To be a successful pastor, you really have to learn the tricks of the trade. This has nothing to do with preaching insightful and inspiring messages. Neither does it have to do with ministering to the spiritual needs of the members of the church.

Sometime ago, when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, asserted that the National Assembly appropriates to itself 25 percent of the total overhead budget of federal government, our dishonourable legislators offered self-serving tendentious arguments to explain away their wicked brigandage of the national treasury.

Mrs Taiwo Akinlebi is a multi-talented lady in her fifties, who believes that girls shouldn’t rely solely on educational qualifications for a career or a means of livelihood. Even though she dropped out of secondary school when she couldn’t cope any longer, she embraced fashion-designing and began to earn a good living. Later she added beads-making, which she learnt from her mother.

Before the July 14,2012 Governorship election in Edo State, three different ‘seers’ reportedly saw many sides of the same vision. The first said the incumbent would not win; the second said it is the opposition that would win, while the third said the sitting Governor would win but would not be sworn in. Now that the Governor has been reelected, the so-called seers may have to change their lenses.

“Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will. Integrity is not a search for the rewards of integrity. Maybe all you ever get for it is the largest kick in the ass the world can provide. It is not supposed to be a productive asset.” — John D. MacDonald