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When Will This Stupidity Stop?

3 Mins read

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi

One of my issues with GEJ, is level of ignorance on the matter of his faith. He was taken to the tomb of Jesus to be prayed for by more ignorant men of God. The tomb, of which Angel’s announced to Mary not to seek the living among the dead, meaning it is a place of anything dead and Jesus the risen Christ, is no longer tied to any location as a matter of fact, the presence of Christ in Israel is at the mercy of Christ carrying believers in whose lives he is dwelling, who troupe to Jerusalem annually.

But I have discovered that the stupidity of Nigerians of the matter of religion is over that of the Jews and the Saudis. It’s time we get committed to our faith, which is more personal, as in, between Individuals and their God. The traditional believers in ancestral gods seem to be of better protection to our fragile economy at this time, the following, Osun Oshogbo, Arugugu fish festival, the regatta in Calabar are all foreign exchange earners via tourists who comes around to lift our hospitality industry, empowering our people through purchases.

Moricas Agege was a Mecca of sort during the life time of “Anobi” Shehu Adam, but we fail to develop it.

Today, the world is thronging our nation to pray with mind blowing testimonies of the God they encountered in such places as, the Redemption Camp, Cananland, Prayer City, and my new discovery EBOMI towers in the heart of the city of Jo’s on the Plateau etc. What is the need to keep wasting our hard earned money through sheer religious gullibility.

How do we explain that since 2015 a nation in need of forex is led by her President in National wastage of the same in the name of religion?

Hajj and lesser hajj has become the place for political clandestine meeting where critical decisions concerning the nation are taken.

This is the reality of our annual wastage, 79,000 Nigerian Muslims spent $5,000 each to go to Saudi Arabia to kill the Devil with Stones, when in actual fact they were led on the trip by the devils they failed to stone at home, a total $395,000,000 from a poor underdeveloped country like Nigeria is enriching

Saudi Economy, growing it through tourism. So angry this year was Alhaja Folashade who put all our strength behind the stone she wouldn’t throw at the devils at home to hit the devil in Mecca once and for all, possibly it will save her from the devil that has turned homeland to a killing field, where no one seems to be safe, but she collapsed and died.

There are 50,000 Christians not left behind in the plunge of our economy, as they embark on the trip to Israel, to in their gullibility pray at the tomb of the resurrected Christ and bring back death mentality which is the only thing the attachment JP to their Names, suggest to me, squandering, $250,000,000 in the process.

When the average plunge to Saudi of $395,000,000, is added to Israel’s $250,000,000 a combined total of $645,000,000. That’s  over half a Billion Dollars.

This process is observed twice a year, making us $1.3 billion poorer every year because of our religiosity. I need not convert it to Naira because some of us might start having sleepless night like our Vice President, for the level of self inflicted poverty prevalent in the land. But for the record you deserve to know, may be you will be provoked to rise in revolts against religion, which is the rod of slavery of the elite on the masses of the poor pious Nigerians. 782 Billion Naira, Over half a trillion naira is wasted on religion every year. Amount enough to take our out of school northern almajiri armies who are yearly commissioned by poverty into crime.

It will make no difference if this sojourn is exclusive to those who can afford it and for tourism purposes. What baffles me is the struggle the poor are subjected to by Prophets and Alfas who compelled them to go with them for special prayers in the “holy land” making extra commission for the co travellers through special arrangements with the travel agents.

Faith is a transaction of the hearts, and God is more in Nigeria than any other nation. Stop been gullible let’s build Nigeria.

   

About author
Time Nigeria is a modern and general interest Magazine with its Headquarters in Abuja. The Magazine has a remarkable difference in editorial philosophy and goals, it adheres strictly to the ethics of Journalism by using the finest ethos of the profession to promote peace among citizens; identifying and harnessing the nation’s vast resources; celebrating achievements of government agencies, individuals, groups and corporate organizations and above all, repositioning Nigeria for the needed growth and development. Time Nigeria gives emphasis to places and issues that have not been given adequate attention by others. The Magazine is national in outlook and is currently being read and patronized both in print and on our vibrant and active online platform (www.timenigeria.com).
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Where the Conversion Breaks  The break does not happen at the ends of the process. It happens in the middle, in the unglamorous sequence of work that turns a plausible concept into an instrument a fiduciary can sign. A promising transmission project needs a feasibility study rigorous enough to survive institutional scrutiny rather than optimistic enough to attract early interest. It needs offtake arrangements that hold up under real counterparty and currency risk, not the counterparty risk assumed in a base case. It needs environmental and social documentation calibrated to the standards of the institutions being asked to fund it, not the standards of the jurisdiction hosting it. It needs a legal and commercial structure that allocates risk in ways a commercial lender, not only a development financier, will accept. It needs a sponsor capable of executing what has been proposed, not merely capable of proposing it. 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The Missing Middle  This is the Missing Middle of Infrastructure Finance: the institutional architecture that sits between capital that wants to move and infrastructure that needs building, and whose incompleteness explains far more of the global infrastructure gap than any shortfall in committed funds. 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None of these are new ideas in isolation. What is missing is their assembly into a coherent system, deliberately funded and institutionally accountable, rather than scattered across donor-funded pilots that end when the grant does. The African Dimension  Africa makes this dynamic unusually visible, and consequently offers an unusually clear opportunity to correct it. The continent’s infrastructure financing need, by any measure, is vast. Less understood is that the shortfall is disproportionately one of preparation rather than capital. Nigerian gas-to-power, off-grid solar and mini-grid developers have each demonstrated that individual projects can clear the bankability bar; what has not emerged is systemic pipeline scale, a steady stream of comparably prepared projects large enough to absorb the capital already circling the sector. The pattern repeats, with local variation, from grid infrastructure in East Africa to transport corridors in West Africa. Interested capital is rarely the scarce input. Investment-ready projects are. 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