An Israeli strike in Gaza kills World Central Kitchen workers. Israel says 1 was an Oct. 7 attacker

An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people, including employees of World Central Kitchen. The charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel’s military said it targeted a WCK worker who was part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.

WCK said it was “heartbroken” and it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, adding it was “working with incomplete information.” It said it was pausing operations in Gaza. It had suspended work earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers.

The Israeli military in a statement said the alleged Oct. 7 attacker took part in the assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz, and it asked “senior officials from the international community” and the WCK to clarify how he had come to work for the charity.

The family of the man named by Israel, Ahed Azmi Qdeih, rejected the allegations as “false accusations,” and confirmed in a statement he had worked with the charity. Israel named him as Hazmi Kadih.

The strike highlighted the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has displaced much of the 2.3 million population and caused widespread hunger.

At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo and the word “contractor.” Belongings — burned phones, a watch and stickers with the WCK logo — lay on the floor.

Nazmi Ahmed said his nephew worked for WCK for the past year. He said he was driving to the charity’s kitchens and warehouses.

“Today, he went out as usual to work ... and was targeted without prior warning and without any reason,” Ahmed said.

In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers — three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. The Israeli military called it a mistake. That strike prompted an international outcry. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.

Another Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people, including children. Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies.

“They were distributing aid, vegetables, and we saw the missile landing,” witness Rami Al-Sori said. A woman sat on the ground and wept.

Save the Children said a local employee was killed in one of the Khan Younis airstrikes while returning from a mosque.

And the director of Kamal Adwan hospital reported a strike in Tal al Zaatar in Beit Lahiya in the north where Israeli forces are operating, and estimated based on witness accounts that well over 100 dead were under the rubble. He said the area remained inaccessible.

Hamas releases new hostage video

On Saturday, Hamas released a video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander. Speaking under duress, Alexander referred to being held for 420 days and mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent $5 million offer for the hostages’ return.

“The prime minister is supposed to protect his soldiers and citizens, and you abandoned us,” Alexander said.

Netanyahu’s office said that he spoke with Alexander’s family after the release of the “brutal psychological warfare video” that held “an important and exciting sign of life.”

“(Netanyahu) reassured me and promised that now, after reaching an arrangement in Lebanon, conditions are right to free you all and bring you home,” Alexander’s mother, Yael, told demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.

A statement from U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the hostage video “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own.”

“The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately — and would have ended months ago — if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” it said.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count but say over half the dead were women and children.

Ceasefire appears to hold

Efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have faltered. But the U.S.- and France-brokered deal for Lebanon appears to be holding since Wednesday.

On Saturday, Israel’s military said that it struck sites used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or Hezbollah. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon several times, citing truce violations.

Israel’s strike in Syria came as insurgents breached its largest city, Aleppo, bringing fresh uncertainty to the region.

The truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants should withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces should return to their side of the border.

Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced, streamed home despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to avoid certain areas.

“Day by day, we will return to our normal lives,” said Mustafa Badawi, a cafe owner in Tyre.

The toll of conflicts

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli drone strike on Rub Thalatheen village killed two people and wounded two others, and another hit a car in Majdal Zoun village. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three were wounded, including a 7-year-old child.

Israel’s military said it had been operating to distance “suspects” in the region, without elaborating. Israel says it reserves the right to strike against any perceived violations.

Israel seeks to ensure that tens of thousands of displaced Israelis return home. But they have been apprehensive.

“No, it will not be like before,” said one Israeli evacuee, Lavie Eini.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel and Hezbollah kept up cross-border fire until Israel escalated with an attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. It then launched an intense aerial bombardment that killed Hezbollah leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, and a ground invasion in October.

More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel, over half of them civilians, as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Hamas’ October 2023 attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine loses over 36,800 troops, 225 tanks: situation in Russia’s Kursk Region

The Ukrainian army lost over 250 troops in the Kursk area in the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Ukraine’s losses have reached 36,850 troops and 225 tanks since fighting began in the region. Russian forces continue their operation to eliminate Ukrainian units.

TASS has gathered the main information about the situation in the region.

Operation to wipe out Ukrainian units

- Units of Battlegroup North defeated the forces of the 21st, 41st, 44th and 47th mechanized brigades, the 17th Heavy Mechanized Brigade, the Fifth Tank Brigade, the 80th, 82nd and 95th air assault brigades, the 36th Marine Brigade, as well as the 112th, 116th, 117th and 129th territorial defense brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces near Alexandria, Viktorovka, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Leonidovka, Martynovka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novoivanovka, Plyokhovo and Sverdlikovo.

- Tactical and army aircraft crews and artillery units hit enemy troops and equipment near Alexandria, Guyevo, Daryino, Kazachya Loknya, Kruglenkoye, Kubatkin, Lebedevka, Martynovka, Nizhny Klin, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novoivanovka, Plyokhovo, and Sverdlikovo, as well as Basovka, Belovody, Vodolagi, Zhuravka and Loknya in the Sumy Region.

Ukrainian losses

- The Ukrainian armed forces lost over 250 troops in the past 24 hours.

- Russian forces destroyed two tanks, two infantry fighting vehicles, an armored combat vehicle, four motor vehicles and two mortars.

- Since the start of fighting in the Kursk area, the enemy has lost more than 36,850 troops, 225 tanks, 160 infantry fighting vehicles, 123 armored personnel carriers, 1,202 armored combat vehicles, 1,060 motor vehicles, 305 artillery pieces, and 40 multiple launch rocket systems, including eleven US-made HIMARS launchers and six MLRS launchers, as well as 13 missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 70 electronic warfare systems, 13 counterbattery radars, and four air defense radars.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says war has damaged most of its civilian airports

Fifteen of Ukraine's civilian airports have been damaged since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was quoted as saying by local media on Saturday.

Ukraine, which the state aviation service says has 20 civilian airports, has been exploring avenues to partially open its airspace. It has been completely closed since the start of the war.

Ukrainians who want to fly abroad currently have to go via road or rail to neighbouring countries to catch flights. For those living in the east, the journey out of Ukraine can take a day in itself.

"We conducted a risk assessment and determined the needs of the air defence forces to partially open the airspace," local news agency Ukrinform quoted Shmyhal as saying at a transportation conference.

"Security issues and the military situation remain key to this decision," he said.

Shmyhal added that Russia had attacked Ukraine's port infrastructurenearly 60 times in the last three months, damaging or destroying nearly 300 facilities and 22 civilian vessels.

A senior partner at insurance broker Marsh McLennan told Reuters earlier this month that Ukraine could reopen the airport in the western city of Lviv in 2025 if regulators deem it safe and a political decision is made.

Tass/Reuters

In 1992, Leon Mugesera, a senior politician in the then Rwanda ruling party, gathered a crowd of supporters at a rally held in the town of Kabaya. At the rally, Mugesera labeled the minority Tutsi “cockroaches,” who must be eliminated. He then asked this East African ethnic group to go back to its place of birth. He was quoted to have said: “Anyone whose neck you do not cut is the one who will cut your neck.” This “cockroach” typecast glued to the Tutsi ethnic group.  Two years later, about 800,000 of them got brutally slaughtered, hacked to death and raped in a 100-day period of genocide. Twenty years later, a Rwandan Judge, Antoine Muhima, sentenced Mugesera to a life term in prison for “public incitement to commit genocide, persecution as crime against humanity, and inciting ethnic-affiliated hatred.”

You may think the inconsequential is not consequential. In Mugesera’s Rwanda of 1994, a dirty, tiny insect that many don’t reckon with became the tinder that lit the whole country. It was the cockroach. The Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups have so many things in common like the Igbo and Yoruba of Nigeria. Hutu and Tutsi were its major ethnic groups and respectively account for more than four-fifths and about one-seventh of Rwanda’s total population. Unlike the two Nigerian ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, together with the one percent population-Twa ethnic group, speak Rwanda, also called Kinyarwanda. This indicates that the tripod ethnic groups of Rwanda have lived together even before the 5th century.

Reuben Abati, one of Nigeria’s foremost public intellectuals, has faced a gaslight of Hiroshima and Nagazaki proportion simply because he made an otherwise very innocuous statement about land purchase in Igbo land. In the course of this, Abati has suffered an unprecedented harangue. The attacks were seemingly coordinated, like the convocation of ants on a diabetic’s pee. From home and abroad, this famous member of the Arise TV commentariat received cudgels and arrows that were obviously beyond his harmless commentary. For any watcher of Nigerian ethnic relations, it will be clear that Abati’s “sin” was not the TOS Benson statement but the “sins” of his Yoruba forebears.

The barbs had hardly subsided when singing sensation, David Adeleke, known professionally as Davido, also got caught in this war of attrition. Davido is a Nigerian-American songwriter and record producer regarded as one of the most important Afrobeat artistes of the 21st century and who helped popularize the genre globally. He has gone down in history as one of Africa’s most influential artistes and an ambassador. Last week, Davido’s head was caught in the barbed wire of ethnic hate that was erected over a century ago. While appearing on The Big Homies House podcast, Davido caught the ire of ethnic warlords masquerading as patriots when he advised Black Americans not to relocate to Nigeria. He cited bad leadership, an inchoate exchange rate, and rising oil prices as reasons for the warning. He had said: “It is not cool back home. The economy is in shambles. It is not cool back home. The economy is in shambles. I do my part, I am an ambassador. When I go home and I am filming, I am not going to show the bad parts.  I am talking about the situation in the country. Now the exchange rate is messed up, a lot of stuffs are not going well. The economy is just not good enough. The oil price is too high. Imagine the country that produces oil, paying more for it than a country importing oil.” He and Abati received confetti of inhuman labeling similar to Hutu’s typecast of Tutsis as “cockroaches”.

The first noticeable schism between the Hutu and Tutsi came in 1990. The downing of an aeroplane flying over Kigali which had the country’s second president, Juvénal Habyariman and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, on the evening of April 6, 1994 burst the bubble. Hutu extremists were allegedly behind it. “Cockroach” then sneaked into conversations between the two ethnic groups in the next few months. Intense Hutu propaganda which fueled hate and fear in the country’s Hutu population began. Rwandan politicians now latched on this for the extinction of Tutsis.

Tutsis were referred to as cockroaches which must be exterminated. Matters came to a head in 1994 when the whole Rwanda exploded in a total anarchy of mass killings, arson and rape. The army and Hutu militia groups named the Interahamwe (“Those Who Attack Together”) and Impuzamugambi (“Those Who Have the Same Goal”) helped in the chaos and bloodshed. As it is currently happening in Nigeria today between Igbo and Yoruba, the social media is being massively used to reinforce hatred between the two ethnicities. It was the same way, in Rwanda, radio broadcasts were used to fuel what eventually became genocide. Hutu civilians were urged to kill “cockroaches,” their Tutsi neighbours. Over 200,000 Hutu were said to have been part of the genocide.

I went into narration of how the Rwandan genocide began to show that ethnocide does not begin with a bang. It starts like the unnoticeable crawl of an insect. Ethnic animosities between Igbo and Yoruba started on the basis of fear and suspicion. It was reflected in the three political parties. The Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) was dominated by the Hausa-Fulani and, pari passu, the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), by the Igbo, as well as the Action Group (AG), Yoruba. Three Nigerian leaders also emerged through that ethnic prism: Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, who represented the Hausa-Fulani north and the NPC, Nnamdi Azikiwe of the NCNC, the Igbo stock and Obafemi Awolowo, a Yoruba of the AG. Even the establishment of newspapers of the period reflected ethnicities.

Two events during this period clearly revealed that the ethnic rivalry between Igbo and Yoruba was going to last for long. One was how the disaffection between the two, in February 1941, caused a great split which occurred in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) a main nationalist organ for fighting colonial rule. The split occurred over the contest for the Legislative Council seat between Samuel Akisanya and Ernest Ikoli and the place of the NYM in the said election. It fanned embers of tribal disunity within the Yoruba which swayed Yoruba votes against Ikoli. By then, a highly beloved Azikiwe had begun to scoop the resentment of the Yoruba over his alleged divisive politics. It prompted Yoruba to rally round Ikoli who then ensured that he won the legislative seat. After the election, the remaining NYM members showed open hatred for Zik and his Pilot newspaper which led to his eventual resignation from the NYM. The bitter hostility against him was not only because they felt he was solely responsible for the Akisanya crisis in the movement, they also felt that Zik’s Pilot, during the crisis, damaged the reputation of the NYM and its leadership beyond reasonable doubt. He was alleged to be mirroring and trumpeting, in his newspaper, intra-divisions and fissures which were detrimental to the well-being of the movement.  

The second was Zik’s attempt to become the Premier of the Western region in 1951. Azikiwe, with his charisma and widespread popularity, was poised in the March of that year to capture not only western Nigeria but southern Nigeria in totality. Yoruba believed it was an insult for Zik to contest to conquer their region. This was what was carried over to the civil war period where hate against each other was manufactured by both Igbo and Yoruba to sustain the theory of ethnic domination earlier touted.

Since then, ethnic relations animosities between Igbo and Yoruba have been marked by the saying that the hen which perches on a rope will sustain double inconveniences between it and the rope. As it is now, the ethnic relations are comparable to a spectator watching rough trades of tackles on a football field. Gradually, relations between the two ethnicities are becoming frightening rough tackles. They may not be visible to the eyes but bruises decorate the legs of the two teams. And now, the tackles are bringing out blood. Yet, spectators are enjoying the brutal blood spillage. Psychologists describe this love for blood spillage as hemomania. It is a clinical disorder where personal excitement hallmarks one’s own oozing blood. And just as Rome was not built nor destroyed in a day, the trade of tackles worsens by the day. In its description of ‘gradual destruction’, Yoruba liken it to the plantain (ogede). When the plantain gradually ripens and human beings beam with joy, Yoruba ask if human beings also realize that as it ripens, the plantain is also rotting? “Ògèdè ńbàjé, e l’ó ńpón,” they say.

If you do a thematic analysis and ethnic assessment of commentators on Davido’s statement, you will find the same Abati ethnic lens in it. Davido’s mother was Igbo. Since the 2023 Lagos election when the Igbo-dominated Labour Party had taken the shine off the ruling APC, the Igbo and especially its LP gubernatorial candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, whose mother is also Igbo, have been literally declared personae non gratae for their “political impudence.” While Yoruba commentators, especially those in alignment with the ruling APC, have been gas-lighting Davido, his “mother’s people” – the Igbo – have supported him tremendously. Today, when you make comments on national affair, you will get positive or negative review based on your ethnicity, not the content of your comment, and the ethnic group the person making the review is from. The question to ask is, in what way was Davido wrong? What did he say that is unreal about Nigeria and its despicable leadership? Should Davido tell lies about Nigeria because he is an ambassador? So, what was that character called Patrick Doyle saying when he dragged his senescence into the fray, rather than being bothered about his most pressing family issues?

Among Igbo and Yoruba today, just as you had in 1994 Rwanda among Hutus and Tutsis, there is a high dosage of collective ethnic categorization. Each sees/saw the other as enemy. While Tutsis lost their individual identities, Yoruba and Igbo have lost theirs too in the ethnic war that is fought, not with bullets and swords, but with the tongue. As reflected by Janine Clark in her “Learning from the Past: Three Lessons from the Rwandan Genocide” (African Studies, 68, 1, April 2009) when Hutus were hacking Tutsis to death, their refrain was, “Unwanzi ni umwe ni umutusi” – the enemy is one. In an interview with a Hutu genocide perpetrator, on account in the article, he said “we no longer looked at them (Tutsis) one by one; we no longer stopped to recognize them as they had been, not even as colleagues” while another said, “I don’t remember my first kill, because I did not identify that one person in the crowd. I just happened to start by killing several without seeing their faces.”

Scholars have tried to find out why there had to be such inhuman labeling by the Hutu of Tutsi as “cockroaches” before their mass murders. One said the reason is that, “people do not ordinarily engage in extraordinary evil until they have justified to themselves the morality of their actions.” He said that in the Rwandan genocide, the génocidaires had to justify their actions on the basis of their belief that the Tutsis were enemies. Another justification is to see your erstwhile brother as “the other.” In Rwanda, victims were seen by the perpetrators of genocide as “the others” who must be dehumanized. According to Waldorf, “perpetrators of mass atrocity are far more likely to dehumanize their victims” and this “involves categorizing a group as inhuman either by using categories of subhuman creatures (that is, animals) or by using categories of negatively evaluated inhuman creatures (such as demons and monsters)”.

This was exactly what Nazis also did when they branded the Jews as parasites. In Rwanda, Tutsis were labeled ‘cockroaches’ (inyenzi) as a precondition for killing them. Some Rwandan génocidaire were also quoted as saying “we no longer considered the Tutsis as humans or even as creatures of God.” Igbo and Yoruba have devised similar labels for each other. Their own “cockroaches” today are “Ofe manu, Yibo, Ajòkútamámumi” weaponized to describe “the other.”  Some of these were used for Davido and Abati.

Wherever genocides occur, whether in Rwanda, in Pol Pot’s Cambodia or extermination of Jews, there is always an over-preferencing of ethnic identity. Yoruba and Igbo are today overpricing the primacy or supremacy of their ethnic identities. As a Yoruba, I have lived with both ethnic groups enough to know that there are evil and good people among them in equal proportion.

Any discerning mind following the exchange of vitriol by the two ethnic groups will discover that you only need a pin to burst this bubble of ethnic hatred. And arrive in Rwanda. The tensions are already gathering. Even people you would expect to know, among the two ethnicities, see things from ethnic prism. Their close to a century of animosities has wiped off mileages they made in ethnic relations in the past. Igbo no longer remember that Yoruba Francis Adekunle Fajuyi was assassinated in a counter coup led by northern officers when he volunteered his life for Igbo Aguiyi Ironsi. Ironsi was alleged to have been killed by top northern soldiers. Yoruba also forget today that it was to Michael Okpara that the Awolowo rump of AG ran to for alliance when S. L. Akintola attempted to worst it.

Elders of Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities must anticipate that Rwanda is afoot. They must find ways of changing this hate-laced narrative. The time bomb is ticking.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people ~ Luke 1:68.

Introduction:

The truth is that God often comes to townparticularly! Yes, the omnipresent-God is always present with us; however, there are spectacular moments when He formally visits and spends time with His peoplepurposely to grant them heightened manifestations of His love and power.

Quite unfortunately, many people do not know when He comes and when He goes. Thus, they lie in ruin and remain blind, deaf and undiscerning, not knowing the day of their visitation (Luke 19:44).

The issue is that the path to fulfillment of destiny on earth is often littered with desperate traitors and wicked predators (Luke 1:71-74). Notwithstanding, God’s desire to see His people accomplish their prophetic mandate in Christ Jesus remains unchanged (3John 1:2).

Divine visitation describes that sweet experience of supernatural appearance, which effectively culminates in our individual manifestations and accomplishments. It’s the unfailing answer to every form of trouble, frustration, famine and cruel delay (Ruth 1:1-6). Whenever God shows up, Satan automatically bows out. Why? Shekinah light and darkness don’t cohabit.

In Genesis 18:1-10, we read of an unforgettable experience of divine visitationto the patriarch, Abraham. Immediately he saw the “three men”, Abraham knew intuitively that they came to visit him, and he quickly rose to worship and to welcome them to his tent for refreshments.

As a result of Abraham’s positive and quick response at this hour of visitation, God gave him an everlasting promise that eventually overruled the delay, the reproach and the apprehension of twenty-five years.

See, every problem carries an expiry date; that is, they’re time-tagged. No matter how long it lasts, “surely there is an end …”(Proverbs 23:18). And, no matter what the situation is, you can rest assured that God will still visit you (Matthew 8:6). But, you must never ignore, overlook, dishonour or disregard the Heavenly Visitor.

Whenever God visits His people for good, He terminates satanic activities in their lives, especially in situations that have been long standing and have defied all human solutions, as in the case of the man with infirmity for thirty-eight years at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:2-9).

Again, when God visits His people, He provokes for them heaven-on-earth experiences, releases fresh glory upon them and brings them fitting miracles to preserve their dignity, restore their dominion and redeem their honour (Job 10:12).

Unarguably, God does not step into any situation unannounced, neither does His visitation leave any man on the spot where it meets him. When He visited Solomon, hebecame blessed with unusual wisdom, a long-life of peace, and staggering wealth of an unprecedented magnitude (1Kings 3:5-13).

When God steps into any issue, no matter how difficult it is, His glory turns it around (Psalm 106:4). Mighty wonders become inevitable, even as bitter tears are wiped away by the Dayspring from on high (Luke 7:11-16).

God could visit you no matter who failed in that regard before (Mark 9:17-27). And, He could visit you no matter how late it appears. Remember Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha (John 11:1-44). God’s visitation of preservation always putsbroad smiles on the faces of the visited.

Understanding Two Kinds of Divine Visitation

Essentially, God characteristically visits His people to preserve their honour, dignity and dominion, in Christ Jesus. He stepped into Egypt with signs and wonders and mighty acts, and He brought Israel out of the Egyptian captivity (Exodus 3:16-17). He visited Abraham and his wife, Sarah, gave birth to Isaac (Genesis 21:1-3)! When He visited Hannah, she conceived, and gave birth to three sons and two daughters (1Samuel 2:21).

However, whenever God visits His people for good, He simultaneously visits their stubborn enemies with His vengeance (Hebrews 10:30). He readily avenges His people to save them from troubles (Job 5:19).

In the days of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Moses spoke thus: “If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me” (Numbers 16:29).

In this context, Moses was clearly referring to a different kind of visitation: the visitation for vengeance. Thereafter, the rebellious three were summarily buried alive with their entire households.

God doesn’t spare His enemies that reject His mercy, and He doesn’t hesitate to pour out His vial of wrath upon the hard-hearted (Jeremiah 10:15). His vengeance is always swift as lightning and deadly sure, to vindicate His covenant people (Isaiah 26:13-14; 29:5-7).

Yes, people always frown at the idea of God’s vengeance. Nevertheless, none that breaks the “hedge” can escape the fury of vengeance, except by God’s grace and mercy (Deuteronomy 32:39-43).

The Lord’s “vengeance” must be understood in the light of His full character, including the essence of His justice system.God would be violating His own character if He overlooks wickedness, and doesn’t bring breaches to justice.

Jehovah-God is the God of mercy, but mercy requires that there should be justice. That’s the reason why Jesus Christ died to pay the price for our sins: to satisfy the demands of justice (John 3:16; Colossians 2:14; Romans 3:20-26).

Nevertheless, vengeance belongs to God alone (Deuteronomy 32:35). Thus, the Bible prohibits the believers from taking personal revenge upon their enemies (Leviticus 19:18; Romans 12:19).

Living Ready for the Lord’s Visitation

What should we do if God comes to our church or to our homes today? How shouldwe respond when He comes to us via Hisanointed Word? How should we act if He comes to us as an angelic stranger in our “busy schedules”?

What you do determines what you get, andhow you respond determines the trail that God’s visitation leaves upon your destiny. Let’s learn wisdom from Abraham. He seized the moment and maximized the opportunity at hand!

In particular, these are the days of God’s end-time visitation, and Jesus Christ Himself is the Royal Visitor from the heavenly citadel of glory (Luke 1:78). He came to give us life, light and all such other priceless benefits from above. We ought to wholeheartedly respond to His love, repent and believe the gospel totally.

Furthermore, let’s keep in mind that divine visitation is connected to divine timing and it draws heavily on divine promises, but it’s provoked through supplication (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

It is not just enough to know what God has promised, we must also call upon Him in prayers, asking Him to perform what He has spoken (Joel 2:15-18). It is our declaration of God’s promises in prayers that justifies us for His visitation (Isaiah 43:26).

Beloved, I see God showing up at your address this season. He will visit and bring you land-mark miracles. He will bless and settle you, and you will have many reasons to testify. May you not be asleep on the dayof His visitation, in Jesus Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Archbishop 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

Jesus castigates the natural father-child relationship as evil.  He asks:

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13). 

Since men are deemed evil, sons of men must also be evil. But since Jesus says, “No one is good but One, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17), sons of God must also be good.

Jesus maintains natural relationships are bound to go from bad to worse:

“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.” (Matthew 10:21). 

He also insists natural family ties are inimical to discipleship. 

Even David, speaking by the Holy Spirit, observes that man’s relationship with God is enhanced when his relationship with his parents collapses:

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me.” (Psalm 27:10).

 Indeed, God takes special care of those without earthly parentage, which explains why He is known as “the Father of the fatherless.” (Psalm 68:5). 

If God is the Father of the fatherless, He cannot be, at the same time, the Father of those with fathers.

Lineage of salvation

Therefore, one of the requirements of salvation is that the earthly father-child bond must be broken.  The heir of salvation must take the initiative and forsake his earthly father(s) for Christ’s sake. Jesus says:

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, rather, a sword.  I have come to set a man against his father..” (Matthew 10:34-35).

The earthly father-child relationship impedes the heavenly Father-child relationship.  Some cannot love God as Father because their earthly father is hateful. Some cannot love God as Father because they already love their earthly fathers. Others cannot obey the Father in heaven because his instructions are at variance with those of the fathers on earth.  

The complexities of these scenarios lead to a rather stringent condition for salvation.  The earthly father must be repudiated completely and the heavenly Father embraced totally without reservation.

The living and the dead

When one of Jesus’ disciples sought permission to go and bury his father, Jesus objected because a true disciple cannot have any other father apart from God. Jesus said to him:

“Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:22). 

When a man traces his identity through his earthly father, God regards him as a dead man.  Since earthly fathers die, their children are also appointed to death.  But when God becomes our Father, we pass from death to life. (John 5:24).  God says about us:

“This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:24).

This principle is brought out in Jesus’ discourse with the Sadducees.  He says to them:

“Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:31-32).

If God is our Father, we belong to the living and not the dead.  Thus, Jesus says to Martha:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26).

Confession of salvation

The good confession that Peter made, which earned him the high commendation of Jesus, was in identifying Jesus not as the son of Joseph, but as the Son of the living God.  As a result, Jesus said to him:

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:15-18).

Jesus’ church is built upon the revelation that he is, indeed, the son of God:

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:15). 

However, although Jesus commended Peter, He nevertheless observed that Peter himself was not yet a son of God but a son of man.  He was still Simon Bar-Jonah, which means Simon, son of Jonah. 

This explains Peter’s shortcomings.  When Jesus told His disciples He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed, Peter pulled Him aside and insisted such a bad thing would never happen to Him:  

“Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:23).

If Jesus is the Son of the living God, and the Son says He is going back to His Father, why would Peter insist this must not happen?  What good friend would deny a son the prerogative to go and be with his father?  It could only have been because Peter had yet to accept fully that God is the Father of Jesus.  He was still mindful of those things that pertain to the family of men instead of the family of God.

Cost of salvation 

The salvation Jesus provides is anathema to earthly fatherhood and all its appurtenances. He says emphatically: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26).

If we don’t relinquish earthly fathers, in preference for the only true Father in heaven, we cannot inherit the kingdom of God.  If we don’t relinquish earthly fathers, in preference for the heavenly Father, we would not be able to fulfil a cardinal principle of salvation, which is to lay down our lives out of love for God, in order to receive the eternal life. 

Jesus says:

“Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25).

In short, exclusively divine fatherhood is the foundation of eternal salvation. If we were to have any other Father outside of God, we could not be saved in this dispensation of grace. 

I like to put it this way. Jesus is not the way to God.  In the Old Testament, Moses, the servant of God, was the way to God. But Jesus is not a servant but the Son of God. Therefore, in the New Testament of today, Jesus is the way, and the only way, to the Father. 

Jesus explains this dynamic in this manner:

“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11:27). CONTINUED.

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Five years after it was gutted by fire, the Cathedral is more beautiful than ever

“If this monument is one day finished,” wrote Robert de Thorigny, a 12th-century Norman monk, of Notre Dame cathedral, “no other will ever compare.” The gothic edifice on an island in the historic heart of Paris is perhaps not unique. But it touches people—the spiritual and the secular, French and non-French—in unusually powerful ways. It is a place of worship, a testament to human ingenuity and a symbol of resilience. When on the evening of April 15th 2019 flames engulfed its timbered roof and toppled its spire, the shock and sorrow were global.

Today Notre Dame has been rebuilt. The archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, will ceremonially open its doors for the first time since the fire on December 7th, and hold the first mass the next day. Against the odds, France has stuck to the five-year timetable set by President Emmanuel Macron. On a final pre-opening visit on November 29th to what he called the “building project of the century”, Mr Macron brought cameras inside to reveal the restored interior for the first time.

Perhaps the most breathtaking feature is the cathedral’s newly luminous quality. After being darkened by centuries of grime, the blanched stonework of the pillars and vaults now appears as it would have done in medieval times. The pristine aspect of the stone—cleaned, consolidated, recut and replaced—will doubtless take by surprise visitors expecting to find the pillars rising “majestically into the gloom”, as Victor Hugo wrote of them in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. So might the bright pigment of the restored 19th-century chapel wall paintings, not to mention the modern liturgical furnishings in dark bronze. When the cathedral opens for mass, the congregation will be seated on 1,500 modern solid-oak seats. The clergy will be dressed in newly-designed contemporary ecclesiastical robes for the opening and until Pentecost next year.

The restoration of Notre Dame is remarkable in other ways, too. The rebuilding work scrupulously respects both the cathedral’s original design and its construction techniques. Sculptors and stonemasons worked with chisels and brushes to restore gargoyles and chimeras. Craftsmen used hand-forged axes to hew oak logs into square beams. Wooden dowel pegs hold the roof trusses together without metal pieces. The spire is a faithful reconstruction of the 19th-century version designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, which the flames destroyed. The project, involving over 2,000 workers and 250 firms, many of them small family businesses, has been a showcase for French craftsmanship. “You have transformed ashes into art,” Mr Macron told the artisans present during his tour.

The cathedral belongs to the French secular state. Yet its rebuilding has been carried out with almost no contribution from the public purse. This is thanks in part to the generosity of France’s richest businessmen, including two luxury-goods magnates, Bernard Arnault (head of LVMH) and François Pinault (founder of Kering). But hundreds of thousands of smaller donations have also flowed in, from France and around the world. Notre Dame, which had struggled before the fire to raise funds for restoration, collected a total of nearly €900m ($950m) in contributions.

The restored cathedral will have its detractors. Traditionalists will bristle at the touch of modernity. Modernists will regret the lack of a bold contemporary architectural statement. Purists will say it has been “over-restored”. But the quality and craftsmanship are hard to fault. “This is not a monument like any other,” Philippe Jost, who runs the public body in charge of the restoration, told The Economist earlier this year: “We are restoring a cathedral that is 860 years old so that it can last for at least another 860 years.”

The Economist

The fanfare that greeted the resumption of activities at the Port Harcourt Refining Company on Tuesday may have melted away leaving the hope and expectations of many Nigerians hanging.

A visit by Saturday PUNCH to the refinery on Friday revealed that there was no activity on site, as some workers met by our correspondent claimed that the refinery was undergoing calibration which might last till next week.

The Port Harcourt Refinery has faced numerous delays and missed deadlines to resume operations.

However, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Melee Kyari, inaugurated the new plant at the Area 5 terminal of the refinery on Tuesday. It was claimed that 200 petrol trucks were loading daily from the plant.

However, the announcement was met with skepticism as reports circulated that the trucks were loaded with old products in the storage tanks.

Upon visiting the Port Harcourt Refinery Area 5, our correspondent observed no signs of activity.

An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the loaded trucks contained “dead stock”.

He said, “Before the refinery was shut down between 2015/2016, we had dead stock left in the tank, including some Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) DPK  (kerosene), and Automated Gas Oil (diesel).

“So, these products were in large quantities in stores in those tanks. During the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, Old Area 5, those products were evacuated from the tanks for storage.”

However, he noted that the large quantity of refined petrol was “off-spec,” requiring separation from water to obtain the main product in preferred colours.

“But for DPK, it is in large quantity but they have not pushed it from the tank where it was kept after refined ready for commercial purposes.

“So, the product that was loaded was dead stock, that is the old product that was in the system. So, after these dead stocks, they will have to clean the tank, remove all the debris before pumping the new project into that tank, and redye it,” the source said.

The worker highlighted that refineries worldwide operate electronically, not manually.

“But what they are trying to do at the Port Harcourt Refinery is manual, which cannot match the new digital pumps. Most of the pumps used for the event were refurbished,” he added.

He explained that during Kyari’s visit on Tuesday, seven trucks were prepared for loading, but only five were filled with petrol.

The Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Taken Ikpaki, while speaking to journalists during the inauguration of the facility on Tuesday, had expressed optimism.

He stated that more trucks were expected to come into the facility to load products in the coming days.

But rather than more trucks coming into the refinery, the number of trucks has dwindled.

Around 1.30pm when our correspondent visited, he observed that most workers and drivers appeared idle as no machinery was operational.

Nine trucks were seen parked, but the loading bay, numbered from one to 18, was empty and deserted, with some workers lying down.

When asked about the lack of loading activity, a worker in overalls said, “They are de-watering, removing the water under the PMS. Maybe there will be loading after that, but we don’t know what time today.”

Another worker at the loading bay mentioned that ongoing calibration was the reason for the delay.

“They are calibrating the meters,” he said tersely.

Findings by our correspondent showed that the PMS left in the storage might not be enough to fill five trucks.

A source indicated that calibration would continue until Monday, with the loading of DPK (kerosene) and AGO (diesel) expected to start by then.

Speaking to our correspondent, a resident of Alode in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, who simply identified himself as Osaro, said, “After that ceremony with Mele Kyari where they said the refinery had started operation and loading was taking place, what happened afterwards? They continued loading on air, that is on the pages of newspapers and social media.”

When contacted for his reaction on the lack of activities on Friday, the National Public Relations Officer of the Petroleum Product Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Joseph Obelle, said it was as a result of ongoing calibration.

Obelle, the PETROAN spokesman, said, “They are calibrating the loading pumps. They will be done today.”

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the Senate Committee on Petroleum visited the refinery on Thursday on a facility tour. The outcome of the visit had yet to be made public.

Calls and text messages to the spokesperson for the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, were not replied as of the time of filing this report.

But the NNPC had in a statement denied claims by an Alesa community leader, Timothy Mgbere, that the Port Harcourt refinery was not producing fuel.

Soneye accused Mgbere of crass ignorance of how a refinery runs.

He said, “The old and new Port Harcourt refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for product load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that storage tanks and loading gantry which he claimed belongs to the new Port-Harcourt Refinery can also receive products from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery.”

He called on the public to disregard claims borne out of “sheer mischief and blatant display of ignorance.”

Punch

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State has criticised the tax reform bills, saying it will drag the northern part of the country backward.

The bills, transmitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in September, have faced stiff opposition, especially from the north, with stakeholders calling for its withdrawal.

Daily Trust had reported how Northern governors, traditional rulers, and Northern Elders Forum rejected the proposed bills, saying they were not in the interest of the nation.

However, despite protests and rejections of the pieces of the legislation, the Senate passed the bills for second reading on Thursday despite rowdiness at plenary.

Weighing on the development in an interview with BBC Hausa service, the governor expressed displeasure over how the bills enjoyed speedy and smooth passage to the current phase when other bills had to spend several years to scale through.

“We condemn these bills transmitted to the National Assembly. They will drag the north backward, and not only the north, South East, South West and some states in the South West such as Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, will have problem with these bills.

“It is not opposition. This, based on our understanding, is something that will destroy the north in its entirety. Therefore, we call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and others to review this decision. He secured 60% of his votes in the north. He should not listen to those telling him that northerners are not supporting him. If our interest is served, that is all. What we need now is the withdrawal of the tax bills.

“Why all the rush! There’s a petroleum bill that was presented but it took almost 20 years before it was finally passed. But this one was transmitted and now receiving legislative attention within a week. What we are saying is that, let it be treated carefully and with caution so that even after our exit, our children would reap the benefits.

“How we see it is, if these bills scale through, we will not be able to even pay salaries. And if we paid, it won’t be sustainable the following year.”

Asked whether the bills would further exacerbate hunger and poverty in the north, Zulum answered in the affirmative, adding, “Including security. But they’re saying otherwise. We are against it, Lagos is against it; that it will drag it backwards. If this is the situation, then why won’t they rescind it? Our National Assembly members and even some from the Southern region are not in support of these bills.”

The governor, however, clarified that his objection of the bills was not a pointer of any opposition against the government, maintaining that it was only a call to reverse the decision.

“This is our stand and doesn’t mean that we are against the government. We supported and voted for him (Tinubu). But these bills will not mean good for us.”

Asked to comment on whether the lawmakers would pass the bills when lobbied and given kickbacks, Zulum said, “There are rumours around but we are not certain. But you know we are in Nigeria! What I am saying is that let us all be patriotic. We have children, grandchildren and relatives who are in villages, therefore, we should be careful not to endorse anything that would impede the progress of the north and other regions. We are appealing to the President to listen to us and address our concerns.”

Daily Trust

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETTFund) said it would from January 2025 halt its foreign scholarship funding for Nigerian academics under the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) scheme.

The Fund disclosed the decision on Thursday in a statement by its spokesperson, Abdulmumin Oniyangi.

Oniyangi noted that the suspension is in response to the “excessive cost” of training in foreign institutions as well as the “high rate of abscondment of foreign scholars”.

The TETFund spokesperson said the board of trustees of the agency has approved the suspension.

He added that the suspension is effective from 1 January 2025 with the exception of scholars already in the programme.

“TETFund scholars who have already enrolled in foreign institutions would continue to draw down on their scholarships till the end of their programmes,” he said.

“It is expected that the suspension will conserve and reduce the pressure on foreign exchange rate, boost investment and local capacity in Nigerian tertiary educational institutions and significantly increase the number of beneficiaries of the intervention.”

Transnational education

TETFund said it is collaborating with the National Universities Commission (NUC) to intensify efforts to implement the Trans-national Education Guidelines “recently approved by President Bola Tinubu”.

“Under the scheme, top ranking institutions from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Malaysia, Brazil, etc. will be encouraged to mount programmes in partnership with Nigerian institutions to offer the same standard and quality of courses that are obtainable in their home institutions,” he said.

“Beneficiary Institutions of TETFund have been advised to prioritise their training needs for implementation in Nigerian institutions and ensure strict compliance.”

The NUC has since 2022 noted that it developed a guideline for the implementation of a transnational education “to guide foreign investment and partnerships between foreign universities and their Nigerian counterparts.”

About TETFund

Established in 2011, TETFund administers, manages, disburses, and monitors the judicious utilisation of the now three per cent Tertiary Education Tax paid by all registered companies operating in Nigeria.

It was formerly the Education Tax Act (1993) with a mandate to operate as an intervention fund to all levels of public education – from basic to tertiary education.

However, in 2011, the Act was repealed and replaced with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Act which focuses only on public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

PT

Hamas attacker opens fire at Israeli bus in West Bank, injuring at least 8: report

An alleged gunman from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas opened fire Friday at an Israeli bus in the West Bank, injuring eight people, including four soldiers, reports say. 

The incident near the settlement of Ariel ended when the attacker, identified by Hamas as 46-year-old Samer Hussein, was killed by Israeli troops. 

"As a result of the shooting attack, four IDF soldiers were lightly injured and were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, adding that "an armed terrorist opened fire at an Israeli bus in Gitti Avisar [Junction], causing injuries and damage." 

Images and video taken from the scene showed numerous bullet holes in the front windshield of the bus and a heavily damaged car on the side of the road. 

"IDF soldiers eliminated the terrorist at the scene," the Israeli military said. 

Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said the assailant belonged to its ranks, according to Reuters. 

Elsewhere, Friday, two girls and a woman were crushed to death as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip. 

The bodies of two girls aged 13 and 17 and the 50-year-old woman were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died from suffocation due to crowding at the al-Banna bakery, according to The Associated Press. 

Food prices reportedly have been soaring in the Gaza Strip following a recent attack on nearly 100 U.N. aid trucks that crossed over from Israel. 

A woman in the city of Deir al-Balah told The Associated Press last week that the price of flour has now climbed to more than $100 a bag, if it can even be found. 

Fox News