PALESTINE STATE AND THE CURSE OF ABRAHAM'S LOVE TRIANGLE

As the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York, the issue of the Palestinian statehood is dominating discussion at the world body. Here is how it all started.
Following the failure of God’s Plan A – Adam and Eve, and Plan B, Noah, God chose Abraham, a descendant of Noah’s son, Shem, for Plan C. God must have known that He chose trouble. Abraham’s trouble became synonymous with God’s trouble. Then. And now.

Typically people in the Bible do not behave like real human beings. But Abraham, Sarah and Hagar did. Together they created the first love triangle with far reaching implications that continued till this day.

Abraham was married to Sarah, who was barren, when God made a covenant with him. God’s covenant was that he would build a great nation from Abraham. The problem was that Abraham did not have any child. Sarah approached Abraham and offered him her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, and asked him to sleep with her so that he could have a baby. Abraham slept with Hagar and she had a baby named Ishmael.

Ishmael was 14 years old when Sarah had a baby named Isaac. Sarah became jealous of Hagar. She ordered Abraham to send her and Ishmael away so that they could not share in Abraham’s inheritance. Abraham was distressed by what Sarah said. He asked God for advice. God told Abraham to do what his wife said, informing him that Isaac would be the seed on which his nation would be built but also reassuring him that Ishmael would lead a nation too because he was also from Abraham.

Abraham gave Hagar and Ishmael water and bread and sent them away. As Abraham watched Hagar and Ishmael walk away, he knew they faced death in the wilderness as soon as they ran out of water and food.

This became a critical point in the Biblical world. Hagar wept. Sarah ranted. And Abraham grieved.

But Hagar and Ishmael did not die. When their water and food were finished, Ishmael called on God who sent His angel to them. The angel confirmed to Hagar that Ishmael would make a great nation. The angel made a well of water to appear. Hagar and Ishmael thrived. Hagar got Ishmael a wife from Egypt.

From Sarah and Isaac came Jacob, the father of Judaism. And from Ishmael came Muhammad, the father of Islam.

Of course, Jesus traced his lineage back to Abraham. Christians make claim to Abraham’s covenant with God.

And so the three major Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam emerged from one particular love triangle.

The fight between Sarah and Hagar continued. In the Jewish-Muslim divide is this fight. In the Christian-Arab divide is this fight too. To a large extend, the 9/11 terrorist attack is a continuation of this fight.

In “The Woman Who Named God,” Charlotte Gordon described Abraham as “more like an Updike character than an ancient as he stands at his tent, torn between duty and desire, his love for one woman and his responsibility to another, and tormented by faith in a God whose motivations he doesn’t always understand.” Beyond the myths, Abraham is seen as another man battling normal emotions. Others see him as one completely obedient to God.

In some historical viewpoint, Sarah is seen as a good wife who wanted her husband to be happy. She is also seen as a jealous wife who pushed away her husband’s child. Some Muslims have not forgiven her for that. Some Jews following Sarah’s thinking still insist that the children of Ishmael are not inheritor of God’s promises to Abraham.

Hagar is seen as a slave who was used and dumped. In other viewpoints, she is seen as a single woman who struggled to make it in spite of all odds. Some Muslims, children of Ishmael have not forgiven the treatment meted out to Hagar.

In this love triangle comes several questions. What is the true line of inheritance? What is a family? What kind of sexual encounter is right? Why did Abraham ask Sarah to lie to Pharaoh? Why did Sarah offer Hagar to Abraham? Why did Hagar mock Sarah?

Abraham loved two women. God asked him to choose one. What would have happened had Abraham ignored God and let Hagar live with him and raise their Ishmael together with Isaac?

Scholars believe that Abraham’s second wife, Keturah, is Hagar. She returned after the death of Sarah.

When Abraham died at the age of 175, Ishmael and Isaac travelled to Hebron to bury him. Reconciliation came at Abraham’s death. The same cannot be said of the three religions that came from him.

The real Abraham came out of a sophisticated Sumerian culture of over 4000 years ago that gave us writing, art and sailboat. He was an educated man from a successful family who was seeking greatness. He traveled along the most advanced centers of the ancient world of his time and did what every Sumerian immigrant would have done.

It was over 1000 years after Abraham’s death that his story was recorded in the palace of King Solomon. Imagine recording your grandfather’s story some 1000 years from now. How much of what really happened can anyone capture?

Biblical scholars believe that the story of Abraham as recorded in Genesis emerged from 6th and 5th century literary ideas. It aimed at reassuring Israelites in exile that despite the destruction of Jerusalem, there is hope. Historically, the 2nd millennium history of Canaan has nothing in common with the stories in Genesis. What the story of Abraham did was to translate the concept of the Sumerian personal god into a creator-personal god of a people. The new god was non-human but yet humanized enough that he needed Abraham.

Whether we believe these characters actually existed or not, Abraham, Sarah and Hagar’s love triangle have continued to define how we see ourselves. Theirs was what Rev. John R. Coats called the first soap opera.

Like in all soap operas, the issue of the Palestinian State has a cast of colorful characters. Some are backstabbing. Some are backpedaling. Some are badmouthing. Some are plain bad. For our president, trapped in the paradox of Nigeria, he finds it hard to play his assigned role- to bleat while he is led to the slaughter.

The curse of Abraham’s love triangle is angular.

By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo (SR)

MARK OF THE BEAST

With the “Saving African’s witch children” programme aired by the UK channel 4 television, we don’t need to be told that the mark of the beast is on the prowl. I could not watch the film when it was being aired, but a friend recorded it and sent me a copy. I had to sit back and watched the programme with concentration. Now, of all the horror films I’d watched since I was born, there was none so nauseating, crude and bestial, as the Akwa Ibom witchcraft programme. I could not believe what I saw. Those are typical good examples of wickedness and cruelty personified. I just could not, and up till now, comprehend it.
Those children are in hell, real hell. How could adults visit their children with such torture, wickedness and cruelty? How can a woman carry a child for 9 months in her womb, give birth successfully with or without complications, only for the same woman to turn around and say the child was a witch just because a prophetess or prophet said so? I just cannot figure. Where were the local government chairman and the councillors? Where were the SSS, the police and other security agencies attached to those local governments? Above all, where was the press?
Where lies the social responsibility of the press? All of us are guilty of this crime! Yes! All of us are guilty. We have all focused our attention on Abuja to the detriment of other sections of the society. It is either we are busy talking or writing about the President’s health, OBJ’s idiocy, PDP tin gods, or we are castigating Hajia Farida of the EFCC while bestiality and butchery are daily going on in the local government areas, under-reported or unreported. Those adults who aided and perpetuated those acts are animals. Those ‘men and women of God’ combined animism and traditional beliefs then mixed it with Christianity and claimed they are practicing Christianity while in actual fact, they are extortionists, sorcerers, perverts and criminals. Those men and parents of those children should be identified, arrested and dealt with. Helen Ukpabio’s Church ought to have been sealed up for a start.
I cannot understand how an oil producing state cannot afford to provide free and compulsory education for its citizens from primary to secondary school level. Governor Akpabio cannot claim not to have the resources to do just that neither would he claim ignorance {even before the children came with placards to his office} about the plight of these stigmatised kids in his domain. The state govt, as a short term measure, should infiltrate communities and embark on massive enlightenment campaign to disabuse people’s minds and thoughts about such dangerous belief. A closer look at those communities showed clearly that those people are stack illiterates. There are no quality social infrastructure one can really point to that is helping to transform the lives of these people. It is a people living in squalor, misery and indigence. Fishing and subsistence farming are their source of livelihood. Their rivers are polluted with spill-over effects of years of flowing crude oil spillages. As a result, their fishes are either dead, dying or have moved up stream. Yet, they put the blame on witchcraft.
Their buildings and surroundings looked unkempt and bushy with a lot of breeding spots for mosquitoes. In fact those fake pastors have already passed judgement on themselves. They will die and rot in hell for eternity. But before then, they should be arrested and put away by the law. They have muddled up the teachings of Christ. The undue emphasis on the teachings of the old testament has become the undoing of most of these proliferating Pentecostal conglomerates. Christ made it abundantly clear that unless a man is as clean and as innocent as a child, he will not enter the Kingdom of God. When the disciples asked HIM in Matt 18, 1-5: “who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven? Jesus called a child, made him stand in front of them, and said, I assure you, that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child”. Could those Akwa Ibom prophets and prophetesses translate the power in that message in the present Nigerian corrupt context?
Again, in Luke18, verses 15 to 17, while the disciples were pushing the children away from Christ. HE slightly rebuked the disciples and said: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it”. HE then placed HIS hands on the children and blessed them. The people Christ wholeheartedly blessed are the people being abused, stigmatised and condemned in Akwa Ibom. Could Helen Ukpabio and those pastors interpret those statements by Christ to her gullible followers? Can they? Apart from the Biblical injunctions, let us now look at it critically from scientific perspective. In the sociology of family, infants are just tabulae rasae.
They are born with “no innate experiences”. Put differently, at birth, their minds and hearts are blank and empty. They know nothing. They only begin to be conscious of their surroundings by what they later begin to see and hear from adults. Their hearts gradually begin to take shape and to internalise whatever garbage purportedly passed on to them by “mental adults” through the process of socialization. Now, if a child begins to grow up in an environment, like we have in that programme, infested with fear and panic, witchcraft beliefs, magic, necromancy, sorcery, animism, and faith mammon, we can then imagine what such children will become! If Nigeria has no Ministry for children, I advised the government to create one as a matter of urgency.
All local council should create, without waiting for Abuja, a department for Children Affairs. Britain recently created one to help checkmate child abuse and to further protect children. In the clip, I saw an idiot and a shameless man with ‘gori-makpa’ head and ‘poundo-yam’ bare chest brandishing a machete daring to butcher her daughter. Can the man use the same zeal to confront either his councillor or local government chairman, daring them with the same ferocity, for non-performance? Why can’t he use the same anger to mobilise his people against political thieves in his community and state, or go alone to governor Akpabio’s office to commit hara-kiri ? Why should adults channel their displaced aggression on innocent children? One animist who calls himself ‘Bishop’ even confessed to having killed 110 children. The government should know that the souls of these innocent children, who are automatically in heaven, are crying out for justice on mother earth.
Whether you believe in God or not, is not the issue here, the fact is that those of us who believe know that God is watching, to see whether those people would be brought to justice. How can Nigeria move forward with so many souls and innocently spilt blood crying out loud from their graves for justice? The police ought to have arrested this man because the evidence is self-evident. This is where I often give kudos to the British police. You don’t mess around with British police. They would have arrested this crook, get more confessions from him and then the forensics would go into action to exhume the remains of all those 110 kids to establish, painstakingly, the methods used by this sorcerer to kill each and everyone of them. The SSS and the Police should leave journalists and newspaper houses alone and go after these vampires.
A lot of atrocities are going on, unreported in most of these local government communities because of the urban based nature of our mass media. Having said that I want to state that people should not loose faith in Christianity. Christianity is in the heart and not in the head. The moment one carries it into one’s head, one becomes not only a lunatic but a fanatic. Since the coming of Christ, emphasis is on the new testament and not the old. The teachings of the old testament has been negated by the teachings of Christ. That is why when you read the new testament what you read and assimilate is love, kindness, righteousness and altruism. You have to love God with all your heart, might and soul and love your neighbours as you love your self. Do not steal, honour your parents, pray always and help the needy. Christ has died for our sins on the cross.
By HIS death, she destroyed those forces of darkness, spirit mediums and elemental forces. Consequently, whoever believes in Him should not fear such forces because the spirit in you, as a true, honest and sincere practicing Christian is greater than those spirits. You are completely covered and shielded by His grace and His blood. No weapon fashion against you can harm you. Remain steadfast in truth and strive to be just and fair. Do not partake in evil practices because others are doing them. And, this is one area where most Christians are found wanting. That is why there is wide spread corruption, crass ineptitude and indolence in governance. The beauty in the new testament is that it is written in simple prose, it is a didactic and practicable message.
Of course, as a human being, you are not infallible. Temptations will always come your way but one enduring fact in your heart is your solid love for God, self, neighbour, and mankind. And God knows it. Now, if these people read their Ibibio or Calabar translated Bible, they should be able to discern these things. The New testament Bible precept is simple and that is why a true Christian can vouch for himself and fear no fear. As far as you speak and stand on the side of truth, the grace of God will be with you always. Salvation is not a collective thing, it is an individual obligation. God is not going to judge you as a Catholic, KICC, Christ Embassy, Winners Chapel, Redeem, Methodist or Anglican member. These are vessels through which true Christians could appeal to HIM. HE will judge you based on your sincere, honest, voluntary acts and positive contributions to humanity.
So, true Christians should not despair. They should stay firm in truth and be of good courage because the mark of the beast is on the prowl. Besides, it is unfortunate that in this era of globalization, some cultures in Nigeria, are still living out the medieval Great Britain and European past fantasy. During the medieval times, and between 1542 and 1684, Great Britain and Europe never spared witches. In fact they used to dump witches in boiling waters and overheated oils and left to scream, disfigured and to die with unbearable pain and agony; some others are forced to confess and burnt at the stakes; some are chopped off in bits and pieces until they give up the ghost while some others are either stoned to death or crucified and hanged in the most gruesome and unimaginable manner.
The Britain and Europe of today is seemingly repentant and ‘born again’, whose debased primitive past of crudity, wickedness, ignorance and backwardness, were bleached away by the advent of the renaissance. The renaissance was later negated by the era of Enlightenment, then came industrialization which fast forwarded the decline and final demise in witchcraft belief . Even “children as old as 6 years were made to testify against witches” in the Britain of old. In all, nowhere was it established, through scholarly research, how to really know who is a witch. The then British courts and numerous assizes sitting in dispositions of those cases could not even establish how to objectively identify who a witch was, but they still went ahead to hang those accused based on hearsay. The mark of the beast is therefore on the prowl. It is not 666 or 999, no, it is the criminal and sinful acts consciously committed by “mental adults” who, if they are resident in advanced countries, proceed to court, to claim the handyman bogey - “diminished responsibility or guilty but insane”. The mark of the beast is clearly depicted in that programme, where innocent children where randomly abused, traumatised, maimed, bruised, tortured and killed with effortless ease.
The mark of the beast is shown in Western paedophilia ( where “mental adults” make love to children as old as six months and strangle most of them} and practice sodomy. The mark of the beast is shown in Okija shrine where political “mental adults” consciously go, take oath of allegiance on the throne of Satan and put conscience on sale. The mark of the beast is depicted where educated and enlightened political office holders sequestrate and purloin public funds meant to develop and provide for local communities. Just some few weeks back, the BBC carried a news item where it was revealed that more than one million highly vulnerable elderly parents are living with the daily fear that they would die in such manner that nobody in the vicinity of their homes would know that they are already dead in their house.
Most of these old women and men are lonely and alone in their houses and are suffering from one form of debilitating ill health or another. A number of them have arthritis, dementia, rheumatism, waist and back pains. While some have had one form of delicate bone surgery, some others are seemingly bedridden. Now, the question is; does it mean most of these old parents do not have grand children? In the same UK, in middle of this year or there about, it was reported that an elderly woman died in her house. Neighbours for almost six months, never cared or got to know until a passer-by saw “anthills of the Savannah” casually strolling in and out of the house like landlords.
As expected the Samaritan saw these fat ants, sensed danger and called the police. They came with the ambulance services. The police broke the door down, went in, and discovered only the skeletal bones of a woman in a lying position, on a long chair. The body has decomposed and dried up. For six months, neighbours who lived close by did not care nor ventured to find out whether she is dead or alive. Now, we may ask the simple questions: what about her children and grandchildren, did they care to inquire or even visit their mum? That is Britain for you! Unlike Africa, there is a complete absent of community here in the UK. People just wake up and go about their business in whispering tunes. Britain is one of the most suspicious societies I have lived in.
And I hope, it would be the last. You could help somebody only for you to discover that your kind gesture has landed you a police invitation or trouble. Your fingerprint, toe print, mouth print, knee print, face print and all the other prints would be taking and put on a data base, especially if you are a Black. So the urge to help is there but sometimes the consequences of that could be interpreted correctly, misinterpreted and reinterpreted later, depending on circumstances. Such is the atmosphere, that people just work to live. According to the BBC report of Monday, the 17 of November, children’s charity organization, the Barnardo, recently commissioned YouGov polls to do a survey on people’s view on weird UK kids.
The result of the poll shows that “more than half of the population believe that UK children are “feral” and behave like animals”. The survey shows that these children are erratic, dangerous and uncontrollable. Now, if you live in London, please do take a casual stroll at night to most high streets. You see stubborn kids who have refused to listen to parental advice perambulating at midnight virtually looking for sin to commit before going to bed. Before you could say Peter to these kids, they have opened their wild mouth to make cockney sentences that you will simply loose count and walk away. The mark of the beast is on the prowl! And, these are the grand children of lonely grand mums. Grand mums that are left to live and die alone in a “me, me, me society”. Children in the UK hardly go and visit grand mums on weekends neither do they go there on holidays.
No, they prefer to go to Australia, Thailand, France or Spain or, preferably, join gangs, stab, knife and shoot one another in the streets of London. Who do you blame? The govt and law says parents cannot smack their children. They say, that there is convincing evidence based on research that if you spare the rod, the child will grow up well and disciplined. But the reverse has so far been the case. UK children have gone and are going wild. They have been left off the leash. The same govt is now turning round to put the blame for such weird behaviours at the door steps of parents. The mark of the beast is on the prowl! The British welfare capitalism has generated one of its own peculiar contradictions, which is, the ever increasing rate in crime, especially very, very vicious criminal acts of murder and wide spread anti-social behaviour tantrums. The mark of the beast is on the prowl!
The London METRO of 18th November 2008 screamed this headline: I butchered Family With 300 wounds. The paper continues: “A possessive father stabbed his two children to death, along with his ex-girlfriend and her brother, knifing them more than 300 times, a court heard yesterday…..Neil Crampton {the attacker}, admits killing his 12-year daughter Abigail, her brother Steven, five, their mother, Olufunke Sobo, 36, and her brother, Yemi Sobo, 41.…..Mr. Sobo was found first, in the hallway with 67 stab and slash wounds. His sister was also discovered downstairs, with 105 knife injuries. Abigail’s body lay under a duvet and had 105 knife wounds, many to the head and neck.
Her younger brother was on his bedroom floor with 25 injuries”. The attacker, who “denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility”, committed these outrageous crime in Newcastle. He attacked the family in a jealous rage and then dialled 999 to tell the operator: “I have murdered my entire family”. Wonders shall never end! The mark of the beast is on the prowl! This report is just one among numerous outrageous but very vicious killings going on in the UK, a developed economy where quality education, functional social welfare system, excellent health programme, clean potable water, food, low unemployment, good social Housing, industrialization etc., and, where virtually all hallmarks of development have taken firm roots. The crucial question is: what is going on in the world? What do homo sapiens want? Perhaps the “bang theory” will provide the answer! But for now, that Biblical mark of the beast is on the prowl! Yes, it is on the prowl! I rest my case!

BY SR

ADAM AND EVE MY FOOT

On original sin: This is one of the most important concepts in Christianity.  We are told that mankind  inherited a sinful nature brought about by the acts of Adam and Eve.  To support this position we have: Rom.5: 12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.  Rom.5: 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…. 1 Cor.15: 22 For as in Adam all die…. In other words, we are all doomed because Adam ate some rotten apple.
Contradictions: Deut. 24: 16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers.  2 Chron.25: 54 Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.  (Also 2 Kings 14: 6).  Ezek.18: 20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die.  The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.  Ezek.33: 20 O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.  Jer. 31: 29-30 In those days they shall say no more.  The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.  But every one shall die for his own iniquity:  every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.  Rom. 2: 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds.  Ezek.18: 4 ….the soul that sinneth, it shall die.  Rom.3: 23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. 

1 Kgs.8: 46 For there is no man that sinneth not…..   (2 Chr.6: 36)   Pro. 20:9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?  Eccl. 7: 23  For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.  Mark 10:18  And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good?  There is none good but one, that is God.  Rom. 3:10  As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is no righteous man ever, we are all sinners. (Also 1 John 1:8 and 10; Rom. 3:12, 5:12; Gal.3: 22).
articleadslinks

Contradictions: Gen. 6: 9 Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.  Job 1: 1  There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.  Job 1: 8 My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? (Job 2: 3).  Gen.7: 1  And the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.  Luke 1: 5 - 6  In the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abia: and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.  And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

When my book, God is Black, first came out in 1993, there were protests from around the religious world over the audacity and affront by an African writer for that matter.  God is White was acceptable but Black, isn’t that shit or worse?   Who was the Black turkey challenging the world of White ideas?  But the ‘God is Black’ book was not about God.  The few paragraphs about God in the book played on a twist in language.  All scientists and historians (Black and White), agree that human ancestors originated in Africa.  The Christian Bible says God created man in his image and likeness and if human origin is Black, the Old Man must be Black too.  When this logic was used on a Canadian radio programme in 1993, Whites phoned in to say QED.  It was a three-hour phone in programme in Toronto.  Listeners were asked to phone in to re-act to the title of the book: God is Black, written by Naiwu Osahon.  They had not read the book.  Most Blacks that phoned in, abused Naiwu, the radio guest, rather than offer any counter argument.  This demonstrates the level to which most Blacks have been messed up in the head by foreign religions and ideas. 

The Catholic Church in Toronto, however, put on a two hours programme to disparage the radio guest after the phone in programme.  The Church thought that the radio guest was a student in Canada, taking advantage of their country’s scholarship scheme to study there.  They could not match the radio guest, logic for logic, so they said he was an aberration to be avoided like a plague by other Africans.  A few years back, the radio guest would have been declared a heretic and roasted at the stake or may be they still do it quietly in Rome these days?

The Christian Church cloaks their lies and abuses in religious garbage and other hegemonistic instruments.  To prove that ‘God is Black’ book is irrelevant about human origins, some Jews, in an unholy alliance with the Roman Catholic Church, and some blockhead French ‘Scholars,’ led by a certain Dr. Gustave Courbet, produced a monumental fabrication almost rivaling the Bible in bovine crassness.  The story was first published in the Sun newspaper of London and culled by many Christian oriented African newspapers in April 1993, less than two months after God is Black book was launched.  Of course, the visionless article was targeted at the gullible world, and particularly the unquestioning Africans, who take everything the Bible says as the gospel truth. No serious media house outside Africa published the lie, as far as one could tell at the time, but the highest circulating newspaper in Nigeria at the time, the Daily Times of May 1, 1993, used it under the headline: Adam and Eve’s tomb found. Excepts:

“Experts in the field of science and religion are agog over the astonishing find of the skeletal remains of Adam and Eve lying side by side in a shallow tomb-like cave in Israel…archaeologists uncovered the well-preserved bones while digging near Jerusalem…the couple were laid to rest some 300,000 years ago…Identification was made from detailed scrolls found alongside the skeletons.  In addition to naming the tomb occupants as Adam and Eve, the scrolls described their lives as farmers and gatherers in the lush Garden of Eden…. 

“The male skeleton is missing a rib, while the female includes an extra one…..it appears Adam and Eve died in their early 40s  …..no obvious cause of death…..They must have been placed in the cave by their offspring, who then put together their written history and sealed it up with the deceased.  Adam and Eve learned how to tend the bountiful bushes and trees that provided them with more fruits and vegetables than they could possibly eat.   The scrolls indicate Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden by drought.  It is unclear whether the fateful drought was brought about by God because the couple disobeyed his orders.  But it did doom paradise on Earth and force Adam and Eve and their children to struggle to survive in their cruel New World…..”

The following was Naiwu Osahon’s response at the time and it was published in some newspapers and in his book entitled: THE CRADLE: the ultimate cosmology, now turning the world of ideas on its head to enthrone truth: It is not difficult to imagine the fortunes Israel has been making from gullible Christian tourists, particularly from Africa, since the announcement about Adam and Eve’s find..  Since the Vatican has not denied their alleged involvement in the disgraceful hoax, it deserves response from serious minded people.  Obviously some Jewish dupes, after burying some scrolls and skeletons in a shallow (not even a deep) grave for a while, invited their equally demented European friends to come to Jerusalem to dig for archaeology. The diggers did not need to work too hard before unearthing their hare-brained booty of scrolls and skeletons, which they promptly sold to their Pope and their already carefully nurtured naïve world, as dating back 300,000 years.

Adam lost a rib to the bargain and Eve had an extra one they said, not bothering to explain how modern Eves lost the extra ribs gained from the men.  The Bible says Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel, and the maudlin team of European grave diggers (for instant fame and fortune regardless how), implied that Adam and Eve had a University where Adam was the Vice Chancellor, Eve the professor, and the two children the only students, since no other human was on earth at the time of White Adam and Eve.  The family manufactured scroll materials in their factory obviously, and the children learnt to write on the scrolls to preserve the history of their parents.  I wonder what ancient European language was used to write the scrolls 300,000 years ago, English, German or Italian, none of which existed at the time? 

Then Cain killed Abel and drifted out of the Garden of Eden’s vicinity in search of a wife that the Bible at first claimed did not exist.  He did not have a car because for some strange reasons, he had not produced one at the time, but he did not have to walk for long either, because just down the road paved in gold, as if by magic, materialized his wife from another clan.  Yes, another clan, according to the Bible’s warped logic, because Adam, who died at the age of 40 or so, (the Bible says he lived for 940 years, which obviously must have been as a brainless Chimpanzee, since it happened 300,000 years ago, 200,000 years before Homo sapiens man emerged on earth), had obviously treacherously produced other clans when he was a teenager before he, at the ripe old age of 15 years, married Eve. 

Eve was actually a few minutes old when Adam married her, and by the age of twelve months, she had given birth to Cain.  There was no other human life before Adam and definitely no female before Eve manifested from Adam’s ribs, but Adam still managed to leave clans all over the place mating with gorillas and chimpanzees, no doubt.  The Bible’s fathers did not want Cain to follow in his father’s footsteps of mating with monkeys.  Cain could not be trusted also to produce the human race by himself or through masturbation so they conjured up a phantom wife. 

We do not know who this hapless woman was, how many children she had for her husband and what happened to her and the children.  What is clear is that Cain could not be bothered to educate his own off-springs, thereby allowing his parent’s university to lie dormant for nearly 300,000 years, when a form of writing was first introduced 40,000 years ago, and formal education invented in the Nile Valley, some seven thousand years ago by Africans.

Of course, we should ignore Gustave Courbet and his religious collaborators, after all, the Pope just recently signed a protocol of understanding to exchange Ambassadors with Israel and sweep under the carpet, after two thousand years of mutual hostility, the Vatican’s lie that the Jews killed Jesus Christ.  But that is how we ignored for two thousand years, their insane distortions of the history of humankind.  The Bible assumes that humans are fools, (we are not the sons of God like Jesus is anyway), so Gustave Courbet was only capitalizing on this to add a modern testament to the Bible for his ethnic group.

It is like the story of the supposed blood stained shroud of Jesus Christ, which the Vatican kept under lock and key for years until public pressure forced the Pope to allow sane experts examine the shroud in modern times.  The shroud was found to be a fake.  It did not belong to the period claimed for it by the Vatican.  In fact, like the new Adam and Eve scrolls, it was less than 300,000 minutes old.

In response to the above statement and other profound revelations in the book: The Cradle, the ultimate cosmology, written by Naiwu Osahon, and mentioned earlier in this book, the Vatican mounted an exhibition of the Shroud of Turin at the Cathedral of Turin for two months from April 18, 1998.  The fakeness of the Shroud of Turin is palpable from its distortions of the Africanness of Horus (the original African Son of God myth), who was given European nose, hair, and other strange features, and called Jesus. Historically, Horus or Heru was the mythical African Jesus in the early Church. 

Auset was the Virgin mother and Horus, the Virgin son, until the Nicaea Council removed the African leadership image of the early Christian religion in 325 CE. Even then, Horus continued to be depicted symbolically as the only son of God until 500 years ago. It was the European artist, Michelangelo, who used family and friends as models to paint his image of Jesus in the Gisen Temple in 1509 CE.  He was commissioned to do the painting by Pope Julius II, and he became famous with his blue-eyed, blonde man, flowing hair and bearded image of Jesus. The image was replicated by European Christian organizations all over the world.  The box office musical hit, Jesus Christ Superstar, continued the Europeanization of Christian images by featuring not only a White Jesus but tendentiously a Black Judas Iscariot, the supposed betrayer of Jesus. 

Until the 15th century CE, the Madonna and child were also depicted as Africans or symbolically, as can still be observed in the mosaics in the baptistery of Florence.  Earliest set of paintings and carvings still dotting several European and Latin American Cathedrals, portrayed Madonna and her child as Auset and Heru.  The Grande Heures de Rohan, painted about 1415 CE, depicted for the first time, White Mary, White Joseph, and White baby Jesus, fleeing home to (Black) Egypt, thus opening the flood gate to the depiction of Madonna and child as White.  Van Eyck, in 1435 CE, consolidated this with his painting of the White Madonna of the Chancellor Rolin, now in the Louvre in Paris.  In 1450 CE, Fouquet (c.1416–1480) in France, painted the king’s current mistress, Agnes Sorel as Mary, with one breast exposed.  The image that now dominates Christendom was painted in 1465 CE by Filippo Lippi.  He used his mistress as model to depict Mary as a beautiful White girl holding a White baby in her arm.


NAIWU OSAHON Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African Movement); Ameer Spiritual (Spiritual Prince) of the African race; MSc. (Salford); Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M; A.M.N.I.M. Poet, Author of the magnum opus: ‘The end of knowledge’.  One of the world’s leading authors of children’s books; Awarded; key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Honourary Councilmanship, Memphis City Council; Honourary Citizenship, County of Shelby; Honourary Commissionership, County of Shelby, Tennessee; and a silver shield trophy by Morehouse College, USA, for activities to unite and uplift the  African race.

 Naiwu Osahon renowned author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement.

HEAVEN MIGHT BE BORING

I know many will say "there he goes again" a position which is quite understandable considering my notoriety at controversies. Lol. But let us all cast our minds away from stereotypes, embossed concepts and doubt-it-and-perish religious beliefs. Let's think like the rational beings God made us to be and you just might agree with me when I say that except God has some heavenly itinerary hidden from us, heaven might be boring.

In many religions, heaven is a realm, physical or transcendental in which people who have died continue to exist in an afterlife for a period spanning eternity. Heaven is often described as the holiest place and the pinnacle of architectural edification that is accessible by people according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith or other virtues. Apart from acceptance or rejection of blood transfusion, appropriateness or otherwise of tithing in the Twenty-First Century Testament, Sunday as Sabbath, Isaac or Ishmael… heaven is a strong issue of debate among religious leaders and theology scholars, theists and atheists.
In Biblical forms of Christianity, concepts about the future "Kingdom of Heaven" are professed in several scriptural prophecies of the new (or renewed) Earth said to follow the resurrection of the dead — particularly the books of Isaiah and Revelation. Not only will the believers spend eternity with God, they will also spend it with each other. John's vision recorded in Revelation describes a New Jerusalem which comes from Heaven to the New Earth, which is generally seen to be a symbolic reference to the people of God living in community with one another; in a number of sects this is taken as more literal than symbolic. Heaven will be the place where life will be lived to the full, in the way that the designer planned, each believer "loving the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind" and "loving their neighbour as themselves" (Matthew 22:37-40) — a place of great joy, without the negative aspects of present earthly life.
In Hindu cosmology, above the earthly plane are six heavenly planes: Bhuva Loka, Swarga Loka, meaning Good Kingdom, is the general name for heaven in Hinduism, a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where most of the Hindu gods (Deva) reside along with the king of gods, Indra, and beatified mortals.The remaining planes are Mahar Loka,Jana Loka, Tapa Loka and Satya Loka.
The Qur'an contains many references to an afterlife in Eden for those who do good deeds. Regarding the concept of heaven (Jannah) in the Qu'ran, verse 35 of Surah Al-Ra’d says, "The parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised! Beneath it flow rivers. Perpetual is the fruits thereof and the shade therein. Such is the End of the Righteous; and the end of the unbelievers is the Fire."[Qur'an 13:35] Islam rejects the concept of original sin, and Muslims believe that all human beings are born pure. Children automatically go to heaven when they die, regardless of the religion of their parents. The highest level of heaven is Firdaus (فردوس)- Paradise (پردیس), to which the prophets, martyrs and other pious people will go at the time of their death.
Heaven is described primarily in physical terms as a place where every wish is immediately fulfilled when asked. Most religious texts describe immortal life in heaven as happy, without negative emotions. Those who dwell in heaven are said to wear costly apparel, partake in exquisite banquets, and recline on couches inlaid with gold and other miners’ delights. Inhabitants will rejoice in the company of their parents, wives, and children.
In Islam, if one's good deeds weigh out one's sins then one may gain entrance to heaven. Conversely, if one's sins outweigh their good deeds they are sent to hell. The more good deeds one has performed the higher the level of heaven one is directed to. It has been said that the lowest level of heaven is one-hundred times better than the greatest life on earth. The highest level is the seventh heaven, in which God can be seen and where anything is possible. Palaces are built by angels for the occupants using solid gold.
In Christianity, you can be doing good all your life – you can even have your name written in the Book of Life – but a silly mistake can send you from heaven straight to hell. Even within various
Christian denominations, there are numerous variations to the heavenly story.
Considering the wide array of religious heavenly perspectives on celestial dimensions, attempting to find a midpoint description of heaven will be impossible. But it is quite safe to say that in every religion that believes in heaven, heaven is a great vacation destination after death.
But have you ever considered whether you would love to be in heaven after death if there is no eternal damnation in a lake of fire that is burning with sulfur - otherwise known as hell? I can vividly recollect an encounter I had with a self-professed end-time minister of the Gospel. The message he preached was more of a threat and issuance of ultimatums; not the glad tidings Jesus promised in the Bible. Threat of hell is what most preachers preach today in Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world. But with the current trend of science, scientists might soon discover the antidotes to the attending woes of being in hell. Because without the heat, pain and gnashing of teeth, hell isn't that bad a place to be.
Imagine living life to the fullest on this planet – riding the fast Bugatti limited edition luxury cars, dating Victoria Secret models; owning Bishop Oyedepo’s Gulfstream private jet, Dangote’s business empire, Otedola’s yacht; and having breakfast on the Great Walls of China, lunch at the Coliseum in Rome and dinner with the Obamas – simply the best way to live. Now consider dying and finding yourself in Christians’ heaven where the only thing you do all day for eternity is to bow down, shout hallelujah and praise the Holy One that is seated on the throne. No first class flights. No exotic vacation. No fashion shows. And for the ladies, there will be no shopping sprees, Mary Kay range of products and African Magic.
Lack of privacy is another issue that can make heaven hell for many especially the few nouveau riches who might make it to heaven via the Biblical needle’s eye experience. According to the Bible (John 14:2), Jesus says “In my Father’s house are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you.” This popular verse contains a straightforward yet unpopular insight into what the accommodation arrangement in heaven will be. According to Jesus, we’ll all be in a house! Hence there will be neighbors which becomes an issue if the persons staying next doors worshipped at MFM. Imagine trying to catch a nap before the early morning praise and worship session only to be awakened by someone shouting “fall down and die at high decibels.” You’d feel like banging on the persons’ mansions.
You might say Paul is crazy and has gone AWOL. I think so too. But our God works and speaks in mysterious ways. I’ve come to realize that the evangelism approach of most early morning Gospel criers is very wrong. Threatening all with hell rarely make them born again but hardened. Even in the Bible, Quran and other holy Books, believers are not coerced into pursuing heaven because of the fear of hell but as a resting place – a rendezvous for those who lived and acted well on earth. According to Pastor Olubi Johnson, getting to heaven should not be difficult for people living uprightly. I believe it’s better to go to heaven because you lived uprightly according to your faith, and not belong to a faith because you want to go to heaven because if you pursue the latter, sooner or later you’ll be bored of waiting for transfiguration, end-time, the end, and the trumpet sound.
Every now and then, we hear one desperate folk after another try to coerce Jesus into coming back by predicting – or let me say forecasting – the date the world will end, yet we are here. These failed predictions often make atheists laugh hysterically at the travails of believers who daily look up to the skies expecting the clouds to part and for the Son of Man to come down to take them home. If I am Jesus, I won’t come now since many are obsessed with heaven to the extent that they are dead though alive.
I have a friend who joked that even if it entails bribing angel Gabriel, he’ll be in heaven and no one should threaten him with hell. I’m beginning to lean towards his school of thought.
I’ve concluded that there will be two sets of people in heaven – those religious folks who ostracized themselves and only pursued heaven, and we that daily live to be better persons, making positive impacts on people around us and though expecting heaven, we’re not obsessed with it. To us, heaven will not be boring because we are the ones that will rock heaven since we rocked here on earth. And if there is a list, our name must be under the VIP category.

 
adepojupaul@gmail.com
-This article is dedicated to the Late superstar Sam Loco Efe. Wherever you are, I hope you are rocking the place. Rest In Peace.

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY ( OR FRIDAY)

I have just concluded 286 pages of “God is not Great: How religion poisons everything” by Christopher Hitchens, it has proven to be quite illuminating. Of course I’m not an atheist like him, having being raised the way I was, I’m quite certain some values have stuck with me, I suspect more out of upbringing than the weekly forced dragging to the cathedral, through those forced weekly repetitions though, I have retained some Pavlovian conditioning, namely fear of Hell, I suspect some behavioral modifications occurred also, why else will I get chickenhearted about atheism, unconvinced about agnosticism and too scared to be an apostate.
I suspect my consternation for hell is also a result of this, I will however give more credit to  a dedicated father, a relatively stable family life and a home library full of books, some role models, Gods helping hand and of course later in life, college radicalization
Later in life though, Karma has being my faithful and indolent refuge, it tends to work for me, in addition to the occasional fear of hell, I will pick up my Bible occasional. I have to confess, I have read the Koran (Lazily), albeit like the Bible I find both of them extremely contradictory and equally confusing, not like the proverbial convenient “do unto others as you expect other to do unto you”.
See how undemanding that was!
Any given Sunday (or Friday) the same  question nags at me every time, how come these people are not equally passionate about  their governance as they are about their “religion”?
Any given Sunday (or Friday) is/are the most confusing day/s for me in Africa. I have to say, its one of those few occasions I wish I had the intellectual answers like Avicenna, C.S Lewis and Kwame Gyekye all rolled into one.
I read a Gallup written piece that tried to analyze religiosity on a country by country basis, as part of the analysis, the Gallup poll was conducted about religion and everyday life, the question was and I quote “Is religion a part of your daily life?”
The answers of course were not too surprising, Egypt, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Congo, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Senegal, Djibouti, all polled 100% (Egypt) to 98% (Djibouti).
 To clarify, 100% to 98% of people polled in those countries said religion was a part of their daily life.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the same question was posed to people from Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Hong Kong, Japan, France, and Belarus, “Is religion a part of your daily life? “All polled from 14% (Estonia) to 27% (Belarus). What is the commonality in the countries with the high levels of religiosity (with 1 exception of course) and the countries with low levels of religiosity? Azerbaijan was definitely a surprise for me, especially being close to Iran.
One could intimate various witty interpretations based on the polls alone, as a matter of fact,
I find one irresistible, What the Hell (Excuse me) will I be doing in Congo, if Denmark was a sure thing and conducive to my skin Color? Not a damn thing!
Maybe it’s the world class health care system or the $62,000 nominal GDP or the lack of wars or tribal conflicts or the free “world class” education or the fact that Denmark was ranked in 2009 as the most peaceful country in the world (Global Peace Index) or the egalitarian nature of its society or the fact that its people are more interested in their quality of life than chasing the almighty Krone 24/7?
One of the questions Christopher Hitchens posed was “Does religion make people behave better”? I have my own non scientific retort drawn from various life engagements, I suspect you know this too, but I’m keeping them clandestine for now, or am I?
Because of Hitchens atheism, it is easy to dismiss his inquisition to having an anti climatic conclusion, but his examples proved very challenging. The crusades, southern USA Christian behavior during Jim-Crow, religious right “Christian” support for Apartheid, the Hindu caste system, Joseph Kony and the Lords resistance army, the madmen in SWAT valley, Sudan Muslim north versus Sudan Christian south, the overwhelmingly Christian Rwanda and genocide, catholic priests and boys, Sharia and barbarism, he had in me, a congregation after a while.
Where exactly is the common sense of people that they fail to see the hypocrisy in the people they call leaders or elder or ovasheeare (overseers), bishops, prelate, pralate, imam, caliph and what other agnomen they go by? Any given Sunday (or Friday) is always problematic for me. The costumes, the Gele (Head Gear), the cars (They sure bring them out), the inconveniences they go through, the devotion to the inconveniences, the religiosity and consistency of those days, the devotion, all the energy? The vigils, the isho oru, s (night prayers).
I once encountered a “prayer warrior” (in Nigeria) whose devotees I observed were mostly working class, market women, laborers, low income civil servants, all with no qualms giving away their life savings, and yet in the not too distant past when I accidentally(not really) visited a high brow estate in the US of A, I was taken to a house whose security alone would make Muhammad Abacha envious, no I’m not talking about Creflo dollar, this one is a Nigerian (Tunde) with the  habit of prophesying and equally adjusting the prophesy as they became unfulfilled, the house had about 8 bedrooms, I had to hide my disgust as they were friends of a friend.
The prayer warrior owned the house. This Overseer has a habit of picking up fights  and abusing a certain retired general cum head of state cum president cum failed president. He had no qualms though about putting all his children abroad having the best things in life on the back of his faithful stocks.
This shameless overseer had no qualms about taking religiously all his stocks money, buying a million dollar home and yet the nerve to want to give blessing and prayer fight, I find the comedy ironical.
Another “respected” overlord just purchased a plane on the back of his poor stocks, another insane one decided he hated everything western including its education (Hence Boko Haram), yet had fleets of SUV’s and 21st century communications gadgets, and a big bank account to match.
There is another one in the UK who has mastered the art of marketing, to visit the East-End in London is to appreciate the ever dependable power of salesmanship, the marketing, the requests for souls, don’t be 30 minutes late to Shaavish (Service), good luck to you finding a parking space.
What in gods name is wrong with these people? You know I can go on with examples from Idahosa to Oritshejafor to Reverend Ike, there is not enough space to cite the ever powerful owners of Sunday (and Fridays) What I cant understand is the people that follow them, the educated, supposedly enlightened, well traveled, well read.
 Some I have to admit are my friends, every minute, Let us Pray, we thank god, to god be the glory, god will do it.
I understand cynically that they are looking the elusive expressway to heaven? One can sardonically understand the practicality of it. Those who you might say are basically looking for a Sunday to Sunday cleansing of the 6 days of constant sin; you know the rich, the corrupt, the compromised, and the child ritualist cum church builders cum lay readers cum mosque custodians. I mean, like the catholic (Mafia) I once observed in a movie killing people during the week and religiously confessing on Sundays, Slate wiped clean, maybe?
Not these raggedy looking ones though, looking like life is living them than the other way round, dying to get there, leaving work early, singing harmoniously in rickety commercial buses on their way to “revival”, looking for the ever elusive miracle, the holy water, the manna from heaven, at the expense of everything else, abandoning the practical, the certain, like say for instance LIBERTY!.
I remember in my younger days, coming up in the corporate world, aggressive and (not toot my own horn), hardworking; I visited a high brow zip code in the anticipation of making a sales presentation in the zip code. I encountered a house that had a dollar sign on the gates, white, immaculate lawn, unpretentious in its ostentatious ness; I just had to ask who lived there?
A pastor of course, on whose money, on what salary?, By what moral code? Would Jesus live there? Needless to say, my moral code prevented a knock at the gates, I swiftly moved on.

This was not my first encounter with the ironies, I once had a popular US “overseer” in my office with a bag full of cash and I thought, would it not be easier if he just wrote a check for the transaction, but then I put 2 and 2 together-→Paper Trail! Somebody’s ten % is being misused?
See, this is why I prefer the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, the occasional alms given, my direct involvement in my benefaction, I like the empirical.
Anyway, back to earth, in addition to getting bemused any given Sunday (or Friday), as a political junkie, I often get bemused when the so called “religious right” of the United States gets on its self righteous podium castigating Iran, Saudi Arabia and other perceived “regressive regimes” and yet all things considered, I find out that intolerant religious zealots mostly in the southern USA have more in common with the Mullahs who find themselves about 300 centuries behind in applications of medieval religious doctrines.
The Gallup poll went ahead to compare religiosity on a state by state level in the US of A, naturally the most religious states were the worst humans to be around, here is the break down, “Is religion a part of your daily life?, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, all polled from 85% (Mississippi) to 75% (Oklahoma). 85 to 75% said yes religion was an integral part of their daily lives, we know about their open mindedness and progressiveness, especially Mississippi 40 years ago, such lovely people! Guess which countries polled exactly? Iran, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Romania and Iraq, of course you’ll like to live there?
The same poll, shifted north, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon,
Washington, Rhode Island, all polled, 42% to 53% said it was part of their daily lives.
Guess which countries polled exactly? Switzerland, South Korea, Taiwan, Slovakia, Singapore and Austria and Montenegro,
Any given Friday (or Sunday) above the Lokoja confluence is another  reckonable bustle,
Kano and Abuja are my favorites, all the energy, the array, the allegiance, the symphony in the movement, THE POWER, THE POTENTIAL, the faithfulness, If you doubt, say something critical of the Koran, your doubts will be erased instantaneously.
I wonder loud, If 50% of the energy could be tapped and constituted into a form of civic enlightenment. An enlightenment that might lead to an outrage?,
What is been preached in this mosques and churches that these followers do not see their own collusion in being indifferent and passive about their own country?
Will manna from heaven just fall and change their situations without them taking matters into their own hands?  The Hadith and the testaments say it loud and clear, it’s all in your own hands!
 Why would you burn your neighbor’s house and refuse to take action against the Imam or the pastor that fails to lead by the example he preaches? How can you inconvenience yourself financially and deprive yourself trying to do the Hajj, come back to the only country you know and do nothing about the oppressor you see everyday riding with convoys and police security?
When I read Thomas Frank’s book, “What the matter with Kansas”, a book that tapped into the irony of appealing to peoples religious sentiments (among other things) and enabled them to do things  against their own interests, while doing absolutely nothing about the issues that brought about those sentiments.
I came out of it, thinking , at least they (USA) have the luxuries of a developed society, a working government (For the most part), a functioning government, a technologically advanced society, good elementary schools, good high schools, good higher educational systems, good roads, a functioning economy, an orderly transfer of power, consistent uninterrupted power supply,
What’s our excuse?
Any given Friday (or Sunday) is a day of contradiction for me in the North, but I love the north, I love the landscape, the food, the language, What I hate on Fridays is the untapped Friday potential, when I see the numbers and the people potential. When I travel to Lagos from Ibadan and I get past Shagamu, Sundays are not a good day for me, the denseness, the heftiness, the monstrous and cyclopean, Fire on the mountain, redeemers redemption, holy ghost, Latter rain and Harmattan, I stopped counting.
If some spiritual powers like say for instance “Patrioteer and Jingoist can muster the energy of these Faithfull’s, say 50% of them, any given Sunday (or Friday), man!, that would be something.
The next you tell me let us pray, I’m hoping it’s for the saints to protect us from bullets, while trying to take our country back!
Amen, Let us pray,

Charles Sogbesan
A Political Satirist

GOD BARONS: NIGERIAN'S PASTORS AS RICH AS OIL BARONS -BBC

Nigeria's pastors run multi-million dollar businesses which rival that of oil tycoons, a Nigerian blogger who has researched the issue has told the BBC.
Mfonobong Nsehe, who blogs for Forbes business magazine, says pastors own businesses from hotels to fast-food chains.
"Preaching is big business. It's almost as profitable as the oil business," he said.
The joint wealth of five pastors was at least $200m (£121m), he said.
Mr Nsehe said the richest of them, Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith World Outreach Ministry, was worth about $150m.
Bishop Oyedepo owned a publishing company, university, an elite private school, four jets and homes in London and the United States, according to Mr Nsehe.
'Private jets'
The Nigerian blogger said Bishop Oyedepo was followed on the rich list by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers' Loveworld Ministries. He was worth between $30 and $50m.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
    These pastors are flamboyant. You see them with private jets and expensive cars”
"Oyakhilome's diversified interests include newspapers, magazines, a local television station, a record label, satellite TV, hotels and extensive real estate," Mr Nsehe said.
He said three of the other richest pastors were:
    Temitope Joshua Matthew of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (worth between $10m and $15m);
    Matthew Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre (worth between $6 million and $10 million) and
    Chris Okotie of the Household of God Church (worth between $3 million and $10 million).
Mr Nsehe said representatives of all the clergymen, except Pastor Ashimolowo, confirmed ownership of the assets he had listed on his blog.
"These pastors are flamboyant. You see them with private jets and expensive cars. This extravagance sends out the wrong message to their followers," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
He said the pastors acquired their wealth from various sources, including their congregations.
"We have Nigerians who are desperate, looking for solutions to their problems. They go to church for salvation, redemption and healing and pastors sometimes take advantage of them," Mr Nsehe said.
   
The Five Richest Pastors In Nigeria

Matthew Ashimolowo
London-based Nigerian Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo
God is good, especially if you’re a Nigerian pastor with some business savvy. These days, millions of souls, desperate for financial breakthroughs, miracles and healing, all rush to the church for redemption. And while the bible expressly states that salvation is free, at times it comes with a cost: offerings, tithes, gifts to spiritual leaders, and a directive to buy literature and other products created by men of God.
Original Blog By Mfonobong Nsehe-The Africa Chronicles

DO NIGERIANS REALLY KNOW GOD / ALLAH?

DO NIGERIANS REALLY KNOW GOD / ALLAH? (Alternative version: DO NIGERIANS REALLY WORSHIP GOD / ALLAH ?) Written by: Okonkwo Paulinus N. kiridabo@yahoo.co.uk

I have been pushed to the wall by the things happening in Nigeria and I am left with no choice than to ask this question. Please my dear readers do not crucify me by labeling me an ‘’Anti- Christ’’, rather take a deep breath to meditate on my points. However, I do not care if I am called Anti-Christ or whatever because I have strong reasons for my views. As part of introduction, it may be necessary to give you my background details. I am a Nigerian born in the northern part of the country, my parents are from the east and I had my university education in the southwest. I am a Christian but not a fanatical one and things must be logical to make sense to me. Above I mentioned that I have been pushed to the wall, what are the things that pushed me to the wall? 1. Does God make people leaders through election rigging?
Each time criminals rig elections in Nigeria and subvert the will of the citizens, uninformed Nigerians will say that God has made the criminals leaders, hence no one should challenge the leaders, and rather one should pray for them. This belief is manifested both among Muslims and Christians. I as a Christian do not share in this belief. In the synagogue of Nazareth Jesus paraphrased His mission by quoting the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to bring deliverance to the captives, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are bruised, to announce the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19).
We can see here a reference to the close relationship between the mission to preach the Good News and the necessity to be alert to the needs of our brethren relating to social and justice issues. At this point I can summarize the missionary of Jesus Christ to be ‘’Peace and Justice on earth, and Salvation hereafter’’. Based on the Biblical backing: - • How can one reconcile the belief that God made people leaders through rigging which involves outright filling of result sheets without voting, adding of figures behind or in front of the authentic figure as was done in Ekiti state, killing of people by using thugs and even security agents? • How can God make somebody a leader who will later loot a state treasury? • How can God make somebody a leader who will assassinate others if they express contrary opinions? • How can God make somebody a leader when the person does not possess the minimum qualification specified in the constitution or electoral laws? Does it mean then that God encourages forgery?
• How can God make someone a leader when He knows that the man will bring poverty, diseases, sufferings and other afflictions to the people? • How can God allow worst election to be held in Nigeria after people claimed to have prayed in Churches and Mosques? 2. Are the self-acclaimed men of God sincere? I wonder if anybody has ever thought why so many Nigerians claim to be religious (both Muslims and Christians) but still things are not working. I have on a given number of times asked this question and I always get same stupid answer, ‘‘it could have been worse’’. The answer is stupid in the sense that it cannot be benchmarked with any best practice. Before the advent of the so called born again syndrome and Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, the crime rate was far less than now. I will illustrate my reasoning using a mathematical model. If I superimpose two graphs: ’’ a plot of crime rate versus time ‘’ and ‘’a plot of number of churches versus time’’, to demonstrate that religion is playing any positive role, I expect to see the two plots going in opposite directions. This implies that as the number of churches increases so will the crime rate drop. However in Nigeria situation it is opposite hence the so-called religious leaders are only interested in material gains.
If this conclusion is not correct why the following: - • After the fraud in 2007 called elections, why didn’t religious leaders condemn the sham, the only exception was the Catholic Bishops conference of Nigeria. • Pastor Enoch Adeboye explained that even though he spoke on Obasanjo’s emergence as President and his re-election, he “kept quiet on the third term,” because it ran contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. I think it is very dishonourable for a self-acclaimed man of God to keep quiet when an issue that affects the well being of the masses was being discussed. So much evil was committed in Nigeria because of Obasango’s third term. Where is the justice, which was part of the missionary of Jesus Christ? • While the Church in South Korea has made an impact on the society, we cannot say the same of Nigeria because our ministers would rather dine and wine with corrupt government officials and stand before their parishioners to tell them how important they are and how they met with the president of honorable this and that, the very things the prophets of old condemned.
Nigerian ministers would rather carve out empires, build castles and empires, ride on the latest Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) made in America; they call them Jeeps in Nigeria or take all sort of names. In fact, it is no secret now that highly placed ministers do isolate themselves, seeing themselves as supper ministers. They now call themselves apostles or the apostolic leadership meeting. Of course, we know that the real apostles were missionaries and not name seekers like we see today [Rev. Suleiman Dankano, 2007] • Nigeria is the most religious nation but with spiritually deficient and least godly people. It was at the same Pentecostal church that their pastor, Akanni, INEC’s Director of Finance and Supplies, acquired some seven billion naira. No wonder, an American Pastor Benny Inn was defrauded and cried out that his Nigerian hosts were 419 criminals [Religious , yet ungodly]. 3. What does practical manifestation of knowing God entail? I am asking this question because I have heard many people saying that Nigerians know God or worship God more than Oyibos (white people).
They went further to claim that our people are even teaching the white people about God / Jesus Christ. In their judgment knowing God in Nigeria is manifested in the following ways: - • Preaching and distribution of religious tracks on the streets. • Praying loudly in the night and thereby disturbing your neighbours • Pasting of religious stickers all over their cars • Having one hundred churches in a street. • Saying ‘’bless you’’ to whoever cares to listen • Using religion to practice nepotism in work places or in business arena However if I compare a given town in Nigeria with a typical town in Europe, I can come up with the following: - • Europeans do not know God but conduct electioneering campaigns by sharing balloons and flowers while their counterparts in Nigeria use AK47 and acids • In many places in Europe people do not have window and door protectors while in Nigeria there is even protectors on the ceilings • Corrupt people in Europe are usually tried and jailed while in Nigeria they are given national awards and they sit in the front row in the churches provided they pay their tithes. • Europeans who do not know God have provisions for the poor people and there are adequate provisions for the disabled people.
In Nigeria the self acclaimed men of God drive SUVs while the majority of the church members are dying of hunger. This reminds of my friend who attended a church service and at the end, he had no money to transport himself home because they were asked in the church to dip their hands into their pockets and to remove anything called money. Immediately this was done, smart guys came around with polyethylene bags to collect the whole money. My friend and others were promised that God will double it hundred fold. To the best of my knowledge nothing has been doubled, talk less of hundred folds. • In Nigeria the self acclaimed men of God use heavy security to protect themselves against people whom they have cheated or their rivals because they are in personal business. I am not sure if anybody has asked why the Catholic Bishops or Cardinals who control larger flocks compared to the Pentecostal pastors do not use security or live life of affluence? Jesus Christ or his apostles never had security. • Europeans do not know God. Why are their countries better planned than Nigeria? Why do many self acclaimed men of God now acquire properties in Europe and spend a lot of time there to enjoy themselves because of good amenities. What have the so called men of God done to enthrone genuine democracy in Nigeria? Without genuine democracy, we cannot have a meaningful development. 4. Can God do everything for Nigeria? I am asking this question because I have observed that Nigerians ascribed everything to God. Sometime ago I went to an ATM machine belonging to GTB to cash some money and found out that the machine was not functioning. I was very annoyed and was walking away when the security man told me that God will help the machine to function the next day. I told the guy that the functioning of the machine has nothing to do with God, rather a manifestation of human failure.
Also one day I took a public transport and immediately the journey took off, prayer warriors started casting and binding against frequent road accidents, which they claim were being caused by the people in secret society. I was dumb founded at their ignorance when the roads have potholes coupled with vehicles having worn out tyres. The mechanical parts of some of the vehicles are almost falling apart and once the vehicles hit major pothole, the next event is accident. Nobody is looking at this angle and I do not believe that prayer can solve this problem. Also I do not believe that God will come down to solve our problems. In my opinion I think that God is not fair to some countries. He gave us so much that we cannot think again. God gave us so many things: - Mineral resources both solid and fluidized ones, good weather, good vegetation and energetic human resources. It is left to Nigerians to say enough is enough to bad rubbish.
Conclusion: I will conclude this write up by saying that we should make religion to wear human face by ensuring that it brings justice and peace on earth. We should learn to ask questions about things happening around us. We should not allow selfish people to turn us to morons. In 2003 general elections, some selfish people used religion to campaign against Muhammadu Buhari claiming that Obasanjo was a born again Christian and that Buhari will Islamize us. Today we are in a mess for propagating falsehood and I hope people have learnt lessons. Finally to achieve success we should do 90% work, then 10% prayer. Let us always ask ourselves why is Nigeria not progressing upon the amount of prayers, which people claim to be offering. We should not be complacent about Nigeria affairs, challenge your religious leaders when they go astray. During elections, let us make sure that we vote and equally protect our votes. We should challenge election riggers, praying alone cannot stop them. Let us remember that what we make Nigeria is what it will be. Do not worship money in your churches. Do not respect people who live above their income, go ahead and report them to EFCC, even if EFCC will not act upon it.

References Pastor Adeboye, E.(2007) ‘’Obasanjo avoided me during third term bid’’ ‘’The Punch25/06/2007’’ [Online] Available from: http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20070625247159 [Religious, yet ungodly] [Online] Available from: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/columnists/onabule/2007/today-3-aug-2007.htm [Rev. Suleiman Dankano, 2007] ‘’Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s Prophetic Fallacies’’ [Online] Available from: http://www.gamji.com/article6000/NEWS7612.htm