3 THINGS TO LEAVE BEHIND IN 2015

These are literally the final moments of what has been an interesting year. 2015 has come and it is about to go in a hurry. We all fought battles this year, won most of them, lost some – but in all we were never alone; these final moments should be the time to thank those who fought out battles with us last year – because we’ll need them on the new battlefield that is 2016. 

As the new year approaches too, we can identify so many things that happened last year, which to be quite frank, are not good enough. These things happen both personally and nationally (we’ll talk about the national aspect).
Listening to the President during the media chat yesterday sent me a whole lot of vibes, many good, many others not – so – good. Bottom line though is that as a country, we need to drop so many things in 2015.

1. Sensationalism 

The GCFR mentioned this in one of his answers yesterday. Nigerians are very quick to “sympathize” with just about anyone who claims to have a fight with the government – and this should not be so. Our country is going through hard times and as such, the government needs our support prayers now more than ever.
This Biafra brouhaha in itself is very bad for everyone, but it is made worse by the number of youths who are (permit me to say blindly) raising their arms in vandalism to prove a point they are not even sure of. This fight and others like it need to stop because in a country as big as Nigeria, different sets people will ALWAYS feel marginalized – we don’t need to make a war out of it.

2. Ungratefulness

Someone once said that even if Jesus were to personally come and fix Nigeria, some people would still accuse him of having sinister motives. That person is not far from the truth. Nigerians can be just about anyone but what do we choose to be, ungrateful. This country has a very uninteresting culture of not being able to appreciate good deeds, instead we will find one reason or another to justify out ungratefulness, please friends, let us drop this attitude in 2015. Every form of ungratefulness we show to friends, family and anyone else is wrong and should be dropped. Thank you.

3. Selfish, self – serving attitude

This annoying attitude of ours was brought to the fore more than ever during the Paris bombing last month. People, it is ok to sympathize with other people. No additions or conditions, anything else is selfishness. We live in a country where a Yoruba or Igbo man/woman can open their mouths to say” thank God they are killing their own people” when they get the news of another boko haram attack, yet we call ourselves a nation.
If we cannot show sympathy to our fellow countrymen what charity is there for us to leave home with. Enough is enough.
Let us please drop these attitudes and doings this year and watch our nation go higher in 2016. Have a blessed New Year and pray for Nigeria and the world.

YOU HAVE THE BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT ALREADY

Merry Christmas dear friends, may the true essence of this season never be lost on us and may it bring us multiple graces that fit all our desires. Amen.

Talking about desires, permit me to get very personal with my point of view this morning (it’s not like I know any other way). We have discussed what Christmas should mean in truth, today I would like to go one better and explain why I think family is the greatest gift of all.

AND WHEN THEY ASK "WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS MEAN TO YOU?"

It has been quite the year for everyone – both in a good and bad sense, but we have to be grateful for the overall good which is the gift of life. Being here is not by chance, but however you choose to see it, we are here and that’s what counts.

So many questions crop up at this time of the year; from Jehovah’s witnesses asking “does the bible ask you to celebrate Christmas?” to your friends and random girls asking for gifts to commemorate the season. The loudest question you are going to hear people ask is “what does Christmas mean to you?”

Ironically, whenever I see clergy men and other “important” people answer this question all the say is “this is not a season to eat and drink in excess… or indulge yourself in …bla bla bla”. 

Anonymous ‘Operation Isis’ accused of wrongly naming innocent people after Paris attacks

Leading UK news house Daily mail reports that Anonymous’ “war” on Isis is leading to innocent people being wrongly reported as members of the militant group.The 'hacktivist' network launched an operation to identify and shut down the accounts of Islamic extremists in the wake of the attacks in Paris, but people who are not affiliated to Isis appear to have been identified as part of the group, according to reports on social media.

At least one person identified was correctly identified as part of the operation. But the Anonymous-affiliated user who first reported his identity has reversed the claim, after criticism that details being shared on Twitter was incorrect and that the person identified was not involved with the group.

@AhmedHuzeyfe @orovodj I am incredibly angry at myself for letting this happen and I am willing to do whatever is neccessary to defend him

— JhonJoe (@OfficialJhonJoe) November 17, 2015

The site claims it has found and shut down more than 5,500 Isis Twitter accounts. In line with previous operations — including one launched in the wake of Charlie Hebdo — the group is largely working to find accounts on Twitter and then have them suspended by reporting them to the network.Anonymous has previously appeared to have problems with its verification processes, including in a recent high-profile operation against the Ku Klux Klan. Activists affiliated with Anonymous leaked a supposed list of members of the group, but many of the identities on there appeared not to be genuine.

People affiliated with the group also wrongly identified a person that it claimed was the police officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson. It had, in fact, named another police officer who didn’t work as part of the local force, and his family were reportedly forced into hiding.

A person who claims to be behind the Operation Paris account told the BBC that those involved in the operation “run effective verification of intel (intelligence), and make sure that our leads are legitimate before we attack them”.

“In some cases, they could be sympathisers or followers that republish horrifying display,” the man, whose name is unknown, said.

“We guarantee that we are not making false accusations to those who aren't actually involved.”

The group has also drawn criticism from other hacktivists. The Jester, an anonymous online hacker, said the group’s efforts were unlikely to amount to much.

"It's the usual case of Anonymous jumping on a current big news story," he told Tech Insider.

"It'll amount to a hill of beans like always."

The Jester has taken on those behind the “OpParis” Twitter account, which has served as a repository and broadcast platform for much of the information about suspected extremists that is being shared.

@opparisofficial Little late now isn't it? Media praising u for naming these ppl as ISIS & ur like, well actually only 'some' *might* be.

— JΞSTΞR ✪ ΔCTUAL³³º¹ (@th3j35t3r) November 18, 2015

The Jester claimed the original video was likely uploaded as a stunt in itself, and that the group was forced to try and make an impact on Twitter as a way of backing up the claims in the video.

The hacker has also claimed in the past that Anonymous itself has been used by Isis and other terror movements as a way of furthering their reach online.

RANDOM MUSINGS ON TODAY'S EVENTS

What a day this has been. More eventful and tiring than most, I must admit; saw things, heard things, did things.

I had always had a neutral outlook on the case of big Uncle Dasuki in this whole period of trials and probes happening to him. But a panel just revealed that he was dubiously awarded arms contracts to the tune of N333bn. Every day I keep wondering why the amounts these suspected looters are accused to have siphoned always exceed all logic. It is hard to imagine what one man (and one at such and age) would need that much money for. Anyways, we pray that justice prevails and hopefully the money is not re – looted again if recovered.

In more interesting news, the acting Vice Chancellor of LASU Prof. Fidelis Njokanma has abandoned his office at the institution over charms surrounding the administrative block and the Senate Building of the institution, Punch reports. This is the part where I say something about it, but there's really nothing to say. I do hope it is fixed soon though because in the end, things like this always have their ways of coming back to bite the students in the butt.

An unknown substance is said to have gone off in the ancient city of Kano today. The substance, believed to be a bomb, exploded at the Kano GSM market around farm centre. Details of the incident are still sketchy.The incident came less than 24 hours after a similar explosion in a crowded park in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, left at least 34 people dead and 80 injured. 20 people are already confirmed dead, now there's a new city to add to tonight's prayers. #PrayForTheWorld.

Still on Paris, chants of 'Allahu Akbar' were reportedly heard in Istanbul as some Turkey fans shamefully booed a pre-match minute's silence for the victims of the Paris attacks.

The friendly itself against Greece was largely forgettable as the action finished 0-0 at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium.

But the game was tarnished before it even started as a video emerged suggesting some of the Turkish faithful were voicing their dissent towards tributes for the 129 victims who were killed in last Friday's atrocities in Paris. Our world is indeed messed up.

We mustn't forget that the fuel scarcity is still biting harder , transport costs have gone up, the crowds at filling stations keep getting bigger; yet we keep hearing on TV that there is no scarcity, " avoid panic buying" they say. But they do not feel the scarcity, do they? To Whom It May Concern, whenever we find a filling station that has fuel and it gets our turn to buy, we will panic – buy and you will do nothing about it.

And they are saying that they will start paying unemployment benefit by 2016 from the TSA (I think that means Treasury Single Account). Big daddy Jega has also come out to say that TSA is a “Recipe for Electoral Disaster”. Big English that is always difficult to understand.

Today also dropped its fair share of lessons, they include

·         a. People are ungrateful.

·         b. Older people always feel that the younger generation is doing things wrong.

·        c. Children grow so fast these days.

·        d. Running into old friends always make your day.

·        e. CHANGE HAS NOT COME. At least I haven't seen it.

You may want to know...

Good morning good people. Hope you all prayed for Nigeria this morning.
I'm sure most of us have participated in the daily ritual of going through our phones to see what issues have made news since yesterday.

Not much has happened really, our Edo uncles are still at it; but we won't get on their case, they're starting to look like school girls craving attention.

What's bigger news is Adele dropping another track off her upcoming album. The song, "when we were young" will take you down memory lane; one reviewer even said it will burst your heart open. Let's just keep calm and remember its just a song and refrain from poking the past in the backside (like you did with Hello) although I'm quite sure there won't be a" when we were young challenge". More importantly, it further buttresses what we've known for some time now, Adele is good.

The most interesting news item to me this morning is the #20000(twenty thousand Naira) paid to our world conquering Golden Eaglets. To further spread salt on such injury is the $40000 Governor Nyesom Wike would have to pay the Super Eagles as he promised, for scoring two goals against Swaziland.
This is a very funny country, our president recently promised to redeem the promise made to the Eaglets team that won us the first U17 title on 1985. Guess who was Head of State at that time. Although it can be said that it happened for unavoidable reasons, the President is just set to redeem his own promise 30 years later.
So what do we expect the Eaglets to do with #20000 (it's not even enough for a plane ticket to take them home). They certainly deserve more, and perhaps Gov. Wike could have made better use of his money by spending it on a more deserving set of people.

Back to the world stage, it's no more news that a potential cracker of a match between the National teams of Germany and Netherlands had to be cancelled yesterday due to a bomb threat. This is coming days after the deadly Paris attacks that left hundreds dead. Luckily the cancellation of the game was a pre-emptive measure and no damage whatsoever occurred.

A few of us must have heard bits and pieces about a group simply known as" Anonymous". They declared war on ISIS few days ago with the promise to bring them down, and in that light they released some information about some purported members of the group. This development is truly welcome and much needed.

Finally, our own sons of Belial; I'm talking about Boko Haram struck again. Al Jazeera reports that a bombing occurred in a popular fruit market in the Jimeta area of Yola, Adamawa state of Nigeria. Let us pray for the dead who have successfully become statistics (again). And let's keep praying for Nigeria and the world.

WHILE WE CRY FOR PARIS...

The chill of the harmattan in the air can no longer be mistaken, just like the chill that ran down our spines yesterday at the news of what happened in Paris. Gruesome shootings and bomb blasts that left dozens of people dead, several others injured and a whole lot more stranded for hours away from their home.
While I have never seen the sense in terrorism (nobody has, except maybe terrorists), it still defies my logic how killing random everyday people on the streets helps to achieve any worthwhile aim.
I am saddened and angered at the same time, because people like each of us - with dreams, hopes, plans and more - were killed yesterday, and life goes on with all of their dreams, and plans and everything else just dead, like that.

I woke up this morning, happy that it was a Saturday, until the memories of last night's news started flooding back, and the news items Google had waiting for me were just too painful to bear.
The Daily Mail reported over 150 people dead (that's more than the number of classmates I had this graduation year).
More inspiring though, is the spirit of solidarity that Parisians displayed towards each other - by keeping their doors open to people on the streets of the city at the time of these attacks and spreading the message on social media with the hash-tag #PorteOverte meaning open doors.
While President Obama rightly describes this as"an attack on humanity and the universal values we all share"; and the angst and sadness of it all transcends bothers, race and religious lines, something needs to be said (and done) about Islam.
Ironically, it is the famed religion of peace, but it has brought the world so much problem in the last couple of years that Islam is starting to seem like the biggest threat to world peace. While I agree that being a Muslim does not make you a terrorist, we would all understand my view that Islam needs a cleansing.
There are quite a number of religions in the world today, and none of their members seem to generate as much bloodshed as fanatics of Islam.
Eyewitnesses in Paris yesterday reported the terrorists saying this was about Syria, Iraq and
according to a woman in the restaurant where shots first broke out near the Bataclan, a gunman shouted 'Allah Akbar' (God is great in Arabic) before firing.
Islamic leaders need to do more than talk. They need to accept that their religion has been bastardized, the tenets and teachings of it misused by misguided individuals; and take proactive steps to clean it up and save the world.
Someone said on Twitter that Islam was fighting WWIII against the world...and that person may not be very far from the truth in the light of recent happenings.
Our thoughts are with Paris and its people, taking a second hit this year, 10 months after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Stay strong Paris. Mere terrorists cannot break the will of all of us. Our prayers are with you all.

HAPPY Sunday!!!!!

You don't have to be a Christian to know that Sundays are beautiful. It is the exact day that provides the true rest that Saturday pretends to offer; and for a Christian like me, seeing the happy faces of people in church makes me happy (a lot of things make me happy).
Talking about happiness, my Jehova's witness aunt once asked my why I didn't like going to church with her while I was staying at her place. The answer was simple, I went once and it wasn't happy enough for me. They say humans are creatures of emotions, my favorite is happiness and quoting a passage of the Bible "in the presence of God, there is fullness of joy..." I don't quite remember the book and chapter, but we all get the message.
Friends, we all go to our places of worship for a variety of reasons all of which boils down to the search for happiness. Today's sermon was on generosity, and it was so good it got me to increase my proposed offering budget; but what matters is that I did it happily.
If you don't feel the happiness at your place of worship, I doubt if it signifies the absence of God - it probably means you haven't encountered him; after all the Holy book also says something about people starving in the face of abundance.
Here's my whole point, you won't find happiness in the house of God until you find happiness within yourself (after all you are the temple of God) about your Church (I mean the people, not the building). So stop changing churches because you feel you aren't encountering God and happiness. That part is on you. And when you receive the next message that reads "happy Sunday", try to smile, most of those people imagine you smiling when the message meets you (at least I do).
Happy Sunday. Smile. The world needs happy people.

PRE - GAME TALK ... YOU WANT TO READ THIS

It's one of those Saturdays again. I mean the good ones where no matter what you have to do, you will finish in time to catch your favourite team play in the EPL. There are a couple of things to do though, before the games begin. Some of them are, but not limited to the following

1. Talk to your family

We get carried away in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and seem to forget the people we're doing it all for. Asking questions is a good way to find out things you don't know. People are secretive, children more so; but willingness to ask them what is going on with them might just make them want to open up to you. My little cousin just asked me if I'm not going to check his books today (I do that every Saturday and he uses the opportunity to tell me the things that happened during the week at school). He's a very inspiring kid, and he's probably the reason I'm writing this post.

2. Fix things around the house.

Little things will always need repairs around the house and the Pre - football moments of Saturday present the perfect opportunity to get down and dirty and fix them. It might be a couple of minor electrical stuff like changing bulbs, socket heads and whatever. Just do it. Preferably with another family member. This provides bonding time and could be the mystery "Quality Time" everyone talks about.

3. Get some exercise

This should be top on the list. Health is key to enjoying life (plus its really good to keep fit and have a presentable body). I know I've not had any exercise in weeks, my cousin just asked "what are these red shoes for?" about my football boots, I spent about 7 minutes explaining the concept to him, but long story short, I need to take this piece of advice too.

4. Visit friends 

This needs no explanation. Visits help to build ties. Visit friends on Saturday, Sunday is for family (this is not a general rule, it's just my rule).

5. Get your hands on some sports news 

This is most important to me. Please do not be that annoying guy at the viewing center who argues like a blind idiot (sorry). Use your phone, buy sports papers; one way or the other, just make sure you don't come to say "when will Wenger use Van Persie now? What is wrong with the man?" (what is wrong with you).

6. Have a nice weekend and may the odds ever be in your favour.

A WORD ON FRIENDSHIP

Relationships are pretty much what keeps us going, family, friends, acquaintances all come together to form our support system. Every individual needs others in one way or another to function optimally; and friends are arguably the most constant presence in our lives, from childhood to the prime of adulthood. Sometimes friendships change as we age and experience new stages of life, and a lucky few get to keep their friendships till very ripe old ages. So the question is what constitutes a good friend.

Good friends support us when necessary, but more importantly, help to put us back in line when we start to err or take unwholesome decisions. Good friends are trustworthy (that goes without saying) and understanding. Being understanding means that they know us and our faults and accept us for the imperfect beings that we are. Simply put, a good friend cuts slacks. It is said that humans are creatures of emotions, not logic and sometimes we do things that make no sense whatsoever – but a true friend understands that fact and doesn’t judge us so readily.

The biggest attribute of a good friend is loyalty. Loyalty needs no explanation, and is a matter of extreme absolutes, you either are or you’re not. Being a good friend requires that you have the back of your friends every time and in every condition (except maybe death, and a federal crime), a disloyal friend is a liability, dead load (even worse).

So read this, evaluate your friendship(s) and make adjustments where necessary. The world needs better friendships.