Saturday, June 20, 2020

DR Congo court gives 20-year sentence to president’s chief of staff Kamerhe for graft


 

Pictured in this file photo, Vital Kamerhe, now chief of staff of the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, attends a meeting in Kinshasa, DR Congo on December 28, 2018.  © Baz Ratner, Reuters

 

The Democratic Republic of Congo's high court on Saturday found the president's chief of staff guilty of embezzling $48 million in public funds and sentenced him to 20 years in jail, the lead judge said.

 

Vital Kamerhe is the most senior politician to face trial for graft in DR Congo, where high-level corruption is endemic.


"From everything we have heard, the court has established as fact the offence of embezzlement of public funds relating to the amount of $48,831,148," said presiding Judge Pierrot Bankenge Mvita wearing a mask and rubber gloves.


Kamerhe denies stealing money earmarked for social housing under President Felix Tshisekedi’s flagship 100-day building programme.

The veteran power broker appeared at the three-hour outdoor court hearing in a blue and yellow prison jacket and also wore a mask to protect against the coronavirus.


Kamerhe backed Tshisekedi in his successful 2018 election campaign in return for Tshisekedi’s support the next time around in 2023.

His arrest on April 8 sent shock waves through the country’s ruling coalition and the nation.


Last week the justice minister revealed that the former presiding judge, who was originally said to have died of a heart attack last month, was actually brutally murdered.



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Thousands Of Malians Protest Seeking The Resignation Of Their President


 

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Mali’s capital Bamako on Friday to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, heeding the call of the country’s newly resurgent opposition.


The 75-year-old president is under pressure over failures to contain a jihadist insurgency that emerged in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to the fragile centre of the West African state.


Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

But the sclerotic pace of political reforms, a flagging economy and a widely shared perception of government corruption have also fed anti-Keita sentiment.


On Friday, an imam led tens of thousands of protesters in a prayer in a central city square.


Protesters then sang the national anthem and blew vuvuzela horns, with many toting placards bearing anti-government slogans.

The demonstration follows a similar rally on June 5 organised by a newly-formed coalition of opposition groups.


That coalition has since adopted the name, “Movement of June 5 — Rally of Patriotic Forces.”


Uniting religious leaders and civil society figures, the coalition is channelling deep-seated frustration about the slow pace of progress and continuing bloodshed.


At its head is Mahmoud Dicko, an imam and Islamic hardliner whose political star is rising in the war-torn country.


The June 5 movement organised Friday’s protest, despite Keita’s pledge on Tuesday to form a new unity government that would include opposition figures.


‘He will understand’


Keita was elected president of the poor Sahel nation of some 19 million people in 2013, and won a second five-year term in 2018.

He has been pushed to make several concessions in recent days in response to mounting criticism, like raising the salaries of public teachers on Tuesday after a long-running pay dispute.


The president also extended an olive branch to the political opposition on Tuesday, proposing to form a unity government.


But his efforts to appease opponents appear to have fallen on deaf ears.


Dicko had earlier told reporters in Bamako that Friday’s protest would go ahead come what may.


“He hasn’t learned his lesson, he doesn’t listen to people,” he had said. “But this time he will understand”.


Mamadou Diakite, a 42-year-old teacher at Friday’s protest, told AFP that Keita had to step down.


“We are here for the final victory, there is no negotiation possible,” he said.


The sharpening political divide in Mali is worrying the country’s neighbours.


A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc met Mali’s prime minister as well as opposition figures in Bamako on Thursday and Friday, in a bid to defuse tensions.


It called for the creation of a “consensus government of national unity.”


The delegation said a decision by the constitutional court in late April was the source of social-political tension in the country.

The court had overturned around 30 results from the elections in March and April, including a third benefiting candidates from the president’s party.


The delegation called for the government to review the results and hold new partial elections “in the concerned districts as soon as possible.”


Court sources said four of the nine members of the constitutional court handed in their resignations on Friday.




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Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Boko Haram: Allah said we should kill – Shekau’s faction invites bandits in Nigeria


By Wale Odunsi 

 



The Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram, Jama’atu Ahlussunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, has invited bandits to join them.

The sect made the call in a new video.

The faction wooed armed groups terrorising the North West and North Central.

 

The regions have been under unabated attacks by bandits who kill, rape, injure the people, burn houses and rustle cattle, sheep, etc.

The insurgents specifically urged outlaws in Zamfara and Niger States, to partner with Boko Haram.

The footage shows four masked men speaking in English, Hausa, Fulfulde and French, HumAngle reports.

 

One of them said “brothers in Lake Chad, my brothers in Cameroon, my brothers in Sambisa, my brothers in Niger State, my brothers in Zamfara State…to strive harder for the sake of Allah”.

 

He said everything being done “is for the cause of Allah, and I encourage you to keep doing it. Strive harder, because Allah instructed us in the Holy Quran to strive harder for His cause.”

“You feel we kill. You feel we destroy. Allah has instructed us to kill everyone that is unbelieving,” the speaker declared.

 

He added that they were fine “and we hope you are also in a good state of health. We thank God who put us on this path, in this time, to promote His words and institute His law”.

The insurgent said his “second message” was to the people of Nigeria, Cameroon, and the whole world.

 

“We call you to join us to institute Sharia globally. When you come, we will accept you according to (Shari’ah) law, and we (will) worship Allah as He commands us.”



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Friday, June 12, 2020

Nigerian Buhari told to disintegrate the country during his June 12 speech.


 

By John Owen Nwachukwu

 

An outspoken Nigerian cleric, Adewale Giwa has again told president Buhari to consider the plight of people and restructure the country through disintegration.


Giwa, in a statement he signed and forwarded to Nigerian media on Friday, specifically said the greatest gift Buhari-led government could offer Nigerians in the last five years was to allow Nigerians go different ways.

 

He quoted Genesis chapter 10:32 to support his assertion, where the descendants of the biblical Noah separated after the flood.

According to the cleric, “The descendants of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth spread out over the earth after the flood.


“When the region where they lived experienced rapid growth, they decided to separate so they could manage what they had.

 

“Have we asked ourselves why the previous and present politicians have failed? The reason is because the country is bigger than any president that can rule her.


“The greatest gift president Buhari can give Nigerians is to allow us to go. The body language of the people is calling for separation, that is the truth.


“I have chosen to speak the truth; the president must take action to ensure this happens.


“At least more than 80% of Nigerians are supporting and calling for disintegration. If they cannot fix the country since 1960, then, it shows that Nigeria is bigger than them.

 

“People are not calling for war, but they are yearning for separation so that we can hear each other’s language.


“The resources in Nigeria are enough for us to divide without rancor. The politicians have shown us since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999 that they could not fix the country.


“As president Buhari addresses Nigerians today, I want to urge him to consider the feelings of Nigerians and restructure the country through disintegration.”


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NIGERIA: Thunder kills 18 suspected kidnappers while sharing ransom in Adamawa


 

By Jim Ochetenwu

 


A thunderstorm has killed 18 suspected kidnappers at a forest in Adamawa State.


Sources said the men of the underworld were sharing ransom money they got from their victims when the thunder struck them.

The incident occurred within the Toungo Local Government Area of the state, local sources said.


Toungo is a town and local government area in the southern part of Adamawa State on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.


“The bandits, it was gathered, had collected over N20 million from their wealthy victims between Koncha in Cameroon and Toungo in Nigeria,” a source in Toungo said.


According to the source, the suspected kidnappers met their end because angry victims went spiritual against them.

 

“Angered by incessant attacks by the kidnappers, community leaders and victims consulted a native doctor to send thunder after the bandits. They met their Waterloo when they gathered to share the money,” the source said, adding that local hunters could not retrieve their corpses nor their money inside some bags as well as their weapons.

The Adamawa State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Suleiman Nguroje, said Friday morning that the incident actually happened within Cameroon soil near the border with Nigeria.


“We heard that the victims engaged the services of a native doctor, but it was said to have occurred in the neighbouring Cameroon, which is not under our jurisdiction,” Nguroje said.


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Rwanda ranked second peaceful country in the East Africa region by latest index



 By Emmanuel Côme Mugisha

 

According to the latest Global Peace Index (GPI), Rwanda rose four positions from the past year, ranking 81st out of 163 countries studied worldwide, with an overall score of 2.049. 

The rise also makes Rwanda the fourteenth most peaceful country in Africa, from the 17th position in the previous report.

GPI is a peace metric produced by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), a global think tank dedicated to analyzing peace and quantifying its economic benefits. 

The index defines peace as the harmony achieved by the absence of violence or fear of violence.

It uses qualitative and quantitative indicators grouped into three key domains: ongoing conflict, safety and security, and militarisation.

The 2020 GPI released Wednesday, June 10th revealed that, of the three domains, Rwanda performed best in militarization with a score of 1.6, ranking 34th globally. 

This domain includes various indicators such as military expenditure, weapon imports and armed forces rate among others.

According to the report, the economic cost of peace in Rwanda was $1.4 billion or 5 percent of its GDP. 

Regionally, Rwanda is the second most peaceful country after Tanzania which has maintained the top position since 2008. 

Uganda, Kenya and Burundi follow in that order. 

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and South Sudan came in the nine least peaceful countries in the world.

Mauritius is the most peaceful country on the continent and 23rd globally, followed by Botswana, Ghana and Zambia.

Sub-Saharan Africa recorded a slight decline in the index due to post-election disputes and demand for political change, says the report. 

Also, the sub-region saw an 800 percent increase in civil unrest, from 32 riots and protests in 2011 to 292 in 2018.

Worldwide, Iceland leads the global ranking, a position that it has held since 2008. 

It is joined at the top by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, and Denmark. Afghanistan remains as the least peaceful country, a position it has held for two years, followed by Syria, Iraq and South Sudan.

The economic impact of violence in 2019 fell to $14.5 trillion, equivalent of 10.6 per cent of the world's GDP.

Impact of Covid-19

The 2020 GPI shows that the world is now less peaceful than it was in 2008. Global peacefulness has been dropping over the last decade. 

Civil unrest has doubled since 2011, writing a sustained rise which is set to worsen with the economic impact of COVID-19 take hold.

IEP says the economic downturn as a result of the pandemic pause a significant threat to peace. Many African countries are expected to face famine conditions, creating further stress in fragile populations. 

However, the report notes that countries able to maintain peace have higher resilience to absorb, adapt and recover from shocks, such as COVID-19 and the ensuing recession.

 


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Burundi turns to court for guidance after president’s death - OUTCOME


By Ignatius Ssuuna and Eloge Willy Kaneza

 

Its president dead, Burundi on Thursday turned to the constitutional court to help fill the power vacuum ahead of the expected August swearing-in of the president-elect chosen in May’s election.

The abrupt death of President Pierre Nkurunziza this week of what the government called a heart attack has left the East African nation with new uncertainty after a 15-year rule marked by deadly repression.

Evariste Ndayishimiye won the election as the ruling party candidate, but Pascal Nyabenda, the speaker of the national assembly, was said to be Nkurunziza’s preferred successor.

Nyabenda could be installed as interim president until August. Ndayishimiye could be sworn in right away, but “this is a question that was not provided for by the constitution” and one the court could consider, said Burundian lawyer and activist Janvier Bigirimana.

Thursday’s emergency meeting of the council of ministers decided to formally notify the court of the vacant post and await its guidance.

Nkurunziza died Monday after falling ill on Saturday and hours of efforts to revive him failed, the government said. He was last seen in public watching a volleyball match on Saturday.

The government has not responded to questions on whether Nkurunziza died of COVID-19. His administration had been accused of not taking the pandemic seriously as it cited “divine protection” and allowed large campaign rallies ahead of the election.

Photos of Thursday’s meeting posted on social media showed the country’s ministers not wearing face masks.

The council of ministers noted Burundi’s seven days of official mourning and decided that activities should continue as normal, though “everyone should understand the particular circumstances in which the country finds itself.”

Keeping that in mind, the statement said, all music in bars, nightclubs and karaoke is suspended until the official mourning is over.


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Wednesday, June 10, 2020

A massacre in Nigeria’s Borno state left more people dead than months of coronavirus


By Danielle Paquette and Ismail Alfa 


It took less than two hours for gunmen to kill more people in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state than the coronavirus reportedly had in three months.

Modu Ajimi, a 42-year-old civil servant in the district of Gubio, lost four cousins in the massacre, which claimed at least 81 lives Tuesday, the latest bloody chapter in the region’s decade-long conflict.


The young adults were out fetching water, he said — pandemic hygiene called for extra buckets — when militants rolled up in trucks, shooting everyone in sight. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Their bodies bore a bullet hole in almost every part,” said Ajimi, who found them in a dirt field: Ari. Mamman. Ibrahim. Maina.

 

He covered their faces with blankets.

As Africa’s most populous nation battles an Islamist insurgency and the coronavirus at the same time, Nigerians living at the heart of the trouble fear the public-health response is eclipsing efforts to fight the extremist threat.

Boko Haram, which has killed more than 30,000 people since 2009, hasn’t stopped staging regular attacks and stealing livestock in the country’s northeast during the pandemic. An offshoot, the Islamic State in West Africa, has stuck to its strategy of striking army bases while collecting taxes from villagers it aims to govern.

“How many people has the coronavirus killed in Nigeria?” asked Abubakar Sadiq Kurbe, a political scientist in Borno’s biggest city, Maiduguri. “Insurgents and bandits and other criminals kill more within a week.”

 

Nigeria had recorded 13,364 cases and 365 deaths by Wednesday, marking one of the biggest outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa. Twenty-nine people have died of the virus in Borno, according to official numbers.

Health officials warn that a shortage of tests could be obscuring the true count. Such was the case in the northern state of Kano, where unexplained deaths spiked in April. Complications from the coronavirus caused more than half of them — or about 480, the country’s health minister announced Monday.

 

Nigeria has responded to the respiratory menace with lockdowns, travel restrictions and food aid for workers who lost their jobs as life ground to a halt.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari called on people to keep a safe distance and frequently wash their hands in televised addresses this spring.

The conflict in the northeast has recently garnered lower-profile mentions.

Buhari’s office on Monday lauded the army’s success against the insurgents on Twitter, announcing that soldiers have killed 1,400 fighters over the past two months.

Late Wednesday, Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the president condemned the violence.

“As news of one of the most brutal terrorist attacks on innocent people emerged from the Northeast, President Muhammadu Buhari said he is deeply shocked by the brutal killing of tens of people by the Boko Haram/Islam in West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Gubio village, Borno State,” he tweeted.

 

But 530 miles east of the capital, Abuja, people in Maiduguri said they feel neglected.

“Government at all levels in Nigeria has diverted attention to covid-19 and relegated the issue of insecurity to the background,” said Hassan Aliyu Yaulari, a 48-year-old public employee.


Villagers in Gubio had warned the military about harassment from fighters just before the massacre, several said in phone interviews.

Extremists would storm into town, make threats and take cattle. Some of the men armed themselves to fight back, but they were no match for their tormentors, who trained in the woods with lethal equipment they’d ransacked from clashes with security forces.

 

Residents begged authorities for help, said Umar Ashami, a 37-year-old artisan.

“The Nigerian military was alerted that Boko Haram was sighted a day before the attack,” he said, “but nothing was done until they struck.”

His 30-year-old sister died in the gunfire.

“She was full of dreams, especially for her children,” Ashami said. “That all died with her.”


The Nigerian army denied that it had ignored warnings and pinned the ambush on “a few sleeper cells” of Boko Haram and ISWA fighters in the northeast, a spokesman said in a statement Wednesday.

Soldiers are tracking down the assailants, the statement said, and plan to “dominate the area.” Officials said nearby villages will shelter the survivors, whose homes were destroyed.

 

Neighbors must band together for better security, Babagana Umara Zulum, the governor of Borno, told mourners as he visited the crime scene.

Residents say that’s not enough.

Some have tagged the president in pictures of the carnage on social media to grab his attention. Several recorded footage of the dirt field scattered with bodies.

One video shows a man in rolled-up jeans, surveying the aftermath with a rifle. He counted the dead with his pointer finger: one, two, three, four . . .

The villagers stayed up all night digging graves.



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Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza dies: Government


Government statement on Twitter says outgoing president, 55, died at Karusi hospital after suffering heart attack.

 

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has died of a heart attack, according to the government.

 

In a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday, the government announced "with great sorrow to Burundians and the international community" the passing of Nkurunziza, 55.


The outgoing president died at Karusi hospital after suffering a heart attack on June 8, the statement added.


In power since 2005, Nkurunziza was due to be replaced in August by political ally Evariste Ndayishimiye, who was declared earlier this month the winner of a May 20 presidential election.



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Monday, June 8, 2020

They Hate Me Because I Failed To Join Illuminati - Trump


 

My name is Donald J Trump.
Before I came to POWER, there was a lot of wickedness going on AGAINST America my country.


As a billionaire, I decided to run for the president to Change the status quo.
I later won the election and since the Inception of my leadership, all my salaries do go to the less privilege in America.
I brought my best team to re-brand the American Economy and to do that which Democrats couldn’t do.
America became the best Economy in the world.


Since I took over power, all the MEDIA houses turned against me. From one false news to another just to destroy me…


The reason they hate me was because I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and failed to Join in their Illuminati cult.
I was planning that in my second term in office, I will look towards Africa and liberate them from the bondage they are from the Europeans.


I never knew that China was planning to recognize Africa. They brought a disease CALLED CORONA VIRUS and hid it away from the rest of the world.


Today it has shattered my country and still raking havoc
I am perplexed. I love my citizens and hate to see them dying as it is happening today.


We have spent trillions of dollars just because of what China caused. I would have used this money to liberate Africa especially those trapped in Nigeria and stop the killing of Christians.
I am in a very sad mood now.


If you see this statement, say a word of prayers for me…
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.



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Literature on struggle against racism: A review of the autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr



 

By Osa Amadi


Today, June 8, is significant in the political history of Nigeria. It is the death date of Nigeria’s worst military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.


The times also coincide with an ongoing resurgence of protests and riots against racism in the USA. As we compute it in Nigeria, June 4 (the day Kudirat Abiola was assassinated on Abacha’s instruction for fighting to reclaim her husband’s presidential mandate)  + June 8 (the death date of Kudirat’s assassin) = June 12 (the date the freest and fairest election in Nigeria was conducted and won by MKO Abiola, but was annulled by the then military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida in connivance with the Nigerian military.


As this next segment of the history of black man’s struggle for freedom and justice unfolds before our eyes, your ever-proactive Vanguard’s Arts & Reviews takes you through the important milestones, as well as updates, of this struggle. Enjoy every bit of it:

First and foremost, Martin Luther King Jr (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was a preacher of God’s word. Preaching the word of God runs in his family.


His father, grandfather, great-grandfather, his only brother, and his father’s brother were all preachers. But Martin Luther King Jr is a preacher with a difference. On page 18 of his autobiography, he writes:


“It has been my conviction ever since reading Rauschenbusch that any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: “A religion that ends with the individual ends.”


Throughout the history of blacks’ struggle against segregation, racism, and injustice in the USA, there has been, as it were in the struggle of the Jews against German Nazism, the dilemma of whether to toe the path of violence or non-violence.


This issue also preoccupied the movement which Martin Luther Jr led in the 1960s in the USA.


Suffice it to say he chose the part of peaceful protests against violence, even though to the disappointment of many youths who were involved in the many protest marches organized and led in those days by Luther Jr.


Moreover, he made it clear right from the beginning, that the fight was not against white people per se, recognizing that many white people are unhappy with racism and the injustice against black people.


On page 139, he marshalled out the ultimate aim of the protest when discussed his address to students during the youth march for integrated schools on April 18, 1959, in Washington D.C:


“I urged the students,” Martin Luther writes, “to continue the struggle on the highest level of dignity.


They had rightly chosen to follow the path of nonviolence. Our ultimate aim was not to defeat or humiliate the white man but to win his friendship and understanding.


We had a moral obligation to remind him that segregation is wrong. We protested with the ultimate aim of being reconciled with our white brothers.”


Though peaceful, it was a stubborn nonviolent engagement modelled after and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s in India.


When Luther and other protestors were arrested by the violent police and were considering granting them bail, they chose jail to bail.

Luther King Jr was arrested alongside other 280 students in October 1960 for participating in a nonviolent march to integrate launch counters in Atlanta, Georgia.


Luther did not organize the protest. He was invited by the organizers to be part of it, and “I felt a moral obligation to be in it with them,” he says.


When Martin Luther King Jr was offered bail in court by the judge, he stubbornly rejected it with the following words:

“Sir, I know you have a legal obligation facing you at this hour. This judicial obligation may cause you to hand us over to another court rather than dismiss the charges.


But sir, I must say that I (also) have a moral obligation facing me at this hour. This imperative drives me to say that if you find it necessary to set a bond, I cannot in all good conscience have anyone go buy my bail.


I will choose jail rather than bail, even if it means remaining in jail a year or even ten years.


Maybe it will take this type of self-suffering on the part of numerous Negroes to finally expose the moral defense of our white brothers who happen to be misguided and thusly awaken the dozing conscience of our community.”


After about six-day, when the government saw that the 280 persons arrested were determined to stay in jail without bulging an inch and that the community was rumbling, they dropped the charges and all the 280 persons, including Martin Luther King Jr, were released immediately without bail.


Songs as the soul of the movement


Martin Luther King Jr described the songs sang during the protest marches as “the soul of the movement”:


“An important part of the mass meeting was freedom songs. In a sense, the freedom songs are the soul of the movement. They are more than just incantations of clever phrases designed to invigorate a campaign; they are as old as the history of the Negro in America.


They are adaptations of songs the slaves sang – the sorrow songs, the shouts of joy, the battle hymns, and the anthems of our movement. I have heard people talk of their beat and rhythm, but we in the movement are as inspired by their words.”


Through those protests, the government was forced to enact far-reaching legislation and make reforms, leading Martin Luther King Jr to observe that legislation was first written in the street:


“Demonstrations, experience has shown, are part of the process of stimulating legislation and law enforcement. The federal government reacts to events more quickly when a situation of conflict cries out for its intervention.


Beyond this, demonstrations have a creative effect on the social and psychological climate that is not matched by the legislative process.”

It was those legislations and reforms won by Martin Luther King Jr and others that granted voting rights to black Americans and eventually paved way for what no one could have imagined at that time to be possible –  the 44th President of USA, a black man, Barrack Obama, who ruled the United States of America from 2009-2017!


At some point in his vocation as a civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr became both convinced and fearless he was going to pay the supreme price for his struggle to emancipate black Americans from segregation, racial discrimination, injustice, and economic deprivations.


His ground-breaking sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967, was somewhat an epitaph and a funeral oration which Martin Luther King Jr rendered to himself:


“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.


You may be thirty-eight years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause.

And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer.


You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you or shoot at you or bomb your house.

So, you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at thirty-eight as you would be at ninety.


And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused to stand up for right.


You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You died when you refused to stand up for justice ….”


On April 3, 1968, Luther delivered his final address on earth at Bishop Charles J. Mason Temple in Memphis.


On April 4, he was assassinated at Loraine Hotel, bringing to completion, one of the most stunning and brave careers of a civil rights leader in the world.


But as we can see, the struggle has continued to this day, even more boldly.



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