body to be involved in the registration is a duplication of effort, a waste of resources and time.

“Even, the manner with which the bill for the N6.1bn was passed during the Sixth Assembly showed that there was more to it than meets the eyes. From our investigations, from which our report was compiled, our interactions with the NCC contractors for the SIM card registration and the service providers, a lot has been exposed and this was part of the reason why we removed the N1bn that was budgeted for the same SIM card registration in the last budget.”

It would be recalled that the then Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili, had, in August, 2010, agreed that the amount budgeted for SIM card registration was exorbitant.

Reacting to the massive frauds that have greeted Jonathan’s tenure, Transparency International, told one of our correspondents that Nigeria would continue to slack in development as long as it keeps paying lip service to the fight against corruption.

It said via electronic mail, “President Jonathan should insist that those accused of corruption are properly investigated and punished if found guilty, irrespective of their positions and connections. The judiciary must be seen as impartial and fair.

“To signal a break with the past, the government should set up an independent investigatory panel to review charges of corruption within government and the private sector. President Jonathan should endorse the panel and commit to ensure it has both the scope and the power to investigate and prosecute.

“This is not just a matter of justice; fighting corruption can affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The current culture of corruption hurts the majority of Nigerians while the inequality gap widens.”

Also speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH, the Director, Centre for Applied Economics, Lagos Business School, Prof. Pat Utomi, said the spate of corruption in the country was unprecedented.

The political economist argued that prosecution and jail terms for corrupt individuals would not be as effective as building a societal institution that would prevent corruption.

A former Vice Chancellor, Crescent University, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, also warned that corruption would spell doom for the country if the trend continued.

He said, “It is unfortunate that the country will not be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals. There is a need for the masses to hold a three-day protest against corruption to force government to prosecute those indicted for corruption.”

Similarly, Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said, “For Jonathan to fight corruption, he must start with his cabinet. The way Jonathan is going about his campaign against corruption is not the best way to go about it.”

A global audit and financial advisory firm, KPMG, had on Thursday stated that Nigeria accounted for the highest number of fraud cases in Africa in the first half of 2012.

The cost of fraud in the country during the period was put at $1.5bn (N225bn).

Source: PUNCH

Owning a private jet is a necessity, not a luxury" - Pastor Oritsejafor

In this interview with Vanguard, CAN president Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor tells the story of how his Canadian-made Bombardier jet was acquired.

"I’m not ashamed to own a plane, I think it is a necessity and not a luxury for some of us deeply involved in the work of God to own planes.

There is a huge gap between spirituality and actual faith in God. There is the belief that the love of money has taken over Christendom, rather than  the preaching of  undiluted gospel of salvation. Why do you think there is a shift towards prosperity?

First of all, as somebody who has preached the gospel for 40 years, I know that the gospel is a total package—it is for the spirit, mind and body. What has happened through the years is that in every dispensation, there is emphasis that becomes stronger than the others and such emphasis does not reduce the format but add to the format.

For example, Martin Luther was the one who searched the scripture to see how the Word of God could change the human being. But as time went on, we started seeing the Baptists. The reason why we call them Baptists is because the founder laid a lot of emphasis on water baptism; that is why today they are being called Baptists, not because they don’t believe that you need to accept Christ and be saved and go to heaven. What happened was that the founder had a revelation and a very deep understanding and conviction in the area of water baptism and he emphasized that.

Again, today, when you give your life to Christ, there is a big emphasis on salvation; that is accepting Christ and walking in the knowledge of Christ. Now, the revelation is progressing; as that went on, there are people who through inspiration and the study of the Word  have more understanding in the area of prosperity and so started emphasizing on prosperity.

The problem is that there are those who preach and their whole understanding is in the area of prosperity. I think that is not good. I believe there should be a balance. I don’t believe you should not preach prosperity, but I don’t think you should preach prosperity and neglect the preaching of salvation, because we are still going to heaven at the end of everything.

This world cannot be a permanent place. If you live very long, according to scripture, probably you will live for 120 years but, at the end of the day, you will still die and go, so where are you going? So it is important to emphasize on salvation, knowing Christ and going to heaven.
Now, what will eventually happen is that, with time, these things will level out and those who place   emphasis on prosperity will realize that prosperity cannot be the main thing. The main thing must still be holy living and going to heaven. So this is basically what is going to happen.


I will say what I have always said that we must emphasize on the area of living for God. That is why Nigeria has problem today. People who go to church, especially those who, one way or the other, are privileged to be in certain positions, forget the basic thing of God, which is the fear of God and all they want is money, they forget about really serving God.

They don’t take God to their work place, they don’t bring God to the positions where God has put them, but I believe that, eventually, these things will level out and the right thing will take its place.


For 40 years, you have been in the pulpit preaching the gospel of God, during which there have been miracles, touching lives and all that. But there are certain things that some people don’t know about you and this has to do with your calling. How did you get the divine call?

I have shared it so many times but I don’t mind repeating it because it is the main thing about my life. My mother prayed to have a male child. She told God that if He gave her a male child, she would give him back to Him. That was my mother’s prayer at the First Baptist Church in Lagos.
That was how she conceived and I was born. I didn’t know this prayer and my mother forgot about the prayer just like any average human being will do.  So I grew up and went my own way and lived my own life and got into a lot of vices, a lot of things that were not right. I have told people that if there is any bad thing that anybody could do in this world, I did it.

Can you elaborate on this?
(Laughs) Well, at my age and at my level in life, these are things that we are not proud of and will not want to give these things  prominence, but I was into so many wrong things. I leave the rest to your imagination. Yes, this was the life I lived.

However, I remember one day, I was walking along Marina in Lagos, very sad, I couldn’t explain why. You know, when you live on the wrong side of life for a while, that  is how you feel. But even the worst human beings you see today on the street, no matter how bad they look, they still have soft spots.

That  night, around 9.00 p.m., I was walking along Marina then, Marina was Marina and not the one you have today. There have been a lot of changes. Tears started rolling down my cheeks and I started praying, well, should I really call it a prayer? It wasn’t a prayer as such.
I said, ‘God, if you are God, do something and change me, I cannot continue with this kind of life’. Three months later, I came home, to Sapele, because my mother was here and one night somebody gave me a handbill inviting me to a crusade.

I just didn’t think I was one of those that should be invited to a crusade because I wasn’t that kind. But I went to the crusade and I heard the Word of God preached by the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa and that turned around my life. For the first time, something touched me. That was when I gave my life to Christ, and my life changed 360 degrees.

It is difficult to comprehend this because the, very next day, I bought a Bible and began to preach. It was like I lost my mind, but I think what must have happened was; remember my mother’s prayer many years back. You may forget, but God doesn’t forget.

I think God just took what belonged to Him, because, the very next day, I started to preach. I went to a market place, people gathered and I started preaching. People gathered because they knew the person I was; certainly, they had gathered to see a mad man but it turned out that I was preaching the Word of God. The very next day, people came out and gave their lives to Christ, and the rest is history.

The issue of succession in Pentecostal churches has gotten to a worrisome dimension. Founders and their followers engage in crises on who takes over when the leaders are out. The development sometimes leads to physical fights and often breakaways as those who feel they contributed to the growth of the churches insist the next persons in leadership must either be the wives, children, brother or direct relatives of the founders. What do you have to say about this?

I think there must never be a stereotype. I don’t believe that the fact that the woman is married to a man therefore she has to take over. A man can be a pastor and the wife may not have the call. We must come to a place where we must believe and accept the fact that if you push a woman into something that God did not call her, that ministry will collapse.

It will die on its own. But the other side of the coin is that it could be that the woman is also called. So if the woman is called, what do you do? Do you say that because she is the founder’s wife, she should not take her place? You can’t say that, that is why I say that there must never be a stereotype.
It depends on the call, it depends  on God’s hands upon who ever. So, it could be the wife, it could be the son, it could be a brother in the church, it could be one of the pastors, it could be a total stranger. Sometimes, when we read the Bible, we don’t want to admit what we read in the Bible because we  already have a mindset.

When you read the Bible, you will discover some interesting things. For example, when Jesus was here on earth, you would always conclude that the leader of the disciples was Peter, because of certain statements, certain things, but if you study very closely, you will find out that Jesus never appointed anybody.

He never appointed anybody to take over from him. So, that is a big point right there. Now, it is interesting that when you go to the book of Acts and study it very closely, you will find out that the only time we see an authentic leader of the church, you discover that the man that became the leader was Jesus’ half brother.

That is a bit strange. You will find out that even Peter submitted himself to James. I am not talking of the James that was one of the disciples. I am talking about  James that was one of Jesus’ brothers; the same mother with Jesus. We know that Mary had other children, after Jesus. One of those children was James and when Jesus was physically alive, none of them believed in him.

They stayed away from him but, after he died, they accepted the gospel that he preached and,  interestingly, one of them, James, became the head of the Church. The Bible tells us that at a point, when there was a problem in the Church and there were two factions—one group was the Peter group and the other group was the Paul group.

Now, there was a contention and it was over whether Christians should accept Christ who was not  a  Jew. Should they circumcise themselves and all that? One group said no and the other said yes. It became a very big problem and it was James who stood up and said: “This is my decision.
You must go to the Gentiles and tell them they don’t have to do this and that. This is what they must do”. You see, that tells you vividly who the leader was. So my point is this, that Peter accepted the leadership of James; obviously, Peter was already a disciple before  James accepted Christ.
But he was humble enough to accept him as his leader. James did not make himself a leader; obviously, they all agreed that he should be the leader. That shows you the level of spirituality. If it is today, how would you interpret it? You will definitely say that the brother of the founder of the Church is now the leader of the Church.

There appears to be part-time and full-time pastors in the Church today, a development that has necessitated people to give conflicting reactions. Is it right to have part-time pastors in the service of God?

Look, I may say some things that are a bit different from what you have known or what you may have heard. I say things because I am convinced and you will have to find a way to digest it. Every Christian is in full-time ministry. Any other job you are doing is the one that is part-time.
If there was enough money, there would have been no need for one to work because our full-time job is to be Christians and win others to Christ. But a church must function and there are many things that must happen—life must go on, people must eat and live; if your wife is pregnant and goes to hospital, you have to pay the bills.

That is why 99 per cent of church members have jobs. If you study the Bible very carefully, you may see something that will shock you. Are you aware that Apostle Paul, everywhere he went to, to start a church, got a job? In fact, he went as far as explaining why, so that the gospel would not be abused or looked down upon; so that people will not think that he was preaching this gospel because he wanted the people’s money.

He was a lawyer by profession, but wherever he went to and couldn’t get a law job, he found something else to do and he was good at tent making. So he would start a tent making business wherever he started a church, he would go out to make tent, sell the tent and have enough money to feed everybody that was with him, and he would take care of himself and everything. So there is nothing wrong with a man who has a job and he is preaching the gospel.

Nigerian pastors are accused of prospering while their congregants continue to suffer in poverty. What is your take on this?
Well, let me begin like this, this is a major issue, especially now that I have just been presented with a gift of a jet. That makes it a major issue. Let me say here that every pastor must be conscious of the people he pastors. It is very important. I can tell you that as a pastor for 40 years now, if you talk to people that are genuinely my members, they will tell you the kind of pastor that am I.
If you watched me today, I was talking about a young man who has been trying to go to a university for three years now. I didn’t know him from Adam. One day, after a service here, one of my pastors brought him to me. As soon as he saw me, he held my legs and began to cry! He showed me all the papers, pleading that he had tried to gain admission to any university here, it never worked.

So he finally got admission to study in Cyprus. I paid his school fees, helped him with ticket and everything he needed, he’s gone. He has since resumed school and is there in Cyprus now. How many people will know that? In the last seven to eight years now, I have paid school fees of over 100 people in different universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Some of them have graduated and have come here to share their testimonies, excitements and even their parents have come here to thank us. I don’t know them from anywhere. Every December 26, I do a very big thing here. We call it poverty alleviation.
This year, December 26, we will equally do it. Last December 26, I gave out about six brand new cars to people; your denomination means nothing. Whether you are a Muslim or a native doctor means nothing here. What qualifies you is if you are a human being. I gave out 25 tricycles, about 100 sewing machines, and grinding machines.

Some of these people come here to give testimonies; some are now married and have children. There was this young boy, a Moslem from Auchi. This young man, nothing good was coming out of his life, he was rejected, nobody wanted him and one of our pastors took him into a teaching centre and he was sleeping in the teaching centre. They were helping him. This boy had  driver’s  licence, I don’t know how he got it. He had no job and couldn’t do anything.

Last two years, when we were doing the poverty alleviation, he applied.  And they brought out a name which happened to be this boy’s and he won a brand new car. Today, that boy has rented his own house; in fact, his parents who are Muslims came to church on a Sunday and worshipped with me and danced all over the place and, after the service, they came to me and thanked me, saying ‘oh, this boy that you don’t even know from anywhere, you dashed him a car.’

They were very happy. Besides that, many lives have been transformed here. We have changed many lives. We have an orphanage here. As we are talking, an American couple has gotten in touch with me. They want to adopt a child from our orphanage. We have a clinic here that hopefully will develop into a full blown hospital. People go there and pay little something for treatment, but generally on Sundays people are treated free.

These are some of the things we do. Most people don’t know this and I don’t think I am the only pastor doing this. So a lot of people who are saying this against pastors are just being mischievous. They may have their reasons, some of them are bitter about something and they are not telling the full story about what is making them bitter.

But like I said, a good pastor must be concerned about his people. We have buses that we use in carrying people. If I tell you some of the things that we used to do, it will shock you. There is a woman in my church, when she came to this church, she had probably two blouses and a wrapper, no slippers, not even  bathroom slippers.

She had never entered a classroom before. I didn’t even know her. She is from one of these oil bearing communities. There was a time an oil company in their community wanted to do business with them and she was interested but had no money. She came to us for assistance. I don’t think, at that time, she had ever seen N10,000 in her life.

So she went to our micro-finance bank, Mama (my wife) runs it without salary, she and all our directors don’t earn one naira. She went to the bank and said she wanted to borrow money. My wife asked her; `how much do you have in your account’, and she said, I don’t even have an account’.
My wife looked at her, and she called me about it and I said, `look, leave me out of it’. We didn’t even have that kind of money at that time. She asked the woman again, `how much do you have now and the woman said N2,000′. She now advised her to use that money to open an account and she did. Mama now went round to source for the amount.

The short story here is that she got the money, did her business and in less than six months, she paid back the money she collected. As we speak now, she is one of the richest women in Warri. She bought me an incredible car that cost millions of naira some years ago.

Coming to the issue of jet, I had no single idea of how it came about. It is true that people like us have gotten to a point where we need to have means of movement that will help us. You may have heard me speak about my trip to Indonesia, to Jakarta.

In fact,  it wasn’t even Jakarta I was going to, but I had to stay inside an airport in Jakarta for five hours to wait for my flight, to get to the very city I was going. I was only going to preach for two hours there. I flew from Lagos to Dubai and I spent over three hours, changed flight to fly to Jakarta and then stayed five hours at the airport just to catch a flight to where I was going to, where I was to preach for just two hours.

And after everything, I got a flight from that place again to Jakarta, stayed at the airport again for another five hours, then flew into Dubai, stayed again at the airport for another three hours before I flew into Lagos. It took me four days to make a journey to preach for two hours. I’m a human being and I am not getting younger every day.
And locally, it is worse, for instance, the acting General Secretary of CAN lost his father in a place outside Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and I had to be there. I preached in a place in Lagos on a Friday and needed to be back to Warri on a Saturday, but at the end of the day, the plane that would have taken me was no where.

I had to charter a plane for N3.5 million to take me to Uyo, waited for me to finish and then take me back to Warri. Two weeks ago, a young pastor in Port Harcourt built a new church and had been on me all this while to come and dedicate the church and suddenly from no where, there was this flood that cut off the road to Port Harcourt.

There is no road now to Port Harcourt. If you want to go by road now, it takes you up to 12 hours to get to Port Harcourt and I had to preach in Port Harcourt, I had to preach in Lagos, I had to preach in Abuja and other places. Finally, I was able to find my way to Port Harcourt, it was on a Saturday.
I had to get to Warri that Saturday so as to be able to preach the next day, Sunday. Do you know what I had to finally do? I chartered a helicopter that cost me N2 million to drop me in Warri. When they dropped me here, ah, I can’t tell you how I felt that I had to part with that sum. But I had promised the young man and the church and if I had said  no, will it be right? I can go on and on and on.
So, sometimes, my schedule is so complicated. Now, with this plane, it changes everything about my movements. Now, I can move, I can even go and come back home. It is a bit more convenient for me and I suspect that this is one of the reasons a lot of these other preachers have planes.

Does your congregation understand all these engagements?
They do. They feel the pain I go through and they feel painful for not seeing me most of the time. They don’t like it, they are troubled.  I know some people buy planes, I can’t buy plane. I can’t afford it. I don’t have that kind of money, I still don’t know the people that bought this plane, but I know that there is a committee.

I hope you will get to meet with some of the people in that committee, I don’t  know them. My wife is more involved with them.  She (my wife) never talked to me, (about it) and she was acting strange. Well, I don’t want to get involved in this. This is my story about the plane. And I’m not ashamed to own a plane, I think it is a necessity and not a luxury for some of us deeply involved in the work of God to own planes.

Culled from Vanguard 

Sorry Readers

Good luck reading my next two posts. They are really long..... I can't cut them short or summarize. I'd rather quote...
Thank you!

Jail is too good for Nigerian pastors - by Abimbola Adelakun

Found this article in Punch. Written by Abimbola Adelakun  (aa_adelakun@utexas.edu)

Recently, the Daily Mail, UK, had a feature on Bishop David Oyedepo. He was accused (alongside his son who ‘manages’ the UK branch) of fleecing worshippers by making “spurious claims” and “cynical exploitation of the gullible”.

The undercover journalist who visited the British church and the British MP who condemned him acted ignorant of the antithesis of faith and logicality when they expressed surprise about how people were urged to give more money in return for blessings that were neither guaranteed nor cognisant of the realities on ground.

The feature also talked about how much of the money creamed off these worshippers are being repatriated to Nigeria (which, in a perverse sense, is a positive development!)

The same Daily Mail, weeks before, ran a feature on another Nigerian pastor in the same UK, Alex Omokodu, (who claims on his website to have raised the dead twice) and another Pastor Mbenga of the Victorious Pentecostal Assembly who scam worshippers by selling olive oil and black currant drink at double the market rate as “miracle cures”, capable of curing terminal diseases.

Like Oyedepo, Omokodu lives large, far removed from the mess he makes of peoples’ lives.

My visceral reaction at those articles was to defend my countrymen against a searchlight that might have been beamed with a racist undertone. I mean, Daily Mail suddenly woke up and realised religion is exploitative? Wow!

Isn’t that what religion has been all about for many centuries? How can we say that what Oyedepo and Mbenga are accused of peddling different from the Pope’s selling of Indulgences in the 16th Century? Religion plays on fear to rip-off poor and miserable people in the name of God. And the irony is, the more people are deceived, the more devoted they become. So, what’s new? From appropriating people’s money to shoplifting condoms to forcing youths to have sex, what have church leaders not done?

If people have refused to read History books that teach us that religion came to us riding on the back of exploitation and politics, why, with the celebrated cases of Jim Bakker, Eddie Long and Benny Hinn among others, do people still throng churches and sponsor their pastors’ excesses out of their poverty? Why has the case of financial scandals involving the creators of TBN Channel -some of which are so disgusting- not caused a mass boycott of these hawkers of falsehood? Why does it spur people to defensiveness instead?

Why did somebody like Jesu Oyingbo have followership in the first place and why didn’t people walk out on Pastor Chris Oyakhilome when he charged gate fees before one could attend service? Seriously, who should take the blame? The person who sells snake oil or the one who finds a psychic relief (however temporary) from buying?

Take the case of Pastor Enoch Adeboye: On his church website, Adeboye claims God told him He had no choice but to keep Covenant Partners alive for 10 years because they were giving to Him within that period. This takes ideas of bizarre and outlandish to another height entirely.

One, a god is meant to earn his keep but Adeboye’s is one whose services people have to pay for, never mind that billions who are not his covenant partners are not only alive, but live considerably better lives elsewhere. Two, can Adeboye, personally, account for every single one of his covenant partners and that in those last 10 years, not a single one died? Can he? We are used to Nigerian judges and politicians saying that their hands are tied, but God? That sounds like something from the mind of a freakish Nollywood screen-writer.

Since the news broke that Pastor Ayo Oritsejeafor has joined the league of Private Jet-Owning Pastors, there has been, thankfully, a sense of outrage at the excesses of Nigerian pastors.

For the record, let me state that Pastor Oritsejeafor is not a good poster boy for Christianity (never mind the various caps he wears, anyone can be anything in Nigeria’s Pentecostalism). I make this point – debatable, of course- not just because of his Bling Bling jewellery like 50 Cents or even his bond with the present occupant of Aso Rock Villa; there is something about him –and I came to this conclusion after watching him raise an offering on Cable TV- that doesn’t seem to me would wait for God to supply all his ‘greeds’ according to his riches and glory.

His private jet was presented while he was sandwiched, like Jesus between two thieves, in the presence of a President who bizarrely declared he couldn’t see how corruption and road accidents are interlinked and, a governor whose public morals fall below average. Rev. Fr. Matthew Kukah could not have put it better: Oritsejeafor’s moral authority is undermined by these dalliances.

The issue is, religion, exploitation and subsequent scandals will not go away. Not in this generation. Not even in this world. As long as there is that primitive instinct in man to seek the supernatural, to seek God and the fear of death is constantly shaken before our eyes, people will continue to subject themselves to exploitative pastors to use as they like.

But the good thing Oritsejeafor has done for us is that he created a conversation; Oyedepo, Omokodu and other sellers of 21st Century Indulgences keep exposing the underbelly of these merchant-pastors; but whether this will translate into a rationality that will cause Nigerians to slow down on the ill-logic of tolerating these pastors’ shenanigans remains to be seen.

It takes more than throwing pastors in jail for their followers to be set free from the mind-prison they are ensconced in. Religion and political power are intertwined in many ways that make this impossible to begin with at all. History shows that, for instance, with an Industrial Revolution, the process creates a ripple effect that bleaches people of primitiveness to transcend religious superstitions while forging a better society that is not predicated on dogmatic concepts of theodicy which religion propagates. When that day comes in Nigeria, and even Africa, these pastors will wilfully choose jail as rescue from irrelevance the times would banish them.

But here’s the problem: These pastors know that with Nigeria’s developmental progress comes their end. And they are actively complicit in the dysfunctionality of Nigeria to extend their own longevity.