Nigeria the Floating Giant

Nigeria will remain a Sick Giant as long as it is perpetually bedeviled and plagued by grotesque incompetent leaders suffering from historical amnesia.

We will continue to progress retrospectively with abysmal ridicule from lesser countries.

Nigeria can rise again and take her place if our demographic mediocrity and parochial loyalty to individuals in power is subordinated to true nationalism; consciously and conscientiously buried.

Nigeria is merely floating at the moment. The crop of officialdom we have are nothing but a Tsunami to this raped Nation.

Nigeria has everything required to lead Africa. We have the intellectuals, we have the wealth, we have great men and women with vision; but focused and visionary leadership has remained a challenge since independence. Ethnicity, religion, zoning and primitive partisanship has continued to hold us back.

Nigerian has lost her birth-right and big brother status. We pray our children in their own generation wakes up the sleeping giant.

Africa will raise again!

• Philippa Asiodu

Colour Coding For Toothpaste

Photo credit: http://www.noelevated.org

Ever wondered what the colour strips at the bottom of toothpaste really means?

Here is what they mean.

Next time you buy check the colour code and I recommend you buy the Green or Blue.

Thank you.

Rulers And Leaders

A Pharaoh ruled Egypt in the days of Moses. He was typically a Ruler, he was not a leader.

Leaders are different from Rulers. The tragedy of a NATION without a leader is exemplified by a country I once knew. None of many people who rose to power over that country ever thought of assuming such awesome position of authority and responsibility prior to their coming into power. It happened over night. They all accidentally came into power. Leaders never emerge accidentally!
Leaders are different from Rulers. You can rule without much thought, you can’t Lead without thinking. Rulers plunder a nation. They loot it, rob it, raid and ransack it and strip it bare to its bones! Not that Rulers are “bad” people, not that they don’t like their country. That is not why they ravage and devastate the nation they rule; But because such acts are exactly the nature of Rulership as opposed to Leadership!
A nation that is ruled rather than lead doesn’t leave one spot. It just stays put in the same old rots from generations to generations.
The truth is, any Jack from anywhere can become a Ruler. It doesn’t mean take time. It happens overnight, thoughtlessly and visionlessly! All you need to rule is a hard-heart with some measure of ruthlessness, loud voice, hard look, tough talk and plenty of lies and deception.
Leaders are different from Rulers. Very few can lead! To lead you have to be going some-where yourself! And that takes vision. The Leader has a vision of the people’s destiny. He inspires the people to reach for the corporate destiny as one entity.
Leader leads because he sees tomorrow! Rulers live exclusively inside today. Tomorrow doesn’t matter to them. They don’t have perspective. The “now” is all they see. Leaders see tomorrow inside of today. They have to because that is where they are headed with people they lead. They are on a journey to the people’s destiny.
The children of Israel couldn’t really get along well with God after He released them from Pharaoh’s strangle-hold. They were used to life under a Ruler, a ruler who just camped them in one giant prison called Egypt where their lives were lived in circle! Pharaoh wasn’t a leader, he was a Ruler. He wasn’t going anywhere. So those under him were stuck in the prison of static existence. And you know, a Nation can become a prison, a cage where the lives of the people are controlled by the Ruler. A Church can become a prison if what you have is a Ruler-Pastor rather than a leader!
Israel had been in the big cage for centuries. When the vision of God came, the people were called out unto a destiny journey. But it happened that they rather liked and preferred their static lives; that life where you don’t need to think, invent, invest, create, or do anything extra-ordinary to be alive; a flabby contentment with just the barest minimum.
Without a Leader, the people’s huge potential for national and global impact will continue to lie in waste beneath their pittance exterior! Rulers don’t take a nation anywhere. They themselves have nowhere they are going; and somebody going nowhere cannot take a people somewhere.
For the length of time it takes a Nation to have a leader over it, that is how long it will take for the Nation to move forward in the direction of its destiny. Rulers don’t bend, but Leaders follows the Inside-Light in the course of destiny whichever way it turns! And the people follow suit.
The Ruler uses force, and power, and wiles and lies. Vision and passions are strength of the leader. Rulers loot and are happy! A people come into their destiny is the Leader’s reward and joy. For the Ruler, his access to the peoples’ wealth and his unauthorized use of it bring satisfaction in the corporate progress the people make towards their destiny. His access to the people’s hearth is to him a sacred trust he must protect at all cost! The Ruler takes from the people much more than he gives them. The Leader gives all and asks for nothing! He creates and conserves sovereign wealth!
The Ruler turns common wealth into private property. The Leader take from his God-given internal wealth of wisdom, passion and vision, and from them create for the people a common wealth constituted from the raw materials of national endowment. Those who know the nature of Rulership don’t quarrel with the Ruler or grumble or lament when the rulers act. None of us can give what we don’t have. Rulers have no vision. They can’t lead.
The fault is not with the Ruler who is not leading! By nature Rulers can’t lead. They can only loot! The real fault is with a people, a nation who NEEDS A LEADER but continues to put its destiny in the hands of Rulers!
Under what condition do a people, a Nation keep their errors constant? Errors should be corrected and prevented from occurring again. But under certain self-inflicted circumstances, a people keep repeating their errors.
What are this conditions?
One, When ethnic sentiments predominate over reasoned national consideration.
Two, When religious sentiment and affiliation makes men call good evil and evil good.
Three, When a people do not know the scared call and destiny of its Nation.

Good God, deliver us from perpetuating our errors! And our own woes.
Amen.
Fragrance “from Source Gospel Ministry” Vol. 15 No. 3