AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu Of all the many strategic mistakes Putin has made in his current invasion of Ukraine, none is greater than his misjudgment of how Western nations would respond to his unprovoked acts of aggression. For years, Putin has been sowing seeds of discord in Europe and the United States with the hope of breaking the bond of the Western alliance. He attempted to weaken NATO and tried to turn the European Union into a disunited toothless organization. Aiding and abetting Putin in his effort are political leaders, news media personnel, and other prominent persons in the West. Among these Putin’s enablers – aka useful idiots – are people like Nigel Farage, a leader in the UK Far Right and Tucker Carlson, a Fox News TV host and right-wing commentator. In the deep pond of useful idiots, no fish is bigger and more influential than Donald Trump. This was a man who spent his one-term presidency wreaking havoc on the Western alliance from the inside. As POTUS, one of Trump’s highest priori...

Adapted from Jeremiah 50:33-40 This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “The people of Ukraine have been wronged. Their captors hold them and refuse to let them go. But the one who redeems them is strong. His name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. He will defend them and give them rest again in Ukraine. But for the people of Russia there will be no rest! “The sword of destruction will strike the Russians,” says the LORD. “It will strike the people of Russia – her officials and Oligarchs, too. The sword will strike her wise counselors, and they will become fools. The sword will strike her mightiest warriors, and panic will seize them. The sword will strike her horses and chariots and her allies from other lands, and they will all become like women. The sword will strike her treasures, and they all will be plundered. A drought will strike her water supply, causing it to dry up. And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them. “Soon Rus...

“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be deceitful and untrustworthy. I was able to get a hair raising sense of the darkness in his soul.”

The pussyfooting of the West to directly and more aggressively confront Vladimir Putin is a grave mistake. Sooner or later, they'll realize a full-scale war with Russia is unavoidable and a head-to-head clash is inevitable. Until a bully is challenged to his face and put in his proper place he's never going to stop his acts of bullying. This kid gloves approach will not deter a madman who is clearly off his meds.

PRESS RELEASE No: MFAIPR/2022/06 UPDATE FOR NIGERIANS IN UKRAINE The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is fully abreast of all the challenges Nigerians crossing into countries bordering Ukraine, especially the Polish border, are facing and we are taking adequate measures to assuage these challenges. The Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs has spoken with his counterpart, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine on this unsavoury development and both are working on alleviating the suffering of Nigerians including deploying the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to the border to ensure easier access to all Nigerians and other nationals. For now, movement to the Hungarian Zahony border and Romanian Suceava, Tulcea, Satu Mare County & Maramures borders is advised, as they have approved visa free access to all Nigerians coming from Ukraine and arrangements for accommodation and feeding before evacuation is arranged. Parents, guardians, and wards of Nigerians in Ukraine are please enjoin...

Nigerian Embassy staff along with volunteers are at the Polish-Ukrainian borders with buses to assist and transport Nigerians crossing the border from Ukraine. Phone: +48-729275316 Phone: +48-579201775 Phone: +48-729242516 Phone: +48-739493541 Kindly spread the information!

Micah 2:1-5 What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out, simply because you have the power to do so. When you want a piece of land, you find a way to seize it. When you want someone’s house, you take it by fraud and violence. You cheat a man of his property, stealing his family’s inheritance. But this is what the LORD says: “I will reward your evil with evil; you won’t be able to pull your neck out of the noose. You will no longer walk around proudly, for it will be a terrible time.” In that day your enemies will make fun of you by singing this song of despair about you: “We are finished, completely ruined! God has confiscated our land, taking it from us. He has given our fields to those who betrayed us.” Others will set your boundaries then, and the LORD’s people will have no say in how the land is divided.

The Ukrainian people, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Ukraine and many old and famous regions have fallen or may fall into the grip of an unhinged brutish kleptomaniac and all the odious apparatus of his despotic rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in Kyiv and Kharkiv. We shall fight in Luhansk, and Donetsk. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this land or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our heritage beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the zeal for their home...

Šče ne vmerla Ukrajiny, ni slava, ni volja,  (Ukraine is not yet lost, neither its glory, nor freedom,) Šče nam, brattja ukrajinci, usmichnetjsja dolja.  (Upon us, fellow Ukrainians, fate shall smile once more.) Zhynutj naši voroženjky, jak rosa na sonci,  (Our enemies will vanish, like the dew in the sun,) Zapanujem j my, brattja, u svojij storonci.  (And we too shall rule, brothers, in a free land of our own.) Pryspiv ×2  (Refrain ×2) Dušu y tilo my položym za našu svobodu,  (Souls and bodies we'll lay down, all for our freedom,) I pokažem, ščo my, brattja, kozacjkoho rodu!  (And we'll show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation!) Stanem brattja, v bij kryvavyj, vid Sjanu do Donu  (We'll stand, brothers, in bloody battle, from the Sian to the Don,) V ridnim kraju panuvaty ne damo nikomu.  (We will not allow others to rule in our motherland.) Čorne more šče vsmichnetjsja, did Dnipro zradije,  (The Black Sea will smile and grandfat...

By Akin Ojumu It was July 19, 64 AD a holocaust of fire consumed Rome. You see, Rome was a city of narrow streets. It was a city of dense population. On both sides of those narrow streets were high wooden tenements where the people lived. And once the fire hit Rome, it consumed the place. It could leap easily across the narrow streets and consume the wooden buildings like kindling. The first three days and nights the fire spread rapidly. It was somewhat checked but not totally put out; it broke out again even worse. Before it was done it had consumed most of the homes of most of the people.  The Roman people believed that their emperor, Nero, who was by all definition some kind of a maniac, had himself set their city on fire. They believed that he did it because he had this incredible lust for building. And for him the great challenge of life was to build and in order to build he had to destroy what already existed so that he could build it again. As Rome burned, Emperor Nero found...

Keir Starmer | Leader, UK Labour Party In this dark hour, our thoughts, our solidarity and our resolve are with the Ukrainian people. They've been cast into a war not through fault of their own, but because Putin knows that no people will choose to live under his bandit rule unless forced to at the barrel of a gun. The consequences of Putin's war will be horrendous and tragic for the Ukrainian people, but also for the Russian people who have been plunged into chaos by a violent elite who have stolen their wealth, stolen their chance of democracy, and stolen their future. And we must prepare ourselves for difficulties here. We will see economic pain as we free Europe from dependence on Russian gas and clean our institutions from money stolen from the Russian people. But the British public have always been willing to make sacrifice. To defend democracy on our continent. And we will again. Russia's democratic neighbors and every other democracy that lives in the shadow of auto...

By Akin Ojumu Bullies are easily recognizable. Not only do they give themselves away by their unbridled thuggishness, there’s also a universal consensus among all dictionaries of who a bully is. Oxford Dictionary A bully is a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable. Cambridge Dictionary Someone who hurts or frightens someone else, often over a period of time, and often forcing them to do something that they do not want to do. Merriam-Webster Dictionary One who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable. Collins Dictionary A bully is someone who often hurts or frightens other people. The Free Dictionary A person who hurts, persecutes, or intimidates weaker people United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) A bully is someone who habitually and repeatedly displays unwanted aggressive behavior(s) that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance. Urban D...

By Prophet Ezekiel Then this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, prophesy against the false prophets of the Church who are inventing their own prophecies. Say to them, ‘Listen to the word of the LORD.  This is what the Sovereign LORD says:  What sorrow awaits the false prophets who are following their own imaginations and have seen nothing at all!’  “O people of God, these prophets of yours are like jackals digging in the ruins. They have done nothing to repair the breaks in the walls around the Church. They have not helped it to stand firm in battle on the day of the LORD. Instead, they have told lies and made false predictions. They say, ‘This message is from the LORD,’ even though the LORD never sent them. And yet they expect him to fulfill their prophecies! Can your visions be anything but false if you claim, ‘This message is from the LORD,’ when I have not even spoken to you? “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says:  Because what you say is f...

“Teach the Truth and You Won't Go Wrong” By Akin Ojumu Stridently, the proponents of New Testament tithing assert that you haven’t given to God until you've dropped your wad of cash in the offering basket. In their eyes, what qualifies as giving to God is a contribution to a denomination. Money brought to the man of God is money brought to God Himself, they insist. Giving to the poor, they would have us believe, brings about only penury. This habitual dalliances with scriptural inaccuracies and outright deception have long been central to the modus operandi of advocates of modern-day tithing. The constant deployment of spiritual hyperbole is how these leeches continue to suck money from the ignorant masses to enrich themselves. They effectively employ this time-tested scare tactic to amass great wealth and build temporal empires which they then pass on to their offspring at their demise. It is all a scam. Regardless of his size and stature, a man of God who dismisses your acts ...

“God’s Return on Investment” By Akin Ojumu Last time, we highlighted the Christian attitude towards God’s resources. We also described the categories of stewardship of money i.e., how we feel about it, how we earn it, how we spend it, and how we give it away. We now turn our attention to the principles of giving as stipulated in the New Testament. Freewill Giving in the New Testament There are 10 principles that the New Testament does give for Christian giving. We'll discuss 5 of them today, and the rest next time. Principle 1: Giving is Investing with God Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” At the heart of Christian giving is this very fact. Giving is investing with God and the return is an eternal yield, an eternal dividend. God’s stock always rises, it never fluctuates or flutters. His return on investment (ROI) is i...

“Stewardship of God’s Resources” By Akin Ojumu Consider the following exchange between a young lady and her mum. Daughter: “I'm so hurt that Todd broke up with me, Mom.” Mother: “Just think of all the starving children in Africa, honey. Your problems will seem pretty insignificant then.” In philosophy, the mum’s response to the daughter’s lament is an example of a red herring fallacy.  The red herring fallacy is a logical fallacy where someone presents irrelevant information in an attempt to distract others from a topic that’s being discussed, often to avoid a question or shift the discussion in a new direction (Source: Effectiviology). Proponents of tithing often employ this literal tactic in defense of their support for continuation of tithing in New Testament Christianity. Rather than engage in a good faith dialogue using Scripture, they throw up all sorts of red herrings. A common red herring error is the suggestion that those who argue against modern-day tithing are stingy luk...

“True Worship is in Spirit & in Truth” By Akin Ojumu Several times in this commentary, we spoke about a pattern of giving established by God that spans across all ages. These are: 1. Required Giving i.e., Tithes, Taxes, etc. 2. Freewill Giving i.e., First Fruits, free will offerings, etc. Government is ordained by God. It is required of citizens of nations to fulfill their obligation to the authority and government by paying their taxes. In addition to the required giving, God also wants us to give willingly out of loving hearts. Under the Mosaic Law (a theocratic government), taxes were mostly in the form of tithes, and they all added up to roughly 23 percent. The tithe was the Lord’s, it didn't belong to the people. The funding of the national entity – the government – was by the tithes. If you didn’t give the tithe to the Lord, according to Malachi 3, you robbed God. Just as the required giving was established by God, so also was the freewill giving. God expects us to give f...

“Neglecting the Weightier Matters” By Akin Ojumu During the intertestamental period – i.e., the 400-year period between the conclusion of the writings of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament – the Land of Israel experienced social, economic, and political upheavals.  For 400 years, there was Biblical and revelatory silence as God did not speak to His people until the angel appeared to Zechariah the father of John the Baptist as he was performing his priestly service in the Temple. That occurrence was God breaking a four-century silence and it marked the resurgence of supernatural activities like the world had never seen. During this time, a foreign power – Rome and its Caesars – ruled Palestine with ironclad imperial authority. The Roman government imposed all kinds of levies and taxes on the people. Tax collection became a booming business and Rome appointed Tax collectors, like Zacchaeus, became wealthy by heaping on the people inflated tax obligations. For th...