WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Kharkiv struck by missiles after Ukraine launches mass drone attack on Russia

At least 47 people, including five children, were injured on Sunday after Russian missiles struck a shopping mall and events complex in Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv, officials said.

Earlier in the day, Russia said Kyiv had launched one of the biggest drone attacks against it since the full-scale war began, targeting power plants and an oil refinery, while Moscow's forces made further gains towards a key town in eastern Ukraine.

The Kharkiv attack prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to renew calls on allies to allow Kyiv to fire Western-supplied missiles deeper into enemy territory and reduce the military threat posed by Russia.

The fighting comes at a critical juncture in the two-and-a-half year conflict. Russia is pressing an offensive in eastern Ukraine while trying to expel Ukrainian forces that broke through its western border in a surprise incursion on Aug. 6.

Last week, Russia pounded Ukraine with its heaviest airstrikes of the war, hitting targets including energy facilities.

Moscow, which denies targeting civilians, says damaging Ukraine’s energy system is a legitimate military goal. Its drone and missile barrages have killed thousands of civilians since the conflict began in February 2022.

Ukraine, with a rapidly expanding domestic drone industry, has stepped up its own attacks on Russian energy, military and transport infrastructure.

Kyiv is also pressing the United States and other allies for permission to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage inside Russia and hit Moscow's abilities to attack Ukraine.

"All the necessary forces of the world must be brought in to stop this terror," Zelenskiy said on his Telegram channel, in response to the Kharkiv attack that Ukrainian officials said involved at least 10 missiles.

"This does not require extraordinary forces, but enough courage on the part of the leaders - courage to give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself."

In Kharkiv, rescue workers and volunteers carried injured civilians to ambulances outside the shopping complex. Shattered glass and debris were strewn across the ground and people fled to a metro station for safety.

Earlier, Russian officials said air defence units had destroyed 158 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, and that debris caused fires at the Moscow Oil Refinery and at the Konakovo Power Station in the neighbouring Tver region.

Kyiv has yet to comment on the drone barrage. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukraine's air attacks.

RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR DOCTRINE

Zelenskiy said that last week alone Russia had used 160 missiles, 780 guided aerial bombs and 400 attack drones against cities and troops across Ukraine.

He called on Telegram for "a decision on long-range strikes on missile launch sites from Russia, destruction of Russian military logistics, joint shooting down of missiles and drones".

Kyiv's allies are wary of how Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond if their weapons were used against targets far inside Russian territory.

Russia's TASS state news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying Moscow would change its nuclear doctrine in response to the West's actions over the conflict. He did not specify what the changes would entail.

Russia's existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a decree by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, says it may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.

Russia, which accuses the West of using Ukraine as a proxy to wage war against it, has said before it is considering changes.

"The work is at an advanced stage, and there is a clear intent to make corrections", TASS cited Ryabkov as saying.

Some hawks among Russia's military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to "sober up" Russia's enemies in the West.

ADVANCES IN EASTERN UKRAINE

In eastern Ukraine, where the heaviest fighting of the war is concentrated, Russian forces continued to advance towards Pokrovsk, a vital military huband transport link to towns and cities further north.

Ukraine had hoped that its surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched last month would force Russia to re-deploy troops and take pressure off besieged forces in the east, but so far it does not appear to have had this effect.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces had captured two more settlements in Donetsk region and were "continuing to advance deep into the enemy defences". One of them, Ptyche, is 21 km (13 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk.

At least three people were killed and nine wounded in Russian shelling of Kurakhove, a town around 35 km south of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine's army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, described the situation as "difficult" around Russia's main line of attack in eastern Ukraine.

Also on Sunday, Ukrainian forces shelled Russia's southern Belgorod region, injuring 11 people, including two children who were seriously hurt, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia delivers 15 precision strikes at key Ukrainian energy sites, airfields over week

Russia delivered one massive and 14 combined strikes by precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at key Ukrainian energy sites and airfields over the past week in the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"On August 24-30, the Russian Armed Forces delivered one massive and 14 combined strikes by long-range precision weapons, Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles and attack unmanned aerial vehicles, hitting vital Ukrainian energy and aerodrome infrastructure sites, fuel depots, arsenals of Western-made air-launched weapons and artillery munitions," the ministry said in a statement.

The strikes also targeted UAV production workshops, naval drone storage facilities, temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian nationalist formations and foreign mercenaries, it specified.

Ukraine’s army loses 16,910 troops in all frontline areas over week

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 16,910 troops in battles with Russian forces in all the frontline areas over the past week, according to the latest data on the special military operation released by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The latest data show that the Ukrainian army suffered roughly 3,580 casualties from Russia’s Battlegroup North, more than 3,450 casualties from the Battlegroup West, over 4,840 casualties from the Battlegroup South, 3,720 casualties from the Battlegroup Center, 860 casualties from the Battlegroup East and 460 casualties from the Battlegroup Dnepr.

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicts 3,580 casualties on Ukrainian army over week

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted roughly 3,580 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed four enemy multiple launch rocket systems, including a US-made HIMARS launcher in its area of responsibility over the week, the ministry reported.

"During the week, Battlegroup North units continued destroying Ukrainian armed formations in the Kursk Region. Operational/tactical aircraft and army aviation helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and artillery inflicted losses on personnel and equipment of units from four mechanized brigades, a tank brigade and two air assault brigades of the Ukrainian army and three territorial defense brigades. Russian forces also thwarted the enemy’s attempts to deploy reserves from the territory of Ukraine," the ministry said.

In the Volchansk and Liptsy directions, the Battlegroup North units struck formations of a Ukrainian marine infantry brigade, two territorial defense brigades and two National Guard brigades, it specified.

"Over the week, the enemy’s losses in the Battlegroup North area of responsibility amounted to 3,580 personnel, six tanks, 181 armored combat vehicles and 103 motor vehicles. Russian forces also destroyed four multiple launch rocket systems, including a US-made HIMARS rocket launcher, 35 field artillery guns and 12 electronic warfare and counterbattery radar stations," the ministry said.

Russia’s Battlegroup West liberates two communities over week

Russia’s Battlegroup West liberated the settlements of Stelmakhovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic and Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region over the past week, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup West units liberated the settlements of Stelmakhovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic and Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region as a result of well-coordinated operations," the ministry said.

 

Reuters/Tass

Seven years after his emergence as Nigeria’s military Head of State, in the third quarter of 1974, Yakubu Gowon placed a telephone call to the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Taslim Elias. The subject matter of the call, according to Atanda Fatayi Williams, then a Justice of the Supreme Court (and future CJN) himself, with whom the Chief Justice discussed the matter, was a complaint by the Head of State “about the manner in which the courts in the country were being used for the indiscriminate swearing of affidavits in which allegations of corruption were made against public functionaries.”

Gowon’s agonistes had their origins in events in his home state, Benue-Plateau (as it was then known). First, he had been forced to let go of a trusted minister from his state, Joseph Tarka, after one Godwin Daboh Adzuana deposed to an affidavit with quite damaging allegations of corruption against the minister. Gowon’s call to the CJN followed in the wake of another affidavit sworn to this time by Aper Aku (who later became the first elected governor of Benue State in 1979), accusing the then military governor of Benue-Plateau State and Gowon’s relation, Joseph Gomwalk, of what Fatayi Williams later described as “corruption on a vast scale.”

Rather than address the allegations of corruption, the General sought the help of his Chief Justice to shut down the disclosures. In the then incumbent, Gowon found a Chief Justice who was willing to go beyond the call of the law to fulfill the importuning of his Chief of State. Following consultations with his peers at the Supreme Court, CJN Elias convened a meeting of the Advisory Judicial Committee (AJC), as the apex mechanism for judicial governance was then called. Led by the CJN, the membership of the AJC included the Attorney-General of the Federation, all the Chief Justices (as they were then called) and Grand Khadis of the States, as well as the President of the Federal Revenue Court.

This high judicial conclave decided unanimously that “except in connection with proceedings already pending, the courts would no longer allow affidavits to be sworn in court by aggrieved citizens.” Public reaction was immediate and understandably visceral to a decision which was unconcealed in its design to instrumentalise the judiciary in order to hide inconvenient facts on behalf of the regime in power. To make matters worse, the AJC could not cite any legal authority or basis for its decision. The members were collectively the highest judicial figures in the country and their word represented the law, or so they thought. It was abuse of judicial power on a colossal scale. Judicial authority was shot and it is arguable that it never recovered.

When a new military regime overthrew General Gowon in July 1975, its narrative and rationale harked back to the corruption allegations and the desperation of the regime to procure a cover-up with the ex-cathedraassistance of the judiciary high command. An early casualty of the new regime was Chief Justice Elias, whom it forced to abdicate. It also took the hacksaw to judicial tenure, retiring senior judges compulsorily.

Then, as now, the judiciary in Nigeria has been the author of its own defenestration. The real scandal then was that the decision to foreclose disclosure of inconvenient facts in affidavits occurred without dissent among the AJC. It showed the regimental and cloistered tendencies of the herd at their finest, even one comprising people claiming to be learned.

The best that can be said of the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, is that he well and truly defanged the judiciary. When he was not in Port Harcourt cavorting with Nyesom Wike and his Group of Five Governors so-called, he was in Abuja dreaming us schemes to jump his next available family member or political satrap into a judicial sinecure. The unanimity of sentiment at his departure went beyond shame-faced relief.

Monday Phillips Ekpe writes delicately that the judiciary that Ariwoola left behind made a habit of “rubbishing its own touted image” with “embarrassing and rampant unpredictability of judgments.” Onikekpo Braithwaite complains less delicately of a judiciary overcome by “mounting allegations of corruption, as well as the menace of conflicting judgments.” The Board of Editors of the Punchnewspaper sadly acknowledge the reality of a judiciary characterised by “pervasive corruption” and of courts which “have become houses of rot and victims of state capture…. At 75 per cent, the judiciary and the Independent National Electoral Commission have the lowest public trust among Nigerians.”

On the back of this chastening diagnosis, many senior lawyers have stepped in with a rich and telling bouquet of recommendations for the new CJN, running the gamut from the platitudinous to the patronising, and everything in between. Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, desires reforms that are both “transformational and radical.” As part of that menu, one of his later successors, Augustine Alegeh, wants attention to “delays in the dispensation of justice and the uncertainty of the judgments of our courts.”

These references to “uncertainty” in or “conflicting”  judgments are coinages deployed by lawyers to avoid saying that some judgments are corrupt on their face. That, sadly, is the state of the courts that the new Chief Justice inherits. Indeed, a panel of the Court of Appeal has recently been constrained to describe as “scandalous,” a High Court shielding former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, from criminal proceedings.

But that is only a tip of the proverbial iceberg. In this state of transition in the highest judicial office in the land, three words of caution are useful.

First, a CJN in search of a legacy needs clear priorities. Many of the suggestions to the new Chief Justice focus on institutional or administrative re-design. In reality, however, the principal problem that ails Nigeria’s judicial system is that the guardrails and incentives for ethical judicial service have been destroyed by a concert of senior judicial figures, senior lawyers and senior politicians. Reversing this needs a new coalition for public good in the judiciary. Without a re-engineering of the incentive structure, every effort at institutional re-design is bound to collapse. That begins with attention to appointment, preferment, accountability and discipline. Restoring consequences for judicial malfeasance will be key.

Second, a reverse engineering of the political capture of the Nigerian judicial system is essential. Evidence of this political capture is seen daily in the implausible decisions and improbable orders that issue in most cases of partisan political salience; in the speed with which such cases are assigned priority, to the exclusion of the regular judicial docket; and in the improbable consistency in the line-up of judicial actors involved in these judicial concatenations. If politicians find themselves regularly before courts that are no longer beholden to their blandishments, they may be forced to rethink their approach to politics.

Third, a CJN who desires a constructive legacy must know whom to avoid. With some exceptions – such as the aforementioned Olisa Agbakoba and Augustine Alegeh – many senior lawyers who are now crawling out of the woodworks were nowhere to be seen or heard from when the immediate past CJN was busy wreaking havoc. If anything, some of them could be described with some justification as having been part of his enablers. Much of what emanates from these kinds of sources at this time could be at best self-serving. A CJN who desires to succeed needs to seriously avoid occupational intimacy with these kind.

A Chief Justice who seeks to accomplish any of these will encounter challenges. One who desires to accomplish all may even struggle to survive in office. Such could be the extent of the political pushback. But that is why the task of reforming Nigeria’s judicial system is now clearly well beyond the technocratic or professional incest of lawyers and judges. It is now political, and only a Chief Justice willing to enlist citizens in that urgent task can scratch the surface.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Technically, Sophie Riegel didn’t spend a penny starting her side hustle.

She began with items she already had, searching through her closet for old clothing to sell online. After making $200 off her own used clothes, she turned to some of her favorite places to shop: thrift stores.

“I’ve been a thrifter my entire life, because I don’t like spending money,” says Riegel, 23. “I’d much rather spend $5 than $100 on a pair of pants.”

Since April 2020, she’s turned that habit into a lucrative side hustle. Riegel brought in nearly $123,800 in revenue last year reselling items she bought from thrift stores on online marketplaces like eBay, Mercari and Poshmark, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

She’s made more than $192,000 in net profit over the past four years, because her costs are minimal: Riegel estimates she’s spent just over $50,000 on the thrifted clothing she’s sold. Other expenses include shipping costs and gas money for driving from thrift store to thrift store. Online marketplaces keep between 10% and 20% of her sales.

Much of her business’ growth came from her dorm room at Duke University, where she graduated last year with a degree in psychology. She’s pursuing a full-time career as a professional writer, speaker and life coach —  and expects her side hustle to comprise roughly 50% of her income this year, she says.

“I started buying things for $5 to $10, flipping them for $50 to $100,” says Riegel. “That seemed to work really well. I had maybe 200 or so items in my dorm room my sophomore year, and now I have 1,300 items [in a storage unit].”

Here, Riegel discusses the work she put in to turn her love of thrifting into a six-figure annual business, along with tips for anyone else to follow in her footsteps.

Riegel: The biggest thing is you’ve got to have fun with it. If you’re not enjoying it, don’t do it.

Start with what you know the most about. If you know a lot about clothing, start with that. It can be really easy to just buy a lot — that’s the fun part — but it doesn’t sell if you don’t list it. So even if your listing is imperfect, get it up, get it out there, because there’s a market for everything.

Keep learning. If you go in with a mindset of “I already know this stuff, I don’t need any resources,” it’s likely that you won’t do as well as if you went in with the mindset of “This is a great opportunity for me to learn more about myself, about brands, and all of that.”

I followed tons and tons and tons of other resellers on YouTube. I spent hours and hours learning brands, learning how to use all of the platforms. I’ve learned the strategies of each of the stores I go to, and figured out when they put out the new shoes when they do X, Y and Z.

The Goodwills in my area put a new color out every week. So, when I go to those stores, I only look for that color.

How much cash do you need to start a thrifting side hustle?

Factoring in shipping and all of that stuff — obviously, you need to pay for gas — $100 makes sense.

[In terms of the thrifting], you can start with as little as $5. You get one good thing for $5 and you’ve got more money already: $5 turns into $20, turns into $100.

If you start with your own stuff, you need $0.

What are the most important traits someone needs to succeed at this?

You’ve got to be consistent and persistent. Right now, I list 10 to 20 items a day. And because I list every day, things are selling constantly.

You’ve got to be organized. You have to be patient — I’m not very good at that, but I’m working on it.

The biggest thing is: You’ve got to be willing to ask for help when you need it. You don’t have to do this all alone. When I first started, my dad helped me with all of my shipping. He helped me move everything from different storage units. I didn’t have to do it alone because I asked for help.

Do you see yourself expanding your side hustle in the future? What would that look like?

I’m pretty happy with where I am. I do see, in the future, potentially having employees do all of the stuff that I know I don’t want to do — like the shipping, listing and photographing. That would be great. It is a lot of work for one person.

But right now, I wouldn’t change it because I love what I do.

 

CNBC

Yoruba weddings last months, not days. There is a party when families are introduced. A bigger one follows for traditional marriage rites and the presentation, from the groom’s family to the bride’s, of everything from yams to jewellery. Last comes the religious ceremony and a reception. The betrothed can cycle through over ten bespoke outfits during the celebrations. But as a cost-of-living crisis bites, people across Nigeria are learning how to party on the cheap.

For the couple, cramming all these events into a single day is a good start. Even if you insist on the myriad of costume changes, that at least saves on venue fees. Perhaps you do not need Grammy-award-nominated King Sunny Ade to perform his jùjú classics live. A tribute band should sound good enough on the dance floor.

Guests usually buy matching aso ebi (“cloth of the kin”) from the couple’s families. Doing so brings aesthetic cohesion and, crucially, helps raise money to pay for the wedding. But do you really need to buy another pink and royal-blue headtie if you have a mauve and periwinkle set from your nephew’s nuptials last year?

When the waiter takes your order, it may be from a shorter menu. King prawns have been swapped for shrimp. Multiple speciality caterers are no longer the norm. Those hoping to wash everything down with a glass of Moët & Chandon should bring their own.

A chaotic currency redesign last year means cash is hard to come by. So “spraying”, the smothering of celebrants in crisp naira notes as they dance, is less common (a recent high-profile conviction has also reminded Nigerians that the tradition is in fact illegal). Agents with point-of-sales machines will sidle onto the dance floor to help those who still want to offer a discreet financial gift.

In years past, wedding guests would stagger out, weighed down by kettles, coolers, three-tier food steamers and even mobile phones, colourful with stickers bearing the couple’s names. Today, party favours are more likely to be bags of rice, oil and pasta. More modest, but arguably more welcome.

 

The Economist

A building has collapsed in Nigeria’s megacity, Lagos, once every two weeks on average so far this year.

Whereas the commercial cost can be calculated, a figure can never be put on the value of the lives lost underneath the rubble.

The gaps among the buildings, replaced by piles of debris, represent a failure of governance as well as giving rise to allegations of contractors trying to cut corners to save money.

There are regulations, there are maintenance schedules, there are inspectors – but the system does not work.

Those responsible are never held to account, and so nothing ever changes.

Lagos, dubbed by one expert who spoke to the BBC as " the building-collapse capital of Nigeria", has seen at least 90 buildings falling down in the last 12 years, leaving more than 350 people dead, according to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

One of the most notorious incidents was in 2021.

Sunday Femi was just metres away, in the upmarket suburb of Ikoyi, when a 21-storey block of luxury flats under construction collapsed, killing 42 people.

After the loud crashing sound, he was engulfed in dust.

“Like many, I rushed inside trying to see if I could help some of the people trapped. Sadly I knew some of those who died and I think about it every day,” he says, reflecting on what happened nearly three years ago.

The drinks seller had been speaking to some of the construction workers moments before they entered the building site.

He still works nearby and the chatter among the locals often turns to those events and the possible cause.

Metal sheeting protects the site from prying eyes but mounds of broken concrete can still be seen through the gaps in the gate.

Knocking on the entrance to the ill-fated compound, two fierce-looking security guards opened up and said they had instructions not to allow anybody into the premises except state government officials.

Just as the place is sealed to the public so is the official investigation into the collapse – it has been sitting with the state governor since he received it in 2022.

A list of recommendations has reportedly been drawn up by a panel of experts following the investigation but that also has not been made public.

The BBC has repeatedly asked the Lagos state authorities to see the recommendations, and the report into the Ikoyi building collapse, but neither has been made available.

The coroner, however, has had her say and in 2022 she did not hold back.

In a damning judgment on the deaths, Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, attributed the building collapse to the irresponsibility and negligence of the government agencies that were supposed to approve and supervise the plans and construction.

Lagos’s population is booming and is now estimated to stand at more than 20 million.

As the city grows so does the demand for housing and commercial property, and it can sometimes feel like a giant building site with construction going on everywhere.

Before work can begin, plans need to be approved by Lagos state’s Physical Planning Permit Agency. Then inspectors from the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) are supposed to look at the site as well as check the progress at every stage of construction.

And the Standards Organisation of Nigeria should make sure that only suitable building material gets to the market.

But on many occasions the procedures are not followed.

Inside the LASBCA’s offices everything appears calm - there is no sense of the urgency of the problems or challenges it faces.

Spokesperson Olusegun Olaoye acknowledges the criticism but dismisses allegations that officials have been bribed to issue fake certificates and rather blames a lack of resources.

“At the moment we have about 300 building inspectors and supervisors but we are looking to add to that,” he says.

Experts agree that more supervisors are needed.

Muhammad Danmarya, architect and construction expert, says they should number in their thousands.

“Three hundred is just not right for a state like Lagos. Each local government area should have at least 100 inspectors and supervisors and Lagos has 57 of those areas,” he argues.

“There’s always construction going on everywhere you look, so it’s important that inspection and supervision is going on all the time.”

In the absence of that regime across the state, some less scrupulous companies are getting away with violating building codes, using sub-standard materials and employing poorly trained workers – three of the reasons cited for the high frequency of collapses.

“They just come here to pick us up any time they have a job for us and pay us after we are done,” says labourer Habu Isah, who has worked on construction sites for years.

“I have never undergone any training, I just learned everything on the job.”

But even if violations are identified in the wake of a collapse, the state’s building agency does not take any legal action.

“To my knowledge there haven’t been any prosecutions in the past as far as building collapses in Lagos are concerned,” LASBCA’s Olaoye admits.

“I know the statistics are worrying but there are ongoing efforts to halt the trend.”

Alleged political influence is a barrier to pursuing prosecutions.

“If you are connected to people in power, even if you are the culprit in a building collapse case nothing will happen to you,” says a Lagos state politician, who talked to the BBC on the condition of anonymity.

“We’ve seen it so many times, some of the high-profile cases have to do with structures of highly placed people and they are still roaming around freely.

“In Nigeria when you are rich and connected you can avoid problems easily.”

With 19 building collapses already recorded so far this year by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the final total is likely to be the highest in the past decade.

But lessons may still go unlearnt.

The head of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria recently said that the country lacked the capacity to properly investigate what is going on.

“We don’t have the expertise, the equipment, and the resources to do so,” said Sadiq Abubakar.

In the meantime, construction workers and others will carry on paying with their lives.

 

BBC

Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank

Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin.

Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city.

Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.

The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt.

At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank.

The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head.

The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified.

Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis.

In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.

In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement.

The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died.

Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.

Hamas praised what it called a "double heroic operation" in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was "a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation's aggression and targeting of our people and land continue".

The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.

Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation.

Amid the gunfire, armoured bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have ploughed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities.

Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank - under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war - and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.

 

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine launches drones on Moscow, other regions, Russian officials say

Ukraine launched overnight drone attacks on Moscow and several other targets across Russia on Sunday, regional officials said, as Kyiv presses the United States for permission to use allies-supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia.

At least five drones flying towards Moscow were destroyed in the region surrounding the Russian capital, Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in posts on the Telegram messaging app.

Some 26 Ukraine-launched drones were destroyed over the border region of Bryansk in Russia's southwest, the region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram.

More than 10 drones were destroyed over the Voronezh region and several more were downed over Kursk, Lipetsk, Ryazan and Tula regions, governors of the regions said in posts on Telegram.

There were no injuries or damage as a result of the attacks, according to preliminary information. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukraine's air attacks.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

As Ukraine's domestic drone industry grows rapidly, Kyiv has been stepping up its attacks, striking energy, military and transport infrastructure - sectors that are vital to Moscow's war efforts.

Kyiv says, however, that it needs to be allowed to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage inside Russia and impair Moscow's abilities to continue with its relentless attacks on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's senior officials were in Washington last week, appealing to the United States for what Zelenskiy called, "capabilities to truly and fully" protect the country.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missiles wipe out Ukrainian armor column – reports

Russian forces have conducted a coordinated strike against a large gathering of Ukrainian reserve forces across the border from Russia’s Kursk Region, according to new video shared on social media by military bloggers.

Hostilities have been ongoing in the border areas of Russia’s Kursk since Kiev launched a major incursion earlier this month. While Ukrainian forces continue their attempts to push deeper into Russian territory, Moscow has sought to push them back while striking rear targets in Ukraine's adjacent Sumy Region.

On Saturday evening, a new video emerged purportedly showing one such strike targeting a column of Ukrainian reinforcements south of the city of Sumy, approximately 40 kilometers from the Russian border.

Russian surveillance reportedly discovered the enemy's rear reserves earlier in the day but decided to let them accumulate to inflict maximum possible damage, according to the Telegram channel NgP_raZVedka, which first shared the footage.

 

Reuters/RT

Last week, August 27, 2024, was the 39th anniversary of the coup that toppled Muhammadu Buhari, erstwhile GOC 3rd Armored Division of the Nigerian Army. On that day, Fatima Gumsu, daughter of military despot, Sani Abacha, who is also wife of Yobe State governor, Mai Mala-Buni, sparked a debate. It led to a comparative assessment of military autocracy and civilian dictatorship. Gumsu had posted a photograph of her father in full military regalia on Facebook. On the photo, Gumsu merely wrote, “Baba na” – my father – with an emoji of “Love”. In the photo, Abacha was flanked by then Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Babangida, who later became military president; and Joshua Dogonyaro, who announced the palace coup on radio. The trio, who had just seized power, accused Buhari of high-handedness, incompetence and failure "to rejuvenate the economy”. Earlier, on December 31, 1983, all of them had violently brought to a rude halt Nigeria’s Second Republic.

No matter the global stench oozing out of the Abacha name, Gumsu had every right to celebrate her father; after all, back-flipping that celebration, the Yoruba say that every child is a hero in the eyes of their parent (gbogbo omo l’óńjé Jagun l’ójú ìyá è).

One thousand five hundred people commented on Gumsu’s attempt to beatify her generally loathed father. Virtually all the comments were positive, literally submitting that Abacha was worthy to be canonized. While one Ibrahim Musa wrote “Brave patriot General(,) may Allah be pleased with his soul”, one Oladipupo Michael wrote “Cow does not know the value of it’s (sic) tail, until it is cut off,” while a few others wrote: he “was a great man” by a Kene Kenneth, and an Oluwayomi Oyedepo, wrote “RIP sir, it pains me you didn’t kill Balablue, now he is killing everybody.” Generally, however, the comments were reflective of ethno-geographical sentiments, with some delivering their comments in Hausa. So, was it the passage of time that purified Abacha, making him worthy to be made a Canon? Was it ignorance by the respondents? Was it their naivety of the crookedness of military rule? Or, the fact that, successive Nigerian governments have shed democracy of the beautiful people-centric furs that citizens, like Plato, wore on this 5th century Greek city-state of Athens concept?

Perhaps coincidentally, on same August 27, Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, assured Nigerians that the Army would not yield to calls by people he called “powerful interest blocs” to re-enact the infamous hijack of power by Abacha and other military adventurists. He said this in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Lagbaja spoke against the backdrop of recent calls for military intervention in Nigeria, especially during the August 1 to 10 #EndBadGovernance protest. Lagbaja attributed the calls to “young Nigerians who never experienced the era of Nigeria’s extensive military rule” and stated that, with “the image-bashing” the Army received for planning coups since 1966, it “is not poised to lose the new prestige it has painstakingly built in the past 25 years.”

Lagbaja’s homily notwithstanding, Nigeria and indeed Africans, have begun to subject the democratic waves that took hold of Africa in the late 1990s to some interrogations. They place the waves side by side the backsliding into military autocracy in some other African nations in the last two years or so, the grueling poverty and absentee governance in Africa and the clear inability of so-called democratic governments to tame insecurity and hunger. The question they ask is, can what Nigeria/Africa practice today be called democracy? Or, is democracy on the decline? A case study is the current Nigerian government which has made a fatal botch of democratic rule.

Philip Schmitter and Terry Carl, both of Stanford University, in their What democracy is… and is not, (Journal of Democracy, June 1991) attempted to identify what democracy is not. They concluded that democracy is not necessarily a system of regular elections. Such understanding of democracy, they said, is a fallacy because a system of regular elections, rather than democracy, can be better defined as “electoralism”. Democracy is also not majority rule because it could be tyrannical. However, democracy, they submitted, is everything about a most distinctive element called citizens. Leonardo Morlino, in his What is a ‘Good’ Democracy? (Democratization, Vol.11, No.5, 2004) also said that democracy needs liberty and equality, rule of law, accountability, full respect for rights, freedoms and a progressive implementation of greater political, social and economic equality. Larry Diamond, in his Is democracy in decline? (2015) even submitted that there is a strong relationship between economic performance and the survival of democracies. Thus, if the definitions above constitute the irreducible minimum of what democracy is, it may be right to submit that what most parts of Africa practice today is not democracy.

Since it will be Afghanistanism, similar to a dog abandoning its soggy nose and choosing instead to bark at bystanders, (ajá ò rán ti’mú è tí ò gbe…) let us Nigerianize the issues involved. It looks pretty obvious that in the last 25 years, Nigerians have been shortchanged. In the last 15 months specifically, situations have gone direr. Life and living are worse for the people now than under military rule. For example, so much hoopla has been made about the Tinubu government’s absenteeism in the lives of the people. His 15 months in office has triggered about the worst economic downturn in Nigerian history, comparable only to the great depression era. Cost of living is kissing the firmament and Nigerians are convulsing under unprecedented socio-economic seizures and death. Like fiddling Nero, the president and his appointees breakfast in Lisbon, lunch in Paris and dine in the Antarctic. They literally buy mansions in Uranus with people’s wealth. 

Life is searing hot for Nigerians. It reminds one of a 1981-written track by Immortal Peter Tosh called Solution to this Pollution: “Gas gone up/Bus fare gone up/The rent gone up/For meal gone up?/Lighting gone up/The tax gone up/Car parts gone up,.. /Onion gone up/Red beans gone up/Black pepper gone up/Chicken gone up/And the parents dem angry/Cause the pickney (pikin) dem hungry”, he sang, as if his beef was with today’s Nigeria.

More than the economic regression under the Tinubu government, what is of greater concern is its peremptory walk down river road of oppression and strangulation of free speech. It seems envious of the Sani Abachas’ footprints. Under the toga of a Decree 4-like Cybersecurity Act, a regime of repression is gradually being unleashed on Nigerians, chiefly journalists. Fear of the blood-baiting claws of the Villa looms like a pestilence. A few examples abound. Daniel Ojukwu of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) was abducted by the Intelligence Response Team of the IGP, Kayode Egbetokun and detained incommunicado for three days. Segun Olatunji, editor of FirstNews, was arrested by heavily armed military personnel and detained in an underground cell for 14 days on the orders of Femi Gbajabiamila, Tinubu’s CoS. Kasarachi Aniagolu of The Whistler was allegedly arrested for covering an EFCC raid in Abuja. So also Achadu Gabriel of Daybreak Newspaper and Godwin Tsa of The Sun, assaulted and detained for covering a peaceful protest in Abuja. Last Sunday, Adejuwon Soyinka, Regional Editor of The Conversation Africa, was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. The most recent of this media repression is that of Shafi’u Tureta, a social media critic. He was ordered arrested and taken into custody by heavily armed police in Sokoto State. His crime? He posted the viral video of Fatima Aliyu, First Lady of the state’s lavish birthday party.

Contrary to Schmitter, Carl and Morlino’s definition of democracy above, citizens’ welfare takes backstage attention. “Liberty and equality, rule of law, accountability, full respect for rights, freedoms and a progressive implementation of greater political, social and economic equality” seem to be regressing into abeyance. Those who know, claim that the quantum of corruption under this government in the last 15 months is benumbing. However, in the eye of the state, the interest of the Leviathan is more important than the welfare of the people.

Former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, in yesterday’s edition of the Tribune, called Nigerians’ attention to what may be in the offing. With the awesome, raw powers at the disposal of the president, it will be wishful thinking dislodging him in 2027. He said, “Tinubu today is somebody who has a grip on Nigeria, who owes obeisance to nobody in Nigeria, who believes that God made him and he made himself and he is now lording it over the Nigerian people and nobody can challenge him. He was adept at studying the system, manipulating it. He exploited it and he did it well. I wish he could use his sagacity, his talent to help Nigeria’s development. It would have been wonderful. But he is using it negatively. He has everything but not for the development of Nigeria and it is affecting you, it is affecting me.”

The Nigerian state is not only in the president’s kitty, anyone who doubts that a civilian dictatorship is afoot would be fooling themselves. The Nigerian president today is a potential palace despot. He has a lickspittle parliament, headed by Villaswill, a marionette whose fancy he tickles at will; an allegedly pliant judiciary and a hugely troubling coercive apparatus. The IGP today used to be his police lapel, so brewing a police state to babysit autocracy is a done deal.

On July 23, 2024, a bill to amend the Nigerian Police Act 2020 was speedily passed by Villaswill’s Senate. Tinubu had asked that the No 1 Sheriff continued to leech to his trousers for more years, despite having reached the statutory 60-year terminus. Statutorily, 60 years or 35 years in service is the age civil servants disembark from service train. If you listened to the IGP’s oily and adulatory speechin service of Tinubu recently, you will realize how he is an icing on the cake of a potential imperial rule. Almost tearfully appreciative, Egbetokun recalled how he “met President Bola Tinubu in 1998, and that meeting produced a positive transformation in my life within 24 hours.” That is a major ingredient with which a police state that abets an imperial power broth is cooked.

In the words of Udenta O. Udenta in a television interview last week, democracies no longer die by the wielding of guns as it used to be through coups of 1966, 1983 and 1993. Once a government, which controls huge coercive apparatuses, dismantles press freedom, human liberties and sows fears as Tinubu is doing in the hearts of the people, then, we must be ready to sing nunc dimitis to democratic rule. Eleko orun np’olowo – the heavenly hawker of corn meal porridge – must then have started advertizing its wares. Nuhu Ribadu, like his predecessors as NSA, is demonstrating a conceptual naivety of what his beat, the national security, is all about. In the words of Margaret Vogt, former Nigerian diplomat and political scientist, national security isn't state security, nor is it the security of ‘His Imperial Majesty.’ National security is security of jobs for the unemployed, foods and good living for the citizens. By failing to provide these essential ingredients, the Tinubu government has left its democratic food unattended to and flies of calls for military rule are perching on it.

If you study the manifestations of military governments in Nigeria from 1966 to 1999, what you can call a milder version of their repressiveness and recklessness are on display today. In 1973, Yakubu Gowon’s governor, Alfred Diette-Spiff, shaved the head of Meneri Amakiri, a reporter. Today, Sokoto State governor, too shaved off Shafi’u Umar Tureta’s freedom. As Sani Abacha jailed TheNews’ Kunle Ajibade for life under trumped up charges, the Tinubu government equally detained Olatunji in a dark cell, in a replica of Abacha’s Frank Omenka style.

The Nigerian economy under the military was even comparatively munificent and people-friendly. As military Head of State, to curtail ostentation, Olusegun Obasanjo decreed modesty across board in Nigeria. Obasanjo himself lived by example and drove Peugeot 504 car as official car. Today, the Tinubu government asks Nigerians to tighten their belts but he and his officials live the profligate life of an Oil Sheik. Drunken stupor wastefulness is the middle name of government. It has no empathy for the people, and to compound matters, has no respect for people’s freedom, free speech and human rights. The people’s rule we thought we would have today, for which we fought hard yesterday, during which we lost many of our fathers, mothers and siblings and lost our freedom, is indistinguishable from the Khaki rule we fought yesterday.

As Gumsu Abacha did with her father’s photograph last week, I challenge Iyaloja Sade or Seyi Tinubu, the president’s daughter and son, to post their father’s picture on Facebook today and say, affectionately, like Gumsu, “Baba mi.” If it equally attracts 1500 respondents as Gumsu’s, not less than 1490 of the comments would rain curses on their father. It shows that something is fatally wrong with that thing we call democracy in our land. In any case, what we have today is what can be called the triumph of Abachaism. Abacha’s Prime Minister, the Chagoury brothers and his bagman are top henchmen of this government, back to their PM roles. NADECO, which fought Abacha tooth and nail, losing some of its soldiers in the process, didn’t realize that it had fallen into what soldiers call an ambush. It escaped from a house of infirmity only to land in the bedroom of death.

Having said all the above, however, let me borrow that timeless cliché and say, the most benevolent Abacha-kind rule can never be compared to a flip-flopping democratic government like Tinubu’s. When anyone loses their newborn child, Yoruba console them by saying, it is only the water that poured away; the pitcher remains intact (Omi l’ó fó, agbè ò fó). Yes, we lost a democratic government but we still have the spirit of democracy. For a Nigerian pollution this rank and damp, we must find solution, as Tosh counseled. But the solution can NEVER be military rule. Those of us who grew into the power manic of Khaki will never pray for its shadow in Nigeria again. We must knead the raw dough of what we currently have into a tantalizing meal.

Yes, Lamido has painted a very grim picture of the probable renewal of this imperial rule in 2027. Quoting him, he said, “even Pharaoh’s empire collapsed. So, no matter how daring you are, ultimately, it won’t end well.” However, apologies to our physically challenged compatriots, Yoruba, in their witty best, say that whoever coveys the lame to a party must convey them back to their destination (Ení gb’áro wá, ni ó gb’áro lo). Our vote was what was claimed to have brought this áro here. It must be what would wheel it back.

 

When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person ~ Job 22:29.

Introduction:

We all need the divine touch of supernatural elevation in our lives in order to be where we are destined to be. For every “promised land”there are giants to conquer, and until you conquer you cannot possess your possessions. Nonetheless, the Lord’s Arm is crucial to lifting you up to a realm beyond the reach of your enemies.

To elevate means to exalt, magnify, lift upward,move or raise to a higher place, state, rank or position. Whatever the adjectives we might have or lack to qualify elevation, the subject of divine elevation must hit our front burners and be taken seriously in the camps of saints.

Some people occasionally find themselves ondead horses, and instead of crying unto the Almighty God for supernatural assistance, they rather buy horse whips to beat the dead horses to move and run. It won’t work! Only God can revive or replace dead horses, and He’s the one to call upon at such times.

Divine lifting is purely supernatural. It has little or nothing to do with your family background, educational attainment, connections or gender. Divine lifting exclusively invokes the hands of God to provoke glorious change and enhance your value in life.

Divine lifting is God’s upward pull that makes for a sure, secure and durable lifting. It can pick up your destiny even from the dust and move you to the throne, thereby sitting you with princes and honorable men.

God is the real Lifter of heads (Psalm 75:6-7). He emphatically assured Joshua, saying, “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee” (Joshua 3:7).

If a man lifted you up one way or the other,another man can demote you. But if your elevation is of God, it’s impossible for any mortal force to bring you down.

David knew this when, though surrounded by enemies, he proclaimed: "But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head" (Psalm 3:3).

God can lift any man from the lowest ebb of life to the highest pinnacle. He can turn a complete zero into a hero within a very short time (Psalm 71:7). He can usher even you into your destiny of honour, glory and splendour, because He is the Lifter up of heads.

When He lifted Abraham, he became a father of multitudes and the father of faith. When He lifted Joseph from the prison, he became arenowned Prime Minister in Egypt. He lifted Esther also, a young orphan, and made her the beloved queen in Shushan palace (Esther 2:17).

God lifted Daniel and his three Hebrew companions, and made them super ministersin ancient Babylon (Daniel 1-3). And, David was a poor shepherd boy when God lifted himand made him an unforgettable King of Israel.

There are countless men and women in contemporary history who God lifted up to glorious pedestals in life by His Everlasting Arms. Of a truth, failures in any sphere of life can become achievers, and losers in any realm can turn to leaders, if God is actively involved.

What Happens To You When God Lifts You

When you are lifted by God, you’re moved from low ranks to higher ranks in life. Thus, your status, position and even your perspectives supernaturally change, automatically.

When you are lifted by God, you possess an increasing magnetic attraction, and you become easily accepted and celebrated even by those who rejected you before. You’re relocated from obscurity to popularity, and more people will now wish to identify with you.

When you are lifted by God, you become a shining star, a pacesetter and a lifter to others too. Yes, even your scars become your star, and you become a “controversy” (John 9:1-25).

In general, whenever God’s covenant of supernatural lifting is provoked, the experience always brings incredible upward breakthroughs to the destinies of His people, and to the believers’ world.

Happily, God is very eager for us to be uplifted, so we can get the winning vote and become relevant “Voices” for His agenda for the ages (Revelation 4:1). For instance, when He lifted Joseph and Esther, He was actually preserving a glorious people for Himself.

Surest Access To The Anointing For Supernatural Lifting

There are some powers that won’t let you goup easily, until they are confronted with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. These powers represent the “satanic department of the horns” in the spirit realm (Zachariah 1:18-21).

Notwithstanding, heads are lifted through the Mighty Hand of God, and this is a peculiar rolethe Holy Spirit plays in the destinies of the faithful. The anointing is our surest way to the elevation experience!

The Holy Spirit multiplies grace and provokes honour. He separates and prepares forbreakthroughs. He also brings divine help that typically results in significant enlargement,promotion and marvelous increase.

Meanwhile, divine elevation/lifting doesn’t just come by chance but by choice. You must make your choice clear by putting some biblical structures in  place.

First of all, as a child of God, you must develop a startup vision for your supernatural elevation. It’s your vision that heartily connects you to your destiny. Never give up on it. Know it and pursue it. Many come into this world but they never truly arrive! Notwithstanding, a man of vision is a man of endless accomplishments.

Secondly, be holy. A lifestyle of integrity and true holiness makes you magnetic to the blessings of God, and sharpens you to be perpetually useful to God. Contrariwise, falsehood keeps you far away from God — the Lifter of heads — and His sacred agents of blessings.

Thirdly, be generous. Giving grace automatically connects you with blessings and greatness (Luke 6:38). Practice sacrificial giving, stepping out of your comfort zones to be a blessing to God’s work and others.Nothing moves if nothing burns! Indeed, it’s what you make to happen for others that God will make to happen for you (Matthew 5:7).

Of course, in all these, you must maintain a great lifestyle of obedience, discipline and diligence in your faith, words and deeds.Choose your location wisely: be at the right place and at the right time. A righteous man in the wrong place is not different from a sinner in the right place!

Most importantly, embrace the Holy Ghost anointing for supernatural elevation. And, with unflinching resolve, deal decisively with the scattering horns of satan through strategic prayers, going strong and violent against all forms of their evil appearance.

Friends and brethren, the time has come for your divine elevation. God is at work in your life right now. Every expectation of the enemy is losing its hold on your life, and every yoke of backwardness and stagnation is breaking down by fire. You won’t miss it, in Jesus name. Amen. 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

Stop trying to please God. If you try to please God, you will sin against God. Stop trying to do the right thing. If you try to do the right thing, you will sin against God. Stop trying to do good things. If you try to do good things, you will sin against God.

Uzzah tried to do a good thing. The ark was falling and he tried to steady it. God killed him.

Peter tried to do a good thing. He prayed that Jesus would not be killed. That prayer turned out to be Satanic.

The Bible says: “Happy is the man who does not sin by doing what he knows is right.” (Romans 14:22).

Sorrow awaits the man who sins by doing what he knows is right. He did the right thing but did not know the right thing is a sin. How can we avoid this? With man, it is impossible.

Listen carefully to Jesus: “What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children…” (Matthew 7:9-11).

Jesus says a man gives good gifts to his children. Nevertheless, He calls him evil. What if he gives bad things to his children? It would make no difference. There is nothing an evil man can do that will make him good.

Wrong Things

It makes no difference if a man does the right or the wrong thing. Whatever he does is evil. This is because we do the right things sometimes and wrong things at other times. This shows we are evil.

Every good thing a so-called good man does only confirms he is a sinner. We sin by helping people because we help some people and do not help others. We sin by being generous because sometimes we are not generous.

Jesus does not say: “Give to him who asks you occasionally.” He says: “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” (Matthew 5:42).

But we have not been doing this. We cannot do this of our own free will unless God makes us do it. We can only give occasionally.

No Human Effort

Goodness is not amenable to human effort. You are either good or you are not. Therefore, those who try to be good (when they are not) are not acceptable to God.

So, stop trying to do the right thing. With God, a man can never do the right thing:

“No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands.” (Romans 3:20).

God cannot be pleased with the actions of a man. God can only be pleased with God. God is only pleased with Jesus. He said so at the Mount of Transfiguration:

“A voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 17:5).

What about Moses and Elijah? They are not God’s beloved sons, and He is not well pleased with them.

Moses sinned and could not enter the Promised Land. Elijah killed 40 children who mocked him. His action did not please God. When the Zebedee brothers asked Jesus if, as Elijah did, they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans who would not give them free passage to Jerusalem, Jesus rebuked them: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” (Luke 9:55-56).

Not of Works

God was pleased with Jesus before He inaugurated His ministry. He was pleased with Him before He did any miracles. He was not pleased with something Jesus did. Indeed, it was God that did everything Jesus did. Jesus maintained this: “The Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:10).

When God called me, He called by seizing control of my tongue. He used my mouth to speak to me. He called me three times: “Femi, Femi, Femi.” And then He said: “I have loved you from the foundation of the world.”

This was exciting because God loves me. But it was also disturbing because God’s love for me has nothing to do with me. God loved me before I did anything. He loved me before I was born. Nothing I did after my birth made Him love me. He loved me without my having to do anything good. He loved me before I was born.

He says the same of Jacob: “(For the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” (Romans 9:11-13). 

God loved Jacob before he was born. He hated Esau before he was born. David echoes this: “The wicked are estranged from the womb.” (Psalm 58:3).

Rich Young Ruler 

“Behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:16-17).

The rich young ruler asked the wrong question. He asked: “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life.” But the truth is that he can do nothing at all. Therefore Jesus gave him something to do that He knew he could not do. He told him: “Go and keep the commandments.”

This man did not understand this. He claimed to have kept the commandments. So, Jesus told him to go and sell all his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. But the man could not do it.

Jesus said: “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23-24).

What does this mean? Does it mean that a rich man cannot enter the kingdom of God? No.  Jesus does not say that. He only said it would be hard for him to enter.

How hard would it be? Well, said Jesus: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25).

How many people here have seen a camel go through the eye of a needle before?

Jesus says it is easier for a camel to do so than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom. This means that some camels go through the eye of a needle, although with great difficulty. And for a rich man to enter the kingdom, it is with greater difficulty than that experienced by a camel going through the eye of a needle. 

So I ask again. How many people here have seen a camel go through the eye of a needle before?

Well, maybe you have to go to Israel to see it happen. But camels go through the eye of a needle every day in Nigeria. How do I know? Every day, rich men enter the kingdom of God in Nigeria.

So how are they doing what is impossible? With man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible.

God the waymaker has made a way whereby man can do the impossible. Man can do this by doing nothing but by believing. Man can do the impossible by faith. CONTINUED.

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