Metro
The ‘Heart Revolution’: Power and Dimensions of Influence! (Pt. 1)
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
Leadership is influence. Favour opens the doors, but INFLUENCE changes Nations!
When you are in a situation, and you don’t have money, please pray for influence, because if God ever gives you the influence with the people that have money, you can have or access whatever that you need.
The perfect Biblical exemplar is Christ Jesus. He never had the money, but He had influence with people that owned whatever that He needed per time. When He stepped off into His Boat, it was Peter that owned the boat, but He had influence with Peter, who later became one of His disciples.
When Jesus Christ went down to Joppa, and He needed a place to stay, He stayed in Peter’s house, because Peter owned the house, but Jesus had influence with the man who owned the house.
You don’t need to have all the stuff, but all you need is INFLUENCE with people that have the stuff, and you would realize that influence can be better than money. Even though it’s best to have both. It is favour that opens doors, but INFLUENCE is what changes nations.
Sometimes, God wants to use your influence to be able to change NATIONS. What happens on a platform can be a power of a thing; there is a difference between a stage and a platform. A stage is for performance, but platform is for INFLUENCE. A platform gives room for anyone to stage their performance(s).
Where ever you are at any level of your rising, if God calls a person to be your champion as a soccer player, baseball player, golf player, basketball player, football player or whatever it is, God would use the sport, the Hollywood, Nollywood, or the music to build the platform. Once the platform is established, then God’s purposes are done or fulfilled on the platform.
Sometimes, business is just the platform, and once God had built the platform, the opens the door and gives the influence, then the work of ministry (His Will) can be done or fulfilled. So, always ask God to give you the required WISDOM to ‘know how’ to use the platform for His glory alone. It is not a stage, it is a platform, and God will give you a ‘gift’(resources) just for the platform, because just one gift from God can revolutionize your life this way.
The word INFLUENCE comes from the Latin word ‘Influethy’ which means ‘to flow into’. It simply speaks of that which flows from the Heavenlies (Above) down into a being called you! it is the flow of God into the vessel called ‘you’. Whatever you might be doing, if you are in your ‘flow’, you become an instrument of DOMINION; you dominate in that place of ‘flow’. You are just ‘able’ to dominate in that area of ‘flow, naturally.
Do you know that you can mess up your ‘flow’? Stress, worry, weariness, bitterness are potent factors that aides such.
When you are all trusting God, to say that ‘God, I want you to use me for your glory’; it does not matter whether you are male or female, young or old. It doesn’t even matter your level of (formal) education. What matters is that your heart must be submitted to God. To say ‘God, whatever you can do in me and through me, I want you to now do through me, and let it touch the world at large; do something great in me.’ Not until God does great things in you, He cannot do anything great through you. This, is why we must ask and crave for an experience (encounter) with God, so that He can use us in a huge way, so that He can transform who we are, our age notwithstanding.
A lot of people, young among especially, have been used by God, case study of Samuel in the Holy Book. You would realize that, this is not a child talking to me, but this is God speaking to me through this child. It doesn’t matter if you are in your tender ‘teens’, your teachable ‘twenties’, your tireless ‘thirties’, your forcible ‘forties’, your ‘feelful’ (emotional) ‘fifties’, your seasoned ‘sixties’, your civil ‘seventies’, your aching ‘eighties’, your nebulous ‘nineties’ and your ‘peticious’ ‘hundreds’, where ever you are.
Whatever stage or age that you are, God can still speak to you powerfully and use you for His glory. But we just need to be determined that God should simply have His way in our lives fully, and be glorified truly.
When we talk about the dimensions of INFLUENCE, we need to first discuss the HEART Revolution (Heartwork). It is the work that God does in your heart, so as to become a good ground for His Seeds of potentials for Influence to be staged in and for all ages. Until God has done the work in your heart properly, you are not fit to use it anywhere for any purpose. If it doesn’t change our heart, our mouth would be polluted; our thinking is contaminated until God does the works in the heart. That is why, until God has washed us properly of bitterness and resentments in our HEARTS to the degree that we are no longer upset with the breakthroughs of others or because God has blessed someone else, we are not fit to fit into His Power of Influence and feature in His Dominion.
Beware! What worries or wearies you, masters you! God blesses you with what you can manage. God will never bless you with what you cannot give. For instance, if you cannot give away money, He will never trust you with it. If you never learned to give Him praises, He will never trust you with it.
God cannot trust you with what does not make you happy in others… you must be able to celebrate God’s victory in their lives.
Men of genius are admired,
Men of wealth are envied,
Men of power are feared,
But men of CHARACTER are TRUSTED!
And God does the character works in your heart. If you do not have character, nobody would want to have anything to do with your influence, no matter your level of packaging; because influence is determined by RESPECT! If you lose RESPECT, you lose EFFECT!
You have no influence if you do not have a good name, because you do not work in integrity in your heart. That is why you need to guard your heart with all diligence. Everything is trying to influence your thought patterns. Your though patterns determine your outputs in whatever form.
We need to have a God-influence in our hearts. Only the pure in heart shall see God! Everything begins from the heart and with the heart.
And this, is the HEART REVOLUTION!
Thank you all for reading
“The Power of an Empowered Zero” (From Zero to HERO) is a Book authored by Tolulope A. Adegoke, PhD. Foreword by Dr Yomi Garnett (CEO/Chancellor, Royal Biographical Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., U.K., Abuja, Nigeria.) Edited by Ola Aboderin. Designed by Sceptirus. It is currently available on Selar, Amazon and Bambooks.
The Federal government has suspended the planned closure of Eko Bridge in Lagos State.
The Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, disclosed this during an inspection of the bridge on Tuesday.
He said: “We directed that this bridge be closed. That was about two weeks back, … but our caring President Bola Tinubu is very much concerned about the closure of this Eko Bridge.
“He has asked me to come back here and take a second look at that decision so that we don’t induce much hardship on Nigerians.”
The minister said his team re-assessed the strength of the bridge on Monday, and confirmed that the closure could be suspended at the moment.
“We have done our technical evaluation in line with the president’s directive.
“Putting safety over and above every decision, we have seen that, for now, we are safe, but we won’t get to any situation that any Nigerian on this bridge will not be safe.
“We have agreed on three procedures,” Umahi added.
According to him, the first procedure is not to close the bridge now but monitor the progression or otherwise of the crack.
He said that the crack is not progressing either arithmetically or geometrically at the moment.
“No progression so far. We are comfortable, but crack can occur anytime. I will return here to reassess it,” he stated.
The minister, however, also said there would be remedial work on the bridge.
Metro
Security Expert Hails Ribadu’s Talks with Vance, Rubio As Positive Devt in Counter-Terrorism Fight
The visit by Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu to the United States where he held talks with Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has been described as a positive development for Nigeria’s fight against terrorism.
A security analyst and columnist, Jas Keita, in a statement says that the meeting underscores the importance of the Nigerian/U. S security relationship.
According to her, the meeting comes at an important time for Nigeria as it seeks to defeat terrorist groups that are seeking to undermine the government, destroying lives and livelihoods across the country.
The statement reads in part: “Security cooperation between the United States and Nigeria were central to these discussions. This comes against the backdrop of escalating terrorist activity in Nigeria. Two weeks ago, ISIS militants killed at least 29 people in an attack in Guyaku, a village in Adamawa state, while Boko Haram killed 11 people during a raid on a village in Borno State. This escalation of violence and destruction poses a serious threat to the social and economic stability of Nigeria. Nigeria must do all it can to destroy the ability and operational capacity of groups such as ISIS or Boko Haram to wage war against its people.
“Despite widespread commentary, driven often by foreign actors, the United States has remained a steadfast ally to Nigeria in its determination to destroy those groups who seek to destroy Nigeria. While some commentators seek to criticise the government for such visits, it’s clear that ordinary people whose lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by these groups, want to see immediate, urgent and effective action against these groups. Working with the United States to empower Nigerian Security forces is the quickest and most effective way to this result.
“Of course, people will remember the 2025 Christmas day strikes where the U.S working with Nigerian security forces undertook a series of attacks against these terrorist groups. But that cooperation continued in the months following the attack. In February, a team of U.S. Special Forces personnel were deployed on the ground. Their mission was to provide direct technical and information support to Nigerian security forces. As well as training support, they have provided invaluable technical and strategic insight developed over decades of providing similar support across the globe.
“This type of support cannot be underestimated. To see a contrast, one simply needs to look at events in Mali and the failure of Russia’s assistance to the government there. Empowering our security forces, ensuring they have the skills and insights is a critical element to ensuring we defeat terrorist groups.
“One of the strands of commentary after the Christmas day strikes was if we even needed American support. Put simply, yes, we are facing a substantial threat from these terrorist groups. They are well armed, well organised and well financed. They are committed to destroying the legitimately elected government and imposing their own vision on our country. They have shown time and time again they have no interest in the welfare of our people, rather they will kill anyone who disagrees with them or simply is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Nigeria is facing an existential threat from these terrorist groups. They do not care about our way of life or the welfare of our people. Nigeria cannot become prosperous unless it rids itself of these terrorist organisations. The ongoing security crisis creates an environment of instability and fear that means our people cannot expect to thrive. Nigeria has a prosperous economic future ahead and can create a brighter future for all its people, but this cannot happen without a stable and secure foundation. Defeating these groups not only protects the lives of our families but allows Nigeria to build a brighter economic future for all.
“That is why these talks in Washington are so vital. Our country has a strong and committed ally in the United States. Despite what other foreign actors say, they have shown time and time again their willingness to expend resources to support our fight against terrorism. Strengthening and deepening this relationship must be a key strategic priority for our government and we must ensure it endures. Doing so, will ensure our own people have the skills, insights and resources to defeat these groups. Doing so, will provide the stability that will underpin our future economic and social growth.”
The International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP) Nigeria has announced plans to host the 33rd edition of its bi-monthly Knowledge Update Series webinar on May 27, 2026, focusing on the use of artificial intelligence in addiction screening and mental health intervention.
The webinar, themed “VibeCheck – An AI Tool for Addiction Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral; From Screening to Real-World Intervention,” will be held online at 3:00 PM WAT.
The session will introduce “VibeCheck,” a digital self-screening assistant designed to support early identification of substance use risks and related mental health concerns using tools such as the WHO ASSIST and PHQ-9 assessments.
The webinar will feature a live demonstration of the platform, practical strategies for integrating the tool into clinical and community workflows, ethical considerations surrounding digital screening tools, and referral pathways for intervention.
Participants will also learn how the platform can be customized for institutional use by healthcare organizations and community-based programmes.
The keynote presentation will be delivered by Dr. Oluwasikemi Alalade, a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.
Dr. Alalade specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry, substance use disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions, and digital mental health innovations. She has contributed to several research projects focused on psychiatric care delivery and technology-driven mental health solutions in Nigeria.
According to ISSUP Nigeria, the webinar is targeted at public health professionals, addiction counsellors, healthcare providers, policymakers, young people, and professionals working within substance use prevention and treatment settings.
The session will be moderated by ISSUP Nigeria President, Dr. Olajumoke Koyeojo and Ejikeme M. Ogueji, Head, Editorial and Webinar Team
ISSUP noted that the webinar aims to promote evidence-based approaches to substance use prevention and strengthen discussions around ethical digital mental health interventions.
Participation is free and open to interested members of the public.
To register for the ISSUP Nigeria webinar on “VibeCheck – An AI Tool for Addiction Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral”, click below:
https://www.issup.net/node/34651?utm_source=chatgpt.com
