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Opinion:The Myth And Harsh Lessons Of Easter- Aare Kola Oyefeso

Published

4 years ago

April 11, 2020

Editor

It is Easter week and in deference to this unique period, I will be digressing from the series I have started with, to remind us about what Easter portends. This is considered of essence because Easter presents before us, a veritable opportunity to remember our Creator. It is also in perfect consonance with our desire for enduring happiness in the earthly field.

Easter is celebrated yearly by Christians all over the world with the usual pomp and pageantry. While Easter is an occasion for celebration to some, to those living truly, it is really a period for sober reflection.

To start with, it is considered of essence to do a brief reminder about Easter, particularly for the benefit of those who never had Christian background.

Easter is woven round a Master Soul who came unto the world about 2000 year ago. He was given the name Emmanuel at birth and bore the name of Joseph initially. He actually acquired the name Jesus after He was baptized and started His mission. The title of Christ was generally used for Him after He shed the mortal coil.

The Bible recorded His birth and early life, but blotted out eighteen whooping years of His short life span. We mustn’t have any issues with this, since we should be concerned about His teachings only.

All the teachings emphasized by Jesus still hold true today and shall ever be. The two stated infra stood out.

They are;

(1) The vital importance of LOVE, without which there wouldn’t be lasting peace nor any true religion.

(2) The immanence of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is to be found only within man himself as He insisted; the Kingdom of God is at hand.

These two great precepts are cardinal for true worship. The first is the worship of God in Truth and the latter, the worship of God in Spirit.

But alas! His message was poorly received and meagerly understood even by His own disciples, much less the multitudes. They were quite unprepared for His lofty idealism, such refined perception. Least of all could they understand the main point of His message which is;

“The Kingdom of God is a present reality to be known and entered upon while living”

Ironically, the same doubt persists till date. Among the most pretending to be enlightened in the world, very few could grasp that sublime idea of Jesus. They can imagine a Heaven to which people may go after death, but when told, they can pierce the dark veil and enter upon that Kingdom of God, while in the body, as epitomized by the account of the mount of transfiguration, they were repugnant to such idea. Yet, this idea was at the heart of the message of the Messiah.

In the time of Jesus, the Jews earnestly look for a temporal kingdom, and prayed for a Messiah, a great warrior, who could deliver them from the Roman yoke and make them rulers of the world. But instead of earthly kingdom, Jesus spoke to them of Kingdom of Heaven and He told them it was at hand. The Jews were not interested in Jesus’ fancies, impractical to them and subversive of all their fond expectations.

Jesus had very little time to share His teachings with the masses as He lived for only a very short period. The period He spread His gospel was equally evanescent as it lasted barely 3 years, and then, He could not stay in one place, as He was moving from one place to the other, preaching the message of Love and the Kingdom of God being at hand.

Expectedly, Jesus teachings brought Him in conflict with the authorities, especially the high prince and the Sanhedrin. His early death was a foregone conclusion.

After the merest mockery of a trial, Jesus was condemned to death on the cross, the most ignominious of execution. The death sentence was approved under a mild protest, by the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate. The bigots drove nails into His hands and feet.

Those were the feet that trekked across the lands of the Jews preaching the message of Love, of Compassion and Redemption. The hands were the healing hands which had graciously dispensed food and cured the multitudes. They crucified Him, and hung a thief on either side of Him.

At the last hour the great compassionate Teacher expired, crying out at being forsaken by the Father.

It was claimed that Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day hence; The purpose of Easter is essentially to celebrate the death and rise of Jesus from death, and mystically put, the triumph of soul over Satan.

As realists, our interest is not to dwell on the merit or otherwise, of the alleged physical rise of Jesus from death, although the adepts have maintained, the triumph of Jesus, was the merging back of His soul into the Oversoul. That is, His soul uniting back into the Supreme Soul of the Supreme Lord.

The ascension of the soul is the main goal of the Messiah and all true Teachers of Spirituality. They have come to teach us how to die while living, so that at the expiry of our lives, in this physical world, our souls will not encounter any barrier in ascending back to the Lord.

“I die daily” says Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 vs 31.

That is meditation for you. It is the act making the eye single and the body will be full of light. It is also the entering into our inner closet as taught by the Messiah, during which, the soul leaves the body and returns to it at will, while alive.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ seem the main plank upon which the entire Christianity rests. As far as the Christians are concerned, Jesus died to write off their sins, and as long as they believe in Jesus, their salvation is assured.

With such naivety, we are ignoring the inviolable injunction of the Messiah in Galatians 6 vs 7 on quote;

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, man shall reap whatever he sows

Is it not a great irony, that a God-Sent that was despised, humiliated, tortured, whipped, and made to die by crucifixion was later deified, and the world was cajoled that He died for their sins. In other words, He was sacrificed for the sins of the world.

It is not rocketscience for any rational being to know that every sacrifice depicts a triumvirate viz; The sacrificer,the object of sacrifice and the receiver. In this setting, we can only discern the object which was Jesus.

The unanswered questions remain;

Sacrificed to Who?

To God or to Satan?

Can God-Sent be sacrificed to God?

If we assume YES, who was or were the Sacrificer/s ?

Or was Satan so powerful that he needed the God-Sent to be percified?

All these posers shall be answered in future series, for NOTHING is hidden.

Guilefully, it was Paul who as Saul never acknowledged Jesus and was a Jadaic scholar that repackaged the lofty teachings of Jesus into what is known today as Christianity, having written a good portion of the new Testament.

It is on record that Peter whom the Messiah had appointed in form of a successor saying to him in Matthew 18 vs 18 that; “Whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven and that which you loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven” initially disagreed with Paul about Paul’s aggression.

Peter was emphatic that all through, their Master-Jesus preached message of Love and even on the Cross under excruciating pain, Jesus was still pleading with the Father to forgive His persecutors for they knew not what they were doing.

All told, it is the Sacrifice and belief Theory that the Priestly Class is still cashing on, to sustain Christianity and exploit their gullible followers.

It thus stands to reason that if by mere affirmation we can make Heavens, even Satan will also make Paradise. The method of accessing the bosom of the Lord was severally made unambiguous by the Messiah Himself, with several parables in the Bible and emphatically, in John 14 vs 23, He admonished;

“All who love me will do what I say, my Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them”

With another analogy, Jesus explained in very explicit terms the condition for meriting the bosom of the Lord, using the metaphor of the wedding garment.

This parable in Matthew 22 vs 1-14 which am quoting verbatim for effects reads as follows;

“Jesus spoke to them in parable saying; The Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent servants to those that have been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Then he sent more servants and said; Tell them that have been invited that I have prepared my dinner; My oxen are fattened cattle and have been butchered, everything is ready, come to the dinner.

They paid no attention and went off-one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The King was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Then the King said to his servants, the wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the streets corners and invite anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all people they could find, the good as well as the bad and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the King came in to see the guests, he noticed a man not wearing a wedding garment. He then asked; How did you get here without wearing a wedding clothes friend? The man was speechless.

Then the King told the attendants, tie him hand and foot and throw him outside, into the darkness,where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are invited but few are chosen.

The King in the narrative was the Lord Himself. The Wedding was the Grand Re-Union of our individual souls with that of the Lord, while the invitation was the daily prodding for us to; Let go the world and let in the Lord. The servants were the truly Anointed of the Lord. Not the Challatants.

Those who turned down the invitation were those who were still involved with the world’s shadow show and not ready for the Lord, while those that attended were the average postulants, but some of them, their devotion was not untainted. Their souls haven’t the wedding garments as yet.

If we can digest the drift of this parable, it will dawn on us meriting the Kingdom of God is not a walk in the park. It is far beyond affirmation. This perception is as groundless as feeling, merely enrolling in a University would make earning a degree automatic, without studying to pass the qualifying exams.

Quite rightly, belief in Jesus is a sine qua non. But added to the belief is the readiness for the disciplines and hard work required, to detach ourselves from the world and live strictly within the teachings of Jesus.

To the “unenlightened” who may be prone to reading the parable literally, the King could be adjudged as wicked. He asked the servants to invite all comers to the banquet, when the High and Mighty he initially invited did not turn up.

Where did he expect all manners of people to have wedding garments to wear to his banquet? And if those without wedding garments wouldn’t be allowed to partake in the banquet, why punishing them by binding them hands and feet?

But with expanded consciousness, we will come to the understanding that the wedding garment is a metaphor for being Born Again. It is harsh to say, but the truth is; We are all here because we were dead in the Spirit world to take birth in the earthly field. As we sojourn in the earthly field we are so to say, spiritually asleep or enervated in spirit.

To return to the Unsullied Region-The Abode of the Supreme Lord we have to be born again. The true and real born again is the wedding garment. Baptism per se is our acceptance to live within the tenets of the Messiah’s teachings.

The Wedding Garment or Born Again for the soul is the soul’s pristine state when it is shorn of all fetters, of sins, of earthly cravings and attachments.

These are all the pre-conditions that will make the soul to radiate and shine once again in it’s primeval refulgence.

That is the state where the soul will exclaim “That I am” on realizing its undefiled identity with the Oversoul, known as God, Heavenly Father, Allah, Olorun, Chineke and other names we have ascribed to the First Cause.

Only on this attainment that the soul merits the bosom of the Supreme Lord, where there is no speck of filth. NO OTHER WAY!!!

It is in view of the stringent requirements that hardly can any human reach the Court of the Lord without the Lord’s grace. Even then, we have to earn the grace because of the cosmic rule in Matthew 7 vs 6 on quote;

” Pearls are not cast before the swines”

Against the foregoing, the choice is open to us,either to allow the blind to continue to lead the blind, or go for the true teachings of the Messiah.His teachings require neither additions, nor embellishment just as He charged us in John 8vs 32.

“To seek the Truth and only the Truth shall set you free”

Best tidings of Easter & May its lessons and reason enable us to live righteously.

We will revert to the earlier series next week DV.

Aare Kola Oyefeso, a businessman, writes from Lagos

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Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway: Prioritize Existing Unfinished Projects, Peter Obi Tells FG

Published

1 day ago

April 22, 2024

Eric

Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, has advised the federal government to prioritize existing unfinished projects spread across the country instead of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project.

Obi, in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, stated that the project was a misplaced priority given the numerous unfinished roads throughout the country.

The former governor of Anambra State mentioned that the budget allocated to the Ministry of Works is insufficient for significant progress on the country’s various unfinished roads, much less their completion.

Obi therefore, advised that the government prioritize the existing infrastructural projects in the country before embarking on any new and colossal projects like the Lagos-Calabar super highway project.

“The Federal Ministry of Works 2024 capital budget of N892,461,262,656.00, additional funding from multilateral loan projects of N94,828,535,243.00, alongside other expected contributions from sources like the China-Exim Bank and the World Bank, will not be enough for serious work on all the critical roads, some of which I enumerated above, let alone their completion.

So, why embark on another huge project that will not be completed in the next 20 or 30 years?

“To do so will only exacerbate the problem of abandoned, uncompleted projects that are not contributing to economic growth and overall development.

“Therefore, while acknowledging the potential benefits of coastal superhighway infrastructure, I urge prioritization of our existing uncompleted projects. We must allocate resources towards repairing and completing existing infrastructure.

“In any development formula, the primary focus should be on completing and rehabilitating existing infrastructure rather than embarking on colossal new projects that may never reach completion within the next 30 years,” Obi said.

Back in March, the Federal Government began constructing the 700-kilometer Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, designed to extend through 9 states with two spurs leading to the Northern States.

Recall that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had earlier described the project as a fraud.

“Umahi had announced that Hitech would fully fund the project, and based on this, there was no competitive bidding. He (Umahi) then said that Hitech could only raise just 6% of the money for the pilot phase. This smacks of deceit,” Atiku said.

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2027 Presidential Race: Opposition Parties Under Attack

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

While it is still a whole three years before the next general election in 2027, The Boss has learnt that opposition parties in the countries are being muffled to pave the way for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to return to, and retain power.

From the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the Labour Party (LP), and down to the New Nigerian Peoples Paty (NNPP), crises have engulfed the rank and files, in what a source told this paper was the attempt and making of the ruling party, APC, to decimate, destabilize and make redundant the machineries of the opposition parties.

It is believed that by 2027, the apparatuses holding together the various opposition parties would have weakened irredeemably to the extent the country would seemingly nosedive into the inglorious one party state that every civil right advocate and democrats abhor.

It is alleged that all the crises in all the opposition parties are being engineered by the President Bola Tinubu-led ruling APC, with the hope of getting the fibres of their system weakened, thereby luring the members of the crisis-ridden parties into the APC.

Slightly one year after the last presidential election, the two major opposition platforms, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, have separately been embroiled in a crisis of confidence which has diminished their capacity to provide viable opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The crises in both opposition parties got to a head. The Labour Party led by its national chairman Julius Abure held its much-opposed national convention which was boycotted by its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi; its only governor, Alex Otti of Abia State; federal and state lawmakers elected on its platform, and the organised Labour.

In the Labour Labour, members have been embroiled in endless battle of supremacy with a faction led by Mr. Apapa steadily contesting the leadership of Julius Abure.

Consequently, the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, reverence as a leader in the fold, noting that whatever the party faces presently, that Nigeria’s problems are far bigger than the crises in his party.

The LP has been embroiled in crises — ranging from allegations of misappropriation of funds, and leadership tussle, to calls for the resignation of the party’s national chairman.

TheCable reported that “On March 27, the LP conducted a national convention in Anambra state where Julius Abure was re-elected as its national chairman.

Obi did not attend the convention, fuelling speculations that he may be mulling over ditching the LP for another platform.

Speaking during an appearance on HaveYourSay247, an interactive online session hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo over the weekend, Obi said he is confident that the crises rocking the LP will soon be resolved amicably.

“Whatever is happening in the Labour Party is so minute compared to what is happening in the country,” Obi said.

“So, for me, it is something we will resolve amicably, and it is not anything to worry about. Let us worry about the country.

“Let us worry about how the average Nigerian would be able to have a means of livelihood to be able to eat, that should be our worry.”

Obi said he has no interest in being the party’s leader but only to make sure things are done properly.

“I don’t see what I do in politics as being the leader of any place or not. My position is that just like I always say, I am not desperate to be president of Nigeria, I am desperate to see Nigeria work because I know it can work,” he added.

“We have a more desperate situation. Parties are just a means to be able to contest elections. What is important is that being a leader of a party does not reduce the price of food.

In the PDP, the shenanigans of former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has practically kept the party in constant crisis with many observers concluding that the now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is working for the APC, and is just a mole in the PDP. Wike has denied the allegation, however,

But news filtered in last week as that the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NEC meeting on Thursday was not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

While political stakeholders concluded that the outcome of the Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan; every page of what finally transpired at the meeting pointed to the fact.

The much touted removal of the party chairman, who is believed to be a crony of the Abuja minister, Damagum, retained his seat, with his executives.

“It is very clear to everyone that a lot of money politics is being played to cajole many loyal members of the party, forcing them into frustration, and eventually it of the party. The option afterwards, will be the APC. This, will for all intent and purpose actualize the intended one party state as an APC agenda.

The Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso-led NNPP is not faring better either. The only governor under their ticket, Abba Kabir Yusuf, just had the confidence of their party on him withdrawn. He was fighting for his political life until suddenly it was announced the the APC in Kano has collapsed its structure into the NNPP.

“This is just another APC strategy to actualize their hidden intentions. Time will reveal the very sinister agenda they harboring,” an analyst said.

Much as 2027 is still three years away, but intrigues are in play to render Nigeria a one party state, and perpetuate the APC in power. The three other opposition parties are basically under attack to bring to pass this unpopular agenda.

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Akwa Ibom Government, Governor Umo Eno Receive Top Honors at the 10th Wonders of the World Expo in Lagos

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Admin

The Akwa Ibom State Government and Governor Pastor Umo Eno were recognized with Travellers Awards at the 10th Wonders of the World Expo in Lagos for their sustained enhancement of infrastructure, support for local talent, and dedication to investment in the tourism sector. The ceremony took place at the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos.

While Akwa Ibom won the Most Active Tourism State of the Year, Governor Eno was adjudged the most Tourism-Friendly Governor of the Year at the event that had Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Lola Ade John in attendance.

According to Amb. Ikechi Uko, Founder/Publisher of ATQ Magazine, the organizers of the event which is in its tenth edition, Akwa Ibom State won the top prize “in recognition of its valiant and resourceful efforts to drive and sustain domestic tourism by promoting the industry.

‘In 2023, Akwa Ibom was one of the states that hosted World Tourism Day (WTD ) events. The state also organized the famous Christmas Unplugged, which featured music, food, and cultures from all 31 LGAs as well as ensured friendly policies.”

While hoping that the Travellers Awards would spur Akwa Ibom to do more to dominate the domestic tourism industry, the organizers hoped that the state would gradually evolve into one of Nigeria’s top international tourism destinations.

That was not all, the state Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Sir Charles Udoh was also recognized as one of the Top 100 Tourism Personalities in Nigeria for demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovation in the travel and tourism industry, while other Akwa Ibom indigenes and entity were also celebrated: Mrs. Ime Udo, Honorary Special Adviser to the Governor( Tourism) won Tourism Promoter of the Year, Favour Udo won Tourism Photographer of the Year, Loretta Effiong and Prince Uduak Sunday (Qua Tours) were listed among the Tourism Personalities of the Year and Ibom Air won Airline of the Year International.

In his remarks, Sir Charles Udoh, who represented the Governor at the event, thanked the organizers for the awards and noted that Akwa Ibom is certainly enjoying the golden era when it comes to tourism development. He stated that Governor Umo Eno is very keen on making Akwa Ibom a leading tourism destination with his programmes and policies.

He revealed that with the new Victor Attah International Airport nearing completion, the purchase of a ferry for the Oron-Calabar route, new developments along its coastline and the restoration work that will be done at all its major tourism sites, Akwa Ibom is well on the way to becoming the number one destination for all domestic and foreign tourists.

In her speech, Tourism Minister, Mrs. Ade John hailed the organizers for hosting the Expo, where practitioners were lectured by top experts while also rewarding those who have excelled in the past year.

She affirmed that her ministry is open to partnership with public and private sector operators, adding that tourism development can only be successful through collaborative efforts.

The event, which attracted leading and budding tourism professionals, also featured interactive and entertainment sessions.

Apart from Sir Charles Udoh and Mrs. Ime Udo, the Akwa Ibom State delegation, also included: Mr. Michael Effiong James, Senior Special Assistant (Lagos Liaison) to Governor, Mrs. Eme Bassey, Special Assistant to Governor (Lagos Liaison) and Akparawa John Offiong, Deputy Director ( Culture) Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

More photos below: