Sudan fighters take over Khartoum museum, director says

Sudanese paramilitary fighters have taken over the national museum in Khartoum, its deputy director said on Saturday, urging them to protect precious artefacts from the nation's heritage that include ancient mummies.

Members of the Rapid Support Forces group that has been fighting the army since mid-April for control of Sudan entered the museum on Friday, said deputy director Ikhlas Abdellatif.

Museum staff do not know the situation inside the museum because they halted work there after the conflict suddenly erupted on April 15, forcing police guarding the facility to quit, Abdellatif said.

The RSF released a video filmed inside the museum grounds showing a soldier denying that they had done any harm to the museum or would do so, and inviting any individuals or organisations to visit the museum to check.

The video also showed RSF fighters covering up exposed mummies with sheets and closing the plain white boxes in which they were contained. It was not clear when or why the mummies had been uncovered.

The museum is in a large building on the banks of the River Nile in central Khartoum, near the central bank in an area where some of the fiercest fighting has taken place.

Among its thousands of priceless relics are embalmed mummies dating to 2,500 BC, making them among the oldest and archaeologically most important in the world.

The museum also contains statues, pottery and ancient murals, with artefacts from the stone age through to the Christian and Islamic eras, said former director Hatim Alnour.

Roxanne Trioux, part of a French archaeological team that was working in Sudan, said they had been monitoring satellite pictures of the museum and had already seen potential signs of damage there before Friday, with signs of burning.

"We don't know the extent of damage inside," she said.

Fighting has persisted despite repeated truces including one negotiated by Saudi Arabia and the United States to which both sides signed up. The latest was due to expire on Saturday evening.

On Saturday afternoon, residents reported clashes including air and artillery strikes in southern Khartoum and northern districts of its sister cities Omdurman and Bahri which lie across the Nile, as well as the Sharg el-Nil district, to the east.

After continued clashes, bombardment and occupation of civilian buildings, Washington and Riyadh suspended the talks and the U.S. said this week it was imposing sanctions on the two sides' business interests.

Since the overthrow of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019 Sudan's government was headed by a sovereign council under army chief General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan with the RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, as his deputy.

The two are now heading rival forces in a bloody power struggle, and Burhan removed Hemedti from his post last month.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council called on the warring factions to cease hostilities to allow access to humanitarian organisations.

"The army is shelling us and the RSF are spread out in the streets, and the citizen is paying the price for war," said Sami el-Tayeb, a 47-year-old resident of Omdurman.

The war has already displaced 1.2 million people inside the country and forced another 400,000 to flee into neighbouring states, pushing Sudan to the brink of disaster and raising fears of a wider conflict.

 

Reuters

America was a pitiable sight last Thursday. That great country was crouched on the bare floor. It fell like a huge hippopotamus. President Joe Biden’s legs were wrapped over each other like a malevolent viper that had just had its backbone yanked apart by an irreverent bullet. America looked helpless. The edges of Biden’s blue suit raised their hands up in surrender, leaving the world gaping through his now visible white singlet. The only thing on him that seemed unfazed by the fall was his blue fez cap. For the first time ever, cameras pierced through the underneath of Biden’s black shoes. Those shoes lay on their sides, even as a Biden security aide was pictured attempting to lift America up. Looking at the faces of the guests on the podium, you could see palpable shock and fright. America fell!

Biden had tripped and fallen immediately after handing out the last diploma at a U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado. After he fell, the president caught himself with his hands and immediately got up on a knee. He looked backwards towards a sandbag which supported the teleprompter he used. This confirms the universality of that Yoruba proverb which says, when a child falls, he looks forward to a remedy but when elders do, they look backwards to the roots of the fall. Three of Biden’s aides then sprightly sprang up to his rescue, helped him up as he walked back to his seat. He then sat down as if nothing had happened. Back at the White House, the president joked, “I got sandbagged."

Olusegun Obasanjo didn’t have such joke as riposte. He had a sound rebuke. In 1995 circa, he had attended a political event at the Gateway Hotel, Sango-Ota, Ogun State. He was ostensibly under the weather but reluctantly elected to come and honour organizers of the event, in spite of his failing health. As he sat on the high table, with the event afoot, human nature took its toll. Vomit daringly coursed through his esophagus, irreverently unmindful that this was once a Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. This was an office that imbues its occupant with power of life and death. Like the Yoruba Anikulapo, he had death imprisoned inside his pouch. Obasanjo momentarily grabbed one of the cups in his front on the high table, inside of which was hemmed a serviette paper. By then, the goddamn vomit had burst the door of his mouth open and was ready to spill the content of its cistern. Obasanjo merely offered the glass cup as sacrifice to this rude guest. Then, the vomit forcefully gushed out of his guts.

Ace photographer of the then Third Eye and later, Tribune newspapers, Tomi Adegbite, just like those photographers in Colorado who clicked on as America fell, sprang up his feet and unto the scene. He immediately drew out his camera. Click-click-click, this audacious professional thumbed the button of his camera, photographing Nigeria’s ex-Head of State at his most vulnerable moment. Obasanjo couldn’t care. He soberly attended to the unseen hand that ruled him at that moment. After his Lord and Master, the vomit, had finished its assignment and the cup was filled up, the ex- Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces looked up to behold the photographer. “Ta lo ran e ni’se? Foto lo de nya loju ara e yen o?” – Who sent you? You must think you are taking a shot? he demanded. It was indecipherable. Was it a question, threat or a remark? The photographer didn’t wait to give a reply. As the Yoruba would say, he “na papa bo ra” – literally, disappeared into void. Like Biden’s photo, this too was later published in the Third Eye.

The Biden fall became a piece of narrative to justify Nigeria’s tottering last week. It was spearheaded by those who believe in the Messiahnism of the current landlord of Aso Rock. A few days before Biden’s, Nigeria almost fell too. It was on May 29, 2023 at the Eagle Square. A clandestine video recording said to be of President Bola Tinubu at his swearing-in, went viral. As celebration enveloped Nigeria and the atmosphere of conviviality wrapped the Eagle Square, the president allegedly made for the podium to address the world. From the video, we saw a president who shook tremulously like a storm-propelled chandelier. His ADC briskly fled after him as he tottered like one in the dark, seeming to want to fall. Or, could the president have been drunk that early morning? This reminded the audience of the biblical apostles accused by their Jew brethren of being drunk early in the morning. The charge was later disputed by Peter the apostle who reminded them that Jews seldom drank alcohol before nine in the morning. So, was Nigeria’s president drunk on the day of his joy?

Or, was he drunk on something? Or, ill? After his fall last June in America, Biden’s doctors came out to tell the world that he does not drink alcohol nor use tobacco and exercises "at least" five times a week. The fall came as Biden dismounted his bicycle and snared a foot in a toe clip of the cycle. He had taken a weekend trip to the Gordons Pond area of the Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Just as he did in Colorado, Biden stood up immediately, waved and said, "I'm good. I got my foot caught up."

Immediately, his doctors declared him healthy and fit for duty after they conducted physical examination on him. The White House thereafter issued a release saying the president did not require any medical attention. Nigerians were not that lucky. After Nigeria tottered at the Eagle Square last Monday, mum was the word. There was even no official reaction to the viral video. We expected to be told, as usual, that the video was photo-shopped; and that some shaky and tremulous character, not our president, was imported into that viral video. Neither did we get a medical reaction similar to the one from Biden’s physicians telling us that “President Tinubu does not drink alcohol nor use tobacco or any other harmful substance and exercises on the treadmill ‘at least’ five times a week.”

Tinubu wasn’t the first leader of a people to totter that pitiably. Indeed, he has no reason to worry about falling. Falls have almost become an imprimatur of the world presidency. One world leader, who once fell or nearly fell, was Boris Johnson. Curated by the British press as having a nonchalant approach to governance with his hair uncombed and shirts flown out, untucked, in 2015, Boris hit tabloid headlines as he slipped at a charity tug-of-war game organized for a World War I commemoration event holding at the Thames River. Clenching his teeth and grimacing, Johnson pulled hard in the game as he fell, losing his footing on the muddy grass. He exclaimed, “oh bugger!”

Then another photograph emerged. It was of President Tinubu at a meeting with CBN and NNPCL heads. He was cosseted by his wife, Remi. Though they claimed it was not an official meeting, what was Mrs. Tinubu doing at an official meeting presided over by her husband? Was Nigeria about to witness an imperial presidency where the queen and king reigned? This question accompanied the viral photograph of the event. It reminded me of one verse of the Ifa corpus that inveighed leaders who import their women into the theatre of power.

The narrative went thus: The Olufimo, who was a king, got pestered by his newly wedded wife to take her to the Oro cult, a ritual that forbade the presence of women in traditional Yoruba society. When the pestering became almost like a pestilence, Olufimo, in the bid to wave off a far more pestilential matrimonial crisis, had no choice than smuggle the woman into the Oro groove. He did this by hiding her inside the apere – the traditional seat of the king. As the initiates gathered for the ceremony, the babalawo 

struck the chord of the Ifa deity thrice on the pouch but the deity refused to communicate with the initiates as it used to do. Then, the Ifa priest sought the face of the god in a different way and commanded that the Olufimo’s apere be ransacked for the cause of the blockage of communication by the Oro cult from the living. The Ifa narrative expressed this thus in Yoruba – Ohun lo di’fa fun Olufimo Akoko ni’jo ti o f’aya e j’oye; ape’fa, ifa o je o, a p’oro, oro o mi titi o, e je a ye’nu apere oba wo. The Olufimo and his wife were then beheaded for the sacrilege they brought upon the land.

On the social media, Nigerians did their own “beheading” via commentaries dragging the First Family. Questions were asked on the nature of this unfolding government. Would the First Lady be attending Executive Council meetings too? Was this part of the un-communicated handover note that Mrs. Aisha Buhari left for the pastor? “Learn lessons from my isolation in the Villa. Take charge, from the word go!” Was that what she said? Or was that Nigerian Christians’ own way of achieving a Muslim/Christian presidential parity?

Some very naughty persons however reasoned that the First Lady was cosseting her husband all over the place not necessarily to flaunt her feminine power but to physically monitor his fragile health. Didn’t Yoruba say that the plate is not displaying arrogance when it diffidently insists that it must have its own soup poured right on its face? – oju awo l’awo fi ngb’obe. No one, not even a doctor, can decipher when the indicators are going wrong like the woman who had witnessed the indicators slide dangerously in the past.

Did President Gerald Ford’s wife, like Remi, dot on him too after he fell? Ford fell exactly the same day, 48 years earlier from the day Biden fell in Colorado. On June 1, 1975, Ford had been captured in a photograph flung on the floor yakata like a castrated puppy. The very embarrassing event had occurred overseas as the president disembarked the Air Force One in Salzburg, the rainy Austrian city. His wife beside him, Ford, who was by then 61 years old, had lost his balance as he walked down the wet steps of the aircraft. He then skidded off down the remaining stairs. The almighty president of America ended up folded in a heap by the tarmac. Flummoxed, officials stampeded round themselves to get America back on its feet. Later while delivering his speech, Ford had said: “Thank you for your gracious welcome to Salzburg, and I am sorry I tumbled in.”

Falls are viewed both literally and metaphorically by people all over the world. They are even symbolic. For political foes of presidents, they narrate a bumbling and clumsy presidency. To paparazzi and the yellow journalism world, when such falls are caught on camera, they become skits for entertainment and late-night comedy shows. Stumbles are also framed as narratives of lack of fitness for the office occupied. For older presidents and leaders, they are pointers that the ones who fell had aged beyond the call of office. The cantankerous Donald Trump had seized on the Biden fall in Colorado. When asked about it at an Iowa rally, he sarcastically remarked, "He actually fell down? Well, I hope he wasn’t hurt," and added, "You gotta be careful about that," even if you have to “tiptoe down a ramp."

These falls and tottering may mean nothing to other world leaders, but they should to Tinubu. As an African, Tinubu should look back, like Biden did, to his teleprompter. Falls and tottering humanize us as the living. They show that we are mere pencil traces on a paper which can be erased in a twinkle of an eye. They guide us to remember our humble past. In traditional African reading of infirmities and death, Africans came to a conclusion that those are beyond the purview of the living. Anyone who mocks a recipient of any of such unfavourable knuckle of fate is the greatest fool. The aged and worn trees of the forest have been known to confound human understanding to stand erect while the green, luxuriating ones fell.

On Friday in Osogbo, Osun State, on a Rave FM radio sermon, an Islamic cleric, Musbaideen Afolabi Orimadegun, had narrated the story of an ex-slave by the name Ayaz. Ayaz was promoted and became the king’s favourite chief. He had been thoroughly impoverished and wore torn clothes as apparel. He now began to wear expensive clothes and shoes. Then his co-chiefs reported to the king that he usually went inside the king’s treasury, where he kept all his clothes and material property. One day, the king volunteered to go with the chiefs at the dead of the night to witness what they said was Ayaz’ nocturnal pre-occupation. There, they saw him peel himself of all those adornments of wealth, even as he wore those torn clothes and shoes he wore as a poverty-stricken man. Then murmuring, he told himself “Ayaz, don’t forget what you were before now. This is you; this is your foundation! Realize this and be humble.”

As Orimadegun, a highly revered Ustaz due to his depth of understanding of Yoruba and the Quran, said during that sermon, the native concoction that rescues one from perennial bouts with an Abiku child must never be denied its veneration. It must be constantly replenished with water – agbo to ba si’ni lowo abiku, omi ori re o gbodo gbe. In the same way, said Orimadegun, atori ta ba fi le ise wo gbe, a’i ju si’gbo – the cudgel with which poverty is chased into the forest must never be despised or thrown away. The people make and unmake leaders. As I once said, there is no difference between the ordinary cleaner on the street and the president, except that one is privileged over the other. The cleaner’s defecation smells, just as the president’s; they both take ill, trip and fall. The people are the ones who make the leader and deserve to be constantly venerated. Their welfare must be topmost in consideration. Did Tinubu factor the people into the current removal of subsidy? As desirable as the removal is, was it logical to yank it off, as peremptory and off-the-cuff as it was done, with the attendant suffering Nigerians are going through now?

Nigerians expect a presidency of sobriety, and which will preference them. They want an economy that stands on its feet and may care less about a president who totters; they want a presidency that is reconciliatory and not one that wars with any part of the country. Again, Orimadegun’s counsel in that sermon, dredging deep into Yoruba chieftaincy tradition, was that, a chieftaincy attained in the thick of hues and cries deserves sobriety – Oye ti a ba fi ote je, kike laa ke. Is the Nigerian presidency listening?

 

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount ~ Exodus 25:40.

Introduction

God intends that Christian homes should be a foretaste of heaven on earth. However, for many families these days, this ideal has become like a mirage, or like a distant echo that has lost resonance.

This sad scenario is as a result of the grievous disconnect from God's original plan and norm for the home, which is commonplace in many human communities today. Indeed, many people are toiling and struggling in vain as a direct consequence of this blatant disregard for divine order in respect to marriages and homes.

God is a God of order. He abhors disorderliness and confusion, but dwells, operates and manifests His glory in places of order. God commands His blessings and releases His goodness only in places where His order is embraced and respected. Hence, any home where disorderliness holds sway must be devoid of God's presence, and consequently, bereft of His glory and blessings.

Moses was commanded to build the Tabernacle according to a particular pattern that God showed him on the mountain, and God waited patiently until he did it properly and in accordance with His heavenly pattern. Thereafter, God came down to inhabit it and fill the tabernacle with His glory (Exodus 25:40, 40:1-34).

Someone may ask: “why do we nowadays have the problems in marriage that were not there in the olden days”? I venture to say that most of the marriage-related problems that we're presently grappling with in our world today are traceable to our modern-day “gender equality” advocacy, which subtly but steadily contradicts God's order for marriage.

Now, no matter the opinion, position, stance or reaction of the world to God’s order for family, God’s Word still stands forever!

God’s Order for Love, Submission and Responsibility in the Homes

Husbands are divinely ordered to love, admire and appreciate their wives passionately, even as Christ loved the Church and died for her. Wives are also commanded to submit to their own husbands in everything, as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:18-25). Moreover, godly children are instructed to obey their parents and submit to the authority of Christ in the homes.

Very importantly, according to God’s prerogative, the husband is instituted as the head of the family/home unit (Ephesians 5:22-25). In other words, the husband is God-ordained and set on earth as the head of the governing authority in the home.

Now, we are not at liberty to disregard, edit or dance around this heavenly ordinance, unless we’re ready for the consequences: “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (Romans 13:2).

When godly, effective and responsible men take their rightful positions as the heads of their families, God’s glory and blessing will fill the homes and even overflow to our streets, cities and nations.

On the flip-side, any family where the husband, who is divinely equipped and strategically positioned to be the head in the family, is relegated or his authority usurped by the wife, the devil takes over and establishes his dark rule. Consequently, there'll be constant chaos, and God’s purposes may be hindered, delayed or frustrated in such families.

Flowing from this, it is critically important for every husband who has been displaced as the head in homes to arise and be restored as the head according to God’s divine order and pattern for family. Harmony occurs only where godly men are allowed by godly women to take their rightful positions as heads of the marital unions.

Truly, many wives never set out deliberately to usurp the authority of their husbands, but for the ignorance, failure or inefficiency of their husbands. It is the “absent fathers” and “visiting husbands” who inevitably sell their authorities on the platter of irresponsibility.

In fact, the consequences of the husband’s failure, inefficiency or irresponsibility as the head of the family are very enormous and far deeper than can be easily described in any human language. For instance, the fall of Adam in Eden was as a result of his failure or inefficiency as the head of his family. But, the consequences are still being felt by the entire human race today.

If it was Adam, with his original dominion, who confronted the devil when he came around to tempt them in the Garden of Eden, the story might have ended differently. But, he was “absent” from his home at that time, without any boundaries set for his wife. Eve was deceived and she fell into the satanic bait (1 Timothy 2:14).

Husbands must wake up to their God-given responsibilities or obligations as the heads of the human families. Albeit, the husband’s position as the head of his family, doesn’t suggest that he should now transform himself to a big boss, becoming a taskmaster at home, supercilious and domineering, ordering everybody around and bullying them at will.

For special emphasis, the man's responsibility in his home is to truly love and care for his wife, children and other members of the household. By the same class of order, the woman's call is to submit. When a couple does these appropriately, their home will become a foretaste of heaven on earth.

Very painfully, however, some partners in marital union rather unknowingly act as accessories to the untimely death of their spouses. How? Through constant nagging, criticisms and other such other unwholesome attitudes.

In an interesting article "How You Kill Your Spouse and Get Away With It" (author unknown), it is stated that the disorderly acts of nagging generates stress, hypertension, stroke and premature death.

It’s my well-considered opinion that even if a murderer gets away with his vice in the eye of the law on earth, God will still remember that he/she is a murderer, and will serve him/her a just dessert, sooner or later.

As a parting shot, let's briefly analyze the features that are contained in the physiology of the human head, and see how they can assist our understanding of the marital relationships.

As the “head” of his own family, the husband is configured with the “eye” of the family, to provide vision and direction. He’s also equipped with the “ear” to gather information for the body and to provide equilibrium, and the “mouth” for communication.

Furthermore, he has the “nose” to breathe, smell and discern the environment. And, he houses the “brain” for imagination, coordination and recollection. Certainly, the failure of the head will result in confusion, disorientation and even paralysis of the whole body.

Going forward, we can see what the awesome responsibility the man has under God, so, he needs the cooperation of his wife to carry them out successfully. Thus, the wife is crafted as a “suitable help” for her husband, and she should willingly yield to him as it’s fitting in the Lord, gladly inclining herself to submission to the glory of God and in the general interest of her home.

Dear friends and brethren, are you a responsible and loving husband? Are you a submissive wife in your home? The blessing of enthroning divine order in the home cannot be contemned or overlooked. In a well-ordered home, there will be great peace, glorification, edification, protection, abundant provision and promotion for all.

As we all receive the divine grace needed to flow freely with God’s order in our homes, arising in strength to fulfill our roles in our various families, may ceaseless blessings begin to flow all around us and abound in our societies. You won’t miss this, in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

** Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

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The psalmist prophesied about Jesus’ resurrection: “You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive.” (Psalm 68:18). However, Jesus does not lead unbelievers or demons. He only leads believers. Therefore, believers are the captivity that the psalmist prophesied Jesus would lead captive. Jesus rescues us from the captivity of sin and then puts us in the captivity of righteousness.

This is how Paul expresses this kingdom dynamic:

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Roman 6:16-23).

Chained but free

Significantly, Paul, the chief exponent of the New Testament, was often a prisoner in chains. Indeed, he referred to himself as “an ambassador in chains.” (Ephesians 6:20). Paul was often in chains by God’s design to demonstrate that a man can be physically chained but spiritually free. At the same time, many people that are physically free do not know that they are spiritually chained. This means a physical slave might be spiritually free, while a physically free man might be spiritually enslaved.

The power of the gospel is that it opens the eyes of the blind to see their true spiritual condition. Thus, “Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” (John 8:31-32).

Mystery of iniquity

The word of God reveals that a sinner is in bondage. He is a slave of sin. When we are slaves of sin, we are controlled by our passions and lusts. This is the mystery of iniquity, or the mystery of lawlessness. It is a secret power that is not known to the sinner but becomes self-evident to the saint: “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

Freedom in slavery

Jesus is the Saviour who frees us from the stranglehold of sin. He says: “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36).

This freedom is the freedom of the spirit. A man who is spiritually free is free indeed, even though he might be in physical chains as was the case of Paul. A man who is spiritually bound however is bound indeed, even though he is free to go from bar to bar, and to hop from bed to bed.

It is only the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that can make a man spiritually free. This is because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every man who believes.

A man who is in bondage to sin regards himself as free. He feels he can do whatever he likes. He can sleep with whomever he likes. He can drink as much as he likes whenever he likes. He is answerable to no one.

But what he does not realise is that his presumed freedom is a sign of bondage to sin. Sin makes a man free from God. Sin makes a man free from righteousness. Sin makes a man lawless and reckless.

When somebody annoys you, you just feel the urge to slap the person and you do so. Your passions commanded you to slap him and you did. You gave him a dirty slap. You taught him a lesson. It commanded you to abuse him, so you did. Afterward you felt good and even boasted about it.

Your passions commanded you to sleep with that woman. You obeyed, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But without knowing it, you were a man under the authority of sin.

Slavery in freedom

When a man is a slave of sin, he is free from righteousness. But when he is made free from sin, he becomes a slave of righteousness.

A man made free from sin often does not realise he is now a slave of righteousness. He feels he is now free to do what he likes. This is not the case. Precisely because he is now free, he cannot do what he likes. 

His freedom is for a reason and with an objective: to serve the Lord Christ. Accordingly, Jesus spoke to Moses saying: “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” (Exodus 8:1).

Righteousness makes a man bound to Christ. Righteousness makes a man free from sin. Righteousness makes a man lawful. A man freed from sin does not wilfully return to bondage. Paul says: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

A man who is made free by Christ needs to serve Christ with the same wholeheartedness with which he served sin. When we were under the bondage of sin, we were completely free from righteousness. Now that we are bound to righteousness, we must be completely free from sin.

There is just one residual problem. Sin still resides in our mortal bodies. Paul says:

“When I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.” (Romans 7:21-23).

I gave two women to a husband yesterday. Leah looks like a centenarian with her two pedals. It has a few scars on her black skin rendering her less sparkling to the eye compared to her brownish, shapely, colourful and elegant younger sister. What she lacked in terms of physical beauty was compensated for with the sonorous sound that comes from this upright piano which is bound to attract ears favoured to decipher why an older violin resonates better.

I did what a normal businessman would do to minimize risk. I offered Leah at a price that was almost 40% lower than the bride price of the three-pedal Rachael. I didn’t want it rejected this time around. It had stayed too long in our living room and I was beginning to wonder if it would ever get a suitor considering that the flower age was almost gone.

To my surprise, the suitor didn’t behave like Jacob. He was happy. Being more experienced in musical arts, he told me the older piano was better than the one I sold at a higher price and that was the one he would personally keep. Rachael would be moved somewhere else!

Really? This was beyond WhatsApp chat. I called him to understand why. He told me the frame and wood of Leah were superior to those of Rachael, hence the better voice. In other words, I sold Leah cheap, which was an interesting gain to him. Yes, a little more would be spent on cosmetics and tuning but it would provide a better food for the soul of the new owner. He explained how older drums talk better and clearer. The older a normal girl is, the better she’s able to articulate herself.

Though difficult for us to accept most of the time, we don’t know everything. What we place a high value on may be worth less than what we treat as nothing. The stone rejected today is often the chief cornerstone tomorrow. The discerning man sees more beauty in the wrinkled face of Leah than the alluring putty-filled and masked face of the strange woman in her skimpy dresses.

While new wine may taste fine, the wise know older wine tastes better! Making new friends is great but keeping old and older friends is greater. It’s cool to befriend your agemate but Rehoboam would not have lost the throne if he knew the importance of walking with the wiser older people.

Have you been tagged useless, hopeless, valueless and expired? Is the wound of rejection hurting you hard? Wipe your tears. Who says you won’t be favoured to have half of Jacob’s sons? Who says Judah and Levi won’t come from you? Judah means praise. Levi means joined in harmony. David was of the lineage of Judah. Levites were priests in Israel and these two came from the rejected Leah! Something great and wonderful is coming out of you!

Beloved, keep hope alive! Expect God to bring your way the person who values you. Let Him lead you to the market where you’re recognised. When you are polished and begin to yield great fruits, those who dump you in the pit and sold you cheaply as a slave will one day bow at your feet!

When the Lord changes your name from wounded, outcast, lonely, reproached, etc. to favoured, joyful, lovely, etc. I will be glad to listen to your testimony.

If you still wonder how ashes can turn to beauty, ask me!

Send WhatsApp chat to 08075260661 or an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A number of schools in a Utah district, United States of America, removed the King James Version of the Bible from some library bookshelves after a parent frustrated by efforts to ban materials from schools convinced a committee the Good Book contained “vulgar” or “violent” content for younger children, officials said Friday.

The Davis School District—a public system with about 72,000 students—has largely pulled the Bible from its elementary and middle schools, but has decided to keep the book in circulation in high school libraries.

In a copy of the parent’s complaint reviewed by NBC News, they said their effort to ban the Bible was in protest against a 2022 state law that made it easier to remove “pornographic or indecent” content from schools.

“I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient,” the parent said in the complaint. “Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!”

The parent, whose identity is redacted in the complaint, expressed concern in an eight-page list that the religious text contains objectionable verses about incest, prostitution, and rape.

“Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,” the parent wrote. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”

The parent’s challenge to the school board was first reported in March. As per the Utah Code, indecent content includes explicit sexual arousal, stimulation, masturbation, intercourse, sodomy, or fondling, according to Justia.

Christopher Williams, a Davis School District spokesperson, said the decision to remove the Bible will take immediate effect, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The review committee—which is made up of teachers, parents, and administrators in the largely conservative community—determined the Bible didn’t qualify under Utah’s definition of what’s pornographic or indecent, which is why it will remain in high schools, Williams said. The committee can make its own decisions under the 2022 state law and has applied different standards based on students’ ages in response to multiple challenges, he added.

The committee published its decision about the Bible in an online database of review requests and did not elaborate on its reasoning or which passages it found overly violent or vulgar.

Meanwhile, an unnamed party appealed the committee’s decision on Wednesday, Williams said. The matter will be discussed by a three-member committee of the district’s Board of Education before the full panel finally decides. Should the panel decide the Bible is appropriate, then the book will be returned to schools in the district.

Congressman Responds

Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, a Republican who sponsored the state’s book ban bill, criticized the parent’s challenge in March, saying: “It’s a backhanded slap to parents that are simply trying to keep a healthy learning environment for all students in the schools. I have every confidence that no school district is going to consider The Bible as violating 76-10-1227.”

In light of the school district’s determination to limit access to the King James Version of the Bible to high school-aged students, Ivory called upon officials to “immediately and thoroughly review” the age appropriateness of all instructional materials in K-12 schools throughout Utah.

“With this determination, the Davis school district has now set the floor for the standard by which age-appropriate, sensitive, obscene, and indecent materials must immediately be reviewed, and if determined to not be age-appropriate, removed from all schools in the Davis district and throughout the state!” Ivory said in a lengthy statement on Friday.

“By this standard, every material that is equal to, or more violent, sensitive, obscene, indecent, or vulgar, must be removed immediately from all schools in classrooms and libraries throughout the K-12 schools in Utah,” he added.

The school district’s determination comes as concerned parents and conservative activists have descended on school boards and statehouses throughout the United States to sound the alarm about sensitive issues that are being taught in public schools today.

Parents who have pushed for more say in their children’s education and the curriculum and materials available in schools have argued that they should control how their children are taught about sensitive matters such as race and gender.

 

Epoch Times

If you've been truly hurt by someone, it can be hard to forgive. But there is new research that shows forgiveness may just free up more space in your life for happiness.

Everett Worthington has decades of experience studying forgiveness as a clinical psychologist. He is the co-author of a recent study that shows forgiving others may lead to improved mental health and well-being. 

"There are a lot of benefits to the person who forgives," Worthington says.

"The main way that forgiveness affects mental health is by lowering rumination," which is playing things over and over again in our minds, he adds.

Every time a person experiences rumination, it stresses them out more.

"As we forgive, we get a certain amount of closure on that incident, and that closure dampens down that rumination," he says.

Worthington's study included more than 4,500 participants from five different countries.

During the experiment, half of the participants completed exercises in a workbookthat teaches tools of forgiveness, and after two weeks, they experienced less symptoms of depression and anxiety than those who didn't do the exercises.

The research hasn't been peer-reviewed just yet, but the framework of the workbook is pretty simple and can be used to help you get started on the road to forgiveness.

The REACH model for forgiveness

The workbook participants used in the study relies on a five-step model for forgiveness that Worthington created. It's called REACH. 

The five steps of the REACH model are:

Recall the hurt: Try to think about the hurt without focusing on potentially negative outcomes in the future, says Worthington.

Empathize with the person: Attempt to empathize with the person who hurt you. "Some hurts, they're just horrendous that we just can't get into the shoes of the other person and empathize. In that case, [try] other emotions like feeling sorry for them, sympathy for them or compassion towards them," he says.

Altruistic gift: "Give an altruistic gift," of forgiveness because it's a choice. "No one deserves forgiveness because they hurt me," he says. It's an unselfish gift that we choose to give, he notes.

Commit: Decide to commit to the forgiveness you've given the other person.

Hold onto your forgiveness: This is especially important when you experience emotions that cause you to doubt the forgiveness, Worthington says.

Sometimes, the forgiveness is for you

Outside of studying forgiveness, Worthington was faced with the challenge of forgiving the man who killed his mother in 1996.

After processing his feelings and seeing how the hurt was changing him, he decided to commit to forgiving the man and hold onto the forgiveness.

"I was able to experience emotional forgiveness and make a decision that I would treat him differently if the circumstances arose that I ever met him," says Worthington.

The decision to forgive in that moment wasn't an easy one for Worthington, but it did free him from remaining in a dark place.

"If we can let ourselves forgive, we are literally helping ourselves heal, [even] physiologically with lower stress levels," says Roger Miller, a clinical psychologist at Aviv Clinics who specializes in neurological health.

Chronic stress can do damage to the body, says Miller, especially when your stress hormone, cortisol, is elevated. It can heighten your risk of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, heart disease and diabetes, he adds.

"We have to recognize within ourselves that by not [forgiving], we're hurting ourselves," Miller says. "What are the costs of that grudge?"

 

CNBC

At least 965 soldiers and policemen have died in the line of duty as a result of escalation of violence in many parts of Nigeria, perpetrated by Boko Haram, bandits, activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other non-state actors in the last two years.

Daily Trust Saturday tracked the various violent incidents related to killings of police and military personnel between January 2021 and April 2023 in which findings revealed that Nigeria’s security officials bore a significant brunt of killings by non-state actors.

The data metrics, which were exclusively gathered from reported incidents in newspapers, showed that 581 policemen and 384 military personnel died in the line of duty within the period under review.

Daily Trust Saturday could not get official records from the Nigerian Army and police headquarters as efforts to reach the army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, did not yield results after they both failed to respond to calls and text messages.

However, records revealed that the NPF has approximately 371,800 officers across the country, with a ratio of one police officer to 540 citizens. This is lower than the United Nation’s recommended rate of one police officer to 450 people.

For the military, World Bank database revealed that as at 2019, Nigeria had a military strength of 223,000 personnel. This figure, despite a significant loss of at least 384 personnel, was corroborated in February, 2023 by former Nigeria’s minister of defence, Bashir Magashi, during the 25th edition of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard series to showcase his administration’s achievements.

A breakdown of the data mined by this newspaper showed that out of the 384 military personnel killed, 192 were killed by Boko Haram and other terrorists, 68 by gunmen and the IPOB, 62 by bandits and 62 by other criminal groups and circumstances.

Newspaper reports showed that from the 581 police officers killed, 344 were killed by gunmen and the IPOB, 119 were killed by bandits and kidnappers, while 53 by armed robbers and other criminal groups. The data also showed that 32 police officer died in accidents while 18 were killed by colleagues and other security personnel and 15 by Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP).

Regions, states with high military, police killings

Data from media reports collated by this newspaper revealed that men of the Nigerian military recorded heavier casualties in the North, especially Northeast and Northwest, where activities of Boko Haram and bandits are more prevalent. The police, on the other hand, suffered heavier casualties in the southern part of the country, especially the Southeast and Southsouth, where activities of IPOB and gunmen, a term loosely used to refer to attacks by suspected members of the Eastern Security Network, the armed group of IPOB are more prevalent.

The data revealed that out of the 384 military officers killed in the last 28 months, 82.6 per cent of the killings came from the North while the remaining 17.4 per cent came from the South.

On a region-by-region analysis, the Northeast claimed 178 soldiers, Northwest, 90 and Northcentral, 49. The Southeast claimed 41 military deaths while the Southsouth had 24 and Southwest two.

The top five states with the highest military losses include Borno State, where 152 soldiers were killed in the last two years, followed by Kaduna State, where the military lost 35 soldiers, and Kebbi, where 23 soldiers were killed in the line of duty. In Niger State, 28 soldiers were killed, while 20 were killed in Anambra State. The five states combined make 67 per cent of military killings in the country.

The data from police killings revealed that out of 581 police lives lost in the last two years, 60 per cent came from the South while the North has 40 per cent. The data also showed that 305 of police killings were as a result of ambush by gunmen, with the Southeast and Southsouth recording 73.7 per cent.

On a region-by-region analysis, the NPF lost 200 officers in the Southeast, 110 in the Northwest, 106 in the Southsouth and 85 men in the Northcentral. The police also lost 43 officers in the Southwest and 37 in the Northeast.

The five states with the highest police killings are Anambra, where 63 police officers lost their lives, followed by Imo, where 52 officers were killed, as well as Niger State, where 42 police officers were killed.

Others are Delta State, where 37 were killed and Ebonyi, where 35 police officers lost their lives. The five states make 39.5 per cent of police killings in the country.

 

Daily Trust

Central Bank of Nigeria has sold the dollar at N645 at its latest auction, results showed on Friday, lower than N465 where the currency is trading on the official secondary market.

Nigeria operates multiple exchange rates, which the CBN has used to manage demand, mask pressure on the naira and conserve its dwindling reserves. The system has fueled a black market, trading sharply lower than the spot rate.

The bank held the latest bi-weekly auction on May 26. In April, it auctioned dollars at N630.

The naira has weakened faster at the central bank's auctions than on the spot market, leading many analysts to believe that a devaluation could match the rate traded at the auctions.

On Thursday, the central bank denounced news of a devaluation of the currency after media reported a big fall in the value of the naira following speculation over the outcome of a meeting President Bola Tinubu had with the central bank governor this week, and as the naira is already sold weaker at auctions.

Tinubu on Friday told governors from his ruling All Progressives Congress party in Abuja that the country's multiple exchange rates will be streamlined. "We will not have multiple exchange rates anymore," he said.

The central bank has been adjusting the value of the naira gradually on the spot market to avoid a large-scale devaluation. Former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was in power for eight years, viewed a strong currency as a matter of national pride.

 

Reuters

Nigeria's main labour union said on Friday it plans to go on strike from Wednesday to protest against a tripling of fuel prices in what would be the first big test for new President Bola Tinubu after he scrapped a costly fuel subsidy.

The price increase has led to a sharp rise in transport fares and Estonian ride-hailing and food delivery startup Bolt said it had hiked its prices in Nigeria, citing increased operating costs due to higher fuel prices.

Nigeria's fuel subsidy cost the government billions of dollars annually but was popular as it helped keep prices low in Africa's biggest oil producer, which is still grappling with high poverty rates among residents.

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics says 63% of people living in Nigeria are poor while the World Bank said in a report last year that as many as four in 10 Nigerians lived below the national poverty line.

The government said lifting the subsidy - which caused prices to rise to N557 per litre from N189 at the petrol pumps - will help alleviate a government funding crisis.

But Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) president Joe Ajaero, after an emergency meeting of the union's executive council in Abuja, said the state oil company NNPC should reverse the price hike.

"Nigeria Labour Congress decided that if by Wednesday next week that NNPC, a private limited liability company that illegally announced a price regime in the oil sector, refuses to revert itself for negotiations to continue, that the Nigeria Labour Congress and all its affiliates will withdraw their services and commence protests nationwide until this is complied with," Ajaero said.

In 2012, a wave of strikes ensued when Nigeria tried to introduce a similar measure, with authorities eventually reinstating some subsidies. Tinubu, then in the opposition, was among those who opposed ending the subsidies.

On Friday, the president said Nigeria needs to review its minimum wage of N30,000 ($65).

"We need to do some arithmetic and soul searching on the minimum wage," he told the ruling party state governors at his offices in Abuja, adding that revenue collection should be strengthened.

($1 = 460.9200 naira)

 

Reuters