First Education Support Centre (Edu.First)

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the overwhelming show of love and support. Words cannot fully convey our appreciation, and it is our sincere prayer that the good Lord perfects all that concerns you. Amen.

I believe in politics of inclusion.

Political scavengers and prostitutes everywhere in Nigeria.

Which way Nigeria?

Wishing you a blessed Sunday worship in the presence of the Lord today and always in Jesus name Amen.

We are still interested in equipping our generation and the generation to come with the knowledge that is key...

Everybody is hung up on domestic abuse by men against women. Nobody spares a moment to find solutions to the equally devastating verbal abuse men suffer in the hands of their wives. It is worse because men can't discuss what their wives do to them for fear of scorn and derision. They suffer in silence. Timebomb.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian society has little or no support systems for this kind of situation. Little or no counselling services. It's been mostly left to the church to deal with. What happens when the man doesn't go to church? What happens when the woman doesn't believe in spiritual intervention? These women are raising daughters. Their daughters are hearing and seeing how they speak to and treat their husband. What kind of wives will they grow up to become? Those that treat their husbands as kings or those that believe husbands are nothing but verbal punching bags?

We've all agreed and rightfully so that a man has no business hitting his wife. So how then do you stop a wife raining verbal missiles at you? Leave the house? Okay. But you'll return and it will continue. What next? Leave again? For how long?

Recently, I visited a senior friend, an important man in the society and while we were downstairs gisting, the voice of his wife could be heard upstairs. She was spewing unimaginable bile against the man. She called him all sorts of unprintable names. Impotent, wretched fool, miserable man that was nothing when she married him, etc. This is a well respected man. A father of 4 children. She tore at his very core and mocked everything society respected him for. She said he'd soon crash and she'll be there to laugh at him.

I was so uncomfortable as I beheld the man. He was shrunken before me. He was deflated. He tried to gamefully continue the gist to distract me but it was not working. The woman's vitriol was a ceaseless torrent. Uncomfortable silence ensued. I excused myself and left his house.

I was really sad.

You want to know the truth? This is what most men go through in their houses. They labour and toil and build respect but when they return home, the one who ought to speak to the king in them tears them to shreds and tries to deflate their self-esteem. When they are outside, they try to act cheerful and happy but back home, they are shrivelled because the person they live with makes it a point of duty to verbally assault them.

A sad story comes to mind. There was recently a Nigerian Ambassador who was recalled because his wife released a story to the press that he beat her. She also released pictures showing fresh injuries on her body ostensibly inflicted by the man.

In a dramatic twist, their children came out to debunk the stories and said their mother faked the injuries to embarrass their dad. Grown up children.

A particular sentence by the 1st son saddened me. He said it was as if their mum woke up every morning with one mission in life: how to make their dad miserable. They said they were witnesses to how their mum constantly harassed and abused their dad and wanted the whole world to know that their dad was not who their mum was painting him to be.

Yes, opinion shifted on the scandal but the damage had been done. The Ambassador was recalled and nobody heard from him again.

A family is currently at odds with the widow of their son and brother. The wife was constantly verbally assaulting him. Nobody wanted to visit them because each time they were around, it was always quarrel and the wife would call him unprintable names. Even in their presence. When they try to interfere, she will give them their own. The man died recently of heart-attack caused by high blood pressure. He was in his late 40s. The family insists his wife sent him to his early grave with her verbal torments.

Our bars are filled with men who are afraid to go home to their wives for fear of what verbal torment they will go through. Men are finding every excuse to travel because they'll rather be anywhere than in their own homes.

Everybody is focusing on men as culprits in domestic abuse. Who is talking to the women?

Comments are welcomed.

(I copied this from friend's wall and decided to share because of its importance).

LETTER TO ALL NORTHERN CHRISTIANS
(Vol. 1, No. 1. April 2015)
Email: [email protected]

SALUTATION
I bring you precious greetings in the name of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ who died to give us freedom from all forms of oppression and wickedness. But whether we as Northern Christians have been actually made free indeed as stated in Jn. 8:36 is the purpose for which this letter is written to you.

In the spiritual, economic and political spheres of life, are we really free? Our Prayer is that the Holy Spirit will help you to truly assimilate the contents of this letter so that your perspective on all the happenings around us will begin to take another dimension for our good to God’s glory in Jesus name, Amen.

The plight of the Northern Christians has been of considerable concern to us as a people and citizens of this great country Nigeria. We’ve been reduced to mere second-class citizens in our own land!

In pre-colonial times, Christians in the North were subjected to the most degrading forms of treatment in the hands of those who do not share our cultural beliefs and values.
During colonialism, obnoxious policies were introduced by way of double taxation and indirect rule.
In Kaduna state for instance, District heads and stooges were turbaned in the Northern part of the state and deployed to lord and rule over the people of Southern Kaduna. In those years, only those who accepted to denounce their Christian or animist faith were appointed traditional rulers.

In other parts of the North for instance, in predominantly Christian communities the traditional rulers there are not Christians. The question was asked: who would like to drop or change his faith so that he could be appointed the traditional ruler? Any man who agreed to do just that will thus be made to rule over the vast majority of Christians. Talk about injustice of the highest level.

Today, as we write this letter, Christians are being massacred as wanton destruction of properties and livelihood is carried out on a daily basis with the aid of the conspiracy of silence of the government of the day. Silent killings and persecution of Christians are the order of the day where ethnic and religious discrimination of Northern Christians in terms of, admission in tertiary institutions of learning, employment, promotion and siting of government projects. All these acts of inhumanity to man occurs daily as we watch helplessly. Since the government at various levels have failed to protect us, we must rise up to help ourselves by coming together to “work out our salvation” (Phil. 2:12)

Prior to the advent of the current insurgency in the North, the former premier of the Northern region, 1960 to 1966 was quoted as saying: ‘my desire is to dip the Quran in the ocean’. His statement can be interpreted to mean conquering the entire nation for his religion as his fore father did during his jihad of 1804 where his conquest extended to the present day Ilorin, Kwara state.

The philosophy of some Hausa Muslims and Boko Haram are hinged on employing coercion to convert Christians and animists into their religious beliefs or annihilate us all.
This is our present predicament in the North: Convert to Islam or be doomed!

Notwithstanding our conditions in the North, here in Lagos all Northerners irrespective of their religious standing are being addressed as: Gambari, Mallam, Aboki, Malu, among other despicable names. If as Christians we are hated in our home states as such, and in Lagos we are being addressed with such disdainful names, where then lies our hope as Northern Christians?

One clear example is the case in which one of us here in Lagos conducted a business with some people from the South. They all worked for the success of the business. When it was time to share the proceeds, they told him he was “Omo-Gambari. Simply put: He is a Northerner! Thus he was sidelined and denied any benefit accruing from that transaction.

Many Southerners do not believe there are Christians in the North. When you tell them you are a Christian from the North, they would immediately express their surprise. That is our position today here in Southern Nigeria.

Has it ever occurred to you to take a moment and ponder on the fact that if things are the way they are in your generation, how then is it going to be during your children’s and grandchildren’s time? This is a pertinent question that demands an answer. Who shall give us the answer to this question? Where else can we turn to in solving the predicaments of Northern Christians in Nigeria? We must take proactive actions that could lead to self-development thereby assuring the future for those coming after we might have left the scene.

In the political equation, we are not reckoned with as states like Nasarawa, Gombe and Kaduna (of recent Kaduna with the demise of the late Sir Patrick Yakowa who became governor by coincidence) have not produced a Christian governor despite the fact Christians are the majority in these states.

In the last party primaries, in one Northern state, five Christians contested the primaries under a particular political party. What on earth could make up to five Christians aspiring to occupy one political office in the same state and in the same party to confront each other? Has common sense and compromise thrown to the wind? Are we bereaved of innovative and new ideas of seeking political power? Do we, as Northern Christians have leaders at all? Where are they? What are they doing? Where is the unity and love for one another that our Lord Jesus taught us?

Over the years, our detractors have used their ill-gotten wealth to divide us by sponsoring us to contest elections against each other. Painfully, we have failed and continue to fail to read the hand writing on the wall as they use divide and rule tactics to keep us out of political power.

As Christians, we’ve prayed, fasted and still praying for a miracle to happen. Let us tell ourselves the truth about working our prayers and fasting towards solving our quagmire as contained in James 2: 14-26. We must pray and work as faith without works is dead. Prayer plus work equals to FAITH. When you pray and fast, you must rise up to work in order to bring to fruition what you have prayed and fasted for.

RESOLUTIONS
In charting a new course and setting the records straight for Northern Christians, like-minded brethren met on 15th February 2015 at Ikeja Lagos and brainstormed over our state of despondence and came up with a way forward.

Among other issues discussed at the meeting were: the marginalization and discrimination of Northern Christians on the basis of employment opportunities, appointments and not promoting them in their places of work after they might have successfully passed their promotion exams.

It was resolved at the meeting that as brethren, we must wake up from our slumber by acknowledging the fact that our destiny lies in our hands in securing our future and that of our children. We are urged to be united in love in assisting brethren in times of need.
On the receipt of this newsletter, every Northern Christian where ever he or she resides is expected to begin to mobilize his or her fellow Christians for the sole purpose of becoming members of Mondiale League.

We are being urged to actively participate in politics for the purpose of contesting for elective positions whenever and wherever we find ourselves. When voter’s registration will commence again, brethren should endeavor to register and collect their PVCs and make sure they vote at their various polling units. The current elections are over, but we must begin to prepare for the future if Jesus tarries.

Every Northern Christian should identify with the community where he or she resides for the purpose of participating in all the positive and collective activities being undertaken by their host communities. You must identify with, and live in peace with your neighbours. They must attend and participate fully in their Churches’ activities as we continue to seek the face and intervention of the Almighty God to see us through in our quest to bring the needed changes to our lives.

On the name of the Organization, it was resolved that the organization shall be known as “Mondiale League” (Mondiale is a French word meaning global) also to be known as “ML” and its vision shall be: “salvaging the Northern Christians from their current dilemma at home and in the diaspora”. Our mission is to “Mobilize, Organize, Support and Encourage all Northern Christians to actively participate in all political activities for the purpose of contesting elections in Nigeria.

With the support of all men and women of goodwill, we hope to register this organization with the Corporate Affairs Commission and to appoint officers in all the states of the federation and abroad. The process of appointing Trustees and other officers for ML have begun and once this is concluded we shall head to the CAC to apply for incorporation.

We also hope to publish this newsletter in your hands monthly or quarterly as we trust God to enable you to support us prayerfully (spiritually) morally, financially and in many other ways.

THE CLARION CALL
All Northern Christians are hereby called upon to as a matter of urgency register to be members of ML to enable them participate in all of our activities.
The structure of ML shall include the state executive down to the Local Government, Ward and Unit levels. We shall strive to carry out our activities within the confines of all known democratic norms and practices.

In the past all that we have been doing is to sit down and begin to murmur, grumble and complained, accusing our persecutors of marginalizing and sidelining us in the scheme of things. We have never taken a deliberate, concrete and conscious action towards ameliorating the challenges confronting us.
How long shall the murmuring, grumbling and complaining continue? The more we complain, the more our problems become more complex, intense and sophisticated.

The immediate task ahead of us all is the mobilization and organization of all Northern Christians irrespective of their denominational inclination to pursue these inspiring ideals to the glory of God.

You see, complacency has been our major problem. We are good at holding meetings always, but those meetings have not led us to the Promised Land. Most of the decisions at our meetings are not implemented and even the purpose for holding such meetings is lost or misplaced. For Christ’s sake, why should we hold meetings just for the purpose of conveying a dead body back to the North? Why can’t we meet in order to bring development back home? Why can’t we think of things we can do to change our predicament and make life better for ourselves both here in Lagos and at home?

CONCLUSION
It is worthy to note that Northern Christians have been burdened with so many social injustices since pre-colonial era to date without proffering appropriate panacea to end this malaise. It has dawned on us as brethren that we are the ones our fathers and fore-fathers have been waiting for to put a stop to the discrimination on the basis of faith, persecution of brethren, daily massacre that have been going on unabated, wanton destruction and burning of Church buildings. We should be minded that all spiritual, scriptural, and legal mediums will be explored in solving our predicament as we have faith and belief in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ that all shall be well with us at home and in the diaspora.

Mondiale League (ML) is therefore committed to supporting and encouraging all Northern Christians to participate in any subsequent election at all levels where ever they resides. All Northern Christians who will wish to contest for any elective position should do so where they resides. We strongly discourage Northern Christians from travelling to their home towns just to contest elections. Remain where you are and contest. Nigeria belongs to all of us.

Attached to this newsletter is our membership form. If you are willing to become a member, fill the form and return it to the person who gave it to you attaching the registration fee stated on the form for our further action.

This is a long and tedious journey, but we are determined to pursue it till we reach the Promised Land.
Welcome on board. Shalom!

To find out more how you can be part of the new thing the Lord is doing for Northern Christians in Nigeria and in the diaspora, please, call any of the following phone numbers: 08037514302, 08024728595,

Thank you and God bless.

Rev. Andrew Duya,
President/CEO
Tel: 0803 1309130, 08090780323
Email: [email protected]

Mr. Bature Bello Kolais,
Director, Media & Publicity,
Tel. 08033079868

Every Christian Must Read and Share This…
A NATIONAL OPEN MEMO FROM THE VOICE FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE HAUSA CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA ON THE INCESANT KIDNAPPING AND FORCEFUL CONVERSION OF OUR HAUSA CHRISTIAN GIRLS IN TO ISLAM AND THE MAGINALIZATION OF THE HAUSA CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN NIGERIA.
TO
President Mohammadu Buhari
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
Senate president, Senator Bukola Saraki
Speaker House of Representative, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara
Kaduna State Government, His Excellency, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai
The Northern Governors Forum
The Emir of Zazzau and his Emirate Council
All the Emirs in Nigeria
The Inspector General of Police
Chief of Army Staff
And all those in Authority

Her name is Aisha Mazadu Bala, a 14 year old from Gidan Mato Sambirni, Maigana Soba Local government Area of Kaduna State. A pure Hausa girl from the Christian faith.

She is the most recent victim of the incessant forceful kidnapping and conversion of our Hausa Christian Ladies into Islam which has been going on from time immemorial by the Muslims of Northern Nigeria. Although the lie that is documented all over the world is that all the Hausa people are Muslims with the exception of just but few that are Maguzawas (Traditional idol Worshippers), we want to categorically let the world know that such a claim is nothing but lies that was meant to silence the indigenous Hausa Christians Communities that live in millions from thousands of Communities in all the northern parts of Nigeria. The people they refer to as Maguzawa in their lies are the Hausa Christians. Because according to them, perhaps also their teachings, we are infidels as long as we are not muslims even though we are of the same tribe, origin and locality.

On the most recent Sallah day (on 25th June, 2017), Aisha went to Sambirni from Gidan Mato to buy some drugs for some minor health challenge she had. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t make it back to her home. On her way back home, a young muslim man by the name Bello Chiroma who earlier threaten to marry her by force, kidnapped her with the support of the District head of Sambirni, Sarki Haruna and their Islamic clerics. As they planned, he kidnapped her, and took her away from Sambirni to the palace of the Hakeemi of Maigana. She stays there for four days after which the Hakeemi sent for her parents to come. On reaching the palace, to their greatest shock, they saw their daughter fully dressed in Islamic attires. The Hakeemi told them that he summoned them to come to let them know that their daughter is not lost; she is now in good hands. That she is now a muslim and she will be married to the boy who kidnapped her the following week (precisely on Friday 7th July, 2017). And as of from that time, she will not be able to stay with them, because she is now a muslim, and a muslim cannot live with a Christian. She will be provided with Islamic parents who will now replace her infidel biological parents.

When the news came to us at Voice for the Emancipation of the Hausa Christians in Nigeria (VEHCIN) we went to Sambirni on 30th June, 2017 to confirm the story. On reaching there, we discovered that it is true. A young muslim man, who enjoys the protection of their district head to commit any crime even to the tone of kidnapping, kidnapped a girl, and even after knowing the where about of the girl, the parents were out-rightly denied access to their own daughter. She now has new parents who will marry her out to her kidnapper. Imagine this happening to a muslim by Christians, Nigeria would have been a pool of blood and rubbles of burnt houses and properties. Instead of the king to punish this barbaric act, he denied knowing what happened and then began to associate it to islam, just to cover up for the boy and then justify their evil act.
We know that kidnapping is a punishable offence in Nigeria, but for this boy it became a thing of pride. He moves about freely and bragging that he has done something commendable in Islam. After all, she is a Christian, an infidel.

The Voice for the Emancipation of the Hausa Christians in Nigeria, went back to Maigana on 3rd July, 2017 and had a daylong meeting with all the parties responsible for the snatching and holding this 14 years old Aisha captive and keeping her away from her parents. CAN Chairman, Soba LGA, JNI Chairman Soba LGA, the Council of the Hakeemi Palace, the Sole Administrator and team of Soba LGA and then Representative of DPO of the LGA and others were all present. At the end of the day, we reached a conclusion that the girl be brought to the police station. They went and spent about three hours and then returned without the girl, on the ground that it is late and if they return the girl to her parents there could be violence from their people. They then promised to give the girl back to her family the following day 4th July, 2017 by 12noon. When the day came, after another intensive discussion, they brought the girl and did as if they will give the girl back to us, the secretary of the Hakeemi said that, the Sole Administrator said they should not give the girl until the following day, after they have a security meeting on the issue which the Sole Administrator summoned on 5th of July, 2017. Out of respect for authority, we patiently waited for the following day. From 9am to 7pm they refused to release the girl. They pretended as if they will hand over the girl to us, and then the Sarki of Sambirni raised another motion that handing over the girl to her parents will give rise to a serious uproar from his people. That while in the meeting they have been calling to know who the girl is given to. On that baseless point they halted the giving of the girl back to her parents. That they will hand her over to social Welfare service Department to stay with them for another two weeks. After which they will call the girl and ask her if she wishes to return to her parents or remain with her captors.

We will like to shed some light on this. Most people use to wonder why mostly our kidnapped ladies will openly deny their parents and even their faith. Kidnapping our ladies is an intentional agenda by the Muslims in Northern Nigeria. And so, the moment they kidnap them, they forcefully subject them to different rituals, incantations and charms. So many spirits will be invoked upon them that they will never be able to speak with their right senses except what their muslims captors want them to say. And so, as long as they stay with them, they will only but speak what their captors programmed their minds to say. That is why we will never accept any statement the girl will make, because she is not the one speaking. She is under the influence of the spirit they invoked upon her. By the way, a fourteen year old girl is still under the protection and care of her parents. It is what her parents decide for her that stands. She is still a minor, and worse to that under a terrible spell, she will not be able to speak the truth of what she needs for herself.

We know that the Quran said there is no compulsion of religion, (Quran 2:256). Then the question is why do they derive joy in forcing people through violence and all forms of manipulations into the religion they said no one should be forced into it?
Section 38 (1) of the 1999 constitution and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right, provide: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.” Why is it then in northern Nigeria, certain people keep negating what the constitution said and still go unpunished. They rather get accolades and federal and state might to support them violate the rights of others?
The Criminal Code Act, CAP C38, LFN 2004, also provides a penalty for kidnapping. The law provides in Section 364 that –
“Any person who –
1. Unlawfully imprisons any person, and takes him out of Nigeria without his consent; or
2. Unlawfully imprisons any person within Nigeria in such a manner as to prevent him from applying to a court for his release or from discovering to any other person the place where he is imprisoned, or in such a manner as to prevent any person entitled to have access to him from discovering the place where he is imprisoned,
Is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for ten years. “
Since kidnapping is a punishable offence, why should the district head of Sambirni keep backing and protecting the person who kidnapped a 14 year old girl, abused her mind and cause terrible pains on her parents and her family? Is it because the person is his inlaw? What is the role of the Sole Administrator of Soba Local Government? Are these people above the law that even the authority are afraid of the impending violence that is obviously instigated and sponsored by the district head of Sambirni to cause mayhem on the community whose girl was stolen from if she is returned to them? Is nurturing this evil more important than healing the painful wounds inflicted on the parents, family and community of this girl?

We kept asking this question, how are maltreatments like this a pathway to a sustainable peace. If there are people who should be violent about this issue, they should be the people whose daughter, sister and granddaughter was forcefully stolen from them, and then forcefully converted to the religion she will never choose when in her right senses. Instead of us taking the law into our hands, we chose the way of maturity, due process and still they showed to us that the only thing a Christian deserves from a muslim is injustice.

I remember seeing the mother of this girl in anguish, weeping night and day and going up and down to see the return of her daughter, but all she kept getting is injustice, abuse and denial of what belongs to her simply because she is a Christian.
The people, who supposed to be protecting us, are the ones harming us. They don’t rest when they see us happy. They get irritated when they see us in peace. How long will our traditional rulers keep sponsoring evil against their subjects and use religion as a cover for the harm they always cause us?

Nigeria is our country. The north is our heritage. Come what may, that is where we belong.
One thing that keeps coming out from the mouth of these people in all our meetings with them is the bragging that they own the top and the bottom. In other word, they will always win irrespective of where we go. That is why in all the meetings we had with all the parties involved, even at the security meeting of yesterday (5th July, 2017), they could only but grant the evil wish of their people against us instead of doing the right thing.

We call on all our people especially the youths in Kaduna state and Nigeria to be patient until we see whether their claim of owing both the top and the bottom at all the levels as seen at the Local Government level is also true at the State and Federal levels. We don’t want to take the law into our hands yet. We thank you all for complying with what we pleaded with you to do. We are still watching!

As the voice of the entire Hausa Christians in Nigeria, we want to make the following very clear, as far as achieving a lasting peace is concerned in Kaduna state and Nigeria at large:
1. We are calling for an immediate justice from both the Kaduna State Government and the Federal Government.
2. We demand that Aisha be immediately reunited to her family. The Hakeemi of Maigana is not her father. The Muslim communities have no right to give her their so-called Islamic parents. Her parents and her entire family are alive.
3. We reject any further delay. We strongly reject their decision to keep her with any social welfare department. There is no any safe welfare than that of her parents.
4. We also want the State and Federal government to hold the District head of Sambirni responsible for any mayhem caused by the hoodlums he breeds in that community after the girl is handed over to her parent.
5. We demand for the immediate arrest of that boy who enjoys the cover of the district head to be prosecuted for kidnapping a girl he threatened to marry by all means.
6. We demand that all damages should be paid by the boy for causing her parents anguish for all this while.
7. Finally, we discover that they keep playing with our intelligences just to achieve their aim, and so, we reject any further actions by them to further delay the release of our Daughter Aisha. We reject any Court case on this issue. We simply demand the immediate release and reunion of Aisha with her parents.
The only path to a lasting peace is when the Muslims release our Aisha and stop any future maltreatment to our people.

If Nigeria must live as one, we must learn to respect our individual differences, we must give people the privilege to live and enjoy life, and we must see everyone as equal. Nothing deters Nigeria from moving forward like religious sentiment. Our people cannot continue to endue denials of what everybody is entitled to.

We are Nigerians. We are not settlers; we have our true origins as the sons and daughters of the soil. Stop giving our people certificate of settlers and then give a person from Niger Republic Indigeneship certificate simply because he or she is a Muslims. Stop the indiscriminate taking of our farm lands from us and selling it or transfer the ownership to your people. Stop treating us like slaves in our own land. We deserved to be treated with respect and equal privileges. We are not second class citizens. We are not inferior to anyone in Nigeria. Hausa is our tribe, we didn’t learn it, we were born with, and in it. We didn’t migrate, the north is originally ours. We contribute immensely to the positive development of Nigeria. We deserve much more than we are given. We cannot succumb to any form of threat. Justice has to done now. Any further delay could be highly disastrous.
God bless the Hausa Christians! (You keep waxing stronger even though you went through a lot of hell)
God bless our original and inherited home, the Northern Nigeria.
God bless Kaduna State
God bless Nigeria.

PS:
The Voice For the Emancipation of the Hausa Christians in Nigeria takes full responsibility of whatever is written on this issue. We have our records and recordings, and we are always ready to grant audience to anyone interested. But we can never bow down to any form of intimidation, threat or further marginalization!
© VEHCIN JULY, 2017