PDP SENATE CAUCUS SHOULD NOT ROCK THE BOAT!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 150. 26th June, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

PDP SENATE CAUCUS SHOULD NOT ROCK THE BOAT!

No man can be an island unto himself because the entire universe has become a global village where the constant need for human interactions, integration, communal co-operation, cordial communications, and the marriage of arts, cultures and traditions will always occupy the front stage!
There was once upon a time when some socialists/communists ideologically-oriented do-gooders decided to segregate some free people of the world in Russia and China against their wishes from interacting with their kith and kin from across the universe but their plan failed because the wishes of the electorate was not put into consideration while working out their crooked ideologies! Before the close of the 20th Century, the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Republic fell like pack of cards according to the prevailing forces of the common wish of the peoples to interact with other races, dwell in economic comfort and peace with their families!
A similar scenario is now playing out in Nigeria as a disgruntled group of very selfish and greedy politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who did not succeed in rigging the last 2015 General Elections and are now in the opposition, are bent on rocking the boat of democracy! Secession, like the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Independent People Of Biafra (IPOB), and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), is their sing-song! Shortly before the National Assembly's three-week Ramadan break, the clueless caucus members, 48 of them, released a statement signed by four Senators on 21st June, 2016, that it would no longer "support the APC government until they cease the belligerent attitude towards PDP members".
It has been revealed that there was a clandestine plan by this group of legislators in the upper chambers, to unilaterally heat up the polity and plunge the nation into a fresh economic crisis without seeking any approval from their constituencies! They had neither regard nor respect for the Constitution and the masses of people who normally suffered in the event of needless show of rivalry and power tussle between the two arms of government!

The five-point official complaint against the Executive included,
(a) Unwarranted threats and intimidation to the legislative arm particularly the Senate leadership through illegal deployment of State instruments of coercion and intimidation;
(b) Glaring witch-hunt of the opposition and loop-sided and selective war against corruption especially the freezing of the account of Ayo Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor;
(c) Probing of campaign funds which should not be limited to the PDP but extended to the All Progressives Congress (APC);
(d) Accusation of Executive acts of lawlessness typical of military dictatorship; and
(e) Need for the APC-led government to concentrate on the existing economic and security challenges that was threatening the survival of the nation.
Although the APC promptly dismissed the accusations and threat by the PDP Senate caucus and had also challenged the group to petition security agents in respect of any of the APC's members involved in corrupt practices, the issues involved are more delicate and sensitive in nature and must be handled with great care!
An African adage states that, "When a bird perches on a rope, both the bird and the rope would be threatened and stressed"; and another states that," If a rat finds it difficult to eat unharvested groundnuts, it would despoil the nuts by digging, scattering and rendering them unfit for consumption"; while yet another states that, “He who is down fears no fall!"
PDP members were desperate to be relevant since they lost woefully in the last general elections and they grabbed with both hands, Saraki's offer of Senate's deputy presidency position to perfect his "coup de tat" for an ephemeral and transient position of life! Though they supervised over the 16 years of institutional corruption (1999-2015), in a free-for-all, roller-coaster, unbridled accumulation of illegal oil wealth that festered competitive rivalry amongst emerging Nigerian multi-billionaires of the 21st Century and also the amassing and proliferation of sophisticated weapons into wrong hands to maintain their status quo, yet they do not want to give account of their stewardship through anti-corruption probes! The kind of insurgency and militancy witnessed in the country during that period in question and till date were not experienced during the 30 years of military rule which proved that the desperate political class of the PDP's ilk cared less whether Nigeria survived or perished and they were quick to fit into the alliance of the APC black sheep who would sell their birthrights for coveted political positions and temporary offices!
The PDP Senate caucus are only 48 bitter Nigerians who are representing themselves and not the 48 Districts within the larger Constituencies of the 170 million population but who are determined to heat up the polity and rock the boat of Nigeria's new democratic government which is being commended globally for its determination to restore the economy through righteousness, probity and accountability if care was not taken!
It is to the credit of this new administration that looted monies and immovable properties illegally acquired, were being returned voluntarily by those who connived with the past PDP Governments to ravage the treasury! It is also to the credit of the Buhari Administration that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), recorded 164 convictions in just one year of the war against corruption which must be intensified!

The Hidden Agenda Of The Caucus!
Grapevine revealed the following: *Vehement opposition against the raging fire of the anti-corruption crusade which was bound to consume most of the PDP politicians who have skeletons in their cupboards! *Disguised support for militancy and continuous criticism of APC's Government inability to improve on the economy and the reverberating new PDP's slogan tagged "CHANGE THE CHANGE"; that the anti corruption crusade should give way for more corruption in 2019, when they believed to "regain power"!
Subtle support for the purported rumour credited to the Niger Delta militants, of a planned military coup against the incumbent administration, by the Nigerian Army, which had been denied by Government and the Military High Command as the figment of the imagination of detractors!
A desperate plan to instigate orchestrated disaffection against the person of President Buhari through allegations that his wife, Aisha Buhari, was involved in the Halliburton Bribe scandal, which indicted three former Nigerian Heads of State, a former Vice President and several high ranking government officials, but which had not been investigated since 2002! Deliberate attack on the health condition and comportment of President Buhari, before, during and after the elections that brought him to office and insinuations that he was not well disposed to rule the country!
And most recently, another smear campaign in respect of President Buhari’s academic qualifications!
There is no doubt that there is a well calculated attempt by the PDP Senate caucus to heat up the polity and truncate the gains so far made by the incumbent administration, but we must advice for uttermost caution by the APC leadership in handling the very delicate and fragile situation which is a time bomb!

Issues To Be Sorted Out Before Next Plenary!
There is divine angle to the imbroglio since God is very patient with His creation whom He preferred should be saved than perish! Those impetuous Senators have been given a window of opportunity to repent since it is very obvious that they had acted without the mandate of their constituents and would never enjoy their approval! All PDP Talakawas are President Buhari's strong supporters!
The Word of God which states that, "If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"; (2 Chronicles. 7:14), is very instructive for a moment such as this!  We therefore advocate that before the next plenary of the National Assembly slated for 12th July, 2016, a middle ground for reconciliation and amelioration of all grievances must be ploughed for peace to reign and for the economy to improve! The two Parties must unite for the sake of the Nigerian TALAKAWAS!
Since the militants of the Niger Delta region took to vandalization of the crude oil pipelines, economic prosperity of the nation sank more and more into the "miry clay".  These renegade Senators are capable of causing similar harm if the Executive stuck to their guns that they could pilot the boat alone! APC should be told that the household enemies within their fold are ready tools to be bought over to truncate Nigeria's nascent democracy because what they failed to achieve during the NASS inauguration by producing all principal officers to form a formidable opposition against the ruling party, could still happen!
All Saraki needed do is to jump ship with the rest of the APC black sheep and return to their parent PDP fold! Before the Rammadan Break, the Senate rejected the Executive List of all Ambassadorial Nominees over the flimsy excuse that it did not follow due process! It was high time both parties worked together in the interest of the suffering masses who are finding it very hard to make ends meet!
In spite of the present economic crunch, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, are all enjoying payment of salaries and allowances while all public and private sector workers wait grudgingly for crumbs from the masters table! Both APC and PDP are servants to the people to whom the sovereignty belongs! The time to sheath their swords is now but everyone must go through the cleaners of the rule of law and be purged if found culpable!
"If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? (I Corinthians.12:15).
A WORD IS ENOUGH FOR THE WISE!

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

APC'S FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL FEEDING PROJECT IS A MISPLACED PRIORITY!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 149. 19th June, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

APC'S FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL FEEDING PROJECT IS A MISPLACED PRIORITY!

The All Progressives Congress (APC), has put the cart before the horse in its education policy by introducing free primary school feeding instead of catching pupils young through a reading culture of well-studded school libraries and compulsory computer literacy for early exposure of the future leaders to global civilization! Apart from the provision of basic amenities of life, through an opportunity to secure adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment, health, medical and safety guarantees which must be safeguarded and not endangered, as entrenched in Nigeria's 1999 Constitution, so also should Government direct its policy towards ensuring  that education opportunities was equally adequate! According to Chapter II 18- (3), Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as and when practicable provide - (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education; (b) free secondary education; (c) free university education; and (d) free adult literacy programme. The good intentions of the ruling party is not in doubt but such "laudable" policy would neither amount nor translate to anything without incisive and detailed feasibility reports or blue prints that would analyze the entire project from incubation to fruition through expert administrators!

From all of our researches, the following are the available information:
1. Federal Government intends to feed only pupils of primaries one to three of some 18 unidentified States without others in Primaries 4-6!
2. It is yet to be disclosed whether the children would be served free breakfast or lunch.
3. We are aware that pupils in most primary pupils in Nigeria spend between five to six study hours daily, Monday through Friday; but we are yet to know how many hours would be spent to feed a population of 850 pupils of a rural school or 2.500 of a city school and by how many caterers per school on daily basis!
4. It is yet to be ascertained whether caterers would carry prepared "nutritious" meals to the schools or would prepare such meals within school premises under the watchful eyes of appointed nutritionists and official supervisors because Government was yet to publish any feasibility documents in respect of this gagantuous project that would gulp at least billions of naira annually at such an austere period of a lean purse and deficit budget!

More Than One Billion Naira Daily On Eggs Alone?
The Minister of Information and Culture would not seize to amaze Nigerians with contrary outbursts in respect of very serious government policies; below are excerpts of some of his outbursts on the daily free meals:
(a) "Deregulation of Petroleum Downstream Sector would improve on the School Feeding Programme first through the employment of 500.000 unemployed graduates.
(b) "Second, employment of 100.000 non-graduates, technicians and artisans;
(c) "Third is one- meal-a-day programme targeting 5.5 million pupils all over Nigeria. This is the most exciting of all our programmes. Even if we are going to give these children one egg a day - it means we will need 5.5 million eggs and in one calendar year of 200 days, we will need over a billion eggs"!
From the information at our disposal one standard egg, even in the rural area costs N30 naira, while the Federal Government intends to spend the sum of N70 naira per pupil per day which translate to N165,000,000million and N385,000,000 million naira respectively on daily basis! Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State who had embarked on the free primary school feeding claimed that the pet programme would save parents a sum of N3.7billion naira annually while his Osun State counterpart claimed that a total of  N2.2 billion naira would be disbursed annually for the feeding programme which is also on stream in his State!
Feelers from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Social Welfare Change Camp, has revealed that the Acting President, 'Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday 9th June, 2016, launched the much publicized National Home Grown School Feeding And Health Programme (HGSFHP), at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, with several State Governors in attendance. The project was one of the several campaign promises of the ruling party to feed millions of primary school children with highly nutritional foods that would enhance their learning capabilities, battle hunger among the less privileged families, attract and entice out of school children back, and make learning more conducive and comfortable! Professor Osinbajo was quoted to have said at the occasion that the Federal Government School Feeding Programme, among other benefits, would create 1.4 million jobs, increase food production by 530.000 metric tons annually and attract fresh investments of up to N980 billion naira.

The Education Sector in Nigeria had no doubt suffered tremendous set backs in the area of funding by previous administrations which treated the acquisition of knowledge with so much disdain and levity through a platform that produced mediocres, even at the tertiary level to the extent that most Nigerian graduates were unemployable due to inadequate tertiary knowledge, educational and mental capabilities!
The result of deliberate discrepancies of short-funding had over the years birthed thousands of restive illiterate youths in virtually all the six geo-political zones of the country who possess distorted or concocted world views on every topic or subject under the sun!
1. Boko Haram's ideology posits that Western education was harmful and detrimental to their religion.
2. The Niger Delta Avengers believed that the destruction of critical government infrastructures would be the only avenue to attract the leaders attention for a truce and peace dialogue!
3. Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), posit that it was only through outright secession of the South-East Geo-Political Zone from the rest of Nigeria that peace could be ascertained!
4. All misguided militants of the Niger Delta Region believe that there would be peace only if they had 100% resource control of all crude oil extracted from the region without amending the nation's Constitution!
5. All detractors of the APC Change Government constitute themselves to ignorant arm-chair critics of every government policy and insisted that the Party had failed in its first year of administration but are very clueless on the way forward in view of global recession caused by international crude oil price fall since 2014!
According to the United Nations (UN) 2015 statistics, Nigeria has over 10 million out-of -school children, a figure that is regarded as the highest in the world  - with the Northern States accounting for majority of the outrageous number! Whether the information in respect of the HGSFHP launch was true or false, was yet to be seen, felt or confirmed by all stake holders - schools authorities, parents, pupils, farmers associations caterers or event managers of the targeted States! As stated earlier, only 5.5 million pupils of 18 out of the 36 States of the Federation, would benefit from the "Father Christmas" largesse while others would watch from a distance and just "lick their tongues" or petition their Governors who have failed to pay workers salaries for the past five to twelve months in most cases, except their own salaries including all manner of allowances and those of their political jobber partners/cronies, for redress and inclusion!
HGSFHP in all intent and purpose constitutes a misplaced priority that is bound to create more disaster that would aggravate the flagging economy as a drain pipe! Meaningful and sound education for the grassroot children is what is needed to groom these endangered species who from now on must take their rightful place as future leaders in this multi-cultural and multi-ethnic egalitarian society which had drifted gradually into an abyss of the educationally backward nations!
The Word of God says: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs. 22:6). The biblical emphasis is on training of the boy and girl child and not on institutional luring with ephemeral things like food instead of a more enduring divine gift of acquiring information, inspiration, education, reformation and transformation into the 'crème' de la crème’ of the society instead the dregs, misinformed and misguided! Parents could be gainfully employed or financially empowered by government to continue to feed their wards - a duty they have fulfilled from time immemorial no matter how poor they were!
FREE SCHOOL FEEDING IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH SERIOUS LEARNING AND THE KIND OF EDUCATION NEEDED FOR GRASSROOT CHILDREN! IT IS A BIG DISTRACTION BECAUSE MUCH PRECIOUS QUALITY TIME FOR ASSIMILATION WOULD BE LOST TO THE MUNDANE! WE NEED WIZKIDS NOT DULLARDS WHOSE ONLY INSPIRATION FOR ATTENDING CLASSES WOULD BE HINGED ON ONE-FREE-MEAL PER DAY! Governments have no business in feeding pupils but since APC made such a blunder of electioneering campaign commitment, all it needed do was to back-pedal and explain the impossibility of fulfillment to the electorate and reveal palliatives that would be more economically viable to the pupils as suggested in the first paragraph! Every primary school should be equipped with text books on all subjects - which could be borrowed on agreeable terms by pupils to enhance their studies while computer education should also be made compulsory with the provision of the sufficient hardware and educationally enhancing software from primary one! This would form the legacy for equitable spread of quality education from the primary to the tertiary and the immense benefits would be unquantifiable to all and sundry as these youngsters would acquire and cultivate not only the art of reading but also of studying  from that tender and formative ages to become learned and patriotic future leaders who would show gratitude to the country that had properly educated them and not those we now witness in Boko Haram of the North East, the crude oil pipeline vandals of the South-South and secession agitators of the South-East States of Nigeria! Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in 2015, was reported to have toyed with the idea of feeding at least 25 million children in a programme christened, "Home Grown School Feeding Programme," aimed at "improving their nutritional intake" but failed before it could take off for the enormous infrastructural financing and outrageous logistics involved! President Buhari should not create a fresh avenue for massive corruption across the nation by turning the laudable caring youth programme into a GREEK GIFT that would turn out be the undoing of his party! WOULD APC SPEND THE ENTIRE N5 BILLION INTERVENTION FUND ON THIS FRIVOLOUS AND CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAMME ALONE? A WORD IS SUFFICIENT FOR THE WISE!

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

THERE IS A CORRELATION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 148. 12th June, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

THERE IS A CORRELATION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA!

Political conflicts escalated on June 12, 1993, during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, when he unilaterally and corruptly annulled the Presidential Election that was adjudged to be the most credible since Nigeria's independence and which was believed to have been won by late Chief Moshood Abiola, a Southern Nigeria politician and many lives and properties were destroyed in the ensuing process of national protest! Today marks 23 years of that great and popular election though not celebrated by subsequent governments but would remain unforgettable water shed in the annals of the Nigerian history which would be incomplete without its mention! With the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 Presidential Elections and with 23 States in the All Progressives Congress (APC's), kitty, the electorate heaved a sigh of relief because the new leader was acceptable to all patriotic citizens across the entire nation in view of his impeccable antecedents and righteous pedigree - a man full of love and not hatred like most of his predecessors in office!

Causes Of Societal Voices Of Dissent In Nigeria Is Absence Of Love!
Dissenting voices are commonplace phenomena in the market place of human activities! The possibility of unity of mind, soul or spirit among peoples of identical language or dialect had failed the litmus test of peace or togetherness while those with diverse languages, cultures, traditions and origins had perpetually dwelt in chaotic situations of daily conflicts that defied religious, spiritual and even divine solutions because of the absence of love! When arguments, quarrels and altercations were not predicated on marginalization or tribalism among geographical entities of any form or style of government - capitalist or socialist inclined or oriented, they could take the forms of nepotism or favoritism in political appointments, breach of manifesto promises or the sharing formula of natural resource earnings of the conglomerate and incensed people were ever quick to forment trouble over any issue and even kill one another; no matter the triviality!
Biblical Cain clandestinely and cruelly clubbed his only sibling, Abel, to death because God accepted the latter's offering which was produced from the best of his flock of animals and rejected Cain's paltry presentation of some fruit of the ground, and since that murder, men had been at each other's throat! (Please read Genesis. 4:1-13, 23-24 and 6:11-13). The loveless and corrupted mind of Cain culminated in the first recorded global homicide and that wrong footing turned out to become the Achilles heel and genesis of heinous crimes of murder, robbery, assassinations, arsons, burglaries, homosexuality, gang rapes, incest, etc, that have permeated every generation of Man since the Creation!
The Word of God states as follows: "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. "Not as Cain who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." (1John.3:11-12).

Grand Corruption in Government!
1. Celebration of institutional deceit of unkept promises amidst wallowing poverty of the masses in Nigeria had been largely responsible for restiveness among youths and conflicts by pressure groups, communities and societies against insensitive governments which had reneged on all social contracts!
2. Land disputes among various clans of common dialect had resulted into communal clashes and loss of hundred of hundreds of innocent lives through the use of force instead of amicable dialogue and peaceful resolutions.
3. Religious fanaticism among the various tribes was still responsible for gang attacks and jungle justice kind of termination of the lives of people of opposite faiths in Nigeria of the twenty first century world!
4. Election riggings in which all manner of fraudulent practices were employed to keep dubious characters perpetually in positions of authority where they could continue to deprive the electorate of the dividends of democracy through the embezzlement of funds meant for their welfare!
5. The most outrageous and the root cause of all vexations was institutional corruption which was judiciously perpetrated by the custodians of the treasury and nurtured by a cabal in power for 16 years years of horrible administrations!

Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. (2016).
The most recent Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, which ranked Nigeria very low at 136th out of 168 countries for two consecutive years was based on  expert opinions of public sector corruption but emphasized that criterion for being corrupt was a lot more that missing monies!
Key characteristics considered according to the report included:
1. Level of Press freedom.
2. Assess to budget information so that people would know how money was spent.
3. Levels of integrity among the people in power.
4. Impartial judiciary.
5. Strength of public institutions. etc.

Head of Transparency International, Jose Ugaz, strongly believed it was time to tackle grand corruption in governments because it has been established that the most corrupt countries of the world are the least peaceful! Nigeria' history did not begin with the love "Amalgamation" in 1914! Long before that deliberate effort by Great Britain in the 19th Century at consolidating its position on the West African Coast as a frontline colonial power, Portuguese explorers with the expressed connivance of the natives had introduced slave trade into an otherwise peaceful commercial businesses of grains, gold and ivory which were in full throttle during the periods between the 15th and 16th centuries in which a lot of human lives were wasted! All heinous crimes are still with us in Nigeria including Slave Trade which is now described as Human Trafficking
Presently, the crime of human trafficking, and militancy have become very lucrative in spite of the rigorous efforts of law enforcement agents and counter-insurgency operations across the nation to curb the crime because in some cases some kidnappers have been found to have been aided and abetted with logistics by some black legs among the security operatives who benefit from illicit business. The spate of insecurity is increasing by the day because politicians who failed at the last 2015 General Elections have sworn to disrupt and thwart all efforts by the Change Administration to win the war against terror, Presently some unpatriotic youths of the Niger Delta origin operating under several pseudo identities had consistently vandalized the crude oil pipelines belonging to the Federal Government and international oil companies within the riverine areas of the South-south Geo-political Zone, with terrible financial losses to the economy!

First, crude oil exportation figure had declined to 1.4 million barrels per day from 2.2million! Secondly, international oil prices have risen to over $50 USdollars in the last two weeks but Nigeria cannot benefit from the windfall though the 2016 Budget benchmark is fixed at $38 US dollars per barrel! Thirdly, though the war against the Boko Haram is dwindling with continued onslaught by the Federal Troops and the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), on their pockets of resistance, detractors of the new administration have infiltrated the rank and file of the Fulani Herdsmen with dangerous weapons to create panic across the nation through destruction of farmlands and also of several lives and properties in the process while the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State Of Biafra (MASSOB), in the South East are also flexing muzzle to become autonomous entities outside of the Nigerian nation! Fourthly, Niger Delta greedy and misguided youths are now on the rampage, in the Creeks and have vowed to continue their treasonable acts until the region could have total control of all oil resources, and all revenues accruable therefrom because they had been marginalized and sidelined by the older militants in the past!
Constitutionally, all extractive mineral resources derivable in any part of the Federation have been placed under the control of the Federal Government for equitable distribution of their accruable monies among all States of the country and presently, the Niger Delta Region is allocated with the 13% derivation formula outside of the other allocations from the Federation Account, above other regions because of land pollution through oil spillages. The question to be addressed now should be; how much of the all the huge funds got to the grassroot people who suffer the environmental degradation most when all past allocations were made? Virtually nothing trickles down to them in view of their predicaments of lack of all the basic amenities of life and while the Federal Government tries to ameliorate the very bad situation, more pipelines were vandalized on daily basis by restive youths of the region!
While the clean-up of Ogoni land is already in progress on the western flank of the Rivers State, more crude oil spillages are devastating the precious agricultural lands and fishing ponds of the eastern flank of the Delta State of the oil rich south-south! Do they prefer to remain in perpetual slavery to the God-given mineral resources meant for their well being through the existing constitutional arrangement and co-operate with the Federal Government or keep wasting the collective economic resources to the detriment of all? Apart from the 13% derivation fund paid to the Niger Delta oil producing States, the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs are on ground to actualize all of the social and economic needs of the people but care should be taken to ensure probity and sincerity among the Governors and officials who have been saddled with the responsibility of managing the funds judiciously.

It is on record that monetary allocations never trickled down to the grassroot peasants for health, housing and education facilities because they were looted by those who were trusted with the disbursements while the unemployment and death statistics remained on the high side! The major solution to the several conflicts around the nation lies in truthful process of accountability to the people in respect of faithful deliverance of the dividends of democracy to the grassroot electorate without further delay!
However, it is important that the militants of the Niger Delta trust the genuine concern of Mr. President, who has promised to proffer permanent solution to the imbroglio through peaceful dialogue.

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

KEN SARO-WIWA WAS AT THE OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP, FLAG-OFF CEREMONY!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 147. 5th June, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

KEN SARO-WIWA WAS AT THE OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP, FLAG-OFF CEREMONY!

Ken Saro-Wiwa, President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), was executed along with eight of his members, globally acclaimed as the "Ogoni Nine", by the Military Government of General Sani Abacha, over 20 years ago for allegedly inciting murder of five prominent chiefs of the land, but his agitation for a clean and unpolluted environment of his birth place, Ogoniland did not die with him but miraculously resurrected through President Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually flagged off the clean-up exercise at Gokhana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday, 2nd June, 2016!
Represented by the Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, to execute the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report, submitted to the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2011, and which recommended urgent rehabilitation and clean-up of over 200 locations in which were found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region, extended than previously thought because of oil spills, oil flaring and waste discharge! Presently the alluvial soil of the Ogoniland is no longer viable for agriculture or fishing due to both surface and ground water contamination with high levels of hydrocarbon and several toxic-related chemicals.
In 1990, under the leadership of Saro Wiwa, MOSOP, a non-violent group and member of the United Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), petitioned the Federal Military Government and requested that international oil companies should stop further land exploitation and degradation through a document titled, "The Ogoni Bill of Rights", which was submitted to the authorities for implementation according to the World Health Organisation(WHO), guidelines but he and some of his organisation, were instead arrested and incarcerated for several months for charges of unlawful protests and assemblies!
The Ogoni people have been victims of human rights violation since 1956, when Royal Dutch/Shell in collaboration with Britain, Nigeria's Colonial Masters, began commercial production two years later in 1958. Traditionally, the Ogonis were agriculturists who also traded in animal husbandry of livestock, herding, fishing and palm oil cultivation but between 1976 and 1991, a period of 15 years, the Oil Company reportedly recorded 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels in Ogoniland, the worst in any part of the world which had now destroyed the entire land scape with all soil and earth nutrients! According to UNEP estimates, it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential at an enormous cost of $ 1billion US dollars per every 5years totaling $6 billion or more in all!
Previous and present Nigerian Constitutions are replete with government’s commitments to the citizens and also the citizens' fundamental rights and civic responsibilities to government but military administrations suspended such rights and treated the people with so much brutality as it turned out for MOSOP whose members were imprisoned at random for months on end!
President Buhari in his testimony at the occasion recalled that as a Military Head of State, he commissioned a large fish pond and also planted a tree to commemorate the occasion, and a sign of the Government's commitment to the Niger Delta but unfortunately the degradation of the land, water and air has done huge damage to the fragile ecosystem of the Niger Delta - especially Ogoniland. "Oil exploration has been going in Nigeria for about six decades and Nigeria has benefitted immensely from it.....but the great damage to the region, to the ecosystem is either due to lack of will or willful rules non-compliance with environmental rules, acts, enactments, laws and guidelines given to operators of the oil industry".

President Buhari in this statement did not only confirm a lawful agitation by Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP, but also stated as follows:
"The environment was put in jeopardy", he said, noting that the various communities - noting the negative impact of oil production and the lack of consideration for best practices quite rightly commenced the struggle for justice and fair play in the conduct of business by the oil industry operators.
"This process unfortunately led to loss of lives and properties. International concern was raised whilst past governments were urged to take decisive steps in addressing the damage", he noted. Imagine if Ken Saro Wiwa, the non-violent Vice President of UNPO and an internationally acclaimed environmentalist, writer and government critic was accorded the legitimate request that the expatriate oil companies must be compelled to not only clean every oil spill but also adhere to corporate responsibility statutes of regularly rehabilitating host communities by providing all adequate facilities of clinics, hospitals, shelter, schools, and ensure local contents through job employments that guaranteed living wages, the Niger Delta Region would have been an Eldorado - these 56 years of Nigeria's independence and not a WAR ZONE where drop-outs and miscreants of the society now hold sway as mushroom militants who even have the audacity to threaten President Buhari's life! Military aberration of 30 years robbed all citizens all fundamental rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty; right to fair hearing, private and family life, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; right to freedom of expression and the press, to peaceful assembly and associations, right to freedom of movement and from discriminations, as enacted in the various Constitutions which were usually abrogated while the Parliament remained suspended!
And this was why a peaceful MOSOP agitation in respect of the fundamental rights of association, expression and movement was misconstrued by the Abacha administration as confrontation against government!

Ken Saro-Wiwa led a non-violent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multi-national petroleum industry - especially the Royal Dutch Shell Company and was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian Government which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area. At the peak of his non-violent campaign he was tried by a special military tribunal by allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni Chiefs at a pro-government meeting which he vehemently denied! He was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty of incitement and hanged in 1995 with eight others by a specially convened tribunal of the military junta of Sanni Abacha all because of the enormous wealth which accrued to his government through oil exploitation of Ogoni land by Royal Dutch Shell!
The execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years but did not matter to Abacha who turned out to be the worst military ruler of Nigeria because he brazenly carted away into foreign countries all of the commonwealth in the coffers of the Central Bank in TRAILERS, AIRCRAFTS, BOATS, SHIPS, FRIGATES and all manner of articulated vehicles and left the nation high and dry at death!
In November 2015, the Federal Government disclosed that the total amount recovered from the Abacha loot was $26.4 million dollars and £19 million British pounds respectively apart from those already recovered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governments of 16 years and also looted by the predators of those era because they were not accounted for! According to reports in respect of Saro Wiwa's execution on 10th November, 1995, it was said that he did not give up the ghost until the fifth time of the hanging process which was carried out by muscular and masculine ARMY PERSONNEL, and at each time they changed the ROPE, he asked his assailants, "What have I done to deserve death....I have committed no crime."
Royal Dutch Shell denied any form of collaboration with the Abacha junta in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, but paid $15.5million dollars to his family as compensation on the eve of litigation with company! It is true that both Saro-Wiwa and Abacha are dead, but it is certain that the present generation of Nigerians now know who the real murderer was among the duo in view of revelations of Abacha's greed and of man's inhumanity to man because of avarice!
We strongly believe that the biblical story of Lazarus and the Rich Man in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 15:19-31; has come to play because; all of the unfolding events have proved the innocence of Saro-Wiwa since the 1995 hanging of the Ogoni Nine and definitely all those who participated in the Kangaroo Court of jungle justice of an illustrious son of Nigeria whose struggle for the emancipation of his people will remain in the annals of Nigerian and international history for ever, will face divine punishment sooner than later!

The good news however is that, Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa's agitation for the cleanup of Ogoniland has taken off in earnest in memory of this illustrious son of Nigeria who gave his life that others might have a healthier and prosperous agrarian life which had been their inalienable right from ancestral occupation and settlement! We believe that President Buhari who has exhibited much passion in the project would ensure that funding by the Nigerian Government and other counter-part funds from international communities and especially Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company would not fail!
THIRTY YEARS IS JUST AROUND THE CONNER! THE FIRST STEP WHICH IS THE FLAG-OFF CEREMONY HAS BEEN TAKEN!

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, b.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

A GIANT LEAP YEAR OF SUCCESS FOR BUHARI IN SPITE OF TSUNAMI CRITICISMS! (SPECIAL EDITION TO COMMEMORATE PRESIDENT BUHARI'S 366 DAYS IN OFFICE)

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 146. 29th May, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

A GIANT LEAP YEAR OF SUCCESS FOR BUHARI IN SPITE OF TSUNAMI CRITICISMS!  (SPECIAL EDITION TO COMMEMORATE PRESIDENT BUHARI'S 366 DAYS IN OFFICE)

In spite of the very many grand promises of Nigeria's ruling Party in both its Mission Statement and Manifesto, two terribly vexatious challenges stared President Buhari in the face on assumption of office on 29th May, 2015! The first and most worrisome was the state of insecurity created by the persistent Boko Haram insurgency which blew out of proportion from the year 2009 into large scale terrorism that swept the nation with fearful panic from Maiduguri to Lagos and from Port Harcourt through the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to the Sokoto Caliphate! The second was the unprecedented state of massive institutional corruption that had crippled the economy which was handed over to the new Change Administration, with a virtually empty treasury! It is one full leap year of the All Progressives Congress (APC), government under Buhari who had attracted an avalanche of criticisms more than those of his predecessors who in fact created the loads of economic woes being forced down the throat of the common but resilient man, woman and children on the street!
The masses are groaning under the pains of insecurity of life and property, commodity inflation, national energy loss and incessant power outages, absence of potable water, motorable roads, modern health facilities, poor management of agricultural, solid minerals and educational sectors, and a completely vandalized crude oil sector in both outright embezzlement of accruable monetary resources and physical destruction of pipelines through organized cabals of 1999-2015!  Inflation rate skyrocketed to 13.7% in April, 2016 as against 9.6% in January of the same year; also 67.63% increase in fuel prices from N86.50 to N145.00, per litre, on 13th May, 2016, further compounded the inflation challenges! Transparency International's corruption perceptions index for 2015 (released in January 2016), ranked Nigeria in the 136th position out of 168 countries as the most corrupt nation in the world, a position it maintained since 2014; which indicated that corruption was endemic in the country! In his own assessment, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, alluded that Nigeria and Afghanistan were "fantastically corrupt countries" during a conversation with the Queen at a reception in celebration of her 90th Birthday anniversary at the Buckingham Palace, shortly before the International Summit on Anti-Corruption, hosted by Britain - Thursday 12th May, 2016! After that derogatory comment, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby intervened to say," But this particular president is not corrupt..... he's trying very hard." In Nigeria, the erstwhile Co-coordinating Minister of the Economy who also doubled as the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Federal Government under President Jonathan, were ordered by a Lagos High Court, on 23rd May, 2016, to provide information on the spending of an allegedly missing N30 trillion as requested by Social Economic Rights Agenda, (SERAP), in a suit No.CS/196/2015, instituted by the pressure group! The judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Ibrahim Buba, was instituted in 2015 by a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Charles Soludo, who alleged that at least N30 trillion, had either been stolen or unaccounted for or grossly mismanaged over the last few years under Iweala's watch!
Also in the same week, it was revealed by the Minister of Solid Minerals and Chairman of the Board of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)! Dr. Kayode Fayemi, that a sum of N2.23 trillion, was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC, according to a 2013 Audit Report of the Oil and Gas as well as the solid minerals sectors. This consisted of $9.75 billion and N378.67billion earning from various aspects of its operations in 2013 which were supposed to be remitted to the Federation Account! Another ex-CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, during his tenure also accused the NNPC of non-remittance of $20 billion US dollars to the Federation Account under the watch of Mrs. Iweala and was promptly sacked by the Jonathan's Administration for opening his mouth too wide!

Critics of the present administration believed that Nigeria's economy had never had it so bad in the last one year and one could not completely fault their arguments because it is very obvious that the economic window dressing and the media-propped governments of 16 years of PDP's maladministration as earlier enunciated above, came crashing down in the first year of the new administration! The latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Annual Growth Rate announced on Friday 20th May, 2016, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that growth indices shrank by 0.36 % year-on-year in the first three months of 2016, compared to a 2.11% expansion in the previous period and way below forecasts of 1.7% growth and the trend was attributed to slowdown in the services sectors, due to a weakening naira while lower oil prices kept dragging the oil sector down. Under Iweala's watch, Nigeria re-based GDP estimates for the year 2013 which was adjudged as Africa's largest economy and the 26th globally, was put at $ 510billion US dollars or N80.3 trillion naira, was debunked because on per capita basis, Nigeria was placed in the 121st position since its workforce of about 100 million persons dwelt in abject poverty of meager $1.5 US dollars per day!  The deficit 2016 Budget is another issue of criticism because, it could not successfully address the dominance of recurrent over capital expenditures and critics vehemently claimed that Executive financial wastage was still pronounced - especially in the Presidency and the National Assembly (NASS)!
Inadequate national health and housing facilities were other areas of criticisms in view of the fact that the rural communities are still marginalized because child and maternal mortality statistics were still on the high side and the issue of about 17 million housing deficit, due to social contract neglect by past administrations remained outstanding! They also criticized the recalcitrant issue of unemployment - especially tertiary institutions graduates- in Nigeria under the present administration and described it as unacceptable. President Buhari's two-pronged attack on national insecurity and declaration of war on corruption right from his investiture, on 29th May, 2015, was the necessary foundation and panacea to establish urgent economic revival from the ashes of 16 years of terrible maladministration! However, critics cannot dispute the following positive achievements of the APC Government, which had to be addressed through diplomatic corridors and unregulated market forces, no matter how hard they tried:
(1). Within 365 days regional military co-operation sought through early foreign journeys to neighboring countries of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and Mali by President Buhari, yielded positive results of the virtual defeat of the Boko Haram insurgency which had subsided to very minimal level in which the terrorists, who held sway between 2009-2015,  have reluctantly accepted defeat and are on the run! (a) Many of them voluntarily surrendered to the Federal Forces and are being "rehabilitated in safe corridors".(b) Two of the Chibok Secondary School girls, one of them mother of a baby girl, had been rescued from the Sambisa Forest, along with her suspected Boko Haram "husband" who had given useful information to the security agents.
(c) Security agents have successfully blocked all of the terrorists routes of food, arms, medical and communication supplies; a move that actually destroyed their base in the Sambisa Forest, within the leap year! (d) Another Regional Security Summit was held by Buhari in Abuja on 13th May, 2016, to further strengthen the military agreements of the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), between Nigeria's neighboring countries which had produced much gains and successes! (e) The campaign for military support for Nigeria against the Boko Haram terrorists was not limited to the West African Sub-region, but extended to the United States of America and European Union countries, through which concrete modern military support in the form of hardwares and intelligence gathering, had been favourably received and acknowledged!

(2). The war on corruption is in full swing and according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Switzerland would repatriate $300m US dollars deposited by money Nigerian launderers to the Federal Government. All monies recovered so far through "plea bargain" from fraud suspects would soon be made public while criminal prosecution of those who have been apprehended was at the peak! (a) Some of the big swindlers are already tenants of the various Nigerian prisons while several others are going through competent court processes. (b) The President also made other international trips to the Arab countries of United Arab Emirate,(UAE), Saudi Arabia and to China to seek both economic and financial investments support to take Nigeria out of the imminent quagmire of economic recession, which had now begun to take its toll because of the unpatriotic attitude of past managers who celebrated the culture of national institutional corruption! (c) At the recently concluded International Anti-Corruption Summit in London, (12th May, 2016), President Buhari, in spite of the reproachful comment of his host, appealed to all foreign countries to retrieve and repatriate all laundered, looted and embezzled monies by Nigerians and deposited in their bank vaults, to the country to boost its economy. (d) The re-introduction, implementation and entrenchment of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), within the period of 366 days under review in spite of vehement opposition by former treasury looters was a landslide victory of a righteous government under the divinely-anointed servant, Muhammadu Buhari!

(3). Though it took a whole quarter of the year to put the "socialist" 2016 Budget into operation, the yoke of annual padding by the technocrats was completely broken once and for all and the culprits were shown the door! (4). On assumption of office, many States of the Federation were unable to pay backlog of monthly salaries for up to 10 months in some cases and had to request for financial credit bailouts to avoid social unrests - which he gladly obliged without querying what happened to all of their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR), but still, 27 States are owing workers!

Unregulated Market Forces Of Supply And Demand Will Salvage The Economy!
It has been revealed that the Federal Government was completely pushed to the wall over the various challenges of the dwindling economy and had no alternative option than to allow the Petroleum Downstream Sector flow with the tide of market forces of supply and demand which in economic terms meant, that the price modulation mechanism, would enable the petrol's new price to find its level in the international market without let or hindrance! Since, Wednesday 11th May, 2016, when the new price regime debuted, there had been abundant supply of the product all over the country and scarcity stopped permanently! It is strongly believed by economic analysts that in less than one month from the price increase operative date, market forces would lead to competitive prices at all filling stations and consumers would embrace the best options and the numerous palliatives would flow to cushion any manner of challenges that might surface.

***Snippets from President Buhari's First Leap Year Anniversary Message.
A N500 billion Social Protection Programme already appropriated for in the 2016 Budget was launched as a social intervention policy for the recruitment and training of 500.000 Teachers, 100.000 Artisans; Conditional Cash Transfer to provide support for 100.000 vulnerable beneficiaries, including 1million market women 460.000 Artisans and 200.000 Agricultural Workers nationwide! The President announced the Education Grand Scheme for Universities and Polytechnics and paid tribute to the gallant men and women of the Armed Forces. There will be more snippets of the anniversary speech in our subsequent editions. LET US SUPPORT THIS AMIABLE, RIGHTEOUS, FAITHFUL AND CHARISMATIC LEADER WHO IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO SAVE THE ECONOMY OF NIGERIA FROM ABSOLUTE RUINS! GOD WILL AVENGE THE POOR MASSES FROM THE PIPELINE VANDALS WHO ARE BENT OF DESTROYING THE ECONOMY IN JESUS CHRIST NAME! AMEN. (Romans. 12:19.)

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.
If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.