Our Daily Bread devotional, January 17, 2017 - Finding Life
Topic: Finding Life [Tuesday January 17, 2017]
Read: John 14:5–14, Bible in a Year: Genesis 41–42; Matthew 12:1–23
Because I live, you also will live. John 14:19
The words of Ravi’s father cut deep. “You’re a complete failure. You’re an embarrassment to the family.” Compared to his talented siblings, Ravi was viewed as a disgrace. He tried excelling in sports, and he did, but he still felt like a loser. He wondered, What is going to become of me? Am I a complete failure? Can I get out of life some way, painlessly? These thoughts haunted him, but he talked to no one. That simply wasn’t done in his culture. He had been taught to “keep your private heartache private; keep your collapsing world propped up.”
So Ravi struggled alone. Then while he was recovering in the hospital after a failed suicide attempt, a visitor brought him a Bible opened to John 14. His mother read these words of Jesus to Ravi: “Because I live, you also will live” (v. 19). This may be my only hope, he thought. A new way of living. Life as defined by the Author of life. So he prayed, “Jesus, if You are the one who gives life as it is meant to be, I want it.”
Life can present despairing moments. But, like Ravi, we can find hope in Jesus who is “the way and the truth and the life” (v. 6). God longs to give us a rich and satisfying life.
Prayer: Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner, and I need Your forgiveness. Thank You, Jesus, for dying for me and giving me eternal life. Transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to You alone.
Only Jesus can give us new life.
Insight:
On the eve of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, His preoccupation was not with the imminent pain that awaited Him but on the welfare of His disciples. After promising He was going away to prepare a dwelling place for them, Jesus told His followers He would come again to gather them to Himself. The foundation for such claims was Christ’s declaration that He is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He was able to comfort His disciples because of who and what He is. Jesus offers all who believe in Him the same hope of a new life.
This message was written by Poh Fang Chia [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
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Tuesday, 17 January 2017
Monday, 16 January 2017
Breaking: Scores feared dead as suicide bombers hit University of Maiduguri mosque
Breaking: Scores feared dead as suicide bombers hit University of Maiduguri mosque
Twin Suicide Bombers have sneaked into the University of Maiduguri, Borno state, and detonated heavy explosives at a mosque near Gate 4 and 5 of the institution. This incident is coming at a time where students were writing their end of first semester exams. Sources said the incident took place at about 5:35am when Muslim Ummah were performing their morning prayers. “There was twin suicide attacks in a mosque situated close to professors quarters, north of the University of Maiduguri this morning, scores were killed including two professors, students and staff”. The source said. A resident of the institution who simply gave his name as Mallam Umar Ibrahim in an interview said. “The two female suicide bombers entered the varsity through Gates 4 and 5. The explosives went up and hit two mosques at 5.15am and 5.35am simultaniously on Monday”. Already the Public Relations Officer of the Institution, Mallam Ahmed Mohammed confirmed the suicide attacks in the University, but said, he did not have further details as to whether there is casualty. Details later please.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/breaking-scores-feared-dead-suicide-bombers-hit-university-maiduguri-mosque/
Sunday, 15 January 2017
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY FELLOW NIGERIAN YOUTHS
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY FELLOW NIGERIAN YOUTHS.
Dear Nigerian Youths,
Wikipedia defined politics as a process of making decision applying to all members of each group, more narrowly it defines politics as achieving and exercising positions of governance, organized control over a human community particularly a state
With these definitions of politics we see the great importance of politics, unfortunately the Nigerian youth of today do not participate in Nigerian politics, by participation, they are not involved in the whole process of politics as they only participate in the ballot processes.
I strongly believe that not enough is done for the youths of today to get involved fully in politics, the youths should be allowed more access to politics to shape the future of Nigeria.
Inaccessibility although will not be a barrier if today youths brace up enough to their responsibility.
In Nigeria today, UNDP once supported youth based CSO coalition to actively participate in the constitution review process including submission of memorandum to constitution review committee of the National Assembly, I remember a forum formed ahead of the then 2015 election that cut across many political parties called Nigerian Youth inter party forum.
This forum was used to deliberate on issues of common interest and challenges affecting the expansion of frontiers for youth political participation.
Today’s youths spend valuable time on flimsy things, singing praises of corrupt leaders and wasting away in whatnots.
What has happened to the good example people like late Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe and former president Yakubu Gowon laid during the days of their youths.
Alas, My fellow Nigerian youths the time has come for us to look back and take the right steps towards salvaging this country from the present corrupt leaders who has been feeding fat on our future for the sake of our born/unborn children, it is not to late for us to be part of the whole governing process, though the challenges may be harsh but with great doggedness and determination we will get there.
I implore us to live to our responsibilities as youths with a difference.
Thank for reading, God bless the Federal Republic Nigeria.
This open letter is written by Fasipe Oluyemi from Ondo State and he tweets via @YemieFash.
Dear Nigerian Youths,
Wikipedia defined politics as a process of making decision applying to all members of each group, more narrowly it defines politics as achieving and exercising positions of governance, organized control over a human community particularly a state
With these definitions of politics we see the great importance of politics, unfortunately the Nigerian youth of today do not participate in Nigerian politics, by participation, they are not involved in the whole process of politics as they only participate in the ballot processes.
I strongly believe that not enough is done for the youths of today to get involved fully in politics, the youths should be allowed more access to politics to shape the future of Nigeria.
Inaccessibility although will not be a barrier if today youths brace up enough to their responsibility.
In Nigeria today, UNDP once supported youth based CSO coalition to actively participate in the constitution review process including submission of memorandum to constitution review committee of the National Assembly, I remember a forum formed ahead of the then 2015 election that cut across many political parties called Nigerian Youth inter party forum.
This forum was used to deliberate on issues of common interest and challenges affecting the expansion of frontiers for youth political participation.
Today’s youths spend valuable time on flimsy things, singing praises of corrupt leaders and wasting away in whatnots.
What has happened to the good example people like late Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe and former president Yakubu Gowon laid during the days of their youths.
Alas, My fellow Nigerian youths the time has come for us to look back and take the right steps towards salvaging this country from the present corrupt leaders who has been feeding fat on our future for the sake of our born/unborn children, it is not to late for us to be part of the whole governing process, though the challenges may be harsh but with great doggedness and determination we will get there.
I implore us to live to our responsibilities as youths with a difference.
Thank for reading, God bless the Federal Republic Nigeria.
This open letter is written by Fasipe Oluyemi from Ondo State and he tweets via @YemieFash.
Nigeria's deadly monster Part 1 by Femi Fani Kayode
When you take everything away from a man or a people, including their humanity, their loved ones, their land, their posessions, their faith, their God, their self-respect, their identity and their dignity and you put them and theirs under the fire and sword morning, day and night, you cannot expect them not to voice their pain and not to scream out and shout.
And when the screaming and shouting goes unheeded you cannot expect them not to hit back and attempt to break the yoke of torment, subjugation, tyranny and slavery that has been placed upon them.
No matter how powerful you are and how long you have been killing them and all who are there’s, one day they will rise up, pull you down from your giddy heights, cut open your throat and drain your blood.
If history teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that much. The morale of the tale is as follows: mind how you insult and mock your victims and those that you treat with contempt, kill at will and hold in bondage because one day their time will come.
It is in this context that I view the shameful call by the Council of Imams for the arrest of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Christian leaders in Southern Kaduna for asking the people to defend themselves from genocide.
The call is not only reckless and provocative but it is also self-seeking and dangerous.
Lest we forget the facts are as follows: 808 Christians were butchered on Christmas eve and Christmas day by the Muslim Janjaweed Fulani militia in Southern Kaduna.
Not one of the butchers and bloodthirsty murderers that perpetuated these heinous crimes have been identified, apprehended, arrested or eliminated since then by our security forces.
The Christians of Nigeria are still in mourning and the people of Southern Kaduna are still suffering from heavy trauma.
Despite that there have been no soothing words or expressions of regret, consolation or solidarity from any Sunni Muslim group in the country since the pogrom took place.
The only thing that they have heard are threats and insults from the Council of Imams. The only exceptions are the Shiite Muslims who have consistently expressed outrage about what is going on in Southern Kaduna and who have themselves also been subjected to mass murder and genocide in Kaduna state simply because they are not Sunnis.
Simply put, the Islamists first butchered the flock then told the shepherd that he dare not complain or attempt to protect those that were left alive. What type of monsters are these?
The Supreme Council Of Islamic Affairs made matters worse by saying that those that killed 808 Christians in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day were “unkown elements”.
Really? This is surely the biggest insult of all. It is rather like saying that those that perpetuated the holocaust against the Jews which resulted in the cold-blooded murder of 6 million Jews were “unkown elements”. To indulge in such mendacity is as insensitive as it is callous.
Worse still it represents the greatest perversion of truth and the most bestial denial of decency and justice that Nigeria has witnessed in many years.
It is falsehood and pefidy, cooked and served up by a group of unconscioble and uncontrollable dark and evil men who believe that they can get away with absoluteĺy anything and who are a law unto themselves.
Meanwhile, Miyetti Allah, the umbrella organisation that speaks for the Fulani herdsmen and the Janjaweed militia, have said that the mass murder of Christians that took place in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day were “reprisal” and “revenge” killings for the murder of their kith and kin by the Christians of Southern Kaduna in 2011. Need we look any further for who the real culprits are?
In his own contribution the Minister of Internal Affairs, General Dambazzau, who is himself a Fulani Muslim, has roundly condemned CAN’s call on the Federal Government to do its job and protect the people of Southern Kaduna and their counsel to the Christians to defend themselves where and when the government fails to do so. I ask again, what type of monsters are these?
And why has our President refused to call them to order? Is it because he shares the same faith and comes from the same region as them? Is it because the President himself is not only a Muslim and a Fulani man but also the Life Patron of Miyetti Allah?
Professor Wole Soyinka provides profound insight into the matter. He said,
“Religion in the history of this continent has been a disastrous venture, a disaster in many zones and continues to be even so today. In this very nation in Southern Kaduna, over 800 souls were brutally extinguished suddenly. While the issue of grazing lands versus farming is unquestionably part of the conflict, it is equally undeniable that religious differences have played crucial role in the conflict. And yet some weeks before the latest outrage, the governor of that state was quoted to have claimed that peace was nigh since he had sent funds to the earlier wave of killers and they had agreed to end their killing spree. What astonished me was not the admission by the governor but the astonishment of others at such governmental response to atrocity. There was nothing new about it. Has appeasement to religious forces not become a Nigerian face of justice and equity? First lethargy and then appeasement. Wasn’t Boko Haram’s Muhammed Yusuf not a beneficiary of appeasement in a similar fashion? Southern Kaduna has reminded us once again that the monster always lying waiting to pounce under the guise of religion. If you ask why General Buhari did not act fast enough when these events take place, which degrade us as human beings, well it is perhaps he has been waiting for the governor of that state to send money to the killers first for them to stop the killing.”
Whatever the reasons are for the indifference of our President and the callousness and insensitivity of the Council of Imams, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Miyetti Allah, Governor Nasir El Rufai, General Dambazzau and all those that support them, it would be wise for them to appreciate the fact that the patience of the rest of the country is fast running out and that they are set to provoke a chain of ugly events the end of which will not augur well for them or their cause.
Nothing reflects this better than the words of Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, who is one of the most influential and powerful clerics in the country, when he said,
“Since when has it become a crime for Christians to say they can defend themselves ?
Must the north always rule? If Nigeria will break let it break. No marriage is by force. I curse every Islamic northern forces sponsoring this uprising of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram in Jesus name. You catch anyone that looks like them, kill him! There is no reporting to anybody. Kill him! Pull off his neck! And we spill his blood on the ground. What nonsense. They said why should Christians say they could defend themselves, hold it! What stupid statement, why should Christians say they could defend themselves? So, they should watch for you to put a knife to their necks? You think we are dummies? What! What? All those zeros census they are fake. Where are the human beings?Where are they? We go around the place. Where are they? We’ve never had a successful census in this country. Where are they? Don’t mistake only those in politics as in power. The anointed in the Lord are the ones in power. By divine ordination, don’t mistake that. There was a king in the land but Elijah was determining the events of the nation. If I say it will not rain here for three years, it will not drop. What nonsense! Who born their mother, who born their father? They are too small. Come! Get excited and walk in confidence. Any devil that misbehaves around you will be slain by the fire!”
Again Darius Ishaku, the Governor of Taraba state, said,
”The people of Southern Kaduna must wake up from their slumber and defend themselves. You can’t just lie down and allow yourselves to be annihilated by other groups. You have a constitutional right to self-defense and now is the time to use it. The government alone cannot do it.”
Clearly the drums of war and conflict are already beating in our nation and no-one takes a greater share of the blame for this than those identifiable forces that are encouraging, sponsoring, protecting and covertly supporting these barbaric and murderous Fulani militias and herdsmen. They are all, to the last man, nothing but monsters and beasts. (TO BE CONCLUDED).
And when the screaming and shouting goes unheeded you cannot expect them not to hit back and attempt to break the yoke of torment, subjugation, tyranny and slavery that has been placed upon them.
No matter how powerful you are and how long you have been killing them and all who are there’s, one day they will rise up, pull you down from your giddy heights, cut open your throat and drain your blood.
If history teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that much. The morale of the tale is as follows: mind how you insult and mock your victims and those that you treat with contempt, kill at will and hold in bondage because one day their time will come.
It is in this context that I view the shameful call by the Council of Imams for the arrest of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Christian leaders in Southern Kaduna for asking the people to defend themselves from genocide.
The call is not only reckless and provocative but it is also self-seeking and dangerous.
Lest we forget the facts are as follows: 808 Christians were butchered on Christmas eve and Christmas day by the Muslim Janjaweed Fulani militia in Southern Kaduna.
Not one of the butchers and bloodthirsty murderers that perpetuated these heinous crimes have been identified, apprehended, arrested or eliminated since then by our security forces.
The Christians of Nigeria are still in mourning and the people of Southern Kaduna are still suffering from heavy trauma.
Despite that there have been no soothing words or expressions of regret, consolation or solidarity from any Sunni Muslim group in the country since the pogrom took place.
The only thing that they have heard are threats and insults from the Council of Imams. The only exceptions are the Shiite Muslims who have consistently expressed outrage about what is going on in Southern Kaduna and who have themselves also been subjected to mass murder and genocide in Kaduna state simply because they are not Sunnis.
Simply put, the Islamists first butchered the flock then told the shepherd that he dare not complain or attempt to protect those that were left alive. What type of monsters are these?
The Supreme Council Of Islamic Affairs made matters worse by saying that those that killed 808 Christians in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day were “unkown elements”.
Really? This is surely the biggest insult of all. It is rather like saying that those that perpetuated the holocaust against the Jews which resulted in the cold-blooded murder of 6 million Jews were “unkown elements”. To indulge in such mendacity is as insensitive as it is callous.
Worse still it represents the greatest perversion of truth and the most bestial denial of decency and justice that Nigeria has witnessed in many years.
It is falsehood and pefidy, cooked and served up by a group of unconscioble and uncontrollable dark and evil men who believe that they can get away with absoluteĺy anything and who are a law unto themselves.
Meanwhile, Miyetti Allah, the umbrella organisation that speaks for the Fulani herdsmen and the Janjaweed militia, have said that the mass murder of Christians that took place in Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day were “reprisal” and “revenge” killings for the murder of their kith and kin by the Christians of Southern Kaduna in 2011. Need we look any further for who the real culprits are?
In his own contribution the Minister of Internal Affairs, General Dambazzau, who is himself a Fulani Muslim, has roundly condemned CAN’s call on the Federal Government to do its job and protect the people of Southern Kaduna and their counsel to the Christians to defend themselves where and when the government fails to do so. I ask again, what type of monsters are these?
And why has our President refused to call them to order? Is it because he shares the same faith and comes from the same region as them? Is it because the President himself is not only a Muslim and a Fulani man but also the Life Patron of Miyetti Allah?
Professor Wole Soyinka provides profound insight into the matter. He said,
“Religion in the history of this continent has been a disastrous venture, a disaster in many zones and continues to be even so today. In this very nation in Southern Kaduna, over 800 souls were brutally extinguished suddenly. While the issue of grazing lands versus farming is unquestionably part of the conflict, it is equally undeniable that religious differences have played crucial role in the conflict. And yet some weeks before the latest outrage, the governor of that state was quoted to have claimed that peace was nigh since he had sent funds to the earlier wave of killers and they had agreed to end their killing spree. What astonished me was not the admission by the governor but the astonishment of others at such governmental response to atrocity. There was nothing new about it. Has appeasement to religious forces not become a Nigerian face of justice and equity? First lethargy and then appeasement. Wasn’t Boko Haram’s Muhammed Yusuf not a beneficiary of appeasement in a similar fashion? Southern Kaduna has reminded us once again that the monster always lying waiting to pounce under the guise of religion. If you ask why General Buhari did not act fast enough when these events take place, which degrade us as human beings, well it is perhaps he has been waiting for the governor of that state to send money to the killers first for them to stop the killing.”
Whatever the reasons are for the indifference of our President and the callousness and insensitivity of the Council of Imams, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Miyetti Allah, Governor Nasir El Rufai, General Dambazzau and all those that support them, it would be wise for them to appreciate the fact that the patience of the rest of the country is fast running out and that they are set to provoke a chain of ugly events the end of which will not augur well for them or their cause.
Nothing reflects this better than the words of Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, who is one of the most influential and powerful clerics in the country, when he said,
“Since when has it become a crime for Christians to say they can defend themselves ?
Must the north always rule? If Nigeria will break let it break. No marriage is by force. I curse every Islamic northern forces sponsoring this uprising of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram in Jesus name. You catch anyone that looks like them, kill him! There is no reporting to anybody. Kill him! Pull off his neck! And we spill his blood on the ground. What nonsense. They said why should Christians say they could defend themselves, hold it! What stupid statement, why should Christians say they could defend themselves? So, they should watch for you to put a knife to their necks? You think we are dummies? What! What? All those zeros census they are fake. Where are the human beings?Where are they? We go around the place. Where are they? We’ve never had a successful census in this country. Where are they? Don’t mistake only those in politics as in power. The anointed in the Lord are the ones in power. By divine ordination, don’t mistake that. There was a king in the land but Elijah was determining the events of the nation. If I say it will not rain here for three years, it will not drop. What nonsense! Who born their mother, who born their father? They are too small. Come! Get excited and walk in confidence. Any devil that misbehaves around you will be slain by the fire!”
Again Darius Ishaku, the Governor of Taraba state, said,
”The people of Southern Kaduna must wake up from their slumber and defend themselves. You can’t just lie down and allow yourselves to be annihilated by other groups. You have a constitutional right to self-defense and now is the time to use it. The government alone cannot do it.”
Clearly the drums of war and conflict are already beating in our nation and no-one takes a greater share of the blame for this than those identifiable forces that are encouraging, sponsoring, protecting and covertly supporting these barbaric and murderous Fulani militias and herdsmen. They are all, to the last man, nothing but monsters and beasts. (TO BE CONCLUDED).
Saturday, 14 January 2017
#OccupyCBN: Our Simple Demands to Save The Naira
#OccupyCBN: Our Simple Demands to Save The Naira
As part of our contribution to the socio-economic growth of Nigeria, we have analysed the various monetary and foreign exchange policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has been implemented over the last 20 months. For the avoidance of doubt, these policies are hinged on the lofty ideals to spur the production and consumption of locally made products and services, reduce the importation of goods and services of that can be made in Nigeria and improve the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Tragically, the policies designed and being implemented to achieve these lofty ideals have failed. As a result, the Naira was one of the worst performing currencies in the world in 2016. We have witnessed an erosion of the value of the Naira, an increase in inflation to 20%, almost 100% increase in the price of essential products such as medication and drugs.
As Nigerians, we believe it is part of our civic duties to highlight these issues, and proffer solutions with a hope to contribute to the achievement of the above stated lofty ideals, as well as the ideal of improving the quality of life and welfare of the average Nigerian citizen. To this end, we make the following recommendations:
1. That the CBN completely reverses its command and control policies via which it seeks to forcefully regulate the value of the Naira and access to foreign exchange for the conduct of businesses that are critical to the Nigerian economy.
2. That the CBN completely reverses its policy of it’s controlled “float” of the Naira. Instead, we recommend that the CBN implements a policy where the Naira is freely floated and allowed to find its proper value.
We are aware that this would in the short run probably spike a worsening in the exchange rate. But if this is implemented in tandem with other investor friendly policies, it would spur an increase in the amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) that Nigeria receives. We are fully aware that an increase in the amount of FDI and FPI will go a long way in improving the value of the Naira.
If the CBN had implemented a free float of the Naira at the time it falsely claimed to have done so, by now Nigeria and Nigerians would have been yielding the attendant benefits. However, its failure/neglect/refusal to do so has resulted in a situation where we bear all the negative effects of a devaluation of currency without reaping any benefits.
3. We recommend that the CBN scraps its list of the 41 items designated as “Not Valid for Forex”. In reality, this affects significantly more than 41 items (the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria [MAN] states that this list affects as many as 720 items most of which are critical to the manufacturing sector).
Most of the items on this list are critical to the manufacturing sector and the restriction on access to foreign exchange rabidly reduces the ability of manufacturers to produce goods.
In fact, in its end of year analysis MAN stated that as a direct consequence of the implementation of these policies as many as 50 factories had been shut and more than 12000 manufacturing sector jobs had been lost in 2016 alone. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for Q1-Q3 2016 shows that the sector has been very badly hit as its negative growth rate is significantly worse than most other sectors.
These results show that the policy is having a significantly negative effect on the sector and, in fact, hampers the lofty ideals of producing more local goods and services.
4. We are aware that contrary to the belief widely expressed by the CBN, Nigeria does not necessarily have an importation problem. What we have is an export problem. Nigeria’s problems are tied to the fact that crude oil is Nigeria’s largest source of foreign exchange.
To this end, if Nigeria is able to improve it’s the number and quality of products it exports, it would earn significantly more foreign exchange to ameliorate the consequences of the fall in the price of crude oil.
To this end, we recommend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari should focus more on the building of the capacity of Nigerian companies to produce and export goods than it currently does on reducing imports. This will improve the balance of trade, improve Nigeria’s foreign reserves and shore up the value of the Naira.
5. We recommend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN focuses more on improving the agricultural value chain than it currently does on “returning to farming”.
We make this recommendation on the basis of two facts:
a. Almost 70% of food crops and fruits produced by farmers in Nigeria wastes on an annual basis. This is because we lack the require transportation infrastructure, storage infrastructure, processing infrastructure, and funding to process and transport food crops and fruits as quickly as possible to the consumer.
What Nigeria needs is not a mere returning to farms but a strengthening of the agricultural value chain that sees better capacity utilization at the farms, better transportation, the establishment of processing factories and ease of export of the processed foods and fruits.
What Nigeria needs is the strengthening of our quality control organisations to ensure that the food crops and fruits produced in Nigeria meets the standards required for export to other countries.
b. Our research indicates that countries with established food processing and export policies (and the implementation thereof) earn significantly more than countries that just produce food crops. For instance, our research shows that while Cote d’ Ivoire earned a little over $2bn from the production and export of Cocoa in the 2014, Switzerland earned more than $18bn (almost the total value of the Nigerian budget for 2015) in the same year from the production and sale of chocolates and other cocoa based products.
To our minds, a country seeking to resolve its currency crises should be focused more on capacity utilization and strengthening the agricultural value chain than it is on farming.
To this end, we recommend that the CBN designs and implements policies that improves access to funding for farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain than it currently does.
We are aware that there are a number of commendable initiatives in this regard. However, the processes of accessing funds provided for by most of these initiatives are cumbersome and tedious in a manner that discourages people from going through with them.
We also recommend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari commences a review of the Land Use Act and land tenure systems in Nigeria to enable farmers and other relevant stakeholders more easily secure title to lands which will then provide the basis for accessing funds for agricultural purposes.
6. We recommend that the CBN becomes more transparent in its dealings relating to the allocation of foreign exchange to Nigerians for whatever purposes. To this end, we recommend that CBN publishes its monthly “Form M” report to enable Nigerians know the people to which foreign exchange has been allocated, the rates at which the allocations were made, the purposes for which the allocations were made and the status of achievement of those purposes.
The implementation of this recommendation will go a long way towards ensuring that currency speculators who access foreign exchange from government coffers through dubious means will be exposed, and prosecuted where necessary.
7. Finally, we are dismayed that the simple process of seeking to contribute to national discourse and problem solving, which ought to be welcomed and viewed as an exercise of civic duties has caused so much rancour to the point where the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the FCT Command of the Nigerian Police Force threatened to arrest, detain and prosecute Nigerians who participated in our peaceful procession.
We use this medium to remind the Police Force of our rights to peaceful assembly as enshrined in Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and as upheld by our various courts.
We also use this medium to express our dismay at the comments of the Director of Corporate Communications of the CBN who rather than engage with Nigerian citizens on legitimate and valid fears and concerns chose to take to the media to call us names and make baseless allegations.
We will continue to exercise the right to peaceful & lawful assembly in accordance to the law and as long as these problems persist.
We hope that in the coming years these sort of anti-democratic actions will be greatly reduced.
God bless Nigeria.
SIGNED:
Adeyanju Deji Adeoye Adelaja
Convener Co-Convener
As part of our contribution to the socio-economic growth of Nigeria, we have analysed the various monetary and foreign exchange policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has been implemented over the last 20 months. For the avoidance of doubt, these policies are hinged on the lofty ideals to spur the production and consumption of locally made products and services, reduce the importation of goods and services of that can be made in Nigeria and improve the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Tragically, the policies designed and being implemented to achieve these lofty ideals have failed. As a result, the Naira was one of the worst performing currencies in the world in 2016. We have witnessed an erosion of the value of the Naira, an increase in inflation to 20%, almost 100% increase in the price of essential products such as medication and drugs.
As Nigerians, we believe it is part of our civic duties to highlight these issues, and proffer solutions with a hope to contribute to the achievement of the above stated lofty ideals, as well as the ideal of improving the quality of life and welfare of the average Nigerian citizen. To this end, we make the following recommendations:
1. That the CBN completely reverses its command and control policies via which it seeks to forcefully regulate the value of the Naira and access to foreign exchange for the conduct of businesses that are critical to the Nigerian economy.
2. That the CBN completely reverses its policy of it’s controlled “float” of the Naira. Instead, we recommend that the CBN implements a policy where the Naira is freely floated and allowed to find its proper value.
We are aware that this would in the short run probably spike a worsening in the exchange rate. But if this is implemented in tandem with other investor friendly policies, it would spur an increase in the amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) that Nigeria receives. We are fully aware that an increase in the amount of FDI and FPI will go a long way in improving the value of the Naira.
If the CBN had implemented a free float of the Naira at the time it falsely claimed to have done so, by now Nigeria and Nigerians would have been yielding the attendant benefits. However, its failure/neglect/refusal to do so has resulted in a situation where we bear all the negative effects of a devaluation of currency without reaping any benefits.
3. We recommend that the CBN scraps its list of the 41 items designated as “Not Valid for Forex”. In reality, this affects significantly more than 41 items (the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria [MAN] states that this list affects as many as 720 items most of which are critical to the manufacturing sector).
Most of the items on this list are critical to the manufacturing sector and the restriction on access to foreign exchange rabidly reduces the ability of manufacturers to produce goods.
In fact, in its end of year analysis MAN stated that as a direct consequence of the implementation of these policies as many as 50 factories had been shut and more than 12000 manufacturing sector jobs had been lost in 2016 alone. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for Q1-Q3 2016 shows that the sector has been very badly hit as its negative growth rate is significantly worse than most other sectors.
These results show that the policy is having a significantly negative effect on the sector and, in fact, hampers the lofty ideals of producing more local goods and services.
4. We are aware that contrary to the belief widely expressed by the CBN, Nigeria does not necessarily have an importation problem. What we have is an export problem. Nigeria’s problems are tied to the fact that crude oil is Nigeria’s largest source of foreign exchange.
To this end, if Nigeria is able to improve it’s the number and quality of products it exports, it would earn significantly more foreign exchange to ameliorate the consequences of the fall in the price of crude oil.
To this end, we recommend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari should focus more on the building of the capacity of Nigerian companies to produce and export goods than it currently does on reducing imports. This will improve the balance of trade, improve Nigeria’s foreign reserves and shore up the value of the Naira.
5. We recommend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN focuses more on improving the agricultural value chain than it currently does on “returning to farming”.
We make this recommendation on the basis of two facts:
a. Almost 70% of food crops and fruits produced by farmers in Nigeria wastes on an annual basis. This is because we lack the require transportation infrastructure, storage infrastructure, processing infrastructure, and funding to process and transport food crops and fruits as quickly as possible to the consumer.
What Nigeria needs is not a mere returning to farms but a strengthening of the agricultural value chain that sees better capacity utilization at the farms, better transportation, the establishment of processing factories and ease of export of the processed foods and fruits.
What Nigeria needs is the strengthening of our quality control organisations to ensure that the food crops and fruits produced in Nigeria meets the standards required for export to other countries.
b. Our research indicates that countries with established food processing and export policies (and the implementation thereof) earn significantly more than countries that just produce food crops. For instance, our research shows that while Cote d’ Ivoire earned a little over $2bn from the production and export of Cocoa in the 2014, Switzerland earned more than $18bn (almost the total value of the Nigerian budget for 2015) in the same year from the production and sale of chocolates and other cocoa based products.
To our minds, a country seeking to resolve its currency crises should be focused more on capacity utilization and strengthening the agricultural value chain than it is on farming.
To this end, we recommend that the CBN designs and implements policies that improves access to funding for farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain than it currently does.
We are aware that there are a number of commendable initiatives in this regard. However, the processes of accessing funds provided for by most of these initiatives are cumbersome and tedious in a manner that discourages people from going through with them.
We also recommend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari commences a review of the Land Use Act and land tenure systems in Nigeria to enable farmers and other relevant stakeholders more easily secure title to lands which will then provide the basis for accessing funds for agricultural purposes.
6. We recommend that the CBN becomes more transparent in its dealings relating to the allocation of foreign exchange to Nigerians for whatever purposes. To this end, we recommend that CBN publishes its monthly “Form M” report to enable Nigerians know the people to which foreign exchange has been allocated, the rates at which the allocations were made, the purposes for which the allocations were made and the status of achievement of those purposes.
The implementation of this recommendation will go a long way towards ensuring that currency speculators who access foreign exchange from government coffers through dubious means will be exposed, and prosecuted where necessary.
7. Finally, we are dismayed that the simple process of seeking to contribute to national discourse and problem solving, which ought to be welcomed and viewed as an exercise of civic duties has caused so much rancour to the point where the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the FCT Command of the Nigerian Police Force threatened to arrest, detain and prosecute Nigerians who participated in our peaceful procession.
We use this medium to remind the Police Force of our rights to peaceful assembly as enshrined in Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and as upheld by our various courts.
We also use this medium to express our dismay at the comments of the Director of Corporate Communications of the CBN who rather than engage with Nigerian citizens on legitimate and valid fears and concerns chose to take to the media to call us names and make baseless allegations.
We will continue to exercise the right to peaceful & lawful assembly in accordance to the law and as long as these problems persist.
We hope that in the coming years these sort of anti-democratic actions will be greatly reduced.
God bless Nigeria.
SIGNED:
Adeyanju Deji Adeoye Adelaja
Convener Co-Convener
Friday, 13 January 2017
God sent me as His apostle of liberation to this continent to stop it from decadence says Bishop Oyedepo
God sent me as His apostle of liberation to this continent to stop it from decadence says Bishop Oyedepo
The founder and presiding Bishop of the megachurch, Living Faith Church Worldwide International, AKA Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo has invoked God’s curses on those fueling Southern Kaduna killings, saying God should break up Nigeria now if it is His will. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Bishop who, during a ministration and while raining down curses on those promoting the wanton killings, equally said that God sent him to this continent as His apostle of liberation to stop it from decadence. “God sent me as His apostle of liberation to this continent to stop it from decadence.” “I heard from God and He has proved it beyond measure. Therefore, every occultic root, every political root of this uprising is cursed today!” The congregation shouted “Amen!” Bishop Oyedepo “All the northern forces that are sponsoring this uprising and killings, i decree the curse of God upon them.” Congregation shouted “Amen!” Speaks in tongues. Continuing, he said, ” Lord, if it is your will to break up Nigeria, break it now!” Speaks in tongues again. To his members, he said, “Come on, pray in the spirit everybody. Pray in the spirit, open fire, call down the Holy Ghost fire to descend on the camp of the enermy. Enough is Enough!” Speaks in tongues again. “If Nigeria wakes up, wait for the church to rise. There will be no more nation, what nonsense.” “What demonic devils. What Islamic demons. If Nigeria waits for the church to rise, Nigeria will disappear as a nation.” Speaks in tongue. “You mean God cannot protect people? What a mess!” “Every agent of destruction in Government today, call fire down on their head, call fire down on their head.” “Everyone sponsoring evil against the nation, let your fire fall on him!” “A Boko Haram agent was captured and they said he escaped. Everyone connected to his escape, fire consume them, consume them, consume them!” To his congregation, he said, “Go ahead and pray.” Prays in tongue. “Fire of the Lord consume them!” “I was even told from report that they were targeting this church. I said what?” “Even if i was asleep, if you see anybody here kill him! Kill him and spill his blood on the ground. I am saying that to you, what nonsense, what devil. You think our God is an idol?” The faithful shouted “No!” “If I put fire on your tail to overrun the city, you will do it in one minute. What is that? What devil?” “I stand today with every authority on me, and I declare the Boko Haram camp cursed!” “I declare their collaborators cursed! I decree their sponsors cursed!” “I declare their collaborators cursed. I decree their sponsors cursed!” “Must the north continue to rule?” “What devils!” “God has anointed me to lead a revolution against the Islamic jihadist and as the Lord liveth and as the anointing of Jeru-Baal that’s on me, we declare them extinct in the name of Jesus!” “Amen!” “You catch anyone that looks like them, kill him!” “There is no reporting to anybody. Kill him! Pull off his neck! And we spill his blood on the ground. What nonsense.” “They said why should Christians say they could defend themselves, hold it! What stupid statement, why should Christians say they could defend themselves? So, they should watch for you to put a knife to their necks?” “You think we are dummies? What! What?” “All those zeros census they are fake. Where are the human beings?” “Where are they? We go around the place. Where are they?” “We’ve never had a successful census in this country. Where are they?” “Don’t mistake only those in politics as in power. The anointed in the Lord are the ones in power. By divine ordination, don’t mistake that.” “There was a king in the land but Elijah was determining the events of the nation.” “If i say it will not rain here for three years, it will not drop. What nonsense!” “Who born their mother, who born their father? They are too small.” “Come! Get excited and walk in confidence. Any devil that misbehaves around you will be slain by the fire!” A thunderous “Amen” echoed from the congregation.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/lord-will-break-nigeria-break-now-oyedepo/
The founder and presiding Bishop of the megachurch, Living Faith Church Worldwide International, AKA Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo has invoked God’s curses on those fueling Southern Kaduna killings, saying God should break up Nigeria now if it is His will. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Bishop who, during a ministration and while raining down curses on those promoting the wanton killings, equally said that God sent him to this continent as His apostle of liberation to stop it from decadence. “God sent me as His apostle of liberation to this continent to stop it from decadence.” “I heard from God and He has proved it beyond measure. Therefore, every occultic root, every political root of this uprising is cursed today!” The congregation shouted “Amen!” Bishop Oyedepo “All the northern forces that are sponsoring this uprising and killings, i decree the curse of God upon them.” Congregation shouted “Amen!” Speaks in tongues. Continuing, he said, ” Lord, if it is your will to break up Nigeria, break it now!” Speaks in tongues again. To his members, he said, “Come on, pray in the spirit everybody. Pray in the spirit, open fire, call down the Holy Ghost fire to descend on the camp of the enermy. Enough is Enough!” Speaks in tongues again. “If Nigeria wakes up, wait for the church to rise. There will be no more nation, what nonsense.” “What demonic devils. What Islamic demons. If Nigeria waits for the church to rise, Nigeria will disappear as a nation.” Speaks in tongue. “You mean God cannot protect people? What a mess!” “Every agent of destruction in Government today, call fire down on their head, call fire down on their head.” “Everyone sponsoring evil against the nation, let your fire fall on him!” “A Boko Haram agent was captured and they said he escaped. Everyone connected to his escape, fire consume them, consume them, consume them!” To his congregation, he said, “Go ahead and pray.” Prays in tongue. “Fire of the Lord consume them!” “I was even told from report that they were targeting this church. I said what?” “Even if i was asleep, if you see anybody here kill him! Kill him and spill his blood on the ground. I am saying that to you, what nonsense, what devil. You think our God is an idol?” The faithful shouted “No!” “If I put fire on your tail to overrun the city, you will do it in one minute. What is that? What devil?” “I stand today with every authority on me, and I declare the Boko Haram camp cursed!” “I declare their collaborators cursed! I decree their sponsors cursed!” “I declare their collaborators cursed. I decree their sponsors cursed!” “Must the north continue to rule?” “What devils!” “God has anointed me to lead a revolution against the Islamic jihadist and as the Lord liveth and as the anointing of Jeru-Baal that’s on me, we declare them extinct in the name of Jesus!” “Amen!” “You catch anyone that looks like them, kill him!” “There is no reporting to anybody. Kill him! Pull off his neck! And we spill his blood on the ground. What nonsense.” “They said why should Christians say they could defend themselves, hold it! What stupid statement, why should Christians say they could defend themselves? So, they should watch for you to put a knife to their necks?” “You think we are dummies? What! What?” “All those zeros census they are fake. Where are the human beings?” “Where are they? We go around the place. Where are they?” “We’ve never had a successful census in this country. Where are they?” “Don’t mistake only those in politics as in power. The anointed in the Lord are the ones in power. By divine ordination, don’t mistake that.” “There was a king in the land but Elijah was determining the events of the nation.” “If i say it will not rain here for three years, it will not drop. What nonsense!” “Who born their mother, who born their father? They are too small.” “Come! Get excited and walk in confidence. Any devil that misbehaves around you will be slain by the fire!” A thunderous “Amen” echoed from the congregation.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/lord-will-break-nigeria-break-now-oyedepo/
Thursday, 12 January 2017
Our Daily Bread devotional, January 12, 2017 - Nothing Hidden
Our Daily Bread devotional, January 12, 2017 - Nothing Hidden
Topic: Nothing Hidden [Thursday January 12, 2017]
Read: Hebrews 4:12–16, Bible in a Year: Genesis 29–30; Matthew 9:1–17
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Hebrews 4:13
In 2015 an international research company stated that there were 245 million surveillance cameras installed worldwide, and the number was growing by 15 percent every year. In addition, multiplied millions of people with smartphones capture daily images ranging from birthday parties to bank robberies. Whether we applaud the increased security or denounce the diminished privacy, we live in a global, cameras-everywhere society.
The New Testament book of Hebrews says that in our relationship with God, we experience a far greater level of exposure and accountability than anything surveillance cameras may see. His Word, like a sharp, two-edged sword, penetrates to the deepest level of our being where it “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12–13).
Because Jesus our Savior experienced our weaknesses and temptations but did not sin, we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (vv. 15–16). We don’t need to fear Him but can be assured we’ll find grace when we come to Him.
Nothing is hidden from God’s sight. Nothing is greater than God’s love. Nothing is stronger than God’s mercy and grace. Nothing is too hard for God’s power.
No part of our lives is hidden from God’s grace and power.
Insight:
We can be thankful for the Scriptures and all they teach about the wisdom and heart of our Father. His ultimate expression of Himself, however, came in the person of Jesus, who lived in flesh on this earth and showed us all we could ever need to know about our God. Why is it important that God became flesh and lived among us? In Hebrews 4:15-16 how does it help to know we can approach God in “our time of need”?
This message was written by David McCasland [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
Topic: Nothing Hidden [Thursday January 12, 2017]
Read: Hebrews 4:12–16, Bible in a Year: Genesis 29–30; Matthew 9:1–17
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Hebrews 4:13
In 2015 an international research company stated that there were 245 million surveillance cameras installed worldwide, and the number was growing by 15 percent every year. In addition, multiplied millions of people with smartphones capture daily images ranging from birthday parties to bank robberies. Whether we applaud the increased security or denounce the diminished privacy, we live in a global, cameras-everywhere society.
The New Testament book of Hebrews says that in our relationship with God, we experience a far greater level of exposure and accountability than anything surveillance cameras may see. His Word, like a sharp, two-edged sword, penetrates to the deepest level of our being where it “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12–13).
Because Jesus our Savior experienced our weaknesses and temptations but did not sin, we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (vv. 15–16). We don’t need to fear Him but can be assured we’ll find grace when we come to Him.
Nothing is hidden from God’s sight. Nothing is greater than God’s love. Nothing is stronger than God’s mercy and grace. Nothing is too hard for God’s power.
No part of our lives is hidden from God’s grace and power.
Insight:
We can be thankful for the Scriptures and all they teach about the wisdom and heart of our Father. His ultimate expression of Himself, however, came in the person of Jesus, who lived in flesh on this earth and showed us all we could ever need to know about our God. Why is it important that God became flesh and lived among us? In Hebrews 4:15-16 how does it help to know we can approach God in “our time of need”?
This message was written by David McCasland [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Barack Obama's farewell speech in full 2017
Barack Obama's farewell speech in full
It’s good to be home. My fellow Americans, Michelle and I have been so touched by all the well-wishes we’ve received over the past few weeks. But tonight it’s my turn to say thanks. Whether we’ve seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people – in living rooms and schools; at farms and on factory floors; at diners and on distant outposts – are what have kept me honest, kept me inspired, and kept me going. Every day, I learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.
I first came to Chicago when I was in my early twenties, still trying to figure out who I was; still searching for a purpose to my life. It was in neighborhoods not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills. It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith, and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss. This is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged, and come together to demand it.
After eight years as your President, I still believe that. And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea – our bold experiment in self-government.
It’s the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s the insistence that these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executing; that We, the People, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union.This is the great gift our Founders gave us. The freedom to chase our individual dreams through our sweat, toil, and imagination – and the imperative to strive together as well, to achieve a greater good.
For 240 years, our nation’s call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. It’s what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. It’s what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande, pushed women to reach for the ballot, powered workers to organize. It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima; Iraq and Afghanistan – and why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well.
So that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional. Not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change, and make life better for those who follow.
Yes, our progress has been uneven. The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.
If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history…if I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind of 9/11…if I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens – you might have said our sights were set a little too high.
But that’s what we did. That’s what you did. You were the change. You answered people’s hopes, and because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started.
“That’s what I want to focus on tonight – the state of our democracy”
Barack Obama
In ten days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one freely-elected president to the next. I committed to President-Elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me. Because it’s up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.
We have what we need to do so. After all, we remain the wealthiest, most powerful, and most respected nation on Earth. Our youth and drive, our diversity and openness, our boundless capacity for risk and reinvention mean that the future should be ours.
But that potential will be realized only if our democracy works. Only if our politics reflects the decency of the our people. Only if all of us, regardless of our party affiliation or particular interest, help restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now.
That’s what I want to focus on tonight – the state of our democracy.
Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.
There have been moments throughout our history that threatened to rupture that solidarity. The beginning of this century has been one of those times. A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism – these forces haven’t just tested our security and prosperity, but our democracy as well. And how we meet these challenges to our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids, and create good jobs, and protect our homeland.
In other words, it will determine our future.
Our democracy won’t work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. Today, the economy is growing again; wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are rising again; poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a ten-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower. Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifty years. And if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our health care system – that covers as many people at less cost – I will publicly support it.
That, after all, is why we serve – to make people’s lives better, not worse.
But for all the real progress we’ve made, we know it’s not enough. Our economy doesn’t work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class. But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic principles. While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind – the laid-off factory worker; the waitress and health care worker who struggle to pay the bills – convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful – a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.
There are no quick fixes to this long-term trend. I agree that our trade should be fair and not just free. But the next wave of economic dislocation won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete.
And so we must forge a new social compact – to guarantee all our kids the education they need; to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from the new economy don’t avoid their obligations to the country that’s made their success possible. We can argue about how to best achieve these goals. But we can’t be complacent about the goals themselves. For if we don’t create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come.
There’s a second threat to our democracy – one as old as our nation itself. After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America. Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. For race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. I’ve lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago – you can see it not just in statistics, but in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.
But we’re not where we need to be. All of us have more work to do. After all, if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we decline to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we diminish the prospects of our own children – because those brown kids will represent a larger share of America’s workforce. And our economy doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Last year, incomes rose for all races, all age groups, for men and for women.
Going forward, we must uphold laws against discrimination – in hiring, in housing, in education and the criminal justice system. That’s what our Constitution and highest ideals require. But laws alone won’t be enough. Hearts must change. If our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, each one of us must try to heed the advice of one of the great characters in American fiction, Atticus Finch, who said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
For blacks and other minorities, it means tying our own struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face – the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender American, and also the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he’s got all the advantages, but who’s seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change.
For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the ‘60s; that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; that when they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment our Founders promised.
For native-born Americans, it means reminding ourselves that the stereotypes about immigrants today were said, almost word for word, about the Irish, Italians, and Poles. America wasn’t weakened by the presence of these newcomers; they embraced this nation’s creed, and it was strengthened.
So regardless of the station we occupy; we have to try harder; to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.
None of this is easy. For too many of us, it’s become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions. The rise of naked partisanship, increasing economic and regional stratification, the splintering of our media into a channel for every taste – all this makes this great sorting seem natural, even inevitable. And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we accept only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that’s out there.
“If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life”
Barack Obama
This trend represents a third threat to our democracy. Politics is a battle of ideas; in the course of a healthy debate, we’ll prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts; without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent is making a fair point, and that science and reason matter, we’ll keep talking past each other, making common ground and compromise impossible.
Isn’t that part of what makes politics so dispiriting? How can elected officials rage about deficits when we propose to spend money on preschool for kids, but not when we’re cutting taxes for corporations? How do we excuse ethical lapses in our own party, but pounce when the other party does the same thing? It’s not just dishonest, this selective sorting of the facts; it’s self-defeating. Because as my mother used to tell me, reality has a way of catching up with you.
Take the challenge of climate change. In just eight years, we’ve halved our dependence on foreign oil, doubled our renewable energy, and led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save this planet. But without bolder action, our children won’t have time to debate the existence of climate change; they’ll be busy dealing with its effects: environmental disasters, economic disruptions, and waves of climate refugees seeking sanctuary.
Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to the problem. But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations; it betrays the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our Founders.
It’s that spirit, born of the Enlightenment, that made us an economic powerhouse – the spirit that took flight at Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral; the spirit that that cures disease and put a computer in every pocket.
It’s that spirit – a faith in reason, and enterprise, and the primacy of right over might, that allowed us to resist the lure of fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression, and build a post-World War II order with other democracies, an order based not just on military power or national affiliations but on principles – the rule of law, human rights, freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, and an independent press.
That order is now being challenged – first by violent fanatics who claim to speak for Islam; more recently by autocrats in foreign capitals who see free markets, open democracies, and civil society itself as a threat to their power. The peril each poses to our democracy is more far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile. It represents the fear of change; the fear of people who look or speak or pray differently; a contempt for the rule of law that holds leaders accountable; an intolerance of dissent and free thought; a belief that the sword or the gun or the bomb or propaganda machine is the ultimate arbiter of what’s true and what’s right.
Because of the extraordinary courage of our men and women in uniform, and the intelligence officers, law enforcement, and diplomats who support them, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years; and although Boston and Orlando remind us of how dangerous radicalization can be, our law enforcement agencies are more effective and vigilant than ever. We’ve taken out tens of thousands of terrorists – including Osama bin Laden. The global coalition we’re leading against ISIL has taken out their leaders, and taken away about half their territory. ISIL will be destroyed, and no one who threatens America will ever be safe. To all who serve, it has been the honor of my lifetime to be your Commander-in-Chief.
But protecting our way of life requires more than our military. Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear. So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are. That’s why, for the past eight years, I’ve worked to put the fight against terrorism on a firm legal footing. That’s why we’ve ended torture, worked to close Gitmo, and reform our laws governing surveillance to protect privacy and civil liberties. That’s why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans. That’s why we cannot withdraw from global fights – to expand democracy, and human rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights – no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem. For the fight against extremism and intolerance and sectarianism are of a piece with the fight against authoritarianism and nationalist aggression. If the scope of freedom and respect for the rule of law shrinks around the world, the likelihood of war within and between nations increases, and our own freedoms will eventually be threatened.
So let’s be vigilant, but not afraid. ISIL will try to kill innocent people. But they cannot defeat America unless we betray our Constitution and our principles in the fight. Rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence around the world – unless we give up what we stand for, and turn ourselves into just another big country that bullies smaller neighbors.
Which brings me to my final point – our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted. All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions. When voting rates are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should make it easier, not harder, to vote. When trust in our institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics, and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service. When Congress is dysfunctional, we should draw our districts to encourage politicians to cater to common sense and not rigid extremes.
And all of this depends on our participation; on each of us accepting the responsibility of citizenship, regardless of which way the pendulum of power swings.
Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own.
We, the people, give it power – with our participation, and the choices we make. Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms. Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law. America is no fragile thing. But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured.
In his own farewell address, George Washington wrote that self-government is the underpinning of our safety, prosperity, and liberty, but “from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken…to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth;” that we should preserve it with “jealous anxiety;” that we should reject “the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties” that make us one.
We weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service; so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent. We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others; when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them.
It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: Citizen.
“Some of you here tonight or watching at home were there with us in 2004, in 2008, in 2012 – and maybe you still can’t believe we pulled this whole thing off”
Barack Obama
Ultimately, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America – and in Americans – will be confirmed.
Mine sure has been. Over the course of these eight years, I’ve seen the hopeful faces of young graduates and our newest military officers. I’ve mourned with grieving families searching for answers, and found grace in Charleston church. I’ve seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and our wounded warriors walk again. I’ve seen our doctors and volunteers rebuild after earthquakes and stop pandemics in their tracks. I’ve seen the youngest of children remind us of our obligations to care for refugees, to work in peace, and above all to look out for each other.
That faith I placed all those years ago, not far from here, in the power of ordinary Americans to bring about change – that faith has been rewarded in ways I couldn’t possibly have imagined. I hope yours has, too. Some of you here tonight or watching at home were there with us in 2004, in 2008, in 2012 – and maybe you still can’t believe we pulled this whole thing off.
You’re not the only ones. Michelle – for the past twenty-five years, you’ve been not only my wife and mother of my children, but my best friend. You took on a role you didn’t ask for and made it your own with grace and grit and style and good humor. You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody. And a new generation sets its sights higher because it has you as a role model. You’ve made me proud. You’ve made the country proud.
Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women, smart and beautiful, but more importantly, kind and thoughtful and full of passion. You wore the burden of years in the spotlight so easily. Of all that I’ve done in my life, I’m most proud to be your dad.
To Joe Biden, the scrappy kid from Scranton who became Delaware’s favorite son: you were the first choice I made as a nominee, and the best. Not just because you have been a great Vice President, but because in the bargain, I gained a brother. We love you and Jill like family, and your friendship has been one of the great joys of our life.
To my remarkable staff: For eight years – and for some of you, a whole lot more – I’ve drawn from your energy, and tried to reflect back what you displayed every day: heart, and character, and idealism. I’ve watched you grow up, get married, have kids, and start incredible new journeys of your own. Even when times got tough and frustrating, you never let Washington get the better of you. The only thing that makes me prouder than all the good we’ve done is the thought of all the remarkable things you’ll achieve from here.
And to all of you out there – every organizer who moved to an unfamiliar town and kind family who welcomed them in, every volunteer who knocked on doors, every young person who cast a ballot for the first time, every American who lived and breathed the hard work of change – you are the best supporters and organizers anyone could hope for, and I will forever be grateful. Because yes, you changed the world.
That’s why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than I was when we started. Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans; it has inspired so many Americans – especially so many young people out there – to believe you can make a difference; to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves. This generation coming up – unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic – I’ve seen you in every corner of the country.
You believe in a fair, just, inclusive America; you know that constant change has been America’s hallmark, something not to fear but to embrace, and you are willing to carry this hard work of democracy forward. You’ll soon outnumber any of us, and I believe as a result that the future is in good hands.
My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I won’t stop; in fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my days that remain. For now, whether you’re young or young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your President – the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago.
I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours.
I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:
Yes We Can.
Yes We Did.
Yes We Can.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.
It’s good to be home. My fellow Americans, Michelle and I have been so touched by all the well-wishes we’ve received over the past few weeks. But tonight it’s my turn to say thanks. Whether we’ve seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people – in living rooms and schools; at farms and on factory floors; at diners and on distant outposts – are what have kept me honest, kept me inspired, and kept me going. Every day, I learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.
I first came to Chicago when I was in my early twenties, still trying to figure out who I was; still searching for a purpose to my life. It was in neighborhoods not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills. It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith, and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss. This is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged, and come together to demand it.
After eight years as your President, I still believe that. And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea – our bold experiment in self-government.
It’s the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s the insistence that these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executing; that We, the People, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union.This is the great gift our Founders gave us. The freedom to chase our individual dreams through our sweat, toil, and imagination – and the imperative to strive together as well, to achieve a greater good.
For 240 years, our nation’s call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. It’s what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. It’s what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande, pushed women to reach for the ballot, powered workers to organize. It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima; Iraq and Afghanistan – and why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well.
So that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional. Not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change, and make life better for those who follow.
Yes, our progress has been uneven. The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.
If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history…if I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind of 9/11…if I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens – you might have said our sights were set a little too high.
But that’s what we did. That’s what you did. You were the change. You answered people’s hopes, and because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started.
“That’s what I want to focus on tonight – the state of our democracy”
Barack Obama
In ten days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one freely-elected president to the next. I committed to President-Elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me. Because it’s up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.
We have what we need to do so. After all, we remain the wealthiest, most powerful, and most respected nation on Earth. Our youth and drive, our diversity and openness, our boundless capacity for risk and reinvention mean that the future should be ours.
But that potential will be realized only if our democracy works. Only if our politics reflects the decency of the our people. Only if all of us, regardless of our party affiliation or particular interest, help restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now.
That’s what I want to focus on tonight – the state of our democracy.
Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.
There have been moments throughout our history that threatened to rupture that solidarity. The beginning of this century has been one of those times. A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism – these forces haven’t just tested our security and prosperity, but our democracy as well. And how we meet these challenges to our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids, and create good jobs, and protect our homeland.
In other words, it will determine our future.
Our democracy won’t work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. Today, the economy is growing again; wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are rising again; poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a ten-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower. Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifty years. And if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our health care system – that covers as many people at less cost – I will publicly support it.
That, after all, is why we serve – to make people’s lives better, not worse.
But for all the real progress we’ve made, we know it’s not enough. Our economy doesn’t work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class. But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic principles. While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind – the laid-off factory worker; the waitress and health care worker who struggle to pay the bills – convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful – a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.
There are no quick fixes to this long-term trend. I agree that our trade should be fair and not just free. But the next wave of economic dislocation won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete.
And so we must forge a new social compact – to guarantee all our kids the education they need; to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from the new economy don’t avoid their obligations to the country that’s made their success possible. We can argue about how to best achieve these goals. But we can’t be complacent about the goals themselves. For if we don’t create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come.
There’s a second threat to our democracy – one as old as our nation itself. After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America. Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. For race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. I’ve lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago – you can see it not just in statistics, but in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.
But we’re not where we need to be. All of us have more work to do. After all, if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we decline to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we diminish the prospects of our own children – because those brown kids will represent a larger share of America’s workforce. And our economy doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Last year, incomes rose for all races, all age groups, for men and for women.
Going forward, we must uphold laws against discrimination – in hiring, in housing, in education and the criminal justice system. That’s what our Constitution and highest ideals require. But laws alone won’t be enough. Hearts must change. If our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, each one of us must try to heed the advice of one of the great characters in American fiction, Atticus Finch, who said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
For blacks and other minorities, it means tying our own struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face – the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender American, and also the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he’s got all the advantages, but who’s seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change.
For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the ‘60s; that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; that when they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment our Founders promised.
For native-born Americans, it means reminding ourselves that the stereotypes about immigrants today were said, almost word for word, about the Irish, Italians, and Poles. America wasn’t weakened by the presence of these newcomers; they embraced this nation’s creed, and it was strengthened.
So regardless of the station we occupy; we have to try harder; to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.
None of this is easy. For too many of us, it’s become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions. The rise of naked partisanship, increasing economic and regional stratification, the splintering of our media into a channel for every taste – all this makes this great sorting seem natural, even inevitable. And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we accept only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that’s out there.
“If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life”
Barack Obama
This trend represents a third threat to our democracy. Politics is a battle of ideas; in the course of a healthy debate, we’ll prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts; without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent is making a fair point, and that science and reason matter, we’ll keep talking past each other, making common ground and compromise impossible.
Isn’t that part of what makes politics so dispiriting? How can elected officials rage about deficits when we propose to spend money on preschool for kids, but not when we’re cutting taxes for corporations? How do we excuse ethical lapses in our own party, but pounce when the other party does the same thing? It’s not just dishonest, this selective sorting of the facts; it’s self-defeating. Because as my mother used to tell me, reality has a way of catching up with you.
Take the challenge of climate change. In just eight years, we’ve halved our dependence on foreign oil, doubled our renewable energy, and led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save this planet. But without bolder action, our children won’t have time to debate the existence of climate change; they’ll be busy dealing with its effects: environmental disasters, economic disruptions, and waves of climate refugees seeking sanctuary.
Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to the problem. But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations; it betrays the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our Founders.
It’s that spirit, born of the Enlightenment, that made us an economic powerhouse – the spirit that took flight at Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral; the spirit that that cures disease and put a computer in every pocket.
It’s that spirit – a faith in reason, and enterprise, and the primacy of right over might, that allowed us to resist the lure of fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression, and build a post-World War II order with other democracies, an order based not just on military power or national affiliations but on principles – the rule of law, human rights, freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, and an independent press.
That order is now being challenged – first by violent fanatics who claim to speak for Islam; more recently by autocrats in foreign capitals who see free markets, open democracies, and civil society itself as a threat to their power. The peril each poses to our democracy is more far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile. It represents the fear of change; the fear of people who look or speak or pray differently; a contempt for the rule of law that holds leaders accountable; an intolerance of dissent and free thought; a belief that the sword or the gun or the bomb or propaganda machine is the ultimate arbiter of what’s true and what’s right.
Because of the extraordinary courage of our men and women in uniform, and the intelligence officers, law enforcement, and diplomats who support them, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years; and although Boston and Orlando remind us of how dangerous radicalization can be, our law enforcement agencies are more effective and vigilant than ever. We’ve taken out tens of thousands of terrorists – including Osama bin Laden. The global coalition we’re leading against ISIL has taken out their leaders, and taken away about half their territory. ISIL will be destroyed, and no one who threatens America will ever be safe. To all who serve, it has been the honor of my lifetime to be your Commander-in-Chief.
But protecting our way of life requires more than our military. Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear. So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are. That’s why, for the past eight years, I’ve worked to put the fight against terrorism on a firm legal footing. That’s why we’ve ended torture, worked to close Gitmo, and reform our laws governing surveillance to protect privacy and civil liberties. That’s why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans. That’s why we cannot withdraw from global fights – to expand democracy, and human rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights – no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem. For the fight against extremism and intolerance and sectarianism are of a piece with the fight against authoritarianism and nationalist aggression. If the scope of freedom and respect for the rule of law shrinks around the world, the likelihood of war within and between nations increases, and our own freedoms will eventually be threatened.
So let’s be vigilant, but not afraid. ISIL will try to kill innocent people. But they cannot defeat America unless we betray our Constitution and our principles in the fight. Rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence around the world – unless we give up what we stand for, and turn ourselves into just another big country that bullies smaller neighbors.
Which brings me to my final point – our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted. All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions. When voting rates are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should make it easier, not harder, to vote. When trust in our institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics, and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service. When Congress is dysfunctional, we should draw our districts to encourage politicians to cater to common sense and not rigid extremes.
And all of this depends on our participation; on each of us accepting the responsibility of citizenship, regardless of which way the pendulum of power swings.
Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own.
We, the people, give it power – with our participation, and the choices we make. Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms. Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law. America is no fragile thing. But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured.
In his own farewell address, George Washington wrote that self-government is the underpinning of our safety, prosperity, and liberty, but “from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken…to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth;” that we should preserve it with “jealous anxiety;” that we should reject “the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties” that make us one.
We weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service; so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent. We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others; when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them.
It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: Citizen.
“Some of you here tonight or watching at home were there with us in 2004, in 2008, in 2012 – and maybe you still can’t believe we pulled this whole thing off”
Barack Obama
Ultimately, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America – and in Americans – will be confirmed.
Mine sure has been. Over the course of these eight years, I’ve seen the hopeful faces of young graduates and our newest military officers. I’ve mourned with grieving families searching for answers, and found grace in Charleston church. I’ve seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and our wounded warriors walk again. I’ve seen our doctors and volunteers rebuild after earthquakes and stop pandemics in their tracks. I’ve seen the youngest of children remind us of our obligations to care for refugees, to work in peace, and above all to look out for each other.
That faith I placed all those years ago, not far from here, in the power of ordinary Americans to bring about change – that faith has been rewarded in ways I couldn’t possibly have imagined. I hope yours has, too. Some of you here tonight or watching at home were there with us in 2004, in 2008, in 2012 – and maybe you still can’t believe we pulled this whole thing off.
You’re not the only ones. Michelle – for the past twenty-five years, you’ve been not only my wife and mother of my children, but my best friend. You took on a role you didn’t ask for and made it your own with grace and grit and style and good humor. You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody. And a new generation sets its sights higher because it has you as a role model. You’ve made me proud. You’ve made the country proud.
Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women, smart and beautiful, but more importantly, kind and thoughtful and full of passion. You wore the burden of years in the spotlight so easily. Of all that I’ve done in my life, I’m most proud to be your dad.
To Joe Biden, the scrappy kid from Scranton who became Delaware’s favorite son: you were the first choice I made as a nominee, and the best. Not just because you have been a great Vice President, but because in the bargain, I gained a brother. We love you and Jill like family, and your friendship has been one of the great joys of our life.
To my remarkable staff: For eight years – and for some of you, a whole lot more – I’ve drawn from your energy, and tried to reflect back what you displayed every day: heart, and character, and idealism. I’ve watched you grow up, get married, have kids, and start incredible new journeys of your own. Even when times got tough and frustrating, you never let Washington get the better of you. The only thing that makes me prouder than all the good we’ve done is the thought of all the remarkable things you’ll achieve from here.
And to all of you out there – every organizer who moved to an unfamiliar town and kind family who welcomed them in, every volunteer who knocked on doors, every young person who cast a ballot for the first time, every American who lived and breathed the hard work of change – you are the best supporters and organizers anyone could hope for, and I will forever be grateful. Because yes, you changed the world.
That’s why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than I was when we started. Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans; it has inspired so many Americans – especially so many young people out there – to believe you can make a difference; to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves. This generation coming up – unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic – I’ve seen you in every corner of the country.
You believe in a fair, just, inclusive America; you know that constant change has been America’s hallmark, something not to fear but to embrace, and you are willing to carry this hard work of democracy forward. You’ll soon outnumber any of us, and I believe as a result that the future is in good hands.
My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I won’t stop; in fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my days that remain. For now, whether you’re young or young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your President – the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago.
I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours.
I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:
Yes We Can.
Yes We Did.
Yes We Can.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.
NIGERIAN WAILERS CONDEMN CORRUPT ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CALLS FOR MASS PROTEST, #OCCUPYCBN
1. NIGERIAN WAILERS CONDEMN CORRUPT ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CALLS FOR MASS PROTEST, #OCCUPYCBN
2. We wholeheartedly call on the good people of Nigeria to come out en mass for a protest (#OccupyCBN)
3. to stop this impunity: the Fraudulent Forex Trading. #OccupyCBN
4. Round Tripping and racketeering going on in the Central Bank of Nigeria aided by its Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. #OccupyCBN
5. and bring to an end the Manipulation of Forex, illegally funding Federal Government budget. #OccupyCBN
6. shortchanging the Money Deposit Bank's reserve ratio at the expense of the Masses. #OccupyCBN
7 . the abuse of internal process is unbearable as the economy is negatively impacted. #OccupyCBN
8. and the resultant effects on the Nigerian masses is already at a dangerous level. #OccupyCBN
9. The high level of impunity and rascality overlooked and/or condoned by the Nigerian people in the past. #OccupyCBN
10. without taking action has made the apex bank's top executives to continue to engage in abuse of office. #OccupyCBN
11. breach of trust, abuse of process and manipulation of the Economy. #OccupyCBN
2. We wholeheartedly call on the good people of Nigeria to come out en mass for a protest (#OccupyCBN)
3. to stop this impunity: the Fraudulent Forex Trading. #OccupyCBN
4. Round Tripping and racketeering going on in the Central Bank of Nigeria aided by its Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. #OccupyCBN
5. and bring to an end the Manipulation of Forex, illegally funding Federal Government budget. #OccupyCBN
6. shortchanging the Money Deposit Bank's reserve ratio at the expense of the Masses. #OccupyCBN
7 . the abuse of internal process is unbearable as the economy is negatively impacted. #OccupyCBN
8. and the resultant effects on the Nigerian masses is already at a dangerous level. #OccupyCBN
9. The high level of impunity and rascality overlooked and/or condoned by the Nigerian people in the past. #OccupyCBN
10. without taking action has made the apex bank's top executives to continue to engage in abuse of office. #OccupyCBN
11. breach of trust, abuse of process and manipulation of the Economy. #OccupyCBN
Ex-President Jonathan, denies receiving kickbacks in $1.3bn Malabu oil deal
Ex-President Jonathan, denies receiving kickbacks in $1.3bn Malabu oil deal
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has denied media reports that he received kickbacks in the $1.3bn OPL 245 oil block deal involving oil giants ENI and Royal Dutch Shell. Jonathan denied the claims in a statement signed and released by his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze. The statement reads;
Our attention has been drawn to news reports published mostly by
online media which suggested through innuendo, rather than factual
evidence, that former President Goodluck Jonathan received kickbacks
in the $1.3bn OPL 245 oil block deal involving oil giants ENI and
Royal Dutch Shell.
With regards to the publication, we wish to make it clear that former
President Jonathan was not accused, indicted or charged for corruptly
collecting any monies as kickbacks or bribes from ENI by the Italian
authorities or any other law enforcement body the world over.
In the first place, we have to categorically state that the
negotiations and transactions for the oil block deal predate the
Presidency of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan which began on 6th May 2010
and ended on 29th May 2015.
It may interest those promoting this false narrative to know that all
the documents relating to the transactions, issues and decisions of
the Federal Government on the Malabo issue, during the Jonathan
administration, are in the office of the Attorney General of the
Federation/Minister of Justice.
As President of Nigeria, there is no doubt that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
met with executives of all the oil majors operating in Nigeria and
urged them to, amongst other things, support the growth of the
Nigerian oil industry by ramping up their investments and comply with
the Local Content Act that he promoted and signed into law.
We however wish to state, for emphasis, that at no time did the former
President hold private meetings with representatives of ENI to discuss
pecuniary issues. All the meetings and discussions former President
Jonathan had with ENI, other IOCs and some indigenous operators were
conducted officially, and in the presence of relevant Nigerian
Government officials, and were done in the best interest of the
country.
We make bold to point out that the former President never sent any
Abubakar Aliyu, as the innuendoes in the false report suggest, to ENI,
the IOCs or any indigenous operator to seek favour or collect any
gratification on his behalf.
We will like to point out for the umpteenth time that whether in
office or out of office, former President Jonathan does not own any
bank account, aircraft or real estate outside Nigeria. Anyone with
contrary information is challenged to publicly publish same.
As the President who signed the Freedom of Information Act into law,
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan lifted the veil on governance and encouraged
transparency knowing that evil breeds in secrecy. It is the opinion of
the former President that journalists and media houses should take
advantage of this law in their investigative journalism, rather than
rely on hearsay.
We hope that these clarifications will help guide future reports which
should be factual.
Ikechukwu Eze
Media Adviser to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
(President 2010-2015
Tuesday, 10 January 2017
What is govt's business with church general overseers - Fani-Kayode
What is govt's business with church general overseers - Fani-Kayode
The former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has condemned the new regulatory law on churches
- The former minister said the new law was put in place to attack churches
- He also asked what business the federal government has which church leadership
The former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has condemned government's interference with activities of churches.
Fani-Kayode speaking on the recent resignation of the general overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God Enoch Adeboye said the Nigerian government is bent on attacking churches.
The former minister's statement comes after the federal government released a new Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) law moderating the activities of churches and its leaders.
Fani-Kayode speaking on the recent resignation of the general overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God Enoch Adeboye said the Nigerian government is bent on attacking churches.
The new law allows specifically limited tenure for general overseers of churches to 20 years or 70 years of age.
The first to comply with this law is the Pastor Adeboye.
Over the weekend, the RCCG released a statement announcing the resignation of Adeboye as the general overseer of the church in Nigeria.
The statement also said that Pastor Joseph Obayemi is to become the new National Overseer of the church, while Adeboye take position as the general overseer of the church worldwide.
But condemning this, Fani-Kayode in a tweet said the law is an attack on Nigerian churches.
He also asked what business the federal government has which churches.
The former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has condemned the new regulatory law on churches
- The former minister said the new law was put in place to attack churches
- He also asked what business the federal government has which church leadership
The former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has condemned government's interference with activities of churches.
Fani-Kayode speaking on the recent resignation of the general overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God Enoch Adeboye said the Nigerian government is bent on attacking churches.
The former minister's statement comes after the federal government released a new Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) law moderating the activities of churches and its leaders.
Fani-Kayode speaking on the recent resignation of the general overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God Enoch Adeboye said the Nigerian government is bent on attacking churches.
The new law allows specifically limited tenure for general overseers of churches to 20 years or 70 years of age.
The first to comply with this law is the Pastor Adeboye.
Over the weekend, the RCCG released a statement announcing the resignation of Adeboye as the general overseer of the church in Nigeria.
The statement also said that Pastor Joseph Obayemi is to become the new National Overseer of the church, while Adeboye take position as the general overseer of the church worldwide.
But condemning this, Fani-Kayode in a tweet said the law is an attack on Nigerian churches.
He also asked what business the federal government has which churches.
Monday, 9 January 2017
Our Daily Bread devotional, January 9, 2017 - Old Yet New
Our Daily Bread devotional, January 9, 2017 - Old Yet New
Topic: Old Yet New [January 9, 2017]
Read: Revelation 21:1–5, Bible in a Year: Genesis 23–24; Matthew 7
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new.” Revelation 21:5
In 2014, a sinkhole opened up under the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky, swallowing eight vintage, irreplaceable Chevrolet Corvette sports cars. The automobiles were severely damaged—some beyond repair.
One car in particular received a lot of attention. The one-millionth Corvette, which rolled off the assembly line in 1992, was the most valuable in the collection. What happened to that gem after it was pulled from the sinkhole is fascinating. Experts restored the car to mint condition, mainly by using and repairing its original parts. Although this little beauty was in horrible shape, it now looks as good as it did the day it was built.
The old and damaged was made new.
This is a great reminder of what God has in store for believers in Jesus. In Revelation 21:1, John spoke of seeing “a new heaven and a new earth.” Many biblical scholars see this “new” earth as a renovated earth, for their study of the word new here reveals that it means “fresh” or “restored” after the decay of the old has been wiped away. God will renovate what is corrupt on this earth and provide a fresh, yet familiar place where believers will live with Him.
What an amazing truth to contemplate: a new, refreshed, familiar, and beautiful earth. Imagine the majesty of God’s handiwork!
Prayer: Lord, we thank You for this beautiful world we live in—but at the same time we anticipate greatly the new world You have in store for us. We praise You for Your love for us, revealed in Your amazing plans for our future.
Our Creator God makes everything new.
Insight:
Those who have undergone a rebirth individually through believing in Christ (John 3:3–5; Titus 3:5) will participate in the future universal makeover of this planet (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21). Revelation 21:1–5 refers to three new items—“a new heaven and a new earth,” plus “the new Jerusalem” (v. 2). Christians can be part of that new world as “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). A significant part of Revelation 21:1–5 involves an interlacing of previously announced truths and texts from the Old Testament. Isaiah 48:6 forecasted “new things,” which Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 expand to “new heavens and a new earth.” What are you especially looking forward to being made new?
This message was written by Dave Branon [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
Topic: Old Yet New [January 9, 2017]
Read: Revelation 21:1–5, Bible in a Year: Genesis 23–24; Matthew 7
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new.” Revelation 21:5
In 2014, a sinkhole opened up under the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky, swallowing eight vintage, irreplaceable Chevrolet Corvette sports cars. The automobiles were severely damaged—some beyond repair.
One car in particular received a lot of attention. The one-millionth Corvette, which rolled off the assembly line in 1992, was the most valuable in the collection. What happened to that gem after it was pulled from the sinkhole is fascinating. Experts restored the car to mint condition, mainly by using and repairing its original parts. Although this little beauty was in horrible shape, it now looks as good as it did the day it was built.
The old and damaged was made new.
This is a great reminder of what God has in store for believers in Jesus. In Revelation 21:1, John spoke of seeing “a new heaven and a new earth.” Many biblical scholars see this “new” earth as a renovated earth, for their study of the word new here reveals that it means “fresh” or “restored” after the decay of the old has been wiped away. God will renovate what is corrupt on this earth and provide a fresh, yet familiar place where believers will live with Him.
What an amazing truth to contemplate: a new, refreshed, familiar, and beautiful earth. Imagine the majesty of God’s handiwork!
Prayer: Lord, we thank You for this beautiful world we live in—but at the same time we anticipate greatly the new world You have in store for us. We praise You for Your love for us, revealed in Your amazing plans for our future.
Our Creator God makes everything new.
Insight:
Those who have undergone a rebirth individually through believing in Christ (John 3:3–5; Titus 3:5) will participate in the future universal makeover of this planet (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21). Revelation 21:1–5 refers to three new items—“a new heaven and a new earth,” plus “the new Jerusalem” (v. 2). Christians can be part of that new world as “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). A significant part of Revelation 21:1–5 involves an interlacing of previously announced truths and texts from the Old Testament. Isaiah 48:6 forecasted “new things,” which Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 expand to “new heavens and a new earth.” What are you especially looking forward to being made new?
This message was written by Dave Branon [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
Sunday, 8 January 2017
PRESS RELEASE: Take Nigeria out of Darkness, Nigerian Wailers tasks Minister of Power, Babatunde Fashola.
We want to call on the minister of Power, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) to attend to the endless power outage in Nigeria. This has become an unbelievably saddening situation displayed by a man who, while he was the governor of Lagos State, prided himself as a performing and best governor in Nigeria.
The problem of non supply of electricity in the country has worsened the living conditions of citizens, crippling businesses, and also posed very dangerous health issues to the people due to the high temperature both during the day and in the night, causing rashes on the children, which is a big threat, and also causing meningitis and malaria since the darkness itself is a good breeding ground for mosquitoes.
The Minister, when he was a governor in Lagos State was quoted to have said that a serious government should be able to generate electricity for citizens within six (6) months and now he has not been able to match those words with actions since over Twelve (12) months of his appointment as the Minister of power under Buhari's administration.
We assert that his appointment could have been made based on the statement that he had made, that to generate electricity for citizens is not a rocket science.
We now wonder why Nigerians are compelled to sleep and wake up in total darkness because of his inability to perform and restore electricity to homes, and now no any sign of hope in sight that Fashola is working to take the people out of darkness.
We can all vividly see the harrowing hardship exerted on Nigerians because of the economic situation the Buhari's government has led the country into. There are small scale businesses that has failed and folded up because of the total black out, and since fuel is no more affordable at N145 to run businesses compared to when it was sold at N87.
Big businesses and factories are folding up as well, sacking their workers, putting many out of jobs because of the cost of buying the fuel to generate power to run their businesses since the price of fuel has been hiked up, while government electricity alternative is unavailable.
Now is the time for the minister to provide electricity for Nigerians as he had bragged before he was appointed a minister. Life will be a lot easier for the people even in this recession. the provision of power supply will be a succor for small businesses, petty traders, etc, and big businesses.
The economic and health problems that the country is facing daily as a result of total power failure is of great worry and the minister must as a matter of urgency solve this problem before it gets uglier. The government must find the best means to tackle and solve all the challenges facing power generation and that is the sole responsibility of the government in terms of power supply.
There are lots of hospitals both Private and public that depends on government's supply of power to operate their equipments to be able to attend and treat their sick patients. There are lots of SMEs that depends on government power source to function but the power failure has foiled and folded many of such ventures and investments out of business.
When there is power supply, the people will be able to engage in legitimate businesses and would not be frustrated, and in their fight for survival engage in crimes and criminalities.
We, in all seriousness, urge the Minister of Power Babatunde Fashola to apply the best method to generate electricity supply for Nigerians. There is no excuse whatsoever to why he is unable to perform that will make any sense to the Nigerian people.
He said it himself in his days as an opposition to the past administration, that generation of power is not a rocket science. Anything contrary or short of this is a total failure, however we are hoping that he will perform and we shall commend him, except and unless his past assertion of himself as a performing Governor was a mere propaganda and a facade.
Ibrahim Sani Ringim
National Publicity Secretary
The Nigerian Wailers
Headquarters, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria.
Intelligent bursted the impact of Russia on American election
Russia President Vladmir Putin directly ordered influence of presidential elections to hurt Clinton & help Trump- U.S Intel reveals
The United States Office of National Intelligence on Friday released a full declassified report revealing that Russia's president Vladmir Putin ordered an "influence campaign" that had only one mission in mind- to favour Donald Trump and harm Hillary Clinton's chances in the just concluded U.S presidential elections.
According to the Intelligence report, Putin ordered "a significant escalation" to undermine "the US-led liberal democratic order" by hacking Democratic Party individuals like Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta and releasing gained information as leaks via Wikileaks.
The report, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence read;"We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,"
"Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow's longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations,"
"Moscow's influence campaign followed a Russian messaging strategy that blends covert intelligence operations -- such as cyberactivity -- with overt efforts by Russian government agencies, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries and paid social media users or 'trolls,' " the report continued.
"Before the election, Russian diplomats had already publicly denounced the US electoral process and were prepared to publicly call into question the validity of the results," the reported stated, adding that pro-Russian government bloggers had prepared a Twitter campaign on Election Night using the hashtag "#DemocracyRIP."
The report also noted that Russian TV's coverage of ''Secretary Clinton ... was consistently negative and focused on her leaked emails and accused her of corruption, poor physical and mental health, and ties to Islamic extremism."
"Putin most likely wanted to discredit Secretary Clinton because he has publicly blamed her since 2011 for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012, and because he holds a grudge for comments he almost certainly saw as disparaging him," the report said
LIB
Saturday, 7 January 2017
RCCG reshuffle cabinet
For those that are troubled, that are grieving, that are suffering, that are deeply concerned and that are in a state of utter despondency and despair about what is happening in our country today and what the future holds, keep hope alive and hear this loud and clear.
Many years from now history will record that it was not the tyranny and bondage of President Muhammadu Buhari, his minions and his government or the curse and affliction of Boko Haram, the Fulani militias and herdsmen or the almighty Caliphate that the oppressed people of Nigeria were up against.
These people are not the enemy. They are merely the representatives, the low-level foot soldiers and the primitive enforcers of a greater satanic power that has sought to use them to create chaos in our nation, to subjugate our people in perpetuity, to establish a sacrificial blood bank, to wipe out our faith, to rob us of our identity and to corrupt and destroy our destiny and cherished values.
What we are up against are the forces that inspire, encourage, control, nurture, fund and guide them.They include the unadulterated evil of the wahhabi and salafist doctrines and philosophies espoused and propagated by the Royal House of Saud in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Illuminati agenda of the shapeshifting reptilian forces and Luciferian entities that put President Barack Obama in power in the United States of America 8 years ago and that attempted to ensure a Hilary Clinton Presidency at the end of 2016.
The entire challenge is essentially an existential struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. The fight is raging in both the spiritual and physical realms. The currency is blood and the prizes are the precious and eternal souls of men and the control of the entire world and its enormous resources.
The good news is that our adversaries never saw President-elect Donald J. Trump coming. They wrote him off right from the start and dismissed his aspiration with scorn and contempt. Little did they know that he was God’s ace in the spades, or to put it in an even more appropiate manner, God’s “trump” card.
And it worked beautifully. The whole world and the forces from hell that control it were shell-shocked. They still are. Yet thankfully there is nothing they can do about it. They forgot that He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wisdom of the wise.
With Trump in the White House, guided, protected, led, fortified and driven by the love, power, mercy and grace of the Living God that put him there, the world will be a better and safer place after his swearing in on January 20th 2016.
It may take some time but after that day the dark and lonely winter ice of wickedness and witchcraft will begin to melt and the summer sun of blessings, prosperity, joy and peace will begin to rise.
After that day the oppressed people of the southern and Middle Belt zones of Nigeria will have a friend in the White House. And as time goes by they will be given the opportunity to tell their story to the world, to break their chains of servitude, to shattter their yoke of slavery and to free themselves from the hideous mental prison of fear, tyranny and bondage that they have been subjected to over the last 56 years by their internal colonial masters.
After that day their mortal bodies and sacred flesh will no longer be cut to pieces and carved up like Peking diced duck or barbecued spare ribs in state-sponsored pogroms and acts of merciless genocide without any consequences.
Their precious blood will no longer be used as a free-flowing blood bank for the devil and his monstrous demons to drink from and quench their frenzied thirst.
After that day they will no longer buy and eat the charmed and jinxed cow meat that they have been sold and fed by the apprentices and sorcerers of their secret adversaries for the last 56 years.
After that day they will no longer feed on the Caliphs sweet cow meat which, over the years, has enchanted their spirits, locked up their souls, incapacitated their thinking faculties, broken their will, taken away their courage, destroyed their manhood, bound up their ability to reason, turned them into zombies and reduced them to a pitiful and shameful degree of impotence, cowardice, stoicism and docility.
Finally, after that date, their women and children will no longer be regarded as nothing but fair game, easy sport, expendable chattel and the spoils of war to be enslaved, shared, violated, raped and enjoyed by their collective oppressors and conquerors.
All this will come to pass sooner than later because freedom beckons and its trumpet call is loud and clear.
Sooner than later Pharaoh shall die and we shall leave Egypt, enter Goshen, part the Red sea and cross over to the Promise Land.
It is just a matter of time. In the next few years our country will either be peacefully and equitably restructured according to the will of the people and the counsel of God or she will be violently broken into two or more pieces.
The mass murder and ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle Belt and the core north over the last 56 years cannot stop it.
The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Igbos and the barbaric acts of genocide perpetuated against millions of Biafrans over the last 56 years cannot stop it.
The subjugation, dehumanisation, humiliation and outright robbing and pillaging of the people of the Niger Delta area and the southern minorities over the last 56 years cannot stop it.
The castration, demystfication, pacification, infiltration and indoctrination of the people of the south-west over the last 56 years cannot stop it.
The consistent and relentless persecution, incarceration, torture and extra-judicial murder of key opposition figures and those that are perceived as being the enemies of our President and his government cannot stop it.
The cowardly disposition, shameful collaboration, wilfull collusion and resounding silence of our nations ruling elite, political leaders, academics, intellectuals, traditional rulers, human rights activists, businessmen, industrialists, artists, writers, poets, actors, entertainers, entrepenuers, cultural custodians and political commentors cannot stop it.
Nothing can stand in the way of this new wave and no mortal can successfully resist it.
It cannot be stopped, delayed, intercepted or aborted because it has been decreed and ordained by the Ancient of Days and the Lord of Hosts.
Locking up Colonel Sambo Dasuki, Sheik Ibrahim El Zak Zaky, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or any of the other thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of war in underground dungeons and dingy dark cells for months and years on end cannot stop it.
Bringing them up before the courts on trumped-up, contrived, malicious, spurrious and baseless charges cannot stop it.
Telling the nations young that they dare not aspire and the political opposition that they dare not dissent cannot stop it.
Nothing can stop it because it is written in the wind and it has been pronounced and spoken into existence by the oracles of the Living God.
The unleashing of fear and terror and the inflicting of violence, carnage, brutality and barbarity on innocent and defenceless men, women and children by the Armed Forces and security agencies cannot stop it.
The conspiratorial silence, submissive acquiesence and covert collusion of our nations media cannot stop it. As a matter of fact nothing, no force on earth or in hell, can stop it.
For the voiceless, oppressed, cheated, marginalised and afflicted people of Nigeria the bells of freedom are ringing and it is either liberty or death.
And today I speak for those millions as I dare to proclaim, just like the great American patriot Patrick Henry once dared to proclaim in his famous speech to the Virginia Convention 291 years ago whilst calling for armed resistance against the British colonialists:
“GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!”
Feni Fani-Kayode is a former Aviation Minister and the Media Director of Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign in 2015
RCCG! PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE REMAINS GENERAL OVERSEER OF RCCG, WORLDWIDE..
Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye remains the General Overseer, Worldwide of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG.
A statement signed by Leke Adeboye, the clergyman's last son and Personal Assistant said the clarification is coming on the heels of misrepresentation of Pastor E. A Adeboye's announcement at the Annual Ministers Thanksgiving held at the redemption camp today that the Church Nigeria is now to be led by Pastor Joseph Obayemi.
The statement clarified that the latest development is sequel to the new legal requirements set up by the Financial Regulations Council, guiding all registered churches, mosques, and CSOs.
The regulation stipulates that heads of non profit organisations like churches now have a maximum period of twenty years to lead their organizations while in retirement, they are not permitted to hand over to their families.
Leke Adeboye reiterated that Pastor Funsho Odesola, will now serve as the new Church Secretary while Pastor Joseph Adeyokunu, is the new Church Treasurer.
He advised all members of RCCG to understand this new structure and go about their service to God and humanity in holiness and soul winning.
He also appealed to members to educate people around them and not spread inaccurate information stressing that Pastor E.A Adeboye remains the General Overseer of RCCG Worldwide.
#ParisRobbery ! Kim K breaks silence
Kim K breaks silence on Paris robbery, recalls thinking 'they're going to shoot me in the back'
According to the report from E! Online below...
"Kim Kardashian is breaking her silence on her horrific Paris robbery. In an exclusive promo from the upcoming season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which returns to E! in March, the 36-year-old mogul opens up to sisters Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian about the scary experience. "They're going to shoot me in the back," she says in tears, recalling the incident. "There's no way out. It makes me so upset to think about it."
In October, Kim was bound, gagged and held at gunpoint inside her hotel room by masked men who then stole all her jewelry and escaped
E! / LIB
.
According to the report from E! Online below...
"Kim Kardashian is breaking her silence on her horrific Paris robbery. In an exclusive promo from the upcoming season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which returns to E! in March, the 36-year-old mogul opens up to sisters Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian about the scary experience. "They're going to shoot me in the back," she says in tears, recalling the incident. "There's no way out. It makes me so upset to think about it."
In October, Kim was bound, gagged and held at gunpoint inside her hotel room by masked men who then stole all her jewelry and escaped
E! / LIB
.
Friday, 6 January 2017
#GloCAFAwards2016: Full List of Winners
#GloCAFAwards2016: Full List of Winners
Yesterday, at the recently concluded Glo CAF awards, Riyad Mahrez was crowned the new African Football King. While Nigeria’s Alex Iwobi won the Youth Player of The Year award, Asisat Oshola went home with the Women’s Player of the Year award and the CAF Platinum Award was presented to President Buhari. Check out the full list of winners below....
African Player of the Year
Riyad MAHREZ (Algeria & Leicester City)
African Player of the Year – Based in Africa
Denis ONYANGO (Uganda & Mamelodi Sundowns)
Women’s Player of the Year
Asisat OSHOALA (Nigeria & Arsenal Ladies)
Most Promising Talent
Kelechi IHEANACHO (Nigeria & Manchester City)
Youth Player of the Year
Alex IWOBI (Nigeria and Arsenal)
Coach of the Year
Pitso MOSIMANE (Mamelodi Sundowns)
Club of the Year
Mamelodi Sundowns
National Team of the Year
Uganda
Women’s National Team of the Year
Nigeria
Referee of the Year
Bakary Papa GASSAMA
Football Leader of the Year
Manuel LOPES NASCIMENTO, President of Guinea Bissau Football Federation
Legend Award
Laurent POKOU, Former player of Cote d’Ivoire
Emilienne MBANGO, Former player of Cameroon
LIB
Thursday, 5 January 2017
Wonder Shall never ends! ATM displayed high level of courtesy
Mom withdraws from an ATM. What the hidden camera catches will warm your heart.
TD Bank wanted to give back to their 12 million customers across Canada in a big way. So they turned their ATMs into Automated Thanking Machines to create some very special moments for their loyal customers. The video illustrates the magical and touching moments they created to wow their customers.
The machine closely resembled an ATM machine, but this machine didn’t just dispense money. It gave special gifts to their customers that were dear to their hearts. Watch the video to see what amazing gifts these customers received and their reactions to these amazing acts of kindness.
Click the link below to watch the video
http://www.surveee.org/tdatm.html
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
FG ANNOUNCES NEW TARIFFS ON IMPORTED GOODS
In the effort to generate more revenue,
FG ANNOUNCES NEW TARIFFS ON IMPORTED GOODS
SUVs, boats and Sports Cars, will now attract 70% duty (previously 20%); Rice, Alcohol and Tobacco now 60% (from 10 and 20%).
Sugar and salt 70% (from 10%); packaged cement 50% (from 10%); Cotton/ fabrics materials 45% (from 35%).
Essential industrial service components including bolts, industrial oil and other equipment down to 5%
Some drugs and other foods are also being slammed with higher tariffs including Anti-malarial drugs and antibiotics; palm oil; wheat flour; tomatoes paste cassava products etc..More details later.
CKN News
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
The Federal Government has commenced the payment of N5,000 monthly to one million vulnerable Nigerians.
The Federal Government has commenced the payment of N5,000 monthly to one million vulnerable Nigerians.
In a statement released, Monday, by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, the government stated that the payment was effected through the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, of the government’s Social Investment Programmes, SIP.
According to the statement, one million Nigerians would receive N5,000 monthly payments under the CCT as a form of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable as budgeted for in the 2016 Budget.
Mr. Akande added that many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their first payments in the first batch that commenced last week.
“In the first batch that commenced last week, nine states would be covered, and many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their first payments by Friday last week, December 30, 2016.
“Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon.”
The statement listed Borno, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states as states in the first batch to commence the CCT statement. It however said that the states were selected because they had a social register that identified the vulnerable and poorest Nigerians.
“Though the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving the money. The other states in the first batch to commence the CCT payments are Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun & Ekiti States,” Mr. Akande said.
“The nine pilot states were chosen because they have an existing Social Register that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested community based targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank. However other states have already begun developing their Social Registers and would be included in subsequent phases of the CCT implementation.”
According to the statement, the federal government, with the support of the World Bank, has adopted the CBT for developing the social register in the other states around the country for transparency, objectivity and credibility in the selection of the poorest and vulnerable Nigerians. Hence, the federal government will soon commence community mobilisation for the creation of the register in more states, to expand the scope and reach of the CCT across the country.
Other states listed to have complied with the stipulated framework provided and are set for the community based targeting method for development of social register include Plateau, Jigawa, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Katsina and Taraba States.
These states, Mr. Akande said, are to be followed by Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Imo and Ogun States. The government also assured that once the information garnered are entered into the social register, cash transfers would be disbursed to beneficiaries.
“Once the community mobilisation, identification and selection processes are completed, the information garnered from the poorest households would be entered onto the Social Register in the
states and the National Register at NIBSS, after which the cash transfers would be disbursed to the beneficiaries.”
The statement also disclosed that funds approved for the SIP are domiciled with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
Meanwhile, the federal government said that with the commencement of the CCT, the Buhari administration is now implementing four of the federal government’s SIP.
Mr. Akande said the N-Power Volunteer Corps designed to hire half a million unemployed graduates has now engaged 200,000, and the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme now runs in three states.
He said the Buhari administration has also kicked-off the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, GEEP.
“Under GEEP, soft loans ranging from N10,000 to 100,000 have been designed for artisans, traders, market women among others. Already, thousands of cooperatives, market women associations, farmers and enterprising youths, have been identified and registered for the purpose, on an ongoing basis, and the disbursement of the soft loans through the Bank of Industry have started since Nov 25, 2016.
“At the last count, for the first phase, beneficiaries have been drawn from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta, Imo, Kwara, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Kogi States.”
The statement however said that regarding the GEEP, disbursements were halted and deferred until after the festive season but vetting and approval of beneficiaries are now being continued
Commenting on the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-power programme, Mr. Akande said about 100,000 graduates have been physically verified, adding that they have started receiving their N30,000 stipends.
“Regarding the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme, close to 50 per cent of the graduates, have now been physically verified, and started receiving their monthly stipends of N30,000 last week. A second batch of 300,000 unemployed graduates are expected to be
selected early this year to make up the half a million target set by the Buhari administration.
“The verified graduates are now being deployed to work as assistant teachers in schools, as community health aides and as agricultural extension workers, in more than 20 States of the Federation. These sates include; Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Anambra, Benue, Cross Rivers, Borno, Gombe, Edo, Jigawa, Katsina, Plateau, Kogi, Osun, Rivers, Zamfara, Niger, Sokoto, Ogun and Taraba.”
In the same vein, the government said it has also started the implementation of the National Home-grown School Feeding programme designed to feed 5.5 million school children for 200 school days in the first phase of the programme. According to the statement, the initial design was to
feed pupils in 18 States but funding challenges had affected an earlier take-off. It however said that the programme has now commenced in Osun, Kaduna and Anambra States, adding that more states are expected to join this new year.
The federal government reiterated its commitment to touching the lives of millions of vulnerable Nigerians, especially in the new year, in fulfilment of its Change agenda.
“In the new year, it is the plan of the Federal Government to scale up the implementation of the SIP to touch the lives of millions of Nigerians in fulfilment of its promises and in furtherance of its Change agenda,” Mr. Akande said.
Source: https://yaanews.com/nigerian-government-starts-paying-n5000-every-month-poorest-citizens
In a statement released, Monday, by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, the government stated that the payment was effected through the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, of the government’s Social Investment Programmes, SIP.
According to the statement, one million Nigerians would receive N5,000 monthly payments under the CCT as a form of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable as budgeted for in the 2016 Budget.
Mr. Akande added that many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their first payments in the first batch that commenced last week.
“In the first batch that commenced last week, nine states would be covered, and many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their first payments by Friday last week, December 30, 2016.
“Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon.”
The statement listed Borno, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states as states in the first batch to commence the CCT statement. It however said that the states were selected because they had a social register that identified the vulnerable and poorest Nigerians.
“Though the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving the money. The other states in the first batch to commence the CCT payments are Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun & Ekiti States,” Mr. Akande said.
“The nine pilot states were chosen because they have an existing Social Register that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested community based targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank. However other states have already begun developing their Social Registers and would be included in subsequent phases of the CCT implementation.”
According to the statement, the federal government, with the support of the World Bank, has adopted the CBT for developing the social register in the other states around the country for transparency, objectivity and credibility in the selection of the poorest and vulnerable Nigerians. Hence, the federal government will soon commence community mobilisation for the creation of the register in more states, to expand the scope and reach of the CCT across the country.
Other states listed to have complied with the stipulated framework provided and are set for the community based targeting method for development of social register include Plateau, Jigawa, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Katsina and Taraba States.
These states, Mr. Akande said, are to be followed by Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Imo and Ogun States. The government also assured that once the information garnered are entered into the social register, cash transfers would be disbursed to beneficiaries.
“Once the community mobilisation, identification and selection processes are completed, the information garnered from the poorest households would be entered onto the Social Register in the
states and the National Register at NIBSS, after which the cash transfers would be disbursed to the beneficiaries.”
The statement also disclosed that funds approved for the SIP are domiciled with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
Meanwhile, the federal government said that with the commencement of the CCT, the Buhari administration is now implementing four of the federal government’s SIP.
Mr. Akande said the N-Power Volunteer Corps designed to hire half a million unemployed graduates has now engaged 200,000, and the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme now runs in three states.
He said the Buhari administration has also kicked-off the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, GEEP.
“Under GEEP, soft loans ranging from N10,000 to 100,000 have been designed for artisans, traders, market women among others. Already, thousands of cooperatives, market women associations, farmers and enterprising youths, have been identified and registered for the purpose, on an ongoing basis, and the disbursement of the soft loans through the Bank of Industry have started since Nov 25, 2016.
“At the last count, for the first phase, beneficiaries have been drawn from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta, Imo, Kwara, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Kogi States.”
The statement however said that regarding the GEEP, disbursements were halted and deferred until after the festive season but vetting and approval of beneficiaries are now being continued
Commenting on the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-power programme, Mr. Akande said about 100,000 graduates have been physically verified, adding that they have started receiving their N30,000 stipends.
“Regarding the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme, close to 50 per cent of the graduates, have now been physically verified, and started receiving their monthly stipends of N30,000 last week. A second batch of 300,000 unemployed graduates are expected to be
selected early this year to make up the half a million target set by the Buhari administration.
“The verified graduates are now being deployed to work as assistant teachers in schools, as community health aides and as agricultural extension workers, in more than 20 States of the Federation. These sates include; Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Anambra, Benue, Cross Rivers, Borno, Gombe, Edo, Jigawa, Katsina, Plateau, Kogi, Osun, Rivers, Zamfara, Niger, Sokoto, Ogun and Taraba.”
In the same vein, the government said it has also started the implementation of the National Home-grown School Feeding programme designed to feed 5.5 million school children for 200 school days in the first phase of the programme. According to the statement, the initial design was to
feed pupils in 18 States but funding challenges had affected an earlier take-off. It however said that the programme has now commenced in Osun, Kaduna and Anambra States, adding that more states are expected to join this new year.
The federal government reiterated its commitment to touching the lives of millions of vulnerable Nigerians, especially in the new year, in fulfilment of its Change agenda.
“In the new year, it is the plan of the Federal Government to scale up the implementation of the SIP to touch the lives of millions of Nigerians in fulfilment of its promises and in furtherance of its Change agenda,” Mr. Akande said.
Source: https://yaanews.com/nigerian-government-starts-paying-n5000-every-month-poorest-citizens
Monday, 2 January 2017
Our Daily Bread devotional, January 2, 2017 - The Perfect Gift
Our Daily Bread devotional, January 2, 2017 - The Perfect Gift
Topic: The Perfect Gift [January 2, 2017]
Read: Romans 11:33–12:2, Bible in a Year: Genesis 4–6; Matthew 2
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1
The weeks after Christmas are the busiest time of year in the US for merchandise returns as people trade unwanted gifts for what they really want. Yet you probably know a few people who always seem to give the perfect gift. How do they know just what another person values and what is right for the occasion? The key to successful gift-giving is not money; it’s listening to others and taking a personal interest in what they enjoy and appreciate.
This is true for family and friends. But what about God? Is there anything meaningful or valuable that we can give to God? Is there anything He doesn’t already have?
Romans 11:33–36, a song of praise to God for His great wisdom, knowledge, and glory, is followed by a call to give ourselves to Him. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (12:1). Instead of being shaped by the world around us, we are to be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (v. 2).
What’s the best gift we can give to God today? In gratitude, humility, and love we can give ourselves completely to Him—heart, mind, and will. It’s just what the Lord is longing to receive from each of us.
Prayer: Dear Lord, I’m Yours. I want to offer myself to You—heart, mind, and will—in humble service and in thankful worship for all You have done for me.
The best gift we can give to God is ourselves.
Insight:
As Paul begins to describe the new life we can have because of what Jesus has done (Rom. 12–16), he calls for a radical commitment involving the dedication of our bodies and transformation of our minds (12:1–2). God does not require that we die for Him; rather, we are to live for Him—“to offer [ourselves] as a living sacrifice” (v. 1). In the Old Testament two kinds of sacrifices were offered: propitiatory and dedicatory. Propitiatory or atoning sacrifices are mandatory sacrifices to atone for sin and to restore fellowship with God. Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), is the perfect and final propitiatory sacrifice. Paul emphasizes that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). Dedicatory sacrifices are thank offerings voluntarily offered to God to express thankfulness, love, and joyful worship in response to divine blessing or His mercy and grace (Lev. 7:11–15; 22:29; Pss. 50:14, 23; 107:22). We can never offer ourselves as atoning sacrifices (no human person can) because only “Jesus, the Lamb of God, [can take] away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). But we are all qualified to be a thank offering, to be “living sacrifices.”
This message was written by David McCasland [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
Sunday, 1 January 2017
Open Heavens 1 January 2017: Sunday daily devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Starting A New Year
Open Heavens 1 January 2017: Sunday daily devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Starting A New Year
Topic: Starting A New Year [Sunday 1, January 2017]
Memorise: Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. – Ecclesiastes 7:8
Read: Job 8:5-7 (KJV)
5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
Bible in One Year: Matthew 1-3, Isaiah 1:1-17
MESSAGE:
Welcome to this New Year! It is always good to experience something pleasantly new. At the dawn of a new year, hopes are renewed, aspirations are born and expectations are high. But when the ups and downs of life take their toll in the course of the year, many people are not able to sustain the zeal and zest that they started the year with. Does this sound familiar? For some, it appears as if the events they experience in the course of the year are set up to completely dash their hopes. If this has been your experience, it shall be different this time around in the mighty Name of Jesus.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” - Jeremiah 29:11
As you take in the fresh New Year breeze, know for sure that God has something great in store for you which will unfold in the course of this year. Something huge is coming your way, so let your hope be fixed on the Lord. God wants you to end this year big and great, and to have your heart overflowing with joy. Remember that in the Kingdom of God, the end of a thing is always of greater significance than its beginning. Hence, the Holy Ghost in Job 8:7 said:
“Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.”
Because some people start a new year with little or nothing, they don’t expect anything great to come their way that year. If you find yourself in such a situation, know that if you settle some key issues in your life, you can be assured of a greater, bigger and glorious year. First, start the year with God (Proverbs 8:17). If you are still living in sin, the greatest way to start this year is by going on your knees, confessing your sins to God, asking for His forgiveness and inviting Jesus Christ to be your captain and pilot from now onwards. Also, you need to cultivate a personal relationship with God by studying the Bible regularly, fellowshipping with other believers in a Bible-believing Church, worshipping God and taking time to pray on daily basis. In addition, daily ask God for direction, wait to receive it, and be sure to follow as He leads. Utilise all opportunities that come your way and give your best to God and His work. If you do all these, I assure you that this year will end very well for you.
Action Point: Thank God for granting you access to this New Year. Let your thanksgiving be a daily offering to God this year.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
iOpenHeavens is the electronic version of the Hard Copy. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC.
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