News
Opinion: All for Good
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
“Good is a path. Also, it is a choice. It is a choice that must be made. Every man is born with the ability to choose! Your decision determines your fate. Find your ‘good,’ and then choose your ‘good.’ Re-unite with your ‘good’. Stick to your ‘good’, even when tempted by ‘bad’! You don’t get rid of ‘bad’ by being bad. You can only triumph over ‘bad’ by being good” – Tolulope A. Adegoke
Your determination determines your outcomes. What’s good?
Good is simply when a crisis works to restore peace, and I will say it’s all for the better.
When both the positive and negative agree to power energy, it is good, and I will say it is all for the better.
Good is when noise submits to quietness for the sake of sanity.
It is when the soul opens up to divinity for the great alignment of spirits with that which is holy, pure and kind.
Good is when war submits to lasting peace,
It is when someone humblely admits his or her mistakes and maturely seeks forgiveness.
Good is when both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things happen for the benefit of those who love God, and I’ll say it’s all for the better.
What’s good? Good is a rare virtue, one of the most genuine forces that breeds sanity, sanctity, and a good life.
Good is God stepping into the darkness, like a lamb among wolves; a light in the darkness; a stream in the wilderness; a force for the fall of the false, for what is true and real to be revealed; and I will say it’s all for good.
There is a pull of faith in fate to fulfill our destinies.
Goods may be mocked, but that doesn’t mean an authentic product isn’t good.
Good may be frustrated out of your abode, but without you, good is still good, and would always find a place of abode conveniently, honourably and peaceably accommodated by those that truly value the virtue of its versatility because it is a university that requires sanity, sanctity and maturity to overcome adversities… and I will say it’s all for good.
Let me paint you a picture of a good story about what it’s like on the canvas of reality without any gullibility:
“Bad and good started living under the same roof, but one had to leave for the other to reign, and one thing is constant about good. It flows naturally and doesn’t struggle to be heard, to be seen or to be felt.
Eventually, there was a cold rift between the two forces, but instead of warring, they left for good. After three (3) months, the oil in the lamp that powers the light in the home and environment ran out, and they had to rely on candles for illumination. Ooh, gross darkness has emerged as a result of the absence of good, as a result of the absence of light.
The light was obtained from Good, because the only thing that Good took with it while leaving was the power of light. Because there was no light, no warmth, no sight, the dog became very ill and grew old in its weak condition. Because of pride, the bad refused to look for the good.
Truly, bad was bad, and bad is bad; but good was busy illuminating those that accommodated it after leaving its previous abode.
The good news of good things has spread throughout the world. became a strong nation, stronger than the greatest. After being battered and beaten by bad people, everyone began migrating to secure their destiny and fulfill their purposes. They’d been raped so badly by bad people.
Good became HOPE, FAITH, DELIVERANCE; good became HELP, HOPE; good became the last resort for their determination.
One day, I had to look for, and invited Bad to a meeting alongside her supporters.
He stood up and asked the congregation: “Why do I live there? Why do you think I am here?” And the supporters screamed: “because you are good, because you are kind, because you are hope, deliverance, and our last resort and resolve.”
And Good asked again: “What has offered you so far?” And there was deep silence atmosphere became so cold, it was so touching, mournful and sorrowful. People become so broken, because virtually all of them have lost one or two things to being followers of bad things, either consciously and unconsciously; either ignorantly, lackadaisically and adamantly.
The bad became so sad, but the good also made a good and godly statement. “Everything, both good and bad, happens for the good of those who love God,” he said.
Good continued, “I am a creation with a purpose of illumination, sanity and sanctity by divine order, while it is a creation with a purpose of pollution instigated or permitted by divine order to help understand, reveal, appreciate the course and cause of. Would any of you present here understand the value of good if there were no bad? If there were no darkness, would there be any need for light to be valued? If there is no blindness, would there be any need for sight? If there is no hunger, would there be any need for food?
Value is understood, respected, honoured, acknowledged properly through lack. Would there be a valuable peace if there were no war? If there is noise, would there be any value in quietness or silence? Is there any value in wisdom that comes from good if there is no foolishness?!!If there is no death, would there be any value in life? If there are no illnesses, would there be any value or need for cure or healing?”
Everyone was astounded, and they were all broken. Good further said “I say to you again, everything, both the good and bad, happens for the good of those that love God.
The most genuine force for healthy living is good; bad is the path to destruction. Bad turned bad; bad turned sorrowful; bad turned humbled; bad turned broken. He had no choice but to renounce himself for being bad.
Everyone applauded and praised him, saying, “Good is the deliverer of eternity.”
But I have to tell you today that there is also a good path. Also, it is a choice. It is a choice that must be made. Every man is born with the ability to choose! Your decision determines your fate.
Find your best, and then choose your best. Re-unite with your family. Stick to what is good, even when tempted by what is bad!
You don’t overcome adversity by being adversity. You can only triumph over adversity by being a good person. Your decision determines your fate. Both bad and good are established and determined by your strong decisions and choices. Both life and death are choices you resolve to make.
Life is good. Death is bad. Death gives room for a fresh life. And when a seed is planted in the earth, it must die. It must decay, and that would give room for a new life, for a NEW DAWN… And I would say, “IT’S ALL FOR GOOD!”
Thank you for reading.
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of removing some of its nominated candidates from the commission’s list and replacing them with names allegedly unknown to the party.
The National Chairman of the party, Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, made the allegation in a statement on Sunday, following INEC’s publication of candidates for the 2027 State Houses of Assembly elections.
Cleopas said the names published by INEC, particularly in Anambra State, suggested an attempt to undermine the party ahead of the elections and create disaffection among its supporters.
The NDC chairman specifically alleged that nine persons whose names were not authorised or submitted by the party had been listed as its candidates in various constituencies in Anambra State, the home state of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
He called on the INEC Chairman to immediately investigate the development and determine how the names got onto the commission’s list.
Cleopas also urged INEC to extend the investigation to other states, including Benue and Imo, where he said the party had observed a similar pattern.
According to him, the development had embarrassed the party, its leadership and its genuine candidates, while creating disaffection among its supporters in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
“We, as a party, are also carrying out our own independent investigation, the preliminary findings of which are already pointing to the complicity of INEC officials in foisting names purporting to be our candidates, but who are not from us,” he alleged.
He said the party’s investigation indicated that the uploading process was being used to intimidate and embarrass the NDC.
The party listed the following persons as names allegedly published by INEC as its candidates in Anambra:
Onitsha South 1 — Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa
Onitsha South 2 — Akpotue Obinna Chibuike
Orumba North — Nwankwo Chiemerie
Anaocha 1 — Maduagwu Eric K
Idemili North — Ngoebisi Obinna
Njikoka 1 — Isintume Charles
Nnewi South — Nwachukwu Nonso
Nnewi South 2 — Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne
Ayamelum — Nnonyelu Samson E
Dunukofia — Azotani Chuks Francis
Cleopas, however, said the party is particularly concerned about the process through which the names were uploaded and published.
He said after the conclusion of the party’s primaries and appeal process, stakeholders from Anambra, the party leadership, representatives of Obi and the appeals panel agreed on a final list of candidates.
According to him, the list was signed off by the relevant stakeholders before being uploaded to the INEC portal using the code provided to the party by the electoral commission.
He alleged that INEC officials subsequently kept nine of the names on “Pending” status, claiming that the names were already in the commission’s system based on submissions by officials who monitored the party’s primaries.
Cleopas said the NDC formally challenged the names and submitted the identities of candidates it said were legitimately nominated by the party, but INEC allegedly declined to replace the disputed names.
He further alleged that INEC subsequently collected Form EC-9 directly from the persons whose names were in dispute and uploaded the forms without going through the party.
“To further confirm that there was a predetermined effort on the part of INEC to impose the said nine candidates on the party, and embarrass both NDC and Mr. Peter Obi, INEC went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates, bypassing the party, and uploading same,” he alleged.
Cleopas argued that where there was a discrepancy between names submitted by a political party and information received by INEC from its monitoring teams, the commission should have left the affected positions vacant pending clarification, rather than publish names the party said it did not nominate.
“At the very worst, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions, if they knew they were unwilling to engage us in addressing any perceived anomaly,” he said.
The NDC chairman accused INEC of creating a pattern in which opposition parties were allegedly prevented from uploading their preferred candidates while other names were introduced into their candidate lists.
He vowed that the party would pursue the matter through all available legal channels and seek to have what it described as its authentic candidates restored.
“We are moving to approach the court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress and restore our authentic candidates. The general public and our millions of supporters should note that these are not our candidates,” he said.
Nepal said Sunday it had begun burying some of the hundreds of bodies recovered after devastating floods, after taking DNA samples and marking them so families can later retrieve them.
The dead are traditionally cremated on funeral pyres in Hindu-majority Nepal, so the burials are viewed as long-term storage until families can retrieve them.
Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai told reporters that all those buried were carefully recorded, but also appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed “more than a thousand” freezer units to store bodies.
The announcement of the burials came as Nepal’s disaster ministry increased its toll again on Sunday to 752 bodies recovered and 2,502 people missing.
That list includes 589 foreigners unaccounted for.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following Wednesday’s disaster, taking the overall toll to 768 dead and 3,048 unaccounted for.
“Following standard and accepted protocols, such as those of ICRC (Red Cross), the mortal remains of the dead, especially those not recognisable… have been temporarily buried,” Rai told reporters.
“Medical teams took DNA samples from every victim prior to the burial so that families can match-reference later, and would be allowed to exhume for necessary rituals.”
Nepal has called for freezer storage units and DNA testing kits, as it is overwhelmed with the number of bodies to store safely.
“We have requested different countries for freezers; we will need more than a thousand,” Rai added.
“Many dead bodies have been collected, and they have started decomposing. To preserve public health, we had to bury the decomposing bodies,” he added.
AFP
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Everyone loves influence. Everyone wants to be a person of influence. Everyone wants to be relevant. Everyone wants to be celebrated. Everyone likes attention, appreciation, approval, and admiration. All these are products of influence.
The question I need you to ask yourself is, are you a person of influence? Are you influencing anyone? Do you have a positive or negative influence on your children, spouse, friends, mentors/mentee, or even strangers? Take a minute to listen to yourself.
When we talk about influence, uninformed minds just think influence is only about money, power, authority, or even being a mentor. Influence is far from it. We are all influencers in one way or another. Many people have influenced us in different ways, some positive, some negative. Similarly, we have also influenced many people in good and bad ways.
But today, I’m here to share with you what influence is about and the positive ways one can be a person of influence. Influence comes in different ways: as a politician, you are influencing people; as a leader, you are influencing policy; as a youth advocate, mentor, teacher, pastor, and employee, you are influencing somebody in one way or the other.
Do you know you can influence someone with your lifestyle? Yes, the way you talk, write, lead, dress, eat, exercise, preach the word of God, do your job, serve people, train your children, etc., are all part of influence. Influence is powerful. It has a way of permeating someone without them knowing. I believe that’s why my late mother would always say, if you are hanging out with a friend, only take the good part and leave the bad part.
We currently live in the 21st century, where the internet leads. The internet is regarded as the fifth estate for a reason, because it empowers networked individuals and alternative media to hold traditional institutions, governments, and mainstream media accountable. Everyone and almost everything is on the internet; however, sometimes, the information we get on the internet is regarded as fake because it’s unverified.
In some quarters, the internet has been regarded as a bad influence on the younger generation because of the limited restrictions and the negative information it has exposed their minds to think in a particular way. Some other schools of thought have opined that the internet has done more good than harm due to the knowledge it has exposed their minds to, as opposed to the information being peddled by some other schools of thought. Regardless of the aisle one belongs to, the internet truly has its pros and cons, especially as it relates to influence.
The big question one needs to answer is what influence is. According to Nosakhare Tune Oni – A Pan-African Strategist, leadership and business coach, “influence is when people trust your judgment enough to act on it. It is when someone calls you before making an important decision. When your recommendation opens a door. When your name carries weight in a room, you’re not even in. When people are willing to put their reputation behind yours. That’s influence.
Let’s take a minute to dwell on those lines again. Has anyone played any of such roles in your life? If yes, that’s the best definition of influence in a nutshell. Influence is not about quantity, but quality. The quality of people in your life is more valuable than the quantity of people one’s life. Do you know we don’t really need battalions of friends, whether online or in person, but just one person of influence can be a game-changer. According to Les Brown, a leadership coach, we need only quality people.
Do you know we are everywhere and nowhere at the same time? Do you also know that we can be everywhere and still have very little influence? Influence is about knowing your value and the right people who appreciate the value you bring. Do you know one can be a person of value to the wrong person or audience?
Influence is about having followers who believe and follow your teaching. We can have visibility with little or no influence. One may have 100,000 followers. We may trend on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, or even WhatsApp. Your name is a household name. That is visibility.
Let me give you a practical example. If you have a large crowd of people following you online or in person. The critical question one must ask oneself is: why are they following me? Are they following me because of my ideology, my talent/gift, academic process, position, profession, vocation, skill, or jokes? If they follow you because of the ideology you represent, you are a person of influence. If they are following you because of your jokes, you may be a content creator or comedian with little or no value in influencing them to do or not do certain things. Real influence provokes action.
According to Nosakhare Tune Oni, influence is built differently from attention. Attention can be bought. Influence must be earned. You can manufacture visibility with advertising, controversy, or constant posting. But you cannot manufacture trust that easily. It comes from consistently being useful. Keeping your word. Knowing what you’re talking about. Showing up when it matters. Building relationships before you need them.
And creating value for people without constantly asking, “What’s in it for me?”
Do you know a person with 1,000 followers and deep trust within a particular industry may have more real influence than someone with 100,000 followers who nobody listens to. So, I don’t think the goal should simply be: “How many people know me?” A better question is: “How much does my presence actually change things?” Because visibility gets you noticed. Value gets you remembered. Trust gets you listened to, but influence is what happens when people trust your value enough to move.
As I prepare to conclude, please take a minute to ask yourself: are you a person of influence? Do you have influence? What positive influence have you had on people or anyone? Today, I want you to be a man/lady of influence like Martin Luther King Jnr, Mother Theresea, Evangelist Ebuka Obi, President Nelson Mandela, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Dr. Kola Adesina, Dr. Joe Abah, Dr. Dele Momodu, Barr. Henry Ukazu and Miss Ginika Dike.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer, and author of Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success, Unleash Your Destiny, and The Six Pillars of Success. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
