Mother of three Children , Studied Masters in International Human Resource Management at the University of Bedfordshire Luton. Interested in Healthy Food
Sorry to bust your bubble, but nobody knows who wrote Matthew and John, and the Mark You Have Now Is Likely Not Authentic
I love God and have spent a great deal of time and money studying Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, not just by attending a church, synagogue, or mosque and listening to the opinions of others, but by extensive travel, research, consultation, ideation, meditation, and prayer.
There is hardly a place in the Jewish Tanakh, Christian New Testament, or Islamic al-Quran that I have not been to out of love for God.
For example, the attached photo is of me at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, where I went to investigate the oldest New Testament manuscript on Earth, the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, which is 1,900 years old.
And one thing I observed is that many practitioners of religion do not know much about their faiths beyond what their denominations feed them.
Let us start with Christianity.
One of the greatest grey areas in Christianity is the assumption that the Gospels are Scripture in the sense that they are the direct Word of God, as in the "Thus says the Lord".
Are they inspired works? Yes. They are also written accounts of historians (Luke) who never met Yeshua (Jesus).
Luke actually says so in the opening of his letter to Theophilus (Luke and The Book of Acts are a long letter or treatise to Theophilus). He says quite clearly that he did not directly experience the things he was writing about and was only writing what he had been told by persons who were eyewitnesses to the events he detailed.
He never claimed that he heard from God or was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The source of his writings (Luke) came purely and exclusively from investigative journalism, which he referenced in Luke 1:3:
"I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus."
Luke may have experienced some of the events in the book of Acts.
A Gospel that could be direct eyewitness recollections is maybe Mark. The original author of Mark wrote only Mark 1-16:8. EVERYTHING after Mark 16:8 was added centuries later by an unknown author.
Before you insult me, just do your research. This is a fact!
Why do I say maybe, when I reference Mark? Well, of all the Gospels, Mark is the oldest and is mostly believed to have been written by him. But the truth is that we are not sure who wrote it.
By faith, I accept that Mark wrote it.
The books of Matthew and John were ATTRIBUTED to them. The truth is that these were ANONYMOUS works and nobody knows the authors.
And when they were first discovered, they were not known as the Book of Matthew or the Book of John. Please fact-check me.
Matthew was anonymous for two years until European Christians decided to name it The Gospel According to Matthew.
The anonymous book that we now know as the Gospel According to John was only so named 150 years after its discovery. Prior to that it was an anonymous book.
In fact, John 21:24 proves that John is unlikely to have authored the book that now bears his name.
That verse reads:
"This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true."
Please, for your sake, assume I am lying and fact-check me.
When Paul wrote 2 Timothy 3:16 and says:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness"
He was referring to the Jewish Tanakh, not the Gospels. How do we know? Because Paul's letters were written BEFORE the entire Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
1st Thessalonians was the first book of the New Testament to be written. And it was actually a letter. Mark, the oldest Gospel, was written about fifteen years later.
All the Gospels were written AFTER the death of Yeshua (Jesus) and Paul, and were never used by Yeshua or Paul's followers in their lifetimes.
A Review of the January 15, 1966 Coup Through the Eyes of a Participant, Major Adewale Ademoyega, and An Eyewitness, President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In light of revelations about the recent failed coup plot, which, if successful, would have been heavily and obviously tribal in nature, it is good to remind ourselves as a nation what can happen when we go that route.
Why? Because the last time Nigeria had what some people suspected was a tribal coup, it led to a pogrom where tens of thousands of our people died, and then a civil war, where millions of Nigerians perished because of the sins of a few ambitious young men.
So let us not repeat history and claim that history repeated itself, because Nigeria, as a country, often thrives on rumour and conjecture, even when there are documented facts to clear the air.
And that is what has happened with the events surrounding the January 15, 1966 coup.
Because I love my country, and know that those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it, as attributed to George Santayana, I have read every book written by the dramatis personae and eyewitnesses involved in the aforementioned coup, including Alexander Madiebo, Adewale Ademoyega, President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Babangida, and letters and manuscripts written from prison by Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Chukwuma Nzeogwu.
There is no book about that coup written by a participant or eyewitness that I have not read.
So, who was really the brain behind the coup, and why was it even executed? As much as possible, I will refrain from giving you my opinions and will let the horses speak to you from their writings.
What I have found from reading contemporary Nigerian perspectives on that unfortunate incident is that many of the people who cite Major Ademoyega's book have not really read it, because they credit him with things he never wrote, in an effort to absolve their ethnic group of any wrongdoing.
Fifty years after January 15, 1966, we are still revising the coup through ethnic paradigms. How unfortunate!
On page 33 of his book, Why We Struck, Major Ademoyega admitted that he, along with Uche Chukwumerije, who later became Information Minister under General Ibrahim Babangida, were recruited into the plot to topple the Balewa government by Emmanuel Ifeajuna.
He repeated this forcefully on page 71. Forcefully, because he described him as also "inconsistent and unreliable."
This assessment of Ifeajuna's character was again corroborated by Chief Obasanjo, who described Ifeajuna as a "courageous coward" on page 108 of Nzeogwu.
In fact, he revealed that at the time Ifeajuna first broached the idea that a military solution was the only solution, he, Ifeajuna, was just a Lieutenant. He had not been promoted to the rank of Major.
For those who blame it all on Nzeogwu, Ademoyega settles the matter on page 76 when he revealed that the coup was planned beginning from 1961, long before he had met Nzeogwu. It was Ifeajuna that he met in 1961.
I must also add that on page 105 of his book, Nzeogwu, Chief Obasanjo stated that it seemed both Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu were independently planning their own coups, and decided to pool resources and work together.
The meeting where the coup was planned was held at Ifeajuna's residence in Lagos, and he presided. Nzeogwu, Ademoyega, Okafor, Anuforo, Chude, and Chukwuka were in attendance, amongst others.
It was at that meeting, detailed on page 82, that Ademoyega revealed that what they agreed was that those to be targeted were only to be arrested, not killed!
However, it seems Ademoyega was deceived, because on page 111 of Nzeogwu, Chief Obasanjo reveals that from the get-go, his friend, Nzeogwu, and his co-conspirator, Ifeajuna, had planned the coup to be bloody. Apparently, they only told Ademoyega what they felt would make him join them.
How President Trump Disappointed Peter Obi and Other Fifth Columnists in Nigeria
Peter Obi and his hordes of Obidients have been thoroughly disappointed and disgraced. After publicly calling Nigeria, the same country that they hope to govern, a "now disgraced country", and holding rallies and taunting their fellow citizens in anticipation of an impending American invasion of Nigeria, not only did the so-called invasion by President Trump never materialise, but Nigeria-American relations went from an all time low to an all time high, with the Trump administration ramping up its collaboration with Nigeria and sending financial support, weapons and military deployment to its new found ally, as well as intelligence sharing on a level scarcely seen in Africa.
But how did Nigeria move the United States from battleground to common ground?
This was achieved by the diplomatic deftness of Nigerian leaders led by President Bola Tinubu, and his aides, like Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, who refused to be provoked by the rhetoric from Washington DC, or by the childish glee those initial anti-Nigerian oratory drew in people like Peter Obi and his ilk.
The President dispatched these trusted aides to the United States and Europe to demonstrate Nigeria's forthrightness and douse tension. It worked brilliantly because these were brilliant men.
Instead of the confrontational approach unwisely taken by Nicolás Maduro, our President never responded to Mr Trump, whether directly or indirectly. All he said, over and over, was the truth-that there was no Christian Genocide in Nigeria, but rather a localised insecurity issue affecting both Christians and Muslims.
And to show transparency, the administration invited a series of prominent and influential Americans to visit Nigeria and go wherever they chose without let or hindrance.
And while here, they publicly admitted that, yes, there were security challenges, caused largely by the fall of Gaddafi in Libya, and the destabilisation of the Sahel by his foreign mercenary army that left Libya with training, weapons and finances after his ignoble death in 2011.
Next, they rightly saw through Peter Obi and reasoned that a man who could sell out his own country so quickly could never be a trusted and reliable ally. Peter Obi is a trader, not a leader. And the only thing a proper dyed-in-the-wool trader worships is money. So, they reasoned that a patriotic President Tinubu, who is open and ready to work with anyone who would help Nigeria, is better than an Obi, who is willing to side with foreign powers to undermine Nigeria.
As is commonly said, when you sell your own brother, even your buyer will not trust you. Such was the case of Obi, who saw Nigeria's security issues as something to exploit, rather than solve.
And it is not surprising that the Biafran lobby, which initially turned the Trump administration against Nigeria, really took off after Peter Obi visited Washington on Thursday, September 25, 2025. A coincidence?
Almost immediately after Obi's DC visit, talk show host and comedian Bill Maher, Senator Ted Cruz and others turned on Nigeria.
And when it was revealed in October 2025 that pro-Biafran groups had been spending $66,000 a month to lobby the Trump government against Nigeria, Peter Obi said nothing.
However, when it became public that the Federal Government of Nigeria had countered them with its own lobbying contract, Peter Obi went into overdrive, calling the funds paid to the US lobbyist an unnecessary "waste".
Right then and there, American and Nigerian officials saw through Obi. When Biafran paid lobbyists, he was silent. When Nigeria countered, Obi was salient.
Just like that, the enemy within revealed himself to Nigerians and Americans, with both governments realising they were being set up and quickly reaching a detente in their sabre-rattling.
To cut a long story short, that is how President Trump disappointed the fifty columnists in Nigeria.
@renoomokri I believed in Nigeria, we shall overcome our challenges, and be well developed narion that everyone knows, and striving to come and reside....in-sha-Allah
While visiting Alhaji Dangote's residence, I did not notice photos of him on the walls of his living room. I know that he has met the high and mighty of this world, and I imagined that he would have adorned the walls of his home with such pictures.
There were a few at his office, but none at his home. The only artwork I noticed on the walls was a depiction of a man in the Sujud prayer position. For those who do not know what Sujud means, it is the act of bowing down or fully prostrating to God in prayer.
For example, if you are a Christian, the prayer position that Yeshua (Jesus) adopted in Matthew 26:39 is referred to in Islam as Sujud.
That verse says:
"Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed."
We also see a similar posture with Daniel the prophet in Daniel 6:10:
"He went up to the upper room of his house and opened the windows that faced toward Jerusalem. Then Daniel bowed down on his knees and prayed just as he always had done." ERV version.
I was curious as to why this was the only adornment I saw, and I asked a mutual friend of Alhaji and I, and he told me it was there as an inspiration for prayer.
You see, this man, who runs probably the largest and most diverse private enterprise in Africa, which employs over 30,000 people, disciplines himself to perform the five obligatory prayers of Islam:
Fajr or Subh prayer (Dawn)
Zuhr or Dhuhr Prayer (Afternoon)
Asr Prayer (Afternoon)
Magrib Prayer (Sunset)
Isha Prayer (Evening/night)
This inspired me. We are born by God through our mothers, we live in harmony with God in nature, and we return to Him in death.
However, this world, especially when you are wealthy and powerful, is full of numerous distractions, and it is a good idea to create a safe space in our homes where we intentionally surround ourselves with cues to remind us of why we are on Earth.
I want to thank Alhaji Aliko Dangote for reinvigorating in me a love of prayer and alone time with God.
Thank God it is Friday. Assalamu Alaikum!
On this special day of Juma'ah, may the Al-Hamid (The Praiseworthy) who determines the direction of everything, direct wisdom, honour, mercy, good health and long life to us and our entire family.
I also pray for the Almighty God to put a barrier between us and the distractions of modern life.
Having seen fit to let us see another Jumu'ah, May Al-Ḥakam (The Giver of Justice) grant us Shifa, and fill our hearts with Iman, Sabr and Taqwa.
Juma'at Mubarak!
Peter Obi, a man who did not build a single nursery, primary or secondary school or university during his eight-year tenure as Governor of Anambra, now says he wants to retire to Onitsha as a secondary school teacher. If education was so important to him, why did he not build schools when he had the authority and opportunity to do so? Especially as the incumbent Governor, Charles Soludo, recently revealed that 77 communities in Anambra state have no public schools.
Peter Obi's new promise is likely to end up like his old promise to sue Peoples Gazette for libel over the publication of the Yes Daddy audio where Mr. Obi plotted to unleash "religious war" on the Muslim Ummah.
#TableShaker