ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP VERSUS RESTRUCTURING. 

By Pastor Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre. 

Stephen Ubimago: As Pastor E.A. Adeboye incisively suggested, restructuring should not be seen as a threat to progress and security: rather it's a flexible instrumentality put in place by a listening, responsible leadership to bring forth meaningful development and productivity beneficial to the citizens. 

In other words, restructuring is friendly to a flexible governance. Because when stagnation, poverty, marginalisation shackles a place due to defective administrative setups, revolt or outright rebellion cannot be ruled out. 

Clearly history bears out the position of the revered Christian leader. Trying to demonize him for speaking out on the issue is a misleading gambit that can only produce bad fruits.

 Having said that, I have heard or learned nothing to shift my position that what Nigeria needs NOW is godly leadership, not restructuring. Would  that in any way suggest restructuring is not URGENT? I dare not say that as the urgent need for restructuring is glaring. 

Still the URGENCY for godly leadership to step forward to the plate, and take a RESOLVED stand on governance issues is greater than restructuring.  

Let me make it plain. It'd take only a godly leadership to restructure Nigeria without a BLOODBATH. Other than that, prepare to welcome another season of anomie.  

All the usual perfunctory, angry outbursts staged in the name of press conferences by Southern political leaders, including their latter day allies from the Middle Belt; and the isolated editorials on restructuring would have no where to go but disappear into thin air. Political leaders, under the aegis of Pandef, Afenifere, Ohaneze, Middle Belt forum etc  imagine themselves to be pressure groups capable of persuading Buhari to restructure Nigeria by appealing  to his moral conscience. They are in for a rude shock. 

The earlier these leaders change strategy the better in order not to attract contempt and opprobrium unto themselves. 

Can these political leaders honestly tell themselves they speak for the indigenous peoples of the South and Middle Belt in their appeals to Buhari? 

They say they speak  the minds of the people. But are they? They are not. I dare say without equivocation they REPRESENT themselves. I'd rather align myself with the Central government which sees these UNELECTED political leaders as OPPORTUNISTS. 

Under a military regime, the strategy of these political leaders might be permissible and tolerable. But not under a supposed democracy that we operate today.  

PMB is not a Pharaoh that has enslaved the peoples of the South/Middle Belt without their consent. So no self-appointed Moses has a valid platform to say: "Buhari, let my people go. Free my people..." 

We should stop feeding the false notion that Buhari 

has a PATERNALISTIC hold over Nigeria. The man is only the CHIEF SERVANT of Nigeria, bound to do what the citizens want. He's not the father of Nigeria. We should stop placing the burden of fatherhood on his fragile shoulders. 

The only people recognized by the President as being capable to speak and handle the weighty issue of restructuring are the ELECTED POLITICIANS from the South. These include the governors, the senators, the House of representatives members, State houses of Assembly, local government officers. As President of the Central government, Buhari is constitutionally inclined to listen to these ELECTED politicians on the matter of restructuring, despite his personal view or choice. 

With that in mind, Pandef, Afenifere etc including other lone activists should leave Buhari alone, and turn their fire on the ELECTED politicians from their regions.  

If the governors, senators, hon.Reps etc from the South and Middle Belt, across party lines, are not sounding off, and pushing openly their articulated and resolved position on  the matter, then RESTRUCTURING is not an issue in the South worthy of consideration. In that case, we need a break from all this noise-making on restructuring. 

Let me emphasize this point: Appealing to Buhari to restructure Nigeria is a TIME-WASTER. 

Elected politicians from the South should be prodded to bear the burden of enlightened leadership, and positively change the game. That's the  only way restructuring of Nigeria can be achieved peacefully.  

Enlightened or godly leadership is FEARLESS, BOLD, RESOLVED and PASSIONATE. They don't back down until their objective is achieved.  

All this not because they trust in the force of arms or the psychology of violence but because they trust in the living God, the  Master of Creation who gives them spiritual WEAPONS to wage wars for the pulling down of strongholds...

WHY I SAY RELIGION IS NOT NIGERIA'S PROBLEM BUT A LAZY, FEARFUL INTELLECTUAL CLASS.

 WHY I SAY RELIGION IS NOT NIGERIA'S PROBLEM BUT A LAZY, FEARFUL INTELLECTUAL CLASS.

By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre. 

...Until Nigerian Christians organize themselves with an objective to capture political power and form government over Nigeria, they can never realise the power of the Holy Spirit. We should quit the arresting illusion that the Holy Spirit is ever going to back or facilitate our self-serving aspirations or agendas with His power. Never. That's not going to happen.  

It's only by exercising political power to form a central government that Nigerian Christians can prepare themselves to receive the divine personage, Christ, whom they call their Lord at His anticipated Last Coming to judge and cast the children of perdition including the False Prophet along with their father, Satan, into the Lake of fire and  brimstone. 

Right now, Nigerian Christians are bumbling neophytes, confused, conflicted, ignorant  and irresolute when it comes to political engagement of national affairs. 

As 'salt of the earth, and light of the world,' Nigerian Christians should never deny or apologise for their divine responsibility of providing political leadership for the country.  

Asking that Christians sponsor and vote only political leaders with shared  Christian values is not bigotry, but godly wisdom and spiritual discipline...

The above is extracted from one of my unpublished articles. It's articulated from my reading of the same Bible available to you and I. 

If eventually it is published, I would not be surprised if you, my dear brother,  join the ranks of those trashing it as unreasonable and unrealistic. They would not hesitate to call it the ranting of a fanatic.  

Having become a Christian convert, it didn't take long for me to realise that many of the things we regarded as fundamental Christian practices were dead wrong, conflicting with inexorable scriptures. So what do I do? Backing away from my faith as a Christian was never an option. I had seen enough to realise it was folly to question my understanding of the awesome personage of Jesus Christ. 

Biblical scriptures are divinely inspired. This is not debatable. Mine is not blind conviction but enlightened understanding. Some Christians think they can cherry pick their way through the Bible, or parse the scriptures to fit their modern philosophical conveniences. I have no time for these lots. 

Why this preamble? Because I'm a Christian. That's my spiritual constituency as a member of the body of Christ.  An Urhobo nationalist,  citizen of Nigeria. 

As a Christian, I'm trained to look out for only solutions, and avoid complaining or blame games.  

So constantly I asked how my adversity as a Nigerian face up to my scriptural revelations. How can my revelations wipe out my adversity as a Nigerian? 

I say Nigerian intellectuals are lazy and fearful because they fail to realise the POWER OF IDEAS, and the FIGHT IT TAKES TO IMPLEMENT IDEAS.

Historically, the men who bear rule in human society are always terrified and suspicious of new ideas. Expectedly, to implement any new idea entails a change of the status quo. An old order will die, a new one will emerge.  

 So it's not surprising that squelching new ideas can be a preoccupation with those who hold power.  

A university professor who belongs to a church is never prevented from exploring and expanding his understanding of his discipline. Nobody stops him from coming out with a new invention  or publishing a barrier-breaking book on thought-leadership.

A Nigerian professor who is a Christian running for a political office is more likely to adopt  Machiavelli as playbook instead of his Bible. Is religion his problem and not his hypocrisy? 

A Nigerian Christian would prefer to castigate me for saying we must bring our Christian leadership values into politics because he is afraid that would alienate Muslim voters. 

He forgets that Muslims are greatly politically organized to entrench their religious persuasion, having captured political office. I say that's all well and good. 

Christians should do same, or perish in hypocrisy.  

Let atheists organize politically too, and stop trying to deceive Christians to remove the "religious card" from the political game.

Before you know it, they would come up with a bogeyman of someone trying to establish a "THEOCRACY". 

Yet in the Bible that I know, the Master of Creation, God, is only interested in PROMOTING DEMOCRACY as a means of godly people providing political leadership for the nations. 

Why do I know this while others are blind to it? 

Is it religion that is preventing people from searching the Bible in order to come into precise knowledge of the truth ? No, people are simply caught up by their selfish ambitions. 

America is a deeply religious society.  It doesn't stop the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of this world from doing their thing.  

Let Nigerians stop being busy bodies, and concentrate on their assignments. No more excuses.  People should stay on their lanes, and work their fields.

LESSONS FROM A MOVIE, COURAGE TO LOVE. (Part Five) By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre.

 

Truth has no controversy. It's the people with thin or zero connection to integrity and commitment that has controversy with truth.
'What is truth?' Pontius Pilate famously asked.
Truth, simply from the New Testament  perspective, is the state or character of being true, genuine or authentic. Truth is a settled SPIRITUAL REALITY or CONSCIOUSNESS. 
Learning the truth is required to establish the freedom of man.

Truth has long been targeted for assaults by religious falsifiers and speculators. Yet truth cannot be demolished or revoked. Truth is inexorable. For the Word of God is truth.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
John 17:17.
Sanctify means to make someone inviolable, separate, protected, preserved and sustained. The prayer of Jesus Christ for His followers is that the heavenly Father should prevent them from being violated, abused and diminished by *dictatorial* strong men.
But you can't disclaim the authority of truth and hope to escape being violated, abused and diminished by reptilian entities opposed to your productivity and profitability.

Truth is the sanctifier. Without truth guarding your heart, you are naked and compromised. You can pray and fast round the clock for hundred days. If you neglect the authority of truth in your religious fasting and prayers, you lack protection and security from the Holy Spirit.  You can preach up a storm from the height of eloquence. If you see truth as something to be discounted or discarded at the least inconvenient time, your words remain powerless, empty and unhelpful to those who hear you. As a matter of fact, by your negligence of truth in your words, you have added another round of ammunition to the arsenals of deception. 

The religion of eternal life is founded on the authority of truth. Without the authority of truth, your religious practice or loyalty of any hue is a farce.
Unfortunately, the Christianity we learn and practice today is a cruel divergence from the religion of eternal life introduced by Jesus Christ. And I say that without apology or equivocation. What we practise today in the name of Christianity is largely dismissive and derelict of objective truth. If you consider that to be too harsh an assessment, perhaps we can settle for the proposition that our religious practice pays a lip service to the authority of truth.

Make no mistake. Eternal life is not the same thing as afterlife. Eternal life is URGENT and KNOWN by the authority of truth. Eternal life has zero tolerance for delay of good things.

Eternal life is a life that is divorced from shame, guilt and fear. Eternal life is the life man would have inherited had they not been overthrown by Satan in the arena of temptation back in the Garden of Eden.
Any religious attention or preoccupation with  afterlife, on the other hand, is speculative and pretentious, loaded with uncertainty. It gives room for complacency, and a lack of willingness to urgently push for the manifestation of the glory of God on earth. Any religious attention to the afterlife signals a proclivity to flee and avoid tribulations.

Truth is communicated through language. That's why the Holy Spirit places a high premium on the ability of man to exercise his free speech and freedom of conscience. 

 Truth is established  by the vehicle of hope, not experience.
It takes information  to alter your perception. And your behaviour is controlled by your perception.

To be continued.

LESSONS FROM A MOVIE, COURAGE TO LOVE. (Part Four)

There is another positive objective we learned from Israel being allowed to experience the iron furnace of slavery in Egypt. That when they regained their freedom eventually, they would urgently learn to treat their brethren and strangers with respect and compassion. A feat they would have achieved by abandoning or forgetting every habit they acquired under oppression and tyranny.

But Israel failed to learn this lesson. As they were eventually sold into Babylonian captivity when Nebuchadnezzer invaded and sacked Jerusalem. Why? Because the ruling princes of Judah were taking as slaves their less fortunate brethren who failed to pay off their debts. And God was angry at the recalcitrance of the princes who refused to forgive their debtors. (see Jeremiah 34:8-17)

Needless to say, the institution of slavery is evil. Slaves are treated by their masters with contempt and disdain. Because they are seen as non-persons or sub-humans. To break the fighting spirit of Israel, and destroy their spirit of determination, Pharaoh enslaved and afflicted Israel.

Not satisfied, and to intensify his depopulation of Isreal slaves, the Pharaoh ordered every male child born to a Hebrew woman to be killed upon delivery.

It's the duty of every freedom-lover to resist being treated  as a slave. You have a responsibility to urgently scale down any attempt from any quarter or power to treat you as slave.
Forget their diplomatic facade or hypocritical smile: they are people all around you that want to enslave you. There are pastors who treat their followers  as slaves. There are husbands who want to enslave their wives. There are rulers who want to enslave their subjects...

Freedom is not negotiated but seized. You don't require another man's permission to be free. As true freedom doesn't come by human legislation.  When Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain on October 1960, were the citizens of Nigeria free? No, they only gained the illusion of freedom.  When Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation in 1891 to free the black slaves, were African Americans truly free? While it'd be uncharitable to treat the Emancipation Proclamation with contempt, African Americans only gained the illusion of freedom.

Freedom comes into place when a person embraces the authority of truth, having abandoned or forgotten the fear of death permanently.
This is realised when a person cultivates and develops new habits capacitated by eternal life to replace the old habits acquired through fear of death.

To be continued.

LESSONS FROM A MOVIE, COURAGE TO LOVE.(Part Three)

Learning about yourself can only throw up a false and flawed picture of yourself. Your true identity can only be mirrored by truth. Self-analysis can never reveal your true identity.

Man's failure to look away from his inadequacies, his limitations or mediocrity has kept him handicapped in any match or contest against strong men. His antidote is to embrace the authority of truth.

Yet strong men over the centuries have used organized religion to discourage and derail the ability of human beings to connect with the authority of truth.
Through mass hypnotism, Christians have been lulled over the ages to abandon the sense of urgency required to prod the nations to observe the *commanded* teachings of Christ Jesus. 

This mass hypnotism is given traction through censorship, coercion, intimidation and downright persecution of truth-warriors. 
It's easy for complacency to take over because people basically are afraid of tribulations.

The death and resurrection of Christ Jesus forever brought about the resolutions and answers to the deepest questions of the human heart.
The issues that left man  traumatized and terrorized were not left unattended. They were resolved  so that man could stand straight on his feet on the ground of freedom and responsibility.
Anything that would make man to function below his capacity was destroyed and taken out of the way.

To be continued.

LESSONS FROM A MOVIE, COURAGE TO LOVE.(Part Two) By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre.

From Jeremiah 17:9, the heart of man was deceitful and desperately wicked because he allowed his heart to be oppressed by the physical environment. The deceit and desperate wickedness of man's heart came because his heart was enslaved and afflicted by the hostile physical environment.
Since man was overthrown back in the Garden of Eden, his physical environment had no consideration whatsoever for how the man felt. It could be cruel and callous, leaving the man panic-stricken and anxious. Indeed the man felt  powerless against the vagaries of his physical environment.

If he was not caught in the throes of perplexity by the warning of hurricane that could destroy the house he managed to build for shelter, he was facing the dire prospect of strange pests destroying his crops without remedy. If he was able to survive a famine, he wasn't spared the attack of disease that snatched away his son or wife through  death. If prosperity smiled on him, his bounty was eyed by merciless robbers.

Weakened and vulnerable, he was uncomfortable  that his life was laced with uncertainty. Was there a meaning to his precarious existence other than having to adjust to anxiety and fear as lifetime  companions?
Faced with scarce resources like water and land, strong men emerged through wars and plunder to seize the rich, productive lands for themselves. The men without bravery or smarts, or others who were too weakened and handicapped to engage a fight were abandoned to scrounge their way through poverty. Not to starve to death, many were forced to hire themselves out for bread under the callous mastership of strong men.

Truly, there's a meaning to man's existence. His life need not be precarious. And it's certainly not compulsory that he should embrace anxiety and fear as even temporary companions. And yes, he need not feel powerless before the hostility of his physical environment.

As I have written before, ancient Israel was enslaved by the Pharaoh of Egypt to demonstrate that man was a slave of his physical environment. Having rejected the authority of truth, his slavery to his physical environment was inevitable. Pharaoh represented Satan who ruled the physical environment. Just as the cult of the globalists ruling the world today represents man's adversary.

To be continued.

LESSONS FROM A MOVIE, COURAGE TO LOVE! By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a movie on YouTube starred by Vanessa Williams, ex-Miss America beauty queen. It was titled,  Courage To Love.
Vanessa Williams's character played the smart, intelligent but inquisitive daughter of a beautiful black mother, played by late Dianne Caroll. The mother was the long-standing mistress of a white man played by Stacey Keach.

The white man provided well for his black mistress. The two daughters she bore for him were not excluded from his generosity. They lived in a big beautiful house. The Ms Williams' character was being prepared well to marry a certain rich young white male.
The setting of the movie was New Orleans in an era when the city was more of a French-speaking territory than American.  The black citizens were maltreated as no better than slaves. They were expected to know their place. To remain obsequious. And not create waves.

In this society of that era, we saw white men from France, with their idea of egalitarianism, having open affairs with black women who gave birth to mixed breed children i.e. creating a relatively  affluent and educated Creole class.
In the midst of all this, we saw Ms Williams' character treating people, black and white, with compassion and respect. Through a Catholic church mission, she secretly taught  black children to read and write. And activity that was considered criminal. As it was illegal to teach black children to read and write.  (Black children here meant children without a white father)
So she became marked as a troublemaker when  she was discovered in a classroom teaching some black children how to read and write. But she was protected by her background as a Creole. As they could do nothing to her.

Not long into the movie, it was discovered that Ms williams' father had married a white woman.  When he was confronted by her mother, his weak defence was that he needed to have ' legitimate' children also! Her mother was not pacified. She threw the father of her children out of their  home. But this Creole mistress was not able to recover from the betrayal of her man  whom she had loved and raised well-bred children for without any sense of trouble in her paradise. She went insane, and was admitted into an asylum. 

As she, Ms Williams' character was trying to move on with her life, she learned that one of her black female students, a twelve year old, was raped by a prominent white citizen. The black father of the violated child was enraged but felt impotent to avenge  the injustice. The rapist was his master whom he had diligently served. His faith faltered. He was convinced the ' the Christianity and God'  preached by Ms Williams had failed him! Incensed, she courageously went to the house of the rapist, and confronted him with the violation in the presence of the man's wife and guests. As she was going out to fearlessly confront the rapist, her white  boyfriend, a medical doctor from France, gently  and fearfully pleaded for her caution in these words: ' Don't make it worse' That phrase struck my attention. Because it was exactly the same phrase she used to restrain the father of the twelve-year-old from killing the rapist in raw anger: ' Don't make it worse'
This phrase was eloquently raw in the sense of the realization of all concerned that justice was not going to be served in that society for the violation of the young child.
As far as the scornful rapist was concerned, this girl child was a sub-human, a thing, a mere property to be raped, impregnated  and even discarded.

Before that painful scene, I silently wondered what would have happened if the father of the sexually violated child had given vent to his inner revolt and gone ahead to kill the rapist. The authorities certainly would have framed the black man for the murder of an 'innocent prominent' white citizen, and sentenced him to die by hanging!
So I asked myself again: supposing the black man had privately studied the Bible under the teaching ministry of the Holy Ghost, and acquired the knowledge of the truth for himself, would his story be different?
The trajectory of his story would have been different, even though his knowledge wouldn't have prevented him from facing tribulations.

By the way, before the movie ended, a mysterious plague in the family of COVID-19 swept through the city, and one of its prominent victims was the rapist of the twelve-year-old. His life ended on a hospital bed on a very miserable note.

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:  Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
2 Thessalonians 1:4‭-‬6

To be continued.

FAULT LINES OF SELF-ANALYSIS By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre.

Man does not struggle to be evil. He struggles to be good. His self-analysis can only amplify his fault lines, and leave him feeling helpless and hopeless. To overcome his sense of inadequacy, he will become manipulative and grasping as he relates to others. In  this process, his authenticity as a person becomes the first casualty.
A writer like Tim Lahaye will quarrel with my position. But of what help does it make for someone to realise  whether he is phlegmatic, extroverted or introverted? The prospect is dubious.

Most times, in desperation, as a self-defense mechanism, we invent a bogeyman to blame for our misfortunes, lack of progress, our distress and disappointments. In short, a religious industrial complex had sprang up to cater for man's predilection to look for scapegoats to carry his blames.
And there are priests on this altar of falsehood ready to minister to our willingness to abdicate responsibility for our lives, as we look for others to blame. They tell you the reason you are not progressing  in life can be traced  directly to your father-in-law's witchcraft. That he had sworn in their coven for your wife to progress and prosper faster and better than you so that she can dominate you. So every day, you glower at your wife in silent hostility and frustration.  You are trapped...
They tell you the reason you crash at the edge of success is because  of angry ancestral spirits who are concerted that nothing good should come from your lineage. They suggest the remedy is for you to take some priests to your village to do family liberation/cleansing rituals on your behalf...
They tell you the wasting disease you are wrestling with, and draining your money can be traced to familiar spirits of your father's house. That they had sworn for you to go to your grave in misery and shame...
The list goes on endlessly!

KEY TO FREEDOM: KNOW YOURSELF, OR KNOW THE TRUTH? By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre

Socrates said: 'Man, know thyself.' 
Since then, philosophers, neuroscientists, motivational speakers etc have embarked on a long exhaustive journey of exhortation to cajole men and women everywhere  to know themselves. Another word for this quest is called self-discovery.
The proposition is that you must know or discover yourself before you can master yourself and your environment. Sounds enticing, doesn't it? Yes.

But when you think about it, it's a quest of futility and self-conceit. 
That has not stopped men and women everywhere  from attempting to discover what stuff their characters are  made of. They are eager to discover what they are capable of. How to  maximize their potentials is a favourite topic. Learning and getting in tune with their passions is an adventure they refuse to disdain. If they don't find out what they are afraid of, how can they summon the courage from the ether to march forward and destroy their fears?
They must find out in minute details their likes, their loves, what their sexual preferences are, not excluding their sexual proclivities.
What are the ingredients necessary to drive their ambitions to the point of fulfilment. They are  told what must be done to self-actualize.
Having to undertake a personal SWOT analysis (your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) cannot be sneered at!  It comes highly recommended. After all, Socrates decreed: 'Man, know thyself.' Sigmund Freud made it fashionable in the name of psychoanalysis. 

Self-analysis is in! Even some of your pastors in the name of emotional  intelligence have told you that you can't neglect self-analysis. How dare anyone to rebuke the concept  of self-knowledge?

Now let's come to brass tack. Is there anywhere in the New Testament where Christ commanded His followers to KNOW themselves? NONE !
He asserted that with your  knowledge of the truth, your freedom cannot be revoked. 

In John 8:32, He says: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

For you to escape enslavement or limitations, you must learn the truth. For you to escape oppression and being dominated by another man, your resolve to learn the truth cannot be questioned. 
When you have knowledge of the truth, you are automatically released from being coerced or constrained in choice and actions.
When you have learned the truth, your liberation from slavery or restraint by the power of another man is inevitable. 

Clearly, Christ never suggested or counseled His followers to embark on any self-analysis. It's unprofitable and deceitful to self- analyse yourself. Rather He commanded His followers to concentrate their efforts in pursuing the knowledge of the truth.  That way, they can come into the sort of freedom that cannot be revoked or squashed by another man or power. 

Knowing yourself is never an antidote against victimization from another person. Yet when you know the truth, you can easily smash victimization from another man.

The harsh reality is that it is futile trying to know yourself as the heart of man is defaulted on the position of desperate wickedness. The heart of man is a cauldron of unmitigated evil.
Jeremiah 17:9 says: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: WHO CAN KNOW IT?

No man can know the depth of the deceit and desperate wickedness of his heart...

HAVE NIGERIAN CHURCHES CRASHED BEFORE COVID-19?

HAVE NIGERIAN CHURCHES CRASHED BEFORE COVID-19?
By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre.

My view is not a popular one. Nigerian churches went down without a fight. I don't see them recovering from their misstep. Nigerian churches squandered their moral capital the moment they allowed their doors to be shut by the government due to the fear of COVID-19. Worse, they never took a leadership role in their decision to shut their doors, preventing their followers from meeting on days of fellowship.

Admittedly, COVID-19 is a frightening pandemic. Many deaths across countries have been traced to it. Some countries are in a race to develop vaccine to combat COVID-19. Experts have told us the disease is more threatening in a person whose immune system has weakened or broken down.
We should also not be fast to forget that the pandemic is surrounded by all sorts of misinformation, conspiracy theories and bullying, both intellectual and political. In this sinister atmosphere, is it villainous or wrong to exercise some healthy scepticism?

Theologically and traditionally, Nigerian churches had always boasted they were not set apart to partake of any pandemic. In their preachings and prayers, they held forth the idea they could never be victimized by any disease or plague. In their teachings and proclamations, Nigerian churches insisted that they enjoyed divine immunity against any disease. When the push came to shove, why couldn't they show the courage of convictions?

By shutting their doors without any resistance to government's order, Nigerian churches showed they lacked the spine to stand and fight for their convictions. Most importantly, they revealed clearly they had not been operating from the place of good conscience.

After all, contradicting the New Testament, many church leaders had brazenly sold the idea their church buildings were SANCTIFIED BY FAITH AS PLACES OF WORSHIP!! In other words, that the only place their followers could meet and serve God was a physical church building on Sunday. There, inside the church building, angels were rapidly released to supply the miracles of everyone in need!
 It never occurred to them to recant from the treachery of this idea.

Now that they were forced by government to shut down their church buildings, and keep social distancing, it is expected that Nigerian church leaders should have vigorously protested on the basis that the health, prosperity and success of their followers would be extremely jeopardized without gathering to WORSHIP GOD in their SANCTIFIED church buildings and altars. Haven't they always cajoled church attendees to roll on altars at the close of service for angels to minister miracles to the humble ones?
Have they not made a habit of placing a lone chair by the altar where the impression is sold that anyone who come forward to drop some cash before touching the chair would receive a fast miracle from the invisible angel sitting on the lone chair?
In a time like this, one expected our erstwhile vociferous church leaders to show up their faces in courageous leadership, but instead they buckled and fled into hiding.

True to his convictions as a 'healing minister', Pastor Chris Oyakhilome kicked, but his fellow senior colleagues, concerted by Pastor Sam Adeyemi, threw him under the bus. No sir, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome wasn't 'PANDERING  TO FEAR'. He had the courage to question a lockdown that his fellow pastors cravenly acquiesced to. Clearly, many Nigerian Christian leaders LACKED GOOD CONSCIENCE.

To save face, the church leaders latched unto Isaiah 26:20 which they massively circulated on social media:

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

Nothing can be more blasphemous, seditious and speculative than for a New Testament church to take refuge in Isaiah 26:20.
How can you tell a believer  whose CONSCIENCE was PURGED by the blood of Christ in order to RECEIVE the ETERNAL INHERITANCE to HIDE from INDIGNATION?
How can you tell a believer whose  CONSCIENCE was already PERFECTED and SANCTIFIED to flee in terror from an unseen adversary called COVID-19?
When your fear toward God is taught by the precepts of W.H.O., the exposure of your hypocrisy is inevitable.
Our church leaders should have kept quiet, covered their faces in shame, and wept a little to show some remorse.

WHY MEN SHOULD KNOW WHAT WOMEN WANT.
By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre.

'You know why I don't bother, and I think having sex with you is a drag? Because you are selfish. Next time, if you are going to take the trouble to demand for sex, please take the time to work on satisfying me. Don't deny I'm your wife, but perish the thought I exist solely for your pleasure.'
Her anger and impatience were visible. He was taken aback, caught almost speechless. His limp penis was a pitiable picture of perplexity.
Richard (not his real name) managed to blurt, 'But I'm always the one making the first moves for sex. You don't even show for one day that you want sex. All the signal you give is lack of interest in sex.'
Still vexed, Rachel (not her real name) replied, 'Yes, I'm not interested because you don't make it interesting. I come home from work, near exhaustion. I manage to cook food for you and the children. Next thing, you want sex. I give in because I don't want trouble. But all you think about is your self-satisfaction. And you expect me to clap that you are a champion racer, fast on the mark, fast to finish? Puulease! Don't you ever take me again through the drama and trauma of leaving me unsatisfied, sexually while you ease into your snoring!'
Richard's usual smugness had evaporated. His sexual appetite faded. But his eyes were pleading as if to signal his unpreparedness toward his wife's angry outbursts.
'What do you want from me?' He asked.
'Respect,' she replied. 'I'm not asking you to love me. That seems to be so hard for you. Just treat me with respect, and a sense of gratitude. I have three healthy, beautiful children for you. I work for my money. I don't need you to put clothes on my back, or make my hair. There's zero communication between us. The only time you recognize I exist in this house is when you want sex or food. I'm quitting your game; I'm not ready to play again.'

This pathetic but revealing scenario plays out in many homes today. The undercurrents of hostility, apathy and perplexity between husbands and wives is best left to imagination, rather than experienced. Some couples have even settled into a cold routine of neglect and disdain between themselves. The only times they are aroused to talk to themselves with little animation are when children's school fees or materials come up for settlement, or a child's birthday is due; or a child falls sick, and needs to be hospitalized on emergency.
Some husbands no longer find their wives sexually exciting: keeping 'side chicks' is no longer frowned upon, but treated with inevitable tolerance. Not to be outdone, some wives step out with vengeance, ready to play game with any man they are attracted to.
Some women, unable to handle or tolerate their husbands' infidelities, seethe with rage and hatred. As they play with murder in their hearts. Now and then, it's no longer strange to find the social media awash with gory tale of a woman turned berserk with her husband's unfaithfulness. Overstretched with playing the meek and patient wife, she had unexpectedly turned into a flaming object of vengeful fire. She stabbed and hacked her husband to death with a kitchen knife.

Perhaps you don't find this frightening and sad enough to raise questions. Take the case of a pastor's wife, affluent, influential, educated and beautiful, who openly divorced her famous husband because she could no longer tolerate his 'adulterous ways and sexual infidelities' with women.
The fact that divorce was supposedly frowned upon or forbidden by her religion wasn't enough to deter her. Her husband whom she had come to detest was humongously wealthy. He is a preacher of international renown. His virility was not in doubt. She had children for him. Why would a woman want to leave aside such piles of money and mammoth influence because of her husband's sexual infidelities?
Some would say it takes great courage and sense of worth to take such a rare step. They well might be right. What's undeniable: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

Many women are traumatized and misunderstood by their men. Some men are frightened by the idea of having to listen to the hearts of their women. It dredges up a feeling of inadequacy they are uncomfortable with. They don't think they have adequate resources to cope with what their women are demanding. Taking a flight from the possibility of having a meaningful dialogue with their women is a negative proposition they are seduced by. Have men ever thought their lives will become more enriched, strengthened and satisfying when they open up to the deep yearnings of their women? When men are not  threatened by how their women feel, but rather take responsibility for bringing these feelings to a point of resolution, that can be very empowering. It's frustrating when a woman represses her feelings, or let them hang because she has no hope of fulfilment.

Life is hard and tragic because men fail to know what their women want. Life is precarious, sometimes despairing, almost meaningless because men don't consider it a worthy enterprise to understand how women feel.
Every woman wants to feel protected and secure in her relationship or marriage. And she craves to be understood  by her man. For a healthy relationship, good communication comes before sex. While no normal person can question how finance can oil a romance, or run a relationship, it has never been proved practically that more money can purchase a woman's satisfaction or contentment.
What are her fears, her doubts, her guilts, her motivations? A man cannot afford  to be neglectful of these emotions that weave their ways through her; or pretend they don't exist. He can't afford to think it's a waste of time trying to understand why his woman feels the way she does.

Why do some women feel marriage is a dull ache they have learned to endure? They feel unappreciated and devalued. Instead of seeing marriage as a place where they can express themselves authentically with boldness and confidence, having to walk on egg shells around their husbands becomes a safe option, unsure of what offend or please the men. Some choose to have a relationship with the husband's money if they cannot have a relationship with the men at the heart level.
For some, marriage is a slave camp; for others, marriage is a prison.

If you know you cannot upgrade your thinking to the level where you can celebrate a woman's intelligence, her sagacity, her beauty and her glory, don't get involved with her in a social relationship, talkless of a sexual one.
The wholeness between husband and wife together can only be realised by the man internalizing and communicating the woman's interests. If that's so - and there is nothing in the Bible to contradict that assertion - you have a crisis or calamity in your hand when a man pretends to ignore what his woman wants.

We must learn to place good conscience forefront in our marriages and relationships.
Conscience has to do with the development of our character.
Your conscience instead of your shape or body is the personification of your character...

An excerpt from my upcoming book, WHY MEN SHOULD  KNOW WHAT WOMEN WANT.
Strictly Copyrighted.  Not for sharing. 🔥🔥🔥.
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