THE HISTORY OF NIGERIA, PATRIOTISM AND THE FOREIGN POWERS THAT BE
There are many reasons that people do what they do, though these days the modern day academics who tend to espouse an atheistic worldview would want us to believe that only science determines how the world works, we know very differently. Certain world trends are revealing a cocktail of non scientific factors in the twenty first century that point not necessarily to people becoming more religious but rather to people acting in such a way that shows they work with methods that are rather non scientific.
One very important event that has changed the way many people view human responsibility is the recent covid19 pandemic. Since the outbreak of the disease never before have those outside the medical practice been so ignorant about the true nature of a disease as in the covid 19 case. Debates still rage within media cycles and political cycles as to what caused the varying controversial responses on covid19. From top political figures breaking covid rules to conspiracy theories claiming it was all a hoax.
Another key event that has shaken the world in the twenty first century is the well publicized Arab spring and subsequent mass Arab migration to the west. Apart from the gulf war and September 11 episode, the Middle East has been a source of many political/cultural upheavals that have affected the world – these may be counted among the immediate and remote causes of the Arab spring clearly instigated by western forces. This was seen in the way European nations opened their doors to massive amounts of people from the Middle East moving into Europe. It is clear that Europe feels responsible for the Middle East for many reasons which are mainly historical and which continue till date… including the Israeli – Palestine conflict.
This leads me to the core of the issues detailed in the topic of discussion today. One country that can be described as a nation at the center of the world metaphorically is Nigeria. Studying Nigerian history one would be apt to discover a series of events that put this geographical landscape downstream to many world events starting from the trans-Arabian slave trade to the transatlantic slave trade and currently to the world economic crises.
Nigeria historically has a tendency to be ignored in the scheme of things due to the huge diversity of people that live within its boundaries who claim to be free peoples. Human history has progressed through war and slavery and thus shown a fear of people who are fiercely independent. Thus when sub-Saharan Africa, was finally opened up through the victories of the prophet of Islam, who also sought to stop slavery, but subsequently in reality opened the door for a new wave of slave raiding and the conquering and impoverishment of black Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa had prided itself in its obscurity and used this as a shield against invasion and colonization. Islam is known to be the source of the intrusion into Africa of foreign elements who were able to exploit the military power of the obscure black race who were very instrumental in the massive successes of Islam in southern Europe entrenching the Ottoman empire.
Africa became the new continent to beat and this led to the subsequent transatlantic slave trade when European explorers discovered that much of the formerly hidden enclaves of the African continent were poorly developed and could be harvested for slave labor. The fall and division of the Islamic caliphate also gave way to the resurgence of Arab slave raiders into sub-Saharan Africa. This is recorded for us by anti slave crusaders like the renowned David Livingstone. Nigeria seems to have been a center for vicious African tribes like the Kwararafa, the Benin and later on the Hausa and Borno empires who became a focus of the later Islamic caliphates that had lost the Mohammedan anti slavery ideals and who had already taken Mali, Senegal and the important ports of eastern Africa. They saw the Nigerian region as the remaining hub of paganism to be conquered in west Africa and a door way to the rest of Africa.
A western anthropologist was so moved by what he saw in Nigeria late in the 18th and early 19th century that he wrote about it saying that some areas in Nigeria were so devastated by the slave trade that in some villages old people could not be found and the oldest were between the ages of 30 to 50 years.
It is in this light that we can now understand the problem in Nigeria even today in the 21st Century. Slavery affected the entire West African coast as evidenced by monuments of such horrific practice in countries like the Ivory Coast and Ghana but while Ghana came to be known as the gold coast, Nigeria was only renamed in 1914 after the British ruthlessly fought slave trade which proliferated till then. This is one of the reasons petroleum has become one of the main sources of revenue for the Nigerian people. Before oil, agriculture was the main source of sustenance for the people which tended to be labour intensive and subject to many factors that were not in the control of the people. Another documentary by Captain Faulks of the British army, recorded the event in one tribal group forced out of their home back into the hands of their enemies (the Hausa Fulani) who were invading northern Nigeria – this time by the invasion of locusts which destroyed their crops. This event led to another slave master relationship as those who left their home in search of work were forced to labor as slaves among their ancestral relatives in the Bauchi area (the last Kwararafa enclave to be conquered by the invaders) just to survive. Among this tribal group known as the Ngas it is widely known that those who did not return home after this adventure are popularly declared dead – showing their disdain and shame linked to such forced slavery – this practice was also known to discourage returnees who could be trailed by would be invaders into Ngas territory.
The British, Portuguese and French had actually interrupted a vital development in sub-Saharan history when they invaded and colonized West Africa and indeed Nigeria and these sentiments remain unfortunately deep rooted and affect the day to day lives of ordinary Nigerians. Many tribal leaders are still consciously and unconsciously still hunting their ancient rivals. Conscious in the sense that the ancient system of governance was preserved by the British and thus preserving tribes and allegiances who still see their neighbors as rivals. Unconscious in the sense that, one cannot easily remove his nativity from himself and once in a while there is a sense of nostalgia in the search for ones origins even through the study of history. The discovery of ancient ways and practices inadvertently resurrects both its positives and negatives.
The Boko Haram insurgency is one very important precipitant of this imbroglio, and the reduction in value of petroleum globally has left a huge economic gap visavis rising population and lack of technological development due to corruption which many agree stems from same source (tribal differences). This is also aggravated by the discovery of precious minerals in parts of the country leading to a fresh struggle for control. To assert control of these resources these tribal chieftains – potentially war lords – have inadvertently returned to attempting to reassert dominance on neighboring tribes just to gain control of such resources. This state of affairs can be blamed on past leaders who have failed to integrate the people conceptually through the many years of Nigerian independence. Also turning the popular NYSC (National Youth Service) scheme to only a money grabbing adventure, as education is only seen as a means to wealth – used to dominate other tribes and not a source of intellectual and conceptual human development. This is true as over Nigerian history government institutions have only become symbolic and fail to truly perform their duties being hijacked by private individuals and tribal motives for the sake of self enrichment and empowerment.
This brings us to the final issue in contention: the influence of foreign powers. Nigeria lies in a region famously torn apart by western and eastern fault lines. Another western commentator (Eliza Grizwald) calls this fault line the tenth parallel… at independence Nigeria was torn by opposite forces, Nigerian leaders chose to side with western powers then – it is opined by D.N Wambutda that this was as a result of the wickedness through slavery of the forces in the east namely Arabia – especially in the post independence events that created Nigeria itself. Currently Nigeria is again faced with the decision to either side with the west or with the east. Again Nigerian leaders are siding with the west notwithstanding internal opposing forces closely linked to eastern ideology. The tenth parallel is affected by geographical and sociological factors and this cannot be ignored even in the light of the very educated Nigerian elite. This has created a massive internal rift in the country which defies scientific explanations and can be seen in the economic woes of the nation. How else can one explain the tumbling dollar naira exchange rate as compared to other African nations?
To bring a conclusion to this, it is clear that many expect Nigerian foreign policy to tilt towards siding with the so called southern block of nations led by Russia, China , SouthAfrica, Brazil and India – BRICS. But Nigerians cannot because ancient and current realities still vividly remind of the suffering of the people in the hands of slave raiders and harsh tax regimes. This is in a land harboring a multiplicity of diversity who pride themselves in their uniqueness and independence. Hence the bent towards western powers and ideology among the elite. This is amid the huge Nigerian diaspora living in western nations. Unfortunately instead of creating a sympathetic response from western nations, these nations tend to bend to be rather skeptical of Nigerians for reasons that may be also historical. Due to massive migration of Nigerians, Nigerians have tended to dominate wherever they go creating some clear or muted rivalries. In this light it is indeed an antithesis that Nigerians would still be siding with the west even in their present situation. Thus the slide in the Nigerian economy and loss in the value of the Nigerian naira – a country which has lost many friends and has no clear enemies.
In this light , the abundance of natural resources would mean very little in such a phenomenological confusion and human cargo returns as primordial to the mentality of everyday life in Nigeria – unfortunately this has taken a global dimension as observable that certain global forces ranging from social media companies, and financial conglomerates who are taking advantage to hold not only Nigeria but the world to ransom in certain virtual pay for play schemes and tilting the global economy and polity on its head.
David Dungji Chinke
Western Hegemony and the African developmental problem – A Dilemma for Human Rights Watchers
In developing this article I have many challenges, and these challenges stem from the fact that I will be dealing with many multi dimensional problems. Firstly is the problem of western hegemony itself – its legitimacy and then it’s supposed illegitimacy if any. Secondly I will be dealing with the issue of the Human rights community. The question of philosophical legitimacy is one that continues to plague humanity over the ages. What are the principles that determine who we should listen to? Is it that such a person has a PhD, is physically wealthy? Has become popularly accepted as some form of community leader? Is it a combination of all of these? Whether or not we accept the views and verdicts of the human rights community may include these; and the fact that they are seen to be just in their assessments. Thirdly, I will pick a topic like child labour and hope to expand this topic to see how the 21st century perceptions on the issue can be applied to the topic of western Hegemony and Human rights.
I will start by telling a story hoping to trace my personal experience with child labour in the Nigerian society. I grew up in a family in which my father was a veterinary doctor with a degree from a Nigerian university and a DVM post graduate from a western university. From age zero to about five years I grew up being pampered and getting the best life could offer a child my age for a middle class family of the early 80s. By age seven I was duty bound to learn how to wash plates and do minor chores around the house as many of my older cousins that often visited from the village where no longer there to help. And though my mother had resigned from her well paid job as a nurse working with the federal government, she did not think it wise to let me sit silly and allow her or my older cousin who was still with us to do the dishes. Living in a third world country like Nigeria at the time, dish washers cost a fortune, if you could even get one to buy and so did washing machines.
So, learn I did, even though it became a subject of conflict between myself and my older brother every evening as to whose turn it was and who was doing the most work. By the age of 12, water was no longer flowing in the tap from the state water board and so we got another chore added to our list of chores and this was to go to a nearby stream (which we were by the way lucky to have, in a township area like Jos) every day to fetch some. It is unbelievable to get to know that as a child, I did not know what a well looked like, until I was about 15 years of age. Water flowed in the tap to every household. By the age of 12, in addition to washing plates, clothes, running errands on a weekly/daily bases between 1 to 4km from home to sometimes get groceries for the home (walking all the way), I was also involved in farm work and removing grass around the house. By the way, during school days I walked not less than 5km from school back home, though I was lucky to have my dad who owned a Peugeot 504 (always breaking down) to drop me off in the morning.
With all these responsibilities that spanned my entire teen age, until I was 25 years of age, I did not miss my play time with friends, believe you me I did not miss a second of my childhood. We played, din-din-chakass, police and thief, football was a constant… there was no corner of the backyard bush we did not explore during this play time and by the way we also kept a small number of sheep which we were responsible for tending, if I remember correctly from the age of 7, I and my elder brother were responsible for this.
One thing I want to point out clearly in this article is that our job was not made any easier by the failure of government to provide necessary basic amenities like:1. Pipe born water
2. Cheep and affordable transportation
3. Constant electricity
4. Necessary textbooks for the educational sector / though my parents could afford to pay my school fees in a private school.
One other thing I will be duty bound to look at is moral culture in the Nigerian society and acceptable worldwide at the time, this in many ways also affected what we got and how we got it. My parents insisted they would not cut corners and would not cheat government but would depend solely on their salaries and this also informed my mothers joblessness at a time during my life (she chose to resign, instead of cheat government of its time). By the time I was 23 years of age my parents were able to leave the government provided apartment they had and built a small 3bedroom house which we moved into. My mother had returned to work because the economy had proved impossible, with five children to feed, clothe and educate. This was after 2 failed business loans that I can remember, sale or a house they had built in the village during the early prosperous years and a tenacious saving culture. What is my point in all this? It is simply that there should be acceptable standards through which human rights watchers can assess a people vis-à-vis acceptable global moral realities. Simply because you cannot retrieve from someone what you have not given. Western Hegemony
Now I will try to trace from historical records the growth of western Hegemony and how it directly affects today’s African and indeed Nigerian society. Looking at Africa as a geo political reality; one can trace its first interactions with the western world from two points of contact.
1. Arab and Neo Arab influences from the Middle East.
2. Pre-and Post Transatlantic trade
In the ancient world, Africa was at par with other nations of the world and also had the right to raid and colonize any country or people it chose to. But through the conquests of Alexander the great western influences expanded south which created the gradual isolation of sub-Saharan Africa and subsequent rapid social and technological development of Europe and Arabia. This led to the west becoming stronger through the euro-British expansion and opened the door to transatlantic trade. The result of this was that Africa was essentially surrounded which also led to the conquest of small continents like Australia, Newzeland and the West Indies formally African indigenous territories. Effectively most African territories were either effectively annexed or colonized by the end of the 18th century and early 19th centuries. It is deceptive to assess Africa based on the current observation that it also enjoys modern technology and democratic governments like western nations. Unlike greater Asia, it is true that Africa was denied the opportunity to develop on its own terms, especially via the instrumentality of African indigenous intellectualism. The then western powers falsely assumed that the absence of a domineering power such as Ethiopia, Nubia and other contemporaries would suddenly lead to even and just development. This was what the Indians, Chinese and Japanese where able to avoid by insisting on an egalitarian trade relationship with the west. It thus suffices to say that the two major religions – Islam and Christianity played a major role in these developments. While Christianity became acculturated in the west, Islam was on a mission to obtain all of the Middle East and Africa. The problem though with Africa was that it had been a very strong center for the establishment of Christianity pre-Mohamedanism, and thus resisted Islamic hegemony. Thus when western governments began colonizing both Middle Eastern and African nations, part of their unstated aims was to in no small way re-establish Christianity. It is not thus accidental that in trying to fight western hegemony in Africa, many theorists would put their focus squarely on 18/19 century Christianity. Just like feudalism is often attributed to Christianity while in fact it was a pre-Christian establishment entrenched by the Romans. Western hegemony in truth has foundations far beyond Christianity and is in fact also present in the origin and spread of Islam. This is another concept the Asians have been able to avoid, having entrenched their own indigenous religions which western and Arabian civilizations were unable to effectively truncate. This is the reason today that most Africans would prefer to return to their indigenous religions and systems instead of alluding to either Islam or Christianity. The truth is that western hegemony is solely a baby born of the gradual superiority in technological and thus military strength of the west. The west effectively bullies it way to acquire everything/one of value and destroys anything it cannot claim as its own or does not want. This is the same strategy conquering Islam employed, entrenching its chosen language culture and identity in any nation it conquers. Because of this superiority in technology and modernization, the west effectively controls everything that Africa can or will ever be, if not deliberately, for the very desire of wanting to stay at the top (and sometimes staying at the top means staying afloat and vice versa). This calls to question the entire moral and ethical basis of the world system and takes us back to where we started. What is the ethical model human rights watchers should employ? Since both Christianity and Islam seem to be failing… traditionalism on its part is a pre-modern system and many including myself have agreed that it does not bring any solutions that Christianity or Islam have not already tried. Here in Nigeria we are currently experiencing the imbroglio caused by its pre-modern ethical methods – crashing economies, genocides and the deterioration of human dignity. In my view, which are outlined in my recent book, Foundations of Conceptuality, I have surmised that we have already acquired the methods we need to govern modern civilization – as a global community if we agree to remain so. In agreement with Carl Marx and the Modernization theory, both the west and the rest have all gone through the process of; Primitive Communism, Ancient Civilization, Feudalism and Capitalism (although not all have experienced capitalism). In this wise, drawing a dichotomy between systems solely considered western and those considered African in my view is unwise and detrimental to global peace and security – not to talk of the development of Africa. This will then impinge on the ability of our human rights watchers to properly interpret what they observe in African societies and proffer practical and just solutions.
1. The way to equity and justice will originate from the diligence and efforts at such from western nations to the rest which will include correct assessment of the wealth of African elite – refusing to indulge their every whim at the expense of the poor.
2. This will also affect climate change as the way to halt and manage climate change will only originate from western integrity and discipline.
David Dungji Chinke
Human Development in the Post-COVID era, Poverty eradication, Wealth Creation and Sustainability
Writing from a Missions and Theological perspective, I would say that, it is easy to see why peace and security have been issues in the past decade on a world scale. Economists and sociologists can make assertions, probably based on statistics available to them but I have begun to be convinced that except there are people among us, in the nature of about at least 40% who would still be alive in the next 50 – 100 years to substantially benefit from policies emanating from many of these statistics, there may be equal value from instantaneous observations. For instance, I can point to at least two different topics which I researched last year that reveal a polarity between what is popularly practiced and what the data reveals. Before then and during the period mentioned I had often been a critic of civil disobedience based on the results and motives of such civil disobedience. I discovered that many of the mass protests within the period were poorly organized and sometimes based on false information (even wishful thinking) and sometimes aimed at suppression of voiceless people for the sake of actualizing the promises of the political class.
I did not see why a certain group of people were protesting for certain issues and when I looked up the statistics; I discovered that my mere observations were right. For example when I looked up the statistics that compared violent crimes with insanity, I found out that the numbers were just not there. Thus we may have to put blame on many other factors such as; unemployment, drug abuse, dysfunctional homes, and proliferation of arms. I also looked up the relation between brain drain in Nigeria and socio economic factors, and I discovered that the socio economic factors pointed positively towards the need to relieve the Nigerian economy of an excess of unemployed graduates possibly through brain drain. This was when there was a huge uproar against brain drain among the masses – again my mere observations were proved true by the statistics. This is mainly because Nigeria is suffering from an imbalance in economic output as compared to population and annual number of graduates that higher institutions produce.
Let me then focus on this topic so as to illuminate certain points. Many will agree that the education sector in Nigeria needs more attention, yet studies have shown that about 70% of Nigerians are educated at least up to primary level. Thus the real question to ask is what is the quality of this education? Also another question as already raised is, can the Nigerian economy adequately cater for the number of graduates it produces? If a good percentage of our graduates depend on white collar jobs such as government, banking sector, and the oil sector what percentage can actually etch out a consistent source of income from entrepreneurship? From mere observation one would discover that a considerable percentage of Nigerians are in the private sector, but a good number of them are not documented practitioners. This is because many of such are petty traders depending on a daily income and are usually skeptical about government institutions so as to avoid unfair taxation and rent.
A good number also generate such income from what was meant to be subsistence ventures and are living in relative poverty. Between 1999 and now, the democratic governments have put measures on ground to try to create new jobs within this group of people through the new emerging markets in trade such as the telecoms, information technology and agricultural sector. These innovations have to my mind tended to succeed because they helped encourage the already existing robust banking sector which informally depended heavily on the “adashe” system of banking. Also, governments tried to subsidize agricultural inputs and support already existing channels for export and sustainability of international markets. Hence to my mind, government succeeded by strengthening innovation even if such innovation was mere trade. Failure began and was palpable in these sectors and others where government initiated or allowed bigger private firms to invade or attempt a hostile take over of established markets, e.g the street “adashe” banking system. The ripple effect was the clamp down on so called wonder banks that offered huge profits from crypto currency or multilevel marketing firms and often tried to invade the territory of established banks.
Thus when the telecoms sector and information technology sector were stabilizing (which often comes with some cuts) thus the curve deeps momentarily and flattens subsequently, many were thrown into unemployment. If the period of abundance was properly managed through correct forecasts, those jobs created through these relatively new sectors will be secured by channeling surplus saved during this time to other emerging sectors. For instance, sectors which began to lose relevance and thus jobs, were in the “business centers” which developed from the early advent of computers into Nigeria, many in such sectors had do develop new ideas or be thrown into unemployment. A direct consequence of this, is the huge spike in the cost of laptops, and desk tops which were becoming available to every household. Also linked to this is the availability of smart phones. Nevertheless both the telecoms and IT sectors are hugely dependent on success of other sectors which will help boost the need for the products offered by these two sectors. The nature of the Nigerian economy visavis the world economy dictated that these sectors remained limited to : Trade, Agriculture, Petroleum, and the most controversial; Human labour. Between trade and agriculture, new markets evolved, yet these were not enough to cover for the losses in the Telecoms and IT sector which in turn is beginning to affect the banks. The other sector is the transportation sector which depends heavily on trade, and this sector has always prospered in Nigeria, and was also bolstered when democracy aided in the reduction of corruption and sharing of resources thus aiding more private citizens to be able to buy cars, motor cycles and tricycles.
My point in all this is to show that there is need for a new sector, locally created to cover for the annual growth in population and loss of jobs in already existing sectors which may not be assured of external foreign inputs as created by the telecoms and IT sector… also visavis the rejection by the Nigerian government of crypto currency which will aid the telecoms and IT sector but may negatively affect the Banks and affect other sectors like agriculture and industry.
This new sector can only be created through innovation in the engineering, health (including herbal) and financial sectors. Knowing this will make one to grow anxious since another observational issue raises the question of this possibility. Africans and especially Nigerians are not known to encourage innovation especially in the engineering sector. The health sector has been steadily growing and has achieved many successes. But it is highly dependent like the agricultural sector and the financial sector on engineering and thus held to ransom by the slow growth of local technology and industry. But a careful observer will understand that to strengthen engineering innovation one would have to weaken the transportation sector, which will inadvertently mean weakening trade. As a careful observer I would like to note that successive governments have failed to show the political will to strengthen local innovation in sectors which would have cancelled the current deficit due to so called socio-cultural and sometimes religious and political reasons. Technology is directly affected by foreign trade and thus may prove harder to liberalize, while the Obasanjo government tried to weaken the trade from car imports, it destroyed local manufacturing of electrical lamps and electronics by encouraging the importation of rechargeable lamps. None of the governments after him have made any radical moves in this sector, they have only followed in his foot steps. It was during the Obasanjo era that many elite discovered Nigeria’s resemblance to India visavis is strength and potential as to technology development yet It is notable that there is no radical innovation in research and development in the engineering sector except the effort to build new refineries and cement factories, which are hugely dependent on imports. While the petroleum sector will remain viable for some time, the pressure on the construction industry is beginning to be palpable.
The Ajakuta iron ore and steel plants have been popular topics in the news but with little effect on the local economy, the Jos steel rolling mills have since closed shop. Engineering is the one sector that can save the Nigerian national economy if wisely invested in allaying the fears of foreign powers who depend on Nigeria for cooperation as to trade (this is difficult to do)… I do believe that weather in 50 years or 100 years Nigeria will come to the point to either regret or celebrate the decisions it makes as to this sector. Again currently government seems to be lacking in the right motivation for this, it seems to want to begin to strip middle class car owners of their cars rather than do what is needful, reduce the enormous costs in central governments which still supports (wrongly) large scale importation, and invest such in supporting local research into new technology which will in the near and distant future create the much needed jobs in sectors no one thought was possible yesterday.
David Dungji Chinke
International Cooperation, Tourism and The Global Economy
Writing as first and foremost a Christian Missionary, I do not often want to look like overly critical of the professional managers of our economy. Yet global economics affects many modern sectors among which are: Transportation sector, Tourism Sector, Education(Especially Tertiary), Import Export sector, Currency operations, and Cultural advancement of which include religious missions.
I would admit that the global politics and economy does directly affect missionary activities which I am a participant. This has meant that a good percentage of my articles and even my preaching these days are focused on the topic of government and the economy. My work is based around the daily lives of ordinary people, many of them often do not even see it at first, but when the economy begins to bite hard, when the political climate begins to heat up, many people leave their homes and find comfort in the pews of churches just to find an alternative answer to the arising imbroglio. They want to know what God is saying about the issues arising, they want to join hands with others and pray to God for extra ordinary solutions.
The lives of ordinary people are affected by whether or not there is food on their tables, a roof over their heads, a family they can find comfort from, clothes on their backs and peace of mind. The economy and political climate most directly affects this and thus in a cyclical motion if these areas are not well catered for, one of the first places those pangs of dissatisfaction will be noticed will be among those who work in the non profit sector, most notably missionaries. Hence no matter how much we want to focus on our revered texts such as the Bible, we are forced outside it. This is because such meta-narratives have faced very focused opposition from renowned scientists and even politicians over the centuries, more so, many adherents of popular religions see meta-narratives including the Bible as just a way of getting out of an immediate problem quickly. Such quick escape may often tend to create other bigger problems within the society; as such is often limited to the subjective interpretation of the person in need. Consequently, there has been a debate among systematic theologians as to the ethics of preaching. Many feel effort should be made not to overly draw applications to topical issues drawn from the Bible as this may mean preaching at people rather than preaching to them. In this way preachers avoid tampering with other professions such as in economics, politics, health care (much less) and security.
At this point I must note that the immediate past British Monarch, of blessed memory, Queen Elizabeth II was one who had perfected this art as a sitting monarch. One must indeed note that she was not just a monarch, but also head of the Church of England. Indeed many pastors and preachers today find that they are forced to imbibe this ethic on their pulpits, yet when things go wrong, the blame falls on their tables. In Britain, when things go wrong it is placed on the table of the Prime minister and not the head of state or the head of the church. This to my mind forces pastors and preachers to speak on these issues once in a while, when a monarch apparently cannot. This is in addition to the fact that to maintain fluidity in our professional practice, we must.
In this light, a great issue of contention today is from the economic front, which is often directly linked to the political sphere. Ironically as to my subjective experience, I discovered that a core and foundational aspect of my work function and doctrinal curricular were effectively usurped for political and economic gains on a phenomenally global and local level while still demanding my input financially. It suffices to say that this theological foundation is the basis of my calling as a pastor, of which I as a work ox am obliged to thread and hence obtain my immediate and distant sustenance. From this experience I am forced to sympathize and also empathize with many ordinary citizens who are founders, inventors, academics, entrepreneurs and workers. Yet I am worse off because according to certain theorists I should not even earn an income while all these I have mentioned do. I must indeed from this point of view question the ethical foundation from which these so called theologians and community leaders base their presuppositions.
It suffices to say that currency, local or international must be exchanged for goods and services, yet, according to how it has been invested in such a contributory hand. This will in no small way help with poverty alleviation and conflict management among the masses. Taxes must be based on a pay as you earn model, all considering, cost of living, transportation, housing and health care. With exception to Pentecostals and traditional miracle doers who base their economy on such ability to perform miracles and provide endless resources, professional pastors and preachers must find a conducive atmosphere to ply their trade which is among the people, where ever the people are the pastor is, pastors among all other professions I know of today only thrive where there is freedom of trade, movement and security. Yet they are among those who often brave dangerous situations to help the needy and socially affected. Non the less many of us only practice the profession as a part time endeavor rather than a full time work for the reason of a lack of a conducive environment.
Finally amid practicable laws increasingly becoming difficult to operate around the world; governments should put effort at curbing the unwarranted abuse of power among operatives who make banking operations and sources of funding of international aid workers of which I am one difficult to access and thus exchange in the process of carrying out ones calling. These have metamorphosed into unprofessional networks within the social media, media and even on the streets forming blockades against other legal professions in the name of some unregulated, unsanctioned theology or pattern of belief mostly blamed on postmodernism and thus is misdirected social activism. As a Pastor all I am interested in doing is to contribute my intellectual quota to the pool of knowledge and not to in any sense dictate standards or definitions, but if my definitions suffice why not accept them? I do not endorse infringement into people’s rights and privileges, in the name of social reform. Social reform must be done from a governmental vantage point, and if the people must participate it must be from a well informed and carful stand point, not to perpetrate injustice. I for one very painfully over the past ten years observed the use of innocent citizens to infringe on the rights of other poor and hardworking people in the name of civic action. People must be allowed to ply their trade freely without intimidation, instead of the paradigm where stealing and lawlessness are being pampered and elevated, by deceiving the people that they will gain some aid when they perpetrate such.
Social paradigms will always change the way things are done, but it is the responsibility of those who live during these times to ensure that humanity is protected for the benefit of future generations.
David Dungji Chinke
International Cooperation, Tourism and The Global Economy II
The global economy is like Big birds so called imaginary friend, Snoferlofergus, he only appears to Big-bird and disappears when Big bird wants to show him off to his friends. Big bird often gets so frustrated that no one believes in his imaginary friend who has helped him through many times of difficulty. Why has the global economy taken such a form? This is because it is a baby of men and women who are visionaries and yet also play a part of being villains of human history. Why are they visionaries? Because they often dream of great projects and are able to bring a huge number of people under that project and thus have been responsible for catalyzing some of the great leaps in human history. Yet they are also villains because along with those great leaps in development such inhumane systems have been created as: slavery, war and class difference.
Thus the global economy seems to sometimes only benefit the rich and famous; at least for much of human history. It is arguably in the 20th and 21st centuries that a greater chunk of humanity has been able to be part of the luxury and relative enlightenment that has come with development vis-à-vis the global economy. Yet such benefits are also arguably systematically swallowed up by the relative growth in population worldwide. Thus there are more people also agitating for better living standards, equity and parity. What is worse is that some of these agitators are people who know very little about the old world and may know also very little on what it takes to create the sustainable prosperity in this new world. In the old world it was agreeable to suppress such but in today’s world the strength of philosophy and Christianity has created what some have described as a weaker world. It is thus an irony that systems like Christianity are also being blamed for the barbarism of the past. The simple answer to this is that the predecessor of Christianity; philosophy has resurfaced within the academia to espouse another hand maid which is esoterism in order to create a genuine usurper.
The New age and liberal movements as predicted have succeeded in calling attention to the misdeeds of pre-modern and modern Christianity and thus claim to be the more acceptable philosophical foundations for the humanity of the future. Notwithstanding this huge cosmological war, it is often appropriate to lay less emphasis on such theological discussions and more on more accessible economic and sociological considerations – less abstract, less contentious and more practical. In this light we must quickly draw an observable inference on who benefits more and who benefits less from the global economy. We can only draw from two broad categories in my view:1. The Developing and Underdeveloped world
2. The Developed and Developing world
Borrowing from well known paradigms these categories would serve us well. In general, while the developed world has led in the efforts at globalization for the past millennium or so, the developing world has been on the receiving end and has often been referred to as underdeveloped because it has not accepted the popular definitions and paradigms which have come to be accepted as development. This has led to a diverse category of scholarship which have opined that this imbalance must be corrected via various mechanism which they deem intrinsic to humanity and thus the acceptable modus operandi often created by these so called developed societies; alien to humanity itself. Nevertheless for the purposes of this article, I would now delve into the issues which these so called agitators consider of greatest concern and how they can be solved in the immediate, for long term benefits. The first issue under consideration is the issue of the proverbial “rape” of the developing world for its human and material resources first through the transatlantic slave trade and subsequently through the forceful harvest of its natural and mineral resources for the benefit of the developing world (then) and now the developed world. Of course some are of the view that such developed societies have a duty to pay back what they owe and are obliged to invest in developing and underdeveloped societies without expecting any remuneration in return. While aid has been the usual rout through which this is done, many voices have arisen also claiming that this does not in any way account for the magnitude of trade in favor of the developed world. Without going further for mere lack of writing space and time in exploring the data available in this light, it would be apt on my part to touch on the issue of the pre-supposed intervention of developed societies in developing ones which such scholars have blamed as the primal cause of the latter’s underdevelopment. In this light it is opined that if developing societies were allowed to progress without intervention they would have naturally become the best version of what nature had created them to be and thus would have developed to their best potential which is today virtually unknown, and may have been even better than what is today defined as development. Thus intervention itself is in itself perceived as a misdeed against the underdeveloped societies. In concluding this article I would want to say that these opined views of postmodern scholars are plausible but are also truly unknowable. Being a theologian in my own rights, I would opine that it is easier to “forth tell” rather than to “foretell”. It is well known even in biblical history that Israel itself was mostly influenced by already progressing civilizations while being guided by the hand of God. Thus it is mostly difficult through the instrumentality of history to determine at what point the unmoved mover intervened. That is left to the establishment of faith which accepts without question, what science has mostly denied and insists on investigating in order to determine the truth of human beginnings.
In that light I would suggest that we approach the matter with a three pronged solution. This solution is based on what we know to be humanities foundational pillars of existence as to an established culture/system. These can be named as:
i. Food Production,
ii. Technology and
iii. Mineral Exploration and Processing.
These pillars have made humanity what it has been from ages immemorial; the ability to feed itself, the ability to transform its environment through use of tools, for agriculture, housing and clothing. Lastly the ability to mine and harvest the imbued products of nature for health and maturity of technology. These are still the pillars on which humanity has created the modern urban economy which fuels development. And these are still the pillars that will save the developing and underdeveloped world from the future of dependence and devastation which it may be destined for if global peace is inconceivable within the coming decades and century. If pre-modernism were to return to us in its full form of racial segregation, class absolutism and religious bigotry, (of which the signs are observable), the developing and underdeveloped world would be the hardest hit while being incapable of effectively defending itself from the might of modern technological weaponry. It is thus true that a full compromise with globalization is plausible or partially while developing these three sectors. Only a very brave and consensus driven people can adopt the more extreme virtue of protectionism; cutting off the internet, only allow locally made cars, thus limit air travel and ban the use of foreign made computers. A totally home grown economy would put to test the theory of zero-intervention at least to such a limited capacity as is humanly possible. This is given the consideration that such a compromise is not immune to the fear of invasion. It is pertinent to note that it is delusional to pretend there are any other options apart from the three aforementioned.
David Dungji Chinke
IN SEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: A PHENOMINOLOGICAL EFFORT TO ENSURE THE SURVIVAL OF FAITH
In the four thousand to five thousand years when humanity was handicapped technologically, the only recourse to seek sustainability for its populace in terms of food, shelter and health was in faith and religion. Some of this religion took the form of sorcery and magic while some was a much more disciplined commitment to learn and know the Supreme Being responsible for the creation of the world.
Battles between opposing sides often took the form of power encounters whose ultimate end were physical battles that caused thousands to fall by the edge of the sword. The Bible records for us how the Israeli experience took form. It started from the battle between Moses and Pharaohs magicians and ended with the ill fated effort at crossing the red sea causing the annihilation of the Egyptian army. One would find it strange that God, after rescuing the Israelites through miraculous means did not provide land and food for them at the final analysis in this way, yes He rained down manna, and yes, he sent birds that served as meat for them but in the finality of it all, the only way they could establish and sustain a nation was to occupy land and farm such a land. If they could not buy such a land like their ancestor Abraham did, they were forced to make war on the inhabitants of the land.
It seems that the God of the bible only uses miracles when he knows that it would be impossible to liberate and provide for his people otherwise. In their settled state; in the land of promise he does not rule them by means of the miraculous alone, but by means of physical laws and boundaries. As time progressed and even his own people began to rebel against him when they had settled in their land that same God (YHWH) strangely does not resort to miracles to bring them back to himself but to the law itself, using their enemies to punish them otherwise.
As the unique experience of the nation of Israel waned, other experiences as recorded in the deterocanonical books reveal to us that the inter-testamental was a period when science began to rear its head and kings began to trust less in the words of the gods and more in such discoveries. This was the time when Antiochus epiphanies himself desecrated the temple of his own gods by attempting to marry the temple goddess (2nd Maccabees 14). These ideas had been nurtured through the reign of Alexander the great and visavis Greek philosophy and education, it proliferated. It was through this same conduit that the Roman emperors vis their preceding conquerors albeit Julius Cesar that the ideals of world civilization was again established. Whilst this effort was short lived because Greek philosophy itself depended a lot on mystic and mythical theorizing; Christianity prospered through the advent of Jesus Christ Himself, and only allowed it resurface almost 1000 years later with the renaissance. Rediscovering its Greek foundations, it was placed on a more sturdy footing basing its existence on working technology provided by science.
While Christians would want to present this as a war between the God of Israel and the gods of the world; in the true sense it is not so. The Greek system had not only rejected the God of Israel but had rejected its own gods also. It had began to attempt to reject mysticism all together. This produced martyrs in people like the ancient Socrates and had produced researchers like the ancient Plato. In truth the renaissance was only a universal attempt by conceptual man to discover the phenomenological reality to how man always succeeded in conquering the forces of nature and properly having dominion over all other creatures of the earth. If God Himself would not recue Israel perpetually through miracles then He desired that man fend for himself through hard work and by discovering the secrets hidden in nature. This to my mind fueled the advents of leaders of whom many were tyrants who conscripted the people to dig mines into the earth and make huge furnaces for the processing to bricks and eventually metal. It is often believed that the Ancient Near East and the Sahara deserts were once populated by forests and savannahs and these perished vis the desire of human beings to use these trees for housing, building ships and processing metal.
As Christians what we should be concerned about is that such as thing as Faith in the supreme creator would have to suffer in order for humanity to escape the deception of false religion which often was blamed for slowing down the development of human civilization. In no other religious faith but the Jewish and Christian faith is one able to see that God’s will is not to spoil man with miracles and thus cause him to renege from physical work. It is vividly observed that historically it was in the west which embraced the Christian faith that science and technology prospered while in the east especially in Africa that science and technology regressed, because the Christian faith was unable to penetrate the deep recesses of the African jungles. This unique type of mysticism that proliferated in Africa desired to protect nature along with its medicinal secrets.
If the events of the past are disputed and would raise too much questions as per our faith – in this to my mind is the purported discovery of the temple fire as not being fire which came from heaven but oil from the “ Dictamnus albus plant” also Efrat rivka Sari states that
“this oil from this plant has been described and identified possibly as “maaleh ashan” the smoke producing herb may have been used in the Ketoret Temple incense. When you take a match to you will notice the flame goes straight up perfectly which explains how the smoke would go up straight when used in the Ketoret incense. This is only speculation and only a descendant of the Avtenal family would know for sure what herb was used. Avtenas family were the only formulators of the family Ketoret recipe that was revealed to Moses on Har Sinai Moses gave specific instructions to the Avtenas family on how to formulate the mystical incense blend for temple service.”
Efrat Sari in her own presentation does not assert so, but asserts that it is not clear in which temple ceremonies the oil was used. It is only stated in the book of 2nd Maccabees 2:1 that the prophet Jeremiah ordered the exiles from Judah to carry along the temple fire (oil). And it was at the same time he hid away the Ark and its tend in a secret cave. This is confirmed in 2nd Maccabees 1:18-23 that this oily liquid was infact the Temple/alter fire.
In this light we should only endeavor to look at the biblical evidence with a mind to discover its secrets through discipline and thoughtfulness. The Atheistic mind would laugh at the foolishness of God as was purported Ham laughed at the nakedness of his father but the faithful mind would know that even the foolishness of God is by far wiser than man is; 1st Corinthians 1: 25, and the weakness of God far stronger than man is.
To my mind it would be only out of blind religiosity that our generation of Christians refuse the biblical evidence that points to work as a primal rule or out of just pure laziness to thoroughly search out the truth hidden within the text of scripture. Too many people in our generation are overly eager to disciple others while being unequipped with the basics required to be such a teacher; foundationally a BSc or BA in Theology given by a duly accredited or recognized theological institution. While questions as to the genuineness of faith of some of these degree holding teachers of faith may be valid, it is better he/she who has than he/she who has not such a foundation in understanding.
In this wise it is my understanding that we cannot protect faith in this generation without putting a halt to careless and undisciplined experimentation with mysticism. This assertion is vis the inability to deny that paranormal and spiritual phenomena do exist and are part of our daily lives nevertheless often defy safe use as to the mind and body but instead show a propensity to deprive us morally, economically and health wise. At this point it would suffice to bring up the discussions of the Apostle Paul on this matter. As discussed by Esoterica in their online Video Apocalyptic Jewish Ascent Esotericism . I for one had always found very uplifting and dumfounding Paul’s explanations in Romans 20:6-9:
“But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows; “Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down), or who will descend into the abyss? (that is to bring Christ up from the dead)”…
In other words Jesus is the one who qualifies as the true and faithful teacher/rabbi. In the religion of the past according to scripture blasphemers were stoned to death for indulging certain patterns of thought and meditations and this hindered and restricted those who could come before God in the holy of hollies both metaphysically and physically. But in the dispensation of Christ, all can come before the throne of God and receive His word and salvation by the fact that He has paid the price of death. The contemporary gap which has indeed always been the gap that has held Christian rhetoric back has been in the how we can bring the kingdom to being among us. As we despised the law we looked forward to the Spirit. But what comprises the Spirit remains a mystery to many of us. Recently as Esoterica pointed out scholars have begun to rediscover the foundations of ancient Jewish mysticism that seem to demystify the spiritual experience of the apostle Paul. To my mind, while Merkavah mysticism seems to be a valid source of spiritual experiences, there may be little biblical evidence to prove that this alone facilitated the experiences of Apostle Peter and the other twelve apostles including Paul. And while the apostle Paul seems to make reference to Merkavah visavis the Jewish regulation on its practice, in Romans 10:6, he only uses it as a reason as to why he would rather put his faith in Christ than not.
In conclusion then if we are to put our trust in Christ, we cannot ignore his instructions set forth by the entire biblical creed which points to moral law as the foundation of his work on earth – Mathew 5:17. We must encourage Christians to return to work and hence return not to the letter but to the principles/spirit that guide the law which Jesus came to fulfill; justice and moral action. In that light though we are aware that miracles do exist and that God superintends over all, we are also joyous and willfully participate in building our world in order to improve the lives of its inhabitants even if it may not be a permanent base.
David Dungji Chinke
b>POWER AND YOU - The great (7) SEVEN of Scripture -
Power is a thing sought for by everybody at different levels. Some want the power to rule a tribe, others a state, others a nation, others the world. But the concept of God, gods and even Satan makes it difficult to obtain such power. Ordinary human beings have to consider population, group interests, and theological concepts (knowledge of spiritual powers) in order to obtain such power. Let us look at the great 7 of scripture who sought for and exhibited power and how they ended up.
POWER THAT BUILDS US INTO OUR GOD ORDAINED POTENTIAL AND DESTINY.
God is a God of process and character, he makes a promise and he keeps it! Sometimes this promise is contingent on character or obedience sometimes it is not, but character is always the end result! In God’s process, any form of “identity blessing” is based on succession! Elisha succeeded Elijah (notice the similar names), Moses was a type of Jesus, and Elijah too was a type of Jesus! Both Moses and Elijah pointed to the coming of Jesus! These are not just mare coincidences as God makes them happen for a purpose, but not everything that appears to have a pattern is to be taken so seriously, this is because of what I call www.universe.GOD! Everything in this world has some sort of connection in a spider web like fashion or a honey comb fashion (scientists will know more about this)! What is the probability that 10 people in this world look exactly alike but are born of different parents? What is the probability that 5 books in this world have the same title? There is a facial expression that Will Smith has that makes me think we have an ancestral link somewhere because he looks a lot like my brother! Some years back when I was in secondary school, my friends came to school and asked me if my brother was an actor? There is one new actor on the scene that people have been telling me looks a lot like me! Why these “coincidences”? Here are two reasons why God does this: 1. To remind us that we are all from the same source 2. To remind those who follow him of his promises foretold by his prophets If not for this, we are all uniquely different, even twins are different in some way! Years back I did a private study of 5 sets of Christian twins (nothing official)! I discovered they all have a way of establishing individual uniqueness, that no matter how identical and close they are, something would happen in their lives to distinguish them – sometimes it was character, sometimes temperament, sometimes schooling etc.
Human beings sometimes have identity crises, coming from a need for relevance; some even indulge in identity theft! They take advantage of www.universe .GOD in a negative way to divert resources and this sometimes creates crises! Some have developed a copy cat theology! This is done by copying the negative example of Cain and Jacob hoping to deceive the “blind god” as it where! This theology is definitely not done to deceive the omnipotent God, but the perceived blind gods! I.e. human beings with power and money, I’ll give an example at this point: Once a pastor was to be posted to a local church, this pastor was new to the people in that locality and so because the people were not in agreement with the purported transfer, they got another pastor they knew form their village, with a similar name and got him to stay close to the pastor to be employed and transferred and thus succeeded in replacing him! They did this to deceive a human being – blind god – and it worked! But unknown to them, many people got to hear of it and ignorantly began to copy the process, on and on until it created huge crises (note that names of people and places have been hidden)! These people may have done this to stop a purported injustice but such a method because it lacks transparency developed into a problem, people who heard of it started chasing this person around in order to do the same thing, thinking that once they stayed near the person, some sort of blessing would filter to them! But unknown to many, this is the very method Satan uses to usurp God’s work! There are many other ways this identity copying is done: 1. Academic theft – where the work of students are stolen by lecturers and vice versa! 2. Copy cat marketing – names of individuals or groups are used to attract customers e.g. Sony and Sunny (this form is sometimes accidental and most times not harmful) This is popular in the entertainment industry where names are everything! Thus the name is what is on sale, the popular unsubstantiated rumor about Michael Jackson is one such scenario, where it was said that the real Michael Jackson had died years ago in the early 80’s! Everybody wants to protect his/her identity and hence intellectual property, thus it is not easy to mimic or copy anything or anybody, hard workers create their own identity and develop others! Identity can only be stolen in the case of a blind god, the omnipotent God counts the hairs on our heads and can never be deceived! He knows us by name, by genealogy and by the very spirit composition because he put it there! In fact people who have lost hope in their eternal future fight God by identity theft in the church. Identity is very important for a stable society though and when identity becomes a problem in a country its leaders must begin to put measures in place to protect its territory as there is a possibility of foreigners disguising themselves as citizens! Therefore I’d like to say, do not feel out of place in this world, love God, love yourself and Love others around you! Pray to God to show you your place in this world and work towards it because as we say: Your Destiny is Engraved in Gold… On the palm of God’s hands!
God has always been with human beings even though it became hard for us to hear him clearly because of our tendency to want to be independent. He spares no effort to come to our level and help us out, all we need to do is to accept his offer and extend a hand of acceptance to his invitation, to be part of his plan for the human race. Jesus started a movement more than 2000 years ago to stand for the rights of every human being to believe in something higher than himself, and to assert that belief. He stood for love, human dignity, and human freedom, as well as human responsibility. Micheal Jackson sang a song once called man in the mirror. the principle in that song even if he wont say so is born from God's principle that everyone should judge himself instead of point accusing fingers at others. personal example superseeds judgement. He gave this personal example by sacrificing his own life for the entire human race.
the supernaturality of christ birth, death and reported resurection, is a source of varried controversy. humans find it dificult to believe that someone could die and rise again, some take it as far as saying that there is no God. but i believe that this is rather an unrealistic and naive line of thought. sometimes i wonder if humans are really alone in this universe, is it possible tha there are alians somewhere in another solar system? some say it is possibe, others say it is just a figment of our imagination. one thing that sets me thinking is that once upon a time people in africa thought they were alone in the world until they encountered the white man. once human beings thought the earth was flat and not round. we can go on and on, human beings are only as knowledgable about the world they live in as God allows them to be, as the fronteiers of science increase, and knowledge increases we might as well discover that we are indeed not alone in the universe. and of course we would be shoked to find out that there is someone who proberbly has his own name, but who we call God, is indeed incharge of and created the whole universe. those of us who have met him have not been left in doubt. i am one of those who is angling towards the belief that one day God would allow us to discover somthing through science that would expose the spiritual world. i sincerely hope that when we reach that stage, we would be ready for what we will see. for now all we can do is accept what we cannot change and make the best out of it. our dear beutiful earth is in dear need of love between its human inhabitants and care for its natural endownments. If we try to do this, when we finally see this God, we won't hide in shame but with well done grin on his face he would reveal all that there is that we do not know. maybe just maybe, all those desolate planets around the earth are just waiting to be inhabited by people who are not bent on killing oneanother, and destroying what little resources on their plannet. just maybe, the omnipotent creator intends to recreate those desolate stars and make them harbitable and hand them over to. responsible, loving and caring beings.
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