I wrote this article in 2006 over the first organized This Day Festivals – there were arguments and counter-arguments at the comment section. Kindly read on…
Every time I see comments made by my fellow Christian brethren, I can’t but cringe at the blame game that is prominent in these comments. The comments always reveal helplessness by the same people who are expected to be a watchdog on this earth. When I posted “Your take – “THIS DAY MUSIC FESTIVAL“, my dear readers immediately assumed I totally agree with the write-up of my dear friend, Bolaji Osinuga, but I don’t. I am actually not very happy with the comment; I am actually awed by it. Write-ups like this have kept me thinking all night on how we (the Christians) are re-incarnating the drama that took place in the Garden of Eden.
I keep on saying the only reason why there is darkness is because there is no light. Darkness is simply defined as the absence of light. How can we be passing the responsibilities of beaming the light to others who are by themselves lost? We give so much power to people who are expected to be holding our skirt, begging for the way of salvation. This is the story of Adam and Eve; Adam said “God, it is the woman that you gave me that lured me into eating the apple”. The Christians say “It is Beyonce, Madonna, Snoop Doggy Dog that are using lewdness, profanity and sex to sell their music that is the major responsibility for the decadence in morality”. No matter how much we try to justify perversity of these artists, we are only making them a model to be reckoned with.
I personally appreciate these artists a lot because they are good at their game; they know how to connect to their customers big time and they are rewarded by their customers wallet for a job well done. There is nothing as profound as someone discovering one’s talent and exchanging one’s talent for a greater value; there is nothing as profound as that. The value of this person may be in question but the ability to generate traffic and make a profit from this traffic is regarded as greatness. No wonder the same Christian that critic these artists know the names, the dance style, and the video of these artists. Is this not worth taking a heavy reflection on?
Then some Christians bring flimsy arguments like sex sells; perversity sells; and I start wondering what they are talking about. Titanic has the highest Box Office sale world wide, the Bible is the best selling book of all time, and Passion of the Christ sold far more than Basic Instinct. These are indications that following the same principle of “connecting with your customer”, you will make great sale. It is not a matter of the content of your art but the principle of connecting to your customer. Beyonce connects to the emotional level of people with her song and dance steps; Nicole Simons connects to the spiritual level of people but due to heavy promotions, Beyonce is more popular thus makes more money. This simply means Christians need to up their game; they need to get more platforms of reaching out like Cable, Stage Promotions, Radios, Televisions, etc.
I strongly believe it is better for Christians to learn how to appropriate the immense powers they have within them than to blame others for the misfortunes they face. The artists we critique today could be the proponent our dear gospel if only someone would up his game. We saw the same talented Paul who persecuted the Christian becomes the chief Proponent of the Christians. We have seen the Samaritan proclaimed to be better than the priest and a fellow Jew by Jesus because of his altruistic act. We have seen Jesus baffle at the faith of a Roman Centurion over his own people. We should learn to appreciate their talents and pray for a change in their value system.
Then the role model argument comes in, and I get pissed off when Christians call Bill Gates. Bill Gates proclaimed live that he is not sure if he believes in God. Is that the role model, we want? Is it because he followed the principle of sowing and reaping, and achieved enormous wealth that we regard him as a role model then there is no difference between Beyonce and Bill Gates; both maximize their talents to get to where they are but Beyonce still proclaims her love for God and to me will change with time…
Angela im on your side concerning luminus, please are you in alliance with me so that we can address him!
luminus im on yourside concerning Angelas “any govt in power/anywhere belle face” tendencies, please lets address her!
please for all of you that dont know Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi was not a nigerian but the son of an american freed serria leon slave (he claimed his mother side and his real name was john thomas) His mission was to keep nigeria a slave country to the western world (america and england) the northerners knew it and promptly eliminated him witin 6 months of rule
please see this link for more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Aguiyi-Ironsi
We have had alot of such infiltration from liberia and serria leon into nigeria since slaves were freed. among them the Ben Bruce family, Patrick Dele Cole etc these people are american slaves who are being used by the CIA to keep us under slavery by fighting for so called “democracy” this was why when Rev Jesse Jackson landed nigeria Abacha told him he was considered an enemy of the state and had 24 hrs to leave nigeria or be arrested and arraigned as a spy and dealt with!
thank u luminus for giving us an “ordered” paragraph system!
as you will notice the english language is that of order there are
paragraphs and a title at helm of affairs ie topic thsi slso applied to the so called free press there is an ordered two column system
thank u luminus for giving us an “ordered” paragraph system!
Exactly what kind of leadership r u talking about Angela? because there is only one kind of national leadership ie leadership by force and that is a kind of leadership that is not mentioned in any political science text book but appears to be the dominant kind!
vis a vis NO JUDICIARY is allowed to issue any arrest/search WARRANT. the only person legally WHO CAN issue and effect any arrest is a military non-commissioned officer who has attained the rank of WARRANT OFFICER. This entitlement to arrest by these officers is by virtue of their over 20-30 years of distinguished and meritorious national military service.
So by police searching people at a check point it is illegal because they have no warrant!
similarly at the SENATE the MASTER AT ARMS “ORDERS” the senate to rise and to sit and MAINTAINS “ORDER” even the senators take their turns (order) to argue their case.
Also that is quite interesting is that the rank insignia of a Major General and above has the seal of the federation which is at the senate this seal is the symbol of law while the sword is the order. And so only a general can be a senator and can make any law he likes and effect the order by using the warrant officer! QED
please also note that even a PHD has to “DEFEND” their THESIS
Infact even moses was a camp commander and had a vision but once again OBJ DOES NOT and so seems to be taking NIGERIA through an UNENDING WILDERNESS!
God is a God of dictation/order and change. Because he not only gavee us the ten commandments (as dipo highlighted in the opening blog) but he also changed from the old testament system to the new testament system. This change was not welcomed by the suducees and pharicees or the roman leadership at the time because it might have been seen to be a rallying point for the isrealites opposition to the roman occupation at the time!
Majority of the Youruba had a mixed system of family heads (baale’s)/democratic and Obas (kings)/dictatorships , but with the Hausa Fulani invasion even Old Ife was pushed down to its current georgraphical location and the heads of the Yoruba Nation (Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of oyo) were forced to accept islam during these wars. since then the Caliphate used them to polularize the Oba system the the Baale system reduced. This is why there are more Muslim Obas than Christian ones because the obas are more or less Emirs. This is also the case with Igbo. They originally have no kingship/monarchy system but with wars with Idoma, Igala, Tiv, Jukun (taraba/admawa) etc they were forced to adopt Eze system ie they had imposed leaders. The eze would be imposed and take dictation from the leaders of those areas after being defeated.
Similarly, it is the political elite that started corruption, they were the ones who started buying houses in london/all over the and around the world and sending their children to schools abroad with the likes of prince charles (such as ojukwu)
The Hausa-Fulani already had artillery/gunpower before the coming of the british due to their contact with arab traders and they were the last and hardest to conquer, infact the Germans and french had unsucessfully tried. The british learned from the mistakes of both of them and improved up on thier techniques.
The british decided to use them (hausa) in the new police/military because they were the hardest to conquer. After independence they decided to reclaim what was their birth right and what their fathers had served loyally for. since they were told that they were in the lower cadre (non commissioned) and the british imposed igbo majority as commissioned (higher cadre) after independence.
This would also mean that they could easily use this military to continue to fight a war against the other tribes before they were interrupted by the british.the Youruba empire was close to the lower niger river area near kainji, old oyo was where illorin is today and was pushed down due to this Hausa invasion.
similarly the british had failed to conquer south africa and the germans learned form their mistakes. In fact according to the accounts of the british soldiers at the time of the south africa they said ” we noticed that the Zulu had specialised groups with calvalry (horse), spears, bow and arrow in seperate groups” this the british did not have at the time and this is what today we call divisions, brigades, companies etc The british system at the time was that of barbarian i.e multitude of everybody rushing to fight at one time with no seperate units.
LOL @ Jane
I enjoyed reading your comment.
Nice one.
Angela you are right, good leadership if what the country needs if its to continue. The nigerian leadeship trend has always followed a set path ie Christain -Muslim ticket/ leadership. It is impossible to have a leadership in nigerian that will be sustaining if it does not comprise the military elite as well as the political elite. However the military is the political elite, because politics is war (infact war college is all diplomacy and politics)!
but the political elite is not the military elite!
the fight against obj and abacha is/was an age old fight between these 2 elites. Abacha, Gowon etc are the children of old soldiers who were part of the west african frontier force/Glovers hausas.
They feel that is is thier birth right to control the military of the country because thier fathers served loyally. The political elite tried to infiltrate their children/people into the military because there was a series of coups threatening africa at the time this would lead to politicians like Fani Kayode Snr putting people like Obj in the Army and Ojukwus father putting him in the army. In essence the politicians did not want to mind their own side of the house because they were scared of being overthrown. This is why Ojukwu was dismissed from the army by Gowon and Obj was locked up by Abacha!
At that time there was no descendant of a glover hausa in involved in politics.
@floetry: I don’t think Dipo is denying the fact that sex sells, but he’s putting forward the argument that you can sell without sex and or debauchery.
The key is connecting with your audience. Know what the people want and let them have it full on. Bill Gates’ religious affiliations are none of my business, what’s important is for me to reflect Christ. That one person isn’t is not excuse for me not to.
@J: I’m really sorry, I couldn’t read the bulk of your comments, I don’t have the attention span or the time to devote to that, I guess if you summarise a bit more, you’ll get taken seriously, no offense intended.
@Angela: I’m feeling you 100%. Your life is what you make of it and whining and crying never fixed anything. We need to get up, dust ourselves off physically and mentally and forge ahead.
@Dipo: Babaaa. I’m feeling you joo. You’ve got this on lock-down. Valid points all the way. Unlike Jane who thinks you should stay off topics like this, I think you should keep it up, for one, Controversy sells, and it’s part of connecting with your readers. ‘Cos if we weren’t feeling this ish, this comment wouldn’t be number 23.
‘@ J
Well, my little contribution would be first see ourselves as One Nation….One Nigeria with a beautiful mix of tribes.
I believe Nigerian are a force to reckon with…If we actually walk together.
Since I dont live in the country at the moment all I would really like to see is an attitude adjustment.
I seriously pray for the GOOD, honest, God ordained Leadership. One that will unity the nation, with a global vision, Because it will first have to start from the head (that is a principle that can not be broken)
We should embarrass foreign input, but not let it rule or divide us any further.
People like yourself, Dipo, Deolu Akinyemi and may other that have a heart to help change the mindset of the next generation of Nigerians from waiting for something to happen instead of actually making something happen.
In one word my contribution would be Right mind – Right attitude a better Nigeria.
Actually Angela you are right even Gen. Abdulsalaam Abubakar said it in his maiden address to the nation that “there is no need crying over spilt milk, all we can do at this point is to forge ahead”
Please angela what are some of the ways that you believe that we can forge ahead in Nigeria and mend old wounds?
All well and good with what cause the problem, but we have grown ( or I hope we have).
I dont believe in ADULTS blaming everything and everone for the misfutune or lack of progress, that is why you are an adult ( grown-up) you should do just that GROW-UP , STOP WHINING AND TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE …..
That what I would like us as Nigerians to do and stop blaming the white man!
Insted of using up all how energy figthing ourselves we should be putting heads together for progress ( since we know better now)
Blame game is not but and excuse not to do anything!
or take resposibility.
my point is that we have to sometimes look at the trend in the past (history) to predict the future and that oyibo r the cause for nigeria not forging ahead. even in ruwanda with hutu and tutsie tribe in one country! Same in ghana with ashanti and fulani and in Sudan (dafur) caused by french amalgamation.
We may in the not too far future end up having to split up back to how we were in nigeria before the british/oyibo come along. But this would not be without a major conflict ie a 2nd civil war it is already in the making with all these independent militias, and unless we absorb them into the goverment militiawe should gradually prepare for niaja to split up into 3 major areas, but this would still see the imposition of certain leaders such as Ike nwachuku as president of briafra (we all know he is not 100% igbo, but half fulani and have igbo) so that will cause a sub break up of Ibgo land and when an area is threated with a sub break up there are some oppourtunities such as selling of arms or you can attack and claim their land becuase the individual smaller entities are much weaker than the original bigger entity. basically oyibo are the ones that brought up problems where as we already had our own systems set up with little or no problems
back in the days if i planted cocoa in an area and it did not grow, it was deemed that was not yoruba-land, or sugarcane did not grow then that is not hausaland etc or if horse could not survive due to humid temperature/ tse tse fly then it was not hausa land, Yam in benue/tiv tribe The benin people in Edo felt their dieties/gods blessed them with certain natural resources such as Plantain and palm oil etc this is the same belief with most tribes
A river or lake would be used to seperate tribes, these were how the borders were set they were natural borders not physically demarcated per say such as concrete block with “welcome to ogun state/goodbye from lagos state”
@ J
Please what is your point??
As for this concept of country and democracy in Nigeria or any country as a matter of fact we have the caucasions/white people (british) specifically to blame for this because the concept of modern nation state with official borders was only a thoery it does not seem to be practicable in reality this is the reason for nigerias ethnic clashes, everybody demanding thier own state, in fact it was the reason for the yugoslavian conflict and the conflict in iraq with kurds and sunni and moslims. what obtained prior to the british coming ie tradition nation state with no borders seems to be more practicable.
In a recent documentary that i watched about a retired british army officer who was part of cornel/lord Lugard detachment of, he said ” we made a big mistake with Nigeria, we the the other officers recommneded to Lugard not to amalgamate nigeria and west africa as a whole, we advised that the Nations be split up into the various major tribes that were already on ground, this was also the recommendation by british clergy, historians and even the local chiefs and kings had appealed for this system, but lugard refused and all we could do was to carry out the order from above”
Similarly, the Queen of England when asked what happened in this documentary said ” She gave Lugard her blessing based on his recommendation as the most senior officer and representative and based on what he told her that the amalgamation is what all parties involved are clamoring for by both british and the locals and that the amalgamation system established in other parts of africa was going on well. But i can now see that we the British make a mistake”
You will should have noticed a blame system game going on in the case of amalgamation of nigeria!!!!
This is a similar blame game system that is going on in the case incloving Gen Bamaiyi, Almustapha, Sgt Rogers etc and this blame game that particular situation is actually turning into a comedy. Soldiers are taught how to do this from day one of thier training.
what im getting at is that this system of what we call a country is only an experimental thoery from geographers and politicical PHD’s and students. This experiment seems not to be proven to work, if not in nigeria we would not have had a civil war, we would not have had ethnic clashes in various parts of the country or groups such as Movement for biafra, Odua Peeples Congress, or Niger delta peoples force etc
you will notice that before the british came the northerners had their own for of country which they called “Arewa” meaning collection of states or collection of many kingdoms to form an empire. This is similar to the the yoruba they termed it Odua meaning a combination princedoms/kingdoms that were headed by the children of Oduduwa.
Ibgo Uwku is also the term for the collection of idependent igbo cities.
the british in historial and anthropological text have traced their origins to the youruba in fact that is the reason why the british women kneel down before royalty and the men bown down before royalty ie “do-bale” and this was one of the other reasons why they came back. apart from to trade slaves, goods etc they followed ancient migratory paths from information passed from one generation to another ie oral history
The Germans have traced their roots to the Hausa Fulani and the south african zulu and the cameroun area including the similarities in their languge lexicology and prenounciations. this is why they also went to the cameroun around the time the british came to nigeria apart from political competion reasons.
if i have to blame anybody for putting us in this mess called nigeria its the Queen of england, but even she cannot be fully blamed because of a PHDs’ experiment. And she and the PHD’s have learnt from their mistakes. But even she knows that the system of country does not work and that she is the queen of england, Northern ireland, australia, canada and even america! and that the prime ministers there are the figure heads and this is what we should realize in nigeria this is why IBB gives more respect to the traditional rulers in Nigeria than any other head of state or president has because he has read his history very well unlike some people (obj)!
Fellow Nigerians,
Once again after carefully considering everybodies input i have my own perspective. In terms of blame, obj under amnesty international blamed the ibb and abacha administration for gross human rights and mismanagement but we can all see that he is doing the same thing. In fact Just the way Jerry Useni was minister of all the ministies under IBB and Obj is the way Femi Fani-Kayode has been minister about 3 times. I call it political musical chairs.
It is also the case that alot of people see thier bosses at work and feel that they are proud or show offs with thier personal assistants, official car etc but if they put you in their position you will do the same so dont criticize them! Instead start your own company or wait for your time!
There is a solution to the political musical chairs ie use change management we can simply change the names of the ministries or merge some ministries or change the name or the states or merge the name of the states. This way people in political positions previously look stupid in public! similarly.
Similarly you can change the title of Mananging Director to Vice chairman etc once you get there! this will make previous MD’s look stupid
dipo i mean, commoooon!
what do you mean by “sex sells is a flimsy argument???” ok, “Titanic has the highest Box Office sale world wide, the Bible is the best selling book of all time, and Passion of the Christ sold far more than Basic Instinct.” so what?, does that excuse the fact that sex sells, or are you telling me that you are immune to the wiles and techniques of these artists. Look at Hugh Hefner (owner of Playboy) for instance and tell me again that sex doesnt sell. At least Bill Gates is being sincere with where he stands with his faith and Microsoft and the Bill Gates Foundation has done more for the world and humanity than all these artists combined. I mean, have you listened to some of the lyrics of these rappers and watched their videos and witness how women have been reduced to nothing more than “mere animals and sex toys”. dont get me wrong i’m not trying to be hypocritical here. i do listen to their lyrics and i can tell you firsthand they influence me both positively and negatively, and they have impacted on my lifestyle in more ways than one.
As for Thisday and its so called promoting Nigeria?!? that’s a story for another day and a not so pleasing one, i might add! now, how does smoking marijuana and swearing on stage help Nigeria, with all our problems of corruption, valuelessness, e.t.c. … i leave you to decide
My dear Dipo and friends ,my input as to the blame game is-
when you make a decision and something goes wrong you should blame yourself for what went wrong, but if you let me make the decison for you then i should get blames wrong. In summary mr a should not blame mr b for a decision that mr a made.
olujimi
@gift – I did not appologise for making the statement – but in the in the manner it might has been miscontrued at – for example – word like trash is derogatory and I felt I should have used a more appropriate word or choice of words when the comment was made. I felt it came across rude and insensitive. But the statement still stands.
the life of a stranger…. this is to u. if u’d keep on apologising for every statement u make then maybe u shd seriously consider reconsiderin before makin any statements at all. abeg! i’m sure d point is taken in dat u are a pacifier (it’s not like i can see nythin so derogatory in what u wrote). mnwhile, jane possibly has a point there and i’ve gone thru some of ur comments (jane). i think i feel u n d oda guy (mr diplomatic) wella.
my take on d issue, Christainity and the secular world have different operating systems and dat is y they are different. maybe we as Christains are not doin enuf or maybe the secular world is doin too much in our own judgement or maybe d devil is playing his pranks on us to frustrate us into givin up. but… a word of encouragement Christians! Jesus was not d most popular of pple in His own time so we shd be careful in considerin whose yardstick of measurement we judge ourselves by. it’s ok to do d much u can – carin for d needs of pple, lovin God and walkin d walk, etc. “every oda thin will be added unto u”
I have just read my comment – and I dont think it came out in the manner it was written – wow – that sounds harsh – I think I need to appologise if it came out in a derogatory manner – Love you blog – it was supper speaking with you.
Dipo i think you should not include religious topics in your write ups if you don’t want another to be the originator of a religious war. You know people get very sentimental when it comes to religion. Be warned. cheers
….Just had to add to this
If we Christian provided other alternative to what is considered not glorify God…If we embraced that this a new season with a new kind of worship. What is important to me is that you worship God In spirit and in truth….not hypocrisy and eye service.
You cannot say someone is not a Christian or loves the Lord just cos they are involved in ‘secular” jobs or careers…..
I as a Christian should be light and salt to the world….what is my use if not to step into where there is darkness and shiny my light or add value/taste in a tasteless environment.
Christ is excellent and perfection, professionalism, dedication and passion to show God up in what so ever situation or environment you are in…Not just in Church! or amongst your “brethren’s”
Hi Dipo
I must say I agree totally with you on this.
Max said Religion was the opium of the masses….and I must say that is what happens in Christaindom somtimes.
This generation in my opinion has so much potential they a passionate about what they believe I call it the “keeping it real generation”
So before we Christian stop criticising we should show the christ in us … and as you say it STEP UP OUR GAME!
Nice write up Dipo.
I definitely agree with you. I would like to see christians take more responsibility for their actions, we do have “free will”. The conspiracy theories some christians come up with baffle me. There is no indication that during the time of christ he abhored all things secular, on the contrary actually. He attended weddings where wine was served(why don’t some chrisitans drink alchohol?Didn’t christ? Didn’t the disciples? and no it was not Non-alcoholic wine, that is a new age invention. Anywy that is a topic for another day) and was fully active in the culture of his people. I am not saying we as christians should sin for the sake of being secular but I do disagree with those that crucify almost anything they consider to be “worldy”.I feel like we are going back to the days of the inquisition, hypocrisy is the order of the day.
Good stuff in here but can you try to personalise it? It makes much sense then.
Will you say when you get before God that you’ve done the assignments He gave you and no person’s or nation’s blood will be on you? What are you doing with your life?
Roger federer, Tiger woods, Jay-Jay Okocha, Michael Schumacher, can I mention your name? It’s not only in having a public influence…but do the demons know you?
Less talk but more action!!! If you check it, everybody has a bit of the truth but we need to live the truth. It’s a wake-up call!
Hi Dipo!!
i agree with you 100% on this matter as the saying goes the truth is always bitter. its easy 2 apportion blame, but really we all have the great commision of soul winning(Beyonce,bill gates, snoop and many more) the artistes are making money by satisfying there customers,(christians alike)….
You said in ur write up that we (christians) should learn how to appropriate the immense powers we have within us i.e by praying for the sinners and winning souls.Than apportioning blame,the example of Paul, stressed the importance of interceding for lost souls
which would ultimately bring about great change in our Values and system.
so…………………….
Well – I understand that everyone has a view – but becasue not everyone agrees with your views gives you the need to trash it – it is up to you to educate and show them where they are wrong – and yes the bible tells us that since the day of John the Baptist the kigdom of God suffers violence so we must take it by force – does not mean that you should go about not allowing others to air their view.
I rightly agree with your point and you have made some critical points across – but it appears that you dont care how you make your point aslong as you are heard –
I believe you need to learn now to listen to other peoples views; yes you are pationate – but there is a way where we as christians can learn and grow together.
I am not particularly pleased in the manner you go about bringing your views across – I think you can do better than that –
We are still spiritually growing, but Im sure we (or I) can safely say we are willing to learn, just dont disrespect us in doing so.
That end my take on things – I hope you are not offended – none intended.
Reading thru my 1st comment, it sounds like na fight. Nothing like that, just that there we’re not operating on the same wavelength here. No hard feelings afterall we’re all entitled to our opinions. I just feel it’s appropriate for me not to say anything, and my being mute over this shouldn’t be mistaken for cowardice. Have a wonderful day.
I really do have issues with some of the things u wrote, but i’m just not going to start another argument on here. What makes u think the same Christian that critics these folks know their dance steps and all? Christians need to step up their game? Indeed!
Hmmm it’s worth taking a deep reflection on this