CELEBRATE YOUR FREEDOM, SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR THOUGHTS. By FELIX N.JARIKRE

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.’ – Nelson Mandela.

There is a security in slavery, mental or physical, that is difficult to get free from. Yet slaves are supposed to be voiceless. If they hold any opinion at all, slaves are meant to keep it to themselves. Their opinions provoke contempt or icy silence from their masters. So they have learned from bitter experience not to share their opinions with their so-called superiors.

The value of slaves lies mainly in their brute physical strength. Their exercise of intellectual alertness is perceived as a subversive threat that should be repressed without hesitation. They are not encouraged to develop initiative. They are not trained to think for themselves. Their thought contribution is considered a waste. This principle works both ways: Subdue the thoughts of a man, you neutralize the man. Slave-owners are adept at enforcing it. Though slaves might be hated and despised, their masters are terrified at the prospect of losing them. Pharaoh certainly didn’t relish the idea of being without his slaves when he was confronted by Moses. He mounted a ferocious campaign of attacking the validity of Moses’ message. The king said the slaves were lazy and idle: ‘And let them not regard vain words.’ The gambit was: if the official policy said the message of Moses was worthless, then who would dare to argue and contradict Pharaoh’s wisdom?

A wise man said: ‘Ignorance is the incubator of slavery.’ Keep the people ignorant and mindless, mantra of evil rulers. A slave is trained to always accept his ‘place’ and never hope to cross his invisible boundaries, marked with terror, shame, tension and anxiety. And a slave who attempts to kick in rebellion and mindless aggression is punished with brutal cruelty to keep the rest in line. The slave is wanted for one thing, and one thing only: his body, his muscles; his heart and mind don’t count!

In his book, Black Boy, Richard Wright wrote: ‘ Never being fully able to be myself, I had slowly learned that the South could recognize but a part of a man, could accept but a fragment of his personality, and all the rest – the best and deepest things of heart and mind – were tossed away in blind ignorance and hate.’ The terrifying part of the slave condition is, before he realizes it, the slave starts to believe the lies and idle speculations that his oppressors hold about him. In his book, The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin wrote of his brother: ‘He was defeated before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him.’ Frederick Douglass, who taught himself to read and write at a time it was almost treason to teach a black slave in America to read and write, said: ‘Slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and this conviction like a word of living faith, strengthened me through the darkest trials of my lot. This good spirit was from God; and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise.’ It takes the  knowledge of the truth for a man to be set free. True freedom does not come by human legislation. Yet in their struggle to escape mental captivity, people get deceived and manipulated to hold unto a taunting mirage. Why? Because truth is not superficial.

To escape mental slavery, we must refuse to confuse facts with theories, outward appearances and assumptions. We must not always assume that we have the natural intelligence to resolve every challenge we face. Still, that should not make us to despair. Because we are surrounded by so many people and organisations that try to force us to accept some preordained conclusions, it is tempting to take the road of least resistance by switching off our critical faculties and swallowing what is thrown at us. Rebuff that temptation, and refuse to be a mental slave.

You must seize control of your thoughts, organize your mind and keep it clear of hostile influences. Don’t relinquish the control of your thoughts to others. The shameful, but hidden problem of slavery is that insecure men with seeming advantages try to transfer their insecurity to other men who are weak enough to receive it. Refuse to be a puppet of your environment or a slave to your circumstances. Let your thinking be robust and tenacious, separated from the feelings of shame and destitution. The mental slavery of the cruellest kind is the condition where a man’s physical body is allowed to control his thinking. Like Frederick  Douglass, don’t be ashamed or afraid to stand and speak for your convictions; and get ready to cross your invisible boundaries, discounting anxiety and terror.

AGAINST THE SELECTIVE PROBE OF JONATHAN. By FELIX N.JARIKRE

In a democracy struggling to develop, with weak institutions  such as we have in Nigeria, there is no doubt that being in ruling government must give the occupiers of power the special ability to think they possess magical powers to conjure an attack of selective amnesia upon the populace whereby the citizens can be manipulated to applaud, without critical thinking, whatever action the government takes, however brutish or untenable it may be.

Concluding his recent trip to America, President Buhari had pledged without equivocation in a speech to probe ‘past regimes to recover stolen monies.’ Upon his return, one was surprised to hear Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, saying that to avoid distraction, it was necessary to only probe Goodluck Jonathan’s regime. As to what led to this hasty flip-flop, one can only speculate. But one thing is clear, that the fight against official corruption is a national emergency which cannot, and should not be left alone for Buhari to fight, even if he has the moral and constitutional capacity to do so. In 1984, Buhari, as a military head of state, used battling corruption as a political weapon to throw politicians into jails without fair trials, while avoiding public scrutiny and accountability for his own years as minister for oil and chairman of the Nigerian National Oil Company. A Nigerian Senate investigations had concluded in 1980 that $2:8 billion was missing under his watch, and the Ayo Irikefe Judicial Inquiry set up to look into this was swept away when President Shagari was overthrown in a military coup, and Buhari clamped down on press freedom by enacting Decree Four which forbade journalists from publishing any truth that would embarrass public officials. His tenure as chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund under General Abacha left many unsavoury questions to be answered. If anyone is looking for a portrayal of a vaunted integrity without accountability and transparency, a story of cloaks and shadows, look no further than Buhari’s.

Contrary to what Femi Adesina thinks, to extend the probe on official corruption to reach Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime stretching from 1999 is not a distraction, but a national necessity. Anything less is not only a witch-hunt, but unacceptable. The devious attempt to scapegoat  Goodluck Jonathan for the ills plaguing the nation, and make him a sacrificial lamb at the same time for cleansing and atonement is a reckless escapade that would leave the nation gasping for breath – to put it charitably! Gleefully, with unrestrained audacity, APC’s foot-soldiers and paymasters of various hues have gone to town to demonize and humiliate Jonathan, making him look abandoned, friendless, hapless and powerless, a former president who desperately sought for audience with Buhari to plead for mercy, and begged on trembling knees to be spared from being probed. (At least, if we should believe fiction-peddlers like Sahara Reporters, another propaganda outpost of APC masquerading for investigative journalism.) The objective of this set-up is to ensure that not a whimper of protest or whisper of sympathy would be heard across the land when Buhari’s henchmen come calling for Jonathan’s head. Therefore, the news – unproven as yet but which cannot be dismissed outright – filtered through the social media that Olusegun Obasanjo, the ogre of lawlessness and effigy of corruption, has gifted Buhari with a raft of documents to jail Jonathan would have been laughable, if not for the diabolical mischief involved. Since it is not out of character for the purveyors of this malicious narrative, considering that Olusegun Obasanjo had recently admonished that the South-South should be prepared for whatever they saw coming to them, as they would be haunted for years to come by the perceived failure of Jonathan’s presidency, one had to pause and ask: What are these people – anti-Jonathan elements – drunk on? Crack-cocaine, power or ethnic pride?

If some Nigerians, for whatever reason, could swallow the spectacle of Jonathan being singled out for selective probe and prosecution, out of the legion of thieving despots who stole Nigeria blind, many Nigerians, driven by equal justice and fair-play, especially South-South peoples, cannot stomach it. To advocates of transparent governance, any move to investigate and probe ex-President Jonathan is a welcome development, but if it is going to be taken seriously, and not resisted, this judicial probe, must, as a matter of national necessity and emergency, extend its tentacles to bring Olusegun Obasanjo to book. That he tore his PDP membership card should not absolve him of the fabled sixteen-year travesty of PDP which he perpetuated. Despite our proclivity to impunity, the impression must not be given that Obasanjo is being spared from probe because he helped to prepare the ground for Buhari to dethrone Jonathan through a controversial, bitter  election in which the incumbent graciously conceded defeat for the sake of national unity.

Obi Nwakanma, writing in the newspaper, The Urhobo Voice of August 12, 2015, said: ‘ If this president ( Buhari) is serious about probing Jonathan, he must seek serious legislative teeth that will give bite to judicial sanction, fairness, as well as transparency to the process. It must not be seen as a witch-hunt. At the moment that is how a vast section of Nigerians is likely to see any selective probing of the administration of Dr. Jonathan. To establish the credibility of the process, the president must back a probe of the last fifteen years of the PDP government in Nigeria, including the period under the watch of President Olusegun Obasanjo. For eight years, President Obasanjo was sole operator of Nigerian’s Ministry of Petroleum and the NNPC.’

Make no mistake, Femi Adesina: Nigerians are not deluded; and they are not mesmerized by your spin. They refuse to forget what you want them to forget! Take this message to your boss. Nobody is going to stand and watch you turn Dr. Goodluck Jonathan into another Tam David-West, another minority, who was humiliated and jailed like a rat for drinking a cup of tea and accepting the gift of a gold wrist-watch during his tenure as Petroleum Minister under IBB! 

Time To Disengage and Paralyze Star-Hunters Is Now! By Felix N.Jarikre.

TO BE FEEL DEPRIVED IS TO BE CHALLENGED BY STAR-HUNTERS:  Understanding how the pattern of satanic challenge is executed makes it easier to disengage and paralyze star-hunters. This pattern could be traced and decoded from way back when Adam and his wife were challenged by the serpent in Eden. To be questioned or challenged by star-hunters in the area where you suffer deprivation is the only way to disconnect you from the creative life of God. Here they were, driven to the wild edge of madness with a fierce hunger, but they could not eat anything because they had no knowledge as to which very tree they should not eat in order not to offend the Creator. They had a burning, killing desire for which they lack the know-how or skills to satisfy. Have you given a thought to how perplexing, annoying and frustrating such a situation could be?  Feeling sorry for herself as a dispensable pawn with zero significance, under the clever interrogation of her adversary, the woman was led to think it was only by eating to know good and evil that she would become a ‘god’ and avoid being maltreated. Truly, they were duped. Like the woman in Eden, you are also going to be challenged by star-hunters in the area where you feel deprived. Jesus Christ was hungry, having ended His 40-days fast, when the same old serpent came with this famous line, from his bag of  tricks: ‘If you be the Son of God, turn these stones to bread!’

Beautiful Rachel, pampered and cherished by Jacob, thought all she had to do was open her legs for her husband, and she would conceive a child. But alas, her conceit led only to crashed expectations. Feeling deprived, she desperately cried to Jacob: ‘Give me children, or else I die.’ Why was she feeling suicidal?  She had no adequate response for the shame and humiliation she felt for not being able to bear children. The blindness of her inner eyes, and the hardness of her heart prevented her from  connecting to the supernatural activities of the Creator. Despairing, and lacking trust in what God could do, she was left with nothing to do but cry to her husband!  But Jacob directed her attention toward God, saying: ‘Am I in God’s stead, who had withheld thee from the fruit of the womb?’ (see Genesis 30: 1-22)  Left with no alternative, Rachel cried out in prayer to God without ceasing until He hearkened to her, and opened her womb.

That area in your life where you feel deprived is not the place to feel betrayed, dejected and invalidated. Wherever you suffer deprivation is where God has ordained for something extraordinary and unimaginable to emerge from. Where you are deprived is not the place to feel shame or reproachful. This is where to pray for your pain to become gain!  Be more concerned about the magnitude of what God wants to do through you than how you are regarded by star-hunters who masquerade as friends and relatives. Don’t be pressured to violate what is right and correct in your life in order to prove to star-hunters that you are smart and intelligent! Let them deride and say: ‘Where’s your God?’ They don’t know the next chapter of your story. They don’t even have the power to write your story. The pen to write your story is in your hand! Feel free to write it. Feel free to speak it! You shall be vindicated, and every star-hunter in your life shall be put to shame.

GET READY TO DISENGAGE AND PARALYZE STAR-HUNTERS IN YOUR LIFE. By FELIX N.JARIKRE

REFUSE TO BE DEFINED BY YOUR CHALLENGE OR TRIBULATION: Faced with a difficult situation testing their skill or ability to the limit, the tendency is natural for many not only to be puzzled and doubtful, but to think they are some disadvantaged dim-wits, meaningless pawns in a complex game rigged to fail them. In the Bible, ten spies came back with a hopeless report of their findings concerning the promised land of wealth and plenty. They said they lacked the capability to capture and overrun the land. Overwhelmed by how fortified and impregnable they thought the land was, the ten spies reported they were defenceless grasshoppers in their own eyes, compared to their  enemies who were merciless giants. The ten spies allowed their challenge to define them as nothing but grasshoppers, spineless and weak. Yet trusting the faithful capability of Jehovah God, two other spies, Joshua and Caleb, refused to be defined by their challenge, seeing it rather as an illusion.

Refusing to see his dyslexia, a reading disorder as a handicap, Gary Cohn, 54, president and Chief  Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs, managed to graduate from American University in 1982. Struggling through school as a kid in Cleveland, teachers and classmates wrote him off as an ‘idiot.’ Sharing a cab one day from Wall Street with a man who ran one of the big brokerage firm in Wall Street, he pretended to be familiar with the Options business. He read McMillan’s  ‘Options as a Strategic Investment’ book after he got a job with the direct invitation of this big shot. By 1994, he was made a partner with Goldman Sachs. Though it still takes Gary Cohn about six hours to read 22 pages today, according to Malcolm Gladwell, this Wall Street  titan did not end up as a truck driver due to his dyslexia, defying the cynical prediction of one teacher at school. He refused to let his challenge to define what he was capable of.

As a married woman, does it look as if your marriage is a mockery and a slander because of your inability to get pregnant and bear children?  Despair not! The  Creator who makes the barren woman to become a joyful mother of children will not become a liar in your case. That you are not married when you should does not make you an old maid left on the shelf to gather dust! What you consider a delay is a design for your beauty not only to be desired, but selected and preferred  by kings! Have you been laid off your job, and you are clueless as to how you are going to survive without a regular pay-check? Perhaps, despite your marketable skills, the thought of going into business for yourself makes you to develop cold feet. At night, you go to sleep wrestling with the ghosts of doubt, fear, suppositions and paralyzing analysis, waking up in cold sweat in the morning, restless and fatigued. As a warning, let me say this: allowing anxiety and nagging doubts to seize control of your thinking, and depleting your enthusiasm is a signal that your challenge or tribulation has put a definition upon your life. Whatever it is you are going through, surrendering to anxiety is not a viable option, but a killer sting. At this time, you cannot afford to allow poverty or lack to define your life, but remember the Lord your God who gives you power to make wealth!     Aspire if you must, but getting inspired is the better way to secure  a valid definition of your life when you are challenged. Every challenge you face is a friend when you don’t allow it to define who you are. Yes, your challenge is not an enemy because it is simply a sign-post, provoking you to embrace what you are capable of. It’s an open secret that you would not have known what you are capable of if you were not challenged. Truly, it takes adversity to discover your true strength! But that can only happen when you seize the initiative to define yourself independently of your pain!  TO BE CONTINUED.