Freewill; good or bad?

It is not just enough to have freewill, you have to be held solely accountable for the Carte Blanche you have been given over your life and how it pans out.

Most times I sit and wonder what the world would have been like if we weren’t at liberty to do whatever we feel like.

Freedom from control or interference within the purview of the sovereignty of God hasn’t done man a lot of good if you ask me; though, we can’t deny the fact that we have learnt more from our mistakes, than we have within the four walls of any classroom in Ivory Towers.

In line with democracy, free will still exist as you are allowed to do what ever you like, as long as it doesn’t infringe on another person’s right. The power belongs to the people, and as a leader, you must be made to face the consequences of the choices you make on their behalf.

I heard a man on television today made a remarkable statement; he intimated that studies show that the best decision makers are death row inmates, while the worst are lottery winners. That set my mind to wondering why.

Why?

Why would a man who has just gained financial freedom, opening him to a whole new world of choices, a poorer decision maker than a man in captive bereft of any hope, save a good last meal? Could it be the superfluity or dearth of choices?

Let this be clear: both men are free to choose.

President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari

Its still a huge shock here to me, and I can say to most Nigerians. For some of us, it is because the winds of change blew rather rapidly that it left us with unwavering steps, while to others, it just might be because they were totally unprepared for the unprecedented change that took their transformation by surprise.

Some Folks would be jittery now because of contracts in progress and consequently, outstanding payments. Others would be unsettled. Why? Cos they got carried away with power and position that they didn’t quite put their affairs in order. You know it’s hard to maintain a certain lifestyle you’ve cultivated once you leave power.

Oh! How I love my country Nigeria and my fellow Nigerians. Our complexities and our reactions to situations we find ourselves contribute in making us the unique Nation that we are.

There has never been a more alive Nigerian twitter community than the one we had on here today, March 31st 2015. It was fun reading through the opinions of many Nigerians from all over, those at home and their counterparts in diaspora; alot of folks had really enlightening things to say, not forgetting the totally hilarious memes that were making the rounds.

This uncertainty that was brought about by General Muhammadu Buhari’ victory today is kind of exhilarating, I wouldn’t even lie. It just might stimulate us enough to bring about that change that we so earnestly seek for Nigeria.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Jesus, a true Democrat?

Going through my Facebook page, I came across this post written by Orla Mbiwe and apparently, this was her reply to Facebook’s cliche question “What’s on your mind?”. I thought it insightful enough to share with my WordPress folks. I know it is usually a herculean task to get any one to comment on here, but this would be a good post to start.

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Just going through the scriptures & soaking it in. Jesus may have been a true democrat you know. He believed in respect of authority (which might as well be the three arms of government) and diplomacy to avoid chaos.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” The Pharisees were trying to trap Him. They thought they had an air tight dilemma. If Jesus says “pay the taxes,” it will turn the common people (the people of the land) against Him. It would also turn the zealots against Him. If He said, “don’t pay taxes,” then the Herodians (agents of the king) have it from His mouth that He is fomenting rebellion. If they reported something like that with grounds, the arrest would have happened sooner.

Q “If you are to render to Caesar what bears his image, then what are you to render to God?”
A: “You render to God what bears His image, and what bears the image of God is yourself (Gen 1:26,27).”

It didn’t end there in my thoughts… He would have surmounted the challenges of tribal/ethnic sentiments in these modern times.

Matthew 12:49… And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50. “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Democrats are meant to be people-oriented. Its government of the people. Leaders must be selfless and place the people first to achieve God’s will for them and not abuse power in anyway. So… picture a Jesus… who knew his heavenly affiliation… had a mission to accomplish… had heavenly powers that could make or mar. In his charismatic humility… he allowed himself to be crucified by people he could have chosen to destroy in one breath. Obviously, in these modern times, he would have allowed freedom of expression and shown restraint by not unleashing his powers indiscriminately. A regular person may choose to call him a weakling. Truth is… It takes a lot of admirable courage to show restraint in the face of so much power!!!

“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” are found in Luke 23:34. Jesus looked down from the cross upon the scene that was most distressing to Him. The Roman soldiers were casting lots for His clothing (John 19:23–24); the criminals on the crosses to either side of Him were reviling Him (Matthew 27:44); the religious leaders were mocking Him (Matthew 27:41–43); and the crowd was blaspheming Him (Matthew 27:39). Jesus looked down upon this most unworthy lot and said, “Father, forgive them.” How could this be? The true face of a democrat.

To be Christ-like is to be humane. To love beyond barriers and to avoid conflict that will endanger others.

Are you a true Democrat?

God bless Nigeria.

Assuaging the nagging pangs of hunger

Photo Credit: Google.com

I had tried working on an Ad campaign I was preparing for the company, but I had this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that’s called hunger; I had tried ignoring it when it first raised its ugly head around 10am simply because I couldn’t do anything about it at the time cos official lunch period wasn’t until 2 hours.

Anyways, now it is 12:05pm and I am not having any more of it. I grab my jacket off the back of my chair and head out, didn’t care enough to tell my colleagues in the same department with me that I was stepping out;  if they need me, they would call and I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them I went to take care of the stomach division.

Normally when I’m not shopping for anything heavy, I have lunch at Southern Fried Chicken (SFC); their chicken and chips, coupled with a milkshake always did the trick, but today, I needed some pounded yam and any soup that caught my fancy by the time I get to Jevinik Restaurant off Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent in Wuse 2.

I’m going to skip all the nitty gritty & get right down to action, sparing you all the annoying details of trying to park my car in a busy lot whilst hunger beckons. I had just rolled up my sleeves, and I hadn’t even taken more than two relatively big balls of my pounded yam, dipped in the healthy vegetable soup laden with many pieces of meat, when I heard a female voice asking if she could share my table with me. I won’t even lie to you, I would have been taken aback if I wasn’t so hungry and hadn’t gone far enough in assuaging the nagging pangs of hunger in my belly, so I just muttered that it was fine by me.

This is usually a guy’s move where we try to start up a conversation with a pretty lady who catches our fancy by any means possible, so you can imagine how clueless I must have been when I eventually looked up from the meal that had my rapt attention to find out that I had the most stunning lady I had seen all week seating next to me. Her smile was disarming and my usually outspoken/daring self couldn’t hold her gaze; she broke the awkward silence by initiating a fist bump (chop knuckle) with me as she introduced herself as Kate.

Once we got talking, it didn’t take long before my attention got shifted from the food to her completely; you know when you’re conversing with an interesting person and it seems she gives life to topics that normally wouldn’t interest you.  Hearing her talk about Gen. Buhari and how easy it is for Nigerians to forget all the atrocities and inadequacy of his government, helped shed some light and remove some scales that had almost obscured my vision from the light that Pres. Goodluck is to Nigeria. She said she wasn’t moved by the illusions of 21^st century campaign strategies and preferred the devil that we all already knew: I couldn’t agree more.

I knew from that moment that I would like us to be very close friends or at least something way more than that; it is hard to find a lady these day with such a rare mixture of beauty and brains like Kate had, in fact making her acquaintance felt like fate but then again, this reality found me munching, I didn’t even have to make the first move.

Cheers

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Is it just me, or does it feel like there should be a sequel to this? If I can get 5 comments asking for more, I’d oblige else….