Honest opinions
Cornelius Hamelberg
It’s so easy for anybody, just anybody, to get up and say that he is the founder of a new religion named mud and that his God is omniscient, omnipotent, created the universes etc etc etc…
True: I’m feeling a little despondent after this evening’s chat with Baba Kadiri.
First of all in the middle of our tête-à-tête, Ukraine “scored” a goal against Dear Scotland, a “goal” that was clearly offside, making me doubt the sanity & impartiality of the referee. That’s how it is these days, Ukraine can do no wrong, Ukraine is the darling of the West, Ukraine even won the Eurovision song contest, with a massive sympathy vote from the pan-European TV audience, and there’s no justice in the world anymore. If it had been a Ukraine vs Russia qualifying match for the FIFA World Cup to be battled out in Qatar in November, I suppose that by now (half time) the referee would have awarded Ukraine a couple of penalties and of course awarded or rather, inflicted a few red cards on innocent Russian players, as collective punishment for Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
As the pundits are fond of telling us “politics and sports don't mix. Sadly, Nigeria is out by default, whereas Russia is also out - has been unfortunately banned from taking part in the World Cup, another unjust sanction, and we should expect similar unequal treatment in a world cup qualifier match between Israel and Iran/ Saudi Arabia/ Iraq/Algeria, expect many injuries, red cards, penalties - even the death penalty, as the hostile nations have already made clear that they cannot guarantee the safety of the Israeli players on or off the football field, and that’s why Israel has to play in the European zone.
Despondent, second of all, because Baba Kadiri is adamant, laughing heartily he assures me that he ain’t gonna apologise to Sheikh Maqary. To quote William Shakespeare ( WS) instead of Wole Soyinka (WS ) it seems that “There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger”
Him, in this case, = bad guy, the unrepentant sinner known as Baba Kadiri.
And how does Baba Kadiri like this?
We also discussed the upcoming elections, and in that area, Dear Baba Kadiri is a trusted companion, for news and enlightened views. So we should be looking forward to his reply directed at Salihu Moh. Lukman’s latest. I reminded him of the scandalous report about the insolence of office that appeared at the start of Salihu Moh. Lukman’s thread, from 12 Jun 2021: :
“There was, of course, the case of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen, who did not declare the $3 million lodged in five accounts that belonged to him, which led to his suspension from office and subsequent conviction on April 18, 2019, by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, stripping him of all offices he earlier occupied, forfeiture of the money in the five accounts he failed to declare and banning him from holding public office for 10 years.”
Fast forward this evening and I’m thinking of Dear Wofa Akawasi and the days (and nights) of the Philosopher Kings, poets, pastors, priests…and that in contrast to Jesus, who said “ seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these. things shall be added unto you.”
Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah opined, “ Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto.”
I guess that’s what Atiku, the wannabe, is seeking right now, “ the political kingdom” so that “ all things” - more things, more Naira & Dollar Akbar WEALTH shall be added unto him.
On the other hand, retrospectively speaking, at a later date, Osagefo Kwame Nkrumah could have added, “Seek ye first the economic kingdom, for there shall be no politics or economics in the Hereafter!”
Aside from popular knowledge about his money bags, I know so infinitesimally little about Atiku, and really have so little to go by apart from Olusegun Obasanjo’s fear - of the Lord ( the beginning of wisdom) that the most Merciful Almighty will never forgive him ( Pastor Obasanjo) if he supports Atiku for the Nigerian presidency. There are nevertheless some strong assessments of Atiku’s chances going back to his failed attempt to defeat the APC’s strongman Muhammadu Buhari at the last Nigerian presidential elections when Atiku lost by a whopping 3,928,869 votes…
Thirdly, contributing to national, international, and intra-national despondency, we don’t know yet who will be on the APC ticket, but, should Atiku against all odds, win ( and it’s a distinct possibility if he fields a running mate from the Middle Belt and out of cynical political expediency foments a deterioration of the security situation in the country which he could conveniently blame on the current admin’s ineptness and inefficiency in protecting the nation from banditry and ransom kidnapping - supposing that money bags man Atiku himself is not kidnapped and asked “ your money of your life?”, should money-bags man Atiku win the presidential election it’s likely that Teju Cole or somebody else will have to pen part 2 of his “ Every Day Is for the Thief “
This is my honest opinion
Cornelius Hamelberg
A one-word correction. The sentence should read
Thirdly, contributing to national, international, and intra-national despondency, we don’t know yet who will be on the APC ticket, but, should Atiku against all odds, win ( and it’s a distinct possibility if he fields a running mate from the Middle Belt and out of cynical political expediency foments a deterioration of the security situation in the country which he could conveniently blame on the current admin’s ineptness and inefficiency in protecting the nation from banditry and ransom kidnapping - supposing that money bags man Atiku himself is not kidnapped and asked “ your money or your life?”, should money-bags man Atiku win the presidential election it’s likely that Teju Cole or somebody else will have to pen part 2 of his “ Every Day Is for the Thief “
In some other hypothetical case one could conjure up right now, the question could be framed, “Your money or your wife?”, in which case, easy-peasy, to be honest, and what a relief, the hen-pecked husband could bravely reply, “Of course, my money - you can gladly have the wifey”
BTW, I wonder how it works out in the case of the rich Mallam/ Sheikh/ Alhaji who happens to have more than one wife, plus those under the possession of “ his right hand”. When the ransom kidnapper makes his demand of “ Your money or your wife”, the Mallam/ Sheikh/ Alhaji probably asks, “Which one?” - just as, according to the Talmud, when the Almighty said to Aba Abraham /Sheikh Ibrahim
“ Take your son”
“But I have two sons. Which should I take?”
“Your only one!”
“But each of them is the only son of his mother.”
“Whom you love”, God answered.
“But I love them both.”
Re- last night’s football match Scotland played with great fighting spirit - in spite of the offside which the NATO referee Danny Makkelie awarded Ukraine in the 33rd minute. Well, that’s football for you, the ball is round, the world is round, it’s also my honest opinion that if NATO could have its way Ukraine or USA should win the World Cup in November, and both of them should win the war against Russia, without Ukraine firing any heavy USA-supplied missiles into Russia proper as that would result in the Kremlin reducing Kyiv to the same level as nuclear dust.
True: sports and politics shouldn’t mix. Just imagine, that GHana beat Nigeria in Abuja in that world cup qualifier, and Ghanaian fans suffered some retaliation. Nationalism is part of the politics, you can’t leave nationalism out of politics when two nations clash on the football pitch
These days any Israel- Iran match, in neutral territory, say at Wembley far away from al-Jazeera’s Qatar, would be nothing less than a football war, in which if the game ended in a draw, that would be the best diplomatic outcome, but should Iran lose, to Israel at Wembley, then that team, its manager, trainer, coach, doctors will all most likely face the firing squad for bringing shame and dishonour to the proud Islamic Republic.
Some ask, what’s in a name?
Others ask, what’s in a game?
In New York City in 1976 and 1979, I felt small ( the plural of little in Swedish) dwarfed by the skyscrapers. New York, where you have to look up, to see the sky. Ditto Chicago, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Dubai….
There’s this one sentence from Arundhati Roy, in her “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness “
That haunts me. It’s a supposedly cruel question addressed to a blind man, to “Ziauddin, the blind Imam who had once led the prayers in the Fatehpuri masjid” - the question on page 5 of the novel:
” Imam Sahib, when people speak of colour - red, blue, orange when they describe the sky at sunset, or moonrise during Ramazaan - what goes through your mind?”
Enough to make you sad, just thinking of an unrepentant sinner - like an innocent African accused of rape anywhere in Oyiboland, or back there in the strange fruit days of lynching, in America.
The courtroom is packed. Chin up, looking defiant and undefeated, the African falsely accused of rape is escorted into the courtroom, handcuffed, and when he is seated, is chained to the chair ( so that he doesn’t bolt away.) Bolt away to where? If he smiles, in their hearts, the jury feels some fury: They think “he did it and he’s still smiling”. If he looks downcast, humble/ remorseful/ repentant, they think “ He did it and now he regrets it”
Any which way, he can’t win.
Cornelius Hamelberg
When the debate or argument between the Muslim and the Christian starts to escalate, long before it gets to the boiling point, explosion or execution, I think that there’s always room for the Muslim to step back and recite Surah Al-Kafirun to himself and if acceptable, also to the other party in order to wind matters up to a peaceful conclusion in which we agree to disagree
Surah Al-Kafirun says:
1. Say: O disbelievers!
2. I worship not that which ye worship;
3. Nor worship ye that which I worship.
4. And I shall not worship that which ye worship.
5. Nor will ye worship that which I worship.
6. Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.
In my view, religion based on blind faith with sincere practice is the poor man’s philosophy and no matter what Dawkins or Ehrman say, the Faithful of Chrsitinmaity and Islam have their incontrovertible word of God to rebuff the sceptic…Fritz Perls Gestalt Prayer is still relevant and does not disagree with Surah Al-Kafirun.