National Security Adviser, (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, always wears a permanent visor of one who needs to be pitied. Last Monday, however, he advertised far more pity with his pithy speech. The venue was the Chief of Defence Intelligence 2023 Annual Conference in Abuja. His white babanriga fluffing angelically and struggling to cling to his lean frame, Ribadu suddenly skidded off the runway of his prepared speech and went ad-lib. At the juncture where he needed to talk about the “serious budgetary constraints” which he said the present government was facing, Ribadu could not contain what he had stomached before now. “Yes, we’re facing budgetary constraints,” he began, pity shrouding his face like a hail of smoke. “It is okay for me to tell you. Fine, it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation, literally a bankrupt country, no money, to a point where we can say that all the money we’re getting now, we’re paying back what was taken. It is serious!”

Here, Ribadu reminded me of two aphorisms. One came out of folktales in pre-colonial Yoruba society and the other was a famous quip to remind those who left what ought to have been done to gather moss, belatedly running a race to fill in the gap. The first wise-saying is, “Igba yi laaro, t’arugbo nko’gba.” Literally translated, it scolds the old man who allowed his prime age to fallow without making use of his brawns and who now began to dig mounds and heaps at his senescence. At that old age, virulent damage had been done to his strength.

The second aphorism, as said earlier, came from the pre-colony. After eating their supper, sleeping time a couple of hours away, Yoruba of this period passed idle evenings by killing boredom with storytelling as a form of entertainment. The Osupa – moonlight – radiating brightness, enough to see nature’s hieroglyphics on the palm, the people filled this void by engaging in mental exercises of solving riddles called aalo and telling folktales. The most notorious subgenre in folktales they told were trickster tales. Animal tricksters were usually clothed in human form by the storytellers. The animals possessed strikingly human habits, weaknesses and dispositions. Most prominent among the tricksters was the tortoise – Ijapa. He share this trickery with his wife, Yannibo and on a few occasions, Okete, the big rat, also called the pouched rat. If you call it the bush rat, you are equally right. Yoruba believe that the Okete possesses supernatural powers and can transform into human (and vice versa) in the course of carrying out its trickster and nefarious activities at nocturne. In the book, Yoruba trickster tales (1997) written by Oyekan Owomoyela, the author said these trickster animals, as created by their folktale creators, were often “unburdened by scruples” and “often concoct vicious disasters for their would-be tormentors…reward their benefactors’ generosity with sometimes deadly betrayals” and “dupe friends, acquaintances and adversaries alike in pursuing their own selfish ends.”

As I intend to argue in this piece, NSA Ribadu’s cry is a lamentation over spilt milk. Before his belated revelations, Nigerians had already made up their minds about Muhammadu Buhari and his government. Ribadu’s cry can therefore be likened to a knock-kneed’s who belatedly realized that his limitation to speedy walk was a wonky foundation. The most fitting analogy that can describe the Ribadu Abuja cry is that of the Okete which, in one of those trickster folktales, was complicit in his own calamity. The story was that, while assailants were frenetically digging his hole, preparatory to arresting him for supper, Okete refused to raise alarm. He was subsequently arrested, defanged, entrails brought out and roasted on the wire-gauze of a hot furnace. It was at this time that Mr. Okete raised his hands up above the head in alarm. Disgusted by this belated activism, Yoruba mockingly berate the bush rat thus: “Okete gbagbe ibosi, o de’gba alate, o ka’wo le’ri.” It translates into, the bush rat, deaf to the noise of those stalking him as they dug his hole, only belatedly raised his hands in a Save Our Soul alarm when he had become a roasted venison advertised for sale.

There is no doubt that Ribadu was saying the gospel truth. As if in a choreographed encore, Ribadu again flew to Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State for the 2023 Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) conference where he again doubled down on these destructive bequeathals of Buhari. “We will open up and to be honest and sincere… By 1st June after we took over the country, we inherited four active security challenges and each one of them has the potential to undermine Nigeria and the continuous management of the country. We have the Boko Haram and Islamic insurgency for about 15 years now, we have the Niger Delta militants for over 30 years. We have banditry and kidnapping in the areas of Northern Nigeria, North West and North Central and the IPOB problem in the south east; four massive problems, each one with the potential to get Nigeria to its knees, all of them very active,” he said.

In far away Mecca, Saudi Arabia last Monday, it was as if Ribadu and President Bola Tinubu had orchestrated this Okete SOS simultaneously. As he advanced negotiations for a multi-billion dollar infrastructure finance facility from the Islamic Development Bank for the purpose of funding a multi-sectoral portfolio of projects at the federal and sub-national levels, the president also became an Okete. While speaking, he said that, though he would not make excuses, his government inherited serious liabilities from his predecessors, serious deficits in port and power infrastructure, as well as agro-allied facilities.

As I said earlier, no one needed a diviner to tell them that the Tinubu government inherited bad times. The signs were ominous, even before the May 29 handover. Way back in June, a few days after the current government took over, human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana, had meticulously itemized the 20 ways in which the Buhari government pillaged the Nigerian economy. Among others, he listed them as diversion of N40 billion from the Federation Account, listing the companies involved and how much they sucked from the Nigerian nectar; an additional revenue of $1.5 billion payable to Federation Account; outstanding royalties of $62 billion; denial of FG’s revenue of $500 million by a group of corrupt public officers; $7 billion fixed in 14 banks; sale of Polaris Bank by Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank by CBN; heft of Crude oil, gold and other mineral resources; N5.4 trillion owed AMCON among many others. It was even said that the Buhari government had collected monies from crude oil months in advance and thus, why the Tinubu government is in a financial mess. No one said a thing. The current government was busy wrapped in a shawl of cover-up at the time, silently bellyaching on the dross that Buhari handed over to it, in the name of cultic partyism and perhaps, espirit de corps, a quid pro quo of mutual looting among the governmental elite. 

The Falana revelations are just a tip of the iceberg. Insider sources alleged that if Nigerians are ever privy to the details of the scandalous transactions under Buhari’s Godwin Emefiele and the people who benefitted millions of foreign currencies of Nigerian money, the ears of this country would tingle. Now, Nigeria is in a limbo and it is obvious that, as they say, the meal being cooked that led to the inferno which consumed the house will have to be laid bare. Yet, except for few details that fly into privileged individual ears, the government has generally kept quiet, like that senescent old man who left what ought to have been done undone and is now exhibiting brawns and grits of hyper-work at old age.

Since May, efforts being made by government to reflate the economy are noticeable but they have remained what they are – efforts – because the Buhari rats have filched every fish in the treasury. However, there is no doubting the fact that the burdens inherited by the government and the heavy yoke it is vicariously liable for putting on its own head, are militating against its progress. Since its inception, this government has proven to be one of hedonism, even when economic indices are overwhelmingly bleak. Its policies are rich-centric and very lean with regards to liberating the mass of the people from their economic and existential woes.

Now, let us get back to this government’s complicity in the current woes it, like the Okete, was fatally deaf to and is now floundering its arms up in an SOS. To the best of my knowledge, none of the current runners of this government was on exile when the Buhari debacle was getting to its fatal denouement. Newspaper columnists and other Nigerians shouted at the top of their voices. Economists who had the guts to dare the lion in its lair shouted themselves hoarse that Buhari’s cavalier attitude to governance, his apparent lack of understanding of how to run a modern state, would shipwreck Nigeria. We were called names and haters of the ruling APC. God bless his soul, some of us, like the great Obadiah Mailafia, lost their lives in the process. When Nigerians needed those who are now crying over spilt milk to talk about the damage being inflicted on Nigeria by Buhari, they suddenly went into somnolence like Baal, the effete god of the Sidonians (reference the biblical Prophet Elijah).

In their public talks and actions, they openly fraternized with and were in a competition of endorsements of Buhari’s innumerable financial, administrative and governmental missteps. On many occasions, their indulgence in complicit silence was deafening. They were either asking where the cows were – a euphemism for defence of Fulani banditry in the Southwest – or abetted Buhari to inflict more damage on our national psyche. Now, apologies to the indomitable Sam Mbakwe, “the come has come to become,” they are now in government and have begun to wail against Buhari like us, doing what they accused us of doing, for which we were called wailers as they clapped rhythmically. The online people who lamented this set of people’s complicity in the Buhari debacle, they labeled as children of anger. Now, they expected us to join them in these lyrical wails, in the autumn of their realization of the evil that was the Buhari government. As the Igbo man will say, Tufiakwa!

The question to ask is, was Ribadu on exile when we spoke about the security challenges Nigeria went through, many of which were self-inflicted by the Buhari government itself? Where was he when the southwest quaked under attacks of herdsmen? Where were Yoruba sons and daughters in this government when Buhari was deaf to the cries of the southwest on insecurity? Were they not complicitly and conspiratorially silent, all in the name of not rocking the APC boat? Ribadu himself was busy junketing from one party to another, from the PDP to the ACN where he ran, first as president and later, joining the ruling APC to contest the governorship of Adamawa state in 2019 and 2023. I imagine that while on the campaign podium, Ribadu must have beatified this same man he now wanted us to join in his orchestra of lamentation on his allegation of bankrupting Nigeria. Before now, as Buhari treated the whole of the country as dot in a circle, the veil was so thick in Ribadu’s eyes that he could not see the Buhari we saw and the rein on his mouth was so thick that he could not speak out about the colossal fraud and mis-governance the sole patent of which the government seemed to have.

Having identified the humongous looting that went on under the Buhari government, this government would be grossly and vicariously liable for all the ills in Nigeria today if it continually to paper over them. This is the time of disclosure and only disclosure can grant it armistice in the hearts of the people. For instance, we expected that by now, Ribadu must have audited the trillions of Naira allegedly spent on procuring armaments and fighting insurgencies and banditry in the eight years under Buhari. It was believed that fat-epaulettes military Generals, in cahoots with civilian accomplices, filched tremendous sums of money from those deals, becoming, in the words of Eddie Iroh, toads of those wars. Rather than lamenting what was, we expected Ribadu to put a wedge to such premeditated looting by revealing who and who creamed off the Nigerian patrimony in the guise of fighting wars.

It will appear that we are in a season of barren governmental recriminations and allegations which, at the end of the day, from national experience, amount to absolutely nothing. When Buhari came, his singsong was a 16-year looting of the Nigerian treasury by the PDP. After a few months of haranguing the then NSA, Ibrahim Dasuki and hoisting some political adversaries up for public ridicule, today, no one knows what happened thereafter. Now, it is being alleged that the looting and stealing under the Jonathan government, if Tinubu opens their lids, are a child’s play compared to the ones that happened under Muhammadu Buhari.

All these, added together, confirm Shakespearean Brutus’ famous quote about the greed for power and evil he claimed will be on the ascendancy once Caesar became the Emperor. Brutus had said, “It is the bright day that brings forth the adder and that craves wary walking.” The adder, in this scenario, the venomous snake that is being compared to Caesar, is the corruption roulette that has made the Nigerian federal government its place of domicile. The bright day represents the presidential office. In Shakespeare’s Caesar, Brutus feared that Caesar’s true self, evil and greed for power, would come out of its sheathe the moment he was crowned emperor. The “and that craves wary walking,” refers to the need to put a stop to this seasonal ballad of lamentations by successive government which has become Nigerian governments’ rhapsody. Like Brutus implored his other conspirators to be careful due to Caesar’s closeness to being made the emperor, we should be wary of the Okete who was fatally deaf to the noise of those stalking him and which is now belatedly raising his hands up in a Save Our Soul alarm.

To break this roulette of allegations of looting of the treasury at every beginning of a new administration, the Tinubu government has to make public those who Ribadu claimed had “taken” and bankrupted the country. He must be ready to step on the adder. Of course, moving against those who are behind the unmitigated plundering of Nigeria’s resources under Buhari would be akin to committing class suicide. This is because the culprits of this mindless clean-up of the treasury are both Tinubu’s capitalist class buddies and his presidential Hallelujah crew. Tinubu didn’t get this far by harbouring suicidal traits, did he? Otherwise, the felons who Ribadu has been laboring to demonize will be content with swallowing our national patrimony, suffering only the Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s “big fat stomach” and living happily ever after, while the people suffer the unmitigated disaster of their greed and governmental larceny. And the madness will linger till the next exchange of presidential baton.

 

Jolaoso: Dividends of responsible parenting

Whenever I sneak into the premises of the Ibadan Tennis Club in the capital of Oyo State, the life of one elderly man named Ebenezer Adewale Jolaoso (also known as Alani) fascinates me. As they say in Christendom, I use him as my prayer point and his life a piece of mentorship. I always use him as pulpit material to sermonize to parents on the dividends of being a responsible parent, the clan of which is becoming extinct in the Nigeria of today. Pa Jolaoso clocked 80 years in September, having being born in 1943.

I do not want to talk about his CV, his nativity of Orile Ilugun, Ogun State or that he met the boardroom czar, Ayoola Obafoluke Otudeko, as an Accounts Clerk in the then Cooperative Bank in 1962. Otudeko later taught Jolaoso rudiments of banking. Fate was to later twine them together as Jolaoso became Otudeko’s in-law, having married the latter’s sister.

After marrying Oluyemisi Yetunde Otudeko in 1973, she unfortunately passed on twenty years after, specifically on January 2, 1994. By this time, their last born was preparing to enter the Olashore College in Osun State. Not only did Jolaoso make up his mind not to remarry, he made the training of his children a career, to which he devoted the totality of his being. At his 80th celebration, one of the children thanked him for being their Daddy and Mommy simultaneously.

The morale of the life of Jolaoso which every parent must clone is that his children, who are now scattered all over the world, have made it a career to give him the best life can afford. He rejects automobiles from them at will on account of surplusage and there is a fierce competition among them on who dots most over their father. After escaping an inexplicable auto accident a few weeks before his 80th birthday and being examined by Nigerian medics, his children sent him air ticket to come for thorough medical examination in the United States. It is one of the dividends of responsible parenting.

Of course, it is not easy to be a responsible parent in an atmosphere of turgid finance and collapsing values as we have in Nigeria today. Parents must however struggle to be a Jolaoso to their children. If Providence is kind enough to give such parents long life and good health, the dividends of responsible parenting, at adulthood, is almost like money rituals.

I wish Pa Jolaoso belated 80th birthday celebrations.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life ~ John 3:14-15.

Introduction

When all things seem blurry, and the silver hair appears awry; when all ways seem closed, and life is not taking its expected shape, looking unto Jesus Christ is the best outlook! He is the only One that brings real life and authenticity to our existence.

When we genuinely look unto Him and stay our gaze on Him, we will supernaturally experience His life in all its fullness. He also will deliver us without fail, and help us to enjoy all the provisions of the covenant (Luke 18:1-8).

Unfortunately, it has for long been a universal practice, though a very big error, for many people to look in various directions to meet their diverse needs in life. Some look up to fellow mortals  for help. Albeit, innocent as this may sound, God considers it a grievous sin that typically attracts a divine curse (Jeremiah 17:5).

Worse still, some others dangerously seek help from the devil, like King Ahaziah and King Saul did (1Kings 1:1-4; 1Samuel 28:1-25). Certainly, the surest and safest help man can ever receive is in God (Psalm 46:1-5; 121:1-8). And, Jesus Christ is that Help who was sent to the entire world, for our complete and total salvation.

Gleaning from the history of God’s ways amongst His chosen people, we found that the Israelites at a time journeyed to their promised verdant and prosperous land, when they were liberated from the Egyptian enslavement.

However, the journey was not without some challenges. Thus, the people felt disenfranchised, and grew tired, impatient and rebellious (Numbers 21:1-9). They complained bitterly and  rebelled against God their ever-present, all-powerful and all-knowing Liberator, and against Moses their human leader.

Consequently, fiery venomous snakes mysteriously broke out and bit some of them, and many died there in the wilderness. They perceived this was divine punishment. They therefore acknowledged their errors, repented, and pleaded with Moses to intercede for them.

Thereafter, Moses prayed, and God instructed him to construct a bronze snake, set it on a pole, promising that whoever was bitten, when they looked at the bronze snake, would live. Miraculously, it came to pass as God promised.

Now, Jesus spoke of this act of God’s mercy in helping Nicodemus understand that anyone that would be saved today must repent and believe in Him, saying: “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14).

In effect, any life can be truly transformed by believing in Jesus Christ, no matter the odds. Looking unto Him supernaturally results in total salvation from sin, Satan, sicknesses, oppression, poverty, shame, fear, destruction and death (John 3:16). 

Jesus Christ is the Life, and the Life-Giver. He promised us life “more abundantly” (John 10:10). Without Him we are just like walking dead; contrariwise, when we look unto Him, we become alive with life eternal (John 3:15).

Indeed, our God is truly merciful! He didn’t give up on the rebellious Hebrews, but rather made a way for them to be healed and live. Similarly, Jesus Christ doesn’t abandon anyone, regardless of how bad he is, or has been. He gives everlasting life whenever we look unto Him.

Jesus was passing through Jericho, and a rich sinner named Zacchaeus exerted much efforts to see Him in spite of the pressing crowd and his own little stature. When Jesus beheld his persistent faith, He said unto him, “This day is salvation come to this house”. Immediately, Jesus mightily helped and saved him (Luke 19:1-10).

Again, as He walked through Capernaum, a great crowd of people flocked around Him, and a woman who had been afflicted with a serious medical condition, hemorrhage, for 12 years reached out and touched the border of His garment. Immediately she was also healed (Mark 5:21-42; Luke 8:40-55).

In fact, the Bible is replete with many instances of divine intervention wrought when people looked unto Jesus Christ (Matthew 8:5-11; Mark 1:21-28; Mark 2:1-12). And, even today, He still works in the lives of those who look up unto Him. Yes indeed, I am a living witness, to the glory of God.

In our ministry over the years, as we proclaimed the gospel in the name of Jesus Christ, we have seen chronic sinners saved, the paralyzed healed, the blind see, fibroids dropped off, the terminally sick restored to vibrant health, and the barren give birth, even to twins, many times.

We have also seen mad people healed, and have witnessed great deliverances wrought in the lives of those bound by devils and addicted to drugs and bad habits, all to the glory of God.

Undoubtedly, we serve the prayer-answering God (Psalms 65:2). He will attend to your own needs without fail as you keenly look unto Him, in the matchless name of Jesus Christ.

How To Practically Look Unto Jesus And Overcome Satan!

True to form, and despite Satan’s ardent wickedness, the genuine children of God can rest assured that every form of satanic aggression and cruelty can be stopped in their lives.

Meanwhile, please note that it was not the bronze snake that healed the Israelites when they were bitten by the fiery venomous serpents in the wilderness, but their faith in God. Healing came when they obeyed God’s instruction to look at the hoisted bronze snake, in faith.

The Bible confirms that the believers who are serious with God, sober, obedient, humble, vigilant, true, holy and prayerful, even the youngest among them who can exercise a steadfast, pure and firm faith in Christ, can overpower the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Satan is a defeated foe. He knows this, and each time you resist him he assumes you know it as well. Therefore, he understandably flees from you, trembling, sighing, shrinking and shaking like a wounded lion with its tail between its legs every time you war against him in the prayers of faith (James 4:7).

Whatever you’re going through right now is not an accurate indicator of your final destination. Even if the devil had messed you up before, he cannot stall your destiny permanently once you enlist the divine help and engage in a sure fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:18).

Beloved friends and brethren in Christ, nothing in life can stop you from receiving your expected miracle. No devil, no problem, no pain or opposition has the ability to stop you. Only you can stop yourself through ignorance and personal unbelief.

Rely wholly upon the Word. Be fearless like Joshua. Be humble like Moses, and stay focused like Nehemiah. “Faith is saying it is so, even when it’s not yet so, because God said so, so that it might be so” (anonymous).

Meanwhile, the very best way to reposition yourselves for the help of God is to fully cooperate with the Holy Spirit for His touch of mercy! Jesus is the only valid Way out of any tribulation (John 14:6; 16:33). However, He abides with the believers today in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:18).

Be passionate evermore in your quest for destiny fulfillment. Stay your gaze firmly on Jesus Christ. Dwell in Him also as He is in you. Those who wait upon the Lord never waste their destinies (Isaiah 40:30-31). This is your day, you won’t lose your luminance, and you won’t miss it, in Jesus name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

In 2015, Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church, USA, wrote a motivational book that became an international best-seller entitled: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential.

He sold millions of copies and, thereby, confused millions of people. He presented a false gospel of positive thinking. Think bigger and your life will be better. This is a classic deception that makes people enemies of the cross.

Your best life is not your life. Your best life is the life of Jesus. Jesus Himself is our life. (Colossians 3:4). God does not make our lives better and better. God despises our life. What He requires of us is that we relinquish our life. He does not make our life better; He throws our life in the dustbin.

This is because the life we live is counterfeit. The best counterfeit is still counterfeit. It can never be a substitute for the original.

Zoe life

Jesus says: “(God) the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.” (John 5:26).

This shows the original life is in God and in Christ. It is not in man. God is a spirit; He is not flesh and blood. Therefore, the true life cannot be the life of the flesh. It must be the spiritual life.

God lives forever; He cannot die. The life of the flesh dies. The life of man is no different from the life of animals. Indeed, it is animal life.

Solomon says: “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.” (Ecclesiastes 3:18-20).

The new life that God has given us is not in us. If it were in us, then it could be lost. It would die when we die. No! The life God has given us is in Christ: “This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:11).  

Jesus says: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 19:10).

That means whatever life we had before He came was counterfeit. If we already had the true life before Jesus came, it would not be necessary for Him to come to give us what we already have. No! He came to give us the life we did not have: the true life.

But we cannot have the true life and the counterfeit life simultaneously. We have to relinquish the counterfeit in favour of the original. So, Jesus warns us: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25).

Baptism of Death

Herein is the dilemma. Christianity is for many Christians a death sentence that cannot be endured. We try, we pretend, we endure but finally we give up. Without realising it, we are determined to save our lives. 

But to save if from whom? We are not determined to save our lives from the devil. On the contrary, the devil is the giver of the life we live in the flesh. The devil is the giver of the life we want and aspire to, although we do not know that, and if we did, would never admit it.

No! We are determined to save our lives from Jesus Christ, the thief in the night. 

This is because we love the world and the things in the world. However: “All that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:16).

So, Jesus warns: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26).

The thief after our lives is also Jesus Christ and not just the devil. Jesus Christ is in the business of saving men from themselves. He is in the business of saving a man from his own life.

Problematic life

This is because the life we live in this world is a life of vanity. It is a vain life. It is meaningless. Listen to the lamentation of Job: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1).

What was the problem of Job? He was born of a woman but not born of the Spirit. He was born of a woman and not born of God. Job was born of a woman, but not born again. And so, his life was full of trouble. Job had great possessions. But he did not have the peace that passes all understanding.

It is incredible all the things that can kill a man who is born of a woman. Ordinary mosquitoes can kill him. Armed robbers can kill him. He can be killed in car accidents and in plane crashes. He can fall sick and die. And so, the spirit of fear forever torments the man that is born of woman. He is anxious about everything.

But what about those who are born of the Spirit? They are impregnable. You see, the man who is born of the Spirit is already dead. But Jesus brought him back to life. Therefore, the life he now lives is the resurrected life. This makes him dead to money, so he cannot be bribed. He is dead, so he can resist temptation.

It is impossible to kill a dead man. A true Christian cannot be killed in a car accident. Armed robbers cannot kill him. He is immune to sickness and disease. Therefore though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, he fears no evil.

But does this apply to you, child of God? If you are already dead why do you still hunger and thirst for the world?

Jesus says to the Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14).

Is this true? The word of God is truth. But is it true in your life? Why is it then that you are still thirsty? Why is it that you are saved but you still want to be successful, you still want to be rich; you still hunger for the goods of this world?

James says we are: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4).

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; www.femiaribisala.com 

Researchers have discovered that laughter may indeed be the best medicine after all. A new study published in PLOS One has found that spontaneous laughter can significantly reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, leading to positive effects for overall health.

When human bodies respond to stress, whether it’s physical (e.g. disease) or psychological (e.g. anticipating a threat), a system called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is activated. The stress hormone, known as cortisol, is released as part of this.

Some studies suggest that spontaneous laughter can reduce levels of cortisol. Genuine laughter is intuitive, with brain pathways specific to laughter even developing before brain pathways for speech. Laughter and humor has been found to be beneficial for health, such as by increasing pain tolerance and improving general well-being in various medical settings.

Although many studies have proposed that laughter can decrease cortisol levels, these studies often had recruited only a small number of individuals, creating a difficulty in drawing definitive conclusions.

To clarify this further, researchers Caroline Kaercher Kramer (based at the University of Toronto, Canada) and Cristiane Bauermann Leitao (based at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies.

This process involved pooling together relevant literature and scrutinizing them as a whole, in order to robustly evaluate the impact of spontaneous laughter on the stress response, as measured by cortisol levels.

Kramer and Leitao focused on randomized controlled trials (where participants are randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group) and quasi-experiments (a true experiment but without random assignment).

Four randomized controlled trials and four quasi-experiments were selected, published from 1989 to 2021, containing data from a total of 315 participants who were on average around 39 years old.

Laughter was induced by participants in the experimental group watching a comedy movie (five studies), undergoing laughter therapy conducted by a trained laughter therapist (two studies), or undergoing a self-administered laughter therapy (one study). The control group completed non-humorous usual activities.

Cortisol levels were measured through blood or saliva samples, and the change in cortisol levels before and after laughter was compared across the experimental group and the control group.

This is what the researchers found. Analysis of the data revealed an overall significant reduction in cortisol levels (31.9%) which was induced by laughter, compared to the control group.

Upon further investigation, the authors discovered that even a single laughter session (lasting 9 to 60 minutes) induced a significant reduction in cortisol levels (36.7%), as compared to the control group.

Interestingly, there was no impact of the duration of laughter on cortisol levels.

“The impact on [the] HPA axis found in our analyses suggests that genuine laughter holds positive effects for overall health as the excessive/prolonged cortisol secretion associated with chronic HPA-axis stimulation has negative implications for both physical and psychological diseases including obesity, depression, and chronic pain,” concluded Kramer and Leitao.

The authors reinforced how their results supported other research demonstrating the benefits of laughter and reduced cortisol.

Laughter has been found to have a cardioprotective effect (in other words, it protects the heart) by reducing the chances of developing coronary heart disease. The results also support literature which has highlighted potentially positive metabolic effects of reduced cortisol levels, for instance the increased stimulation of hair follicles, which ultimately leads to hair growth.

A few limitations are to be noted, one of which is that there are differences in the methods of inducing laughter between the studies. The time that cortisol levels were measured in participants varied between the studies, and may also have influenced the results.

The study, “Laughter as medicine: A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventional studies evaluating the impact of spontaneous laughter on cortisol levels”, was authored by Caroline Kaercher Kramer and Cristiane Bauermann Leitao.

 

PsyPost

President Bola Tinubu has halted plans to automatically deduct 40 percent from the internally generated revenue (IGR) of federal universities.

According to Premium Times,  Tahir Mamman, the minister for education, spoke at the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony of the University of Ibadan (UI).

The federal government had earlier said it was ready to implement a 40 percent automatic deduction from the IGR of federal universities and other partially-funded institutions.

But the policy has been criticised as being insensitive by stakeholders in the education sector, including the academic unions.

Mamman, who represented Tinubu at the UI ceremony, admitted that the policy implementation was ill-timed.

He said the president is committed to reforming the education sector as the bedrock for national development.

“The 40 percent IGR automatic deduction policy stands cancelled. This is not the best time for such a policy since our universities are struggling,” the minister said.

Earlier while rejecting the IGR deduction, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), said public universities were not revenue-generating agencies.

The union urged the federal government to remove universities from the category of  agencies required to remit IGR, in the interest of affordability and accessibility of education in the country.

“NEC condemns the directive in its entirety because it would further impoverish and emasculate the Nigeria university system,” the union had said.

 

The Cable

Liberia President George Weah on Friday conceded election defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai after a tight race, ending a presidency marred by graft allegations but helping to ensure a smooth transition of power in the once volatile African nation.

Boakai, 78, a former vice president who lost to Weah in the 2017 election, led with 50.9% of the vote over Weah's 49.1%, with nearly all the votes counted, the country's elections commission said on Friday.

The result marks a stark turnaround from 2017, when global soccer legend Weah, buoyed by a wave of hope, trounced Boakai with 62 percent of the vote. Many have since grown disillusioned with the lack of progress: Poverty, unemployment, food insecurity and poor electricity supply persist.

"A few moments ago, I spoke with president-elect Joseph Boakai to congratulate him on his victory," Weah said on national radio. "I urge you to follow my example and accept the results of the elections."

Weah's concession paves the way for Liberia's second democratic transfer of power in over seven decades - the first was when Weah swept to power six years ago.

His comments stood out in West and Central Africa where there have been eight military coups in three years, eroding faith in democratic elections. When elections do go ahead in the region, accusations of fraud abound and results are frequently contested in court.

Instead, Boakai supporters in the capital Monrovia danced, shouted and honked car horns in the rain after the near-final results were announced.

"We have a job ahead of us to do and I'm excited that the citizens have given us approval," Boakai told Reuters shortly after the results were announced. "First and foremost, we want to have a message of peace and reconciliation."

Boakai, a softly spoken career politician, emerged neck-and-neck with Weah in the first round of voting in October but below the 50% needed to secure an outright victory, leading to Tuesday's run-off.

Liberia is struggling to recover from two civil wars that killed more than 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003, and from a 2013-16 Ebola epidemic that killed thousands.

Many felt that Weah did not follow through on promises to alleviate poverty and improve the country's crumbling infrastructure.

Arkoi Sarkor, 43, told Reuters she supported Boakai because she was not able to get a job during Weah's term.

"I am very hopeful because I know Boakai is... a man of principles and I know when he gets in here, he is going to bring changes," she said. "Some things that were not done, that were not correct, he will put it in place, I am hopeful of that."

 

Reuters

A Federal Capital Territory High Court has remanded the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, in Kuje prison.

Emefiele is standing trial on an alleged procurement fraud. The trial which had been stalled on three occasions finally held on Friday.

The Federal Government had initially preferred 20 charges on procurement fraud to the tune of N6.5bn against the former CBN governor.

But the FG reduced the charges to six to the tune of over N1bn before he was arraigned.

At Friday proceedings, Emefiele’s counsel, Mathew Burkaa, moved the application for bail but the counsel for the Federal Government, Rotimi Oyedepo, opposed granting bail to the former CBN governor.

The presiding judge, Hamza Muazu, said a bench ruling could not be delivered in view of the plethora of authorities cited by the two parties.

The Judge said he needed a little time to study the authorities and peruse through the exhibits supplied by Emefiele to support his request for bail.

He, however, ordered that Emefiele be remanded at the Kuje prison pending the determination of his bail application.

Muazu then adjourned the case till November 22 for ruling on the bail application and November 28 for the commencement of trial.

His remand order came after Olukayode Adeniyi directed that the former CBN governor should be released to his lawyers on November 8 after spending 151 days in detention.

 

Punch

Shell confirmed on Friday that Nigeria withdrew civil claims totalling $1.1 billion against it in relation to allegations of corruption in a 2011 oilfield deal.

"We are pleased that this claim has been withdrawn. It brings to an end to all legal cases against Shell on OPL 245 in Italian courts," a Shell spokesperson said in a statement.

In 2021, an Italian court acquitted Shell, Eni, the operator of the OPL 245 oilfield, and company executives of corruption allegations in the acquisition of the field a decade earlier.

Eni confirmed Nigeria had withdrawn the claim on Thursday.

 

Reuters

UN stops delivery of food and supplies to Gaza as communications blackout hinders aid coordination

The United Nations was forced Friday to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of lack of fuel.

Israel announced that it will allow two tanker trucks of fuel into Gaza each day for the U.N. and communication systems. That amount is half of what the U.N. said it needs for lifesaving functions for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, including powering water systems, hospitals, bakeries and the trucks delivering aid.

Israel has barred entry of fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military means. It has also blocked food, water and other supplies except for a trickle of aid from Egypt that aid workers say falls far short of what’s needed.

The communications blackout largely cut off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, couldn’t bring in its aid convoy Friday because of the communications cutoff, spokesperson Juliette Touma said.

“An extended blackout means an extended suspension of our humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip,” Touma told The Associated Press.

Phone and internet services in parts of the Gaza Strip were partially restored Friday night after a limited quantity of fuel for generators was provided, according to NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet outages.

Israeli forces have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza’s south while continuing operations in the north. Troops have been searching the territory’s biggest hospital, Shifa, for traces of a Hamas command center Israel alleges was located under the building — a claim Hamas and the hospital staff deny.

On Friday, the military said it found the body of another hostage, Noa Marciano, in a building adjacent to Shifa, like that of another hostage found Thursday, Yehudit Weiss. Hundreds of mourners, many carrying Israeli flags, attended Marciano’s funeral Friday in her hometown of Modi’in.

The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, in which the militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted some 240 men, women and children.

More than 11,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and militants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.

AID DRIES UP

After an American request, Israel agreed to let a “very minimal” amount of fuel into Gaza each day, national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian affairs, said it would amount to 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons) a day for the U.N.

For the communications network, Israel also agreed on another 10,000 liters a day (2,640 gallons), a U.S. State Department official said.

UNRWA and other humanitarian groups need at least 120,000 liters (31,700 gallons) a day to run lifesaving functions, Touma said.

Gaza has received only 10% of its required food supplies each day in shipments from Egypt, according to the U.N., and the water system shutdown has left most of the population drinking contaminated water, causing an outbreak of disease.

Dehydration and malnutrition are growing, with nearly all residents in need of food, said Abeer Etefa, a Mideast regional spokeswoman for the U.N.’s World Food Program.

“People are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” she said Thursday from Cairo.

MARCH FOR HOSTAGES

Israeli officials previously vowed fuel would not be let in until Gaza militants release the hostages. The government has been under heavy public pressure to show it is doing all it can to bring back people abducted in Hamas’ attack.

Thousands of marchers — including families of over 50 hostages — embarked Friday on the fourth leg of a five-day walk from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, chanting, “Bring them home!” They are marching to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, calling on his war Cabinet to do more to rescue their loved ones. They have urged the cabinet to consider a cease-fire or prisoner swap in return for the hostages.

Hamas has offered to exchange all hostages for some 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, which the Cabinet has rejected.

CONDITIONS AT SHIFA

With Israeli troops fanned out around the Shifa hospital complex, doctors spoke of horrifying conditions inside. Electricity has been out for nearly a week, leaving incubators for infants and ventilators for ICU patients defunct. Nearly 7,000 people are trapped there with little food, including patients, staff and civilian families.

Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Selmia told Al Jazeera television that 52 patients have died since fuel ran out — up from 40 reported before Israeli troops stormed in on Wednesday. He said staff were amputating limbs of some patients to avoid infection spreading because of shortages in medicines.

More were on the verge of death as their wounds are “open with maggots coming out of them,” another doctor, Faisal Siyam, told Al Jazeera.

Ahmad Mukhalalti said most of the 36 premature infants suffer from severe diarrhea because there is no clean water. He said Israeli troops had taken away all the bodies from the morgue and from a mass grave that staff dug days earlier in the courtyard. The Israeli military had no comment on the report. The doctors’ accounts could not be independently verified.

Abu Selmia said Israeli troops should either bring them fuel to power equipment or allow an evacuation.

“The hospital has become a giant prison,” he said. “We are surrounded by death.”

Israel’s military said it delivered 4,000 liters of water and 1,500 ready-made meals to Shifa, but staff said it was too little for the numbers of people there.

Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht acknowledged that the troops’ search for traces of Hamas was going slowly. “It’s going to take time,” he said.

Israel faces pressure to prove its claim that Hamas set up its main command center in and under the hospital. So far, Israel has shown photos and video of weapons caches that it says were found inside as well as what it said was a tunnel entrance. The AP could not independently verify the Israeli claims.

The allegations are part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields across the Gaza Strip, contending that is the reason for the large numbers of civilian casualties during weeks of bombardment.

STRIKES IN THE SOUTH

Airstrikes continued to hammer the southern sector of Gaza, where most of the territory’s population is now sheltering. Among them are hundreds of thousands of people who heeded Israel’s calls to evacuate Gaza City and the north to get out of the way of its ground offensive.

In the Nusseirat refugee camp, a strike crushed a building to rubble killing at least 41 people, staff at the nearby hospital said. Residents said dozens more were buried in the wreckage.

Early morning strikes outside the city of Khan Younis killed 11 members of a family that evacuated from Gaza City. Dozens of wounded, including babies and young children, streamed into the nearby hospital.

At the morgue, Alaa Abu Hasira wept over the bodies from the strike that were lined up side by side on the floor, including her son, daughter and several sisters. “All my loved ones are gone,” she sobbed.

So far, Israel’s ground assault has focused on northern Gaza as it vows to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities. If the assault moves into the south, it is not clear where Palestinians can go. Egypt has refused to allow a mass transfer onto its soil.

As the war continues to inflame tensions elsewhere, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian gunmen in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, killing at least three Palestinians. The fighting broke out late Thursday during an Israeli raid.

Israel’s military said five militants were killed. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people died. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed the three dead as members and identified one as a local commander.

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine secures several bridgeheads into occupied Kherson region - military

Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers out of positions on the eastern bank of the River Dnipro in the occupied Kherson region and established several bridgeheads, Kyiv's military said on Friday.

Crossing the Dnipro and transporting heavy military equipment and supplies over the river could allow Ukrainian troops to open a new line of attack in the south on the most direct land route to Crimea, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Ukrainian Marines said on their Facebook page they had had a series of "successes", established several bridgeheads and conducted other operations on the river's eastern side. Russia conceded for the first time this week that Kyiv's troops had crossed the Dnipro.

"Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to knock out the Russians from their positions on the left bank of the Dnipro and consolidate there," General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalyov said on a military channel on YouTube.

"One of the main goals of this combat work is to push the enemy as far as possible from the right bank to protect the Ukrainian civilian population, in particular Kherson, from constant Russian shelling," he added.

Kherson, once a bustling city of 300,000 that has emptied as it has found itself on the front line, has been pounded by Russian artillery for months and dozens of civilians have been killed.

The Ukrainian military retook the city and the area around it on the western bank of the Dnipro in November 2022. The river, a formidable natural barrier, became the dividing line on much of the southern front.

Russia made no immediate statement in reaction to the Ukrainian reports. Both Russia and Ukraine say they have inflicted heavy losses on the other side during operations in the area. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

MOVING FORWARD

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday posted images from the area showing the military using drones and operating on speedboats on the Dnipro.

"Our warriors. Thank you for your strength, for moving forward!" he said on Telegram messenger.

Kovalyov said Ukrainian troops were conducting sabotage and reconnaissance actions to discover and disrupt logistics for Russian ammunition and food supplies. He said the Russian military were mounting heavy resistance and had brought in reinforcements.

Very bad weather was another obstacle to Kyiv's operations, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the southern military command said.

"We must be aware that in very bad weather conditions, they are complicated. This not only complicates a physical advance but also aerial reconnaissance. Because there is a thunderstorm warning," she said in televised comments.

On the other hand, she added, the weather would not allow Russian troops to use their tactical aviation as much as earlier, something the Ukrainian military was using to "consolidate success".

According to Ukrainian military bloggers, Ukrainian forces crossed the Dnipro in small groups in the summer to create an initial foothold around a railway bridge near Kherson and then sought to expand their presence in nearby villages on the east bank, including Krynky.

The news comes months into Ukrainian counteroffensive operations in the southeast and east that have not produced a major breakthrough. Ukrainian officials have blamed extensive Russian minefields and defensive lines, and delays in supplies of weapons from the West.

Russian forces, which occupy around 17% of Ukraine, are now again on the offensive in the east in the Kyiv-held town of Avdiivka, near the Moscow-held city of Bakhmut, and in other areas.

The Ukrainian military said in its daily update that fighting was raging along the entire frontline from the south to the east, reporting 72 combat clashes in the last 24 hours.

The fiercest battles were around Avdiivka, Mariinka and Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, it said.

Vitalyi Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said on television that Russian forces were making a big push towards the town's industrial zone near a vast coke plant, and bringing in reinforcements.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces pummel Ukrainian army’s command centers over week — top brass

Russian forces delivered 24 precision strikes, targeting the Ukrainian army’s command centers over the week of November 11-17 in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"The Russian Armed Forces delivered 24 multiple-launch strikes by precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles, wiping out forward command posts and deployment sites of the command staff of the Liman battlegroup and the Khortitsa operational/strategic group, and also temporary deployment sites of militants from the Neo-Nazi Azov and Right Sector formations [outlawed in Russia]," the ministry said in a statement.

The strikes obliterated the Ukrainian army’s artillery arsenals, armament, military hardware and fuel depots, airfield infrastructure and a sniper and engineering personnel training center, the ministry reported.

Russian forces eliminate over 745 Ukrainian troops in south Donetsk area over past week

Russian forces inflicted damage on four Ukrainian army brigades in the south Donetsk area, eliminating more than 745 enemy troops over the past week, the ministry reported.

"In the south Donetsk direction, units of the battlegroup East gained more advantageous frontiers and positions and repelled two attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army’s 79th air assault brigade and 128th territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Novomikhailovka and Nikolskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

"In addition, air strikes and artillery fire inflicted damage on units of the Ukrainian army’s 72nd mechanized, 58th motorized infantry, 102nd and 127th territorial defense brigades near the settlements of Ugledar, Staromayorskoye and Urozhainoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," it said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the south Donetsk direction over the past week amounted to over 745 personnel, 12 armored combat vehicles, 15 motor vehicles, 20 field artillery guns and a Grad multiple rocket launcher, the ministry specified.

Russian forces destroy over 425 Ukrainian troops in Zaporozhye area over week

Russian forces repelled three Ukrainian army attacks in the Zaporozhye area, destroying more than 425 enemy troops over the past week, the ministry reported.

"In the Zaporozhye direction, units of the Russian battlegroup repelled three enemy attacks near the settlement of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye Region. They also inflicted damage by firepower on the personnel and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 33rd, 117th and 118th mechanized brigades near the settlements of Uspenovka and Malaya Tokmachka in the Zaporozhye Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the Zaporozhye direction over the past week amounted to more than 425 personnel, 2 tanks, 9 armored combat vehicles, 14 motor vehicles and 7 field artillery guns, the ministry specified.

Kiev loses over 460 troops in Kherson area over past week

The Ukrainian military lost over 460 troops on the right bank of the Dnieper River and in attempts to land on islands on the left bank in the Kherson Region over the past week, the ministry reported.

"In the Kherson direction, the enemy lost over 460 personnel killed and wounded, 2 tanks and 17 motor vehicles on the right bank of the Dnieper River and in attempts to land on islands," the ministry said.

In counter-battery fire, Russian forces destroyed 16 Ukrainian field artillery guns and a Grad multiple rocket launcher in the Kherson direction over the reporting period, it said.

Russian forces wipe out four Ukrainian army radars over past week

Russian forces destroyed four Ukrainian army radars, including three foreign-made systems over the past week, the ministry reported.

"Over the reporting period, operational/tactical aircraft and missile troops of the Russian groupings of forces destroyed a radar station of an S-300 surface-to-air missile system and three counter-battery radars, among them a Cobra station that the Federal Republic of Germany supplied to Ukraine and two US-made AN/TPQ-50 radar stations," the ministry said.

Russian forces down three Ukrainian MiG-29 warplanes over week

Russian forces shot down three Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets in aerial and air defense combats over the past week, the ministry reported.

"Three Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 planes were shot down in aerial and air defense combats," the ministry said.

Over the reporting period, Russian air defense capabilities "shot down 22 rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, 2 JDAM guided air bombs and 198 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry reported.

In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 536 Ukrainian warplanes, 254 helicopters, 8,989 unmanned aerial vehicles, 441 surface-to-air missile systems, 13,446 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,185 multiple rocket launchers, 7,123 field artillery guns and mortars and 15,342 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the ministry reported.

 

Reuters/Tass