Ebola: No school resumption today in Lagos, 14 other states

Pupils in at least 15 states in the country will not return to their classrooms today as directed by the Federal Government.

This is because in most of the states, teachers are insisting that safety measures must be put in place to protect them and their pupils from contracting the deadly Ebola Virus Disease.

In some of the states like Lagos and Ogun, the governments opted not to comply with the September 22 date until necessary Ebola safety kits were put in place in their schools.

Also, the gates of the 104 Unity Schools in the country will be shut from today as their teachers commence an industrial action.

The other states where normal academic activities will not resume   are Rivers, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, Benue, Niger, Zamfara, Adamawa, Kano, Kwara, Kogi, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states.

Teachers in Lagos will be on duty today but pupils will remain at home until October 8.

There had been controversy over the directive by the Federal Government that schools should resume on September 22 since the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease had been contained in the country.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers however ordered its members to shun academic activities until the government provided gadgets in schools to ensure not only their safety but that of their pupils.

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, after meeting on Sunday with public school headteachers, said the decision was to ensure that   schools in the state were safe for both the teachers and their pupils.

He said, “On this issue of resumption, we are on the same side. We are all concerned about safety in the schools.

Praise Fowowe:'Why our top pastors are failing in marriage'

 

Relationship expert, Praise Fowowe, who is a self confessed sex addict turned relationship and sex counselor, in this incisive piece gave reasons why the marriages of some top pastors are packing up. Find his thought provoking piece below

1. A man of God is not God, he is a man: Unfortunately, we treat our men of God as if they are spirits who don't live in human body. What do we expect when we saddle them with our numerous issues. Unfortunately, many are not wise to say no to church members whose lives will continue if they drop dead. Church members have academic, financial, and even marital problems, they go to the pastor as if the man is built to solve every problem and in our quest to prove that we are superstars, we also fail to embrace the use of professionals who are trained in these things because of our hidden fear of respect. What stops a man of God who knows his marriage is in danger to take a back seat and allow a church member whose marriage is a model take a message on a Sunday that marriage is meant to be discussed? You are not built to solve every problem.

2. Anointing does not give immunity to divorce: The same way anointing doesn't give immunity to sexual sins, it doesn't also give immunity to divorce. It takes more than anointing to make a marriage work. I have seen the people we refer to as unbelievers build a fantastic marriage why I have also seen loads of tongue-talking believers make a shipwreck of theirs. The most important ingredient to build a winning marriage isn't prayers, it is knowledge and if you don't have it, you can't pray it in. I tell people that your anointing wouldn't stop you from sleeping with church members if you have a sex problem. If you position yourself around babes consistently in the name of "My daughter in the lord" and you don't draw a critical line, it is only a matter of time. My story is everywhere on how I was a sex addict in church after being born again yet leading praise worship and leading people to Christ until I became real to myself and went to get help. Every counselor needs a counselor and every pastor needs a pastor who may not necessarily be  title carrying person because the problem with us is that in this part of the world, we believe that a laity isn't anointed as long as he doesn't pastor a large church. If you are beating your wife, don't pretend you don't have a problem, you need to get help from a psychologist or psychiatrist.

3. There is no relationship without communication and relaxation: So many men of God don't communicate with their spouses. You can't expect an abandoned flower to blossom without your attention. I think many of us saddle our wives with church work that they are not prepared for. I do not believe that because a man is a pastor necessarily means that his wife must be a Pastor Mrs. God's callings and gifting aren't by marriage. I don't understand the calling that will make a man of God remain in Nigeria while he sends his wife to Germany to pastor the branch of the church over there. Excuse me, you are a human being who needs emotional attention. Unfortunately, that is the reality in many ministries. You are a man of God on the pulpit but at home, you are a lover and a father to your children. So you might learn to drop the bible and Christianity on the altar so that you can communicate with your wife and your children in human language. I was invited to a meeting years back and I asked the Pastor's there the last time they had a dance with their spouses? I was shocked when they said it was during their wedding. 

4. Isolation isn't spirituality: Jesus never isolated himself. As a matter of fact, he was found in everyday places like our present day shopping malls and movie houses. I see a lot of young pastors who have aged faster than they should be because of Isolation. Something tells us that we need to isolate ourselves to receive a word for a people who are being "pastored" only during the service because many of them are being influenced more by their favorite musician than their pastor. Don't allow church members turn you into who you are not because you don't want to hang out with your babe. They would spread your story when your marriage breaks down. When was the last time you met your pastor in a bus, mall, a restaurant or a cinema? As a matter of fact, when was the last time he was stuck in traffic and you saw him? If your answer is no, then most likely your pastor is a spirit. If a man wants to live in isolation, he should please not get married so that we can save the body of Christ all this embarrassment.

5. Wisdom is in the city square: If a man of God is inadequate on a particular subject, It is not shameful to get help. It is humility to look for help from people that have studied that particular subject. Something to learn from someone we have categorized as sinner. So when I hear someone make statements like there is nothing an unbeliever can teach me, I often ask who taught you how to speak English and understand Mathematics. Age and longevity in ministry is not the same as wisdom.

Robber electrocuted at Iju

Photo: Robber electrocuted at Iju

This is a dead pic of a robber who got electrocuted while trying to steal cable from a transformer just beside a house on Iju road by Lonlo bus stop. He apparently tried to steal the cable in the very early hours of today when he got electrocuted and remained in that position until residents woke up this morning. Residents say they are waiting for Government officials to come and carry his dead body.

Boko Haram attacked our building ─ T.B. Joshua

 

The founder and General overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T. B. Joshua has said Boko Haram may be responsible for the collapse of a six-storey building in the church premises.

Joshua, who told members of his church on Sunday not to be afraid, said the attack was targeted at him and not at them.

The prophet made it clear that the collapse of the six-storey building at around 11.45am on Friday which led to the death of no fewer than 16 persons was a Boko Haram attack.

Joshua buttressed his claim by showing to his congregation on the Emmanuel TV the chronology of events shortly before and after the accident as captured by the church’s CCTV.

He said, “I received a phone call immediately I got here, just 10 minutes later when I was in the church, that there was a jet hovering over the mountain where I had just left. They said it was hovering at a close range. Before I knew it, I received another phone call that the same jet was now at the church hovering over the building, passing it four times at a very close range before the building collapsed.”

Joshua read to the church a letter which he said was addressed to him by a Boko Haram member, confessing how he had attempted to plant a bomb inside the church.

Joshua said his church was being attacked to scare away members.

“This environment at Ikotun Egbe, we have never witnessed an accident of a building collapse. This is a very stable terrain. I have been here for the past 30 years. I am pregnant with words, but we have left the security agencies to do their job. Let us believe and educate our people and be alive.”

Assuring his congregation that God would bring the perpetrators of the attack to book, Joshua said that the decision of the insurgents to focus on his church might be the end of the Boko Haram’s activities in the country.

Wole Soyinka writes on the #bringbackjonathan post, says he knows Australian hostage negotiator

In a piece he titled 'The Wages of Impunity', Nobel Laureate Prof Soyinka condemned the recent #bringbackjonathan2015 campaign slogan and GEJ's recent trip to Chad with Ali Modu Sheriff, who has been accused of being a Boko Haram sponsor. In the piece posted on Sahara Reporters, Prof Soyinka wrote that he knows Australian hostage negotitaor Stephen Davis, saying that they both worked together under late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua's regime during the struggle for the return of peace in the Niger Delta region. 

He also wrote that he has his own theories regarding how General Ihejirika may have come under Stephen Davis’ searchlight. Find his article after the cut...

Synagogue Church building collapses

Many people are reported to have died with several others injured after a building inside the headquarters of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Ikotun, Lagos collapsed around 2pm this afternoon.

Many worshipers who lived inside the church were among those who died while some are believed to still be trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building.

Four ambulance buses have arrived the scene, taking the injured to the hospital while the dead ones are being evacuated to the mortuary. 

Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide

 

Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Judge Thokozile Masipa found the paralympian's actions were 'negligent' on the night he killed Ms Steenkamp in February 2013.
Pistorius, dubbed the Blade Runner due to his prosthetic limbs, has always admitted he had shot the model.
He said he mistook her for an intruder and fired four bullets from his 9mm pistol through the toilet cubicle in his Pretoria home.
Judge Masipa criticised Pistorius' decision to reach for his gun and fire it through the cubicle rather than raise the alarm or fire a warning shot.
She also accused the 27-year-old of being a poor witness, muddled over his defence and a liar.
She told him: "A reasonable person therefore, in the position of the accused with similar disabilities would have foreseen that the possibility that whoever was behind the door might be killed by the shots.
"They would have taken steps to avoid the consequences and the accused in this matter failed to take those consequences."
Summing up she said: "Having regard to the totality of this evidence in this matter, the unanimous decision of this court is the following: On count one, murder, the accused is found not guilty and discharged. Instead he is found guilty of culpable homicide."
Pistorius showed little emotion as the guilty verdict - South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter - was read out. The charge carries a maximum jail term of 15 years.
The judge had begun the day dealing with the three firearms charges which were unrelated to last year's Valentine's Day shooting.
Pistorius was found guilty of discharging a firearm at a restaurant in Johannesburg on January 11, 2013.
But he was acquitted of firing a gun through a car sunroof while with his then-girlfriend Samantha Taylor and friend Darren Fresco on November 30, 2012.
He was also cleared of illegally possessing .38 ammunition. Pistorius had denied all three charges.