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‘Be patient with me’, Tinubu pleads with Nigerians amid harsh economic struggles
President Bola Tinubu has once again appealed to Nigerians to remain patient with his administration, even as millions continue to grapple with severe economic hardship caused by his government’s policies, including the removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the naira.
Speaking on Saturday at the inauguration of the completed Phase 1, Section 1 (30km) of the 750km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Tinubu acknowledged the difficulties faced by citizens but urged them to trust in his economic reforms.
“I know at this stage, your expectations are still very high, and our people are still going through difficult times,” he said. “I take this opportunity to appeal to all Nigerians that hope is here, and it is realisable.”
Despite his assurances, many Nigerians remain skeptical as inflation, unemployment, and poverty levels soar. The removal of fuel subsidies in May 2023 led to a sharp rise in transportation and food costs, while the floating of the naira has caused the currency to plummet, making imports more expensive.
Tinubu, however, insisted that his policies were yielding results. “You will be proud of the benefits; there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Inflation is coming down, the corruption in the exchange rate is eliminated, and the corruption in fuel subsidy is limited to the barest minimum.”
Critics argue that these claims do not align with the lived realities of most Nigerians, who struggle daily with skyrocketing prices and stagnant wages. The president’s appeal for patience comes as labor unions and civil society groups continue to demand urgent government intervention to alleviate suffering.
Tinubu concluded with an optimistic note, saying, “It is all for you, the people. We are reducing the cost of manufacturing and encouraging local production. We are giving all incentives for everyone to abide by the principle. May God bless our country; may God bless Lagos State and keep our fighting soldiers safe.”
Yet, for many Nigerians, the promise of future benefits offers little comfort in the face of present hardships. As the economic crisis deepens, the question remains: how long must citizens wait for relief?
‘Nigeria under siege by urban bandits, poverty weaponized’ – Atiku, El-Rufai warn
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai have issued a scathing critique of Nigeria’s leadership, accusing the government of weaponizing poverty and allowing "urban bandits" to hijack power, plunging the nation into its worst crisis since 1914.
The two prominent political figures spoke on Saturday in Abuja at the 60th birthday lecture of former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, themed “Weaponising Poverty in Nigeria.”
Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), alleged that the current administration is deliberately impoverishing citizens to suppress dissent.
“What we are experiencing in Nigeria today is state weaponization of poverty,” he declared. “When I was young, Kano was the most prosperous state in the North. But now, poverty and insecurity have driven people to sleep under bridges and on the streets. Shockingly, when an agency tried to help them, they were ordered to stop. This is not governance—it is oppression.”
He defended his involvement in a growing political coalition, stating, “Call me a conspirator if you like, but we must unite to stop this suffering.”
Echoing Atiku’s concerns, El-Rufai took aim at Nigeria’s ruling class, describing them as “urban bandits” who lack competence but excel in power-grabbing.
“Nigeria is in its biggest trouble since 1914,” he warned. “We have allowed bandits—not those in the forests, but the ones in suits—to take over leadership. They don’t know what to do with power except to enrich themselves while the masses suffer.”
Amaechi, the event’s celebrant, linked rising insecurity to deepening poverty, stating, “Hunger knows no tribe or religion. This government has made Nigerians poorer, fueling crime and instability. But the power to change leaders remains with the people—not politicians.”
Both Atiku and El-Rufai urged Nigerians to vote wisely in future elections, demanding leaders with “competence, capability, and commitment” to rescue the nation from collapse.
Their remarks come amid widespread hardship triggered by President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies, including subsidy removal and naira devaluation, which have spiked inflation and worsened living conditions.
As discontent grows, the call for a united opposition signals a brewing political storm—with poverty-stricken Nigerians caught in the crossfire.
Here’s the latest as Israel-Hamas war enters Day 604
Hamas seeks changes in U.S. Gaza proposal; Witkoff calls response 'unacceptable'
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a U.S.-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump's envoy rejected the group's response as "totally unacceptable."
The Palestinian militant group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group's response to the proposals from Trump's special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as "positive" but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while his government had agreed to Witkoff's outline, Hamas was continuing its rejection of the plan. "Israel will continue its action for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas," he said in statement.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas issued a statement saying: "This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip."
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim later denied any rejection of Witkoff's proposal but said Israel's response was incompatible with what had been agreed, and accused the U.S. envoy of acting with "complete bias" in favour of Israel.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas' conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas' response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: "It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week."
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas' Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group's deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Programme trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
"After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by," the WFP said in a statement.
'A MOCKERY'
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
"The aid that's being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Programme and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a U.S.-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a "systematic policy of starvation".
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centres and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
Israel began its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza.
The campaign has laid waste large areas of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians and destroying or damaging most of its buildings, leaving most of the population in makeshift shelters.
Reuters
What to know after Day 1193 of Russia-Ukraine war
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russia launches air attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, mayor says
Ukraine's air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the capital Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.
** Seven killed after bridge collapse, train derailment in Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine
At least seven people were killed and 30 hospitalised after "illegal interference" caused a bridge to collapse and a train to derail in Russia's Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, Russian authorities said early on Sunday.
The train's locomotive and several cars derailed "due to the collapse of a span structure of the road bridge as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport," Russian Railways said on the Telegram messaging app.
Two children were among those hospitalised, one of them in a serious condition, Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region, said on Telegram. Among those killed was the locomotive driver, Russia's state news agencies reported, citing medics.
Russia's ministry of emergency situations said on Telegram that its main efforts were aimed at finding and rescuing victims, and that some 180 personnel were involved in the operation.
Russia's Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that according to preliminary information, the bridge was blown up.
Reuters could not independently verify the Baza report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Since the start of the war that Russia launched more than three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert raids from Ukraine into the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine.
The train was going from the town of Klimovo to Moscow, Russian Railways said. It collided with the collapsed bridge in the area of a federal highway in the Vygonichskyi district of the Bryansk region, Bogomaz said. The district lies some 100 km (62 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.
Ukraine is yet to commit to attending the talks on Monday, saying it first needed to see Russian proposals, while a leading U.S. senator warned Moscow it would be "hit hard" by new U.S. sanctions.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Defeating Russia impossible – German foreign minister
It has been clear from the very beginning of the Ukraine conflict that Russia cannot be defeated, particularly due to its nuclear status, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has told the SZ newspaper.
Kiev’s Western backers, including top officials in Germany, France, and the UK, as well as the US under former President Joe Biden’s administration, repeatedly stated the intent to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Moscow in the Ukraine conflict, or at least to ensure that it does not emerge victorious. That justification has been used to support continued military assistance to Kiev.
Wadephul admitted on Friday that it was obvious the conflict between Moscow and Kiev can only be resolved in a diplomatic way.
“It was clear from the beginning that this war would most likely end through a negotiated settlement,” Germany’s top diplomat told SZ in a lengthy interview.
“One thing is true: a complete defeat in the sense of a capitulation by nuclear-armed Russia could not have been expected,” the minister stated, adding that “we have now become a little more honest” in this regard. He still maintained that Kiev’s troops have been “successfully defending” against Moscow’s forces, although the Ukrainian military has been losing ground along the entire front over the past several months.
The foreign minister maintained it was important to help Kiev get a “strong negotiating position” at peace talks and claimed that Russia was “threatening” Germany as he justified a planned military buildup and increase in defense expenditures. He also said that relations between Moscow and Berlin could no longer be described as a “clear peace situation.”
Berlin has taken an even more hardline position on Russia under new Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In the weeks since taking office, Merz has lifted range restrictions on Ukrainian strikes with German-supplied missiles and hinted at the possibility of providing Kiev with Taurus missiles, which have a range of 500km and could reach Moscow.
Germany has also announced a new military aid package for Kiev worth €5.2 billion ($5.6 billion), which Berlin says would be allocated mostly to long-range weaponry production inside Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reacted to Merz’s statements by saying that Berlin’s “direct involvement in the war is now obvious.”Germany already followed a similar “slippery slope” a couple of times in the last century “down toward its own collapse,” he added.
Reuters/RT
Smoke & Mirrors Inc. - Sonala Olumhense
Thursday was President Bola Tinubu’s second anniversary in office. He was a happy but deluded man, identifying, in his anniversary speech, “undeniable” progress.
“I proudly affirm that our economic reforms are working,” he declared. “We are on course to building a greater, more economically stable nation.”
He was alluding to his abrupt termination of Nigeria’s fuel subsidy regime two years ago, which set off rising prices, and his unification of the naira, policies which immediately made life almost impossible for the ordinary Nigerian.
“We have stabilised our economy and are now better positioned for growth and prepared to withstand global shocks,” he said. “Despite the bump in the cost of living…inflation has begun to ease, with rice prices and other staples declining.”
He was not telling the truth. Despite inflation having fallen to 24 per cent last month, prices are not coming down, and increasingly fewer people can afford their rent, school fees, transportation, or food.
When Tinubu said life was improving, he was being dishonest, or at least pretending to be uninformed.
Yes, oil subsidy removal was the correct policy call, but he had clearly made it without preparation, thus exposing Nigerians to the worst of its effects.
Worse still, subsidy removal is no excuse for the poor leadership he has inflicted.
The Financial Times editorial, which last week cheered his “shock therapy”, also drew attention to his lifestyle, jeering his extravagant spending on a presidential jet.
Perhaps the newspaper should have looked a little closer at his unsuitability for leadership, in the form of his lack of capacity to lead with commitment or even reasonably.
It did not look at his embarrassing proclivity to nepotism, or at the cynical choice of unrestrained spending on himself and his inner circle, including on legions of superfluous mansions and SUVs, among others.
Nor did it look at a pattern of curious guzzling of government funds at the top of his government in the past two years.
How persistent? You can search for yourself,but come with me to just one arbitrary date in a recent search: February 24, 2025 and the executive branch’s own record of foreign exchange hauls:
- Purchase of foreign exchange ($483,277.00) us dollars for the vice president’s trip to Switzerland on 15/1/2024.
- Purchase of foreign exchange ($692,265.00) us dollars for the president’s trip to Ethiopia on 9/2/2024.
- Purchase of foreign exchange ($1,271,271,997.00) us dollars for Mr President’s trip to Dubai on 27/11/2023.
- Purchase of foreign exchange ($117,524.00) us dollars for the VP’s trip to Bauke, Côte d’Ivoire on 9/1/2024- semi-final match
- Purchase of foreign exchange ($152,831.00) us dollars for the First Lady’s trip to France on 4/1/2024.
- Purchase of foreign exchange ($93,004.00) us dollars for the vice president’s trip to Liberia on 23/1/2024.
Keep in mind that in October 2024, The Punch reported that in just 17 months, Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima had collectively undertaken 41 trips across 26 countries, spending 180 days.
That is six months of serious spending by people who do not know what hunger is.
It is unclear why the president’s trip to Dubai in November 2023, for instance, would have required foreign exchange purchase of over $1.27m, or why Shettima’s appearance in Cote d’Ivoire in January 2024 for 90 minutes of football would have required buying nearly $120,000.
Keep in mind also that Tinubu’s two years have involved an avalanche of foreign loans alongside a shortage of accountability. His second anniversary came last week, just two days after he asked for two more loans totalling about $24.14bn.
The loan request, which is almost certain to be approved by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Tinubu’s APC and close personal friends, also came at a time of two important international reports.
In the first, 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, a collaboration of United Nations agencies, regional intergovernmental bodies, donors, technical organisations and others, points out the acute food insecurity in Nigeria (Page 108) on the back of the insecurity in the northeast, northwest and north-central zones, and stressing the “marked increase” in violent events since 2023.
“30.6M people or 15% of the analysed population are projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity during the lean season,” GRFC says.
This is in line with a 2023 UNICEF projection that as many as 25 million Nigerians were at high risk of food insecurity.
In the second report, Amnesty International said that in Tinubu’s two years in power, at least 10,217 people have been killed since 2020, especially in the rural areas, noting that “a total absence of governance has given gunmen and criminal groups a free hand to commit atrocities.”`
This is exactly what Nigerian citizens, particularly helpless and vulnerable rural dwellers, have complained about not only since 2023 but dating back to 2015 when the APC took power. First, the Muhammadu Buhari and now the Tinubu government have largely ignored them.
How has the government reacted to the diligent research of Amnesty?
It sent the National Counter Terrorism Centre to issue a ridiculous letteraimed at protecting the government’s image rather than serving the people.
NCTC lamely protested that the report “presents an overly alarming narrative, which đoes not reflect the broader realities on the ground, and which risks misinforming the public, damaging the international image of the Country….”
If the Nigerian government wants to dispute the records rather than fight the insecurity, it should go ahead, keeping in mind that the diligent Nigeria Security Tracker project of the independent United States think-tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, showed as many as 43,228 deaths—attributed to Boko Haram alone—between 2012 and 2023.
The reaction of NCTC demonstrates the problem with Nigeria at this time: the government would rather fight the messenger than engage with the issues. The growth of hunger in Nigeria is a direct consequence of the insecurity, but Tinubu and his officials would rather travel the world than take the problem on, as if giving orders is all that needs to be done. The carnage has only broadened since then.
Consider, for instance, that the same week in which the government bragged that in 2014 alone, it recovered looted funds totalling $967.5 billion and N277 billion is when it also announced that it wanted that $24bn loan.
What are we not being told? In an address at the Ministry of Justice Asset Recovery Summit in Abuja, Tinubu declared that there will be no safe haven for corruption in Nigeria.
For a man who has been trailed for a long time by allegations of corruption at home, abroad, and in-between, he is going to have to speak louder.
The 2023 election, which brought him to power, did not vindicate him, as observer groups, including the European Union Election Observation Mission, were deeply scandalised by its poor quality. “Public confidence and trust in INEC were severely damaged during the presidential poll,” the EU said.
Confidence in Tinubu and in government waned disturbingly further in his first two years.
He may win re-election in 2027, but only in another smoke-and-mirrors scenario rather than a free and fair referendum on his competence or the quality of his first term.
Will hunger, hurt, and anger be permitted to speak?
Punch
Experiencing a lifestyle of supernatural interventions - Taiwo Akinola
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid ~ Isaiah 29:14.
Preamble:
Get this very clear: God can do for you beyond what you can do for yourself or what others can make happen for you (Exodus 3:19-21).
I have come to a well considered conclusion — that one of the causes of sustained trouble for many people today is that they question the ability of God.
The Israelites at a time limited God when they asked, "can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" (Psalm 78:19). And many people today are still intuitively asking a similar question, “Can God …”? Quite unfortunately, this attitude can only lead to situations of ugly experiences even at the “beautiful gate” of life (Acts 3:1-10).
Our God is the God of Wonders, doing “great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number” (Job 9:10-11). He specializes in doing things that are too complicated for our puny minds to internalize or imagine. Also, He always desires to manifest His power in our lives.
Supernatural intervention is not meant to be a once-in-a-blue-moon, or a flash-in-the-pan sort of experience. It is intended to be a normal, regular experience in the lives of the believers in Christ.
Whenever God touches a life with His touch of wonders, the life becomes a wonder. Whenever God singles out a man for His supernatural interventions, the man becomes a spectacular sign for all.
Before God got fully involved in David’s life, he was a rustic, veritable wanderer, living in the bush and wandering in blissful ignorance. Thereafter, God stretched His hands, took him from the sheepfold to make him an outstanding personality and a formidable king! No wonder, David himself had this to say,"l am as a wonder unto many; but Thou art my strong refuge"(Psalms 71:7).
Over the ages, God has showcased His love to mankind through signs and wonders, confirming the eternal truth of His Word (Psalm 2:8-9). Indeed, just one spectacular act from God can forge an edge of revival, and set a whole city astir(John 4:39)!
Signs and wonders are marks of a divine presence in our situation, and they are living-proofs of God’s involvement in our lives.
There is no other divine agenda for rescuing the world except through Christ,and there are no better tools to harvest the souls of men than signs and wonders (John 4:48). They’re divine implements for worldwide evangelization.
Opening The Doors for Signs and Wonders!
At this juncture, it’s pertinent for us to examine how we can open the doors to a lifestyle of supernatural interventions.
Basically, the Lord has to be involved if any man’s door must open to supernatural accomplishments on earth (Isaiah 45:1-3). Until He opens, all doors remain shut. But once He opens, the doors of joy, deliverance, breakthroughs, healings, provisions, preservation, etcetera, become unbarred (Revelation 3:7). Why? Only He controls the unfailing “key of the house of David” (Isaiah 22:22).
Yes, God is infinitely able to open all doors before us, but He does so only when He finds us yielded to His power and principles. We must therefore make up our minds to align our lives totally with His will. God's ways are superior to His acts; in fact, His ways give birth to His acts (Psalm 103:7).
In practical terms, the most fundamental access to the divine platform whereby we can begin experiencing a lifestyle of supernatural interventions is to be born again, and remain so (John 3:3). You can experience this by repenting, believing the gospel and constantly looking unto Jesusas your Role Model (Acts 2:22; Hebrews 12:2).
If you are not yet “born-again”, you’re inadvertently cruising against life and such other condiments of God’s grace, goodness, mercy and favour. Indeed, you’re organizing yourself out of supernatural intervention. If you’re yet to taste of eternal life, please do so today.
Furthermore, begin to live separate from all evils (Joshua 3:5). This is part of the irreducible constants in the experience of supernatural intervention. Live a sanctified life; to do less is to limit God’s power in your life.
One of the commonest signs of a sanctified life is living in constant awe or holy fear of God (Acts 2:43). You thereby hold God and His Word in high esteem, not with levity or overfamiliarity. If what Christ died for is a joke to you, sorry, the shoe is on the wrong foot!
Furthermore, be constantly filled and refilled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Only He can actually open the floodgates of supernatural experiences (Acts 6:8)! And it cannot be otherwise!!
Moreover, you must regularly exercise your faith for creative possibilities. Creative faith is about visualizing and seeing something in your mind’s eye that doesn’t yet existtangibly. It’s about thinking the impossible, and then acting it out.
Creative faith is believing God for the impossible and then calling it out without allowing your mindsets to limit the reach of God’s power in your lives. Please note that this model is absolutely godly; it is acting like God (Romans 4:17).
If you can pass through with creative faith, you can break through anywhere. And with it in your day-to-day living, you become, more or less, like a privileged “classmate”with God (Luke 1:37; Mark 9:23). Yes, this may sound sacrilegious; even so, the capability of creative faith puts you in the “same league” with God, by the choice of heaven (Psalm 82:6).
Now, the potential for creative faith is implanted in every believer (John 16:23). Thus, your future is still very colourful, such that you don't have to keep chasing shadows. Albeit, watch what you say, what you see and what you think. Mind your language; you may harvest what you say.
In line with this time-tested approach, Jean Caldwell said, “The only truly happy people are children and the creative minority”. Children are highly curious. They don’t know yet, what they don’t know, and they don't know what they don't know yet. Theircreative faith is boundless; they’re not yet taught what they cannot do.
Children are fearless explorers. It’s only as we grow up that we allow our faith to burn out, but not so children. We must heed the Lord’s call to develop our child-like faith today (Mark 10:15).
Without creative faith, our lives become predictable routines, boring and pedantic. But for you, there must be a better tomorrow in view. God wants you to leave indelible marks on the sands of time. Visualize greatness. Persist. Be courageous. Be bold; God is on your side.
Friends and brethren, glory is just around the corner! Be consistently consistent in living out God's plans and purposes for your life. Push through in faith. Don't allow any issue to blow off the balloon of God's glory in your life. Be forever focused.
As you do, even those who have, at one time or the other, disdained or discriminated against you will soon come to you, cap in hand, begging to associate with you because they will need something that you've got.
Remember Jephthah? His half-brothers once repudiated his star, but he eventually became too relevant to be ignored. With God on your side, you too shall ever charge forward with a lifestyle of supernatural intervention. You won’t miss it, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Happy Sunday!
____________________
Archbishop Taiwo Akinola,
Rhema Christian Church,
Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola
SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987
Article of Faith: Good and bad pleasure (2) - Femi Aribisala
The pleasures of men are varied, “(King Ahasuerus) had ordered all the officers of his household, that they should do according to each man’s pleasure.” (Esther 1:8). But God prescribes only One pleasure for believers. That One pleasure is Himself.
God hates what pleases men. Jesus says, “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15).
God requires man to forsake his pleasures for His sake. He told me to forsake my favourite drinks, Coke and Fanta, and I have not had any of them in over 25 years.
Some pleasures He will require you to forsake permanently for His sake. Others He will require you to forsake for a season or some days. But if you are His son, one thing is certain: He will require you to forsake your pleasures at some time or the other. Jesus says: “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33).
God’s Good Pleasure
God is passionately committed to His pleasure. He declares in Isaiah, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:10). He says of Cyrus: “He shall perform all My pleasure.” (Isaiah 44:28).
God the Father declared from heaven that He was well pleased with Jesus on two occasions, at His baptism and transfiguration. He said: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17, 17:5).
God was pleased because Jesus knew the “good pleasure” of God, and He was determined to do it.
The Israelites thought it was their sacrifices and offerings that pleased God. But God kept sending His prophets to tell them He was not concerned about them. But they did not listen.
The Holy Spirit spoke a Messianic psalm by the mouth of David: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of Me. I delight to do Your will, O My God, and Your law is within My heart.’” (Psalm 40:6-8).
God was pleased with Jesus because the man Jesus did not come to the earth to do His own will, but the will of God. Jesus did not do what pleased Jesus but did what pleased God. This is all the more remarkable because what pleased God was not convenient for Jesus.
“It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53:10).
The pleasure of the Lord was to put Jesus through a terrible ordeal so that man would be saved. Paul says:
“Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him.” (Ephesians 1:9-10).
Jesus did not pursue His own pleasure but was devoted to what gave pleasure to God. He knew that what gives pleasure to God is the salvation of men. As He said to His disciples: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32).
On the way to the cross, the man Jesus asked God the Father if there was any other way that His good pleasure in the salvation of men could be accomplished.
“He knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.’” (Luke 22:41-42).
The answer was that there was no other way. The good pleasure of the Lord in the salvation of souls could only be achieved with the cross. For man to be saved, Jesus would have to face a bruising and agonising death on the cross on behalf of all men. He would have to be a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Thereby, the good pleasure of God would be fulfilled through the redemption of men to eternal fellowship with God.
“For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4).
What is the work that God is doing in believers for His good pleasure? He is “working salvation in the midst of the earth.” (Psalm 74:12).
The Father loves Jesus because Jesus agreed to embrace this plan of salvation, even though it was unpleasant. Jesus says:
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” (John 10:17-18).
Jesus then tells us we are required to follow His example:
“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour.” (John 12:25-26).
Who are those who love their lives in this world? They are those who are devoted to their own pleasures. They are those who do their own will. They are those who live in pleasure. Paul says: “She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.” (1 Timothy 5:6).
Lovers of pleasure cannot be lovers of God. Lovers of pleasure cannot do the will of God. Jesus says: “Not My will but Yours be done.” But lovers of pleasure say, like Frank Sinatra: “I did it my way.”
Avoidance of Suffering
Those who opt for the bad pleasures of this life and try to avoid suffering cannot enter the kingdom of God. This is because God has decreed, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22).
Those devoted to bad pleasures who try to avoid tribulation easily fall into sin. Thus Elihu cautions: “Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, for you have chosen this rather than affliction.” (Job 36:21).
We cannot learn obedience without suffering.
Obedience requires us to do what we don’t want to do, or what we find inconvenient.
Sacrifices of Righteousness
Why do believers fast? The classical answer says we fast to draw near to God, subdue the flesh and be spiritually minded. But we don’t just fast, we fast to the Lord. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.” (Romans 11:36).
We fast because Jesus returned to heaven, and we want to be near Him on earth. The scriptures tell us:
“The disciples of John came to Him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.’” (Matthew 9:14-15).
Those days are already here.
But even more significantly, we fast because God hates the pleasures of men. When we fast, we fast our pleasures. God asks:
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ ‘In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure.” (Isaiah 58:3).
Then He counsels:
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable, and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
Therefore, James cautions:
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:3).
God is jealous that we find pleasure outside of Himself. He insists “(He) is the Desire of All Nations.” (Haggai 2:7).
The word of God must be our food and drink. Jesus says:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4).
Jeremiah says to God: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16).
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Her daughter was taken and sent abroad - 44 years later, they found each other
The last memory Han Tae-soon has of her daughter as a child is in May 1975, at their home in Seoul.
"I was going to the market and asked Kyung-ha, 'Aren't you coming?' But she told me, 'No, I'm going to play with my friends'," recalled Ms Han.
"When I came back, she was gone."
Ms Han would not see her daughter again for more than four decades. When they reunited, Kyung-ha was almost unrecognisable as a middle-aged American woman named Laurie Bender.
Kyung-ha had been kidnapped near her home, brought to an orphanage, then sent illegally to the US to be raised by another family, alleges Ms Han, who is now suing the South Korean government for failing to prevent her daughter's adoption.
She is among the hundreds of people who have come forward in recent years with damning allegations of fraud, illegal adoptions, kidnapping and human trafficking in South Korea's controversial overseas adoption programme.
No other country has sent as many children abroad for adoption, and for so long, as South Korea. Since the programme began in the 1950s, about 170,000 to 200,000 children have been adopted overseas - most of them in the West.
In March, a landmark inquiry found that successive governments had committed human rights violations with their lack of oversight, allowing private agencies to "mass export" children for profit on an industrial scale.
Experts say the findings could open the door to more lawsuits against the government. Ms Han's is set to go to court next month.
It is one of two landmark cases. Ms Han is the first biological parent of an overseas adoptee seeking damages from the government, while in 2019, a man who was adopted in the US was the first adoptee to sue.
A government spokesman told the BBC that it "deeply sympathises with the emotional pain of individuals and families who could not find each other for a long time".
It added that it considered Ms Han's case with "deep regret" and that it would take "necessary actions" based on the outcome of the trial.
Ms Han, 71, told the BBC she is determined the government takes responsibility.
"I spent 44 years ruining my body and mind searching for [my daughter]. But in all that time, has anyone ever apologised to me? No one. Not once."
For decades, she and her husband visited police stations and orphanages, put up flyers, and went on television appealing for information. Ms Han said she spent all day pounding the streets looking for her daughter "till all 10 of my toenails fell out".
Over the years she thought she came close. In 1990, after one of her TV appeals, Ms Han met a woman who she believed could be Kyung-ha, and even took her in to live with her family for a while. But the woman eventually confessed she was not her daughter.
A breakthrough finally happened in 2019 when Ms Han signed up with 325 Kamra, a group that connects overseas Korean adoptees with their birth parents by matching their DNA.
They soon reported a match - Laurie Bender, a nurse in California. After several phone calls, she flew over to Seoul to meet Ms Han, where the two had a tearful reunion at the airport.
As they embraced, Ms Han ran her fingers through Kyung-ha's hair. "I've been a hairdresser for 30 years. I can quickly tell if it's my daughter just by feeling her hair. I had mistakenly thought I found her before, so I had to touch and feel the hair to confirm it," she said.
The first thing she told her daughter was "I'm so sorry".
"I felt guilty because she couldn't find her way home when she was a child. I kept thinking about how much she must have searched for her mother… Meeting her after all those years made me realise how much she must have longed for her mother, and it broke my heart."
"It's like a hole in your heart has been healed, you finally feel like a complete person," Kyung-ha said about their reunion in an earlier interview with the Associated Press. She did not respond to the BBC's requests for an interview.
The pair eventually pieced together what happened on that day in May 1975.
Kyung-ha, who was six years old at the time, was playing near her home when she was approached by a strange woman claiming to know her mother. Kyung-ha was told her mother "didn't need" her any more and was taken to a train station.
After taking a train ride with the woman, Kyung-ha was abandoned at the final stop, where she was eventually picked up by police officers and placed in an orphanage. Soon, she was flown to the US to be adopted by a couple in Virginia.
Years later, checks revealed she was given false papers stating she was an abandoned orphan whose parents were unknown.
"It's like you've been living a fake life and everything you know is not true," Kyung-ha said previously.
Her case was far from an isolated one.
A 'trade in children' from Asia to the West
South Korea's overseas adoption programme began in the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War, when it was a deeply impoverished country with an estimated 100,000 orphaned and displaced children.
At that time, few families were willing to adopt non-biological children, and the government began an overseas adoption programme, billed as a humanitarian effort.
The programme was handled entirely by private adoption agencies. While they were under government oversight, over time these agencies gained significant autonomy through laws.
As their power grew, so did the number of children being sent abroad, rising in the 1970s and peaking in the 1980s. In 1985 alone, more than 8,800 children were sent overseas.
There was a massive demand from the West - with declining birth rates and fewer babies to adopt at home, families began seeking children elsewhere.
Photos from that era show planes heading to Western countries filled with Korean children, with swaddled babies strapped to seats – what the truth and reconciliation commission's inquiry called the "mass transportation of children like cargo".
The report alleges little care was taken of these children during these long flights. In one case it cited from 1974, a lactose-intolerant child was fed milk in transit and subsequently died upon arrival in Denmark.
Critics of the programme have long questioned why so many children needed to be sent overseas at a time when South Korea was already experiencing rapid economic growth.
A 1976 BBC Panorama documentary, which featured South Korea as one of several Asian countries sending children to the West, quoted an observer describing the situation as "out of control" and "almost like a trade in children… flowing from Asia into Europe and North America".
According to the truth and reconciliation report, foreign adoption agencies set quotas for children, which Korean agencies willingly fulfilled.
It was a profitable business - the lack of government regulation allowed the Korean agencies to charge large amounts and demand hidden fees termed as "donations".
Some of these children may have been obtained by unscrupulous means, with parents like Ms Han alleging their children were kidnapped. In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of homeless or unattended children were rounded up and put in orphanages or welfare centres as part of a national campaign to "clean up the streets" of South Korea.
Other parents were told their babies had fallen sick and died, when they were actually alive and taken to adoption agencies. Agencies also did not obtain proper consent from birth mothers to take their children for adoption, according to the truth and reconciliation report.
The report also stated that adoption agencies deliberately falsified information in adoption records to cut corners and quickly meet the demand for children.
Lost children who were found without any identity documents would be made to appear, in paperwork, as if they had been abandoned and put up for adoption.
If a child intended for adoption had died or was reclaimed by their birth parents, another child would be swapped in and assigned the original child's identity. This allowed agencies to avoid refunding adoption fees and expedite the adoption process.
Decades on, this has created immense difficulties for many overseas adoptees trying to track down their biological parents.
Some have wrong or missing information in their adoption records, while others have discovered they were given entirely false identities.
"We are victims of state violence but there is no trace of this - literally. This lack of documents must not make us victims for the second time," said Han Boon-young, co-founder of an overseas adoptee rights group campaigning for greater access to birth information.
"This is a human rights issue. There were kidnappings, falsified documents - all of which were examples of violations committed during the inter-country adoption process.
"It is really necessary to move towards reconciliation, that we recognise these experiences, and that the people who committed these violations be held responsible."
But some of the key players continue to stay silent or deny wrongdoing.
The BBC contacted Bu Chung-ha, who in the 1970s served as chairman of Holt International, South Korea's largest adoption agency.
Holt is at the centre of numerous allegations of fraud and illegal adoptions, and the subject of two lawsuits so far, including Ms Han's.
In a brief reply, Mr Bu denied that the agency had sent abroad any children wrongly identified as orphans during his tenure. Any parents alleging their children were kidnapped "did not lose their children, they abandoned them", he said.
The current management of Holt International has yet to respond to the BBC's request for comment.
'The government was the captain, the agencies rowed the boat'
Experts say the responsibility lay not only with the private agencies but also with the state.
"Adoption agencies exploited the system, and the government turned a blind eye - allowing illegal practices to take root," said Dr Lee Kyung-eun, an international law scholar at Seoul National University.
"The government was the captain, and the agencies rowed the boat," said Shin Pil-sik, a researcher on transnational adoption at Seokyeong University, who added that this structure enabled both sides to deflect accountability.
Dr Shin said the state was not a passive observer- it actively shaped adoption policy, setting annual quotas for overseas placements and even on occasion halted some adoptions.
An Associated Press news investigation last year found successive Korean governments had rewritten laws to remove minimal safeguards and judicial oversight, fit their laws to match American ones to make children adoptable, and allowed foreign families to adopt Korean children quickly without ever visiting the country.
While the government billed the programme as a humanitarian effort, observers say it also served to strengthen ties with Western countries.
A 1984 government document obtained by the BBC stated that the official goals of the adoption policy included not only the welfare of children but also "the promotion of future national strength and people-to-people diplomacy".
When asked about the state's role in past adoption practices, South Korea's health and welfare ministry said they were "continuing efforts to strengthen state responsibility" in the system and that it plans to promote adoptions that comply with international standards.
In 2012, the government revised adoption laws to tighten screening of potential adoptive parents, and to track birthparent data and birth information better.
It has also enacted reforms to the adoption system ensuring that overseas adoptions are minimised and that all adoptions would be handled by the government instead of private agencies. The changes will take effect in July.
Meanwhile, overseas adoptions have declined. In the late 1980s, overseas adoptions dropped sharply, before stabilising in the 1990s and dropping again in the 2010s. Only 79 children were adopted abroad in 2023, according to the latest available data.
But as South Korea begins to address this dark chapter in its past, adoptees and birth parents like Ms Han continue to struggle with their trauma.
After their initial reunion, Ms Han and Kyung-ha have struggled to maintain a close connection.
Not only do they live on opposite sides of the world, her daughter has forgotten most of her Korean while Ms Han knows little English.
They keep in touch over texts occasionally, and Ms Han spends two hours every day practising her English by writing phrases in an exercise book.
But it isn't enough for Ms Han.
"Even though I have found my daughter, it doesn't feel like I've truly found her. All I know is where she is, but what good is that, if we can't even communicate?
"My entire life has been ruined… no amount of money will ever make up for what I've lost."
BBC
Moody's upgrades Nigeria's rating to 'B3' on improved external and fiscal positions
Credit ratings agency Moody's upgraded Nigeria's rating by a notch to "B3" from "Caa1" on Friday, citing significant improvements in the country's external and fiscal positions.
Earlier this month, the World Bank said that Nigeria's economy achieved its fastest growth in about a decade in 2024, driven by a strong fourth quarter and an improved fiscal position. However, it warned that persistently high inflation remains a challenge.
"The recent overhaul of Nigeria's foreign exchange management framework ... has markedly improved the balance of payments and bolstered the CBN's (Central Bank of Nigeria) foreign exchange reserves," Moody's said in a statement.
According to Moody's, inflationary risks in Nigeria, driven by policy shifts, have diminished. Inflation and domestic borrowing costs are showing nascent signs of easing, bolstering confidence in the stability of these policy changes.
The agency revised Nigeria's outlook to "stable" from "positive", as it expects recent progress on external and fiscal fronts to continue, though at a slower pace, if oil prices fall.
"The stable outlook reflects our expectations that external and fiscal improvements will decelerate but will not reverse entirely," Moody's said.
Reuters
Death toll from Niger State flooding reaches 117 as rescue operations continue
The death toll from devastating floods in Niger state has risen sharply to 117 people, with several others still missing after torrential rains destroyed thousands of homes, emergency officials announced Friday.
The floods struck on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning, submerging more than 3,000 houses in the Tiffin Maza and Anguwan Hausawa communities in Mokwa Local Government Area. Ibrahim Hussaini, head of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, reported the dramatic increase from Thursday's count of 21 deaths as search and rescue operations intensified.
"A number of people are still in the water," Hussaini said, highlighting the ongoing danger facing residents in the affected areas.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the updated death toll of 117 after conducting assessments and search operations. Approximately 5,000 residents have been displaced by the disaster, according to NEMA officials.
Abdullahi Arah, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, attributed the flooding to several hours of heavy rainfall that overwhelmed the communities. Despite the devastation, rescue teams managed to save three people—a woman and her two children—through coordinated efforts involving state agency operatives, local government authorities, local divers, and volunteers.
Nigeria regularly experiences severe flooding during its rainy season, which typically begins in April. The country has faced increasingly frequent flood disasters in recent years, with climate patterns contributing to more intense rainfall events.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) had projected that the 2025 rainy season would span between 250 and 290 days in some states, with total annual rainfall expected to range from 405mm in the far north to 3,010mm in coastal regions.
Recent flooding incidents across Nigeria underscore the country's vulnerability to such disasters. In 2024, over 4,000 people were displaced and 30 killed due to flooding in Maiduguri, Borno state capital, caused by the collapse of the Alau Dam. The previous year, 2022 marked Nigeria's worst flooding in over a decade, killing more than 600 people, displacing around 1.4 million, and destroying 440,000 hectares of farmland. That same year also saw flooding in 16 states that killed 201 people and displaced 172,000 residents.