Author: Obayomi Abiola Benjamin

Tunde Odesola With feathers adapted for silent flight, eyes imbued with binocular vision, ears made for binaural hearing and talons designed to kill, the owl is the silent killer machine in the sky. The owl holds different meanings to different cultures of the world. In Africa, the owl is generally seen as an evil bird. Among the Kikuyu of Kenya, the owl is a messenger of death; the hoot of an owl is believed to bring bad luck, ill health, or death. Among the Yoruba, ‘eye aje’ (bird of the underworld) has the attributes of the owl – big eyes,…

Tunji  Ajibade It’s disheartening that many Nigerians lose their lives in the herdsmen-farmers saga. But citizens should also be concerned when some who know the true context of it choose to propound a conspiracy theory and thereby make enemies for our government.  Recently, The PUNCH reported the Federal Government’s response to an allegation made by a faith-based group in Nigeria. The group wrote to the British parliamentarians, alleging that the Federal Government was persecuting Christians. It added that the Federal Government propped up Boko Haram insurgents purposely to carry out attacks against Christians. In a situation where a few bad eggs as…

The word “Church” was first mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus said to Peter “…you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” From that Scripture, few of the many things that could be deduced from it is that Jesus told Peter He was going to build a church, the type in which the gates of Hades (the gate of hell) cannot prevail against. It then tells us that the type of church Jesus established can’t be prevailed against by the devil and…

A myth is an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true. Marital myths are those beliefs or understanding that people have about marriage, but which are not true. There are many ideas about marriage in the hearts of people which are not consistent with God’s idea of what marriage entails. We should never forget that God Himself instituted marriage, and He has given us a manual on how to enjoy it. The myths discussed below are those that have been found not to be true, especially, as they are not consistent with the…

When it comes to Nigeria, and talking about those that have been accused of one corruption or the other while occupying different public offices, when you hear names like Diezani Alison-Madueke, you don’t need to think too far before you realise that “levels dey for this corruption business.” Apart from the likes of Late Sani Abacha whose loot is still finding their ways into Nigeria, even two decades after his death, Diezani Alison-Madueke is a living legend when you are looking for one of those who have looted this nation’s commonwealth. Diezani Alison-Madueke is a former Nigerian Oil Minister…

We cannot shy away from the fact that there are erroneous grace messages out there. Many supposed believers hide under the guise of some of these grace messages to perpetrate their sinful life and actions. The Bible never fail to warn us about folks like this. In Jude 1:4, brother Jude wrote: “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” If you read that Scripture in KJV, the word “lewdness”…

It is disheartening to see and read about what the church of God has been reduced to, especially in Nigeria. When Jesus said “I will build my church”, obviously He was not talking about putting bricks and mortals together at the time. The church He was simply talking about, in context, are people; those who have been redeemed, called out of the kingdom of darkness into His marvellous and glorious light. These were the people Jesus was talking about that He was going to build. But when you see the inglorious things happening in His church today, especially lately in…

By Toyin Falola Below is an excerpt of the convocation lecture of Babcock University, by Prof. Toyin Falola, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. My address has underscored the relevance of faith in the context of the related ideas of fact and fiction. In the process, it accepts faith as given. After all, faith and society have always been linked since the birth of human civilisation. Religion has made enormous contributions to the growth of civilisation. In Nigeria, we should tap into the advantages of faith and avoid inter-religious…

One of the fundamental problems facing many homes across the world today is the absence of a responsible father. There are millions of children growing up without a human figure they could point to as their father. Many women today have had to shoulder the responsibilities of being the father and the mother at the same time to their children. In fact, behavioural scientists have proven that children who grow up without a father figure in their lives are sometimes (if not most times) prone to violence, more likely to be aggressive, more likely to be depressed, more likely to…

It would be a great trap when we begin to think that we as humans, can function without God. God did not make man to function outside of Him. The day a man thinks in himself that he can function without God is the day such a man will begin to die. Why? Because man was never made to function outside of God. The original man was made to function in God and with God. This, we know to be true when God said “let us make man in our image and likeness.” The reason for this arrangement is so…