Anglican Primate Urges Amnesty Panel To Tell Boko Haram To Stop Attacking Christians

For peace to reign in Nigeria, the Boko Haram Amnesty Committee raised by the Federal Government must prevail on the sect to stop killing Christians and destroying their places of worship, the Primate of Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, has cautioned.
Okoh’s admonition is contained in a position paper released by the church and made available to Vanguard last night.
In the document entitled ‘The rough edges of the amnesty proposition’, the primate noted with concern the rush to grant amnesty to the BH sect without any form of truth and reconciliation, which he noted, should have preceded amnesty.
The Anglican Communion noted that although the motive of the Federal Government was to achieve peace in the north, ignoring the first steps that should have been taken would only result in the attainment of what it called ‘half peace’.
The church said: “If the Federal Government goes ahead through the amnesty committee to make peace on BH’s terms, it would have inadvertently and effectively banned Christians and Christianity from the North. In the amnesty committee, who will speak for the right of the church, not to be tolerated, but as Nigerian Christians to exist side by side with Islam and Muslims, build churches, worship freely, move about freely without being hunted down with all sorts of weapons?
”Will the amnesty committee ensure that Christians are not merely tolerated in the north but are allowed to live abundant life as Muslims as Christians do in other parts of the country?”

Prominent Preacher Warns Christians Against Occultism

Bishop of Egba Anglican Diocese, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Adekunle, has warned Christians against engaging in fetish and diabolical practices.

Urging them to keep to the doctrines of the Bible, the cleric said the Mosaic Law had prohibited fetish and diabolic practices such as “magic, sorcery, divination and other practices like spiritism”.

He stated this at the opening session of the 2013 Synod of the Diocese of Egba in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Friday.

Adekunle said it was regrettable that some Christian leaders were employing witchcraft in their practices.

The Bishop said, “Medical treatment in the old biblical world often included he use of magic, sorcery, divination and practices of spiritism. The Mosaic Law prohibited such practices. So, they are not biblical and Christian practices. They are inconsistent with the nature of the all-powerful God.”

Warning Christian leaders against deviating from biblical doctrines, the Bishop said the Bible remained the only reference for all Christian teachings.

He added, “You ministers need to teach the people the right thing. Teach them what is in the Bible. If you are not doing that, you are not only leading people towards hell.”

How aviation authorities grounded Amaechi, Tambuwal at Akure airport – Rivers govt

*Their plane only delayed – NAMA

By Jimitota Onoyume & Daniel Eteghe
Rivers State government,yesterday, alleged that an aircraft, scheduled to fly Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, among others, out of Akure, Ondo State, was grounded by the aviation authorities on spurious grounds.
It described as false the claim that the aircraft’s pilot did not submit a manifest alongside his flight plan.
But the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), in a response, said the plane was not grounded but delayed.
Amaechi, Tambuwal and the others were returning from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State where they attended the funeral of the deputy governor, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Olayinka, on Friday, when the incident happened.
A statement by the chief press secretary to the Rivers State governor, David Iyofor, yesterday, entitled
How Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, House of Representatives Members, Director-General Governors’ Forum Prince Tonye Princewill were grounded in Akure Airport and aviation authorities, cock and bull stories, narrated the alleged grounding.
“We had set out from Abuja in the morning of Friday April 26, 2013 for Imo State to attend the funeral rites of the younger sister of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. Our plane, a Bombardier jet owned by the Rivers State government, landed at the airport in Owerri. It was in Owerri that the pilot of our plane was first tipped off that there was a plot to ground our plane in Owerri that Friday”, the statement started.
It continued: “Fortunately, we took off from Owerri airport and arrived Akure airport en-route Ekiti for the burial of the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Funmilayo Olayinka without any incident. On the flight to Akure was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal who we met in Imo State and was also heading to Ekiti for the burial of Mrs Olayinka.
Also on the flight were the Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi; the Director-General, Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Asishana Bayo Okauru; Kalabari prince and politician, Prince Tonye Princewill; some aides of the governor and myself.
“Once our party left the Akure airport for Ekiti, our pilot went to the airport offices to make statutory airport payments and fees, file his flight plan and declare his manifest. After filing his fight plan and declaring his manifest, our pilot was told to go and see the Controller.
The Controller bluntly told him that the Rivers government plane would not be allowed to leave the airport. In other words, the plane had been grounded! He said that the plane should have been grounded in Owerri. The Controller on duty at the airport in Akure mentioned some vague issues relating to the Customs papers of the plane, which has been flying in Nigeria for many months?
That didn’t make any sense to the pilot. He enquired on whose orders the plane was being grounded. He was told that it was the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA). And that he should reach the NAMA MD.
“By the time our party, which now included four House of Representatives members: Mohammed Sani Idris Kutigi, Daniel Rayeineju, Idris Ahmed Wase and Ifedayo Abegunde, returned to the Akure airport, there was confusion everywhere.
Speaker Tambuwal, the Honourable members, Governor Amaechi and his team, were stranded. The plane that brought Speaker Tambuwal and Governor Amaechi to Akure could not leave the airport. Calls were made as these two democratically elected leaders, furious and perplexed, tried to fathom what could have caused this monumental embarrassment.
“After trying fruitlessly for some time to get the plane released, Speaker Tambuwal offered to fly Governor Amaechi to Port Harcourt with the plane(another small aircraft) that brought the other four Honourable members to Akure. To accommodate Governor Amaechi in the small aircraft, one of the House of Representatives members offered his seat to the Governor .
“The pilot of the Rivers State government plane was already locking up the aircraft for us to leave for Lagos by road when a call eventually came through that the plane could now leave. The Controller received a directive to allow the plane fly out of Akure. The decision to let us go, we later learnt, was due to the pressure brought on the aviation authorities by Speaker Tambuwal.

Speaker of the House of Reps, Tambuwal and Chairman of NGF, Chibuike Amaechi

Plane only held for five minutes – NAMA
Reacting to the Rivers government story, yesterday, NAMA boss, Nnamdi Udoh, stressed that the aircraft was not grounded but delayed because the pilot did not submit the manifest alongside his flight plan to the appropriate authorities.
He spoke to newsmen at the agency’s headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. Udoh debunked the claim that the aircraft was grounded by the agency.
According to him, there was five minutes delay because the pilot, at the time of take-off, did not submit the manifest of the names of those on-board the aircraft contrary to the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) that was issued to non-scheduled operators earlier this year, adding that adequate clearance must have been given to avoid any delay because the Akure airport was restricted to day light operations only.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA), last night, declared that the Rivers government aircraft was operating illegally as its clearance approval expired on April 2, 2013.
Consequently, the NCAA said it had finally grounded the Bombardier -BD 700, Global Express aircraft. Addressing reporters at the Aviation House, the headquarters of NCAA, the director of airworthiness standards, Engineer Benedict Adeyileka, explained that while the aircraft was operating illegally , it was sighted in several places including Owerri and Akure.

Face To Face With Serial Church Robbers: Fear Of God Meant Nothing To Us!

To Akinbode Theophilus (30), Waidi Folorunso (27) and Wasiu Olusola (31), the answer to the question above is possibly, yes. They are in police net accused of robbing a church, among others. The robbed church is located at Ijegun-Ikotun, Lagos. And it wasn’t only once that the church was robbed.
Robbers attacked the church on three separate occasions during which they carted away items, the most valuable of which were musical instruments valued at hundreds of thousands of Naira. The musical instruments were believed to be the target of the robbers and the other items, secondary.
The trio of Theophilus, Folorunso and Olusola were said to have confessed to police interrogators that they were behind the serial robbery attacks on the church. Sources close to the interrogators also quoted the suspects as admitting to carrying out attacks on some other churches in Lagos and Ibadan.

*The suspects: Theophilus (l) and Folorunso

God, in Malachi 3:8, puts those robbing him, this time of tithes and offerings, under a curse. If it is proven that Theophilus, Folorunso and Olusola carried out the church robberies, then they may never escape the curse of God; unless they seek genuine repentance. The suspects arrest is as dramatic as it is mysterious. Many attributed it to nemesis and God at work.
They had allegedly broken into the headquarters of the Kingdom Zone of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Ifelodun Street, Ijegun – Ikotun in the early hours of April 5, 2013. They entered the church auditorium, broke the iron cage inside which the musical instruments were secured and removed them. Not done yet, they broke into the church offices and ransacked them, apparently looking for cash and valuables.
Two of them – Theophilus and Folorunso- allegedly chartered a tricycle to convey their loot and had successfully escaped from the area. The suspects were said to be transferring the musical instruments from the tricycle into another one at Ikotun roundabout, some five kilometers from scene of robbery – around 5 a.m. – when a police patrol team noted their suspicious movements and accosted them.
A police source said they told the patrol team they were musicians coming from a night engagement. Not convinced, the police team, led by one Inspector Ahmed, reportedly, asked the suspects to take them to the venue of the engagement to confirm their story. Then, on close scrutiny of the musical instruments, the policemen found the name of the church engraved on them.
The game was up. Folorunso allegedly tried to bolt away. He knocked down one of the policemen in the process. But as he dashed across the road, an oncoming tricycle knocked him down, instantly demobilising him. Both suspects – Theophilus and Folorunso – were arrested and taken to the scene of robbery. They allegedly confessed to the crime and told the police that they had another colleague working with them.
The suspects also allegedly named a marketer at Oshodi who had been helping them to sell their loot. The two suspects were held at Ikotun Divisional Police Station. Some officers at the station gave the credit for the arrest to the DPO, CSP Austines Akika, who, according to them, insists on ridding the area of criminal elements..
Items allegedly recovered from the suspects were the church musical instruments, a saw, two iron bars, a master key and a padlock. Theophilus an Folorunso were later taken to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja where further investigations yielded the arrest of the third suspect, Olusola. Olusola is said to be an ‘insider’ in the Ijegun church who facilitated the robbery.
The alleged marketer to the suspects was said to be on the run. Theophilus told Sunday Vanguard that he was not resident in Lagos, and that he came in from Abeokuta where he claimed to be a teacher. He claimed to be a university graduate.
According to the suspect, he is married with a child. Indeed, the police took him to a high profile hotel where he claimed to be lodging in Ikotun area to corroborate his statement, and he was found to be paying N6,000 per night there. Asked if he did not fear God as to go to a church to rob, Theophilus, a Christian, said he feared God, but that, that fear paled into insignificance when the survival of his family was at stake.
The salary he earned from his teaching job in a school in Abeokuta, according to him, was too meagre to sustain the family. Folorunso was not forthcoming on his means of livelihood. Sources close to Lagos SARS told Sunday Vanguard that all the three suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations into the case were completed.
Detectives were also on the trail of the fourth suspect on the run. The Ijegun church sources spoke on the two previous occasions robbers broke into the place of worship. The first time, according to them, the robbers made away with musical instruments, among other items, which were never recovered.
The second time, the robbers carted away gift items earmarked for the Bible College graduands whose graduation was scheduled to hold in the church. “There is the hand of God in the arrest of the suspects who are now alleged to have carried out serial robbery attacks on the church.
Don’t forget that they had successfully escaped from the scene of crime before they were apprehended at Ikotun, some five kilometers away. The arrest also shows that no matter the misgiving about the police on their effectiveness, they sometimes work”, a member of the church said.
Culled from Vanguard Newwpaper

Boko Haram amnesty: CAN carpets JNI over comment on Oritsejafor, others

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has frowned at utterances of the Ja’amatu Nasril Islam (JNI) that tagged CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, and his executive council as enemies of Nigeria over their stand on amnesty for the Boko Haram sect.
The Islamic body, recently in a press conference in Kaduna, wondered if “they (CAN) were appointed special advisers to the President on the perpetration of insecurity?” even when some Christian leaders like John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Bishop Matthew Kukah as well as Paul Unongo have thrown their weight behind the amnesty for the sect.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, General Secretary of CAN, Rev. Musa Asake, said although Cardinal Onaiyekan and Bishop Kukah were respected Catholic leaders, they could not speak for Nigerian Christians neither could they speak for CAN.
Asake said: “The two men do not have any moral or institutional authority to speak for Nigerian Christians. Their position remains very unpopular among the persecuted church in the North. Only CAN is vested with such powers, notwithstanding the constitutional rights of the two men to air their opinions on any national issues.
“Therefore, Cardinal Onaiyekan and Bishop Kukah do not speak for Nigerian Christians, not even for CAN in any of the 19 Northern states. What they are saying is their personal opinion that does not take into consideration the plight of the victims.”
CAN further expressed surprise that JNI ascribed the title of ‘Pastor’ to Mr. Paul Unongo, insisting that “Unongo does not represent any segment of Christianity because he is not one, agreed he is a well-known son of the Middle Belt.”
Asake maintained that Boko Haram insurgency was a creation of the northern leaders and JNI believed to have strong link with the sect, therefore, the Islamic body must find its way of curbing the menace.
He said: “But JNI should hear this: the Boko Haram insurgency is a snake on their (JNI) thatched roof. It is the Magida, the landlord and his tenant who can device the most effective way of dealing with it.
“Asking the Federal Government to grant amnesty to the Boko Haram members amounts to calling the government to come and kill the snake with a torch. The JNI must begin to query the change in its value system; a system that now makes them spokesperson of a murderous and blood thirsty group without being sensitive to the victims of the sect, a system that allows for the slaughtering of human beings like cows without any remorse.
“CAN will not fail to point out that the present clamour for amnesty to the Boko Haram members by the Sultan and his cohorts is a strategy to drive home the message of reaping from where they did not show. It is a strategy to get a better deal for those they have improvised for years. By canvassing for amnesty to blood-thirsty, Islamic fundamentalists who have killed without provocation, the JNI is promoting the culture of crass impunity that desecrates the sanctity of human life.
“The earlier it (JNI) retraces its steps and begins to fish out the fundamentalists among them the better for our dear country.”
Asake called on President Jonathan “to as a matter of urgency to dismiss the whole idea of amnesty for an unrepentant group, because it would be a panacea for confusion in the country”, adding that issue of victims of the sect should be taken with seriousness before any step taken further.
The cleric urged Christians to pray while making effort to defend themselves, “since Boko Haram does not see anything wrong with their style of Jihad against the Church, all we can do now is to pray, while making efforts to defend ourselves and communities.”

Northern Christian Elders Demand Creation Of Northern Minorities Commission

The Christian Elders Forum of Northern States, NOSCEF, yesterday, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to establish a Northern Minorities Commission to take care of Christians in the North who are currently facing annihilation.
Chairman of NOSCEF, Evang. Mathew Owojaiye, who made the call during the 2013 National Conference of NOSCEF in Abuja, disclosed that “the northern states are made up of mostly minority tribes, which if added up, would amount to 75 per cent of the North. Christians are the majority in these minority tribes.
“The commission to be headed by a minister, became necessary, in view of government’s inability to curb menace of the Boko Haram sect.
“This will take care of minorities’ interests. Our history has been a catalogue of woes, poverty, deliberate marginalisation and under-development. Now we are marked for annihilation!
“We are demanding that the Federal Government should set up a Northern Minorities Commission with a minister in charge. It should be a full ministry on its own. Then, attention can be paid to our plight,” he said.
“We are appealing to all our illustrious sons and daughters to add their voices to ours, so our dream can be realized.”
However, the group lamented the seeming helplessness of the intelligence arm of government to quell the orchestrated attacks and killing of Christians in the north by Boko Haram.
Faulting the rationale behind amnesty for the Islamic group, NOSCEF wondered what would be the plight of the victims, if government was trying to convince perpetrators of the heinous crimes to accept pardon.
“Now, what do we do? It is obvious, the government cannot protect us. They are unable to protect us. It seems government is begging Boko Haram to accept amnesty. If we start begging the offender, what do we do to the offended?” NOSCEF boss demanded.
On the agitation for a Christian political party, Owojaiye stressed that they would not subscribe to the idea, maintaining that there could be a need for Christians to sit down and find out who would give attention to their interests.
“We have benefitted almost next to nothing from the people we voted for in the past elections while those who oppose them have been pampered.
“It must not happen again. We must go back to mobilize our people from ward to ward while we search for those who care about our interests,” he said.

Christian Leaders To FG On Boko Haram amnesty,"You Are On Suicide Mission"

Christian leaders, yesterday, opposed the Federal Government’s plan to offer unconditional amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect, describing it as a misplaced priority and an unjust cause.
This came even as there is skepticism within the military circle that the amnesty will work out, adding that it may turn out to be a colossal failure and the Federal Government may end up embarrassing itself over its non workability.
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President Goodluck Jonathan

The Christian leaders asked the government to take urgent steps to compensate and resettle victims of Boko Haram attacks instead of wasting time and resources on a matter that would not yield any positive results at the end of the day.
According to the leaders, the Federal Government was committing a suicide mission by attempting to appease the sect members without their readiness to surrender arms and seek peace with the rest of the society.
They also stated that granting amnesty to the sect would amount to injustice and encouragement to other criminally-minded groups to strike and seek reward from the government.
The Prelate of Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Sunday Ola Makinde, in an exclusive interview with Vanguard was of the opinion that granting amnesty to the sect was like putting the cart before the horse and a step in the wrong direction.
Makinde noted: “They are talking about amnesty without saying anything about their victims. They are still killing people even as the government is fine-tuning ways for amnesty.
“I am not comfortable with the government’s decision because they are putting the cart before the horse. Why can’t we first of all dialogue with these people and find out their grievances? The only thing that I read in the paper is that they want to Islamize Nigeria; we know that there are other grievances, which should be known before amnesty is given by the government.
“Then, before amnesty is granted we want to know what they will do for the family of the widows and widowers, their places they have destroyed, what are they going to do for the victims and so on. Amnesty is not the issue now, but how to ameliorate the suffering of the victims.
“So, setting up any committee for amnesty without first looking into how the victims could be compensated is injustice, and if there is no justice there will be no peace.
We need dialogue
“As condition for peace, we need dialogue; dialogue will lead them to know the group’s grievances and how to go about it. They are politicizing it and we need to be careful, if we are not, it may lead us to unpalatable end.”
Also speaking, the Bishop of Kubwa Anglican Diocese, the Rt Rev. Duke Akamisoko, threw his weight behind any initiative to bring lasting solution to the security challenges plaguing the north but warned against the offer of amnesty to the sect.
“While we are looking at how to solve the problem, the terminology, amnesty, is what I’m not comfortable with. If the government wants to speak with them to know their grievances, fine! But I don’t agree that they should be granted amnesty because of the level of havoc committed by these persons without any remorse. What about the Christians who were slaughtered by the sect? What about the churches that were burnt and destroyed?” Akamisoko asked.
You are on suicide mission —Bauchi CAN
The Christian groups likened the Presidency’s action to a suicide mission, which could at the end consume the whole nation, and asked Jonathan to be cautious with the plan and not allow political gains to becloud his sense of reasoning.
The Bauchi State Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Joshua Ray Mains, described the Federal Government offer of amnesty to Boko Haram as a suicidal strategy by President Jonathan for the 2015 election, saying the move would never achieve its goal for peace.
It faulted the idea of granting amnesty to a faceless group that had wantonly destroyed lives and property of Nigerians at every turn. He said amnesty should only be granted to people with known ideology, identities and vision and not a sect whose membership and ideology remain unclear.
The CAN scribe said: “The issue of granting of amnesty to the Boko Haram group should not even arise in the first instance because up till today nobody can actually point out who members of this group are. We have a problem of identifying this group and I don’t think it is rational to give amnesty to group of people you don’t know.”
He said amnesty should be given to a group of individual who had lost a stake like the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, adding that they had their strong reasons for amnesty such as oil exploitation, infrastructural decay, unemployment and land degradation.
Mains asked: “Why should they be given amnesty? Are we congratulating them for the people they have sent to their early graves or are we encouraging them to continue with their acts so that other groups can take advantage of the amnesty and continue to disrupt the peace of the country?”
An exercise in futility
Reacting to the Boko Harm amnesty offer, Pastor Bitrus Bdliya of the Church of Brethren in Nigeria described the offer of amnesty to the sect members by the Federal Government as an exercise in futility, as the offer would not make the boys to stop their bombing campaigns.
He wondered how the government should contemplate amnesty for Boko Haram whose leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau, had come out publicly through the media to reject such amnesty.
He said, it was unfortunate that some people equated Boko Haram with the Niger Delta militias, pointing out that the two scenarios were not the same and should not be juxtaposed for any reason.
Bdliya pointed out that while the Niger Delta militants fought for a share of the oil being exploited in the region, Boko Haram merely wants to kill Christians and islamise the country by force.
Also speaking, the Yobe State CAN Chairman, Reverend Idi Garba, noted that the Federal Government attempt would amount to a waste of time and resources as long as the sect members had not sought repentance and forgiveness before the offer by the government.
Adamawa Christians divided over amnesty
Reverend Phineas Padio of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Yola argued that Amnesty for the group was long overdue.
He reasoned that from all indications, the Federal Government lacked the capacity to crush the group, so it has no alternative than to grant amnesty for peace to reign in the land.
According to Padio, since 2010 when the President made pronouncement that the sect would be crushed in a couple of weeks, their atrocities had continued unabated across the north.
Phineas Padio said most of those opposing amnesty do not live in the North, saying those that are resident in the Northern States that “wear the shoes know how it pinches”.
On his part, Prophet Samson Sam of Christ Solution Power Chapel, Yola, said he did not support amnesty for the Boko Haram sect.
He argued that, the group is faceless and is fighting a no just cause.
He stated that the leaders of the Boko Haram should tell Nigerians their reasons for trying to destabilize the country and not this talk of amnesty for the terrorists.
Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Gombe State Chapter, Reverend Abare Kallah, asked about the churches destroyed by Boko Haram.
According to him, “from the Christian point of view, we have been agitating now that if President Jonathan is going to give amnesty to Boko Haram, what happens to the churches, the people who are victims whose lives, property were destroyed, everything that was affected as a result of their activities.
So, we just want the president to stand on the right side of taking the right judgment about this thing. It’s not about favouring one side. We are also wounded. If they are thinking that amnesty is going to be given to Boko Haram, I am sure that there is going to be another faction or group that the Federal Government cannot contend with”.
What happens to the victims of Boko Haram insurgency
The Northern Christian Elders Forum, NOSCEF, submitted that the decision to grant amnesty to Boko Haram “is a call to other interest groups to rise up in arms against their fatherland, to be blessed when such an action should be treated as treason.
Chairman of the group, Evangelist Matthew Owojaiye argued that intimidating the Federal Government to grant amnesty is the highest display of hypocrisy and lack of patriotism.
He said: “Are such people not indirectly admitting that they are the shadows or ghosts behind the Boko Haram? We totally object to even discussing amnesty when nothing has been done for the victims of the Boko Haram.”
The statement titled; ‘Enough is Enough! Nobody should take us for granted! said that contrary to popular belief in certain quarters, the Christian Community in the North has been the most “marginalized, deliberately underdeveloped group treated like vassals, seriously brutalized and slaughtered under the watchful eyes of this regime more than in any other regime.”
Evangelist Owojaiye alleged that “this government has spent billions of naira on nomadic education, N5 billion on Almajiri schools which is specifically for Muslims, while Christian schools and hospitals taken over by the government without compensations are still held tight by government.
Boko Haram, has tried to annihilate us and our Igbo Christian brothers and now the government is talking about granting the Islamic sect amnesty without saying a word about the people they bombed, slaughtered and traumatized.”
Blame Northern Muslim elite — NOSCEF
The NOSCEF furthered argued that the Northern Muslim elite should be held responsible for the rot in the region and not the present administration. “Who underdeveloped the Muslim North? It is definitely not the Jonathan Government, and neither the Christians in the North! It is the Northern Muslim elite that impoverished the Northern Muslim youth.
The Northern Muslim elite pocketed the largesse that came to the North. Only they and their families benefitted. They turned the attention of Boko Haram to the innocent Christians in the North.
“It is even more annoying that instead of the Northern Muslim elite releasing 50 per cent of their wealth to solve the poverty problem of the Muslim North they are crying and putting pressure and intimidating the Federal Government to set up a Boko Haram commission,” Owojaiye stated.
Military skeptical about success of amnesty
Meanwhile, there is skepticism within the military circle about the success of the amnesty being proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan for Boko Haram terrorists, arguing that it may turn out to be a colossal failure and the Federal Government may end up embarrassing itself over its non-workability.
Indications to this effect emerged following Vanguard’s investigation which revealed that the Boko Haram sect is no longer one body but a fragmented group that has such breakaway group like Ansaru which recently killed two Nigerian soldiers along the Lokoja-Okene road, who were on their way to Abuja to embark on peacekeeping mission in Mali.
The same Ansaru kidnapped a French national in a commando style in Katsina while the most recent one is the kidnap of 11 foreign construction workers, including Lebanese, British, Filipino and other nationals working at a Bauchi construction site.
Aside Ansaru, there are other breakaway factions that broke into and robbed banks and financial institutions while others carried out killings for a price, no matter the individual or his standing in the society.
A security source asked, “Even if you look beyond the fragmented group of the terrorists, what happens if tomorrow, all the almajiris and jobless street urchins troop out in their millions and say they are Boko Haram and they want amnesty, which of course goes with a package of allowances, rehabilitation and training. Does the government have the resources to cater for them?
According to another source, “everywhere in the world where the issue of amnesty for insurgency is brought to the table, that word ‘amnesty’ comes up after negotiation with the known group and its leaders have taken place, the insurgents have agreed to surrender their arms and have been seen to do so, before amnesty is brought in and its implementation discussed”.
“But the situation where amnesty comes first before discussing with those causing problems, killing, maiming, bombing and destroying whole villages, security personnel and their stations is like sending a wrong signal to the other groups who may want to cash in on the action of the government”.
The source added that President Jonathan was able to convince the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Staff, the Inspector General of Police and the DG Department of State Security, DSS, to buy into the amnesty proposition despite the fact that the shoe pinches them directly with the daily killing and bombing of their personnel who are in the front lines of the war on terror by telling them “let us try the option and see the outcome”.
The President was able to placate the military chiefs to further accept and support the amnesty offer because he believes that firstly it will do the nation a world of good if they renounce their insurgency.
Secondly, if after the amnesty is granted the Boko Haram terrorists, its fragmented groups continue the mayhem, the government would have been justified over its earlier stand of not dealing with faceless groups.
“Those questioning military option will then hide their faces in shame. Aside that, politicians who have been feasting on the Boko Haram debacle for purposes of scoring cheap political points and gaining cheap popularity will now know that the bigger picture of joining forces with government and security agencies to ensure peace and stability for the nation will benefit all the most”.

Nigerian Christians in US decry FG’s inability to tame Boko Haram

...donates N8m to victims
ABUJA—NIGERIAN Christians based in the United States of America, operating under the aegis of the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) have expressed disgust over the continuous killing of Christians in the northern part of the country.
Consequently, CANAN recently came down hard on the Federal Government for its inability to checkmate the activities of the Boko Haram sect in parts of the country. The group pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan to seek for the intervention and assistance of the US President, Barack Obama to end the menace.
At a joint press conference with the Secretary General of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, in Abuja, CANAN president, Dr. James Fadele gave the advice, while donating the sum of $50,000 (about N8 million) as relief funds.
At the occasion, a former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, broke into tears after listening to Pastor Sarana Chinda of All Saints Protestant Church, Hauran Wanki, Barracks, Kano on how eight members of his congregation were wiped out for refusing to renounce Jesus Christ.
Ezekwesili also heard from a 45-year old Deborah Shetima from Borno State how her husband was slaugthered on April 25, 2012 and their two daughters aged nine and seven were abducted by Boko Haram members with no clue to their whereabouts.

After this sad development, according to her, the sect came back after three month and killed her third son in cold blood.
In an interview, the executive director of CANAN, Laolu Akainde said President Jonathan should be aggressive in fighting the Boko Haram menace, by bringing National Assembly members that were indicted, to face the full weight of the law.
According to him; “I think government including President Jonathan has said on several occasions that the problem is big. We believe that Nigerian government cannot handle this problem.
“Government can become more aggressive in going after members of Boko Haram and those supporting this sect. Government is not proactive. It should seek support from other countries like the US to deal with Boko Haram. This is an international problem,” he stated.
In his remarks, Fadele called on all Nigerians and people of goodwill to “rise up and come to the financial and material aid of victims of Boko Haram attacks in northern Nigeria”.
According to him, Nigerian Christians in America have taken notice of the impact of the actions of Boko Haram terrorist sect, adding “we are concerned about the widows and deeply touched by the plight of the orphans. We reckon that many of these individuals are left without a source of livelihood”.
Continuing he said: “We have heard that CAN is setting up a Relief Fund where Nigerians can donate money and relief materials to support the victims. For instance victims’ children can benefit from scholarships taken out from such a fund. Towards such a fund, CANAN is making an initial widow’s mite contribution of $50,000.
“If backers of terrorists are raising the money to perpetuate acts of terror, supporters of and advocates for peace can no longer look the other way. We join CAN today to call on Nigerian philanthropists, businesses, and captains of industry, well-to-do individuals and all people of goodwill to consider the apparent financial plight of Boko Haram victims and lend a helping hand.
“We commend the bold leadership of CAN for speaking up in a categorical, courageous and consistent manner on the Boko Haram menace,” he stated.
Ezekwesili was of the opinion that Nigeria is fast becoming a country which does not place value on human lives.
Her words: “Whatever happens to one of us happens to everyone of us. So if we have become a nation that does not put value to human lives, then we really are in a bad place. Listening to these women particularly and seeing what these woman have to carry alone, you almost feel a sense of abandonment for them. It is almost like they are invisible to the rest of us and that worries me,” she contended.

Nigerian Christians Decry FG’s Silence On Plight Of Boko Haram victims

 
 Northern Christians under the aegis of Christian Elders Forum of Northern States have expressed disgust at the unholy silence of the Federal Government over the plight of victims of Boko Haram violence while it is pursuing amnesty programme for the Islamic insurgents.
A communiqué signed by NOSCEF Chairman, Evangelist Matthew Owojaiye and his Secretary General, Iliya Yusuf after the group’s recent annual conference in Abuja, stated that there should be no discussion of amnesty for Boko Haram until all the victims of the violence have been adequately compensated, adding that thousands of Christian businesses were ruined, over 1,500 Christian lives, innocent lives wiped out.
“Government is not saying anything about compensation to be paid to the victims of Boko Haram. We want to say that it is government’s constitutional duty to protect lives and property of its citizens.
Why is government not talking about pardon to Boko Haram but amnesty? How could you be begging the offender to accept amnesty and welfare packages while saying nothing about their victims?” the communiqué asked.
The forum also reiterated its call for a ministry of Northern Minorities Commission, adding that about 70 per cent of Northern States fall within the minority tribes and “these minority tribes are marginalized, deliberately underdeveloped. This situation must not continue. We urge the Federal Government to set up Northern Minorities Commission run as a full ministry with its allocations.”
On the clamour for 2015 elections, the Northern Christian Elders opined that there cannot be any election in 2015 until the authorities have adequately created a veritable secured atmosphere for credible election, arguing that the level and sophistication of weapons in the hands of individuals is very alarming.
The forum resolved that while Northern Christians will not form a Christian political party, efforts should be made to seek parties that will attend to the interest of members. According to the group, the era of ‘use and dump’ is over, noting that “all Christians must go back home to do grassroots mobilization to ensure that people go out en mass to vote. Those who have shown no concern to our plight should not bother to discuss 2015 electioneering with us.”
The forum suggests that the rotation of gubernatorial seat among the three senatorial districts should be enshrined in the Constitution.

PFN President Calls For Caution Over Amnesty For Boko Haram

National President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Dr. Felix Omobude, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to be very cautious in his planned amnesty for members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
Omobude, in statement in Benin, Edo State, yesterday, said that in as much as PFN recognised Federal Government’s right to grant amnesty to any group or individuals, including the Islamic Boko Haram sect, for the purpose of peace, there was need for government to be very cautious, so as not to give the impression that it was encouraging criminality and giving the international community the impression that Nigeria was a lawless country.
He said that instead of considering amnesty for Boko Haram members, the Federal Government should be more concerned with ways of compensating victims of the insurgency.
Saying that no amount of money can bring back the lives of dead victims of Boko Haram insurgency, Omobude noted that all the victims should be adequately compensated and comforted in every way possible.
He said: “The victims and their families deserve adequate compensation to mitigate their grief and to demonstrate that the government also cares about them.”
He also appealed to Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, to stop further hostilities in the Niger Delta and give peace a chance, just as he called on its leadership to engage the Federal Government in constructive dialogue to resolve issues that are in contention.
Reiterating PFN’s belief in peace as a condition precedent for national security, growth and development, Omobude called on all Christians in the country irrespective of their denominations to pray for peace and good governance at all tiers of government.

PFN 12th BIENNIAL CONFAB: When Pentecostals Renewed Mandate

The much-talked about 12th biennial conference of the umbrella body of Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN ended in the Akwa Ibom State capital, Uyo with a renewed commitment by PFN leaders to use the divine mandate to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to greater heights through the elimination of every weight militating against the spread of the gospel in the country including bad eggs within.
The four-day spiritual fiesta with a theme, “A people with a mandate,” is unarguably the best organised biennial conference in the 25-year history of the Fellowship, just as speaker after speaker came down heavily on charlatans within the fold, who parade themselves as pastors.
The programme featured ground breaking prayers for the peace of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria and its leaders, the cessation of religion-induced terrorist acts in parts of the country, unity of the nation based on religious harmony and unity of the Body of Christ in the nation.
Eminent Pentecostal ministers including Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, Pastors Wale and Paul Adefarasin as well as the immediate past national president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and his successor, Rev. Felix Omobude among others, took turns to expound on the theme of the event.

Pastor Oritsejafor, CAN president

Benefits of obedience
Right from the opening act on Tuesday, February 5 at the Uyo Township Stadium, it was obvious that the leaders came to Uyo to renew their God-given mandate to intensify evangelism and eliminate every un-Godly practices from the nation. Drawing inspiration from Joshua 14:6-15, the ebullient former national president, Bishop Mike Okonkwo urged Christians especially Pentecostals to wake up to their Godly responsibilities to fulfill their God-given mandate in the country, while highlighting the benefits of obedience to the injunctions of God.
Pastor Adeboye took the gauntlet from there, explaining every article of the theme, noting that the word mandate is a command from God to His children to go into the uttermost parts of the nations to win souls and nurture them for Christ. He therefore urged Christians to reignite the fire of evangelism to take over and possess the length and breadth of the nation for Christ, stressing that every individual Christian has a role to play in the task of evangelizing the nation.
According to the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, every Christian is a representative of Christ and is therefore expected to play a role in fulfilling the mandate, not forgetting to subtlely warn that if the faithful fail to fulfill the divine mandate, God would not have failed, because His purpose stands for ever.
Thereafter every speaker including soft-spoken Pastor Wale Adefarasin, Dr. William Okoye, Evangelist Matthew Owojaye, charismatic Pastor Paul Enenche, Pastor Paul Adefarasin among others beamed the searchlight inward, declaring the counsel of the Lord and condemning the activities of certain wolves in sheep skin who parade themselves as men of God while extorting money from gullible Nigerians. They vehemently spoke against the activities of certain clergymen who have brought the Church to disrepute.
From Foursquare Gospel Church came Rev. Felix Meduoye who emphasised the need for ministers to curtail their flesh, saying “if we do not deal with our flesh, whatever is left of the flesh will turn around to deal with us,” just as Owojaye likened ministry to a tuber of yam which can be eaten in several different ways. He warned ministers against choosing assistants based on titles, instead choose from among those who share your vision, stressing “we must love God more than we love money, materialism and fame.”
The outgoing national secretary, Pastor Adefarasin who spoke on “Mandate for social change”, emphasized the need for ministers to embrace social responsibility by identifying with the plight of environment around them. “Before independence, the Church played a pivotal role for the success of the nation in education, healthcare, sanitation and what have you, but soon after independence, the Church suddenly became reactionary,” he averred, noting that the gospel will move faster if “we come alive to the responsibility to the social change in the society”.
To Dr. Paul Emeka of Assemblies of God, one cardinal ingredient lacking in the Church today is obedience and discipline, just as Bishop Paul Nwachukwu believes that the Church has a mandate to explore areas where the gospel has not reached, maintaining that the Middle East is waiting for the gospel.
He explained that American and European missionaries would not go there. “They will rather send CIA and other security agencies. Its Africans who have the mandate to evangelize the Middle East,” he stressed, noting that the next move of God shall be spearheaded by Africans.
Noise-making Church
The incoming national secretary, Prophet Emmanuel Kure also recognized that the key to the nation’s prosperity rests squarely with the shoulders of Christians. “The problem of the nation is the one who calls himself prophet, apostle, bishop or archbishop. Not the government as most people erroneously believe.
The problem of the nation is the noise making Church,” he stated and therefore called forgeneral repentance especially among those, he described as prayer contractors (portmanteau prophets) in Nigeria who are hell bent on giving the Church a bad name.
Rev. Enenche spoke on; “The mandate of ministry”, saying that the worst thing that can happen to any generation is for a people to be under a prophet who is satisfied; prophets who are insensitive to the needs of the people in their generation. He aligned himself with the position of other speakers, saying “the decadence in any society is connected to the pulpit.
The ultimate state of the nation is always traceable to the condition of the pulpit. The success of a ministry is not measured by the materialism in the ministry but by the positive impact you make on the society.” According to him, every minister must at all times ask himself one question: What will Nigeria miss if you are not there? Why are you existing, and the devil is not aware?
Rev. Austin Ukachi, who had the onerous responsibility of chronicling the history of revivals from 1914 in different parts of the country, said a Pentecostal is known for his power, a glory carrier; but today the power is declining. He is of the opinion, that revival reminds us of the suffering or commitment of our past leaders.
No crown without a cross
Pioneer treasurer of PFN, Rev. Elijah Abina would rather see mandate from the perspective of service and sacrifice, saying “we will fail if we don’t have this at the back of our minds. If you are going to ministry for pecuniary reasons you have come to a wrong place. There’s no crown without a cross.”
One of the founding fathers of PFN and the chief host of the 12th biennial conference, Rev. Uma Ukpai who expressed shock that he was pencilled down to speak at the fiesta, said Pentecostals do not appreciate the potentials God had deposited in them, and are therefore pushed about by every wind of doctrine, pointing out that “when you have a relationship with God, all your enemies would just be wasting their time. Narrating his personal story, he said for several years his first son was a cripple and several persons mocked him, but “the ability to see what others cannot see makes you a hero”.
And when newly elected Fellowship president, Rev. Omobude mounted the pulpit to deliver his sermon, he spent greater part of the time to extoll the virtues of the outgoing president, saying “I must appreciate the gift God had given to this nation.
I want to thank the CAN president and the immediate past president of PFN. One of the things that have kept us close over 40 years is that this man (Oritsejafor) kept his word. In his time, PFN was taken to great heights. A few days ago he handed over to me a detailed analysis of PFN accounts during his tenure,” he stated and summoned several of the leaders to the platform to pray for the CAN president.

By:Sam Eyoboka

Abomination! Man Nabbed With Charms Inside Lagos Church

A man, Ali Haruna, 25, from Kano State, has been arrested by the police at the Maroko Police Division, Lekki, Lagos, for allegedly entering the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David, situated on Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos with charms strapped to his waist.
Haruna was arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrate Court on one-count charge of illegally entering a church with charms.
During interrogation, he allegedly told the police that he entered the church to pray to God.
But when asked what he was doing with the charms he strapped to his waist, he could not give satisfactory answer nor explain how long he had been worshiping in the church since he claimed he was a Muslim.
The church members suspected him to have entered the church to perpetrate evil.

Live A Life Of Holiness And Uprightness,Mummy Adeboye Urges Christians

Wife of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Folu Adeboye has urged Christians to live a life of holiness and uprightness to attract God’s unlimited blessings, saying that she had faced death more than 15 times.
Adeboye made this remark during a twin dedication of a Maternity Centre in Ibafo area of Ogun State and the foundation laying ceremony of a new provincial headquarters of Ogun State Province 8 of the church at Aseese. After commissioning the projects amidst thunderous applause from the congregation, the mother-in-Israel charged the mammoth crowd of worshippers to always cultivate the habit of praise, noting that she just can’t stop talking about God’s mercy because her life is full of His mercy.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Pastor-in-charge of the province, Pastor Adeagbo Akinlabi said the province was barely eight and half months old but “we have a goal and by the grace of God the mater-nity centre which is curr-ently situate on a temporary site, would so-on be moved to a permanent site.”
Stating that whenever things like this happen, it is a call to duty and responsibi-lity and therefore called on all members and well wish-ers to extend a helping hand to the church with a view to completing the headquarters project which he hoped would be commissioned in two years time.
He said the maternity is the church’s way of giving back to host communities where RCCG is located, adding “we believe government cannot do everything alone. Instead of complaining, let us stand up as a mission to assist the government and the communities.”
The ceremony was attended by the several ministers including the national coordinator of RCCG midwives, Pastor Mary Ojo and her husband, the regional pastor, Pastor Ojo among others

Nigerian Sports Minister Hails Pas.Adeboye Over Table Tennis

The Honourable Minister of Sports and Chairman National Sports Commission (NSC) Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has commended the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Adejare Adeboye for the organization and sponsorship of the Adeboye U-20 Table Tennis Championship the final of which was held at the Redemption Camp over the weekend.
Mallam Abdullahi who graced the finals of the Championship at the YouthCenter, Redemption Camp, commended Pastor Adeboye for investing in sports development,
“ I am very happy, that the RCCG is interested in sports development, especially, sponsorship of table tennis, this championship will not only help discover new talents, but it will also keep our youth in good shape and top form for future championships”.
Abdullahi said the thinking of the RCCG and that of the NSC is in the same direction as Table Tennis is one of the sports that government is focusing its attention on.
“Table Tennis is one of the sports we are determined to transform and towards this end; a lot of efforts and investment is being directed toward transforming the sports and am glad that the RCCG has joined hands with us. I thank the church and our dear Pastor Adeboye for their efforts”
He urged the RCCG to continue to work with the NSC in the drive to transform sports in Nigeria.
The Honourable Minister was received at the Redemption by a high powered delegation led by the wife of the General Overseer of the Church Mrs. Folu Adeboye.
She commended the Sports Minister for honouring the church and Pastor Adeboye by accepting the invitation of the church to grace the finals of the championship.
Ondo and Oyo claimed the titles at the one-week tournament. In the men’s final, Ondo’s Ojo Onaolapo defeated compatriot, Adewale Fagbamila as he won 4-2 to claim the title, while Oyo’s Funmi Ajala announced her emergence when she defeated Fatimo Kazeem 4-2 also to lift the women trophy.
About N6 million was won as prize money by the top eight players at the competition with the winners getting N1.5 million each.

RCCG Floats Charity Organization

In line with its vision of giving hope, restoring dignity and reforming society, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Apapa Family, has unveiled a non governmental, non profit-making organisation, called ‘Excel Charity Foundation’.
According to the initiators, the foundation will serve as a benchmark for positive transformation in our communities. It will also provides a dynamic environment in communities by embarking on various social projects to tackle real issues and impact lives.
The navigator of the foundation, Doyin Oluntona explained that “our goal is to blend the latest thinking about strategy and organizations with a deep knowledge of social reformation. Every day, we have the extraordinary opportunity to help build a better future by helping the under-served people in our communities to attain the dignity and satisfaction of leading productive lives through the power of enablement.
“We provide a dynamic environment in our communities across the regions by embarking on several social impact projects through our initiatives in health, education, drug rehabilitation and well-being.
“The tipping point is that moment in time when a small change tips the balance of a system and brings about a large change. We have impacted lives by giving hope, restoring dignity and reforming our society by a shared vision to ensure social reform in Nigeria, Africa and around the world.”
The driving force behind the Excel Charity Foundation is the experience, knowledge and commitment of the leadership team of Enoch Adeboye, Oby Ezekwesili, Sola Borah, Tonye Cole, Idowu Iluyomade, Remi Morgan and Yemi Osinbanjo, among others.

 

Pastor Adeboye Endorses Church Cup championship

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church Of God, Pastor Enoch A Adeboye has endorsed the Church Cup Championship which is organized by REAL SOCCERFEST.
The Church Cup championship is a non denominational youth soccer tournament in Nigeria aimed at promoting grassroots sport and unity among Christians.
Last week, the trophy was officially presented to the general overseer, Pastor Adeboye by Soccerfest board of Trustees led by Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, chairman organizing committee and Senior Pastor of Trinity House with the Coordinator of the project, Pastor Adeolu Adeyemo alongside the winner of the last year Championship, RCCG Kings Court Parish.
Pastor Ituah, in his remarks, thanked the General Overseer for identifying with the championship and appealed to other church leaders to emulate Pastor Adeboye who is always supporting grassroots sport in Nigeria.
“The church has a role to partner with government to combat poverty in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. He also notified the G.O of his appointment as the Grand Patron of the Championship.

Does God Know You By Name?

I am 60 years old but have never ever bought a car for myself. It was not for lack of money. Before God made me close down all my businesses in one day in 2005, I made a lot of money. However, the Lord controlled the purse-strings and spent all the money for me. I did not get any permission to buy a car or even build a house for myself. Nevertheless, I was allowed to buy cars for others no less than six times.
This January 2013, I went on bended knee to the Lord. “Daddy, you know I don’t ask you for carnal things as a rule, but I need a car. I know the exercise is good for me, but I am tired of walking to work.”
Our Father
The Lord answered my prayer in a most amazing manner. Within three days, my in-law went to Cotonou, bought a Toyota Highlander Jeep, and gave it to me. I pleaded with her that I could not receive the gift. I don’t like Jeeps. They are just way too big for me. I also did not want to increase my financial burden by having to pay too much for petrol. So I respectfully declined her offer.
I thought that was the end of the matter until I got a phone-call from a long-lost friend in Port Harcourt some eight days later. He left Lagos for Port Harcourt exactly six years ago. He said the Lord told him: “Femi Aribisala needs your car in Lagos. I want you to send it to him.” He told me he resisted the directive for eight days, until the Lord reminded him of it again during the Sunday service in church. “Sir,” he said, “I have no choice in the matter. I will get a driver to bring the car to you by the week-end.”
The next day, I got a phone-call from his wife. “Did my husband tell you God said he should give you his car?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied, sensing some trouble in the air. “Well,” she said, “it serves him right. He must give you that car.” “What is going on?” I asked the Lord. The woman continued: “My husband likes that car too much. Do you know that since he bought it, he has never allowed me to drive it? When he is travelling out of the country, he parks the car in his office, so I will not be able to reach it. Doctor, he must give that his car to you. It is the will of God.”
Imagine my surprise when I discovered the car in question is also a Toyota Jeep. But significantly, this one is a Toyota RAV4; a much smaller Jeep than the Toyota Highlander my in-law offered me. In short, when I rejected the bigger Jeep, God sent me a smaller one. He then reminded me that the RAV4 was the same size as the Land Rover Freelander I had wanted to buy several years earlier, which he had then vetoed.
The next Sunday, by 4 p.m., my new car arrived with a note from the sender which reads as follows: “Dear Pastor, On Sunday, January 13, 2013, God spoke to me clearly. Pastor Femi Aribisala has need for your one and only vehicle (2007 RAV4, Toyota SUV.) In obedience to God’s word after eight days of struggle, I hereby deliver this car to you for the use and to the Glory of God. To God be the Glory.”
Hearing ears
I am the confirmation that God indeed spoke to this man because I told no one but God that I wanted a car this year. How was this man able to hear God speak? Why is it that so many Christians cannot hear God? Those who cannot hear God often persecute those who can and try to make us believe it is the devil speaking to us. That is kingdom dynamics. The Ishmaels persecute the Isaacs. Jesus says: “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” (John 8:47).
A dubious Christian gentleman berated me because I don’t believe in Paul. He reminded me that I don’t believe Jesus is a sacrifice for sins. He highlighted the fact that I maintain the bible is not the word of God. Then he reached this wonderful conclusion: “How can you be a Christian if you don’t believe the fundamentals of Christianity?”
If those are the fundamentals of Christianity, then Christianity is a dead religion. I am not trying to be a Christian. I claim to be a son of God. The fundamentals of my faith lie in my daily relationship with God. It is not in reading the bible or in going to church, or in fooling myself that Jesus has taken away my sins. It is in walking before God, hearing his voice and obeying him. It is in doing the will of God and not in reading Paul and quoting him. It is in knowing God and in God knowing me by name. It is in loving God and in trusting him.
To those Christians who continue to berate those of us grounded enough to know that Jesus and not the bible is the word of God, Jesus says: “You search the Scriptures, for you believe they give you eternal life. And the Scriptures point to me! Yet you won’t come to me so that I can give you this life eternal! Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me, for as I know so well, you don’t have God’s love within you.” (John 5:39-41).
Friends of God
True Christianity is not a religion. True Christianity is a relationship. It is a relationship with God. The bible is important because it details some relationships that God had with men of old. But we are not meant to live vicariously by their experience. The bible confirms it is possible to walk with God, talk with God and obey his voice. It is then up to us to insist on establishing similar relationships with God.
There is little point in spending a lifetime boasting about what God said in private to Abraham. The question is what is God saying to you? Eternal life is the knowledge of God. The fundamental question, therefore, is not whether Jesus was born of a virgin or not. The fundamental question is does God know you by name? Does he talk to you? Is he your friend? Is Jesus your Good Shepherd? Do you hear his voice and follow him? Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27).
On Sunday, 31st March, 2013, I got a phone-call from the man who sent me his Jeep. “I am in Lagos,” he declared. “I have a testimony to give you.” He drove to my house in a virtually brand-new Toyota 4Runner, a much bigger Jeep than the one he had given me. “My former boss in Lagos sent for me. He got a better job in Canada and is leaving the country. Look! He gave me his new Jeep. Can you see how God works?”
By Femi Aribisala

Interrogating God

One of the most persistent misconceptions by believers concerning the entity designated with the word ‘God’ is that he (she or more appropriately it) is unquestionable, meaning that the existential perplexities troubling the heart of humans should not be brought to the doorstep of the Supreme Being.
The idea that God is immune or beyond the questioning spirit of human beings is both a linchpin and article of faith for religious apologists, to the extent that it is considered sinful, heretical and blasphemous in the three Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity and Islam, to demand to know why, for instance, a world supposedly created by a perfect, omniscient, and omnipotent being should contain so much evil.
If you demand from a devout Christian or Muslim the reason one should not ask God critical questions about the vicissitudes of human life and existence in general, you are likely to be told that ‘’God is the almighty, omnipotent, and perfect being and no one has the right to question him.
He has created the universe as he pleases; therefore, since he is absolutely superior to us we should acquiesce to his divine power and worship him. After all a piece of pottery is not in a position to ask its maker, the potter, any questions”. Now, the main problem with such a response is that, unlike the pottery which lacks self-consciousness and rationality, a human being is a self-conscious rational creature whose intellect can transcend certain limitations of his finitude.
Thus nothing, including God, is beyond the whetstone of rational interrogation. The possibility or necessity of asking God searching questions is meaningful only on the tacit assumption that the entity denoted by that word and described in religious texts such as The Holy Bible and
The Holy Koran actually exists. If ‘God’ denotes nothing, if there is no objectively existing being outside the fecund imagination of humans that corresponds to the concept of God, then the problem of whether it is proper or improper to ask such a being probing questions does not arise because it makes absolutely no sense to ask a nonexistent being questions – and probably expect answers too.
In that connection, although there is no doubt in my mind that the anthropomorphic God of religion does not exist despite the ingenious fallacious arguments marshalled by theologians and religion-minded philosophers right from antiquity to date, we should suspend the issue of God’s existential status or, better still, presume tentatively that he exists and concentrate on the appropriateness of asking him questions, the sort of questions that we should put to him just in case we meet him face to face.
In my opinion God has a lot of questions to answer, for if indeed he has all the superlative qualities traditionally ascribed to him in the scriptures, then he is duty-bound to explain or justify, as the case may be, fundamental anomalies, absurdities and evils which permeate his creation.
The first question I would ask him is: God why did you create anything at all? Others include: God, if you were really all-knowing and all-powerful, why did it take you billions of years of trial and error just to evolve life on earth, and why should a world created by you be filled with egregious flaws as if it was produced by an apprentice learning on the job?
Why did you single out an insignificant planet (earth) for preferential treatment out of the astronomical number of planets that you allegedly created? Why did you create the earth specially for human beings (according to scripture) and yet filled it with deadly viruses and bacteria to terrorise them? Why did you give humans free will when you, as an omniscient being, already knew they will abuse it?
Why are you indifferent to human suffering although you have the power to bring it to an end? Why are you tribalistic? Why did you choose Israel or any other ethnic nationality as your favourite if you really created all human beings? Why did you permit the totally unnecessary and nauseating rigmarole of Jesus dying on the cross to redeem humankind when you simply could have forgiven people for their sins and allowed the matter to end there?
Must the so-called original sin purportedly committed by Adam and Eve affect every other human being? Does it make sense for a loving father like you to create a very boring place called heaven and a most hideous and terrible place, hell, where people will be tortured forever? Do you derive pleasure in seeing people suffer without end?
Why are you indifferent to the plight of Nigerians? God, why can’t you afflict corrupt Nigerian leaders, both past and present, and their collaborators, with the worst incurable diseases on earth to ensure they did not benefit from their wickedness and reinforce the futility of corrupt enrichment and primitive accumulation?
Why are you silent while pastors and imams are shamelessly deceiving and stealing from gullible Nigerians in your name? Are you happy with the cash-and-carry religiosity dominating Nigeria right now? Why are good people suffering so much whereas the wicked ones are enjoying in this world? If you are perfect, why are people born with serious congenital abnormalities?
On a personal note, why did you make me an albino when you know that I will live in the tropics where human skin needs a lot of melanin for protection from the sun’s harmful ultra violet radiation? To even worsen matters, you chose as my place of origin a backward country dominated by cruel ignoramuses who stigmatise and mistreat albinos just because they look different – how come?
Why wasn’t I born in Iceland or other places where the colour differential between albinos and others is small and where the sun is very mild? Indeed why even create albinos in the first place – is it because you ran out of melanin and just wasn’t patient enough to make more?
God, whatever you are, I have so many questions for you, but the limitations of space cannot allow me to ask all of them in this essay. Meanwhile religious bigots should stop making silly excuses for God, because assuming that indeed God actually created the universe and all it contains, the truth is that, given the serious imperfections in the universe (and in the earth particularly), the universe is certainly not the product of a perfect omnipotent being. That is why I sometimes sympathise with the suffering God of process philosophy postulated by Alfred North Whitehead.
Believers might respond to my questions by quoting the scripture which declares that “the ways of God are not the ways of man”. Well, that is the whole point of this essay: if the ways of the almighty are so different from ours, how can we be sure that he has all the attributes traditionally ascribed to him? How can we really be sure that he even exists?
By:Douglas Anele

Ayo Oritsejafor: The Dogged Lion Equipping People

THE Christian Bible describes pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father as; “To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
At least three Pentecostal leaders who were Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital last February for the 12th biennial conference of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, extolled the virtues of the outgoing national president, describing him as a man divinely anointed for a crucial assignment at a critical period of the nation, Nigeria. National president, Dr. Felix Omobude who articulated the thoughts of Pentecostal leaders at the Uyo Township Stadium described Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor as a Lion and a man sent by God for a specific assignment at a specific period in a nation like Nigeria.
Indeed, Pastor Oritsejafor must be a Lion, a man from an obscure corner of the nation, to be so passionate about a deliberate plot to annihilate a generation of Christians who have refused to be Islamised and are daily being persecuted. Long before he became CAN president, he was a lone voice in the wilderness drawing world attention to the multi-dimensional war against Northern Christians who are not given C of O to build churches, not considered for political appointments, and all manner of discriminations in their own land.
It was also in the same spirit that he, on a number of occasions, took relief materials to various parts of the North after the numerous militant attacks in Maiduguri, Bauchi, Jos, and other parts of the North. The Northern Christian leaders testified then, that he was the first Southern Christian leader to do so. Beyond rehabilitating some of the victims of the Boko Haram violence, he vehemently spoke against the danger of a full scale sectarian war which he acknowledged then, was crucial to the corporate existence of the country.
Poverty and under development have been identified as a twin serious socio-economic challenge facing the Nigerian government in the last couple of years. On a number of occasions, these two socio-economic elements have brought the giant of Africa to her knees and dehumanized the national psyche. There is a scripture that says “the poor you will always have in your midst”, and the security of a nation is often threatened as the number of the poor increases and the nation’s leaders do nothing to stop the trend.
Taking a cue from the inter-tribal crises in Warri, and recognizing that it takes men with Godly hearts to rewrite the destiny of a failing nation, the national president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and the founder of Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor have taken the gauntlet to lead a crusade aimed at empowering the teeming youths and the active poor in the Nigerian society.
In the last 13 years, he and his wife, Pastor (Mrs.) Helen Oritsejafor fondly called Papa and Mama within the Christian circle in Nigeria have been consistently involved in one form of empowerment programme for church members and members of the public. As far back as 1998, Mama Oritsejafor incorporated a trade fair/exhibition programme into the annual Women convention known as Daughters of Sarah international convention.

*Oritsejafor

It was aimed to bring people from different fields of human endeavor to display goods and services, thereby encouraging enterpreneural spirit in church people and act as a catalyst for economic growth. Since then also, she has been empowering women with small grants to help start small and medium scale businesses. In fact, the Daughters of Sarah fellowship has started empowering women long before the FEAP loan scheme was inaugurated at the national level.
Born in Ekiti and married to a Delta State man, Mrs. Oritsejafor overcame initial tribal barriers and has set an economic empowerment platform for women in the Niger Delta to key into and rise above all primordial sentiments against womanhood. In less than two years, over 200 women had been empowered via the Word of Life Bible Church annual empowerment programme to start different trades. The Daughters of Sarah international trade had expanded to over 200 stands.
In 2000, Pastor Oritsejafor initiated a university scholarship scheme for undergraduates as well as indigent students wishing to study in Polytechnics and college of education. Every year, he gave out 10 scholarships and recently, one international education scholarship for a young man to study in Cyprus, Greece. In a bid to overcome poverty, he set up the Eagle Flight Micro Finance Bank in 2005, which has tremendously changed the fortunes of the active poor in Warri and its environs.
The micro finance bank services over 500 co-operative groups with micro credits that enable co-operators expand and build new businesses. The Word of Life Bible Church in conjunction with the Eagle Flight Micro Finance Bank holds a poverty alleviation programme on December 26 every year. At inception of the programme, one brand new car to be used as a taxi in Warri and several motorcycles, grinding machines and sewing machines were given out to free irrespective of your tribe, religion or denomination, just to help the poor have a source of living.
Recognizing the negative impact of motorcycles, the philanthropists par excellence decided for tricycles instead. So far, the programme has given out 350 motorcycles, 70 tricycles, 800 grinding machines, 15 brand new cars and 600 sewing machines.
In line with his philanthropic vision and the need to strive to rid the nation of scoundrels, the CAN president also established the Eagle Hand International Foundation which takes care of the elderly and orphans, vulnerable young men and women in Warri and its environ. The Eagle Hand Orphanage as at today has over 16 orphans, while several have been adopted through a government agency in charge of orphanages.
Pastor Oritsejafor has consistently helped to resettle Christian families and churches in the North who have lost their loved ones and property to the Boko Haram menace in recent time. The Word of Life Bible Church which played a significant role in resolving the Warri crises and the militancy in the Niger Delta region, has become a safe haven for Northern Christians, as Mama Helen has often taken the gospel of empowerment to the North East. She had started many of them with trades such as catering, hair dressing, fashion design and mobile phone business.
In ensuring poverty is reduced to the barest minimum, Pastor Oritsejafor takes corporate social responsibility very seriously, by donating several boreholes to various primary and secondary schools, markets across Delta State. He also donated two boreholes, a new generator and refurbished the Warri Prisons Black Maria vehicles for conveyance of prison inmates to courts.
To support the education standard in the country, the couple has also established an international standard, nursery, primary and secondary school. In just three years, the school has won an outstanding award. He also proposes to establish a university in the nearest future to help build educational system.
Every year, he holds a love feast on February 14 to share love with all sundry in Warri and its environs where he gives out bags of rice and cash, to poor families as a way of showing them the agape love of God. In 2012, he gave out 1,000 bags of rice, and N1,000 to each family, to prepare the rice and enjoy the celebration. His humanitarian work is all over the place in Delta state and its environs, which he has extended to other communities in the state.
By Sam Eyoboka

Pastor Oritsejafor’s Wife Seeks More Roles For Women In Politics

The wife of President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Mrs. Helen Oritsejafor, weekend, advocated more roles for the women in politics.
Ortsejafor’s wife, who is also the Chairman, Eagle Flight Micro Finance Bank, spoke during the Nigerian Association of Women Entrepreneurs’ 20th anniversary in Abuja.
Being one of the three awardees for women empowerment programme, Mrs Oritsejafor said that despite the enormous endowment of women, they had been denied for a long time the opportunity to contribute their own quota to the economic and political development of the country.
She added that there would not be a limit to the success of any country who gave women the opportunity to express themselves.
”We have equal right to make our impact in the upliftment and growth of this nation and if women are given opportunity I can tell you there is no place, there is no limit to the growth of what this country can become,”she said.
“I am one of the women who have the strongest belief in the 35 per cent affirmative programme for the Nigerian women. I think women in Nigeria, just as in the entire African continent, have been deprived the opportunity to contribute immensely to the growth of the nation.”
In her address, the President of the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE), Chief Adaeze Ozongwu, advocated for women all over the country to come under one umbrella to develop the country.
She urged all women to come under a platform where they can speak with a louder and bigger voice, as a group for a better Nigeria.

Redeemed Christian Church Empowers 700 People

In line with its vision of giving hope, restoring dignity and performing her corporate social responsibility, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Lagos Province 1 recently embarked on putting smile on the face some of the residents of Ebute-Meta and Apapa Road area by organizing a two day moment of hope.

The programme according to the Special Adviser to General Overseer on Administrative and Personnel, Pastor Johnson Odesola was in line with the mandate given by the General Overseer of the church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye that the church must ensure implementation of projects within their locality to complement government’s efforts in providing basic amenities for the citizens.
In his words: “Corporate Social responsibility entails giving back to the society by adding value to the life of the people. Not only blessing these people spiritually but also ensure that their physical life also have a meaning. It was on this note that the entire Lagos Province 1 came together for the first time to stage this year CSR so that we can have a better impact unlike previous years. We have people from Ebute-Meta West and Yaba axis’s that benefited from this programme”
The Pastor in charge of corporate social responsibility, Lagos Province 1, Pastor Timothy Olaniyan explained that the province is not giving back to the society for the first time but has been in vanguard of seeing to the physical need of the less privilege. Olaniyan explained that the church collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders to achieve the laudable project
The two days CSR programme was well attended with over 700 participants which include both young and old alike.
The organisers create room for different points where the participants choose the vocation of their choice and they were extensively taught on different vocation of their choice. Seminars on healthy living, medical check-up with treatment and free food items, cloth, household goods amongst others were not left out from the programme.
Highlighting some of the activities he said: “Medical check-up with treatment are provided, empower the youths with various vocational training like, soap making, hair dressing including pedicure and manicure, craft making so that they can start small business on their own so that they can be useful for themselves and their immediate families. On going is building of school library for Kadara Junior High School because we believe in the development of Nigerian children’s education”.
On the theme of the programme “Touching lives in the year of signs & wonders”, Olaniyan said “We choose the theme to keep alive the vision that God gave to us this year that it is going to be a year of sings and wonders”.
Olaniyan also revealed that the church will empower some of the participants and also set in a monitoring team who will from time to time monitor the progress of the participants.
Some of the participants showers encomium on the organisers urging other churches and stakeholders in the country to engage on such activities. One of the youths identify as Bosun Oyeniyi described the programme as an eye opener for him revealing that he was bless by the RCCG programme

Nigerian Clerics, Group Decry Inter-Religious Conflicts

Bishop of the Anglican Communion, Kaduna Diocese, Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has said the inter-religious conflicts in Nigeria are causing a huge setback for the development of the country.

He said the disaffection between religious faiths led to disaffected and alienated minorities, oppression, revolutions, civil wars, and the frustration of all attempts to build a human society.

He spoke in Lagos at a conference organised by Muslims’ Rights Concern, with the theme, ‘Citizens’ Rights and Nation Building.”

In his paper titled ‘The Rights of Christian Minorities in Muslim-Dominated Areas of Nigeria: Final Thoughts,’ the archbishop said inter-religious crisis occurs when communication breaks down between followers of different faiths.

Idowu-Fearon, therefore, urged Christians and Muslims to compete in doing good to one another. He advised that they should not see one another as enemies.

The Bishop said, “God could have made us all one community. But, He has not done so in order that we might compete with one another in doing good. It is only in the field of trying to outdo one another in good works, in exercising our stewardship on earth, that competition among religious communities finds validity.”

He said the rights of minorities in different parts of the country must be protected, while conflicts must be addressed through dialogue.

The Director, MURIC, Prof. Is-haq Akintola, also called on the international community to assist the Federal Government in its amnesty programme for Boko Haram.

He noted that peacemaking was cheaper than war, adding that Nigeria must avoid creating a self-imposed humanitarian disaster in the West African sub-region.

He said, “We also urge all men of goodwill to prevail on the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta to realise the enormity of the issues at stake and pursue a peaceful solution in the interest of our children and generations yet unborn.”

Catholic Bishop Says FG Not Doing Enough Corruption,Insecurity

 Catholic Archbishop of Lagos Metropolitan See, His Grace Alfred Martins Adewale, yesterday, took a cursory look at the state of the Nigerian nation and gave thumbs down for the Federal Government’s lack lustre handling of the security challenges and the war against corruption, declaring the Boko Haram sect as terrorists bent on destabilizing the country.
The Archbishop said: “Our government is not doing enough to deal with corruption. It needs to do much more than it is doing so far. I can immediately refer to the corruption in the oil sector of the economy where certain individuals were indicted, taken to court and suddenly we begin to hear that the cases were not thought through before they were taken to court.
“That leaves a lot to the imagination. If the office of the Attorney General is not in the position to think out cases to the minutest detail before charging them to court, only to go there before the trial gets under way, to say there was a mistake, leaves much to the imagination,” the archbishop lamented.
He added that the agencies fighting corruption should be strengthened to fight the war to its logical conclusion.
While restraining Christians from any form of violent attack on anybody, the archbishop threw his weight behind calls by the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, for Christians to defend themselves by whatever means whenever they come under any attack, saying that human life is sacred and must be regarded as such by anybody.
He also urged the Federal Government to urgently deal decisively with all acts of aggression against the people, while also giving thumbs up for the option of dialogue where necessary because “war has never brought about lasting peace in the history of humanity.”
In his maiden chat with newsmen at the Church of Assumption, Falomo in Lagos, the Archbishop with his Archdiocesan Director of Social Communications, Rev. Monsignor Gabriel Osu, also used the occasion to condemn the brutalization of journalists on their legitimate assignments.
The archbishop argued that true federalism, which was the pathway to national development created by the nation’s founding fathers before the military intervened in the political process, is non-negotiable because that is the only basis for Nigeria’s aspiration to level up with other nations that began the political voyage with Nigeria but have left her behind.
Archbishop Martins argued that the nation had gone back to democracy after a long period of military interregnum, pointing out however, that “we have not addressed the real positions where the real Nigeria began at independence. Unless we consider we where before the truncation of democracy by the military we will not be able to know exactly what to do, because true federalism was what the fathers proposed the nation’s development.”
Arguing that the major developments the nation had witnessed since independence took place during the first republic before the military intervention because the true federal nature of governance, he said; “we didn’t have a situation where everybody had to go to the seat of the federal government to queue for allocation in order to carry out projects.
“If at this time of period of our nationhood we are not making progress as those who started the journey like us, then we need to go back to the basics to find out why we have not made any headway,” he argued, “it is on this basis that I argue that true federalism is not something to negotiate or debate about. It is just necessary because that is the only way we can be at par with other nations in the world.”
The Catholic Archbishop also linked the current agitation for state police to the call for true federalism, noting “if it was a federal system truly speaking then it will be possible for all the federating units to have the kind of apparatus that is needed in order to maintain the security in their own part of the country.”
According to him, if the federating units have a measure of control over their own police they will be able to manage the current security situation better, noting “naturally it is absolutely impossible to have knowledge of what is happening all over the nation. The creek of the Delta cannot be policed as the savanna of the North.”
On the brutalization of journalists, Martins expressed happiness that Lagos Gov. Babatunde Fashola and other well meaning Nigerians have been speaking out unequivocally against this negative trend, saying there is no justifiable reason why anybody should attack a man who is going about his constitutional duties.
“While calling on government, our law enforcement agencies ad other stakeholders to rise up to the challenge of safe guarding our journalists against any form of molestation in the course of carrying out their legitimate business, I equally urge the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, not to relent in its efforts to ensure that the rights of its members are protected at all times,” he stated.