WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia's Shoigu accuses West of seeking to expand Ukraine war to Asia-Pacific

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the West wants to expand the conflict in the Ukraine to the Asia-Pacific region, Russian state media reported, citing comments made at a Beijing defence forum on Monday.

Speaking at the Xiangshan Forum, China's biggest military diplomacy event, Shoigu said NATO is covering up a build-up of forces in the Asia-Pacific region with an "ostentatious desire for dialogue", Russia's TASS news agency reported.

Shoigu said NATO countries were promoting an arms race in the region, increasing their military presence and the frequency and scale of military drills there.

U.S. forces will use information exchanges with Tokyo and Seoul on missile launches to deter Russia and China, Shoigu said. He also accused Washington of trying to use climate change and natural disasters as an excuse for "humanitarian interventions".

Shoigu said the emergence of new security blocs such as the Quad and AUKUS undermined the role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and nuclear non-proliferation efforts in the region.

At the same time, he said, Russia's move to revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty did not mean the end of the agreement, and Russia was not lowering its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

"We are only seeking to restore parity with the United States, who has not ratified this treaty," Russia's RIA news agency quoted Shoigu as saying. "We are not talking about its destruction."

Shoigu said that Moscow was ready for talks on the post-conflict settlement of the Ukraine crisis on further 'co-existence' with the West, but that Western countries needed to stop seeking Russia's strategic defeat.

Making clear the conditions for such talks were not in place yet, Shoigu said: "It is also important to ensure equal relations between all the nuclear powers and permanent United Nations Security Council members who carry special responsibility for upholding peace and global stability."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

West using Ukraine as a ‘battering ram’ against Russia – Shoigu

The United States has completely subjugated the Western camp, focusing all their political and military resources on preserving its slipping global dominance by any means necessary, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told the 10th Xiangshan Security Forum in China.

The Russian defense chief arrived in Beijing on Monday on a working visit, during which he delivered a keynote address at a plenary session on ‘Responsibility of large states and cooperation in the field of global security.’

According to Shoigu, Washington has been undermining and destroying the foundations of international security in its quest for overwhelming geopolitical and military-strategic superiority. The US-led NATO bloc has for years ignored Russia's legitimate security interests, stubbornly pursuing the expansion, and eventually forcing Russia to implement “countermeasures” in Ukraine.

“In response, the West openly took a course on inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia in the hybrid war unleashed against us. Ukraine was cynically chosen as a battering ram, and assigned the role of merely expendable material,” Shoigu said.

However, despite Western arms and support, Kiev’s much-touted counteroffensive has failed, Shoigu reiterated, noting that Ukraine lost “over 90,000 troops, some 600 tanks and almost 1,900 armored vehicles”since June 4 alone. The Russian armed forces will continue to methodically and steadily carry out their tasks, while ensuring the safety of civilians, Shoigu added. 

“Modern cataclysms in international relations are directly related to the opposition of individual states to the inevitable strengthening of the multipolar world,” the Russian defense chief added. 

“Countries that oppose Western neocolonial dictatorship and defend the principles of equality, polycentricity and indivisible security are subject to fierce pressure, including attempts at political and economic strangulation,” Shoigu said.

Reuters/RT

It is a well-worn tradition for our colleagues in the Judiciary to use the occasion of their retirement to make fine speeches full of platitudes that hardly anyone notices thereafter. At his valedictory speech on retirement at 70, Musa Dattijo Mohammed of the Supreme Court decided to take matters beyond the next level. He spoke from the heart, on Thursday last week, giving us a peep into the rot pervading in the Judiciary. The speech became an immediate sensation. Daily Trust called it a bombshell that set the internet on fire. Indeed, it did, as what he said furiously dominated discussions in the media throughout the weekend.

I took note of the speech for two reasons. Firstly, Dattijo is the last of my ABU 1976 set on the Supreme Court after the retirement of Abdu Aboki last year. The ABU graduates from the Faculty of Law of that year would arguably be some of the most distinguished in the annals of the Nigerian Judiciary becoming predominant here and there. Only in the last few years had they begun to fade away one after the other. Ibrahim Bala Mairiga retired as Chief Judge of Kebbi State in 2017 followed closely by the exit of Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Courts, and Abdu Aboki of the Supreme Court who retired last year.

Secondly, the speech reminds me of another, some 30 years ago, that caused the same stir among the Nigerian public. I refer to the speech made by Salihu Ibrahim, Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army when he was retiring in 1993. Maybe some readers might recall that 1993 was probably the nadir the military regimes reached in our history when a free presidential election was cancelled outright leading to widespread protests. Salihu’s valedictory speech was full of regrets at what he saw as the falling standards, lack of professionalism, and all that in the Nigerian Army. His famous one-liner, ‘the Nigerian Army has become the army of anything’ is still widely quoted today to denote an extreme institutional failure.

In his valedictory speech, reminiscence of the famous Salihu Ibrahim’s put down of the Nigerian Army under his command, Dattijo, did not spare the Nigerian Judiciary which in his view has fallen far from grace. He could easily have used the same one-liner to say, ‘The Nigerian Judiciary has become the judiciary of anything’. Dattijo began his speech by wistfully recalling when he joined the Supreme Court things were tolerable, ‘The journey was calm and fulfilling until about halfway through my Supreme Court years when the punctuating turbulent cracks made it awry and askew.’ From thence onwards it was an avalanche of things that have gone amiss.

Starting from the overarching powers of the Chief Justice (CJ) which made other justices of the court, particularly Dattijo who was the second in command, mere onlookers in the administration of justice. The consequence of the CJ’s enormous powers became an opportunity for abuse.

Dattijo said, ‘This needs to change. Continued denial of the existence of this threatening anomaly weakens effective judicial oversight in the country’. He made many other scathing remarks on the poor funding of the Judiciary, deficient salaries of the judges, the corruption in the process of appointing judges, and the quality of judgements of the bench which has become unpredictable due to unnecessary interference.

At a time, in 2022, aggrieved judges of the Supreme Court, including the incumbent CJ had to petition against the shabby treatment meted to them by the head of the court and the Chief Registrar, which ostensibly led to the resignation of Chief Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad.

It was a legion of complaints from the retiring judge. But what galls from what Dattijo said is the refusal to fill up the seats vacated by the death or retirement of judges that eventually left some zones of the country without anyone within the confines of the Supreme Court. This might not have impeded the workings of the court nor the quality of its judgement. However, in times of political contestations such as we had this year and matters reaching the Supreme Court for adjudication, these lapses could be willing tools in the hands of conspiracy theorists whenever some judgement of the Supreme Court did not favour them.

In the long run, Dattijo laments leaving the Supreme Court dissatisfied. He moans, ‘My lords, distinguished invitees, ladies and gentlemen, it is obvious that the judiciary I am exiting from is far from the one l voluntarily joined and desired to serve and be identified with. The institution has become something else’. There is yet a ray of hope as Dattijo alludes that the situation can be turned around if we all put our heads to it. He said, ‘The duty to revive the institution remains a collective one. We must persist.’

Dattijo’s valedictory speech is a sad commentary on the Nigerian judiciary. It is even sadder that as it is constituted it cannot help itself.

Short-term measures could include the immediate filling of the vacated seats in the court and increased funding for the running and upkeep of the court.

The longtime venture capital investor honed it through decades of experience helping early-stage tech companies like YouTube and Instagram grow into industry giants. He repeatedly watched CEOs get stuck when trying to choose between two options, and it taught him a lesson.

“If you find yourself deciding between only two choices, maybe you need to widen the aperture,” Botha said on Sequoia’s “Crucible Moments” podcast, in a recent episode featuring billionaire entrepreneur Jack Dorsey. “Is there a third or fourth option that you haven’t even considered that you need to throw into the mix to really test whether that is the right path?”

He cited Dorsey’s own payments business Block, where Botha sits on the company’s board, as an example. In 2011, the business was known as Square, and it was struggling to expand past its namesake product — a credit and debit card scanner that could plug into a smartphone’s headphone jack.

One of the company’s first attempts to broaden its customer base was an app called Square Wallet, which customers could use to pay Square merchants. Another was a $25 million deal with Starbucks: The coffee giant invested in the company, and in return, carried out all in-store transactions with the startup’s technology.

Both ideas were meant to help the company reach more people. Merchants may have known about its credit card scanner, but everyday buyers didn’t need it, Dorsey said.

Neither garnered much initial traction. Dorsey could have waited for a larger sample size of results — but instead, he chose to toss another initiative into the mix, tasking a group of Block employees with brainstorming new options.

One of those ideas was to develop a low-cost way for people “to send money as easy as sending an email,” Dorsey said. The company officially launched Square Cash, now known as Cash App, in October 2013.

The payment service, a competitor to PayPal and Venmo, proved stronger than the other options: Block pulled Square Wallet from the store six months after Cash App was released, and let its Starbucks partnership expire at the end of 2015. The company later discovered that it’d lost $71 million paying transaction costs to credit card companies while processing Starbucks payments.

Block now has a market cap of $26.82 billion, as of Wednesday afternoon, and Cash App is responsible for half of its revenue, Botha said. Having a third option helped Block cut what wasn’t working, and invest in projects that helped make the company profitable.

This method is backed by science: On average, people are 22% more likelyto choose the strongest option when they compare all their options at once, rather than examining each one sequentially, according to 2017 research.

That holds true for both big and small decisions — whether you’re choosing between colleges, laptops or pizza restaurants, the study found.

CNBC

After 47 years in the judiciary, Musa Dattijo Muhammad took a bow on Friday, October 27, 2023. The high and mighty attended his valedictory session which has refused to leave the media space long after His Lordship thanked his audience for their time and patience. It’s been a while that a retiring judge hit the nail on the head the way he did.

Just weeks back, Chidi Odinkalu, human rights lawyer, penned the hard-hitting piece, ‘A Captured Temple of Justice’, where he highlighted what could ordinarily pass for as the dark days of the judiciary. From a hall in Abuja, the voice of Dattijo reverberated across the land. In this article, we analysed seven highlights of the judge’s speech.

ABSOLUTE POWER

The judge frowned over what he referred to as the concentration of too much powers in the hands of one man. He said although the CJN has a deputy, a position he once occupied, the experience is not different from that of a deputy governor who can only be relevant if the governor wants him to be.
“As presently structured, the CJN is Chairman of the National Judicial Council NJC which oversees both the appointment and discipline of judges, he is equally Chair of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), the National Judicial Institute (NJI) the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) that appoints Senior Advocates of Nigeria. In my considered opinion, the oversight functions of these bodies should not rest on an individual alone. A person with absolute powers, it is said, corrupts easily and absolutely. As Chair of NJC,FJSC, NJI and LPPC, appointments as council, board and committee members are at his pleasure. He neither confers with fellow justices nor seeks their counsel or input on any matter related to these bodies. He has both the final and the only say.

“The CJN has power to appoint 80 percent of members of the council and 60 percnt of members of FJSC. The same applies to NJI and LPPC. Such enormous powers are effortlessly abused. This needs to change. Continued denial of the existence of this threatening anomaly weakens effective judicial oversight in the country.
By the provision of Paragraph 20 of Part One of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, the NJC shall comprise the following Members: the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who shall be the Chairman; the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court who shall be the Deputy Chairman. Regrettably, the next most senior justice of the Supreme Court like Deputy Governors of State, shorn of any official function except at the pleasure of the Governor, is neither consulted on anything nor does he have any official function. His job as No. 2 is purely as the CJN pleases. It is incumbent that the system provides for more inclusion and consultation among the stakeholders.”

DANGER FOR DEMOCRACY

Dattijo expressed displeasure that two geopolitical zones – North Central and South East – no longer have representation on the bench of the highest court in the land. For him, no excuse is tenable for such development.
“When I exit today, the North Central zone that I represent ceases to have any representation until such a time new appointments are made. Ejembi Eko JSC who also represented the zone retired on the 23rd of May, 2022. It has been a year and five months now. There has not been any replacement. With the passing of my lord, Chima Centus Nweze, JSC on 29th July 2023,the South East no longer has any presence at the Supreme Court. My lord, Sylvester Nwali Ngwuta JSC died on 7th March 2021. There has not been any appointment in his stead for the South East.”
“To ensure justice and transparency in presidential appeals from the lower court, all geo-political zones are required to participate in the hearing. It is therefore dangerous for democracy and equity for two entire regions to be left out in the decisions that will affect the generality of Nigerians. This is not what our laws envisage. Although it can be posited that no one expected the sudden passing of Nweze JSC, yet, it has been two years and seven months since previous Justice from the South East died and no appointment was made. Ditto for the replacement of Eko JSC of North central who exited nearly two years ago. Sidi Bage JSC, now his Royal Highness the Emir of Lafia, from the North Central, had earlier voluntarily retired. He equally is yet to be replaced. Also,it was clear ab-initio that I would be leaving the court this day on attaining the statutory age of 70. It is then not in doubt that there has been sufficient time for suitable replacements to have been appointed. This is yet to occur.”

POOR SALARIES

According to him, from the time former President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office till he departed few months ago, over N70 billion had been added to the annual budget of the judiciary, but the effect is not seen on the lives of judges. He could not understand the condition that made it possible for the Registrar of Supreme Court to earn higher salary than judges.

“In 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari became the president, the budgetary allocation to the judiciary was #70 billion. In the 2018 Appropriation Bill submitted to the National Assembly, the President allocated N100 billion to the judiciary.

“The legislature increased it to N110 billion; N10 billion above the N100 billion appropriated for the 2017 fiscal year. At the end of Buhari’s tenure in May 2023 judiciary’s allocation had increased to N130 billion. That is an increase from N70 to N130 billion in 8 years. The present government has allocated an additional sum of 35 billion naira to the judiciary for the current financial year making the amount of money accessible by the judiciary to 165 billion naira. More than 85 percent of the amount appropriated by the 10th Assembly has so far been released to the judiciary. It is envisaged that the additional 35 billion naira will equally be released by the present government.
“Notwithstanding the phenomenal increases in the sums appropriated and released to the judiciary, Justices and officers welfare and the quality of service the judiciary render have continued to decline. It may interest one to know that the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court earns more than the Justices. While she earns N1.2m per month, justices take home N751,000 in a month. The CJN on his part takes home #400,000 plus. The salary of a Justice, curiously, drops rather than increases when he gets the added responsibility of being a CJN.”

LOBBYING FOR APPOINTMENTS

More troubling for Dattijo is the manner of recruitment which places nepotism over merit. Friends, mistresses, family members have unfair advantage over those who have meaningful things to offer.
The process of the appointment of Judges and quality of judgments of courts. A couple of years ago, appointment to the bench was strictly on merit. Sound knowledge of the law, integrity, honour, and hard work distinguished those who were elevated. Lobbying was unheard of. I never lobbied, not at any stage of my career, to secure any appointment or elevation. As much as possible the most qualified men and women were appointed. That can no longer be sad about appointments to the bench.

The judiciary must be uniquely above board. Appointments should not be polluted by political, selfish, and sectional interests. The place of merit, it must be urged, cannot be over-emphasized.
Public perceptions of the judiciary have over the years become witheringly scornful and monstrously critical. It has been in the public space that court officials and judges are easily bribed by litigants to obviate delays and or obtain favourable judgments.

Recently, fresh allegations have been made that children and other relatives of serving and retired judges and justices are being appointed into judicial offices at the expense of more qualified candidates lacking in such privilege and backing. It is asserted that the process of appointment to judicial positions are deliberately conducted to give undue advantage to the “children,spouses, and mistresses” of serving and retired judges and managers of judicial offices.”

LAWAN & UZODIMMA

Most recently, cases involving Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and former Senate President Ahmad Lawan sparked controversy. In Lawan’s case, he sought but lost the presidential ticket of the ruling party but lost to President Bola Tinubu.

Bashir Machina, a local politician in Lawan’s Yobe constituency, won the senatorial ticket which the former senate president conceded in order to contest the presidential primary. Machina resisted pressure to hand the ticket to Lawan until the court pronounced him the senatorial candidate.
For Uzodimma, he came fourth in the 2019 governorship election, but headed to the court which eventually declared him winner.

The retired judge made allusion to this in his valedictory speech.

“At the Court of Appeal, it is also asserted, presiding Justices are now being appointed out of turn. And there is the further issue of the unpredictable nature of recent decisions of the courts as well. A number of respected senior members of the bar inter alia, citing the Ahmed Lawan, the former President of the Senate and the Imo Governorship appeals, claim that decisions of even the apex court have become unpredictable. It is difficult to understand how and where, by these decisions, the judicial pendulum swings. It was not so before, they contend.
In some quarters the view is strongly held that filth and intrigues characterize the institution these days! Judges are said to be comfortable in companies they never would have kept in the past. It is being insinuated that some judicial officers even campaign for the politicians. It cannot be more damnifying!”

DEPLETION OF JUDGES

“The conversation about the diminishing number of justices at the Supreme Court has become a refrain. As I bow out today, the number is further reduced to 10 against the Constitutional requirement of 21 justices. That this avoidable depletion has affected and will further affect the court and litigants is stating the obvious.
“We are in an election season where the Election Tribunals and appellate courts are inundated with all manner of petitions and appeals. The Supreme Court is the final court in the Presidential, Governorship and National Assembly election appeals. Yet, there are only 10 justices left to determine these matters. Constitutionally, each of these appeals requires a panel of seven justices to sit on them. When a panel of seven justices is constituted to sit on a particular appeal, only three justices are left out. Even when regular appeals are being heard in the Supreme Court, a panel of five justices is required to sit.

“We must not forget that the Court, being the highest in the land, receives all manner of appeals from the court below. Presently, there is neither limit nor distinction to the manner of appeals that come to the apex court. Again, beside election matters which are seasonal, the Supreme Court’s docket is overflowing with civil and criminal appeals, some of which took many years to arrive. Most of these are still pending. Several have not even been assigned hearing dates. The court also exercises original jurisdiction.
“As the justices who hear these matters are grossly overstretched, unable to meet the demands of their onerous assignment, the litigants who approach the court seeking justice are left in limbo; waiting endlessly for justice to be served. These ,as I have said before, are avoidable.”

NO CHANGES

“Valedictory session after valedictory session lapses and challenges that should be nipped are restated to no avail. Why the silence and seeming contentment?”

Netanyahu says the Gaza war has entered a new stage and will be 'long and difficult'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the nation Saturday night that the military has opened a “second stage” in the war against Hamas by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea.

Casting the war as a fight for his country’s very survival, he warned that the assault would only intensify ahead of a broad ground invasion into the territory.

“There are moments in which a nation faces two possibilities: to do or die,” Netanyahu said. “We now face that test and I have no doubt how it will end: We will be the victors. We will do and we will be the victors.”

The bombardment — described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the war — knocked out most communications in the territory late Friday and largely cut off the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people from the world. Communications were restored to many people in Gaza early Sunday, according to the telecoms company, Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmation on the ground.

Highlighting the ongoing attacks, the Israeli military released grainy images showing tank columns moving slowly in open areas of Gaza, many apparently near the border, and said warplanes bombed dozens of Hamas tunnels and underground bunkers. The underground sites are a key target in Israel’s campaign to crush the territory’s ruling group after its bloody incursion into Israel three weeks ago.

The escalation ratcheted up domestic pressure on Israel’s government to secure the release of dozens of hostages seized in the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas, when militants stormed from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns and gunned down civilians and soldiers. The unprecedented attack during a major Jewish holiday initiated a war between Israel and Hamas that could spread into a broader Mideast conflict.

Desperate family members met with Netanyahu on Saturday and expressed support for an exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, a swap floated by the top Hamas leader in Gaza.

Netanyahu told the nationally televised news conference that Israel is determined to bring back all the hostages, and maintained that the expanding ground operation “will help us in this mission.” He said he couldn’t reveal everything that is being done due to the sensitivity and secrecy of the efforts.

“This is the second stage of the war, whose objectives are clear: to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and bring the hostages home,” he said in his first time taking questions from journalists since the war began.

He didn’t address calls for a cease-fire, but in a speech peppered with references to centuries of Jewish history and military conflicts, made clear his view that Israel’s future depends on its success against “enemy” forces.

“Our heroic soldiers have one supreme goal: to destroy the murderous enemy and ensure our existence in our land. We have always said, ‘Never again‘” he said. “‘Never again’ is now.”

Netanyahu also acknowledged that the Oct. 7 “debacle,” in which more than 1,400 people were killed, would need a thorough investigation, adding that “everyone will have to answer questions, including me.”

The Israeli military said it was gradually expanding its ground operations inside Gaza, while stopping short of calling it an all-out invasion.

“We are proceeding with the stages of the war according to an organized plan,” said the chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari. The comments hinted at a strategy of a staged escalation, instead of a massive and overwhelming offensive.

Early in the war, Israel amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border. Until now, troops had conducted brief nightly ground incursions before returning to Israel.

Despite the Israeli offensive, Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, with the constant sirens in southern Israel a reminder of the threat.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza rose Saturday to just over 7,700 people since the war began, with 377 deaths reported since late Friday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of those killed have been women and minors, the ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra told reporters that the disruption of communications has “totally paralyzed” the health network. Residents had no way of calling ambulances, and emergency teams were chasing the sounds of artillery barrages and airstrikes.

An estimated 1,700 people remain trapped beneath the rubble, according to the health ministry, which has said it bases its estimates on distress calls it received.

Some civilians were using their bare hands to pull injured people from the rubble and loading them into personal cars or donkey carts. In a video posted by local news media, Palestinians sprinted down a street with a wounded man covered in the dust of a building’s collapse. “Ambulance! Ambulance!” the men shouted as they shoved the stretcher into a truck and shouted, “Go! Go!”

Some Gaza residents traveled by foot or car to check on relatives and friends. “The bombs were everywhere, the building was shaking,” said Hind al-Khudary, a journalist in central Gaza and one of a few people with cellphone service. “We can’t reach anyone or contact anyone. I do not know where my family is.”

Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The World Health Organization appealed to “the humanity in all those who have the power to do so to end the fighting now” in Gaza. “There are more wounded every hour. But ambulances cannot reach them in the communications blackout. Morgues are full. More than half of the dead are women and children,” it said.

Palestinians say the war also robbed them of the funeral rites that long have offered mourners some dignity and closure. Overcrowded cemeteries have compelled families to dig up long-buried bodies and deepen the holes.

More than 1.4 million people across Gaza have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters, following repeated warnings by the Israeli military that they would be in danger if they remained in northern Gaza.

A large number of residents have not evacuated to the south, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones where conditions are increasingly dire. Food and water supplies were running out. Israel knocked out electricity early in the war.

Humanitarian workers say the trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt in the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed. Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which runs a network of shelters and schools for nearly half the displaced Gaza residents, has lost contact with most staff, spokeswoman Juliette Touma said, and coordinating aid efforts was now “extremely challenging.”

The intensified air and ground campaign raised new concerns about hostages dragged into Gaza. On Saturday, hundreds of relatives gathered in Tel Aviv and demanded that the government put the return of their loved ones ahead of military objectives.

In comments likely to inflame these tensions, Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yehia Sinwar, said the Palestinian militant groups “are ready immediately” to release all hostages if Israel releases all Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, dismissed the offer as “psychological terror.”

In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said his government was working to de-escalate the conflict through talks with the warring parties to release prisoners and hostages. On Saturday, he spoke with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, his office said.

Guterres in a statement said he was “surprised by an unprecedented escalation of the bombardments and their devastating impacts” in Gaza.

Among many, impatience was growing. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of thousands of people at a pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul that his country was preparing to proclaim Israel a “war criminal” for its actions in Gaza. He did not give details.

Israel’s foreign minister said he ordered the return of Israel’s diplomatic mission from Turkey to reassess ties.

The overall number of deaths in Gaza and Israel far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations — including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel — have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drone struck Russian nuclear waste facility risking disaster, Moscow says

A Ukrainian drone crashed into a nuclear waste storage facility at the Kursk power plant in western Russia on Thursday, damaging its walls, Russia's foreign ministry said on Saturday, calling on other governments to condemn "an act of nuclear terrorism".

A ministry statement said Ukraine must have known that its actions could have caused a full-scale nuclear catastrophe that would have affected many countries.

"We call on all governments to issue a strong condemnation of Kyiv's barbaric actions, which are extremely dangerous and could lead to irreparable consequences," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Russia and Ukraine, which both operate nuclear power plants, have regularly accused each other of risking a nuclear calamity with irresponsible attacks, and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - has been monitoring the situation in Ukraine particularly closely.

Moscow said on Friday that it had thwarted Thursday's drone attack and two news outlets said an explosion had damaged the facade of a warehouse storing nuclear waste. Saturday's statement was the first official confirmation of the damage.

Zakharova said one explosive-packed drone had damaged the nuclear waste facility's walls while another two had hit an administrative building complex.

"According to preliminary data, the drones used in the attack on the nuclear power plant used components supplied by Western countries," she said, adding that such an attack must have had the permission of Ukraine's allies or possibly been ordered by them.

The Kursk plant, located in a region which borders Ukraine, said after the attack that there were no casualties and that radiation levels and operations were normal.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Kyiv generally declines to confirm or deny military operations on Russian territory.

Russia in July complained that a Ukrainian drone had struck an apartment building in Kurchatov, a town built on the banks of a cooling pond for the Kursk nuclear power station.

Russia's FSB security service said in August last year that security around nuclear facilities had been beefed up after Ukrainian saboteurs had destroyed electricity lines supplying the Kursk plant, temporarily disrupting its functioning.

Kursk is one of several Russian regions that have regularly come under drone attack in the course of the 20-month war. The governor of Kursk reported a previous drone attack on Kurchatov on Sept. 1.

Thursday night's incident came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a Russian drone attack in Ukraine's western Khmelnitskyi region had probably targeted the area's nuclear power station.

The IAEA said that attack had destroyed "numerous windows" at the site but had not affected the Ukrainian plant's operations or its connection to the electricity grid.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm either incident.

** Belarus' Lukashenko says Ukraine-Russia war at stalemate, urges talks

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a stalemate on the frontlines of their war and the two sides need to sit down and negotiate an end to the conflict, Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of Belarus and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said over the weekend.

"There are enough problems on both sides and in general the situation is now seriously stalemate: no one can do anything and substantively strengthen or advance their position," Lukashenko said.

"They're there head-to-head, to the death, entrenched. People are dying."

Russian forces have kept pushing this week near the ruined Donetsk city of Avdiivka suffering heavy losses, the U.S. White House said, but the vast frontline in Ukraine has moved little in the past year despite Kyiv's gruelling months-long offensive.

Lukashenko, who has provided his country's territory as a launch pad for Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, said that Ukraine's demands for Russia to quit its territory needs to be resolved at the negotiating table "so nobody dies".

"We need to sit down at the negotiating table and come to an agreement," Lukashenko said in a question and answer video posted on the website of the Belarusian state news agency BelTA.

"As I once said: no preconditions are needed. The main thing is that the 'stop' command is given."

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated on Saturday at a gathering of over 60 national security advisers that his 10-point peace plan, which includes calls for the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, is the only way to end the war.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia displays Western shells used by Ukraine to attack civilians

A senior Russian diplomat at the UN has shown fragments of Western-supplied shells and missiles that he claimed Ukraine used to attack civilians in Donbass and other Russian regions.

Speaking at a regular Security Council briefing concerning Ukraine on Friday, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, described the ordnance pieces as “physical evidence of how Western-supplied weapons are being actively used by Ukrainians to attack civilian infrastructure.”

He showcased what he said was debris from a US-made HIMARS missile that hit a regional administration building in Russia’s Kherson region last September, killing three people and injuring several others.

Polyansky went on to present a much larger fragment which he claimed was part of a Storm Shadow long-range missile with “a discernible inscription ‘Made in France’.” He said it had been used by Kiev in June to strike a bridge linking the northern part of the Crimean peninsula with the mainland. This link, he added, was crucial for transporting food and other vital supplies. Storm Shadow missiles were supplied to Ukraine by the UK.

He also showed what was allegedly a piece of a HIMARS missile that killed one civilian and wounded 11 others in a Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk in July. Another fragment of the US-made munition the diplomat displayed was said to have come from the shelling of Makeyevka, a town near Donetsk.

“Look at these fragments and imagine them being scattered around at a huge speed,” he said, addressing his British colleagues in particular. “Look here. You want people to keep silent about this,” he added.

Polyansky also stated that while Ukraine has been targeting civilians in Donbass since 2014, when large-scale hostilities erupted in the region following a Western-backed coup in Kiev, “the ‘civilized Western world’ has [long] been hiding behind a handy paradigm” that civilians there “had shelled themselves.”

According to the data provided by the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) in the Donetsk People’s Republic, more than 4,700 civilians, including 139 children, have been killed in the region since February 2022. According to the now-defunct JCCC in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Ukrainian attacks claimed the lives of 192 people between February 2022 and February 2023.

** Russian air defense systems destroy 36 Ukrainian drones over Black Sea, Crimea

Kiev tried to attack targets on Russian territory with 36 drones, they were destroyed by air defense systems over the Black Sea and the northwestern part of Crimea, Russia’s Defense Ministry told reporters.

"On the night of October 29, [air defense systems] prevented an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack by aircraft-type UAVs on facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation. On-duty air defense systems destroyed 36 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the Black Sea and the northwestern part of the Crimean peninsula," the ministry said.

Reuters/RT/Tass

Is there any connect between law and public opinion or judgments and public opinion? Before Musa Dattijo Muhammad’s valedictory speech at the Supreme Court last Friday, the connect or disconnect between those two had begun to assume a life of its own. The presidential election judgment delivered by the Supreme Court the day before heightened concerted quests for the nexus or disjuncture between them. In the Dattijo valedictory, it would appear that the Learned Justice had deliberately set out to take the sail off the wind of views which divorced law from judgments and public opinion.

In the valedictory, Dattijo lamented how public perceptions of the judiciary had become “witheringly scornful and monstrously critical.” He was equally worried that “the public space” had been “inundated with the tale that court officials and judges are easily bribed by litigants to obviate delays and or obtain favourable judgments.” Quoting copiously from an earlier valedictory of a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, Dattijo read: "Pleas are expressed everyday by the generality of the public begging the judiciary to be just, to be truthful; and to save the country from collapse. My question is whether the judiciary needs to be begged or cajoled? What is it that qualifies any person to bear that exalted name 'Honourable Justice’? Is it not for him to administer justice without fear or favour?... Unfortunately, it has been severely vilified, with the Apex Court so denigrated and called by a social commentator as a voter gaggle of useless, purchasable judicial bandits. How did the judiciary get to this level? Why is the whole country on edge for fear of what the public regards as unpredictable judicial pronouncements? There must be a rethink and a hard reset. If the people we have sworn to defend have lost confidence, there is a problem that must be addressed.”

Chief Justice of the Federation, Kayode Ariwooola, a few weeks ago, attempted the thrashing of any nexus between judgment and public opinion. While administering oath on 23 newly appointed judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Ariwoola sternly warned judicial officers on the need for impartiality in the dispensation of their duties, stating implicitly that public opinion cannot supersede the constitution in any judgment. In the presidential election appeal at the Supreme Court last week, it was apparent that the court harkened to this warning of MiLord. The court sounded the death-knell of public opinion. Ariwoola didn’t believe that there was connect of any kind between the opinion of the people and redemption of society which law, broken into its brass-tacks, represents.

So, when judges deliver their judgments, do they bother about public opinion? Do public opinions sway them? Should it sway them?

Political science gives a prime place to public opinion due to the massive role it plays in government and politics. It gives major attention to the influence public opinion has on the development of government policy. Some political scientists even regard public opinion as equivalent to the national will. In its raw form, public opinion is primarily a communication from the citizens to their government. This is why, in autocratic regimes, such opinions are only expressed in a clandestine manner, if it is expressed at all, but is majorly suppressed. Jeremy Bentham so venerated public opinion that he called it "the tribunal of public opinion" which he believed could prevent misrule and suggest legislative reforms. Philosophers of the enlightenment period believed so much in the efficacy of public opinion that they demanded public communication of governmental acts.

Since Ariwooola made that distinction, public opinion will seem to have suffered mortal blows in the hands of those who eke out their daily meal through canvassing public opinions. 

Arise Tv duo, Reuben Abati and Rufai Oseni have literally been at professional loggerheads, sparring in a mini rumble on the place of public opinion society. While Oseni was averse to emergency morticians proclaiming the death of considered views of the people, Abati appears to have lent the rabble a hearse to wheel the mercilessly pummeled public opinion to its graveyard. On Friday, in the duo’s final autopsy session on the cadaver of the opinion of the people, Abati had said: “Public opinion is kilometers and kilometers away from law. Law is not about emotions and sentiments…and we have the authority par Niki Tobi JSC in Atiku Abubakar v Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who said that the only clientele of law is the law and not public opinion. People may express what they like at beer parlours. We saw that yesterday as their Lordships dealt only with the law and qua law… the judges, yes they are not going to follow your opinion, they follow technicality of the law. This matter is now rex judicata, settled in law.” Abati even chose to tread the unenviable gas-lighting path that traducers of public opinion walk severally. This he did by equating public opinion to alcohol-induced views at shebeens. The way he argued it, you would think that public opinion was a demon whose spirit needed to be exorcised.

To drive home the metaphysical powers inherent in opinions of the collective, otherwise called public opinion, popular Yoruba Sakara music exponent, S. Aka, alias Baba Wahidi, narrated an instructive fable in his Itan Agilinti album. He must have sung it in the 1960s. Aka was a traditional songster who dominated the musical stratosphere of the Western region of the 1950s, 60s and even up till the late 1980s. He was an Egba of Abeokuta in Ogun State and bitterly rivaled another notable musician who sang same genre of traditional music, Yusuff Olatunji. Aka’s songs were steeped in the tradition and culture of the people of Yorubaland, with occasional tinges of his ancestral Egba dialect jutting out of his rhythms. Proverbs, incantations, wise-sayings and ways of life of the people were dished out in a medley of praise-singing and excoriation of the evils of society.

In this particular album, Aka told the story of a king who, in appreciation of a favour he did to a renowned medicine man, was given a small talismanic gourd. Whenever he had the gourd as amulet around his waist, so said the medicine man, he would hear clearly the exchanges between animals, including domestic ones in the palace. One day, a sheep strolled into his hearing distance in the palace, ostensibly on a visit to another sheep within. Distinctly, the king heard the visiting sheep tell the one in the palace that in the next seven days, the king’s palace would be totally razed down. On the prompting of this revelation, that night, the king evacuated all his costly belongings from the palace. On the said seventh day, the palace was in total flames as the sheep predicted. When the whole town thronged the palace to commiserate with the king, they asked, pleasantly bewildered, how the palace was bereft of any belongings at the time of the inferno. Did the king have premonition that disaster was afoot?

A few weeks after, the same sheep strolled into the palace and in conversation with his pal, revealed to him that the king’s priceless horse would die in the next seven days. As he did earlier, the king pretended he hadn’t heard this foretelling and the second day, sold the horse. Exactly the seventh day of the foretelling, the horse suddenly died in the hands of its purchaser. A couple of weeks after, the sheep again came into the palace and told his peer that exactly seven days thence, the king himself would die. Exasperated and terribly worried, the king, unable to feign understanding of the two sheep’s conversation, moved closer to them and asked what he could do to avert his impending death. The sheep however told him that, no matter what he did, he would surely die. And on the seventh day, the town erupted in mourning as the king kissed the canvass. The morale of the fable was that, if the king had allowed the previous calamities he averted to befall him, they would have acted as propitiations for his life. The animals told him that in the commiserating words of a multitude of the people lay redemption from colossal tragedies.

Yes, public opinion has mutated from its erstwhile kingly role to the place of scorn it currently occupies. Today, it is a dirty and filthy rag which is often held as the province of charlatans. In ancient times, this was not so. First, what is public opinion? Hans Speier, in his Historial development of public opinion, defined it as “free and public communication from citizens to their government on matters of concern to the nation.” In the words of some scholars, public opinion is a synthesis of the views of all or a certain segment of society. In his 1918 writing, American sociologist, Charles Horton Cooley said that public opinion comes from interaction and not as a broad public agreement, while the political scientist, V. O. Key defined public opinion as “opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed.” In the same vein, American editorialist, 

Walter Lippman, in a treatise published in 1922, said that the mystery enjoyed by public opinion was given it by democracies. In decades, public opinion has become a powerful force across human spheres of existence like culture, fashion, literature and the arts.

In his valedictory of Friday, Dattijo made a significant dissection of the public perception of the judiciary and his conclusion was that the public was right about some of its opinions on judicial interventions and judgments. Dattijo stood on the side of public opinion. So why would Abati and Ariwoola pour such scorn on public opinion as if it was a filthy rag?

There have always been struggles between law, morality and public opinion on whether there is a relationship between them. Between law and morality, while both regulate behaviours of human beings, there has not been any consensus on their relationship. While a school of thought believes in their mutual independence, another believes they are interdependent and yet another, they are mutually exclusive. The argument is, how does any law that claims to regulate human behavior not be in harmony with moral norms? The law must be such that safeguards the welfare and good of humanity and this can only happen if the law sits firmly on a strong moral template.

While Ariwoola may be right to some extent in his submission 

that judgment takes no cognizance of public opinion but the technicalities expressed by the books and the constitution, Abati was not right in his claim that “public opinion is kilometers and kilometers away from law.”

Indeed, in their literature, there is a close affinity between law and public opinion, with public opinion being seen as a major source of law. This is because it is almost an impossibility for the legislature to pass any law, for usage by the government, without basing such on public opinion and the demands of the people. In the same vein, public opinion has been held to be the guardian of rights and freedom and this is so because the rights and freedom enjoyed by the public require adequate protection and these guardians are opinion moulders. No law can operate without public opinion in a democracy and in fact, as underscore of their Siamese relationship, the legislature has been held to be a very important source of law. This legislature is a body of representatives of the people who are expected to be mirror of their opinions in the parliament. In practice, and according to P S. Mathur, “Law should be not firmly rooted in public opinion but should be a little ahead of it”. He was most probably giving heeds to German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who described public opinion as “containing both truth and falsehood” saying that it was the task of the great man to distinguish between the two.

Dattijo’s valedictory is a restoration of a pride of place to public opinion. First, in the earlier valedictory of Adefope-Okojie he cited, that public opinion scion was Saturday Tribune’s inimitable columnist, Farooq Kperogi. Kperogi’s submission that the Supreme Court had become “a voter gaggle of useless, purchasable judicial bandits” was the public opinion that went viral when the Supreme Court affirmed that former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan had won an election he didn’t participate in. For Adefope-Okojie to cite the opinion of Kperogi is an affirmation of agreement with his submission. For Dattijo to now cull it is an affirmation that that greatly vilified opinion of the public space also retains some weight of pride.

Dattijo had deliberated on further issue of “the unpredictable nature of recent decisions of the courts as well” and that “a number of respected senior members of the bar inter alia, citing the Lawan, the former President of the Senate and the Imo governorship appeals, claim that decisions of even the apex court have become unpredictable. It is difficult to understand how and where, by these decisions, the judicial pendulum swings. It was not so before, they contend”. The Learned Justice even went a step further: “In some quarters, the view is strongly held that filth and intrigues characterize the institution these days! Judges are said to be comfortable in companies they never would have kept in the past. It is being insinuated that some judicial officers even campaign for the politicians. It cannot be more damnifying!”

You will recall that the judicial affirmations of the elections of Lawan and the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, in the court of public opinion, irretrievably dimmed the respect and reverence accorded by Nigerians to the apex court. That public opinion that is said not to matter has since removed the rug of legitimacy from Uzodinma as governor. He is mocked as “Supreme Court governor” and I hear that the widespread discontents against his government arose out of the belief that the governorship must have been arranged. If someone didn’t participate in a senatorial election but the apex court awarded him the election, all in the name of technicality, what kind of opinion should the society have about that person and the institution that awarded him that seat? If another one came fourth in a gubernatorial election but a court, which claims it is insulated from public opinion, ordered that the person should be sworn in as governor, what should public opinion say about such a court?

Then Dattijo raised issues about quadrupling finances of the apex court and asked repeatedly what happened to the billions that accrued to the court. You didn’t need any soothsayer to know that MiLord was lamenting the existence of a mysterious funnel at the Supreme Court that drains the monies into unseen pockets. For the judiciary to even have a modicum of moral right to try any case of fraud or corruption subsequently, it must answer all questions posed by Datijjo on what happened to those billions.

The retired justice’s recourse to the Holy Quran and its precepts about morality and the path to tread speaks volume about the nexus between the voice of opinion of the people and the voice of God. Public opinion stands for justice, just as the Holy writ enjoins the people. Technicalities of law do less of justice. In the words of Dattijo’s quotation from the Quran, “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves or your parents or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts) lest you may avoid justice, and if you distort your evidence or refuse to give it, verily Allah is ever well a Acqunted with what you do.” Chapter 9 Verse 71, he said, requires that believers, both men and women, do what is just and forbid what is evil.

With the revelations by Datijjo, and the hubris of self-righteousness that surround the Nigerian judiciary’s dispensation of justice, it is becoming crystal clear that Nigeria’s Lady Justice is fascinated by the jungle. When law or judgments of the court become impervious to public opinion, they turn into purely mechanistic and absolutely mechanical rituals, lacking human blood flowing in their veins. To divorce public opinion from judgments equals the technicality that is today the provenance of the Nigerian judiciary. That provenance breeds the public perception that the Nigerian judiciary is home of miscarriage of justice.

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it ~ Proverbs 10:22.

Introduction:

Undoubtedly, divine blessing is one of the deepest mysteries of godliness. Certainty, Jacob knew this when he insisted on being divinely blessed, refusing to let God go until he got the blessing (Genesis 32:26-29). Even though, he obtained it at a cost of great personal pain, his story changed forever after that experience. We all must practically understand the principles of divine blessing and seek to enjoy it in full.

Greatness is more than success. Whereas success is limited to a particular area of one’s life at a particular time, greatness is a wholesome phenomenon that combines several successes, bringing public recognition and personal fulfillment. Greatness is an immeasurable state of achievement in life.

You are not truly great until some other people become blessed through you (Genesis 12:2). This is what I call significance. Notwithstanding, it is the blessing of God that attracts all the diverse and assorted gifts of grace to the blessed (James 1:17).

Perhaps certain things are not working for you the way you expect presently. Don’t be worried about that; what should concern you is whether or not you are connected to the blessings of the Lord. Mercy surrounds the blessed of the Lord; therefore, no matter what happens, they win and laugh at last (Romans 9:16).

A blessed man is by far greater than a rich man. A rich man is like a lake, but a blessed man is like an ocean. A rich man may become poor and may never fully recover again. But, if the possessions of a blessed man are taken away from him, as with a mysterious magnet, more possessions will be pulled to him again.

In the days of his tribulations, it looked like Job was finished. He lost everything: his family, friends, health, wealth, peace, etc. He became like a man forsaken and forgotten. He was troubled on every side, and the enemy thought, “yes, I got him”. But, God’s Mercy said No! In the end, he got double for all his troubles, because he was a blessed man (Job 1:10; 42:10-17).

Understanding the Nature of the Blessing

Blessing is a divine empowerment to succeed in life (Deuteronomy 8:18). It can rest upon a person or a group of people, an environment, a place, an organization, a thing or things.

Basically, to bless is to declare God’s goodness upon an entity, but real blessing is more than mere words. It is an invocation that comes with the power to accomplish it, especially when spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The initiative and the final control over divine blessings resides with God. No man can live independent of Him; He is involved in every effectual bestowal of gifts upon sons of men, both temporal and spiritual. Hence, the whole creation depends upon God for its continual existence and function.

The blessing of God is an indispensable accompaniment of great destinies. God called Abraham and commanded him to leave his father's house for a strange land. Knowing that it would be virtually impossible for a seventy-five year old man to make it out there alone, He blessed him.

There is nothing like “too late” for a blessed man. When you are blessed of the Lord, everywhere you go, sooner or later, springs will flow in the desert, the barren land will become fruitful, the crooked ways will become straight, because you are divinely equipped to succeed (Isaiah 40:4)!

The blessing from God is full, rich, unstoppable and void of sorrow. It cannot be revoked even by the man who invoked it (Genesis 27:33). And, it is always a misadventure for anyone to curse the man whom God has blessed (Genesis 12:3; Deuteronomy 23:5). Please remember Balaam (Numbers 24:1).

At this stage, it is very important to note that all true believers in Christ Jesus are under a strong positional blessing, capable of attracting tremendous benefits (Ephesians 1:3). Yes, incredible provisions are made available to us, just awaiting our faith to pull through to partake of its gracious benefits (Galatians 3:9).

God had generously heaped His blessings upon His people so we can reflect His original intentions (Genesis 1:28). His blessing empowers us to the utmost bounds, equipping us to possess the gates of our enemies and to make us ever relevant to many generations (Genesis 22:17-18).

One incredible truth in this regard is that the blessing of God is captured and stored in the gene of the blessed, and it could even be retrieved by faith to empower his offspring after him (Psalms 112:2). In other words, all things being equal, the children of the blessed are blessed (Proverbs 20:7)! Alleluia!!

How To Be Rooted In the Blessing for a Distinctive You

God does not struggle to bless; the power is always there to accomplish His purposes in the lives of men. He said to Solomon in a dream, ‘I have also given thee’ (1Kings 3:13). And that was it. The man lived and died without any equal among men in his time. We must tap into this mercy pool by aligning with its required processes.

The first and the most important step to accessing the blessing of God is to become a child of God by repenting and believing in Jesus Christ (John 1:12). That puts the mark of Christ upon you, and most amazingly, it also recodes your spiritual gene for divinity to  pattern it after Christ’s (Galatians 6:17; Matthew 1:1).

Secondly, you need to recognize, receive and embrace the messenger that God has appointed for you (2 Chronicles 20:20; Hosea 12:13; 1 Samuel 22:23). The general rule is: “the less is blessed of the better” (Hebrews 7:17). In other words, “father-figures” have the positional authority to bless.

“Father-figures” are persons for whose sake God will act to bless other people. Isaac was blessed for the sake of Abraham (Genesis 26:24). And, priests are divinely authorized to bless (Deuteronomy 10:8).

They include your biological or spiritual parents and everyone who has rule over you to guide, instruct, direct, train or teach you in physical or spiritual matters that relate to your progress, growth and development in life.

Meanwhile, as humans, the souls that will courier God’s blessing may require some kind of “excitation”, as it was with Isaac when he blessed his son Jacob after eating the venison (Genesis 27:1-29). The words of a blessing may produce no positive effect unless the spirit-man is engaged (1Corinthians 14:16).

This is how it works: when a great or an anointed soul is made happy, it receives energy (or is provoked) to release the blessing. In that state of enthusiasm, particularly when the soul senses an atmosphere of abiding love, encouragement, care, loyalty and obedience, it releases the blessing (1 Samuel 22:23).

Finally, yield to God’s opinions and show deference to His kingdom matters as a child of God, and you will attract the unassailable blessing of the Most High. Everything you are striving to get is available in a seed form. Obey God, and pour out; serve, give, encourage others, evangelize, and the blessing will suddenly whelm up in your life (Job 36:11).

No one can truly stand out without sacrifice. If nothing burns, nothing moves. When you are mature enough to channel your sacrifice towards God and the demands of His kingdom, you will start to enjoy the power of His Invisible Hand (Matthew 6:33-34).

The blessing of God terminates miseries and woes in the lives of the blessed, and it expressly aborts every satanic operation against them. When a man is divinely blessed, he is blessed, irrespective of who dislikes him or what demerits him. Friends, may you receive the blessing today, and be empowered evermore for God’s glory, in Jesus’ Name. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop 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

Are you happy? What is the basis of your happiness? Is it based on something you have? Is it based on a situation or circumstance? Beware, because that is building a house on the sand. When the storm comes, and the wind blows, great will be the fall of your house.

The Bible says the basis of our joy should be Christ. Jesus makes all the difference between an abundant life and a life of intermittent misery, depression, and dejection.

Eternal Life

The natural man defines life by material possessions. When people are making money, they are said to be making a living. Therefore, some go so far as to commit suicide for lack of financial resources. Others define their life by their job, marital status, educational background, or social status.

But God defines life by Himself because He is the author of life. God has life in Himself: “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.” (John 5:26).

God is eternal. He is the “ancient of days” who lives forever. (Daniel 7:9). Therefore, God says only he who has God has life: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12).

If you have God, you have a life that cannot be lost. Therefore, your joy must be exclusively in God and in things of God. The psalmist says God is our “exceeding joy.” (Psalm 43:4).  When barren Hannah finally had a child, she did not rejoice in Samuel; she rejoiced in the Lord. (1 Sam 2:1-10).  As a matter of fact, immediately Samuel was weaned, she gave him up and gave him back to the Lord.

Temporal works

What are those things that give you pleasure? What is the joy of your heart? What is it that you can look back on in your old age with satisfaction that you have achieved? Moses prayed: “Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90:17).

What happens if that husband you are so devoted to leaves you? What happens if those wonderful children of yours die in a car crash? What happens if those wonderful houses you built are destroyed in an earthquake? The truth, dear Moses, is that God only establishes the work of His own hands: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1).

On one occasion when Jesus was leaving the temple, His disciples decided to show him the glories of the temple. But He who knows the excellent glories of heaven can hardly be impressed with the vainglories of this miserable world. Therefore, Jesus said to them: “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:1-2).

God cannot establish the work of a man’s hands unless his works are the works of God. The people of God are those who have rested from their own labours. (Revelation 14:13). Christ for them is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), and they have entered into His rest.

Everlasting joy

Every testimony in the life of a believer is a revelation of Jehovah. It is in him and in him alone that we are to rejoice. Paul says: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

It is significant that Paul wrote this to the Philippians while he was in jail. He was incarcerated and yet he asked that people should rejoice in the Lord always. Then he repeats it again for added emphasis.

This is because the man who rejoices only in Christ cannot be discouraged. He cannot go into depression. For him to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21).  It is heads he wins and tails he is victorious.

If you rejoice in the Lord, you can do so always. The Lord does not change. He is not good today and bad tomorrow. He is not kind today and mean tomorrow. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8).

But, if you rejoice in anything or in anyone outside of the Lord, you cannot do so always. The joy of the world is transient; it does not last. The same thing that brought you joy will bring you grief sooner than later. But the blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. (Proverbs 10:22).

Bed temperate

As a result, the believer should be positive at all times. If you have received the gospel, you have received the good news that can never become bad news. To the pure all things are pure. Titus 1:15). Love believes all things and hopes all things. (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Paul recognised that his afflictions were actually in furtherance of the gospel. Many of his jailers gave their lives to Christ.

So, what should we do? Thank God for earthly things, but please do not feed your soul on them. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven. (Luke 10:20). Enjoy the things of this world but do not let them get into your heart. Do not set your heart on them. Reserve your heart for the Lord. You cannot be a citizen of the kingdom of God and continue to thirst for the things of the world:

“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3).

Nothing else but Christ should matter to the believer. Only Christ is needful. Nothing else is of any significance whatsoever, save Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2). That is why God, in His favour of life, has made Jesus our life, that we may have a life that cannot be lost.

Rejoice in the Lord always, confident that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:39).

But if Christ is not everything to you, you can be sure that what you consider to be something will be taken away from you. Jesus says: “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42).

Christ cannot be taken away from the believer. If the Lord is truly your shepherd, then you shall not want. (Psalm 23:1).

Tonic for the soul

The gospel gives the believer a totally new perspective on life. While it might not change his outward condition, it should have a salutary effect on his state of mind. It is not so much about saving a man’s life as it is about saving his soul. Therefore, it refreshes the soul even if it might not refresh the body. Received in prison, on death row, in affliction, or even in bereavement, the gospel provides great comfort.

Thanks to the gospel, sorrow no longer has a basis in the believer. Since Jesus has borne our grief and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4), we no longer have any grounds to be sorrowful. Sin is the only legitimate cause of sorrow in the world. Being hell-bound is the only legitimate cause for grief.

The principal problem of life is not, as many presume, lack of a job, money, or means. The principal problem is sin. Once Jesus dealt conclusively with the sin problem, he declared: “it is finished.”  Jesus did not come to provide jobs, put money in people’s pockets, or find husbands for wives. He came to reconcile man back to God through the forgiveness of sins.

Think of something that gave you a great deal of joy. It could be that you bought a new car or a new dress, or you built your own house or got an excellent job. How long did that joy last? Was it a sustaining joy? Has the joy of that acquisition or achievement not dimmed already? The truth is that happiness only happens occasionally. The joy of the world only lasts for so long. It soon diminishes and dies.

Therefore, Jesus warns: “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (John 6:27).

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Scientists have witnessed brain patterns in dying patients that may correlate to commonly reported "near-death" experiences (NDEs) such as lucid visions, out-of-body sensations, a review of one's own life, and other "dimensions of reality," reports a new study. The results offer the first comprehensive evidence that patient recollections and brain waves point to universal elements of NDEs. During an expansive multi-year study led by Sam Parnia, an intensive care doctor and an associate professor in the department of medicine at NYU Langone Health, researchers observed 567 patients in 25 hospitals around the world as they underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after suffering cardiac arrest, most of which were fatal.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) brain signals captured from dozens of the patients revealed that episodes of heightened consciousness occurred up to an hour after cardiac arrest. Though most of the patients in the study were sadly not resuscitated by CPR, 53 patients were brought back to life. Of the survivors, 11 patients reported a sense of awareness during CPR and six reported a near-death experience. Parnia and his colleagues suggest that the transition from life to death can trigger a state of disinhibition in the brain that "appears to facilitate lucid understanding of new dimensions of reality -- including people's deeper consciousness -- all memories, thoughts, intentions and actions towards others from a moral and ethical perspective," a finding with profound implications for CPR research, end-of-life care, and consciousness, among other fields, according to a new study published in Resuscitation. [...]

"One of the things that was unique about this project is that this was the first time ever where scientists had put together a method to examine for signs of lucidity and consciousness in people as they're being revived by looking for brain markers, or brain signatures of consciousness, using an EEG device as well as a brain oxygen monitor," Parnia explained. "Most doctors are taught and believe that the brain dies after about five or 10 minutes of oxygen deprivation," Parnia said. "One of the key points that comes out of this study is that that is actually not true. Although the brain flatlines after the heart stops, and that happens within seconds, it doesn't mean that it's permanently damaged and [has] died. It's just hibernating. What we were able to show is that actually, the brain can respond and restore function again, even after an hour later, which opens up a whole window of opportunity for doctors to start new treatments." Indeed, the study reports that "near-normal/physiological EEG activity (delta, theta, alpha, beta rhythms) consistent with consciousness and a possible resumption of a network-level of cognitive and neuronal activity emerged up to 35-60 minutes into CPR. This is the first report of biomarkers of consciousness during CA/CPR."

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