Ogiri John Ogiri

"Be careful what you cast and bind during prayers. Some people have successfully bound and cast away their destinies because they mistook for enemies those challenges sent to them by nature to strengthen them in their journeys to success. Not every challenge is from the devil. Some are meant to bring out the best in you and spur you on to breakthroughs. Every challenge is a camouflaged opportunity to help you discover something exceptional about you." Culled from  "The Dangers of Idleness and the Cost of Doing Nothing" unpublished by Ogiri John Ogiri.

Photo credit: The Nations Newspaper, 2020. By Ogiri John Ogiri I am appalled at the way our peaceful struggle has so far been taken over by hoodlums masquerading as protesters who now go about killing freely and cheaply our brothers and sisters for whom this protest was originally intended to assist. It does not make sense that a well-intentioned protester will allow his or her emotion to degenerate into animalistic demeanour which we have seen operationalized in the killing of his or fellow country man or woman as well as in the current attacks on people's businesses and our national assets. I do not believe a genuine protester will do that. Only hoodlums can do such a thing. No genuine protester will gladly attack the people's businesses like banks, shopping malls and other properties belonging to the people. No genuine protester will allow anger to overrun his or her genuine compassion for the same police we are trying to see in good shape. We must understand tha...

Photo credit: Dr Ufot. By Garvey Ufot And so yet again, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been compelled by the unimaginable cruelty of the Federal Government of Nigeria to embark on yet another round of indefinite industrial action. The current strike action which came on the heels of the expiration of ASUU's two week warning strike at the beginning of March, 2020, is the consequence, primarily, of the vicious and heartless decision of the Buhari Federal Government to stop the February salaries of lecturers in Federal universities over disagreements in the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS) EVEN AS NEGOTIATIONS WERE STILL ONGOING TO RESOLVE THESE DISAGREEMENTS. Thus, for two months now -- February and March -- academics in Federal universities have gone without their salaries despite the current uncertainties and anxieties occasioned by the monumental health crisis of Covid-19. Where else but Nigeria wou...

A real minimum wage should be able to help the least worker in Nigeria own a car, not a bicycle. Owning a car is no longer a luxury but a necessity in our modern age. Where this is not the case, such a wage only merely represents a slave's wage. "How do our National Assembly members feel going home every month with a bogus salary and allowance in expensive SUVs funded by tax payers in a country where youth unemployment has sky-rocketed to a worrisome height and the minimum wages of many teachers, street sweepers, security operatives, drivers, nurses among others are grossly inadequate to meet their minimum weekly upkeep? We equally demand an unconditional downward review of the jumbo allowances of our National Assembly members to reflect the current harsh economic realities of our nation." "Faced with a choice between religion and humanity, I will chose humanity. I can only please God in the service of humanity but may not necessarily please humanity in the service o...

Photo credit: Author on Facebook By Fr Kelvin Ugwu MSP Sorry to say, our version of Christianity today is very toxic. Our faith instead of liberating us, has put us in a cage. This is why again and again, we keep producing atheists and not true believers. Do you know that if a Christian of today on his/her way to church to pay tithe encounters a dying person on the road, he or she will most likely not help even if all that the dying person needs so as to be alive is that money? Why? Because the words "rob God" is only understood in one way: failure to pay tithe directly to the pastor. And so, God will strike you death if you take the money to save life.  This sort of bondage is one of the reasons for modern day atheism —the need to be liberated from the cage of Christianity. For atheist don't pay tithe and none of them have been struck dead or their businesses being unproductive. Christianity today is all about the fear of going to hell and the promise of goin...

Independence Message by Bishop Matthew Hassan KUKAH, Catholic Bishop, Diocese of Sokoto on October 1, 2020 1: I want to first thank God Almighty the Father of all creation and the maker of Heaven and earth. Strange as it may sound, I  would like to thank  the colonial masters who wove our diverse peoples together and for all  the efforts that they put into ensuring that we had everything a people had to launch itself into a modern state. It is a time to thank those brave and selfless missionaries who laid the foundation for our modern civilisation by providing us with high quality education.We must appreciate the context of colonialism and the fact that its driving philosophy was the exploitation of our resources and we must concede that they laid the solid foundation for extracting our resources for the development of their own country. Their interests were buried in the womb of the country they created. Today, we have destroyed the institutions they created ...

Death is ruthless! Its sting pierces deep With tears of blood Streaming along its trail Men sob Women wail Orphans lament As it announces its painful entry and exit  Oh death! Why art thou so heartless? A lone female daughter, An only house wife With a humble quiet heart You have snatched away too soon Her husband's quiet heart You've burdened with grief As heavy as the stone of Everest As sturdy as the rocks of Abeokuta Her fragile offsprings  You've denied of gentle milk These fragile hearts you've wearied With pains untold How more wicked could you be oh death? Ingle Ai-Aboko mourns Ai-Adungulu wail As Ingle is bereaved once again. Rest in peace Mrs Veronica Okwori. It's indeed painful to accept the fact that you're gone forever. Cecilia "Iho" "Gboko lalo" ©Ogiri John Ogiri