10 Ways to Impact Your Community

Do you dream about making a positive spiritual impact on your community as an individual, a group or a church? If your answer was a yes, you might find the following tips compiled by Tearfund, a leading relief and development charity useful. These suggestions cover crucial areas of learning and development for church projects and Christian organisations that want to make a lasting contribution to the fight against material and spiritual poverty, according to Tearfund.
1.     Encourage Spiritual Passion – Fundamental to giving our best to our communities is keeping faith at the heart of what we do. In other words, put God first in all you do!
2.     Aim for Professional Excellence – God inspires and equips us to give people our absolute best. Set and maintain the highest standards in your work; be prepared to undertake training and gain qualifications where necessary; be strategic in your planning and delivery; and ensure your team are thriving and fulfilling their capabilities.
3.     Be Strategic – Being strategic encompasses so much more than planning. It’s about taking time to continually seek God’s wisdom about the project; turning your ‘big picture’ into a detailed workable plan with achievable objectives; and being able to monitor, evaluate, reflect, adapt and change as you go.
4.     Create Sustainability – To be around for the long haul, it’s vital to focus on sustainability rather than short-term fundraising needs. This means: finding ways to sustain and nurture the vision; being strategic; nurturing your team and building in safeguards so you/they don’t burn out; and exploring ideas to create reliable income streams that help to outwork your vision.
5.     Nurture Your Team – Nurturing your team goes beyond just investing in your staff and volunteers so that they give a good return. Developing your team means having a genuine Christ-like love and concern for them.
6.     Protect Against Burnout – The more you do in your community, the more needs you will see and the more demands can be placed on your time. To make sure you don’t overstretch yourself and end up burnt out, safeguards should be put in place for you and your team to ensure your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.
7.     Involve Your Community – Involving your community in a serious, considered and on-going way goes far beyond just asking them what their needs are. Making a long-term commitment to community involvement includes finding ways to maintain relationships with key stakeholders and blessing others who are working like you to bless your community.
8.     Communicate Your Christian Distinctive – Your project will stand out from many other services in your community because it is prompted by your faith. This means working on how to explain your vision orally and in writing. Ensure that your words and deeds communicate the same thing.
9.     Sow Into Others – As you seek to bless your community, be ready to encourage, empower and equip other Christians, churches and projects in your area to help transform lives together. You can support others financially, with advice and guidance, through prayer and friendship, and with training.
10.  Keep The Heart Right – Keep your heart right in all you do. To do this, you need to stay focused on God and get strength from Him, ensure you’re getting sufficient rest time, find ways to deal with disappointment, frustration and fatigue, be accountable to others, and stay in community and not get isolated.

FG vows to fulfill agreement With ASUU

Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, Thursday, assured that the federal government would henceforth endeavour to fulfill every agreement reached with the Academic Staff Union of the Universities, ASUU. While appreciating the union for its understanding of the federal government’s position to call off the strike, Rufa’i  reiterated government readiness to fulfill every agreement entered into with the academic body.
According to her, “government is not in any way contemplating of backing back with terms discussed with ASUU and other unions of the tertiary institutions. … and that anything discussed and agreed we  are certain that we will do that.
The minister however, thanked  President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for his support throughout the negotiating period during which government came to terms to the demands of ASUU thus putting an end to the lingering impasse. She also commended the efforts of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and that of the National Assembly in resolving the misunderstanding.
On how government intends to raise the N100bn promised to universities Prof Rufa’i disclosed that there were some other accruable interventions from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Nigerna Nationa Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and ICT intervention from the ministry of Communication and its parastatals.

NIGERIA: SAME OLD SONG

NIGERIA: SAME OLD SONG

The promise of spending savings from subsidy removal on infrastructure and social safety nets has been presented as an anesthesia by every administration since subsidy removal was introduced into the national lexicon in 1986.

Former military president Ibrahim Babangida premiered it, when he claimed that at 23kobo per litre, petrol in Nigeria was too cheap, even cheaper than the price of a soft drink. Babangida explained that government was subsidizing petroleum products and that there was a need for that to stop so that the money saved could be used for infrastructural development. By the time he left in 1993, Babangida has raised pump price of petrol to 70k per litre. But the country was no better in terms of infrastructure. As recently revealed by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, there was no new investment in the Nigerian power sector throughout Babangida’s eight years in office. Ernest Shonekan, who succeeded Babangida, adopted the same excuse, raising the price per litre of petrol to N5 per litre from 70kobo.

In a move to sell himself to the distrusting public, the late General Sanni Abacha, Shonekan’s successor, slashed the pump price to N3.25kobo. But less than one year in office, Abacha also returned with the same argument. In October 1994, he increased the pump price of petrol to N11.00. He announced that “Freed subsidy” will be invested in infrastructure for the “masses” for which purpose he set up the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF. The PTF, headed by General Muhammadu Buhari, attracted controversy aplenty, with allegations its interventions were concentrated in the northern part of the country. And except for the few road it constructed and facilitation of acquisition of buses on hire purchase basis by the transport unions in the guise of mass transit, the PTF did not leave any enduring legacy.

In fact, it was under Abacha that the railway system finally collapsed. Abacha’s successor, General Abdusalami Abubakar, raised the price of petrol to N25. But he reduced it to N20 in January 1999, following pressure from organized labour.

Then came Obasanjo. Under the pretext of freeing funds for investments in infrastructure, encouraging investments in the downstream sector of the oil industry and ending waste and corruption associated with subsidizing petroleum products more than 10 times during his eight years in office.

This was in spite of regular resistance by labour/civil society coalition. Obasanjo later adopted the trick of announcing an outrageous increase in prices, waiting for labour and the civil society to threaten mass action and then offering a marginal reduction. At the end of his tenure in 2007, petrol was selling for N75 per litre. But the promise of improved infrastructure did not materialize. If anything, obasanjo left the country’s infrastructure considerably worse state than when he took over in 1999.

Therefore the President Jonathan’s promise to invest savings from removal of subsidy on petroleum products is justifiably greeted with “WE HAVE HEARD IT BEFORE”.

OUR COUNTRY, OUR LIFE

As one of the elders said “The works of nature must all be accounted good” Land is a nature that God has blessed us with. The bible says “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” Psalm 24:1. This shows that the land is a habitation for us living things. The land existed before anything right from the beginning. The bible says “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1.

The peace of the land brings peace to everything in it. It makes the land habitable; progresses are made, successes are achieved, developments take place, the world becomes interesting and lovely.

CORRUPTION! CORRUPTION!! The land was flowing with milk and honey and bathed in the light of God’s good grace; then the greedy heart, the meaning look that demands in secret, have curdled the milk and saddened the honey and turned the land to desolation. The land is now a dunghill with air filled with a smell of rot and feast of maggot in it.

Really, many things are happening around us, politically, socially and morally in our land. The universal principle says that “every action, thought or word is a seed that will produce a corresponding action, word, thought of an expected bigger magnitude. Simply put, whatever you sow will reap also means what goes around comes around”.

One cannot but wonder at the height of thoughtlessness and insensitivity that some people exhibit in the course of running their lives forgetting that there is a ‘reaping’ at the end. can you imagine a politician ‘running’ for a particular position in government killing people for rituals so he can be elected, after being elected he goes around stealing public funds that are meant for the people and not doing anything for them. Does he think he is going to live a peaceful life? Capital NO! There is a reward for such a person. Also imagine the level of greed people have when they take other peoples’ earnings, properties even life forcefully. Do they think they would go scot free? I say NO! Even a student cheating in exams hall cannot go free; there is always a REWARD.

I see a household stricken by sin, five men are dead another dying. A little child sits by the door, lone and forlorn weeping at a desolation he cannot understand, faced with situation he cannot resolve. The results of these bad acts are the BOMBINGS, KIDNAPPINGS, ACCIDENTS, DISASTERS (Natural and Artificial), TERRORISM, etc in the Land (country). It is not a surface problem, all these things started gradually from the beginning of our CORRUPTION, DISHONEST, WICKEDNESS, PRIDE and NEGLECTING OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

Let us look at the bible, when God wanted to destroy the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, he told Abraham; but Abraham had to ask God some questions; Genesis 18:20-33. Abraham asked God “if some particular numbers of people are righteous in that land, will he save the land?” God answered “to as many as 50 and less, he would save the land”. The results of peoples’ sin in our country has caused so  many innocent lives to suffer and even die; it has made destruction to our identity, our religion, our rights even our hope for the country; I want to believe we have more than 50 righteous people in our country, therefore it can be saved. We just have to do some things God ordered us to do. Let’s see!

Thanks to God Almighty, he said in his words to us all in II Chronicles 7:14-15 that “if my people who are called by my name, will HUMBLE themselves and PRAY and SEEK my face and TURN from their WICKED ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive your sin and will heal your land; then my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in your country”. God has given us instruction; it is left to us to obey him.

First we were asked to HUMBLE ourselves; this entails us to bring ourselves down to the level of people around us. Let us take Jesus as an example, Jesus with no doubt is a great man, but he was a servant leader that led great people with equality and loyalty. We have to start living like Jesus to learn how to be humble. The opposite of humility is pride and what do they say about pride, “pride comes before a fall” the only reason pride lifts up is to drop us fall forcefully and shamefully. Our leaders, Government individuals have to start treating their people with respect and equality. If a leader treats his people with humility, he would not even think not to talk of stealing public finds; he would not cause problem for people to battle with; he would count himself as one of his people; he would act like them, live like them, work like them, etc. even Jesus, the messiah was not different from his disciple and people he lives with. In Matthew 26:48, “Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them; ‘The one I kiss is the man; arrest him’”. When Jesus to be arrested, Judas had to give a sign in order for them to know exactly who they were to arrest. This shows that Jesus was just other people around, no difference! He was that simple with all his power and might. That is called HUMILITY. We as a person can exercise that character if we decide to. Just think of yourself and put it in others’ position.

REUNION THINGZ

A Yoruba adage says that “Eniyan la so” which in English means that “Humans are cloths” what that simply means is that humans are our covering just as cloths serves as our covering. We need people around to cover us reasons being that humans are the one that rules the world and lives among us. Human relationship matters a lot in our lives; the relationship we have with people builds us, mould us, protect us, helps us, in short they form us to the way we are. Our life starts with our parent, brothers, sisters’ relationship who forms a little part of our life, then we move on to our “friends” or the people we meet and deal with as we grow; these are the people who forms the greater part of our lives. They are the one that make or mar our life. There is this Czech proverb that says “Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by people.” People around you are protectors, they are the one God can use to help you.

In view of this, let us be that person God can use to help others. You give but a little when you give of your possessions; it is when you give yourself that you truly give. Let us give ourselves for service to humanities, because service to humanity is the best work of life. Albert Einstein said “only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” Time has come to show that responsibility to service, it is your chance to work for humanity, now is the best time to gather people to yourself.

Our reunion is an avenue to correct all wrongs, to make all crooked path straight, a chance to be loved once again, a time to forgive and to be forgiven, a place to make life changing and world building decisions. We cannot move the world if we cannot move ourselves forward by coming together to make good long lasting decisions. In the words of Johann Von, I say again, “the happiest of all men is him who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy even as though it were his own.” Reunion is a time to value our progresses, our successes, our failures, our ambitions. Many of us have moved from where we were before, even when we have not gotten to where we want to be; we have made progress in a way! Reunion is a starting point to know the challenges of the world we live in, making our Alma mater a case study. There, we can now decide how the challenges can be solved in our own little way. Responsibility to humans can be achieved with this little avenue. Doing these little things brings honor and great opportunities to us. In the words of Calvin Coolidge, the 30^th US president, he says “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” Simply means providing for others brings honor to us. Let us give our all to this course i.e. the REUNION. It is our own.

NIGERIA; IS LIFE GETTING BETTER? THE WAY FORWARD

IS LIFE GETTING BETTER? THE WAY FORWARD

Hmm, Nigeria! Years ago, I know how things were; in primary school, I would be given #20 for my snacks and it was OK. At exactly 11.30am when the school bell rings for break time. My friend and I would run out of the class quickly to buy #10 orange fan milk drink and #10 puff-puffs, which then was ok for a normal person for the rest of the day. But who can be happy with that now? Is LIFE GETTING BETTER?

      Let us look back as far as 30yrs ago, making reference to Obafemi Awolowo University ile-ife. I heard the story from one of our present generation leaders, that when he was a student at OAU, he usually queue every morning in his hall (i.e. hostel hall) to receive full chicken and assorted tea as breakfast with a cheap school fee. Where is that now? Is life getting better? After, some years when a new management came in control, the full chicken was reduced to half chicken, that was when OAU had its first strike; as the years goes by it reduces to nothing not even a fish bone. Is life getting better?

Still making reference to oau, structures like Awolowo Hall, Fajuyi Hall, Moremi Hall, Amphi Theater, Oduduwa Hall, Senate Building, Spider Building are great architectural design built using accurate proportions of building materials in order for it to be strong and long lasting. Where in Nigeria now can we have such mighty, beautiful and long lasting structures? Is Life getting better?

Let us leave oau, come to Ibadan, where we have cocoa house, one of the tallest building if not the tallest in Oyo state. It was built about 30-40 yrs ago and it is still strong and magnificent. The Nigeria we have today is a Nigeria where structures built collapses after a year or two. Is Life getting better?

Let us look at our Educational sector, about 20 years ago, Nigerian universities were one of the best universities in Africa; researches were excellent, structure were strong and large, environments were beautiful and neat, the academic standard were matched with international standards. What do we have now? Imagine a university that is one of the best universities in Nigeria and in its Engineering faculty, more than half of its students do not know what it takes to be an engineer reason being that those lecturing are not engineers themselves. Where on earth, can a non-engineer train an engineer in embryo; it’s so sadden. Is Life getting better?

Still on our educational sector, we are at a point, that we have to spend extra years in school because of some nonsense and useless strikes that can be avoided or controlled. Is Life getting better? I remember when I was in secondary school; public schools were part of the best schools in the country competing with private schools even with some international schools. Even most of our so called leaders attended public school and they know how it was then. Now! Public schools are not schools at all, poor environment, lazy teachers, poor maintenance, unconcerned government, more like a day care for teenagers to avoid them roaming the streets. Is Life getting better?

Our power sector is another challenge, ever since I have been born, have not seen electrical light hold for more than 10 hours except in Obafemi Awolowo University environment. It has gotten to a stage that if there is electricity for more than 10 hours a day, we would be scared and be praying that they take the light off because we would pay by not having light for the next two or more weeks after. It is that bad! Is Life getting better?

Don’t let me bore and get you angry about our present with our past. It is obvious, that life in Nigeria is not getting better, so many articles and comments have being written concerning Nigeria and about her leadership. But still, things have not changed. CORRUPTION! CORRUPTION!! CORRUPTION!!! Nigeria was flowing with milk and honey and bathed in the light of God’s good grace, and then the greedy heart, the meaning look that demands in secret have curdled the milk and saddened the honey and turned the land to desolation. The land is now a dunghill with air filled with a smell of rot and feast of maggot in it. Things have gotten worse! Nobody can be trusted! Even if pastor Adeboye, a person I believe is the most respected personnel in Nigeria, becomes the president and comes up with a policy that he believes to make Nigeria better and that same policy makes Nigerians cry and complain without understanding how the policy can make Nigeria better. Pastor Adeboye would be very wrong to go on with the policy because the principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, nobody nor individual nor group of individuals may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation; and who is the nation? The citizens are the nation! Therefore any policy brought up by the government must be largely endorsed by the citizens of the country. If not, the policy should be null and void. The foundation of democracy is the people. No matter how brilliant an idea or policy is, if the citizens dislike it, the democratic thing to do is to set it aside or convince them that the policy is in their best interest beyond any form of doubt. Even the president of the United States of America, Barrack Obama had to go from one American city to another to sell his health policy to the people.