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The Ezendigbo of Ibadan and Oyo state, Eze(Dr.) Alex Anozie insists that he is still the head of the  Igbos in Ibadan and Oyo state by virtue of the fact that there has not been any judgment  nullifying the judgment of the high court in his favor. Eze(Dr.)Anozie made this disclosure in a statement as follows :

''The matter is still in court like they rightly said. And a high court has given judgment in my favor as the authentic Head of Igbos in Ibadan and Oyo state. And my opponent appealed the case which is still in the Appeal Court and even the  Supreme court.''
''So I am sure His imperial Majesty who is the father to all of us he is trying to prove that he is a law-abiding monarch by saying let's allow the court to finish with the matter, the high court judgment stated that I should continue to parade myself as the Ezendigbo/Onyendu of Ibadan and Oyo state and that my opponent should stop parading himself as same and that no court has vacated the judgment up till this moment, be it appeal or supreme court. ''
''They, our opponent even applied for a stay of execution against the judgment but it was not granted. His Imperial Majesty, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, and his council-we respect them so much and we love them so much and I am happy that this is my 24th year as the head of my people in this part of the country and everybody is witness that I have been leading my people to live peacefully in Ibadan and Oyo state.''
 ''Our respect and love for the Olubadan cannot change. So, the case is still in court.
The court judgment in my favor still subsists. We are aware that some people are going about circulating lies against us, but God almighty who never fails can never be deceived. We are going to maintain the peace. They are only trying to show the world that they believe in the rule of law, Eze(Dr. ) Anozie concluded.

Psalm 34: 8

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

The authorities in the Gambia have stated that the total number of coronavirus cases is 3,958.
This is contained in the  252nd national situation report. 
According to the report, 6 new patients got discharged from the treatment centers while 5 COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy.
The Gambia currently has75 people in hotel quarantine, 125 active cases, and a crude case-fatality ratio of 3.2%.

Residents of Olorunsogo, Molete, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria have vandalized a private property at 3, Kehinde Aderibigbe street and converted the same to a refuse dump.
The residents acting on the orders of some government officials and community leaders instructed the cultists and other categories of criminals, including their children, to threaten, intimidate and attack the occupant of the private property.
The criminals have on all occasions, inflicted bodily harm on the occupant.
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The presence of a fair-complexioned woman of easy virtue, also known as Mama Bisoye, who also owns a beer parlor at Amoke Mall in the community and a resident of No.4 of the same street, is the stimulus, a fair-complexioned policeman required to boost the image of the criminals, while he drives a Rio Kia of the Oyo State Government Security outfit,  Special Response Squad(SRS).
Prominent among the criminals, who mostly hang out at beer parlors, hotels, and a deserted building behind the vandalized private property in the community, is one Nnanna of No. 5,  of the same street, Tobi Adesanya(Ijoba) whose mother grinds pepper and tomato in the community at No. 6 and Lekan Adewale, whose mother also sells tomato at No. 8 of the same street, where the criminals have operated for several years.
The criminals who are brazen and daring openly boast that they have the consent of the law enforcement agents and some government officials to terrorize the occupant of the private property, in a nation guided by due process and the rule of law.

Prayer is a great request that usually demands the supplicant eagerness for an answer.
This may be a social demand from a supposed authority or giver.
On the other hand, the nature of the request may demand a divine solution for intervention whichever way prayer maybe another intervention through the power of appeal fr intercession or healing through divine means.
In all cases, supplicants have certain conditions to be met and fulfilled.
Common sense demands that there must be a mutual agreement and synergy between the two parties, whereby the supplicant must be of good character with spelled out reasons for the demand.
He must be sure of some authorities and capabilities of the person from which he is seeking favor and whose terms he must respect before having any hope to get a worthwhile and reasonable result.

 This is why from the biblical perspective in Psalm 24, the supplicant's prayer stands the risk of been answered, if and only if he could not acknowledge the mightiness of the almighty God as been praiseworthy.
''The earth and everything on it belongs to the Lord. The world and all its people belong to Him. The Lord built to Him. The Lord built the earth on the water. He built it over the rivers(Psalms 24: 1-2).
In the same manner, the  Holy Quran 1: 1-2 refers 
  ''In the name of Allah the most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah  the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds,
The supplicant needs to examine himself on creditworthiness to make a request.
For example, with respect to the level of attaining body purification from the devilish through processes. This is why the Holy Bible in Psalm 24: 3-5 ''Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. ''
On the set of conditions, the Holy Quran emphasizes the greatness of God and endear supplicants to make a covenant on the need to show consistency and sincerity of purpose in adhering strictly to the cause of the Almighty Allah before and after his prayer must have been answered. As a follow-up  of verses 4-5 of the same chapter 1, ''Master of the day of judgment thee do we worship and Thine aid we seek.''Guide us to the straight path -7 The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.''
At every point of experiencing resounding success, the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran teaches us to be thankful to God for the success to be eternal. Who is that glorious King? The Lord powerful is that King. But let us always be reminded that it is only under a strict environment of love that our religious  activities can activate into just worship, that can raise our hopes for our yearnings and aspirations to be crowned with success.''

Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria

Proverbs 18: 10

10 The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

The Ghana Education Service(GES) on Sunday released guidelines for the reopening of schools in the country.

The Guidelines which was issued by  the Director-General of the GES, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, states :
“I want to assure all stakeholders, including parents and guardians, of our preparedness to support the provision of good quality education for all our learners, even in these times of the COVID-19. Our goal, in these times, is to provide quality education within a healthy and safe environment. At the same time, we will continue to build a more resilient educational system that will ensure continuous learning for our learners, even during emergencies.
“As we prepare to reopen our schools to allow learners to continue with their academic work, it is important that we establish broad guidelines for the safe operation of our schools.''
“These guidelines are to help regional and district directors of education, as well as heads of schools, to operate safely in the country. It is important to note that the broad guidelines outlined in this document are a general guide and must be adapted, where necessary, to meet the particular situation of each region, district, or school, in accordance with the protocols and directives for the reopening of schools.''
“Learners and staff will be provided with re-usable face masks which must be worn at all times to, in, and from school. Learners with hearing impairment and staff will be provided with age-appropriate face shields to be worn at all times and supported by staff for safe-keeping and cleaning.''
“Lesson periods and breaks shall be as stipulated by the GES and subject to the approved COVID-19 safety protocols.
“Visits to washrooms (that is, toilets and urinals) should be regulated to promote social distancing and safety. Parents are encouraged to provide their children with food (e.g. snacks) when going to school to minimize the movement of learners for food within and outside of the school premises.''
For kindergarten children, it said heads of schools must ensure regular disinfection of furniture and other teaching/learning resources, as well as the regular washing of hands with soap under running water.

The present state of affairs with mankind is that of the craze of material things and the total neglect of the need to build for self a clear state of spirituality whereby the words of God are respected and operationalized through the Scripture of the upheld religion.

This is the major reason why Jesus Christ was able to defeat Satan with his antics by refusing to take orders from Satan while at the same time rejecting its command to breakfast and turn stone into bread, but rather Jesus taught us all to be mindful of the need to prefer and work for spiritual diet, as contained in Mattew 4: 8-10.

Similarly, the Holy Quran submitted that only referred people by God are those who respect the ordinances of God and act on them to live by them as exemplars for others to follow(Quran 49:13).

Jesus Christ stated proverbially in Mark 4: 3-8,''Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 5And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth: 6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred.''

The seeds can be likened to the words of God, while the ground varies according to the texture, nutrients, and components that are of vital importance to the responses.

The rate of responsiveness to the stimuli of advice, counseling, sermons, and lectures differs from one individual to another. Some suffer from loss of memory or inability to retain and recall lessons taught, such people equally suffer from unnecessary distractions of life making the religion non-functional in them.

The above constitute the first category of those that attend religious houses.

The second category is those people without faith, but either coincidentally find themselves in the houses of God or are dragged there by perhaps, by their parents or influential friends. Much as they admire the sermon, it might not necessarily benefit them because they lack faith.

The third category is the set of people who live among bad friends or peers, whose influences would not make the word of God impact positively in them.

The fourth category is the set of people with the right background of discipline and respect for morality. Such people easily identify with the activities and teachings in the houses of God and of religious leaders as a good service to themselves with many benefits to others.

The first three categories mentioned above must brace up to have better orientation not to be recipients of the statement in Isaiah 6:9-10: ''9And he said, Go, and tell these people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of these people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. '' Such people are equally described in the Holy Quran 2: 18, ''Deaf, dumb and blind - so they will not return [to the right path].''

The Holy Quran 2: 6-10 equally warns us to be believers rather than people who reject faith or go contrary to the behavioral objectives of the Scripture: ''6. As for those who disbelieve—it is the same for them, whether you have warned them, or have not warned them—they do not believe.

7. God has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and over their vision is a veil. They will have severe torment.

8. Among the people are those who say, “We believe in God and in the Last Day,” but they are not believers.

9. They seek to deceive God and those who believe, but they deceive none but themselves, though they are not aware.

10. In their hearts is sickness, and God has increased their sickness. They will have a painful punishment because of their denial.''

To be successful in life, there is a need for divine inspirational energy to drive every social desire according to the Chemistry of achievement, which is : 

Altitude=Aptitude + Attitude

In religious parlance, Altitude is to achieve maximally the comforts of life as well as not losing the benefits of the hereafter(Quran 2: 201-202).

Aptitude represents efforts made in life to acquire wealth and status maximally to the point of power, influence, and affluence with assertive authority.

The benefits of believing in God cannot be overemphasized, but we can only achieve it through due process and the fear of God expected to manifest in our ability to do things accordingly and aright(Quran 3: 102 and John 4: 34).

Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria

Belief has to do with acknowledging an object by identifying with it in readiness to follow dictates for the purpose of benefitting from the relationship that is loyalty and trust-based.
In the religious parlance, our belfie that God created us and our environment and that He is the source of all the wherewithal responsible for our existence and survival as well as being the key determinant of our lives. Each religion has a creed, doctrine, and tenets that can be regarded as a curriculum or template for the adherents to be able to uniformly identify with God the Almighty through such processes that can be regarded as a form of worship in words, thoughts, deeds, and acts.
The whole process is enveloped by behavioral objectives upon which the account of the body's deeds or acts are gainfully or sinfully registered using the soul as a memory card for the, while the body at the terminal end goes into the grave decaying to humus level of nutrients to mother earth, the soul is either in a state of rest or decided to roam about or face judgment in the year after, with all the details of accounts of deeds by the body while the person was alive.
This is why the Holy Quran 2: 201-202 should be regarded as the statements of the problem in thesis writing and the significance of existence too: 'And there are men' who say:'' Our  Lord give us good in this world and good in the year after and save us and save us from the torments of fire !''. To this would be allowed what they have  earned and Allah is quick in account.'
Our sojourn on earth, therefore, must be rightly guided by the Scripture or curriculum of our choice of religion and we must live by the dictates of God, who we claim to believe in, and Who will not compromise any form of an anti-societal behavior and anti-divine acts.
Fortunately, for every human found in all facets of life; the Government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, market places, residential areas, sporting activities, villages or urban areas. We have a religious house-local or foreign-we attend to see the face or favor of God.
One should preoccupy the management of religious houses, therefore, is on how best the adherents would be thoroughly taught to be Scripture compliant.
The easy way to do this is to adopt two models-1) The Millhouse theory where every worshipper would be regarded as a raw material who the pedagogues must teach aright to a refined level through the Scripture, in a classroom of religion.
The analogy to this can be likened to that of taking grains of maize of the Millhouse to become refined material to make bean cake(akara balls) or better still the process of making cement starting from blasting rock, that would go through various processing units to the level of gypsum(calcium sulfate) for calcination in order that the cement is set thereby packaged for transportation to different areas of sales and uses. That is from our raw stage, our houses of God must be able to process us to become good citizens of our communities and society who are dependable enough to be saddled with the responsibility of governance without fear of default, corruption, and other forms of indiscipline.
2) The teaching methodology must be based on a positive mindset concept whereby human senes organs should be trained to attain an excellent level of functionality. For example, the ear must be trained for hearing or information gathering as a subconscious tool for sensitivity purposes to the environment of learning.
The same ear in the classroom must be trained at the conscious level of use to offer attention and concentration without taking to any form of distraction in order that the learner maximally absorbs to adapt lessons from the lectures.
The mind must be set on believing in the taught lessons, while the brain and other parts of the body most especially the hands must be ready to recognize the areas of cognitive and psychomotor domains of education to be able to walk the talk not to be guilty of what the Holy Quran accuses of the pedagogues of Quran 61: 2-4,'' O ye who believe!  Why say ye that which you do not? Grievously hateful is it in the sight of Allah that ye say that which ye do not. Truly, Allah loves those who fight in His cause in battle array, as if they were in a solid cemented structure.''
It is imperative, therefore, those religious adherents are expected to be the best of the people in the society as a ready-made good for management, administration, and good governance where corruption and indiscipline would be alien in their system. This is because altitude they say is a function of the correct attitude and excellent performances in acquiring the aptitude most especially when one's area of discipline complements the are of religiosity because the following characteristics are expected of them. 1) Positive self-image whereby self-realization of been relevant in any position one finds himself or herself; without suffering from any form of inferiority complex is already in-built.
Teachings in the house of God must have in-built senes of confidence in the adherents, while self-esteem and culture of integrity ought to have preoccupied the teachings of the houses of God.
On good human relations, religious adherents ought to have been rejuvenated into a positive mental attitude that will offer him or her a sense of no abuse, despise, and condemnation of people, who might have performed below their expectations, but instead built up a high sense of aberration in order that he would be able to offer unbiased judgment, objective sanction and taking of firmness of purpose, and decisions based on precision and accuracy that would ensure justice and equity in an environment of the right spiritual aura produce peace and sustainable development with assured wellness of the people and rancor free zones.
Religious people, therefore, must fall in line with positive contributions to society and their neighbors based on the authority of God as entrenched in 1Cor. 13-13,''So these three things continue, faith(in religion)hope(in just worship), and love(in self and the environment). And the greatest of this love.''

Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria

Psalm 40 : 3

3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORDand put their trust in him.