Category: Opinion

Courage may be simply explained as the ability to go ahead and do something that frightens you or the capacity to maintain strength in the face of pain and grief. There are quite a number of people out there who have no qualms taking such risks. The world has seen very many of such in different spheres and more are on their way to astound us all with their incredible adrenaline. After all, we have seen people jumping free fall from outer space back to our planet Earth.

But it requires more than courage to take on institutions that were created ab initio, to control society. Namely: Government institutions, Religious cum Spiritual institutions, Traditional institutions, Professional associations, and Social affiliations. You require something more than courage. Courage alone will not last you the whole hug. Courage can be spontaneous and prompt. Courage can be a stunt in the face of imminent danger. Courage can also be deceptive. Therefore, when challenging institutional inanities, courage can only be one amongst several ingredients that are required for accurate shots.

1. I don’t need to belabor myself to let you know the possible consequences of challenging or scrutinizing government. The whole organs of government and her apparatchik, from the military to the civic, from the visible to the non visible, will be deployed against you in the manner that courage alone will not suffice. Yours sincerely is a living witness of such deployment. In summary, I was so haunted that I actually became the first ever person since Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914, that a masquerade came to court to testify against me after a federal judge granted leave for my secret trial. I need a producer to even turn that into a movie.

2. Religious and Spiritual Institutions, are one of the major control centers of society. Not a few businesses and even empires survive today only because of their affiliation with this axis. Apart from the personal satisfaction that we think we derive from those places, we must not be ignorant of their control buttons. So powerful are these centers that once they isolate or label you, even the most wicked of the society who hasn’t suffered your fate, will become more righteous before his or her brethren, while you are villainized. Everyone that is powerful in government, from the police to the military, to the para military, to the courts, to the parliament to the bureaucracy, belongs to one or the other places of worship and spirituality. Once the religious or spiritual caste is able to tag you, all their pressure buttons in government and elsewhere are activated to drain you in a manner that courage alone cannot rehydrate.

3. It is the same case with traditional institutions. These institutions were hitherto, infallible and subjects were barred from ever scrutinizing them. They are inherently regarded as unquestionable. They control our lives and society. Taking on them requires much more than just courage and the audacity to swim in tempest tossed waters.

4. Professional associations have been described by some scholars as intellectual prison yards. Not so much for the good they avail, but so much for the strings of control that they pull. They are conundrums curated by the most brilliant amongst us, for peer review and societal control. For instance, even after training and gaining qualifications as a lawyer, the bar association can stop you from practicing if they so collectively wish, under any guise. Challenging these elitist associations of like minds, really requires much more than courage.

5. Then talk about social affiliations. The human being is gregarious by nature. We are sociable and fond of company. We practically cannot exist without associating with our kind. We want to belong to age grades, clubs, unions, gender groups, etc. Civil society has been able to calibrate these rungs also for societal cohesion and control. There are some of these social clubs that are even more powerful than political parties and government institutions. They wield so much power and control that courage alone will fail you if you choose to turn your barrel on their shenanigans.

So in the face of these towering axis of societal control, courage is the junior brother to long suffering, forbearance, perseverance and a determined end goal. While courage may be spontaneous, the others are not. While courage is crucial, the others are indispensable. When courage will evaporate along the road, you will require the deliberate desire for long suffering, patience and the capacity to persevere and forbear, to cross the lonely road where courage is scarce or unavailable. But all of these can only be possible, if you have been to the mountain top and seen the promised land. If you have perceived the end goal. If you have a clear destination in mind. If that is missing, all others will have clay feet.

Good morning!

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Disclaimer:  The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author Agba Jalingo and does not represent TheLumineNews or its agent.

You cannot go to bed a blunder and wake up a wonder.

Jesus is the reason for the season.

Your attitude will determine your altitude.

Your offering will wipe out your suffering.

What you drop on the altar determines what you get from the altar.

Your network will determine your net worth.

Your ancestral baggage predicts your futuristic luggage.

If you don’t pay your tithe, things will be tight for you.

If you do not work in God’s courtyard, God will not work in your vineyard.

Without a life of holiness, you will live a life of hollowness.

If you release generously, you will receive bountifully.

If you remain dedicated, you will be elevated.

Though some of the rhymes appear logical, most of the people who yell them at you from the podiums know these hackneyed rhymes will not work until you get to work.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Agba Jalingo and does not represent TheLumineNews or its agent

My friend who is a Pastor has invited me again, twice in three years, to come preach in his church. I will be talking about the online possibilities and opportunities in 2024. He wants the young people in his Church to learn how to make money in 2024.

The last time I was there, the congregation was blessed. Till date, some of them who started their small businesses from the nuggets I shared are still testifying. Some ideas didn’t work. Some worked half way and Nigeria killed them. Some are still struggling to stabilize, while a few are flying already. Yet I have become a traditionalist. A proud and forceful one at that.

One thing you need to know about African Traditional Religions is that, they don’t discriminate. They don’t proselytize. They have no qualms embracing other people’s beliefs. They don’t tell you not to associate with others. They are perhaps one of the most generous belief systems in the world. They don’t fight religious wars. The Chinese, Japanese, Arabs, and co, drove away and even murdered Western Christian missionaries who first arrived their lands, to protect their own beliefs. They detested encroachment and made sure they kept their traditional beliefs against all odds.

Africans were the ones who fully accepted to embrace and practice foreign religions side by side with their own until they were persuaded, conquered and assimilated. They didn’t see any need for antagonism. They even accepted that theirs is foolish and worthless. Till date, we are still denigrated and told that we are going to hell, yet we are not angry or bitter.

My Pastor friend knows that I no longer go to church. That I have hands off Christianity for reasons best known to me and for which he has decided to understand with me. But he insists that his people need what I have in my brain. When they ask him why he will bring me, according to him, “I tell them I know Jalingo. He is my friend and brother. He has not denounced God. He simply says he wants to serve God via the lens of his ancestors. That doesn’t diminish who I know him to be.”

Now, you are at liberty to criticize my friend as you may find pleasing and even condemn my invitation. Neither him nor yours sincerely, actually gives a damn about that. Is it your right. But those who will be in church will not go back empty. They will learn something new. It’s a meeting of young people. That’s what is important here. I am also not inviting you. Not because I don’t want you to come but because you will think that the knowledge I will be sharing is inspired by demons. So your attendance will not be very needed unless you want to gate crash. You are allowed to. After all, it is a church. The Church of God and God is not from your village.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo

Dicslaimet: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Agba Jalingo and does not represent TheLumineNews or its agent.

Let me start my new year like this. With a disputable analogy. Namely that, Christ did not die selflessly. Before you get angry with me. Let me inform you that it is the Bible that said so. Not me.

It says in Hebrews 12:2 – “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM, ENDURED THE CROSS, despising the shame, and is SET DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD.” This verse may not have been interpreted to you in the manner I am trying to do now, that is why I earlier called it a disputable analogy.

There was a price waiting ahead that motivated Christ. First was the Joy that was awaiting him. Every winner has a taste of that joy. If you have ever won before, you know what that joy feels like. The joy of standing in the middle of the olympic podium with a gold medal on your neck is not in the market place. It is earned. Then the biggest trophy was to win the chance to sit at the right hand of the throne of God. Tell me what motivation can be bigger than that? What other price could have been greater?

This is not to diminish the fact that Christ died for love. My position does not put that forward. Christ died for love. I am saying that it was not selfless love. The benefits derived from the death of Christ were also shared with Christ. He derived that ultimate joy that was awaiting him and also earned an exclusive place at the right hand of the throne of God, and that automatically separates the ‘less’ from the self-less.

Why am I belaboring myself to draw your attention to this? It is because I need you, (particularly the younger persons and my own contemporaries who are still knocking on other doors for upliftment. I mean all of us unless others.), to put a price tag on everything you plan to do in 2024, unless charity and deliberate sacrifice.

Don’t be self-righteous about it this year. Be bold about it. Find a method to commoditize your value and calibrate your price tag. Also be ready to deliver as promised. It is because you can deliver as promised, that should qualify you to earn. Don’t go scamming people. Christ is not a scammer.

I am trying to say that, it is also Christ-like to ask for a price wherever you are offering service that another person can be paid for. For instance, if you are playing an instrument in a church choir or even offering professional ushering or catering or medical services in a church or doing apprenticeship and your boss or organization is using you or your time for other services that are not part of your apprenticeship.

Be deliberate about it in 2024. I repeat, don’t be self righteous about it. Civilizations have not been built by righteousness, but have been sustained by the fear of God. We cannot turn Jesus into a transaction but in our transactions, we can draw lessons from his example. He is not just an example in righteousness and sacrifice, he is also an example in self pricing.

In 2024, politicians are not going to change and turn to nice guys. Preachers are not going to stop scamming you. The economy is not going to get friendlier, prices are not going to come down. It is you that must earn more. I hope you heard that last line? Read it again!

Anything you are doing free presently that another person can be paid money for the same thing, reevaluate it and price it properly then put a price tag on yourself anytime you are required to perform that same service in 2024. You can give discounts at your discretion, there will always be free days, but let the person or organization know how much money you are losing so they will more properly appreciate your value.

Do it boldly. Do it deliberately. Do it professionally. Do it with a straight face. Do it with the fear of God. Those who want it free know you can be paid. They know they are taking advantage of you. They are paying others. It is you that hasn’t put a price on yourself and that’s not how you should roll in 2024!

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Dear Lord,

I ask not for more light but for eyes to see the light that already exists.

I ask not for sweeter songs but for ears to hear the present melodies.

I ask not for more love but for skill to turn anger into tenderness.

I ask for no more joy but for how to feel closer to your ineffable presence.

To give others everything I already have; enthusiasm and courage.

I ask for no more gifts but for the ability to use the gifts I have already received from you.

I ask that in my sinful nature, even when I falter like I always do, I should not escape your chastisement, but I beseech thee to chastise me in love and lead me not unto destruction.

Make me a master of all fears so I can be the friend I want to be.

To convey the truth I know!

For me to love purity. To seek the good and with all my power, to raise in every soul that comes in touch with me, a spark of the same fire.

Thank you for the chance to begin another cycle. Thank you Lord for my friends and foes alike. Thank you for my family. Thank you Lord for thus far, and thank you for where I am headed.

Thank you also my friends for reading and engaging yours sincerely here all year long and 🙏do have a wonderful year ahead.

Happy birthday to me!

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.