Miss Bayelsa, Anna Banner Wins Most Beautiful Girl Nigeria 2013

Finally a winner has emerged in just concluded Most Beautiful Girl Nigeria (MBGN) 2013. Miss Bayelsa wins Most Beautiful Girl 2013! I'm not surprised at all. I knew it was going to happen. We all saw that coming.

Miss Abuja, Miss Adamawa, Miss Akwa Ibom, Miss Bayelsa and Miss Imo made to the top 5 MBGN 2013.

Miss Abia was called out among top 15 and then sent back in what the presenters termed typographical error on their list. And Miss Imo was called into the top 15 instead. What kind of typo is that? I think it was a nasty mistake if you ask me. How can you call out some for the top 15 MBGN and then send the person back again, the person will feel really bad you know.

Miss Imo wasn’t a bad choice after all. After watching her answer her question, I said concluded she was coming second on the heels of Miss Bayelsa. I was really impressed with her answer. She was calm, confident and composed. The 2013 MBGN contestants generally looked really beautiful. So much colour glam and glitz with their fashion and all.

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Watch Attitude To Prophecies – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Sunday 21st July 2013

WATCH ATTITUDE TO PROPHECIES BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE

Memorise:
For by their words thou shalt be justifies, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:37

Read:
Proverbs 18:6-8

(Pro 18:6) A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.

(Pro 18:7) A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

(Pro 18:8) The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Open Heavens Message
Your confessions have a way of affecting your today, and particularly your tomorrow. If there is one thing you should do more often, it is to speak positively into your future, prophesy into your today and tomorrow and God will back it up. Don’t let the negative pronouncements of others stop you; rather, change the situation in your favour by your own confessions because Matthew 12:37 says,

“For by their words thou shalt be justifies, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

It is interesting but surprising to know that what have pegged the progress of some people is not the curses placed on them but the words they have spoken against themselves. Stop speaking against yourself! Eradicate words and phrases like these from your dictionary: ‘I cannot do it’ (except for something negative). ‘This task is not for people like me’, ‘Those who are saying I can make it in life are only deceiving me because nobody ever made it in my family’, ‘It is an impossible task’, etc. rather fill your diction with ‘I can’, ‘It is possible’, ‘I will succeed’, ‘Even if there is no way for others there will always be a way for me’

My father-in-the Lord once told me this story. Two men went before the oracle and the priest told one of them, “you will be king”, and the other, “You are a servant”. Then they left. The one told he would be king began to rejoice and celebrate his forthcoming fortune, but the other man challenged the verdict of the oracle. “Why must I be servant?” after thinking over it, he resolved there and them not to be one.

He got two cutlasses and sharpened them very well, took some food items and travelled to a far location to work. Each stroke from his cutlass backed by his confession: “I refuse to be a servant” from his labour, his farm became so big. One day, a hunter in the midst of famine stumbled on his farm and returned to tell the villagers he had found food. So the villagers came to beg the man to give them food in exchange for becoming their king. So this farmer became king while the one prophesied to be king became his servant.

Bible In One Year:
Ecclesiastes 1-3

Key Point:
A prophecy about you may be good but what you do with it is more important.

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Proudly Nigeria: Nigerian Technology Entrepreneur, Chinedu Echeruo’s HopStop.com Acquired By Apple

Stories like this makes me happy. I mean very happy. It confirms the Nigeria brand slogan which is "Good People, Great Nation" There are millions of Nigerians like Chinedu Echeruo making this nation proud. I celebrate Nigerian progress anytime any day. 

According to AllThingsDigital, Apple has confirmed acquisition of HotStop, The Wall Street Journal’s publication.  HotStop was owned by Nigeria's information technology expert Chinedu Echeruo. HopStop.com was founded in 2005. It makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and that helps people get directions or find nearby subway stations and bus stops. Terms of the deal had not been disclosed as at the time of this publication.

HopStop has oft been compared to Israel’s Waze which was recently acquired by Google for $1.1 billion. The move is seen as Apple’s plan to bolster its map offering especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze.

A serial entrepreneur, Chinedu Echeruo grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended King’s College, Lagos. He attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States and founded HopStop.com after working for several years in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, Financing and Private Equity transactions. He also worked at AM Investment Partners, a $500 million volatility-driven convertible bond arbitrage hedge fund.

He founded and raised nearly $8 million for his two U.S based internet companies; Hopstop.com and Tripology.com. Tripology.com was acquired in 2010 by American travel and navigation information company, Rand McNally. He was named Black Enterprise Magazine’s Small Business Innovator of the year and listed in the magazine’s Top 40 under 40 and is currently a partner and head of the Principal Investing group at Constant Capital, a West Africa based investment bank.

True to form, Echeruo is working on yet another venture but this time, focused on small businesses in Africa. Check out a video of Chinedu Echeruo below at last year’s TedxIkoyi where he talks about his latest project for small businesses in Africa; “crowd sourced business in a box.”

According to him:

“There is no reason why every entrepreneur should have to reinvent the wheel every single time in all the countries in Africa. My idea is to essentially to have one place where a budding entrepreneur can access a template for starting a business, and then customize it to suit their own situation. Essentially a business-in-a-box.”

Source CP Africa

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#ChildNotBride: I Signed The #ChildNotBride Petition Today

I signed the #ChildNotBride petition today at The Palms Mall Lagos. I didn't stop there, I even volunteered to work with fellow concerned Nigerians over the issue trying to get people to sign the #ChildNotBride petition. The real organizers didn't come due to logistics issues according to them. A few of us that came to sign decided to take it upon ourselves to do the #ChildNotBride petition signing job on their behalf.

I have never more passionate about doing anything in my life like I was for this cause. The response was good and bad. Good that some people eagerly signed even when they were hearing it for the first time. Some people first of form topnotch lawyers when they don't know where or what a law school is and question why they should sign. All sorts of people, different folks different reaction. Then the classic Nigeria killer attitude is, "I'm not signing. Whether I sign or not they will still do what they want." just like voting during election. Some people will say "I'm not voting, whether I vote or not they will still rig and win"

I don't really blame most of them. Most Nigerians has lost the will to fight the scourge in the system. We are just what Fela Anikulapo Kuti prophesied a long time ago in one of his song " Shuffering and Shmiling" In all I was glad I volunteered to get people to sign the #ChildNotBride petition.

I signed the #ChildNotBride petition and I'm happy in my conscience that I did. I'm saving the future generations of girl child in Nigeria from forced marriage.

Locations and time for #ChildNotBride signatures | #NaPikinNoBeWife #S29 #ChildNotBrideNG

Petition for #ChildNotBride in PH: Date/Time: Sat. 20th July 2013

Port Harcourt

Location
PortHarcourt Civic center, Moscow Road. 10am – 2pm. @TouchPH
Date/Time: Sunday, 21st July 2013, 10am-2pm
Locations
PortHarcourt CIWA Catholic Church
House on the Rock, Heritage House.

Abuja
Date/Time: Sat 20th July, 2013 9am-12pm
Location
Unity Fountain, Near Transcorp Hilton. Maitama. Abuja

Lagos
Date/Time: Sat 20th July, 2013 9am-12pm
Locations:
1. Ojeez Restaurant, National Stadium Surulere. @Nedunaija

2. Alausa Park, Opposite Lagos State Governor’s Office, Ikeja. @dupekilla

3. The Palms Shopping Mall, Lekki

4. New African Shrine, Agidingbi, Ikeja.

5. Union Bank, Alaba Junction. Oja-Alaba axis

6. Anthony Under bridge – @Africanchildrig

Ibadan
Date/Time: Sat 20th July, 2013 9am-12pm
Location:
Mokola behind Group medical hospital, Press correspondent building

Akure
Date/Time: Sat 20th July, 2013 12pm
Location:
Adegbemile Cultural Centre Akure

Contact @gabrielkolade.

KADUNA
Date/Time: Mon 22nd July, 2013 9am-12pm
Location:
Lugard Hall Front Gate

New York City:
Pls Contact @mzseaun .

828, 2nd Ave New York, NY 10017. Nig embassy building NY

London
Contact: @TopeOlowu

Ilorin
Ilorin: Today 20th July 10am – 12noon Venue: Mr Biggs, Tanke Junction GRA | Contact @Tosyn_rehab

Warri
Warri have a venue now, it’s today. Meeting point is beside synergy centre Jakpa rd btw 12-3pm contact @itsSally2

Benin :
Pls contact @bugsyspree at the Museum ground, Ring Road from 10am today.

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When The Spirit Departs – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Saturday 20th July 2013

WHEN THE SPIRIT DEPARTS BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE

Memorise:
Cast me no away from your presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Psalm 51:11

Read:
Psalm 51:1-12

(Psa 51:1)To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

(Psa 51:2) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

(Psa 51:3) For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

(Psa 51:4) Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

(Psa 51:5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

(Psa 51:6) Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

(Psa 51:7) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

(Psa 51:8) Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

(Psa 51:9) Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

(Psa 51:10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

(Psa 51:11) Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

(Psa 51:12) Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Open Heavens Message
Every believer in Christ needs the Holy Spirit. As long as He is with you, all is well, but the moment He leaves you, trouble follows. When He was with Samson, everyone saw him as a real-life Superman or Spiderman; but when He left him, Samson became an ordinary man and his enemies dealt with him (Judges 16:18-20). While the forces of darkness find it easy to deal with those without the Holy Spirit, it is an uphill task for them to deal with someone who is full of Holy Spirit. If you truly desire to be untouchable, make sure the Holy Spirit is very much with you. Demons are afraid of believers in Christ, not for their sake but because of the Spirit of God upon them.

Many years ago, while we were starting a church in Ife, a particular young and proficient female church singer mounted the stage and began to sing: ‘My city is heavenly Jerusalem. Witches, wizards and other evil doers cannot go there’. In that place, there were over 200 deities and demons. Suddenly, we observed that her mouth opened to sing but no words came out. Obviously, the witches and wizards felt she was confronting them while she lacked the power of the Holy Spirit, and so they seized her voice, she had to undergo some prayer afterwards in order to regain it. it is foolishness to dare the enemy wen your Ally is not with you.

Moreover, when the Holy Spirit departs, the joy of salvation goes with Him. If you doubt this ask David. When David sinned, the Holy Spirit left and so went his joy. This was why he began to ask for the restoration of the joy of his salvation in today’s reading. When was the last time you woke up singing? When the Spirit leaves, the relationship between you and the Lord Jesus Christ becomes like noise without substance. Romans 8:9 says if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Why? You are connected to Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Beloved, do all it takes for the Holy Spirit not to leave you! But if He has already left, then do everything possible to bring Him back.

Bible In One Year:
Numbers 34-36

Prayer Point:
Father, whatever happens, please let your Spirit never depart from me.

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Exceeding Greatness By Sacrifice - RCCG Open Heavens Devotion Friday 19th July 2013

EXCEEDING GREATNESS BY SACRIFICE BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE

Memorise:
Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. Psalm 50:5

Read:
Genesis 22:7-14

(Gen 22:7) And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

(Gen 22:8) And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

(Gen 22:9) And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

(Gen 22:10) And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

(Gen 22:11) And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

(Gen 22:12) And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

(Gen 22:13) And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

(Gen 22:14) And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

Open Heavens Message
Our God is a covenant keeper. This is why He hates the acts of truce breakers with a passion. If you want your future to be exceedingly great, make sure you are connected through a covenant to God. God is taking us to the level of exceeding greatness. Don’t let anybody deceive you by telling you that you have reached a height nobody has achieved for God. Simply tell them that whatever they consider as your height is truly the beginning of your achievement for God. Tell them they have not seen anything yet.

However, how do you get to your next level – the level of exceeding greatness? Sacrifice is required. In Genesis 22:1-18, Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac and Isaac was willing to be a sacrificial lamb. You cannot get to the height of exceeding greatness without a sacrifice. When The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was just starting, there was sacrifice. People worked selflessly and with all their hearts. Bricklayers worked for free, so also did carpenters, etc. at the present location of the RCCG Headquarters, the lagoon water was so close and so we had to push the waters backwards by pouring in saw dust.

At that time, I was already a lecturer in the university, but I was glad I had the opportunity to salvage the church and contribute my quota. I got a big basket to carry saw dust. One day, there was a serious traffic jam in Lagos and motorists decided to look for short cuts. In the process, one of my former students saw a particular car going off the congested road and he followed, believing the driver was taking a known alternative route.

That was how they came through our church compound and he saw me carrying a big basket of saw dust. He shouted in disbelief. To get to the next level, you must be prepared to sacrifice. In fact, the quality of your next level will be determined by the quality of your sacrifice. I never knew that I would become a pastor in the RCCG then but I rejoiced at the opportunity to serve God sacrificially. Are you humble enough to serve God at any level of sacrifice He requires of you?

Bible In One Year
Numbers 31-33

Prayer Point
Father, the grace to make the ultimate sacrifice that will take me to my greatest heaight, give to me today. Take me to the very top..

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Indian School Meal Poisoning: Food Contaminated With Pesticide

Its such a very sad and unfortunate incident. Poor little children, leaders of tomorrow gone just like that. I can't imagine what the parents of these unfortunate kids are going through right now. May their souls rest in peace. Also the conditions that led to this horrible incident should be checked.

According to Guardian UK:
Doctors have been fighting to save a group of primary school children poisoned by their school lunch at a primary school in a poor rural area of eastern India yesterday.

Reports vary as to the number of those who have died but officials on Wednesday put the toll at 22, with another 25 in hospital, as well as the school cook. Three of the children were in serious condition, Associated Press reported.

The children, between the ages of five and 12, fell ill after eating the lunch, of rice and lentils, at the village of Chapra, in the poverty-stricken state of Bihar, on Tuesday. The meal is believed to have been contaminated with pesticides.

"We are trying hard to save the children admitted [here] but the condition of some of them remains critical," said Dr Amarkant Jha Amar, superintendent of the Patna Medical College and Hospital.

Angry parents disinterred the hastily buried bodies of some of the victims and displayed them outside the school in protest. Demonstrators pelted a police station with stones, set ablaze buses and chanted slogans denouncing the state government.

India's free school meals programme is one of the biggest such schemes anywhere in the world, covering more than 100 million children. Prices of meat, fruit or fresh vegetables have soared in recent years, leaving parents in poorer families reliant on school lunches to ensure adequate levels of nutrition. But the scheme is plagued by waste and corruption, and incidents of poisoning are common - though they are rarely this serious.

Early tests showed that the food at the school may have been contaminated with pesticides used on rice and wheat crops in the area. Staff stopped serving the meal after children began vomiting.

A senior government health official in Delhi said one possibility was that ingredients had been stored too close to dangerous chemicals. "Washing before cooking would have made no difference," he told the Guardian.

Parents in Chapra first took their children to the rudimentary local health centre before they were transferred to local hospitals. Even in major metropolises India has no functioning ambulance service; in rural areas cars, rickshaws or even carts are used to carry the ill or injured.

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