TRAIN UP YOUR CHILD

From when children are very small they learn a  lot from us. At a stage in their lives, they imitate everything and anything we do.I am presently reading a book on the 14 secrets to better parenting by Dave Earley. He reiterates the Bible's stance found in Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go so that when he is old, he will not depart from it". I think a lot of people have missed it because they have left God out of the Equation. The manual of your child's life is contained in the Bible.In as much as i do not want to sound overly spiritual, there is no denying that God is needed to raise up children.It requires wisdom and God is the true source of it.There are of course a thousand and one ways to raise a child but if we want Godly seeds after we are gone, here are a few ways to gotten from the book 14 secrets to better parenting:

1.Teach them to take Gods Word seriously. Prov 2:1-5. As a parent, we must act as role models for our children, monitor their Growth and encourage them when they feel weak. The way we treat Gods Word is the way God feels treated because he and his Word are one.For example, you can put a memory verse in their Lunch Box daily and tell them to recite to you when they are back. Also, while preparing dinner, you can teach your young one about the names of God and the meaning.Above all, teach them to apply the scriptures.

2.Lead them to know God personally.Prov 9:10. The Bible says "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" . The greatest privilege is to lead them to know God for themselves. You will not be with them 24 hours of the day.It is want they have on the inside that will come forth during the days of trail.Not only should they know him personally, you should also monitor their growth.

3.Show them how to work Uprightly. Prov 16:6: Unconsciously, we always communicate to our children that the reward for wrong doing is punishment. This is not true. In as much as the punishment is part of it. Teach them that it is God that should be feared. teach them that there is a God in heaven even when mummy and daddy are not there sees all and records all our doings whether it be god or bad.It is the dreading of  sin itself and not just the punishment.

4.Guide them to humility. Prov 22:4: As much we teach them the right things, once in a while, they may err. You have to correct them in Love even when this happens. The Bible says  "the meek will he teach his ways. Humility comes when we put God as the center of our lives. We must not treat our kids as the center of the universe because only God deserves such accolade.

5.Teach them to respect authority Romans 13:1-7: Whether this be of God or man; teach them respect.If i cannot get my children to respect me they can see, how will they respect God they cannot see. We need to help our children respect all levels of human authority including parental,civic, vocational and spiritual authorities.

This piece is not just for those who just have kids biologically. You can find someone to mentor and impart. It never too late or too early to start implementing biblical parenting secrets. Why not start now? If we invest in our children now, The future generation will have to show for it.

#LETUSSAVENIGERIA

THE TIGER IN THE WOODS

We sure remember the Tiger Wood Story. About his marriage i mean. Just recently, i read he is now World No 52. Few years Ago, he was World No 1. It is going to take time for him to get back into his golfing career. It must be painful that a man so gifted could be so human.The lessons of his travails and trip to purgatory are quite clear: men no matter how gifted are fallible after all. Public figures have no hiding places: Tiger Woods is the victim of tabloid scrutiny and of the greed of the women in his lives. But there are many ordinary men whose lives have gone from hero to zero. There are no perfect lives. Not even Woods': he is the old picture of a perfect husband and family man, with his wife and daughter hanging on to him as he won the Majors. This Tiger could not resist returning to the wild of the woods. Man is deceptive.We judge people so easily. Judging is something we do sometimes without thinking. I am most guilty of that.When we realise that we are to treat others the way we will want to be treated, the world will be a more caring place.

• Monitor your thoughts.Think about what you thinking about. I often go along thinking things about other people, judging them, and I don't even realize it. I'm going to work on paying more attention to my thoughts and do my best to push them in a positive direction

• Look for the positive. People cant be totally bad.There must be a good in them .God did not create us to be bad. Judgments are negative. There is almost always something positive you can find in someone or something. While my mind might immediately focus on the negative, I can push my thoughts in a more positive direction and look for something nice to say. And, of course, if you can't find something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

• Avoid stereotyping. Stereotypes are never, ever good. I really try to avoid them, but I know I don't always. As I said above, they really create a lot of negativity in the world and I know I don't want to be a part of that. I want to work on recognizing stereotypes and working to avoid them at all costs. There is no need for them in my life.

• Stop judging yourself. It's not all that easy to do, but the more we judge ourselves, the more we'll judge others. I judge myself a lot and I need to work on that. I need to focus on the positive aspects of me and then it will be a lot easier to focus on the positive aspects of others. There's no reason to be so hard on myself and I'm going to really, really work on this one.

• Focus on your own life. When all else fails and judgments are hard to push away, focus on yourself. Don't worry about what other people are doing/wearing/etc. Think about your own life. Focus on what you want and go after it. When you're trying to avoid your own problems, it's easy to criticize others. Don't. Think about you and focus on the good things.

• Remember how it feels. Remember how it feels to be judged. AND remember how it felt the last time you judged someone else. It doesn't feel good to judge or to be judged so put an end to it right now. I'm going to work on remember these feelings the next time I feel like a negative thought about someone else is cropping up.

I will like to end with this quote "Those who spend their time looking for the faults in others usually make no time to correct their own -Art Jonak. Do not just others because they sin differently from you. Leave God to it who is the ultimate Judge.

#LETUSSAVENIGERIA

WE ARE OUR PROBLEM

Ouch! but that is the bitter truth.Taking a look at Nigeria, you will notice that we are the cause of our woes. What do i mean by this?Corruption starts from us. If the Civil servant refuses to collect bribe, nobody will be able to give it.Corruption still thrives because we have individuals or groups are still promoting it. All of a sudden, the Chibok girls are getting free. In as much as this is an answer to our prayers. But i think of it this way. The sponsor(s) of Boko Haram do not have money to steal from the government any longer to supply food stuffs for the girls.In turn, they captors can no longer cope therefore, they are churning them out gradually. That is just my thought though.Below are some of the ways i think we can curb corruption together.

1.The first tool is ‘education’. With the help of education we can reduce corruption. Look at the last election conducted in March 2015. We had some politicians giving out food stuff, irons, etc.If those people were educated, they will not sell their votes because of a bag of rice that will finish in a year at the most.Those who are uneducated do not know about the process, provisions and procedures through which they can get justice. Corrupt public servants try to make fool of them and often demands for bribe. It is due to unawareness in the field of law, public rights and procedures thereof that a common and an uneducated suffer out of the corrupt society. This suggests that if we are educated, we can understand our rights well.

2.We need to change the government processes. If the members of the governing body are government officials, there will certainly be less reports of the criminal cases. The reverse may be possible only when there are no more criminal politician in our government. The provision is that, if there is any case filed against a person then he would not be eligible for election. But if we see hundred politicians then about sixty percent of them would be criminal in nature. If these criminal politicians command us and make laws, what types of law would be formed, we can guess! Thus during election, we should keep in mind the person for whom we shall not vote.

3.We can reduce corruption by increasing direct contact between government and the governed. E-governance could help a lot towards this direction. In a conference on, “Effects of Good Governance and Human Rights” organized by  National Human Right Commission, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam gave an example of Delhi metro rail system and online railway reservation as good governance and said that all the lower courts should follow the explanation of the Supreme Court and High Court and make the judgments online. Similarly, Sivraj Patil said that the Right to information should be used for transparency. We have legal rights to know any information. According to this act, (Right to Information act 2005), generally people should follow the procedure of law given to then when their work is not being implemented in a proper way in public services. This act is a great help in the order to control corruption.

4.Lack of transparency and professional accountability is yet another big reason. We should be honest to ourselves. Until and unless we will not be honest, we can’t control corruption. If each of us is honest towards our profession, then corruption will automatically decrease. We need to pay attention towards professional accountability i.e., how much we are faithful and truthful towards our profession. Corruption may be controlled by handling five major professions: lekhpal, medical, revenue, police and judicial.

I pray God will raise up a Generation that will fight for Justice. A Generation that loves the right things and will not compromise. Sometime this week, Someone asked a question "when are we going to have our own Nelson Mandela, or Martin Luther King Jnr (May their souls rest in Peace)". People who are ready to die for this nation. I am ready to Die for Nigeria. Are you?

#LETUSSAVENIGERIA

TO STRIKE OR NOT

After several dinlindalis *in Frank Donga's voice* over strike or no strike. Finally the Wabba Led faction insisted on embarking on the strike despite the court injunction not to. The Ajaero Faction saw reason with the Federal government and the strike was cancelled on their part. The Bible is so complete. It stated that a house divide against itself cannot stand.This clearly shows in this case.The strike is not functional because of this reason.How on earth am i supposed to listen to people who saying "come and be going" (forgive my English).Am I supposed to adhere to a strike that is not even co-ordinated? Nigerian workers woke up today and headed straight to work just like any other day despite the proposed strike action threatened by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the federal government’s removal of fuel subsidy and consequent rise in pump price from N86 to N145. Social commentators and our ever ready social media influencers have reflected the citizens’ apathy towards a stay at home action noting that the NLC has since lost its credibility and moral justification to call for a stay at home action.After feeling the people’s pulse about the ‘strike’ over the last few hours, we give you five (5) reasons why Nigerians are not moved by the NLC:

They bailed out on civil society: This is a function of trust. Nobody trusts the NLC leadership anymore. Not after abandoning thousands of protesters at Ojota Park in 2012 during the ‪#‎OccupyNigeria‬protests. Rumour has it that the then NLC leadership had secretly struck a deal with former president, Goodluck Jonathan to abandon the cause and move on. And move on they did.

They have internal crises – 2 factions: The NLC is not operating a united front. While the Joe Ajaero faction of the Labour organisation is striking an agreement with the Buhari government, the Ayuba Wabba faction keeps insisting on a total strike. This incoherent approach has effectively weakened Labour’s resolve, making nonsense of their threat.

The government is trusted: Unlike what it was during the nationwide #OccupyNigeria protest, the tables appear to have been turned. Citizens did not trust Jonathan’s government to come through on its promise to activate palliative measures meant to alleviate the problems of the ordinary man and deploy money saved through the removal on massive infrastructural projects. On the other hand, President Muhammadu Buhari is currently riding on a wave of goodwill with an approval rating that shows no signs of abating. The NLC is playing itself if it believes it’s in a position to win this integrity war. It is not.

The legislators agree: For the first time in a while, several members of the National Assembly are in agreement with the decision of the federal government to yank of the subsidy. Yes, there was a rowdy session on Monday in the House during Emmanuel Kachikwu’s appearance at the Lower Chambers to defend the government’s decision to remove fuel subsidy but majority of the legislators have thrown their weight behind the removal.

Citizens are strike weary: Nigerians just want to give the NLC a taste of what they got in 2012 by ignore a strike action and moving on with their lives. Pres. Buhari’s administration has not delivered on its campaign promises as regard revamping the economy and more, but citizens are willing to see how far he can go – especially as the 2016 Budget has just been passed. The NLC may mean well, but we believe this is a good time for them – and Dino Melaye – to wake up and smell the coffee.

#LETUSSAVENIGERIA

ONE MATCH AT A TIME...

It is no longer news that Barcelona is the crowned King of  Spain.Whoop whoop. Ok am just a Barcelona fan by marriage but i want to share something i have learnt. Just like the main aim of venturing into a competition is to earn a trophy or even win cash. Am sure this is at the back of every coach's mind and even every player at that. You must take it one match at a time. Win every match and you will find yourself at the top just like in the case of  football. Each match presents it own challenges and opportunities.

1.Plan: As the cliche says "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". You must prepare and prepare hard  Diego Simeone says : Play like you have  a knife to your teeth. Give it every thing you got. Go through past matches, learn from your mistakes. Do whatever works for your team.

2. Focus On The Present:Yes you may have lost  several matches, you may even be up for relegation.When athletes allow their focus of concentration to jump ahead to the future, or drift back to the past, the result is always an increase in their nervousness. If you want to stay cool and calm in the clutch, then you have to train yourself to keep your focus in the NOW — especially during your games, matches or races! This means that leading up to the performance, you don’t want to think about and focus on the upcoming competition and its importance. If you want to play loose and relaxed, you must learn to keep your concentration in the now. When you’re in the action, you want to focus on one present-moment play at a time.

3. A Game Is Won In The Mind First:When today’s game is over, start preparing mentally for next week’s match-up. Mental preparation for a football game includes skills such as visualizing success, eliminating distractions, improving your mental toughness, and staying positive.

4 Relax:Performing your best under pressure means that you have to be having fun. Fun is the secret ingredient to staying calm and doing your best when the heat of competition is turned up high. If you make a game, match or race too important, if you put too much pressure on yourself, if you get too serious, then you’ll start getting nervous and your game will do a major disappearing act. When fun goes, so too will all of your game skills. If you really want to perform well, then you have to get into the game, enjoy the tournament, embrace the challenge from a tough opponent, have fun with your friends before, during and after the game!

#LETUSTALKIGERIA

WAZOBIA

GOD, in His infinite wisdom, made our dear country a rainbow collection of tribes and tongues. The rainbow in the sky is a thing of beauty. But we seem blind to the beauty in our rainbow collection of tribes and tongues. Instead, we find mutual suspicion, hate and fear in other tongues and tribes. Consequently, several parts of our country are today convulsed in inter and intra-ethnic conflicts leading to loss of lives as well as the destruction of private and public property. The gun is beginning to rule and ruin our country.

There is no doubt that one of the factors militating against progress and development of this country is tribalism and ethnicity. Right from the time of independence to this period, our problem as a nation has been that of tribal and ethnic considerations in our everyday life. Many have preached on the need to break the ethnic problem in Nigeria; different programmes have been initiated but they ended as theoretical exercises.Genuine democratic culture has been difficult to entrench in this country because of ethnicity and tribalism. What every Nigerian is extremely conscious of is the importance of tribalism in politics. This consciousness is pervasive because administrative units, such as “states’’ and local government areas, are mapped out according to tribes. Admission into institutions of learning and distribution of national wealth, are conducted by ethnic considerations.

Never you can never marry my daughter. What state did  you say you are from again.i cannot bare to have my grandchild from so so so state.You either hear that or the generalizations. All Yorubas like party,Hausas are selfish better put "the average Hausa man is selfish" .I can go on and on. Am wondering why we cannot all live hapilly despite  the differences. No one came with a choice of culture. I mean we did not even choose our parents.The Bible says "there is neither jew nor greek.we are all one in christ" .The major cause of the issues we have in Nigeria is as a result of intolerance.You hear things lIke The north has produced 5 presidents.its time for a zoning. Its time for the Igbos.As far the person is working, who cares about where he or she is from.We are FIRST humans before any other thing.
Look at major issues we have had in the past. Fulani Herds men killing is the latest demon roaring its ugly head. United we stand,divided we fall.the more we begin to dig differences and show intolerance, the more we fall apart.

Disclamier: I have gotten some of the references online.Not all written here is original

#LETUSSAVENIGERIA

GIVE US LIGHT

Lately, it has been hot as hell. I never been there and i do not wish anyone goes there not me either!. The description in the Bible says it all. Finally! the rain came to the rescue since NEPA has decided to treat us otherwise. Just like i mentioned in my previous post. Nigeria wastes about $7billion in gas flaring which is enough to power Africa. Did you even know that Gas Flaring is illegal? Let us quickly go down the memory lane on Gas Flaring. It is common knowledge that the economy is substantially dependent and more dedicated to exploration of oil than it is to gas, several deposits of gas have been discovered around oil wells in Nigeria but because of the past failure of the government to focus and explore the many other natural resources which the country possesses, the gas industry has been practically frustrated and nearly abandoned over the years. Thus, leading to a loss of revenue in a sector where there is a likelihood of otherwise generating more revenue. It is however worthy to note that whilst statistics may not be accurate, the quantity of gas flared in Nigeria exceeds over 40% of the gas flared annually across Africa. Apart from economic waste being a consequence of gas flaring, flared gas is also known to contain toxic substances which cause respiratory diseases and air pollution, leading to depletion of the ozone layer, ultimately having an adverse effect on weather and climate. That being said, there are ways of improving electricity. I have listed some below which i got form different sources.

Expansion of the Energy Mix for Electricity Generation
For enhanced security of electricity supply there is the urgent need for expanding energy sources, from gas and large hydro to gas, hydro, solar energy, wind energy, biomass/biofuels, coal and nuclear. The new power plants can be built on the basis of public-private partnerships. The Government would then divest its involvement after some years in line with the current policy of getting the private sector to handle generation and distribution systems. Many advanced countries, along with the International Renewable Energy Agency and the Energy Commission of Nigeria, will guide the development of the large-scale renewable energy-based power plants. The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development would guide the development of clean coal power plants, while the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nigeria Atomic Energy Agency would guide the development of the nuclear power plants.Projects of the embedded generator type should be vigorously promoted at distribution networks to close the gap in local demand and supply of electricity. One way of doing this is to invite investors to be part of pre-packaged pilot projects in all the distribution companies. State governments should take interest in embedded generation, as is already the case in Lagos State.It is observed that despite the government’s proclaimed desire to deploy renewable energy sources (RES) in the nation’s energy mix, there is no supporting legislation to support the stated position. Government, rather, advocates “some limited involvement” in financing renewable energy technologies, mainly in the form of differential wholesale tariffs rather than direct capital injections. Government should as a matter of urgency embrace the current trend where many developing and emerging economies are vigorously promoting renewable energy efforts through direct policy initiatives and incentives.

Expanding and Strengthening the National Grid and Improvement of Distribution Systems
The national grid is weak and fragile and cannot manage more than 7,000 MW, on completion of the on-going National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs), for distribution to consumers. There is urgent need for the grid to be regionalized and privatized to enable the new owners to strengthen and expand the grid in line with the dictates of their respective zones.A large part of the existing transmission system is old, unreliable and unstable, with limited redundancy, which results in frequent customer outages at the transmission level. Government should facilitate and encourage the private sector to significantly improve the transmission capacity to deliver power to end users.On distribution, it should be noted that the Federal Government, in line with the stipulation of the Electricity Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005, should maximize access to electricity by consumers. The target should be to ensure that there is a distribution mains supply within a distance of 1 km to any consumer cluster in Nigeria.

Provision of Fuels for New Power Plants
Expansion of the energy mix for new power plants will require special efforts that will call for the development of new gas fields as well as the development of both open cast and underground coal mines. There is also the need for development of both large and small farms for the production, on the one hand, of the feedstocks for biomass/biofuels power plants and, on the other hand, agro-allied industries for processing the feedstocks.The sustainable way of doing this is to entice the organized private sector through pragmatic policies and legislations. This initiative will lead to the creation of thousands of job opportunities for unemployed Nigerians. It will also promote inter-ministerial cooperation as it will involve Ministries of Agriculture, Petroleum Resources, Power as well as Mines and Steel Development.

Passage of the National Energy Policy into Law

The National Energy Policy, which was approved in 2003, along with the National Energy Masterplan that was produced in 2007, should be updated and passed into law. This is because the two energy planning documents have many cross-cutting issues pertinent to electricity, such as the scenario-based energy demand and supply projections and electricity generation expansion plans. The new legal documents will ensure the mainstreaming of the electricity development plans into the overall national development plans.

It is not my intention to confuse you with all the grammar. It is just sad that we have these resources both human and financial yet we have people who sabotage the good intentions of some of our leaders. This year i promise you will not be a good year for them, We are going to pray them out. Alleleuyah!. Let us take learnings form other countries and import them if they work for us. Nigeria WAS great. It WILL still be GREAT AGAIN.


#LETUSAVENIGERIA