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Join me at Dove TV on Monday at 9:50am WAT

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I will be teaching live on Dove TV tomorrow (Monday) from 9:50am WAT. On DSTV, it is channel 349, GOtv channel 83. In this one, I will be using case studies from Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Bible, and not the likes of Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote and Stock Exchanges. The theme is “equipping the next generation”. As we say in Scripture Union, the next praise will be better because more songs will be discovered; the next generation will see a better future because more abundance will be unlocked. Come and learn how that translation will happen. God bless.

Press Release

LAGOS, NigeriaJune 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The city of Lagos is set for another powerful youth convergence and empowerment program as the much-anticipated RECALP 2022 Summit will hold on June 13, 2022 at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Lagos Province 19 auditorium in Ogudu, Lagos.

The event, organized by the Young Adults and Youth Affairs of the RCCG Lagos Province 19, is reputed to be one of the big convergence of youths in Nigeria mainly the Generation Z and millennials,

The Summit is a platform to equip the new generation leaders and stimulate attendees, mostly young people to align with plausible steps to attain their life goals on issues of relationship, entrepreneurship, career, leadership and politics, as well as empower emerging entrepreneurs.

According to the host, Femi Aminu, this year’s edition is a greater convergence of youths who will be nurtured and guided to greater achievements.

Speakers expected include: Pastor Ituah Ighodalo; senior pastor and founder of the Trinity House, Lagos and also a senior partner in SIAO – a professional services firm, Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe; the Founder of African Institution of Technology and Lead Faculty for Tekedia Institute, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi is currently the Chairman of the Editorial Board of THISDAY Newspapers where he writes a weekly column, ‘The Verdict, Evang. Gloria Bamiloye is the Co-founder and Co-president of The Mount Zion Faith Ministries International, Nigeria. The keynote speaker for this edition is Pastor Charles Kpandei, the Head of the Blessed family and Pastor in charge of Region 11.

Commenting on the programme, the Pastor in charge of Lagos province 19, Pastor Bisi Olowoyo said over the years, RECALP Summit has recorded tremendous progress and growth in geometric proportions. And we believe God that the 8th Edition will be another time full with insights and testimonies

Olowoyo said that as part of the strategy to deepen the reach of the event, RECALP 2022 would be telecast live online and on DoveTV. The programme will also be streamed live on the onlinetv Kairos WebTV.

RECALP Summit commenced in 2015 as an annual youth programme.

RECALP 2022 Summit offers great opportunity through empowerment, networking and exhibition for emerging and aspiring entrepreneurs, an improvement and deeper inclusion as this is the 8th edition.

Attendance at the five-hour summit remains free and registration can be made on http://www.recalp.org/register

SOURCE RCCG

RECALP

Nigeria Needs Many Presidential Debates and Deeper Journalism

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The IMF posits that by 2026, 100% of Nigeria’s revenue could go into debt servicing. If that happens, it will become a state of economic coma. So, to avert that impending paralysis, we need to ask politicians questions and challenge them on how they will save the future.

About seven years ago, Prof Osinbajo was in Washington DC and mesmerized us with his vision on electricity. He explained how independent power plants could generate electricity in Alaba, Ikoyi, and across the nation, delivering 24/7 electricity to residential, commercial and industrial users. I wrote here that his proposal was not technically feasible due to feedstuffs. 

How did I know? I did three internships in NNPC while in FUTO. One was in Nigerian Gas Company at Owaza in Abia State (just close to Port Harcourt). My small job was to read the gas supplied to Aba glass and the ceramic industries. And weekly, with my supervisor, take readings in the factories.

During that experience, I noticed one thing: during the usual pigging, to flush the pipeline of debris, the factories will stop operating. Simply, none had any storage because it was actually expensive to build one. Now, imagine what it would take to pipe that gas from Rivers State to power plants in Alaba. 

If you want to transport it in “liquid” form, it becomes logistically challenging since Nigeria doesn’t have good roads or railway tracks for such. Simply, the trouble of keeping a plant running in perpetuity will not be easy.  No sensible business person would invest in those IPPs because of the feedstuffs. 

In my last internship at Shell Kolo Creek flow station in Yenagoa Bayelsa, that storage issue was also evident. Then, you can flare because it is cheaper than transmitting the energy source. 

Where am I going? We need robust debates to challenge these men as some of their proposals are not feasible. I am hoping that our journalists do their jobs this time and be bold to challenge some of the crazy proposals they are dropping.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that debt servicing may gulp 100 percent of Nigeria’s revenue by 2026, if the government fails to implement adequate measures to improve revenue generation.

The IMF’s Resident Representative for Nigeria, Ari Aisen, disclosed this while presenting the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Economic Outlook report on Monday, 30th May 2022 in Abuja.

According to him, based on a macro-fiscal stress test that was conducted on Nigeria, interest payments on debts may wipe up the country’s entire earnings in the next four years.

Journalists Must Rise and Educate Nigerians

First, I want to commend Nigerian journalists. In the age of Facebook and Google, I understand how hard the media sector has become. Most times, I struggle to visit some of the online newspapers because of the intrusive ads which bring in kobos and cents to keep the enterprise going. Nonetheless, we need them to serve at a higher level – and hopefully someone can find a way to pay and compensate them better.

We need them to start asking these politicians questions. Right now, what I have been reading is the biographies of the men. We cannot just vote on those.  APC sold us the idea of independent power plants across Nigeria in 2015. Right here, I explained that it was largely impossible to execute that in a meaningful way.

I did 3 internships in NNPC; the last was in Nigerian Gas Company at Owaza (Abia State), just off Port Harcourt City. The job was to pipe gas to Aba glass and ceramic industries. I worked on the pig flows and saw the problem of storage capacity. During pigging, cleaning pipelines, factories stop because of zero storage capacity! Later in Shell Kolo Creek flow station (Yenagoa), on internship, I saw the same thing: Nigeria has not invested in foundational facilities that would make IPP possible.

With no good roads or rail tracks to pipe gas in “liquid form”, no real business person will invest in IPP because of access to feedstuffs. Any decent engineering student will understand that. But APC sold that and won the election. PDP has its own “vapour promises” of course. 

So, as this election season moves into the injury time as in football, our journalists must rise up and educate the citizens. Why? The IMF posits that by 2026, 100% of Nigeria’s revenue could go into debt servicing. If that happens, it will become a state of economic coma. So, to avert that impending paralysis, we need to ask politicians questions and challenge them on how they will save the future.

 

Create that future and make it predictable with your PVC in Nigeria

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One of these men will likely become the next president of Nigeria. The delegates have narrowed the options. Statistically, a delegate – about 10,000 of them – have a factor of 100 impact on deciding who becomes a president in Nigeria over a general election voter. Yet, there is nothing you can do about it – you have to work with the options which are available.

But here is the fact: many will tell you that nothing can change in Nigeria. That is a big lie.Leaders matter in markets, politics, and indeed everything in life. As in business where CEOs are paid to design and commit to execute business models, presidents among other things are expected to execute their own political models via policies which will cover economy, security, international relations, etc.

Obi, Atiku and Tinubu possibly benefitted from the best in Nigeria. They attended our then-great secondary schools and at least one of them enjoyed our massively subsidized public universities or equivalent. The only thing Nigeria gives a poor man or woman is subsidized university education. If you remove it, no economic progress can happen in many families. 

So the question is: who among these men can deliver that promise of economic mobility? When we talk about mobility, you must understand that this is real. How can a nation offer you choices in life and who has the capacity to make it happen? If you vote for tribe, religion, and those marginals, nothing will change. But if you vote for competence (use your yardstick), great moments will come.

Understand one thing: Nigeria does not have enough graduates to run its economy if we have the right leadership. In other words, everyone will have a GREAT job. Your PVC (permanent voters card) will determine that future. Many of us are in positions that our lives will not be affected by who becomes the president of Nigeria. But yours could be impacted. And I challenge you to get your PVC and go out and vote when the time comes. Obasanjo gave us choices as he created great jobs; banks were hiring every weekend in big halls. A visionary leader has tools which can create 7 million GREAT jobs in two years in Nigeria.

Vote for competence, not religion, tribe or the marginals. Who becomes the president of Nigeria or America will not change anything in my life today. But I would not have said the same many years ago; happy for what Nigeria offered in the early 2000s. Get PVC and Vote!

Create that future and make it predictable with your PVC.

Terrorists Release 11 Out of 61 Abducted Abuja-Kaduna Train Passengers

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Terrorists have released 11 out of the 61 persons abducted during the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna train attack.

Their release was facilitated through mediation led by Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, who has been working as a middleman between the Nigerian government and the terrorists. His spokesperson, Mallam Tukur Mamu, disclosed the development to the media on Saturday.

Mamu said that the victims, who were released on health grounds, have been flown to Abuja, the nation’s capital for urgent medical treatment. He explained that while the male victims were released on health grounds as part of the request made by the negotiating team, the women who are among the vulnerable ones are part of the agreement reached with the abductors.

The names of those freed are as follows: Jessy John, Amina Ba’aba Mohammed (Gamba), Rashida Yusuf Busari and Hannah Ajewole. Others include Najib Mohammed Daiharu, Gaius Gambo, Hassan Aliyu, Peace A. Boy and Danjuma Sa’idu.

Though part of the early negotiation was that all the kidnapped women would be released in the first batch, only five were allowed by the terrorists to go.

A source quoted by Vanguard explained why.

“It was expected initially that all the abducted women will be released in the first batch while negotiations for the release of the remaining victims will continue but according to another source that was privy to Saturday’s engagement with the abductors, they decided to cut down the number of women they initially agreed to release because of FG’s demand to include those with life threatening injuries/illnesses among the ones they released.

“The abductors have initially insisted that the only condition they will accept to start negotiating the release of their victims is when government release their teenage children unconditionally but Mamu insisted that no government will accept such bargain as they must also show signs of goodwill and make acceptable compromises too by way of releasing some of the victims,” the source said.

Mamu didn’t give details of the process that yielded the freedom of the 11, but he revealed that some retired army generals and a renowned professor at the Usman Dan-Fodio University, Sokoto were among the team of experts that contributed in facilitating the mediation and success of the release.

He credited the success of the dialogue to Sheik Gumi, whom he said worked tirelessly behind the scene.

“He was involved from the day I started. In fact, I accepted that role because of his directives to that effect. Even the final arrangement of how and the safest place to get the victims was arranged and coordinated by him,” he said.

An integral part of the dialogue between the government and the terrorists is the release of the terrorists’ children. However, it is not clear if the government yielded to the demand which also includes ransom payment for the victims.

Mamu said that only the government can answer the question, asking the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to use the open channel to secure the freedom of the remaining victims.

“We are only concerned stakeholders with the privilege to compliment government efforts but I can assure you and I can confirm that no money is involved. I believe the urgent priority now for the government and us is how to safely secure the release of the remaining victims,” he said.

“I believe FG can now explore this opportunity to ensure that the remaining victims are released in good time. Even though the release of the eleven victims is a huge milestone I’m personally disappointed that they failed to give us all the women as we earlier agreed. But I believe even if it’s one life we succeeded in securing the reward is unquantifiable before Allah,” he added.

The attack, which led to the abduction occurred on March 28 at Dutse forest in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, leaving eight people killed and 26 others injured while scores of passengers went missing.

While the release of the 11 is good news to their families and offers hope for the return of several others, the question remains; how long will the government continue to act vulnerable in the face of insecurity in the country?

As of early last year, the Buhari’s administration has spent N8 trillion on security, budgeting an average of N1.3 trillion since 2015. The huge security funding has done little to quell the situation of insecurity in Nigeria that has kept rising year on year, giving birth to new groups of terrorists that have succeeded in turning terrorism into a lucrative enterprise.

Young People in Nigeria Have Taken Over This Election [video]

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This video touched me: young people in Nigeria fighting to get their voting cards. I commend them for this uncommon commitment, and I am hoping that by 2023, they will get a president that will provide leadership. Young People, continue to fight for that future. The future belongs to you and you can take it back. Many of these leaders cannot steal it, even though they paused it, but with energies like this, there will be victory.

I call on INEC to deploy those billions of naira to make this process seamless. They need to ship more registration machines to the east, west, north and south.  Young People have taken over. Do not mess with them.

As that happens, I ask the Police to watch the registration intimidations happening in some cities. Those must be immediately addressed. You cannot prevent people from registering. Young People: this is your nation. Remember: vote for a leader that will save the future, forget the sound of his name, how he prays or those marginals. Focus on competence, decency, honour and service. I have already VOTED for all of you. May God bless the youth of Nigeria.