"THE THINGS THAT NIGERIANS DO NOT NEED TO PRAY FOR IN THIS LIFE"

Prayers do not answer every human problem under the sun. Life must be approached with balance. There is a place for prayers as well as human actions, efforts and responsibilities. The historical evidences about these things are so glaring for all to see. The great nations of the human history in the last 6,000 years were never built by prayers and religious practices only. In Nigeria, prayers are seen and accepted by the majority of the suffering masses of that country as the practical answer to the decades of predicaments that face them and their country.

Prayers can never make Nigeria as a nation to experience one day of good government and accountable or transparent leadership in our lifetime. Prayers will never solve the problem of the nearly 30 years of the lack of electricity in Nigeria. Prayer is not the answer to the menace of the decades of the massive and unabated treasury looting, mismanagement of state resources, money laundering, tax evasion, oil theft, smuggling, illegal import duty waivers and extra-budgetary spendings by the Nigeria's rogue public officials and their cronies.

Prayers will not give Nigerians any 21st century working educational system, modern health care facilities, social services and the most needed national infrastructures. Prayers will never create jobs for the millions of the unemployed and unemployable youths of Nigeria. Prayers will never solve the problem of the mass poverty in Nigeria where 80% of Nigerians live on $1 a day or the present poverty-creating wages that millions of the Nigerian workers earn monthly.

Prayers can never stop the deadly terrorism of the Boko Haram and the general insecurity to life and properties of all Nigerians in all truth, honesty and reality. It is time for Nigerians to combine their decades of failed prayers that did not change their country for one day, but made it worse with the most needed political actions on the ground like the way it was done by the blacks in America, blacks in South Africans, the citizens of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and recently in the Ukraine if they are really and genuinely looking for a country that will work fairly for all Nigerians in our lifetime.

"THE INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE REMOVAL OF LAMIDO SANUSI IN NIGERIA YESTERDAY"

The political decision of President Jonathan Goodluck to suspend the governor of the Nigeria's central bank, Lamido Sanusi yesterday is not just as simple as many Nigerians think or take it to be. This is not just another day in the Aso Rock villa or a business as usual. The central bank of Nigeria is in charges of the Nigerian Naira, foreign reserves, the amount of money in supply or circulation, interest rates and also oversees the commercial banking system.

The international bankers in the World Bank, IMF, Paris Club, London Club, International Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank and the new rising China in which Nigeria is their major customer and borrowing nation are all watching this political development that happened in Nigeria with keen interest and most likely their own official reactions.
Side by side, the stock exchanges and the global markets around the world including the foreign investors into the Nigeria's economy are all fully interested in this political uncertainty that is going on in Nigeria.

These international financial agencies, stock exchanges and markets are all fully aware that Lamido Sanusi was suspended after he publicly accused the government of Jonathan Goodluck of stealing between $10 to $20 billion of the Nigeria's oil money from the NNPC. The voice of Lamido Sanusi is the voice that the world recognizes as far as the Nigeria's economy is concerned. The sudden suspension of this international banker yesterday has already caused huge panic in the international markets and resulted immediately in the major crash of the international value of the Nigerian Naira in one day from N163 to N170 to the one US dollar.

"THE 4 THINGS THAT SHOCK ME TO MY BONES ABOUT THE GOP"

(i). A section of the GOP believes that the global warming phenomenon is a both a myth and a scientific fraud in the face of those enormous scientific evidences. The evidences are the rising in amount of the carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere, the melting of glaciers and icecaps, the rising ocean levels, the yearly visible ocean encroachment and ocean flooding, the changing climate patterns around the world, the growing animal migrations into the new climatic habitats, the growth of more damaging hurricanes, tornadoes and tsunamis.
(ii). A section of the GOP believes that America was founded on the Judeo-Christian theology despite those enormous legal evidences in the United States constitution and the Declaration of Independence that both point clearly to secularism that is based on representative democracy, party politics, capitalism and free market enterprise (separation between state and religion or Church) and never on the so called theocracy.
(iii). A section of the GOP believes that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and never in the 50th state of the union (Hawaii). A section of the GOP believes that President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim by his religious faith and an illegal occupant of the White House in the direct violation of the United States constitution.
(iv). The GOP believes that the only way to govern the United States of America is not by popular or majority votes, but through the policy of the voter suppression laws in the GOP controlled states, the gerrymandering of the federal congressional districts to favor the GOP in the congressional elections and the political obstructions in the United States Congress to push the federal government of America to a final standstill.

"JESUS CHRIST FOR SALE"

Many charlatans or salesmen in the world of the so called prosperity gospel all over the world have turned Jesus Christ and his grace gospel to the marketable commodity for sale. Everything that Jesus Christ represented to humanity on the cross at the Calvary mountain 2,000 years ago is now a lucrative avenue for money making. The collection of the hefty honorariums in hard currencies, luxurious accommodation in the 5-star hotels, constant supply of those 5-course meals, servants on standby to run errands and 24/7 chauffeur driven limos are now the standard requirements for the visiting television evangelists and the pastors of those mega-Churches before they will agree to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world when they are invited for those preaching engagements. 

Many mega-Churches around the world today now have Bible schools, pastoral seminaries and periodic Church seminars where the word of God that God gave free of charge to mankind is now sold to their Church folks and invitees through the collection of those hefty tuitions and registration fees. Many popular television evangelists and mega-Church pastors now own huge printing presses in their Church facilities where books, magazines, pamphlets, stickers, banners and posters are all mass-produced and then sold to their members and the public for the hefty financial returns.

Pastors in several Churches around the world are now selling their own preachings for money through those tapes, CDs, DVDs and website subscriptions. Many Churches and their pastors now have different types of offerings in their Churches that are all made mandatory for their members all in the name of money making, such as, the tithes or the 10% of their members' monthly incomes, regular or weekly offerings, Bible study offering, prayer meeting offering, new building project offering, pastoral offering, pastor's appreciation offering, new year offering, new month offering, thanksgiving offering, abrahamic offering, offering for the fresh anointing, offerings for divine protection, promotion on the jobs, financial breakthrough, divine favor, healing, miracle, good health, successful marriage, finding a life partner and passing your school exams. 

Many mega-Churches around the world now have their own day-care centers, elementary and secondary schools as well as universities that are all set up primarily for profits in the name of preaching the grace gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. The Church of the living God that is the House of Prayer and Salvation for all the nations has not been turned into the dens of robbers and profiteers by charlatans all over the world.
In conclusion:was the gospel of grace or salvation which is the gospel of Jesus Christ designed for money making or for the saving of the precious souls of the sinners eternally? See John 3:16 for the truth from the Bible:"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life".

WHY PASTORS DO NOT GO TO HEAVEN - FEMI ARIBISALA.

The “gospel” is now a product marketed with razzmatazz by mega-pastors and televangelists.

I was having lunch at “Sweet Sensation,” a fast-food restaurant in Lagos, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked back to see a gentleman grinning at me from ear to ear. “Dr. Aribisala, how are you doing?” he asked expansively. It was one of my former pastors.

As a young believer, I was so hungry for God I juggled several church-memberships simultaneously. I grew up in the Anglican Communion. But when I finally had an encounter with Christ, I switched to the Baptist Church and then to Pentecostal Assembly. Even then, I also attended mid-week services at Zoe Ministries, before ditching both for several branches of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

When the Lord formally called me to a healing ministry, I decided to establish a Christian fellowship of my own with a handful of people in Lagos. Within five years, it metamorphosed into a full-fledged church.

A repentant pastor

My former Zoe pastor was genuinely glad to see me and I readily changed tables to sit with him. He told me he was no longer with his old church but was now coordinating a small prayer-group. He wanted to know what I was doing. When I told him my office was just five minutes away, he insisted on seeing it. So after finishing my lunch, I took him back to my office complex and showed him the different features of the building.

When we came to my office, I sat down behind my desk and he sat in front of me. He looked at me with a curious intensity. Then he said: “So you are now a pastor?” It was a question and yet not a question. I had shown him the church-hall, the Christian video and book libraries, the prayer-room, television room and the counselling cubicles. I had also come clean and acknowledged I was then a pastor. Nevertheless, he felt it necessary to ask the question again, as if he was trying to confirm it to himself.

He suddenly became very quiet. He seemed to crouch a little bit in his seat. He stared for an embarrassingly long time at his finger nails. Then, out of nowhere, he started to apologise to me. His apologies were all the more intriguing because we never had any noticeable differences in the past. But there in my office that afternoon, he just felt the need to apologise and I understood exactly why. In a rambling manner, he told me how sorry he was for “all the rubbish we were doing in those days.” Somehow, he just knew that by now I would have come to know they were rubbish, even if I might not have realised it at the time.

I remember one occasion when Zoe president, Patrick Anwuzia, was visiting the church, we were required to raise a “love offering” for him. But then the pastor insisted it had to be in either dollars or pounds sterling. He asked for public pledges but when nobody responded, he called people up at random and dictated pledges for them. He told them what they had to contribute irrespective of whether they were so disposed or not.

In those days, he often came up with imaginative ploys to extract money from us. No less than three offerings were collected every service; one for the Father, another for the Son and a third for the Holy Spirit.

Church business

When Jesus was only twelve years old, he went with his adoptive-parents to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. But on returning back home, they discovered he was missing. They spent an agonising three days searching for him and finally found him in the temple, engaged in discussion with the teachers of the law.

His mother chided him for his insensitivity. She said: “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.” (Luke 2:48). But Jesus was unapologetic. He said to them: “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).

A similar anomaly applies to pastors. Precisely what is the Father’s business and to what extent are pastors engaged in it? The Father’s business is supposed to be the preaching of the gospel in order to usher men into the kingdom of God. But make no mistake about it; today’s churches are far more interested in your money than in your soul. The single, most important, objective of today’s pastorate is the collection of money from church-goers.

House of merchandise

Folusho Aribisala told me about a banker colleague of his whose church applied for a loan from his bank. He was dismayed to find in the application projections about anticipated increases in the amount of tithes and offerings that would be collected over the next few years. The man was disgusted that his church was not only targeting his current income, it was already making plans about his future earnings.

Jesus’ gospel is addressed to the poor. (Luke 4:18). James insists it is the poor that God has chosen for his kingdom. (James 2:5). But the primary focus of today’s gospel is the rich. Pastors are ever reaching out to those better able to pay fat tithes and give big offerings. Some even give commissions to church-members who invite them to church. In some cases, special seats up-front are reserved for them.

Pastors have become get-rich-quick tipsters who offer keys, not of the kingdom, but of financial prosperity. We organise special programs for businessmen, promising to give them the power to get more wealth. Like Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas (U.S.A.), we offer our parishioners “your best life now;” an infinitely more appealing proposition than Jesus’ “take up your cross and follow me.”

Marketing Jesus

No wonder, many now see church-going in economic terms; deeming it invaluable for making business connections. Bankers come to church in search of depositors. Traders come to church in search of customers. That nice gentleman shouting “hallelujah” across the aisle from you is likely to button-hole you after the service, give you his complimentary card, and inform you that he services generators; just in case you are interested.

The “gospel” is now a product marketed with razzmatazz by mega-pastors and televangelists. Bishop T.D. Jakes of Potters House, Dallas, Texas organises a lavish annual religious jamboree called “MegaFest.” The 2005 edition in Atlanta, Georgia was sponsored by Coca-Cola; GlaxoSmithKline; American Airlines and Ford Motor Company, among others.

But how can the gospel of a kingdom not of this world be obligated, at the same time, to corporate America? Inevitably, there is conflict, as the message is punctuated by the obligatory “word from our sponsors.” It is not a surprise therefore that, according to Annette John-Hall of the Philadelphia Inquirer, during the kick-off of the 2005 MegaFest, T.D. Jakes mentioned his corporate sponsors more times than he mentioned God.

In effect, pastors are no longer engaged in the Father’s business. Mary and Joseph have been looking for us in all the right places, but to no avail. Someone needs to tell them we can be found in the supermarkets and flea-markets, putting Jesus up for sale.

DOES PRESIDENT JONATHAN GOODLUCK RESPECT THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION AT ALL?

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said despite criticisms, the Federal Government will continue to sponsor pilgrims to the holy lands. Mr. Jonathan also stated that pilgrim camps would be built inside international airports cross Nigeria. The President was speaking when he received the report of the Federal Government delegation to the 2013 Christians Pilgrimage at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The report was submitted by an 11-member delegation led by the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Ayo Oritsejafor. Mr. Jonathan said that Nigeria is a religious country and the popular wish of the majority is for government to keep supporting the pilgrimage of its citizens. He said his administration would not deviate from doing so. “Let me assure that government will continue to support our movement to the holy lands. “Nigeria is a religious country and that is the only thing we have and that is why certain things we do others may criticise us but our people believe that, that is the best thing to do. “As long as we believe that is the best thing for our people, we have no hesitation to do what the people believe is right,” he said - From Premium Times.

I have a number of questions for this President to answer for me:
(i) Is Nigeria no longer a secular state where the religions and the governance of Nigeria are two separate entities according to the Nigerian 1999 constitution?
(ii). Has this President forgotten that he publicly took an oath of office to uphold, to defend and to follow the Nigerian 1999 constitution as the President of Nigeria?
(iii). Is the plan of this President to build those pilgrim camps inside the Nigeria's international airports budgeted for in the 2014 federal budget? If no, then where is the money going to come from? Is this President not going to openly violate the constitution of Nigeria and be directly guilty of the crime of extra- budgetary spending?
(iv). When does the Nigeria's government constitutional roles of promoting and defending the freedom of religion in Nigeria change overnight into the promotion of Christianity and Islam in a secular states with many other religious faiths?

"MANY NIGERIANS DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE PLACE OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY"

Most Nigerians believe that all the challenges in their own personal life come from Satan or the evil forces and the collapsing state of their own country today is also the direct handiwork of the same Satan and the western imperialism. Their own leaders who control the wealth of Nigeria and her domestic as well as her foreign affairs from 1960 to date are treated as saints, God-sent leaders, patriots and nationalists that must be hero-worshipped and celebrated.

Did Satan and the western imperialists steal the over $400 billion from the state coffers of the Nigerian government to date based on the financial records from the World Bank, IMF, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal House of Representatives? Were Satan and the western imperialists both directly responsible for all the rigged elections in Nigeria to date in our democracy that produced our wrong leaders? Were Satan and the western nations both directly responsible for the unaccounted missing oil money from the NNPC, the ongoing oil theft, official corruption, resource mismanagement, money laundering, smugglings, bank frauds, tax evasion and the import duty waivers?

Are most Nigerians thinking that God and his mighty angels will come down one day in their lifetime to change that country for them and for better if they all continue to fold their two hands together and refuse to demand for good government and accountable leadership? Nigerians will continue to be living in the world of self-deception, self-denial, subjectivity and non-human universe if they continue to use and to believe that only prayers, divine interventions and miracles will eventually produce a working Nigeria one day and without putting their own personal responsibility to work for a better Nigeria they desire to see.

"THE WORLD DOES NOT RESPECT MEDIOCRITY IN NIGERIA"

I do not care how Nigerians may package President Jonathan Goodluck and then present him for the world to see. This will not make any difference in all reality. Jonathan Ebele Goodluck is one of the worst presidential materials that I have seen in my lifetime on earth as a Nigerian. This President lacks the common self-confidence, global exposure and perspective of issues of our time, oratorical ability, mastery of English Language and leadership skills. He is not articulate and does not demonstrates any clear-cut knowledge, understanding and deep insight on any issue in the governance of Nigeria that confronts him directly as that nation's chief executive officer.

The world recognizes and knows the brightest as well as the sharpest Nigerians and they celebrate them even when these Nigerians are not recognized by the government of Nigeria and treated as dissidents, traitors, agents of imperialism and rebels. The eulogy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the entire editorial opinion of the London Times newspaper at death for the whole world to see. The late Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, the Zik of Africa was recognized worldwide as one of the best political gifts that Nigeria had ever produced in his lifetime and even at death. Prof. Wole Soyinka was given the most prestigious global intellectual award of a Nobel Prize in literature as the first African ever. The late Prof. Chinua Achebe was a visiting professor and a first-class scholar to the best universities in the world in his lifetime and the obituary of his death was a major breaking news around the world in all the major cable televisions and the newspapers.

"U.K. TO SCOTLAND:WALK AWAY, LOSE THE BRITISH POUND" - BRITAIN

It seems clear now that a divorce would be messy. The British government warned Scotland on Thursday that if it votes to leave the United Kingdom, it would not be able to keep the British currency, the venerable pound sterling. “If Scotland walks away from the U.K., it walks away from the U.K. pound,” British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in a speech in Edinburgh on Thursday, upping the ante in the battle over Scottish independence.

Commentators called the speech one of the most important developments in the fight for Scotland’s future, with clear battle lines being drawn by the British government, which until now has resisted discussing the terms of a possible breakup.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) accused the British government of bullying and bluffing.

“This is a concerted bid by a Tory-led Westminster establishment to bully and intimidate — but their efforts to claim ownership of sterling will backfire spectacularly in terms of reaction from the people of Scotland,” Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP, said in a statement.

Salmond insisted that a shared currency zone was in the best interests of all parties. He said that “the stance of any U.K. government will be very different the day after a ‘yes’ vote to the campaign rhetoric we are hearing now.”

In a rare display of unity, Osborne was backed by Labor and the Liberal Democrats, the other two main political parties, effectively meaning that Scotland would struggle to broker a deal to use the pound with whomever wins the next general election in 2015. Osborne is the British cabinet minister responsible for economic and financial matters.

The Scottish government has previously maintained that it would keep the British pound and that the Bank of England would continue to be the lender of last resort if voters choose independence Sept. 18.

But Osborne insisted that this was not a workable solution.

“The evidence shows it wouldn't work. It would cost jobs and cost money. It wouldn't provide economic security for Scotland or for the rest of the U.K.,” Osborne said. “There is no legal reason why the rest of the U.K. would need to share its currency with Scotland.”

The pound, Osborne said, is not like a “CD collection” to be divvied up after a breakup.

Political analysts said that Scots would be scrutinizing both the message and the messenger. Osborne’s Conservative Party is deeply disliked in Scotland, partly as a result of the legacy of the late Margaret Thatcher, whose policies as prime minister during the 1980s triggered much hostility in Scotland. Any sense of preaching by posh London Tories would go down badly, analysts said.

“It could backfire,” said Thomas Lundberg, a lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow. “The U.K. government wants to make independence look scary, but if they come across as bullies, then it could hurt their cause.”

The Scottish government has not spelled out its Plan B in the event it cannot use the pound. But several ideas have been mooted, including simply continuing to use the British currency regardless of what London says, like Panama does with the U.S. dollar.

Osborne’s speech was in stark contrast to what has been described as a “love bomb” last week by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who invoked cultural icons such as Sherlock Holmes and Scotch whiskey in making an emotional and patriotic plea for Scotland to stay in the 307-year-old union.

It remains unclear what impact Osborne’s intervention will have on the debate over Scotland’s future. But with just seven months to go until the historic referendum, campaigning on both sides evidently is intensifying - Culled from the Washington Post.

"AMERICAN SCIENTISTS ACHIEVED A LANDMARK IN THE FUSION ENERGY RESEARCH" - AL JAZEERA

Scientists in the U.S. announced a milestone on Wednesday in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which — if harnessed successfully — promises a nearly inexhaustible, environmentally friendly energy source for future generations.

For the first time, experiments have produced more energy from fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the fusion fuel, scientists at the federally funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said.

Unlike fossil fuels or the fission process in nuclear power plants, fusion offers the prospect of abundant energy without pollution, radioactive waste or greenhouse gases.

The scientists, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source. The researchers also noted that their experiment did not produce self-heating nuclear fusion, known as ignition, which would be needed for any fusion power plant.

Researchers have faced daunting scientific and engineering challenges in trying to develop nuclear fusion — the process that powers stars, including our sun —for use by humankind. Nevertheless, Hurricane said "people are jazzed" by the prospects. 

"Really for the first time anywhere, we've gotten more energy out of this fuel than was put into the fuel," Hurricane told reporters earlier this week. "And that's quite unique. And that's kind of a major turning point, in a lot of our minds."

Still years from practicality

Unlike nuclear fission energy, which is derived from splitting atoms, fusion energy is produced by fusing atoms together. Experts believe it will be many years before fusion can become a practical energy source.

"I wish I could put a date on it," said Hurricane. "But it really is (just) research. And, you know, although we're doing pretty good, we'd be lying to you if we told you a date."

The research, published in the journal Nature, included results from two experiments done at the lab's National Ignition Facility.

During the experiment, 192 laser beams were briefly fired into a half-inch-long gold cylinder. The cylinder held a tiny ball that contained the fuel, which was a mix of two kinds of hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium. The energy from the lasers kicked off a process that compressed the ball with force akin to squeezing a basketball down to the size of a pea, said Debbie Callahan, an author of the paper.

That created the extremely high pressure and temperatures needed to get the hydrogen atoms to fuse. It was all over in the blink of an eye, with the reaction confined to a space smaller than the width of a human hair.

"These experiments show an order-of-magnitude improvement in yield performance over past deuterium-tritium implosion experiments," the scientists wrote.  

Nuclear fusion would be worthwhile only if it produces more energy than it uses. The results of the experiments, however, were far from that. 

The hydrogen fuel did emit more energy than it absorbed from the lasers, a goal of the experiment. But the fuel took in only about 1 percent of all the energy produced by the lasers, so the apparatus is still far short of producing more energy than it requires to operate.

Another key finding was evidence that energy created by the fusion reaction was going back into the remaining fuel, a "bootstrapping" process that is key to boosting the energy output. Hurricane said that showed “promise” for scientists being able to increase the energy output in the future.

Eager to exploit the potential that fusion energy offers to reduce dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, the United States and other nations have invested millions of dollars into fusion research, often with uneven results.

IS THE TRUE POLITICAL CHANGE COMING TO NIGERIA IN 2015?

When I see a true change in this human universe I will easily know it without any iota of doubt in my mind. What is going on politically in Nigeria today with the PDP and APC does not reflect what a change is, what a change looks like, what a change does and what a change is all about in all truth, honesty and reality. I refused to join the bandwagon to begin to live in the paradise of fools on this one.

As a Nigerian public opinion commentator, I have personally refused to be blinded with optimism that the year 2015 will be the political miracle moment for Nigeria. I cannot see any visible line of demarcation between the two political deceivers, the PDP and the APC that Nigerians are now presently stuck with and are left without any other viable political alternative on the ground.

Nigerians are the most gullible political animals that I know today worldwide. They are so subjective, short-sighted, myopic, forgetful and not interested in knowing the truth, full detail or the realities that surround their national circumstances as Nigerians. The same Nigerians who publicly claimed in 2011 that they voted for a change in Nigeria by voting for Jonathan Goodluck and not for the PDP are getting ready to repeat another huge political mistake in 2015.

 Did these Nigerians forget that our democracy has no independent candidate status for any elective position according to the Nigeria's 1999 constitution in 2011 before they voted for Jonathan Goodluck? Did these Nigerians forget that Jonathan Goodluck is PDP and PDP is Jonathan Goodluck without any line of separation between both in 2011? These Nigerians are now on another path of political destruction in 2015 with the same similar position and political arguments. They are now pursuing a change in Nigeria through the APC after forgetting that the needed change in Nigeria is bigger than a name change only or a political cross-carpeting. Have these Nigerians forgotten that the politicians of the APC and the PDP are both birds of the same feather that are flocking together since 1999 on the same Nigeria's political terrain without nothing to truly show for it?

This is another political deception in the making that will be used to blindfold the ordinary Nigerians that are politically naive, ignorant and short-sighted. Have these Nigerians forgotten that the major players in the APC today who are promising you heaven on earth were the main pioneers of our 4th democratic dispensation that all started in 1999 to date? Have the same Nigerians forgotten that these current APC leaders have held or are currently holding those influential public elected positions in our democracy and heaven has not yet fallen on those ordinary Nigerians in their various states?

Have these Nigerians forgotten that these APC politicians are all going into the government in 2015 to rescue their own deep pockets from the tax payers' money in all reality. In conclusion, it is said that charity begins at home and once you are beaten, you should be twice shy. These are the same inept, mediocre and corrupt politicians who have now changed the color of their own skin to disguise, but their true nature remains intact and unchanged like the chameleon does to survive in the ecosystem. Time will surely tell.

WILL THE CARMEL DISCOVERY BREAK THE BIBLE'S BACK? - CNN

It’s been a rough 2014 for the book of Genesis.

First a Noah’s Ark discovery raised a flood of questions, then there was themuch-hyped debate over life’s origins between Bill Nye the Science Guy and creationist Ken Ham.

And now this: a scientific report establishing that camels, the basic mode of transportation for the biblical patriarchs, weren’t domesticated in Israel until hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are said to have wandered the earth.

Using radiocarbon dating of camel bones that showed signs of having carried heavy loads, Israeli archaeologists have dated the earliest domesticated camels to the end of the 10th century BCE.

But according to the traditional biblical chronology, the patriarchs were schlepping around Canaan on camels over a millennium earlier, all the way back in 2100 BCE

Taken on its own, this may seem a rather minor problem.

After all, this is Genesis, in which some people live to be 900 years old (hello, Methuselah), all of humanity emerges from Babylon, and the Dead Sea is created from the backward glance of Lot’s wife. (Not to mention the six-day creation story and the stuffing of all land animals on a single boat.)

How important could camels really be?

For those who believe the Bible to be fundamentally true, this is hardly going to change any minds. For those who believe it to be entirely false, this is surely not the most damning piece of evidence.

What the camels in Genesis reveal, in fact, has nothing to do with the “truth” of the biblical story at all.

Instead, the presence of these camels in the story highlights, in a very clear way, the essential humanity of the biblical writers: like the best authors, they simply wrote about what they knew.

The patriarchs are depicted as nomadic, never settling for long in one place, but moving constantly from location to location throughout Israel (and beyond).

An ancient Israelite, wanting to tell the story of the wandering of his ethnic and national ancestors, would have naturally looked to the nomadic peoples around him as models. And indeed, throughout the Bible camels are commonly associated with those tribes who lived in the desert: Midianites, Ishmaelites, Amalekites, Kedemites.

The biblical authors simply transplanted the nomadic standards of their time into the distant past.

There is nothing deceptive about this. They weren’t trying to trick anyone. They imagined, quite reasonably, that the past was, fundamentally, like their present.

They had no real alternative. In ancient Israel, in the period when the Bible was written (which ranges, conservatively, from the 10th to the third century BCE), no one had any way of knowing that camels had not always been domesticated pack animals. After all, we didn’t know that for sure until this past week.

Without any evidence to the contrary, it is perfectly natural to assume that things have always been the way that they are now. Today we have more information about the past than any other moment in history. In ancient Israel, they had virtually none.

And yet we still fall victim to this basic, very human, historical fallacy.

It has been suggested that this anachronism in the biblical text is akin to importing semitrailers into the medieval period. But this is a level of ridiculousness too far.

I would suggest that it is more similar to describing a medieval Italian as enjoying pasta with tomato sauce. How many people, even today, know that tomatoes only came to Italy from South America in the 16th century?

The camels in Genesis may be “wrong,” but they are not a “mistake.” We all imagine the past to the best of our knowledge, the biblical authors included.

The lasting lesson of the camel controversy, such as it is, is a simple one: no writing, not even the Bible, is timeless or without context. Views of the past are contingent on both what we know and how we know it.

The Bible is a historical record, but it tells us just as much, if not more, about the people who wrote it as it does about the people they wrote about.

Since the stories of the Bible remain so central to who we are as a culture, even today (and even for those who dismiss it), it seems entirely fitting that we should be equally interested in the ancient people who composed them.

Despite their lack of historical knowledge — and, equally, because of it — they, more than the characters in the Bible, are our true cultural ancestors.

Joel S. Baden is the author of "The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero" and an associate professor of Old Testament at Yale Divinity School.

"NIGERIA'S BIG GOVERNMENT AND BORROWING CULTURE ARE KILLING HER"

The Nigeria's foreign debt, the cost of running her big government and the cost of servicing her huge debt should give any right thinking, patriotic and objective Nigerians those sleepless nightmares in all reality. According to the Nigeria's Federal House of Representatives, the economy cannot be bright when government has earmarked $3.6 billion (N572 billion) to service $45 billion (N7.1 trillion) domestic debt in the 2014 budget.

(i). Have Nigerians forgotten that a debtor nation will never have the extra money that would be needed to develop that nation and to improve the living conditions of its own citizens in all reality? (ii). Have Nigerians also forgotten that a debtor country has no true sovereignty and she will always be at the full mercy of those international lending agencies and the nations that provide her with aid? (iii). Which country in the world in 2014 that has a genuine plan to become a true emerging economy will be using more than 30% of its own annual budget to run its own government, to pay the huge salaries and allowances to its 17,500 public officials and her huge federal civil servants?

(iv). Have Nigerians forgotten that a debt that is bigger than the yearly annual budget of that country is not sustainable into the future? (v). Where will the Nigerian government get the money that she would need to modernize her overwhelmed national infrastructures, the outdated health care facilities, the failing national education system, the lack of social services, the job creation, the true living wages for her workers and the provision of the needed security to life and properties of all Nigerians?

"MY PERSONAL ISSUES WITH THE GOP OVER THIS OBAMACARE"

(i). Was the health care system in America working fairly for all Americans in all truth, honesty and reality before the Obamacare was signed into law? (ii). What is the best practical way to cover the estimated 40 million plus Americans that are left behind by the failing, costly, selective and ineffective American health care system? (iii). How do you make the health care cost to become cheaper and affordable, grow the American economy, reduce the nation's national deficit, cover all the preexisting conditions and be quality in reality?

I throw my challenge to the Republican Party of America to propose their own national health care policy instead of trying to stop this Obamacare that will be better than the present Obamacare in all ramifications. A national health care policy that will cover more Americans than what the Obamacare is doing right now. A national health care policy that will make the health insurance premiums cheaper that the Obamacare. A national health care policy that will cover all the preexisting health conditions of all Americans than the Obamacare. A national health care policy that will save more jobs and create more jobs for Americans than the Obamacare. A national health care policy that will reduce the nation's deficit over a period of time than the Obamacare. A national health care policy that will be more effective, more efficient, more accessible, more quality in nature and more qualitative than the Obamacare.

"THIS IS HOW NIGERIA WORKS" - GIMBA KAKANDA

You get a call from a Big Man who has a soft heart, or has been told remarkable things about you. You honour the invitation and there is a job offer. For you. No competition. No stated qualification. No test. "I just like you," You hear. Just that! 

In the past few month, three of such privileges came my way. And because I have a pending contract, I recommended 'deserving' friends - my own contribution to the corruption. God forgive me. None was considered. One response was classic: "Gimba, if I need just anybody I would've advertised this vacancy in a national daily!"

And this is the reason I get hurt anytime I read Nigerian public servants boasting about their exceptionalities, and what made them the best of a pack, in their memoirs and authorised biographies. Nigeria is a base of incredibly educated and talented people, and whoever makes it to the top should, at least for sanity's sake, not romanticise such privilege or consider it as a proof that s/he's the best. We have all benefited from the corruption of this dysfunctional country in ways we may never wish to admit in public.

Any attempt by a citizen to portray his/her rise as an act of incomparable genius makes me sick. This is the reason I'm yet to forgive Mallam Nasir El-Rufai's embarrassing masturbations in his terribly written memoirs. For a man who, before opportunism favoured and attracted him to public service, had never worked in an organisation where promotions are competitive - a man who, in a critical sense, may never pass for a technocrat - to have such audacity to boast is disquieting. We are all El-Rufais, local champions whose membership of, or fraternity with, a clique, ethnicity, religion and region, brings many good things. Well, I have forgiven Mallam, especially now that we're on the same political lane. I know he'll invite me for a lunch chat someday. He's good like that. God will punish the Witches that asked Mallam to unfollow me on Twitter, just for a review of his masturbations I wrote under a certain spell.

As expressed in a column last month, Nigeria creates a mess in which obedience is not always possible. And many of us, as my big brother once highlighted, may suffer the day Nigeria starts functioning. Like a decent nation of "upright men!"

"THE 4 THINGS THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS IN THE CHURCH"

(i). The laziness and the refusal of many of these Church folks to personally read, examine, analyze, digest and figure out the actual message and the teachings of the Bible. (ii). Many Church folks have directly turned their own pastors, bishops, deacons, deaconesses, elders, general overseers, founders and presidents into the little omniscience gods and the mediators between God and them. These men and women in the leadership positions in those Churches are then treated as the perfect, infallible and blameless human beings that must be hero-worshipped 24/7, obeyed without any complaint, imitated and followed in all the things of life and their words, philosophies, personal opinions, viewpoints and ideas must be treated as the final words over everything under the sun.

(iii). These religious charlatans present a false and a highly deceptive image of their own personal closeness, special relationships and extraordinary deep or uncommon intimacy with God that are not physically available or practically accessible to their own gullible, ignorant, helpless, hopeless, vulnerable and desperate disciples. (iv). In order to successfully deceive and prevent their spiritually blinded followers from knowing the truth from the Bible. These Church leaders present the Bible to their followers as a closed book and a rocket science that only them (their leaders) with special grace and anointing from God can only read and understand the message of the Bible, the words and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

This development provides these religious leaders with the religious immunity from prosecutions and rebellion from their followers and together with the full monopoly and the private interpretation of the Bible to their own total advantage. These deceivers also claim to be the only human beings that can talk directly to God and can also hear directly from the same God that is naturally far away from their own followers. These four reasons that I listed above are directly responsible for heresies, false doctrine, prosperity gospel, the massive spiritual ignorance, blindness and bigotry that are seen all over the 21st century human universe today in the Christendom.

"THE 2015 MAY NOT BE THE MIRACLE YEAR FOR NIGERIA"

Any Nigerian politician that promises you a constant supply of electricity, the availability of good jobs, university scholarships, the higher wages, the modern health care facilities that are easily affordable and available to all Nigerians, the working educational system, the efficient social services, the modern national infrastructures, the end to the Boko Haram terrorism, the reduction in the Nigeria's foreign debts to her international creditors and the guarantee of the security of life and properties to all Nigerians is a liar, a deceiver and a first-class ponzi schemer as well as a rogue. No politician in Nigeria in 2015 can fulfill all these promises that are listed above if the war against the official corruption, resource mismanagement, tax evasion, smuggling, oil theft, money laundering, import duty waivers, reduction in the cost of governance and in the salaries, allowances, estacodes as well as the security votes that are paid to the Nigeria's 17,500 public appointed and elected officials from the local government to the federal government are treated with LIP SERVICE and not with POSITIVE ACTION on the ground. Where is that money that will be needed to do all these things listed above come from in all honesty, reality and truth? . I cannot be personally deceived by any of these Nigerian politicians.
Nigeria's successive and present leaders have all failed their fellow Nigerians for decades due to their inability to deliver on their promises in the areas of health care, social services, functioning educational system, national infrastructures, economic opportunities, job creation, security of life and properties, the rule of law and the equality before the same law for all Nigerians (the leaders and the led). This development has now made the tens of the millions of the ordinary Nigerians to lose all hope in their own country, government and its failed, corrupt, inept and mediocre leaders. These Nigerians have also been pushed to their full limits and without any humanly possible help coming from anywhere except the daily realities of chronic poverty, helplessness, hopelessness and a bleak future that they face. Most of these Nigerians have now become pessimists and unrealistic citizens by relocating from the human universe into the non-human universe where miracles and the divine interventions are their only available option for their own daily existence as Nigerian citizens in 2014.

ARE THE HARSH CRITICS OF THE NIGERIAN LEADERS TRULY NEGATIVE IN ALL REALITY?

I challenge Nigerians to publicly show me one thing that the present Nigerian government and her public officials are doing today for the ordinary Nigerians and the Nigerian nation that will make Nigeria a better country for all Nigerians in the areas of good governance, accountable leadership, fighting against the menace of the official corruption and resource mismanagement, the prevention of the ongoing oil theft, smuggling, money laundering, tax loopholes and lawlessness or impunities. I want Nigerians to also show me the various efforts of the present Nigerian government to alleviate the mass poverty that affects 80% of Nigerians and the huge youth unemployment rate that affects 30% of young Nigerians as well as the various attempts by the government to provide all Nigerians with the social services, the modern infrastructures, the 21st century health care facilities, the economic opportunities for the upward social mobility, the working educational system, the true living wages for her workers and the guarantee of the security to life and properties of all Nigerians so that I can officially shut down "THE REVEALER" and close my Facebook page forever.

"2015 IS ANOTHER YEAR OF CHASING AFTER THE WIND IN NIGERIA"

Some Nigerians without any sense of the human political history in their mental faculties amaze me daily because of their political blindness and visionless optimism that the much awaited change in Nigeria is now finally going to come at last in 2015 and through the newly formed opposition party, the APC.

Have these gullible, ignorant and vulnerable Nigerians completely forgotten that they are the true losers in the present political dispensation in Nigeria that started in 1999 to date and in the daily sharing of her national cake and never the handful of the present, heavily corrupt and the self-seeking political prostitutes that are crossing daily from the PDP to the APC and from the APC to PDP?

Have these politically passive ordinary Nigerians also forgotten that a true change that will provide them with the true democratic dividends and a better Nigeria can never happen from the top down but always from the bottom up? Have these myopic Nigerians forgotten again that the history of mankind has shown clearly that the political cheaters in a political system do not hand over power easily to their own oppressors except by the act of brutal force, military coup or political revolution? In conclusion, this is another era of the suffering and smiling in the words of the late Nigerian Afrobeat musician, Fela Kuti.

"THE DIVINE TRUTH IS DIFFERENT FROM RELIGION"

Divine truth and religion are not the same, similar or look alike. Both of them are light years apart from one another. They are like any two parallel lines that will never meet along their entire paths. Religion is man-made and it is designed to put man in the perpetual bondage to another man. Truth gives liberty, freedom and accurate knowledge. The religion of Christianity that I have have studied personally as it is practiced and presented today in many cases is totally different from what the Bible says and from what Jesus Christ, the author of that Christian faith represented, preached, taught and did. Religion is a human originated avenue for the diabolical exploitation and the full control of others for their money, time and life choices. 

Religions have been used in the past generations and to date all over the human history to justify every type of man's inhumanity to man, such as, racism, ethnic cleansing, wars, slavery, mass murders, lynchings, racial segregation, child abuse, human sacrifices, suppression of the women's rights, the criminalization and the dehumanization of the fellow human beings, polygamy, immorality, physical abuse, violations of the human rights, lawlessness, the rule of brutality and all forms of heinous crimes and injustices under the sun. Religion is my foot. I am personally interested in the divine truth and not religion.