Headline

Opinion: Unraveling The Puzzles Of Earthly Life (2)- Aare Kola Oyefeso

Published

6 years ago

April 26, 2020

Editor

By Aare Kola Oyefeso

We are continuing with the topic of last week and thereafter, we will elevate this discourse to; MAN BEYOND THE STHETOSCOPE AND SURGEON’S SCALPEL.

Before proceeding, i wish to acknowledge some of the readers who reminisced over the matter of Abiku/Ogbanje and were very assertive about having experienced the incident.

One of Nigeria’s fiery writers and prolific social commentators-Akogun Tola Adeniyi who is not given to frivolities confirmed having witnessed it in Ago Iwoye. He has challenged any doubting Thomas to come to Ago Iwoye to verify his claim.

On the same subject a Finance Guru-Hon Semiu Oganla FCA, wrote that the Abiku incident actually happened within his family in Abeokuta. Kudos to all others that responded to confirm Ogbanje/Abiku is real.

I offer apologies for inability to mention them all while I have no issues with anyone that is still in doubt, on the account of having not experienced it. It is trite that our belief or non-belief doesn’t change a fact.

The responses gladdened the heart and underscored the fact that this discourse is an interactive one. Not the usual one sided parroting of lecture or homily, where the audience has no right of reply.

As a matter of fact, all the inquisitive minds of today should be congratulated for their keen interest for more meaningful existence, unlike most of our forebears who came into the world as babies and returned to the Creator even worse-off than that of babies, by which they arrived into the world. This is the situation with anyone who came unto the world, did so many wonderful things, but without any inkling of his true nature.

Which rational person will not wonder in all generation, in every race and clime that if men were created equally, why do so many suffer deprivations and hardship? Why do virtually all of us have so many ups and downs in life? Why can’t everyone simply be happy from birth to death? In short, why is life so hard to understand and why in such mystery man suffers till he dies?

At the physical level an analogy that portrays the plight of the average man from cradle till he bids the world bye goes as follows;

As a baby, immense pain he suffers, neither he makes a sign, nor a word utters.

He cannot tell what ails him. In pains,he weeps and cries,but parents are at a loss to understand the cause.

He suffers from one disease but he’s treated for another. This adds more to his trouble.Every treatment at this stage of life borders on guesswork. Thus; babyhood passes in distress.

Then he enters into boyhood, parents want to send him to school, but he has desires for play and games. Get daily trashed,nobody saves him,he hates both the teacher and parents. What a great pity,This period is also lived in angst.

Now cometh youth,the age of folly. Lust and passions awake in his mind.Desires driven,he runs after the opposite sex. He marries and brings home his spouse.The company he enjoys,he doesn’t know he is chained, he forgets altogether parents’ obligations.Day and night he dallies with wife,when children appear, love for parents pales and gradually disappears.

Next, worries for livehood come,he runs from door to door,like a dog,he gets rebuffs.From morning till evening of nothing else he thinks but survival. Money is his prayer and possessions become his preoccupation. Wants and worries do increase,these make his life hellish and disease prone.

Maintaining position of pride and caste,all these burdens he takes to heart. What a fool to have loaded his head with the ephemeralities of the material world.

He now gets perplexed and runs about in search of peace, but instead, he gets sorrow and affliction. Sooner he regrets his folly,but to no avail.Misery and distress come like rain. Now is the eclipse when frogs of depression,disease,and death loudly croak on all sides,every now and then. His life snaps and his lifeless body is lowered into the grave for all manners of earthly insects to feast upon. What a purposeless life this depicts!

As grave as this situation portrays, we must not be despondent. There has always been a way out.That is, we can still live a meaningful and Godly life in the midst of the hurly burly of the physical world.

All we need do is to commence our our search with this easy-peasy hypothesis such as; Would the Almighty God permit a spiritually starved seeker to go unfed?

For an answer, the Bible comes handy as we read Christ in Mathew 7:9 – “What man is there of you, who if his son asks for bread, he will give him stone”

The Lord indeed answers all honest seekers after Him provided our search is sincere and not the case of trying to serve God and mammon at the same time.

And for encouragement, we read also in the Bible that;

“If earthly men full of sins and iniquities pay wages to the labourers that work for them, how much more would the Heavenly Father reward those who work in His vine yard”.

The Lord surely rewards us provided we worship Him in the proper manner and place, which is, in His true temple-the human body, fearfully and wonderfully created.

But instead of resolutely seeking the way of worship in Spirit within the Lord’s Temple, we continued to opt for superficial worship and looking for lasting peace in externalities. Yet, all to no avail.

The truth is, the world shall ever remain imperfect and no one can improve it by an inch breath. While there is no one that can remove all the thorns of the world, with strong shoes,we would walk on the thorns unscathed.

That is saying, the problems and challenges of the earthly world will always be there and confronting mankind as they were in the past, are currently and shall be in future.

But assuringly, with True Worship we can rise above the world’s trajectories, in a manner we will become indifferent to pleasure and pains. We will be in the world but not of it. We will be like the lotus flower, whose root however immersed in water,the leaves remain dry.

Those seeking lasting happiness in the world will do well to read what Christ said in Matthew 10 vs 34 -35 to wit;

“Think not that I have come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace,but with a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,and daughter against her mother,and daughter in law against her mother in law”

This statement of Christ plainly tells us our ideal Shangri-La will ever remain a mirage. Jesus was emphatic; I have not come to turn the world into a place of bliss and happiness. That wasn’t in the Grand Design of HE who has created the world.

The Messiah came to release us from the prison of this world by breaking the chains of our attachment to father, mother,son,daughter, uncle, nieces,associates, friends and other worldly relationships.

Jesus was sent to the souls that were ready to get out of the circle of birth and death. He was very blunt about this, He said; “I pray not for the world but to those allotted to me by the Father” And as a corollary He added; “I know my sheep and my sheep know me”

This is where we got it wrong by confusing the work of Christ and Saints with that of the philanthropists and social reformers.

Many noble souls and kindhearted people have been born again and again in this world and they have tried their best to give relief to the suffering masses.

But the benevolence of Jesus,Saints and Avatars are completely different. Their merchandise is the Word. Nothing else. Through the Word of God, they give succor to the souls pining for the Father, and this is beyond the scope of the worldly reformers. The Messiah and Saints have continued to prompt us to leave the pen house of the Negative Power, where we are all roasting in the fire of our desires.

We will raise this discourse from next week to explaining how MAN has been fearfully and wonderfully created-the understanding being a pre-condition for True Worship.

Ramadan Kareem to the Muslim Faithfuls.

To the general populace, coronavirus is REAL. The antidote is hygiene supported with prayers.

Prayer is simply submitting our hopelessness to a higher Being. Before we do however, we must do our bit. Our bit is compulsory wearing of mask, constant washing of hands,and strictly observing social distancing.

Thereafter, we could expect the Lord to crown our efforts. But please note; God loves and crowns our efforts.No effort, Nothing for the Lord to crown.

Aare Kola Oyefeso, a businessman, writes from Lagos

Headline

Why Nigerians Must Reject INEC’s Revised Timetable – ADC

Published

5 days ago

February 28, 2026

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during the week, released a fresh elections timetable, with major amendments to accommodate the just passed and signed Electoral Act 2026 by the National Assembly and President Bola Tinubu respectively.

Following the repeal of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2026, which introduced adjustments to statutory timelines governing pre-election and electoral activities, the Commission has reviewed and realigned the Schedule to ensure full compliance with the new legal framework.

Accordingly, the Commission has resolved as follows:

Presidential and National Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 16th January 2027 as against the earlier stated February 20, 2027
Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 6th February 2027 as against the former date of March 6, 2027

Also in accordance with the approved Schedule of Activities, the electoral bidy noted in the revised timetable that:

Conduct of Party Primaries, including resolution of disputes arising from primaries, will commence on 23rd April 2026 and end on 30th May 2026.

Presidential and National Assembly campaigns will commence on 19th August 2026.

Governorship and State Houses of Assembly campaigns will commence on 9th September 2026.

As provided by law, campaigns shall end 24 hours before Election Day. Political parties are strongly advised to adhere strictly to these timelines. The Commission will enforce compliance with the law.

But in a swift reaction, the opposition coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC), rejected the revised 2026–2027 general election timetable, describing it as a politically biased schedule designed to favour the re-election agenda of President Bola Tinubu, and calling on all Nigerians to speak up enmasse to reject the revised timetable.

The ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Friday argued that the new deadlines and compliance requirements under the Electoral Act 2026 create near-impossible hurdles for opposition parties seeking to field candidates.

On February 13, INEC initially scheduled the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections for February 20, 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections were fixed for March 6, 2027.

The timetable, however, faced objections from some Muslim stakeholders who noted that the dates coincided with the 2027 Ramadan period.

Following the concerns, the National Assembly amended Clause 28 of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, reducing the required election notice period from 360 to 300 days, allowing INEC to adjust the election dates.

Subsequently, INEC released a revised schedule on Thursday, signed by its Chairman, Joash Amupitan, moving the Presidential and National Assembly elections to January 16, 2027, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections to February 6, 2027.

Reacting, the ADC said the requirement that political parties submit a comprehensive digital membership register by April 2, 2026, effectively bars opposition parties from participating.

The party stated: “The African Democratic Congress rejects the updated 2026–2027 electoral timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission. What has been presented as a routine administrative schedule of the upcoming general elections is, in fact, a political instrument carefully structured to narrow democratic space and strengthen the incumbent administration ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“According to the timetable, party primaries are to be conducted between April 23 and May 30, 2026, just 55 to 92 days from today. However, more significant is that, pursuant to Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act 2026, political parties are required to submit their digital membership registers to INEC not later than April 2, 2026.

“That is only about 34 days away. Section 77(7) further provides that any party that fails to submit its membership register within the stipulated time shall not be eligible to field a candidate. These are not routine administrative rules but are deliberately constructed barriers designed to exclude the opposition from participating in the election.”

The party further noted that Section 77(2) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires the digital register of members to contain name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, National Identification Number (NIN) and photograph in both hard and soft copies, while Section 77(6) prohibits the use of any pre-existing register that does not contain the specified information. It warned that failure to meet these requirements would lead to disqualification.

The ADC questioned the fairness of the digital membership requirement, noting that the ruling All Progressives Congress began its registration process in February 2025, long before the requirement became mandatory.

“It is not a product of foresight but insider advantage. They knew what was coming. They therefore had one full year to carry out an exercise that other political parties are expected to complete in one month, during which they must collect, process, collate and transmit large volumes of digital data to INEC under the threat of exclusion. This is practically impossible.

“Democratic competition is based on a level playing field that does not give any contestant an undue advantage. A system where one party exploits incumbency to gain a one-year head start on a requirement that other parties only became aware of when it was nearly too late is a rigged system.”

The ADC said it has joined other opposition parties in rejecting the Electoral Act 2026, adding that the INEC timetable is equally rejected as it appears designed to serve what it described as a self-succession agenda.

“Let it be clear that ADC will not take any action that appears to confer legitimacy on a fraudulent system. We are reviewing our options and will make our position known in the coming days,” the party said.

The party also called on civil society organisations, democratic stakeholders and Nigerians to scrutinise the timetable and demand fairness, stressing that democracy cannot survive when electoral rules are structured to produce predetermined outcomes.

The party has consistently accused the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) of scheming to silence the opposition as the 2027 General Elections draw closer, citing his manipulation of state governors and Assembly members from jumping ship, and settling with the ruling party.

Presently, the president’s party has a total of 31 out of 36 states governors, more than majority of the national and states Houses of Assembly.

A frontline publisher and chieftain of the ADC, Chief Dele Momodu, has warned that Tinubu is gradually transforming into full-blown dictatorship, stressing that his second term in office would turn state governors into ‘total slaves’.

Headline

Second Term for Tinubu Will Turn Governors into Total Slaves, Dele Momodu Warns

Published

5 days ago

February 28, 2026

Eric

Chairman, Ovation Media Group, and former presidential aspirant, Aare Dele Momodu, has expressed strong concern over what he described as growing political support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu among state governors across the country.

Speaking during an interview on News Central TV, Momodu said he was shocked by the level of backing the president is reportedly receiving, warning that Nigeria’s democracy could face serious risks if the current political trend continues.

The media entrepreneur cautioned that allowing Tinubu to secure a second term in 2027 could, in his view, lead to excessive concentration of power. He particularly criticized what he described as a growing wave of opposition figures aligning with the ruling All Progressives Congress> (APC).

Momodu referenced reports of opposition governors, including Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, allegedly moving closer to the ruling party, describing the development as politically troubling.

According to him, some governors are allegedly competing to demonstrate loyalty to the president ahead of future elections.

“The governors are fighting to ensure Tinubu wins a second term, fighting to be the biggest thug for him. If a man in his first term can capture the bodies and souls of Nigerians this way, imagine what he would do with a second term. It will be a full-blown dictatorship, and the governors will regret it as they become total slaves to him,” Momodu said.

He concluded by urging Nigerians to remain vigilant and actively protect democratic institutions, warning that unchecked consolidation of political power could threaten the nation’s democracy and future stability.

Gistmania

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Court Validates PDP 2025 Convention in Ibadan, Affirms Turaki-led NWC

Published

6 days ago

February 27, 2026

Eric

The Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has affirmed the validity of the 2025 Elective Convention of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), which produced Dr. Kabiru Turaki as the substantive National Chairman of the party.

Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Ladiran Akintola upheld the convention in its entirety, ruling that it was conducted in full compliance with the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions governing party elections in Nigeria.

The decision marked a significant legal victory for the party’s leadership and brought clarity to the dispute surrounding the convention’s legitimacy.

The ruling followed an amended originating summons filed by Misibau Adetunmbi (SAN) on behalf of the claimant, Folahan Malomo Adelabi, in Suit No. I/1336/2025.

In a comprehensive judgment, the court granted all 13 reliefs sought by the claimant, effectively endorsing the processes and outcomes of the Ibadan convention.

Justice Akintola held that the convention, organised by the recognised leadership of the party, satisfied all laid-down legal requirements as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), and the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.

The court found no breach of due process or statutory non-compliance in the conduct of the exercise.

In the same proceedings, the court dismissed the Motion on Notice seeking a stay of proceedings and suspension of the ruling, filed by Sunday Ibrahim (SAN) on behalf of Austin Nwachukwu and two others. The applications were described as lacking merit.

Earlier in the proceedings, the court had also rejected a bid by Ibrahim to have his clients joined in the suit.

Justice Akintola ruled at the time that the joinder application was unsubstantiated and consequently dismissed it.