NIGERIA (PMB) AND THE ECONOMY; THE WAY FORWARD

NIGERIA AND HER ECONOMY, THE WAY FORWARD

By Isu, Smart Eluu

Any government that wants to excel and meet the needs of her citizens without strategic planning seems to be building a castle in the air. Modern day politics has far evolved from partisan politics to tackling issues on ground and if we in Nigeria allow ourselves to be left out in the wind of change, we would be like the proverbial 5 maidens that forgot to buy kerosene for their lantern awaiting their master’s arrival.

Project Planning takes short term, medium and long term dimensions, and what dimension a government should take at any point in time should be based on the issues facing the economic and social environment of such government.

At one time in 2008, when the economy of Nigeria seemed to be booming, the stock market, financial institutions and insurance companies were all reporting elephant profit maximization and investments of private individuals and firms were fast recouped in a little short time. Only few people like us envisaged the problems that were posing around by the sudden sky rocketing price of oil in the international market. Then the foreign investors who made up huge portion of the Nigerian stock market took their money to make quicker and huger profit from oil in the international market. HOW MANY NIGERIANS SAW IT COMING, even the ones in control of the NSE? Most of our reports and forecast were based on speculation. It is pitiable that a country as big as ours has no solid data house that can allow statisticians and experts to come together to digest events that happened yesterday, the ones that are happening today, so as to be able to know what would be our fate tomorrow. Little wonder we have been the way we are. Little wonder it does not take us anything to build but takes us everything to maintain what we built.

The global meltdown has engulfed even the countries that we least expected and here we are running, beating about the bush talking about job creation and bailout for companies. The question is; should we have been affected in the first place, should the impact be up to what it is now and still going to be, if we had a proper strategic and economic planning? These questions would have easily been answered and the answer would have been NO.

When Peter Drucker was writing America on the economic problems they would face “blue collar jobs”, no one took him serious.
The same problem has gone beyond what we think in Nigeria today and we still can’t learn our lessons and differentiate between partisan politics and good governance. The present government of Alhaji Yar’adua’s VISION 2020 is indeed a good project planning if well defined and implemented. There are certain questions that need to be answered if we wish to make headway;

First, what are these set goals we want to achieve?
Second, to this current government who obviously will not be in power to see the accomplishment of these project, it has automatically made it a long term project, so the question the president needs to ask here is how do we accomplish a long term project even after we have vacated the sits? Will the VISION be a regime portfolio? That would be devastating.
Third, what are the materials to work with to see to these set goals? These include human, financial and other raw materials that are viable to the accomplishment of the set goals.

Forth, are the materials we have chosen relevant and coherent with the projects?
Fifth, what plans do we have on ground to take care of short term and minor projects that would raise their heads on our way to achieving the long term projects?

Based on the above questions, we have to applaud the government for realizing that we have problems which need to be attended to by setting up the goals. But that’s not all, how can we appraise the steps so far taking to achieve these goals?

From the look of things, there is no clear and definite view of what the VISION 2020 project is focused on, we keep talking about power, roads, employment, improved standard of living, structural improvement, agriculture, education, good health and lots of them. Every issue that emanates from the system so to speak seems to draw attention. ‘WE CAN’T BE JACK OF ALL TRADE’, therefore the first wrong step the government has taken on the project is trying to encompass all problems that pose ugly head by the way.
The second wrong step is that the government has blatantly refused to separate national issues from party issues.
Project as huge and demanding as the VISION 2020 should make effective and efficient use of the best materials in the country to execute it and should not be seen as an avenue to compensate politicians, individuals and party members. How on earth do we have a committee of 452 members for the execution and implementation of VISION 2020 project? Sir, we don’t need too many hands to strategize the project. We need just a few hands, just a few professional hands, experts, who shouldn’t be more than 14 people. We need just a good strategic planner, an economic analyst, a civil engineer, a town planning analyst, an educationist, an industrialist, an agriculturist and health personnel. They can be paired to bring about quality deliberation before reaching a final conclusion on the project execution.

They should be given a specific period to tender their report which should be passed to the house for deliberation before they are signed into law by the president. Sir, a committee of 452 members will only create problem rather than solving one. MY LETTER TO MR PRESIDENT.

WHY NIGERIAN ECONOMY THAT OUGHT TO BLOOM IS GLOOMY?
When oil was discovered we assumed we have arrived, a land so blessed with vast natural resources decided to decline and deviate from the maximization of the other tremendous resources deposit in our land. Now that the prices of oil has crashed and will still deteriorate further, I think it’s time we started looking inward to solving our problems and not leaving them in the hands of opportunists to determine how our economy should run. If in axiom we want to include maximum job creation in the vision 2020 project, we have got to look towards maximizing other resources that abound in this country to help ourselves. There is no economy that is service and import oriented that will succeed. It will always be a syndrome of quick money back which will always hyper the inflationary rate in such economy, this has been Nigeria’s undoing over the years. Now is the time for us to revive our production orientation, start producing for ourselves and by ourselves.
We’ve got; zinc, iron ore and cast in this country, these are used to manufacture cars; the importance of agriculture can not be over emphasized if we want to maximize the resources deposited in our lands. Yes our technology has not grown to where we’d produce by ourselves, but we’ve got those companies as the Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans and host of American, Korean and German auto makers of this world doing their businesses in Nigeria, just sales. They own these companies; they create jobs with them in their various countries and only use their products to get money made in Nigeria by selling just finished products to us. We could get these companies to come and site in Nigeria, use our human and mineral resources to produce these cars at lower labour cost, by so doing our unemployed youths would have been gainfully employed, the cost of these automobiles would be drastically reduced, our technological advancement would speedily improve when we have our youths working in those automobile factories.

LACK OF MAINTENANCE CULTURE, A DISASTER TO NIGERIA
Anyone who learns to build but does not learn to maintain what he builds is worse that he who does not build. This has tremendously been the undoing of Nigeria’s economy. It is so disheartening that we spend huge sums of money building and developing infrastructures in Nigeria only for us to look back after few years to find out that such beautiful infrastructures are left unattended to. If someone could build refineries in Nigeria and they were up and working, it shouldn’t be a hard knot for another to see that the refineries are always operational. Rather, just because of our individualism someone got to sabotage the system so as to get a right to import the same oil we produce. The effect of this is that when we take our oil to refine abroad, obviously it is not just one product that comes out of a refined oil product, therefore the other products like kerosene, engine oil, black oil, Vaseline, cottar and lots of them will either be sold/left abroad or we would import them just like petroleum. These are things we should have at no extra cost in Nigeria; above all, their processing in Nigeria should engage a lot of people in one job or the other.

HOW WE CAN MAKE THINGS WORK AGAIN

As we clamor for change, being among the top 20 world best economy and vying to achieve the vision 2020, it is very vital that we make sure the machineries are put in place. The issue of power should not only form the major part of the vision 2020 and economy stability, power should be engineered towards achieving the VISION. Therefore power stability should be a pre-vision 2020 project and as well form part of it for maintenance and improvement. If actually we want to attract foreign investors that will mainly be production oriented and transform our economy from consumption to production oriented and create various jobs, power is inevitable.

It is as well of immense importance to learn to recycle our wastes. It creates jobs, it boasts the economy, and it boasts self dependence.
Health and education should be prioritized in the vision, these are projects that would develop the Nigerian citizens and productivity would be enhanced, agriculture should as well form the bedrock of the VISION.
Our banks are obviously trying, but my observation with most of our flourishing banks is that they lend out money made in Nigeria to our so-called Indian and Lebanese foreign investors who enter this country with just briefcases and are not ready to fix any single structure of their own on our land. They walk to our banks, borrow money from them and start one service or sales firm on rented offices, use the money borrowed from Nigerians to import goods and sell back to Nigerians and make fortune out of Nigerians and we all celebrate them as our foreign investors. When there is a little crisis in the economy, they dust their briefcases abandon their rented offices and fill their pockets with profits made from Nigerians and go their way without giving a second thought on how to make the economy better. No commitment.
We’ve got to believe in ourselves, we’ve got to make things work in this country again. If Japan could do it, if China could do it, Nigeria can do it, yes we can.

NIGERIA! Good People!!, Great Nation!!!.

God bless Nigeria ‘Heroes are ordinary people who do extra-ordinary things’ When I want something done perfectly I do it myself!

WHAT POLYTECHNIC EDUCATION STAND FOR BY ISU SMART ELUU

Universally, polytechnic education is meant to provide technical learning that could assist a society in meeting its industrial aspirations. One distinctive mark of polytechnic education is the strong emphasis on practice-based learning. Work attachment is included as part of the practical curriculum and this can vary from the usual 6 – 8 weeks to 6 months in certain courses. This enables students to have on-the-job experience. The education provided is directly applicable to the students’ future careers.  Polytechnics give emphasis to the attainment of crucial skills such as that of communication and presentation as well as problem-solving.

The objective is to develop students’ self-belief and critical faculties which are essential for effectual involvement in societal growth and development. Therefore, it is naturally expected that a Polytechnic graduate would have limited difficulty in securing a job.

In Nigeria, it is, however, sad that polytechnic education is currently passing through a tough and difficult phase. In the last eight months, academic activities at federal and state owned polytechnics have been suspended as a result of the indefinite strike embark upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) since 29th of

April, 2013, in pursuance of a 13-point demand. Unfortunately, unlike it was the case when members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, recently embarked on a nationwide strike, everyone seems to be indifferent about the current ASUP strike. Expectedly, the on-going strike has caused severe damages to the already battered polytechnic education system in the country. It is no longer news that the fortune of polytechnic education in the country has seriously nose-dived. Ironically, the first polytechnic in the country, Yaba College of Technology, which was established in 1947, happens to be the first higher institution of learning in the country.

Till date, there are 72 polytechnics in the country, consisting of 22 federal, 38 State and 12 privately owned ones.

 However, despite the envisioned role which Polytechnics are meant to play in the technological progression of the country, polytechnic graduates have continued to suffer from the dichotomy created by employers of labour in the country, with government establishments being the most culpable. This dichotomy is reflected in disparity in salary Grade Level, especially in the civil service where Higher National Diploma, HND, holders are employed on Grade Level 07 while degree holders’ entry point is GL 08. Similarly, the HND holder cannot progress further than GL 14 in his/her civil service career. This variance in employment opportunity is also evident in other sectors. The various security institutions, for instance, are also guided by this entrenched discrepancy in terms of employment as a university graduate is commissioned into service while HND holders are not. Presently, HND holders who are seeking employment are frustrated because of the tough odds they face in the labour market. According to them, most recruiting firms and organisations prefer university graduates to HND holders.

The tragedy of the foregoing is that polytechnics are gradually losing their allure.

Currently, it is very difficult to see students who actually opt for

polytechnic education. Most of those who find themselves in polytechnics are there due to their inability to gain admission into their dream universities. Parents, who have been victims of the inequality in employment related matters involving HND holders, often swear not to allow their children to attend polytechnics. With this rather thorny state of affairs, it is difficult to see how polytechnic education could really fulfill its goal of turning out competent and resourceful technical personnel that would aid the country’s technological and industrial aspirations.

In view of the furor that the inequality between degree and HND holders have generated, the federal government has, over the years, attempted unsuccessfully to resolve the issue. Like every other burning issue in the country, the dilemma of polytechnic education is traceable to weak execution of policies. It will be recalled that the federal government once released a circular that was meant to nail the coffin on the disparity between university graduates and HND holders in government establishments. However, it remains to be seen to what extent authorities involved have translated the content of the circular into action because, till date, government is yet to implement the 2004 Federal Executive Council decision to remove the ceiling placed on the career progression of HND holders in the government employment.

Some analysts have tied the problem of polytechnic education to the slump in the country’s economy. According to them, decline in the activities of the manufacturing sector, is partly responsible for the current plight of HND holders in the country. The manufacturing sector unsurprisingly prefers to employ HND holders because of the belief that they are practical oriented people who could add value in terms of production related matters. Regrettably, the downturn in the economy has led to the shutting down of many industries thereby leaving holders of HND to compete for the few available public sector jobs with university graduates.

Going by the foregoing, the improvement of the economy, therefore, remains one means through which polytechnic education could be saved from imminent collapse.

Consequently, all tiers of governments need to provide the needed incentives to resuscitate the moribund industries in the country in order to provide more job opportunities for HND holders and, indeed, all job seekers. Undoubtedly, a functional economy would bring about buoyant and vibrant industries, which would naturally translate into more jobs across board for all.

Also, the National Assembly needs to critically look into the issue with a view to bringing about a lasting and acceptable legislation that could endure the test of time. Equally, corporate organisations, companies, agencies, the civil service and other such organisations that favour degree holders over their diploma counterparts should change this policy. No matter the number of universities that we have in the country, it is certain that it is not everybody that will have the opportunity of passing through the universities in pursuit of their career aspirations since there are numerous equally coveted courses at the polytechnics. It is also equally important to stress that employment opportunities should be based on the competence and resourcefulness of the individuals concerned rather than the institutions attended. After all, it is not a foregone conclusion that university graduates are better than those from polytechnics.

HIV/AIDS PREVALENCE RATE IN NIGERIA BY AGE. AS compiled BY ISU, SMART ELUU

HIV/AIDS PREVALENCE RATE IN NIGERIA BY AGE.

In Nigeria, the HIV prevalence rate among adults ages 15-49 is 0.9 percent. Nigeria has the second ­largest number of people living with HIV. The HIV epidemic in Nigeria is complex and varies widely by region. In some states, the epidemic is more concentrated and driven by high-risk behaviors, while other states have more generalized epidemics that are sustained primarily by multiple sexual partnerships in the general population.

Youth and young adults in Nigeria are particularly vulnerable to HIV, with young women at higher risk than young men. There are many risk factors that contribute to the spread of HIV, including prostitution, high-risk practices among itinerant workers, high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STI), clandestine high-risk heterosexual and homosexual practices, international trafficking of women, and irregular blood screening.

The 2012 National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey-Plus have been released and it shows that Nigeria now has HIV prevalence rate of 3.4 per cent.

Rivers State is leading other states in the country with a prevalence rate of 15.2 per cent.

The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu said the results from the survey were a testament of the efforts made by the Federal Government in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country. The prevalence rate has dropped a 0.2% from the 3.6% recorded in 2007.

Ekiti State has the lowest prevalence rate of 0.2 per cent.

BELOW ARE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF HIV PREVALENCE IN NIGERIA

In the world three million people died of AIDS-related diseases in 2005 and more than 40 million people are living with HIV. Each day 14,000 people half of them aged 15 to 24 are infected. Women and young people are especially vulnerable.

Prevention, the centrepiece of UNFPA’s fight against the disease, is being integrated into reproductive and sexual health programming around the world. Key priorities are promoting safer sexual behaviour including delayed initiation among young people, making sure male and female condoms are readily available and widely and correctly used, and preventing the infection among women and their children.

According to the 2008 National HIV Sero-prevalence, Nigeria has an HIV prevalence of 4.6%. All the 36 states and FCT have HIV prevalence above 1% with 17 states having HIV prevalence greater than 5%. This translates to about 2.95 people (1.2million men and 1.73 million women) living with the virus in the country. The number of new infections is put at 323,000 adults and 57,000 children. Infection rates among young people aged 15-19 put at 3.3%; 20-24 at 4.6% and 25-29 at 5.6% are considered very high and a key national strategy in the current national strategic framework is to direct focused national HIV prevention efforts to address this trend. UNFP A currently support national HIV prevention efforts at the national level and in 12 states of the federation under the current Country Program of support to the Government of Nigeria, (2009-2012). Key areas of intervention and current achievements are enumerated below:

1.         Youth and ASRH and HIV Prevention

2.         Condom Programming with RHCS (Dual Protection) 3. PMTCT prongs 1 &2

4.         HIV & Sex Work and

5.         SRH-HIV Integration

THE TREND OF HIV FROM THE FIRST DIAGNOSIS IN NIGERIA

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a retrovirus and belongs to the lentivirus family 1-5. The HIV was first identified in 1983 and was shown to be the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1984.

HIV infection is characterized by the depletion of the CD4 + helper/ inducer subset of T-lymphocytes, leading to severe immune deficiency, constitutional symptoms, neurological diseases, and opportunistic infections and neoplasm (reviewed in Fauci and Lane)1. Two genetically different but related forms of HIV, called HIV-I and HIV-2, have been isolated from patients with AIDS. HIV-I is found worldwide and is responsible for the worldwide pandemic, and HIV -2, found mainly in West Africa, Mozambique, and Angola. HIV-2 is less pathogenic and makes little or no contribution to paediatric AIDS; therefore, all discussion in this seminar refers to HIV -I. HIV -I has been divided into other sub types based on the genetic analysis constituent of M (Major) and 0 (Outliers); hence there are subgroups or sub-types A, B, -C, D, E. The following subtypes are seen in Africa: A and D (East and Central), C (Southern Africa in over 90% of cases), and Are combinants (West Africa). Subtype C appears to be more virulent than all the other subtypes ediatrics. It is important to note that the CD4 count tends to be higher in children and it is not as reliable a tool as in adult. CD4 percentage is much more useful and in infants less than 12months of age, neither CD4 count nor percentage is predictive of Pnuemocystic carinae pneumonia risk.

TREND FACING THE DISCOVERY OF HIV AT FIRST IN NIGERIA

In contrasting the two dioceses studied, one sees a demonstration of leadership, or call it political will, in facing to the challenge of HIV/AIDS. Following directives from the Catholic Secretariat at Lagos, all dioceses were to adopt a multi-sectoral approach based on the national framework for dealing with HIV/AIDS crisis in Nigeria. Up until November 2004, the fight against the AIDS epidemic had been unsystematic and ad hoc in nature. Care for AIDS patients were mainly by a few NGOs and at some Catholic hospitals. My contacts with the Archdiocese demonstrated a complete absence of any institutional structure to deal with HIV/AIDS. I had earlier been told that poverty was the main problem, not AIDS.

Unlike the Archdiocese, the leadership of Ahiara diocese has demonstrated an understanding, and genuine commitment of the magnitude of the epidemic. On November 8, 2004, His Lordship inaugurated the Parish Action Committee on AIDS (P ACA). In his homily, His Lordship alluded to the fact that 12-13 years ago, he toured his diocese and showed videos on AIDS. People did not believe, but at the moment “AIDS is a reality and there is no cure”. Several times he used the Igbo name for AIDS, “Oria o biri n’aja ocha” (the disease that ends up in death). Some scholars see this term as intimidating and prefer oria nminwu (a disease that is chronic and debilitating).

The first group, a Parish Action Committee AIDS (PACA) w s launched this same day. Eventually, all parishes will have their committees on AIDS. The job of the Diocesan Action Committee on AIDS, a committee appointed a year earlier, is to train members of the parish committees who will equally go about in their parishes to raise HIV / AIDS awareness. Their work is purely voluntary.

It was of great interest to learn of the achievements of the Diocesan Action committee on AIDS barely one year after its appointment. Through its intervention strategy targeted on youths and women, seminars to educate and raise awareness were conducted among youths and staff in about twenty schools and youth groups totally about 14,000. The coordinator of DACA (Diocesan Action Committee on AIDS) to dissipate the myth that HIV/AIDS is found only in major cities, during the inauguration gave statistics from five small hospitals in the diocese, about 186 from 2002 to 2004. According to the coordinator, this number was for the ones who came to the hospitals. According to the coordinator, “These people are living among us unknown to us and they will continue to conceal it for fear of rejection, discrimination, stigmatization, abandonment, and violence by the family and community. As they conceal it, HIV disease continues to spread”. (HIV/AIDS Awareness Commission 2004).

The leadership demonstrated by the head of Ahiara diocese is better expressed in the words of his coordinator who ended her remarks at the inauguration by saying, "Let me use this opportunity to express our gratitude to His Lordship for being one of the few bishops from the Eastern part of the country that show much interest and zeal in the health care of his flock. He has always encouraged and supported us and financed all the workshops I have attended, since this committee has no take-off-grant as such.

REVIEW OF THE AMALGAMATED PARTIES INTO ONE POLITICAL ENTITY KNOWN AS “NIGERIA” BY ISU, SMART ELUU

REVIEW OF THE AMALGAMATED PARTIES INTO ONE POLITICAL ENTITY KNOWN AS “NIGERIA”

Permeable:        The reflection and recollection of facts according to available recordings in the book of histories in line with the Centenary Celebration of the Nation which thereafter, enthrones the National Conference as proposed by The Jonathan’s government indirectly and political aimed at   determining if or not to stay as a Nation and other projected issues as put down by different groups that constitute the body (Nigeria). HAPYY READING!!

 JANUARY 1, 2014 made it exactly 100 years the British colonial authorities amalgamated, what was then, two separate protectorates — Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria which was equally governed by two different bodies though, white men (Sir Fredrick Lord Luggard for North and Sir Raph Moor for South) — to form the single geopolitical entity that has since then been known as Nigeria and as made possible by the Northern then Governor (Luggard).

Although Nigeria gained her independence from the British colonial rule on October 1, 1960 about 53 years ago, it has been a national entity since January 1, 1914, that is, a century ago.

According to available research, there are 646 spoken languages in Nigeria. Also, other researchers have said there are over 370 tribes in the country.

How people from these tribes will co-exist peacefully under one roof called Nigeria has been a major national question seeking answers.

While some have called for the disintegration of the country, with the belief that the amalgamation would expire after 100 years, others have called for a review of the entire structure and arrangement for better management of the country.

For some, the ‘merger’ of the two protectorates, which had different socio-political and economic settings, has been a major concern. To this category of people, the amalgamation was arbitrary as the two parties involved were not consulted in the process and their consent was not sought before they were brought together. These people believe that the amalgamation is the root of the ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria today.

Some of those in this category are a Second Republic minister and constitutional lawyer, Chief Richard Akinjide, and a human rights activist and lawyer, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, who both believe the amalgamation is a bad history for the country.

For instance, Braithwaite, while speaking as the guest lecturer at a lecture organized by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Egba Diocese, to mark the 170th Year of Christianity in Egbaland in July 2013, warned President Goodluck Jonathan against going ahead with plans to celebrate a century of Nigeria’s amalgamation. To the activist, such a celebration would be a “disgrace” to the present generation of Nigerians.

He said, “Instead of clinking glasses of champagne celebrating and venerating a bad history of enslavement, this generation should use the occasion of its centenary to finally destroy its last inglorious relics and simultaneously birth a modern and progressive nation.”

Similarly, Akinjide said the celebration of the amalgamation would be a great historical event but was fraught with fraud. According to him, the colonial masters amalgamated the protectorates not for political reasons but for their economic interests. To him, it was a mere “business arrangement.”

“The critical element at that time was commercial interest not governance. In many history books, they place it as trying to civilize Africa; trying to advance interest of Africans. But I don’t agree; it was for commercial interest,” he stated.

Giving its impact on the then Benin Empire, Akinjide, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Board of Trustees, said, “One, how do you destroy a sovereign state, which was the Benin Empire at that time? The Benin Empire had diplomatic relations with foreign countries – with Spain, Portugal, and Brazil. It was very powerful.”

However, he stated that it was too late for Nigeria to divide. “Nigeria is a sovereign state and it will remain forever. We are now one family in a sovereign state and strong with a lot of resources. We are one and we will forever remain one,” Akinjide added.

To others, the diversity makes Nigeria a unique nation and having remained a nation for a century is a cause for celebration.

For instance, President Goodluck Jonathan, who joined the Apostolic Faith Church, Jabi, Abuja,   for the last Sunday service of 2013, described the amalgamation as, not a mistake, but an act of God.

He said, “Nigeria was amalgamated by our colonial masters in 1914. By January 1 next year (2014), Nigeria    will be 100 years.  I totally agree with the minister that it was not by chance that we are one as a nation, it was ordained by God.

“If God didn’t will it that way and at that point, the North and South would not have come together. The details of the North and South coming together make Nigeria a very great country.”

Again, in his New Year message, the President said, “For us, therefore, today is not just the beginning of a new year but the end of a century of national existence and the beginning of another.

“It is a moment for sober reflection and for pride in all that is great about Nigeria.

“Whatever challenges we may have faced, whatever storms we may have confronted and survived, Nigeria remains a truly blessed country.”

However, for some in the South-East, secession of that part of the country is the best option. The Civil War (also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War) between July 6, 1967 and January 15, 1970 comes to mind. A militant group, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, is still pursuing that goal.

The Director of Information, MASSOB, Mr. Uchenna Madu, said from January 1, 2014, Nigeria, as an entity, had become illegal and “nothing can make it legal again.” And in addition, Isu Smart Eluu of Ebonyi State branch of the body; emphatically and diplomatically stressed that “According to International Law, parties under treaty can only decide to disintegrate when they attain 100 of years which automatically marks her expiration. Moreso, Nigeria as a forcefully and un-consulted joined entities by the white-man (Luggard) expired on 1^st January, 2014, thus; can decide either to or not to stay as a body”.

According to these young spirited beings, the amalgamated protectorates would have been better off as different entities. They said if there was no amalgamation and the nations that were amalgamated had been independent; they would have made very good neighbours and wouldn’t have encountered much of her present pickle.

Madu in his separate words, said “In the first place, the amalgamation was for the interest of the British; it was not in the interest of the people that made up Nigeria. Since they created Nigeria through amalgamation, it has never served any part of the country. Rather, it made us enemies.

“The amalgamation created more enmity and hatred among the peoples that make up Nigeria. If there is nothing like Nigeria, and we have Biafra, Arewa and Oduduwa republics, we would have been good neighbours to each other. The amalgamation did a very harmful thing to Nigeria.  

“Thank God it has expired; we are no longer talking about the amalgamation, we are talking about how to resolve the issues. The politicians may disagree because Nigeria, as an entity, is their own business. They don’t want it to disintegrate but we the masses and the pressure groups are aware of where we are going.”

He, however, affirmed that the proposed national conference/dialogue would address some of the issues with Nigeria’s creation. He said one of the conditions of the 1914 merger was that Nigerians would meet to decide whether to continue as a nation after the first 100 years.

It is out of this sharp division of views that many Nigerians across ethno-religious, geopolitical and economic divides have called for a national dialogue/conference. This conference/dialogue should answer two questions: Should Nigeria remain as one? (If yes), what will be the terms of reference of living together? i.e. how will all the nationalities govern and be governed peacefully and equally?

A body like the pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has said the philosophical foundation of the Nigerian State, forms of government, structure of the Nigerian state, legislative list, executive list, law enforcement, economy and the judiciary are salient issues that must be discussed in such a gathering.

For the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndi’gbo, a national conference/dialogue is necessary to determine where the country is heading. The organization said all ethnic nationalities would agree to remain together and under certain terms and conditions. “It is then that all ethnic nations -both majority and minority -will have equal rights,” it said.

 The National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr. Tony Oganah, said, “It is true that the ethnic communities in Nigeria were not consulted before Luggard did what he did; we were never consulted in the beginning. However, we have made some gains, which nobody can deny and one of them is democracy.

“When it comes to socio-economic problems, Nigeria has fared very badly. We all look up to the national conference, where every nation – because Nigeria has many ethnic nationalities – can come and ventilate their opinions. It is out of this that we can reach a national compromise position.”

However, the umbrella body of northern Nigeria, Arewa Consultative Forum, argues that since most countries of the world were created by the colonialists without consultations and consent of the people concerned, and they have not cried foul but improved on it, it would not make sense for Nigerians to cry foul.

“We should do what most countries do by making the most of our diversity, love it and honour it, through working hard to overcome what divide the people,” the ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, said.

He added, “In Africa, only Ethiopia was not created by the colonialists. And if Tanzania, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, India, etc, could bring their diverse people together and unleash their synergy by living up against their collective challenges, Nigeria can equally do so, precisely because Nigerians are not inferior physically, mentally and spiritually.”

The forum, which said Nigeria’s problems were not beyond redemption, said it would be defeatist to allow temporary security and socio-economic challenges caused by the minority to set the national agenda.

“The national conference should be on how to build a strong nation where no one is oppressed, and not on how to go our separate ways. ‘To your tent oh Israel’ is counterproductive,” Sani stated.

 Already, President Jonathan had on December 18, 2013, while receiving the 4,000-page report of the Senator Femi Okurounmu-led Presidential Advisory Committee on the National Dialogue, said the national conference being planned by his administration would hold early 2014.

Jonathan said, “I will like to assure all Nigerians that we will partner with all stakeholders to convene this dialogue whose outcome will add value to the process of building a stronger, united, more democratic and stable Nigeria.”

Today, all eyes are on the forthcoming national conference/dialogue and it’s out-come.

Isu, Smart Eluu

unclesmart@yahoo.com,

 unclesmart1@gamil.com

08109860953

WHY DO CHRISTIANS SUFFER? BY ISU, SMART ELUU

WHY DO CHRISTIANS SUFFER?

We're well aware that some Christians suffer persecution for their faith. I'm taking that truth for granted. A dear Christian who suffers greatly in illness and not persecution wonders why she is suffering as she does. There’s more than one "answer" but to the degree that any of them is worth anything at all, they must rise out of the biblical witness and while the biblical witness must involve individual verses correctly and rigorously exegeted, in the end, the individual verses are about who Christians are and what their place is in the entire Drama that is God’s great enterprise—we need to get the big picture. Christians have been given a place to live and serve, to rejoice and suffer—they have their "part to play" in God’s bringing to completion his creation commitment and intention. The impetus for, the model followed and the goal toward which creation under God moved and moves was and is Jesus Christ and centrally involved in that is the suffering of Christ.

There is more than one face to his sufferings. The stress in the NT is the truth that he died to deal with the sins of the human family. But that truth doesn’t stand alone, it’s part of the larger truth that God eternally desired to live in holy loving fellowship with every man and his mother. In order to accomplish that he was prepared to deal with human sinfulness and he did it in and as Jesus Christ.

It’s clear from the NT that Jesus Christ continues to suffer.

When he met Paul on the road with the question, "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?" he went on to identify himself as "Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Acts 9:4-5. We need to take this seriously. There is a unity of relationship between the church of Christ and Jesus Christ himself. The church is not Jesus Christ and should never presume that it is. But having said that, the church is boldly declared to be the body of Christ and its sufferings are said to be his. 1 Peter 4:13 tells the Christians to rejoice because they "participate in the sufferings of Christ." (It’s true that the genitive might mean only that the sufferings come because these people belong to Christ. This would be true, of course, but the Acts 9 texts and the drift of the Story would say there’s more to it than that. They are "Christ’s sufferings".) Christians suffer "for the sake of Christ" but it's a larger truth that Christ himself suffers through Christians.

Paul was just one Christian and it is true that he had his peculiar calling to fulfil but the idea that Paul the apostle stood unrelated to or independent of the "body" is false. He existed and was sustained as part of the body of Christ—without his living union with the rest of the body through the Spirit of Christ he had no existence as a Christian. His personal sufferings were part of what the body of Christ suffered (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-31) so that when he suffered and served it was the body suffering and serving through one of its individual members. The eye isn’t a foot and seeing is not the business of the ear; but it’s the body that sees through the eye or hears through the ear. These parts don’t exist independent of all else. They have no existence apart from the body. So while Paul’s sufferings are personal they are Paul playing his part as a part of the body of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 1:5-6).

In Colossians 1:24 he says this. "Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you." Notice this "for you" phrase. We can see from this that the sufferings of one person can be endured "for" someone else. "And I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church." [And notice in 1:25 that he links his suffering with his commission to bring the fullness of God’s word to his people. The NRSV renders Colossians 1:24 this way. "In my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. “The passage is filled with difficulties so as you’d expect the history of interpretation is filled with explanations. But everyone agrees that there is a "quota" of sufferings that has not yet been filled and that Paul’s sufferings are to be understood as contributing toward filling it up.

I’m taking the direction that the sufferings of Christ in his own flesh have been completed and therefore all that is necessary to bring about the reconciliation of the world was done at the cross (the resurrection is part of the package, of course). But the rehearsal of that saving life and death with all the afflictions that were part of his life must go on if the church is to "witness" to each generation of the human family so that people can be saved in Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 1.21). So Christ in his body the church rehearses the once for all suffering. This is the kind of thing I think Paul has in mind in 2 Corinthians 4:10-11. "We always carry around in our body the death (Gk. nekrosin, dying or killing) of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

The upshot of all this is that Paul’s suffering is "for" others and is not just "bad luck" or punishment for his personal sins--compare 2 Corinthians 1:3-9. (I’m not suggesting that God would not chastise Paul if he saw fit.) Here is suffering that has a vicarious character and has its place in God’s offer of redemption to the human family.

Ah, yes, but surely all this is persecution rather than suffering that comes as a part of "the human condition". We can’t say that. And in 2 Corinthians Paul’s sufferings were more than the pain inflicted on him by enemies of the gospel. See his list of troubles in 2 Corinthians, chapters 4 and 6 and 11. Part of his agony, he tells us, is his worry about the affliction that the little churches were undergoing (11:28). That's not persecution; it is the pain that being a lover brings in a world where our beloved suffers.

And we need to bear in mind that when Jesus was working his work of redemption, when he was single-handedly showing the reign of God at work in his own life and service he bore the sufferings of people. Matthew 8:16-17 doesn’t speak of persecution. It declares (and uses a well-established redemption section—Isaiah 53) that he shares/carries their diseases and sicknesses. Passages like these don’t speak of specific "moments" in his life, isolated and with independent "points" to make. They are part of his life as a whole, which is inextricably tied up with his place in God’s unfolding Drama that stretches from one eternity to another.

In such a passage it is disease and illness that is focussed on and not pain or loss consciously inflicted by wicked human hands. It isn’t hurt and loss that results from their devotion to God. I’ve developed this a little on Matthew 8:16-17. Click.

That passage and others insist that when we reflect on Christ’s saving work that we are not to dismiss general human suffering from the picture. However they are connected, Christ’s life—from birth to exaltation, involves his bearing the diseases and sicknesses of the human family. If that is true it is a terrible omission if our theology doesn’t take it into account and since suffering is a profound and universal experience it is a tragic omission.

I believe that Christians are part of the new creation that has already actually come to completion in the person of Jesus Christ. For him, in his experience as an individual, death and sickness and subjection no longer exist. He is beyond all that. But in his body, the church, he continues to experience these realities. The church is "not of the world" (John 17:14-16 and Philippians 3:20) but Christ wants them kept in the world, in fact, he sends them into the world as the Father sent him (John 17:18 and 20:21).

Because they are united with him by faith the inheritance of Christians is not sickness and death and loss. Their inheritance is altogether different (1 Peter 1:3-4). Why then do they share the sufferings and sicknesses that are common to the sinful human family? Because they are Christ’s body! Because he continues to spell out the meaning of who he is, what he did and what he is bringing to completion. Because he continues to bring to the world the good news of God’s creation purposes in and through his body, the church,—the good news that he embodied and proclaimed in his earthly ministry and now in his glorification and exaltation.

This is (I believe) the central reason that Christians share the hurt experienced by the entire human family. In their sufferings they "gospel".

 HEAVEN IS BEING WITH CHRIST Heaven means Jesus Christ, that is, being with Jesus. That is the only heaven there is. It is Christ's home and he is never away from his home for a moment.

by Geoff Thomas

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was often asked why we are not told more in the New Testament about life beyond the grave. What did he reply? "I have two answers to give. The first is this and I am sure that it is right: We are not told more because there is a sense in which we cannot be told more. Everything in this world is sinful, even our language. I do not hesitate to assert, therefore, that if the New Testament had given us a detailed description of heaven and of being with Christ our language would misrepresent it. Our language is not pure enough; the thing is so wonderful that all the vocabularies of the universe are not adequate to describe it. it is so glorious and wonderful that we need to be qualified and perfected before we can take the description or are capable of understanding it. I am sure that is the first answer.

"The other answer is that we are deliberately not told, in order that we may think of it only as Paul though of it. Paul only put it in one way . . . The only reason for wanting to go to heaven is that I may be with Christ, that I may see him. That is why the little word 'and' is so important - 'to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.' The only man who is really happy about death, the only one who can say confidently, 'to die is gain', is the man who has said, 'to me to live is Christ.' . . . That is what enabled Paul to say it. Christ was the consummate passion of his life: to know him, to dwell with him, that is the thing, said Paul. That is my life, and therefore to die must be gain; to go home, to be with Christ, is very far better" (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "The Life of Joy". Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1989, p.107).

In the Bible there is not one reference to believers going 'to heaven' when they die. Instead they go to be 'with Christ.' In other words, heaven wasn't at all a natural hope. For example, young people have a hope of growing up, and getting married, and working for forty years, and retiring, and enjoying some years living on their pensions. That is their hope for the future. It is completely natural. You don't need a revelation from heaven to tell you that this lies in the future of many men and women in Europe. All you need is observation and deduction. It can all be explained by biological, political, and economic changes. But the hope of heaven is not like that at all. It cannot be compared to anything in the natural order, like the caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It is not like going to bed after a long period of working, sweating and toiling. It is not like spring following the winter. I don't want any of you to think of heaven like that. That is a profound and dangerous error.

Heaven means Jesus Christ, that is, being with Jesus. That is the only heaven there is. It is Christ's home and he is never away from his home for a moment. What are the implications of that? The first must be that there is no sin in heaven. There is no unbelief there. There is no idolatry there. There are no false prophets there. The Beast is not there. There are no works of Satan there. There is no lying, no lust, no anger, no violence, no theft, no greed, no drunkenness, no pride, no hypocrisy, no gambling, no dishonouring parents, no discontent, no fretting, no self-pity, no frustration. Heaven is an utterly pure and spotless place. "There is a city bright, closed are its gates to sin. Nought that defileth can ever enter in." It is a hallowed place.

In other words, there is no gradual, imperceptible and inevitable transition that takes all mankind through this life and they all end up in heaven; no universal cosmic conveyer belt to glory! Heaven is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. All unrighteousness is banished from that place. He alone has done what was essential to be done for sinners to join him there. Consider this, that the merest glimpse of heaven's glory - let its door open a chink for a glance at the tiniest portion of its holiness - and you would know instantly, "I have no right to enter such place. I am unworthy to pass through those doors and see that sight. I could not exist there." Sooner an earwig aspire to become a nuclear physicist that a sinner stroll into heaven as his right. Have you seen that you have no entitlement to heaven, that it is closed to you for ever? It will never happen that by hook or by crook you will get there. No! The only heaven that exists is closed and barred to you while you go on without Jesus. He is the one and only way. No man comes to the Father except through him. To taste heaven is the fruit of the blood of God the Son.

"He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good. That we might go at last to heavenSaved by his precious blood." (Cecil Alexander)

It is because Christ all by himself obtained eternal redemption for us that he himself entered into the heavens. It is Christ, and Christ alone, who has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. It is Christ and Christ alone who has gone to prepare a place for us, that those whom the Father has given him may be with him where he is. The dying thief cried to Jesus that he would remember him. "I will certainly never forget you," the Lord replied, "but more wonderful than that is my grace to sinners. You will be with me in paradise today." There is no possibility of heaven without Christ getting us there. Heaven is the achievement of his redemption. Entrance and the entitlement to remain there for ever is made possible by him. It is made actual by him; it is the crowning gift of his redeeming grace; it is the ultimate blessing. Christ brings us to heaven, keeps us in heaven, and Christ is our heaven

Ted Donnelly's father had a friend named Noble who was a millionaire. "He had not always been a millionaire, for as young men they had both been poor. But after he became wealthy their friendship continued. He regarded my father as his best friend, the one man who did not want anything from him, who liked him simply for himself. On one occasion, however, he persuaded my father to accept a gift. It was a holiday on which he wanted company. In the early 1950s the two men travelled by ocean liner across the Atlantic to the United States, and then throughout that country. It was an unusual journey for those days, the experience of a lifetime. Afterwards when speaking of that trip my father would rarely say, 'When I went to America.' It was usually, 'When I was with Noble'. The trip was so completely his friend's gift and provision that he couldn't think of it without remembering the one who made it possible. And we should never think of heaven apart from thinking of Jesus, for we owe it utterly and in every conceivable way to him. In Richard Baxter's words, 'Let "DESERVED" be written on the door of hell, but on the door of heaven and life, "THE FREE GIFT."' How then is it possible to distinguish between gift and Giver? Christ is central because it is Christ alone who brings us to heaven" ("Heaven and Hell", Banner of Truth., p.84).

Heaven is utterly Christ-centred. The Lamb is in the midst of that throne which itself is at the very heart of heaven. So Christ is the focal point of heaven. He is its centre, its axis, its divine energy, and its illumination. He makes heaven live. He makes it sing in perfect harmony. The Lamb is all the glory in Immanuel's land. Paul's desire, as death comes nearer, gets increasingly focused. "This one thing I want!" It is to be where Jesus is, to see him as he is, and to be like him. It is to discover if there might be anything he can do for Christ, to serve him with total love as long as he can. His longing is that his serving the God-man will never come to an end. The Lamb of God is worthy of that, and Paul can't wait for that moment to begin. "I desire to depart and be with Christ." That is heaven.

Dr J.I. Packer says useful things about the variety of delights in glory: "There will be different degrees of blessedness and reward in heaven. All will be blessed up to the limit of what they can receive, but capacities will vary just as they do in this world. As for rewards (an area in which present irresponsibility can bring permanent future loss: I Cor. 3:10-15), two points must be grasped. i] The first is that when God rewards our works he is crowning his own gifts, for it was only by grace that those works were done. ii] The second is that essence of the reward in each case will be more of what the Christian desires most, namely a deepening of his or her love-relationship with the Saviour, which is the reality to which all the biblical imagery of honorific crowns and robes and feasts is pointing. The reward is parallel to the reward of courtship, which is the enriching of the love-relationship itself through marriage" (J.I.Packer, "Concise Theology," Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, 1993, p.266).

Samuel Rutherford compares our experience in heaven with a bride's delight on her wedding day. What delights her the most? Not the service, nor the guests, nor the reception, not the flowers, and not even her beautiful dress, but her dear bridegroom's face. Rutherford says, "The bride takes not, by a thousand degrees, so much delight in her wedding garment as she does in her bridegroom. So we in the life to come shall not be so much accepted with the glory that goes about us, as with our bridegroom's joyful face and presence." "They will see his face," the book of Revelation says (Rev. 22:4).

That is how it must ever be in heaven. It is a fixed place compared to your place and mine. Here our families may serve other gods, and go from one idol to another. Today our country may lie in utter darkness. Now different false prophets sway the masses in turn, tyrants rise and influence millions, and they fall again. Change and decay in all around I see. But heaven is not at all a place like that. There is nothing transitory there. You don't graduate from heaven to some other place. There is nowhere else. You enter heaven after the last judgment. There are no more purgings of our sins, no more evaluations and examinations; no more tests to pass; no promotion; there are no more ladders to climb. The moral character of the believer can never decay. There will be growth in every grace of course, and in continual delight in God, and in the new heavens and new earth, but there will be no spiritual declension at all. No one in Jesus' presence can ever want to sin. Our glorified natures will not tolerate that. We will be so constituted and reconstituted that we cannot sin. We will not even wish to desire to sin. In other words, being with Christ we shall be like him the very moment we see him. Christ was tempted, yet he could not sin; God cannot sin. So we will be in that condition for ever, growing in our knowledge and love of God and of every other creature, working for our Saviour and with him, but without a spot or a wrinkle or any such thing to mar the beauty of the place.

Our joy will stem from the vision of the invisible God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. We will increasingly grow in Christ's love as he ministers to us. We will fellowship with our loved ones in Christ and with the whole body of the redeemed. There will be continual growth, maturing, learning, enrichment of abilities, and enlargement of powers that God has in store for us. But there will be no unfulfilled desires, and this blessedness will never end. Its eternity is part of its glory. Endlessness is the glory of glory. Hearts on earth say in the course of joyful experience, "I don't want this ever to end," but it invariably does. The hearts of those in heaven say, "I want this to go on forever." And it will. There can be no better news than this.

This is the Great Story going on forever, each chapter being better than the one before. Doesn't the thought of heaven take your breath away? "O think! To step on shore, And that shore heaven! To take hold of a Hand, And that God's hand! To breathe a new air, And feel it celestial air. To feel invigorated, And to know it immortality! O think! To pass from the storm and the tempest, To one unbroken calm! To wake up, and find it GLORY."

How do you step on that shore? It must be through you and Jesus Christ becoming united. Hand in hand with Jesus. You have to receive the one who said, "I go to prepare a place for you." Now who are you going to believe? The secularists, or the man who preached the Sermon on the Mount? Who is going to influence your life? The one who spoke and the winds and waves obeyed him, or all the despairing muddled men who say that ultimate reality is the coffin and the stinking corpse? John Bunyan at the conclusion of Pilgrim's Progress (Banner of Truth) describes Christian and his friend reaching heaven in these words: "I saw in my dream, that these two men went in at the Gate; and lo as they entered they were transfigured, and they had raiment put on that shone like gold. There were also those that met them with harps and crowns, and gave them to them, the harps to praise withal, and the crowns in token of honour. Then I heard in my dream that all the bells in the City rang again for joy; and that it was said unto them, 'Enter ye into the joy of the Lord.' I also heard the men themselves that they sang with a loud voice saying, 'Blessing, honour, glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever.'

"Now, just as the Gates opened to let in the men, I looked in after them; and behold, the City shone like the sun; the streets also were paved with gold, and in them walked many men with crowns on their heads, palms in their hands, and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were also of them that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying, 'Holy, holy. holy, is the Lord.' And after that, they shut up the Gates; which when I had seen, I wished myself among them."

We see a boat leaving Aberystwyth harbour and setting sail across the Irish Sea. It is a fine sight in the summer wind as she sails away and becomes a dot on the horizon. "There . . . she is gone," says my best friend alongside me. Gone where? Gone from our sight, that is all, but at that moment standing on the cliffs of Ireland with a telescope is someone gazing out to sea and he sees that boat which I can no longer see. "Here she comes!" he shouts. Such is dying. Those in glory are there welcoming a new arrival as we see them depart.

Unbelievers, hear! O that God might open the gate of heaven a little tonight, and show you what glories lie before favoured sinners, so that you could start to think, "Would God that I were there! I wish myself among them." Longings like that are the first encouragements that the grace of God is at work in your life. But you might be thinking, "Would there be room for someone like me there? I have many doubts and

have been a real hypocrite." Hear a distinguished Welsh preacher answer your question: "Friend, heaven is an enormous place: 'in my Father's house are many mansions', said Jesus Christ. God told Abraham how numerous his children would be (that is, his children by faith, the elect that would be in heaven): they would be as numerous as the sand of the sea or the stars of the firmament. [Can't you be contented to be a little grain of sand on the streets of heaven? Wouldn't you be happy to be a tiny star twinkling quietly in the new heavens? Wouldn't you be pleased to be even a bruised reed that was on the banks of the rivers of life that flow from the throne of God and the Lamb? That is salvation!) John in his Revelation saw a multitude that no one could count. It is a big place; do not entertain the thought that heaven is small. God's grace is never-ending and men and women invited to believe in Christ are welcomed there" (Gwyn Williams, "Heaven", Bryntirion Press, 2000, p.18).

But you have to entrust yourself to Jesus Christ alone. You have to cry mightily to him until you know that he has given even you the right to heaven. If Christ were just one of many illuminaries of heaven it might be possible to think of reaching heaven without him. But the Lamb is the single Lamp of heaven. No other unoriginated light is found there but Christ. "Can you visualise yourself explaining to God why he should admit you to heaven while you remain an unbeliever? 'I had no interest in your beloved Son' you will say. 'I repudiated him, made little of his death, shut my ears to his invitations, disregarded his warnings. Jesus Christ meant - and means - nothing to me. As far as I am concerned, your sending of your Son to earth was unnecessary, a pointless waste. But in other respects I have tried to be a decent person. For some of the time, I have done my best. So I expect you, O God, to allow me into the heaven of the Christ I despised and refused.'

"Doesn't the idea of it make you shudder? Can't you hear how crassly blasphemous such words sound? Yet that is, in essence, the unbeliever's plea, and nothing could be more foolish. Without Christ there is no hope of heaven. So come to him now. Cry to the Saviour of sinners to change and forgive and receive you. If you ask him with all your heart, he will do it, and heaven will be yours" (ibid., Donnelly, p.94).

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