Work in progress entitled, "The White Rhino" by Omoruyi Uwuigiaren.

The shootings had alerted the guards at the station in the national park. Cameras had been mounted on all corners in the park. One of the guards in the control room checked the monitors to find out what led to the shooting. He saw Dante chasing an intruder in one of the monitors. Then, he picked up his handset and called Sizwe, the head of operations.

Sizwe was in the next office reading a newspaper when his phone rang. He dropped the paper by his side and grabbed his handset from the table. “WHAT?” Sizwe answered the call. He sat up, gazing at the ceiling.

“We have an intruder!” the man in the control room disclosed. He yawned.

“Where?” asked Sizwe and adjusted.

“I think he came for Dante!”

“The rhino?”

“Yes, sir.”

“SHIT!” Sizwe banged the table as his countenance fell. “Keep your eyes open and watch his movement. Keep me updated. I am going there right away!” Sizwe dropped the call. He placed his handset in his pocket. He rose from the chair and made for the door. Once he was outside, he slammed the door behind him and secured it. He turned and glanced about. Some guards were around. He adjusted his huge frame and cleared his throat. “Guys!” he bellowed. Sizwe seemed to get their attention with the single call.

Everyone abandoned what they were doing and glanced up at him.

“We have an intruder! He came for the rhino. Get the van!” Sizwe spoke at the top of his voice.

“Yes, sir!” about three men or more chorus. Everyone was engaged. One of the drivers rushed to the garage to get the van.

One guard walked up to Sizwe. He looked pale as if he was under the weather and had not tasted a good meal for days. Fairly scrawny, his eyes had turned yellow with fever. “Boss,” he coughed violently, bending his body and shivering. “I wanted to see you earlier. But I was weak. I need to see the doctor.”

Sizwe went closer. He felt his neck with the back of his hand. “Bojo, you need medication. Take permission from the admin and go to the hospital.”

“Thank you, sir.” Bojo bowed a thousand times. He turned and faced the way to the administrative block. Walking as if unable to hurt a fly, Bojo could hardly coordinate his steps. He went like a steam engine going through a deplorable road. The fever was taking its toll. How did it get to this point? Health is wealth but some people don’t take care of themselves. Paying attention to their health is like a mountain too high to climb. Sizwe crossed his hands over his body and watched him disappeared into one of the offices in the admin block. Once the man had gone, he sniffed and returned his gaze to the other people.  

About six or more guards were ready. As they waited for the van to roll out of the garage, the man in the control room called again. Sizwe adjusted his earpiece. He went aside to receive the intelligence. Moments later, the call dropped. Sizwe breathed deeply. It seemed things were not as bad as he had thought. Not long after, the van arrived. Sizwe and the guards jumped into the vehicle and they drove to the scene.  

Like Jonah in the belly of the big fish, Gunter was trapped in the hole and could not get out. Dante was circling the hole, growling at the unfortunate soul. The man was yet to regain his consciousness. Immediately the van pulled up at the scene and the guards who had often fed Dante alighted from the vehicle, the rhino calmed down. He turned and retreated to a corner. The rhino sat under a shade created by a small mango tree expectantly. They have always made the difference in his life. Sizwe, in particular, has a heart of gold. He fed the animals each time he visited the area. Now, it was the rhino’s turn to benefit from his benevolence. The rhino knew his presence will put a good meal on his table. All that is needed at this point was to be patient. And Sizwe did not fall short of his expectation.

One of the men went to the back of the van. He carried a sack of grass and walked to the rhino and emptied it on the ground. Dante was pleased with the meal. The timely intervention of the men had saved Gunter from further knocks from the angry hands of the rhino.

The rhino could not have asked for more. He rose to his feet and began to munch the grass quietly. Sizwe will forever be remembered by the animals. The rhino has good senses of smell and hearing. How Dante could forget the men that fed him?

Sonship---Are You of God or Man by Rexkennedy Saltlove.

Matthew 3:17 English Standard Version (ESV):

And behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

"He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” - Matthew 17:5

As said in the maiden edition of this series: "children are born. Sons are given," Isaiah 9:6.

God's earnest desire is that we grow to be sons, know whom we are to Him so He can present us to the world Himself.  And then we can exercise Kingdom authority with discretionary powers to bring His Kingdom's will on earth or the territories we reside.

The presenting of son are backed up by the command: 'Listen to him!"

Even without the command, the authority of the one doing the presentation suffices in determining the degree of power to be wielded by the son (Person) presented.

It means, "This person is an authority to speak on my behalf with regards to issues pertaining to me in any capacity." God's command that son is listened to, is fundamental here. Nature, things, and issue that surround us need a commanding voice to obey.

This was the first temptation of Satan to Jesus. He said: "Command These stones..."

"The earnest expectations of creation waiteth for the manifestation of the Son of God."

As Jesus went about carrying out his ministry on earth, the majority of His good works were centered around COMMANDS.

Check out the miraculous that surrounds Jesus ministry:

Lazarus

the storm

the raising of the dead

the demoniac etc

The seven sons of Sceva, though not of God tried to COMMAND a possessed girl in the name of the Lord that Paul preaches and they were attacked because sonship authority is not exercised through the third party. That is why Gehazi could not do anything with Elijah's staff in his hand. But in Luke 10, there was a clear commanding authority to heal the sick and cast out demons!

The disciples/apostles could not cast out demons until they were presented into the realm of the son and empowered. You have to be led by God to perform. Without God's leading, ministering will be misleading.

Compare the incidence surrounding the two verses:

 "Why could we not cast it out?" Matthew 17:9.

 And

"Lord even the demons are subjected to us," Luke 10:17.

Our greatest undoing in Christianity today is too many people who are babes want to talk and exercise the sonship authority. We think it comes from how long we've been in Christianity or by the circle of "fathers" we are close to.

Jesus was led into the wilderness. His coming to Jordan for baptism was already told John the Baptist that he would know the son by the descending of a dove on him.

Are you of God or Man?

ON THE ANTI-IGBO SONG POSTED BY SAHARA REPORTERS - Maiwada Dammallam.

For some inexplicable reasons, Sahara Reporters seem to be veering off the track of ethical and consecutive journalism into something undefinable with each passing day. It's quite unfortunate that the prolific and fiery SR, a very reputable online magazine that used to be a frontline warrior in social activism should find it worthy to discard professionalism and patriotism in favour of cheap and divisive kind of journalism by propagating unverifiable inciting materials which may unleash a dangerous mayhem that could set Nigeria ablaze for the second time. 

One will expect SR, an entity considered by many as a reliable source of information, to exercise caution and restraint while enlightening or entertaining the public if not for the sake of its reputation at least, for the sake of innocent people who will pay with their lives any unleashed misadventure. Having arrived this far, I also expect SR to keep its objectives in tandem with the noble objectives of journalism that has always being to build not to destroy; something that earned it the listening ears of the people that will bear the unpalatable results of irresponsible journalism from whoever. 

One is left wondering what SR intended to achieve by promoting abusive and divisive material in as socially volatile, religiously fragmented and ethnically divided society as Nigeria is especially at a time when all hands should be on deck to work for the realignment of the wobbly wheels of the Nigerian vehicle to help put it back on track and keep it on course. 

For so many reasons SR shouldn't be caught peddling cheap materials that are known to be the common bond between 'roadside loggers' and pseudo-intellects. SR has a reputation to protect being at the very top of the business of cyber-journalism in Nigeria. By being careless with its methods and ethics, SR is only putting Nigeria at risk but it is also putting its exalted position of envy in the cyber-community on the line. For instance, without this, nobody will ever think SR lack the capacity to assess and accurately predict the dangers of provoking ethnic hatred in a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural polity like Nigeria. SR couldn't have come this far without knowing a bit about Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan or more closely, the Nigeria that's yet to completely heal from a similar misadventure.

I don't want to believe the lessons of the pogrom of the 60s that left Nigeria soaked with the blood of the innocents were lost to SR or anybody to expect any benefit out of a repeat that could be more destructive with a more populated Nigeria and cheaply accessible more advanced war techniques, weaponry and large army of unemployed and adventurous youth. That the SR crew are safely in New York, the USA far away from the theatre of both the previous and next rounds of carnage should not give them anybody any false sense of immunity. Wars are like earthquakes, they could unleash tsunamis thousands of miles away from the epicenter. Even more, being mostly Nigerians, the SR crew would not be totally immune to the result of their reckless kind of journalism. They have folks back home in Nigeria who may not be spared the results. Having said that, let's review the trickery of the said audio clip that's childishly being traded as the war drums of the Northern Nigeria. 

To begin, if you actually believe that the North, home to 4 living former Presidents, 2 living former Vice Presidents, countless former Governors, countless former members of Nigeria's highest ruling bodies under different dispensations, incumbents Deputy UN Secretary-General and OPEC Secretary-General, with also in store an assorted collection of intellectuals, bureaucrats, technocrats, internationally acclaimed businessmen, seasoned politicians, globally respected journalists, dexterous and respectable social activists, would have no voice to speak but the voice of some half baked 'struggling to survive' Kennywood entertainers working in a one room studio with obsolete musical equipment, know that you are a case worse and more pathetic than Wike, Fayose and FFK combined. 

Alluding to any relationship between the North, its political ambitions, position and mindset to the rather unintelligently scripted anti-Igbo song was a serious disrespect to the region coextensive to the embarrassing disrespect Nnamdi Kanu has been subjecting the South Eastern region for the past few months. The North will never sink this low even if it will choose the option of idiocy to decide its position and enhance its socio-economic and political relevance in Nigeria. 

For anybody to assume otherwise, to put it nicely, I can only say some heads need to uninstall the nonsensical dogmatic beliefs about the North they are operating with and install the hard fact that the North, besides not being stupid as could reasonably be proved by its historical participation and contributions in building Nigeria, has never being scared of being an independent region. If by any chance, the idea of the North being a liability has registered deeply with some people, the most intelligent question to ask themselves is, why did Northern Nigeria supported the continued existence of Nigeria as a single entity when the Biafra of Ojukwu offered it an excellent opportunity to opt out with its groundnuts pyramids pointing to sky majestically like the Giza pyramids of Egypt? People that choose to believe the hogwash about a hypothetical weak, futureless and scared Northern Nigeria should know that they are doing so at the expense of logic, provable historical facts, scientific projections and their intellectual makeup.

It should be noted that the North's respect for the continued existence of Nigeria as a single entity could easily be traced to its understanding of the workings of the modern world and modern techniques of corporate survival despite the unscientific and unrealistic assumption of some confused and misguided Nigerians that the region is a large colony of empty-headed 'Abokis'. That Northerners are tagged 'Abokis' Mairuwas' etc, shouldn't be the baseline on which the capacity and standard of the North should be judged, after all, Bill Gates is still being tagged a college dropout. 

Truly, before Nigeria get it right, some brains must deactivate, reactivate and reboot to function in line with the reality of the day. 

Finally, my heart goes out to the victims of today's church attack in Ozubulu, Ekusigo Local Government area of Anambra state. It's sad that just when Nigeria has begun to breathe the air of respite from the senseless killings that used to be a weekly affair in the immediate past, some people are hell bent on returning Nigeria back to that sad history. 

It's not surprising though. Rather than choose the path of reconstruction to complement the collective efforts of Nigerians which rescued the country from the abyss of hopelessness and senseless destruction of lives, some people seem tied to the technique of seeking for political relevance and economic empowerment by planting seeds of discords to fragment the policy for easy penetration and manipulation. Rather than assist this administration to consolidate the gains of its early days which saw the return of peace and security in Nigeria, these elements are not resting on their oars to take their pound of flesh off the APC administration that they consider a life-enemy for halting a system of 'Owambe governance' that's compliant to their ambitions. 

Ozubulu is a clear testimony that for Nigeria to be safe, all hands must not only be on deck but must do the right thing. The longer we allow private ambitions to rule our collective aspirations, the longer we keep swimming in pain; dying with as little knowledge of why we die as our killers know why they kill.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE ANTI-IGBO SONG CALLING FOR GENOCIDE AGAINST NDI IGBO IN THE NORTH.

First I want to appeal to Almighty Allah to help me in this song not to deviate, these useless children of thieves and unemployed. Igbos in Nigeria have no sun.

Chorus:
Igbos (Inyamirin) are ungrateful people and fools
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.

Let’s drag and drag and see who will sleep in the sun,
Igbo land, in the beginning, has no name, they were helped to get name and identity. And that’s the beginning of their trouble.

Chorus:
Igbos (Inyamirin) are ungrateful people and fools
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.

Please let’s ask, who is an Igbo, it’s Igbo that suffered and said he needs water and that’s how we started calling them Inyamuri.

Chorus:
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.

Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.

Igbos who are doing rubbish work, they tried us in the past but couldn’t succeed. Your leader who led the rebellion told you to repent and don’t venture into fruitless war.

Chorus:
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.
A child doesn’t know fire until he marches on it and realizes, you will not be able to quench this fire you ignited. Stupid and shameless boy if you fit we are waiting. Let the country be divided and let’s see who will cry.

Chorus:
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.
We knew they have nothing since their origin, it was with the money of the north, that oil was explored and found. We are farming and grazing with our cattle and knew they have nothing.

Chorus:
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.

We northerners farm beans and they have nothing, we farm rice and they have nothing, they neither farm potatoes nor cocoa yam. They don’t have wheat, pepper, no grains and nothing. No onions and groundnuts, we eat surplus and gave southerners food. Let the country be divided, let the country be divided, we northerners are saying let the country split.

You said you don’t want us, we too we don’t want you anymore. This is our land and not someone father’s land, brothers and sisters. We have all it takes.

Igbos are the ones that ruined this country, we all know that they are the ones disguising as Fulani killing people and committing armed robbery, they are the ones blocking roads and also disguising as Boko Haram killing people without shame.

They are the ones destroying our youths and children with drugs, let the country be divided because Igbos have no any day.

They did not support our President but rigged him out. Only Yorubas supported and collaborated with us. Hausa and Fulani too collaborated but Igbos refused and we don’t want them anymore.
They inherited nothing but useless things from their origin, they did so many atrocities in the past. They killed Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello our hero, they did same with Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa.

Chorus:
Igbos are a curse to Nigeria, whose existence and birth as a people in Nigeria is useless, that abortion is greater than the birth of the bastards.

END

Sources: Dr. Eddie Iroh/ Sahara Reporters/ Tony Uranta.