Prayer For Nigeria!!!

*As a people we owe ourselves a duty to pray for our nation , because it is only God that can help us from the present situation.Please join me as we share a simple heartfelt word of prayer for Nigeria*

Our Father and Our God, in the mighty name of Jesus, we praise You for Your goodness to our beloved nation Nigeria, for giving us blessings far beyond what we deserve. Yet we know all is not right and well with Nigeria.
We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face: Terrorism, Ethnic wrangling, Kidnapping, Assassinations, Unnecessary political upheavals, Idolatry, Ritual killing, Robberies, Maiming, Desecration of Your place of worship, High-End Sycophancy, Conspiracies, and the general level of Tension and Insecurity.
Convict us of sin as a people; Help us to turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet on the path of Your righteousness and peace.
O God, you are the source of life and peace. Praised be your name forever.
We know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace.
Hear our prayer in this time of crisis.
Your power changes hearts.Strengthen our resolve to give witness to these
truths by the way we live.
Give to us:
Understanding that puts an end to strife;
Mercy that quenches hatred, and Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.
Empower all people to live in your law of love
We pray today for our states and nation's leaders. Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it. You have said, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Let your true will be done in this land.
May this be a new era for Nigeria, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone as our Savior and Lord.
This we pray in Jesus` name, Amen!

Alvin Ikpe

@eAlvinator on Twitter

alvyn.ekx@gmail.com

INTERESTING DELICACIES

Believe me; you have not tasted the best of cuisines, until you try the underlisted:

1.      Fried termite sauce with roasted yam

2.      Pounded yam with apple juice

3.      Edikan Ikong with cabin biscuit

4.      Sugar cane and groundnuts 

5.      Agege bread with okro soup

6.      Fried kpomo with white soup

7.      Semi ripe pawpaw with waterleaf soup

8.      Fufu with fresh cow milk yoghurt   

9.      Fufu with dog meat sauce

10.  Barbecued grasshopper

11.  Cassava chips with roasted pork

12.  Roasted frog and chips

13.  Beans with ripe pawpaw

14.  Peppered lizard

15.  Coagulated ogi/akamu with stew

16.  Cracked palm kernel with peppered palm oil sauce

17.  Garden egg with pineapple juice

18.  Fried, salted termite with fresh palm wine 

19.  Cat meat porridge with boiled yam

20.  Kola nut chips           

21.  Chicken intestine sauce

22.  Peppered snail with coffee

23.  Roasted duck with okro sauce

24.  Fried kpomo with beans

25.  Grilled pigeon with mango

26.  Fried lizard egg sauce with water yam

27.  Plantain chips with carrot

28.  Garri sauce with shortbread

29.  Melon soup with cake

30.  Monkey meat stew with garden egg

31.  Cucumber with pork sauce

32.  Dog meat sauce with sliced bread

33.  Fried periwinkle with tea

34.  Moimoi with groundnut       

35.  Bitterkola stew with boiled unripe plantain

36.  Salad cream with pounded yam

37.  Bitterleaf soup with sugarcane

38.  White rice with condensed milk

39.  Boiled yam with carrot

40.  Beans and coca cola

Our Abbreviated Generation

I was pleasantly tickled recently when on opening my face book home page ,the first thing that hit me was a friends status update, where she took a swipe at the use of the letters IJN in conveying words of blessings, exhortations ,wishes etc., as opposed to the used of the full phrase, In Jesus’ Name. Same goes for LLNP (Long Life and Prosperity) We have to agree that at some point in our written communication and correspondences, we have been guilty of this practice; yours truly inclusive. No doubt, the SMS language can make messaging easier. The language is comprised of shortened phrases, acronyms and abbreviations that emerged from text messaging but has since bled into the everyday vernacular of many modern societies. SMS language is useful in text messaging, as it shortens messages' character count, therefore saving time and expense. This however does not apply to me because I have gotten so used to writing my SMSs in full thereby wasting time and paying more. I come from a background where my father, a class-act in both spoken and written English, made us believe that the much celebrated Pidgin English is nothing but gutter language. So bad that even in church, he does not join in singing songs done in Pidgin English. So with that mindset, in the course of my development, I have found it difficult to accept what I consider non-standard alterations to the language, both written and spoken. We are daily witnessing the creation of more of this “short codes”. It wasn’t until the recent past, that I got to know what LWKMD actually meant. For me I just left it at my good old LOL, LORL, LMAO, and one or two other ones. I get irritated by some though; like the blackberry popularized, KK, YELZ, and SOWIE etc. No matter how I feel about these abbreviations, the truth is that they have come to stay. However, the use of this slang-based language is not without its disadvantages:

1.Speaking or writing with SMS words can confuse those who are not familiar with the language. Many people within older generations, who do not use text messaging very often, may not understand a message if it contains SMS language, particularly acronyms. For example, someone who does not understand SMS language may receive a message with the acronym "ROTFL" which means "Rolling on the floor laughing" and wouldn't know that the message sender thought the subject matter was funny.

2.Using the SMS language outside of text messaging, in speech and emails, can give the recipient a negative impression of the messenger. When a word from the SMS language is used in an inappropriate situation, such as a business email, it can seem unprofessional or simply be misinterpreted as a spelling error. For example, the SMS word "ppl" stands for "people" and could easily be confused as a spelling mistake by those who are not knowledgeable of SMS abbreviations. Furthermore, using SMS words instead of their English-language counterparts can convey to the recipients that the messenger is lazy and could not be bothered to complete the longer version of the word.

3.The spread of the SMS language has been criticized for deteriorating the English language and its rich history. Though languages continually evolve, the SMS language can be seen as not respecting the long-standing properties of the English language that has made it so strong. Furthermore, words within the SMS language that are very similar to their English-language counterparts can be confused by young users as the actual English spelling and can therefore increase the prevalence of spelling mistakes.








I fear for the generation after us, who will step up the game and take it to an entirely different dimension. Children these days get exposed to information Technology and the internet quite early in life and will readily accept sms language as a communication standard, at that formative stage of their lives. The difficulty is how to create a balance between what is right and what is for ‘fun communication’. This is the 21st century; yes, and at the risk of sounding primitive, I believe something should be done and fast too, to make a clear distinction between Standard English for writing and the ‘fun language’. We need to do this to preserve the rich heritage of the English language that our teachers (I studied under some of the best) labored to teach us. If not, I foresee a scenario where it will move beyond the written, to being used in ‘formal’ verbal exchanges:


Pastor: GBUA IJN (God Bless Us All, In Jesus’ Name)

Congregation: MN (Amen)

Son: HDWU (Hey Daddy What’s Up?)

Dad: IFS, HWYD (I’m Fine Son, How Was Your Day?)

You can stretch your imagination to the limits by creating more.

HAND, oops, I just did it; I meant to say Have a Nice Day!