"Saint Joseph, our father and lord, is a teacher of the interior life. Place yourself under his patronage and you'll feel the effectiveness of his power." - St Josemaria
#SanJose#StJoseph
"Let us live each moment to the full, not worrying about whether time is going quickly or slowly but welcoming everything given us moment by moment."
// Father Jacques Philippe
Jesus, be the Lord of all of our plans. 🤲
✨️ https://t.co/q25fccvPkJ
I'm going to say something, and I hope it will be understood as coming from a place of love and concern.
A few weeks ago, I hosted a space with a prominent African entrepreneur. The space was curated in such a way as to give equal representation to different African nationalities so that it wouldn't skew toward Nigeria because of me.
The unfortunate result of this was that it was painfully easy to draw connections between the speakers' countries of origin and the quality of their submissions. All the Kenyans who spoke had useful, important, well-communicated submissions. Ditto the Zimbabweans, the South Africans and the Anglophone West Africans (Gambians, Ghanaians, a Liberian, and a Sierra Leonean).
And then there were the Nigerians.
I remember giving the mic to 8 Nigerians, and first of all, 7 of them went overtime. These 7 seemed very keen to speak and had a lot to say, but within 2 minutes of listening to them, you had this disappointing realisation - this man (they were all men) has no point. Rambling, disjointed, unfocused, random point-hopping, lacking in joined-up thinking, missing any sort of conclusion and ultimately only stopped by the "can you please round up in 15 seconds?"
I was so embarrassed, and I wondered whether the entrepreneur who co-hosted the space noticed what I had noticed. The answer is yes. She did. In fact, she specifically mentioned to me afterwards that everyone who came up and reduced the intellectual level of the space was Nigerian. "What's happening with education in your country?" was her exact question. I didn't have an answer.
That's just 1 anecdote. I have several. I have met many, many other people who have similar stories. In fact it is often the case now that before accessing certain rooms on the continent, recommendations from other Africans need to go ahead of me, because the fact of being Nigerian in and of itself makes people take me less serious if they don't know who I am.
Nigerians have always had a reputation in Africa for being loud and overbearing, but it used to be the case that we were seen as loud and domineering, but also eminently capable and useful - which made us just about tolerable. Now, it is increasingly the case that we are perceived around the continent as loud and stupid - the Special Needs children who have nothing upstairs, but believe they must express that nothing as frequently, and in as many grandiloquent words as possible.
I cannot fix Nigerian education. I have no power to do so. Even if I did, it would take at least a generation for the effects to become visible. That's why in the meantime, all I can beg my countrymen (because again, it is men) to do if they are reading this, is to start making a conscious effort to talk less. Reduce your volume. Speak less. Listen more. Read more. Read for the sake of keeping the knowledge in your head, not for the sake of "performing" intelligence by spitting it out at people.
The world will tolerate a loud but competent man. It will have sympathy for a quiet, incompetent man. But a loud, incompetent man?
God abeg
Yahaya Bello's contract with American International School of Abuja to pay $845,000 school fees in advance.
Will my dear Kogi state ever recover from this ?
There was a time civil servants were being paid as low as N6,000
I remember when friends and relatives back home who were senior civil servants would reach out to my mum for help because Bello wouldn’t pay salaries and when he did, he would be paying N6k; N10k
People suffered
Credit: Adeola Fayehun
You can’t be richer than the country you live in. You could have all the money but if your environment doesn’t improve, you are poor.
Nigeria is a country rich in potential but full of people who are poor in mindset.
This homily got me thinking 🤔
“We can only understand the royalty and the kingship of Christ if we look at Christ amongst the poor. The poor are our kings and if we’re not ready to look at the poor as our kings, we’re not ready to accept Christ as our king.” - (Most Rev. Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan in Pangasinan, Philippine)
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Lord, we thank You and praise You for giving us Your mother as Our Lady of Perpetual Help. May we turn to her motherly intercession each day!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, your icon depicts you holding your Divine Son while archangels hold instruments of His Passion. You know truly what it means to suffer because of all that your Son endured and all that you suffered with Him.
We ask you to take all of our needs before the throne of your Son, and we particularly ask today that you intercede so that we may grow in our ability to offer our sufferings in union with your Son’s!
Pray for us, that we may grow in every virtue necessary for holiness. Pray that we may grow in intimacy with your Son each day.
And I especially ask in this novena for (mention your intentions here).
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” 1 Peter 4:19
Doing good to others, while they do harm to us, magnifies the all-satisfying sufficiency of our trusted Creator.
Left to our own devices, many of us are inexplicably drawn to being in control or in an important role. Nothing wrong with that when you’re a natural-born leader. But there’s everything wrong with it when you want the position for how it serves you & not so you can serve others.
God is not removing you from your environment. He is not taking you away from the world, or from your condition in life, or from your noble human ambitions, or from your professional work... But he wants you to be a saint ‑‑ right there!
(The Forge, 362)
https://t.co/Yeiq0Tr3zS
The clearer the operation of grace, the more aggressive the operation of dark power. We should expect corruption and evil, even within the best manifestations of God.
Let them grow together until harvest...
https://t.co/3jhSexRNVA
West African food and drink meet-up in London
Enjoy a taste of west African culture! From live music to puff puff, Nigerian snacks, plantain ice cream, African craft beer and more.
#puffpuffministry
https://t.co/NjTFir1vc4