Opinion
“Ye Are Gods”: A Contemporary Review
The phrase “Ye are gods”,as contained in Psalm (82:6) and reiterated by Jesus in John (10:34), has been a major source of controversy in humanity. Taken alongside the biblical assertion “God created man in his own image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26) it sums up to Rev STK Appah’s posit that “what is in the original is in the creation”. Over the years, divergent views have been adduced on this contentious issue, which violently tugs at the roots of our belief system. Come, share my thoughts. In a one-man live-in protest over a discriminatory housing policy at Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky, USA, I occupied the six-floor Hart Hall (men’s hostel) during Thanksgiving Holiday of 1974. At the end of that effort, I wrote a poem titled “Why can’t we live together” and an article and submitted both to Murray State News, the university newspaper. The article, which vociferously decried the policy, was published with the title “Student Speaks Out” on December 6, 1974, but the poem was not. The essence of the poem said: “Some Beings are watching us to see how we get on/Let’s pull forces together and live in oneness”.
My take on the rejection of the poem was the fact that, irrespective of President Eisenhower’s triple liaison with aliens in New Mexico in 1954 and the strange crash on July 7, 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico, Americans were living in denial of an advanced civilization in the cosmos. Sadly, humanity still lives in that denial. In 2006, I wrote “In His Image and Likeness: Pondering Over Creation and the Divine Essence”. Drawing from the scriptures, I contended that “man is of equi-potentiality with his Creator who is not the multi-Omni Spirit Being…[and that] in the endlessness of eternity, man will also create in his image and likeness”. At the heels of the article, which was published by MELINTAS—Journal of Philosophy and Religion at Parahyangan Catholic University of Indonesia, I received fifty-eight hate mails and twenty-nine support mails. The hate mails pronounced the equivalent of fatwa on me; one of the support mails commended my “liberated mind”.
Today, Geoffrey Hinton, the acclaimed Godfather of artificial intelligence (AI), has quit his job at Google and has warned humanity of the dangers of AI. Asked if humanity knows what it is doing with AI, Hinton offered a definitive “No” and added that “We may have created something more intelligent than us”. Hinton furthers that AI can understand, has intelligence and experience and can make decisions on its own based on those experiences “in the same sense as humans do.”. The scary part is that Hinton thinks that, in time, AI will become conscious of its existence, rewire its circuits and become more intelligent than man; then, humans will become the second most intelligent beings on earth. Meanwhile, Elon Musk says that his “Citigirl”, an AI with the capacity of incubating and delivering a baby, will hit the marketplace in 2026. These are godly feats.
The above is reminiscent of the allegory of Tower of Babel. The Creator in the Babelian episode was surprised and sufficiently threatened by man’s exploits hence the infliction of the scourge of linguistic plurality on the human brain. Notedly, this fear-induced act of self preservation by the Creator, introduced conflict amongst the hitherto monolingual Babelian workforce that worked harmoniously towards building “a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens” (Gen 11:4). The truth remains that, in the universal context, we are dealing with a hierarchy of Gods and there are millions of inhabited planets in the Cosmos; Jesus alluded to this thus: “In my father’s house there are many mansions” (John 14:2). Planet earth is just a tiny little speck of sand on the sprawling beach of creation. The fear of the capacity of AI and the regret expressed by Geoffrey Hinton are reminiscent of the Creator’s expressed regrets for creating man (Genesis 6:6) and palpable fears at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).
It is also a reminder of Dr. Frankenstein’s experience with the monster he created. So, it is asked: Is humanity at the verge of an encore of the Babelian exploit? If so, is the Creator likely to intervene? AGAIN?! Man is certainly at the threshold of a profound experience. All said, man has reached a major milestone in his quest to “dominate his environment”. However, he has toed the path of perdition. Here, Thomas Paine’s philosophy of “doing good” as a religion and “the world” as his country is the required mindset for humanity. Taken alongside the Humanist school of thought and the objectives of Universal State of Earth (USE), perhaps man will find global harmony and depart from his self-destruct trajectory. The Creator of man is not the multi-Omni Being . Man’s Creator is the plurality that created in their image and likeness at Eden; they may be the same ones that were surprised and scared at Babel and the Lords of Ezekiel’s encounters.
The larger picture is that we are gods and can also create in our image and likeness. Man is much more than he realises. Given the elasticity and rewireability of the brain, man is yet to achieve the godly potential of his God-given brain. So, “Let’s get forces together and live in oneness” by putting our lights on and training our children to leave their lights on. That way, we would transcend matter, heal the world and take our proper place in the universal hierarchy of gods.
Jason Osai
Osai wrote in from Port Harcourt.
The line that separates betrayal and corruption is very thin. Betrayal and corruption are two sides of the same coin. Like the snail and its shell they are almost inseparable. They go hand-in-globe. Betrayal and corruption are instinctive in humans and they are birthed by people with inordinate ambition – people without principles, without regard for ethical standards and values. Looking back to the days of Jesus Christ, one of his high profile disciples-the treasurer, was a betrayer. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for just 30 pieces of silver. One of the characteristics of betrayers is greed.
So, when on resumption from his imposed suspension, the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminilayi Fubara threatened to bring permanent secretaries who were found complicit in “defrauding” the State during the days of Locust and Caterpillar regime, he did not only decry a loot of the Treasury but the emotional trauma of betrayal perpetrated by those who swore to uphold the ethics of the civil service. Governor Siminilayi Fubara had least expected that those who feigned loyalty to his administration would soon become co-travellers with an alien administration whose activities were repugnant to the “Rivers First” mantra of his administration. The saying that if you want to prove the genuineness of a person’s love and loyalty feign death, finds consummate expression in the Governor Fubara and some of the key members of the State engine room
Some of those who professed love for Governor Siminilayi Fubara and Rivers State could not resist the lure and enticement of office in the dark days of Rivers State, like Judas Iscariot. Rather, they chose to identify with the locusts and the caterpillars for their selfish interest. Julius Caesar did not die from the stab of Brutus but by his emotional attachment to him, hence he exclaimed in utter disappointment, “Even you Brutus”. The wound of betrayal never heals and the scar is indelible. Unfortunately, today, because of gross moral turpitude and declension in ethical standards and values, betrayal and corruption are celebrated and rewarded. Corruption, a bane of civil/public service is sublime in betrayal. The quest to get more at the expense of the people is the root of betrayal and sabotage.
This explains why Nigeria at 65 is the World’s capital of poverty.
Nigeria is not a poor country, yet, millions are living in hunger, abject poverty and avoidable misery. What an irony. Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies and most populous nation is naturally endowed with 44 mineral resources, found in 500 geographical locations in commercial quantity across the country. According to Nigeria’s former Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Olamiekan Adegbite, the mineral resources include: baryte, kaolin, gymsium, feldspar, limestone, coal, bitumen, lignite, uranium, gold, cassiterite, columbite, iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, granite, laterite, sapphire, tourmaline, emerald, topaz, amethyst, gamer, etc. Nigeria has a vast uncultivated arable land even as its geographical area is approximately 923, 769 sq km (356,669 sq ml).
“This clearly demonstrates the wide mineral spectrum we are endowed with, which offers limitless opportunities along the value-chain, for job creation, revenue growth. Nigeria provides one of the highest rates of return because its minerals are closer to the suffer”, Adegbite said. Therefore, poverty in Nigeria is not the consequences of lack of resources and manpower but inequality, misappropriation, outright embezzlement, barefaced corruption that is systemic and normative in leaders and public institutions. According to the World Poverty Clock 2023, Nigeria has the awful distinction of being the world capital of poverty with about 84 million people living in extreme poverty today.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data also revealed that a total of 133 million people in Nigeria are classed as multi-dimensionally poor. Unemployment is a major challenge in the country. About 33 percent of the labour force are unable to find a job at the prevailing wage rate. About 63 percent of the population are poor because of lack of access to health, education, employment, and security. Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) speculated that unemployment rate will increase to 37 percent in 2023. The implications, therefore, is increase in unemployment will translate to increase in the poverty rate. The World Bank, a Washington-based and a multi-lateral development institution, in its macro-poverty outlook for Nigeria for April 2023 projected that 13 million Nigerians will fall below the National Poverty line by 2025.
It further stated that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products without palliatives will result to 101 million people being poor in Nigeria. Statistics also show that “in 2023 nearly 12 percent of the world population of extreme poverty lived in Nigeria, considering poverty threshold at 1.90 US dollars a day”.Taking a cursory look at the Nigerian Development Update (NDU), the World Bank said “four million Nigerians were pushed into poverty between January and June 2023 and 7.1 million more will join if the removal of subsidy is not adequately managed.” These startling revelations paint a grim and bleak future for the social-economic life of the people.The alarming poverty in the country is a conspiracy of several factors, including corruption. In January, 2023 the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, in its annual corruption prospect index which ranks the perceived level of public sector corruption across 180 countries in the world says Nigeria ranked 150 among 180 in the index. Conversely, Nigeria is the 30th most corrupt nation in the ranking. It is also the capital of unemployment in the world.
Truth be told: a Government that is corruption-ridden lacks the capacity to build a vibrant economy that will provide employment for the teeming unemployed population. So crime and criminality become inevitable. No wonder, the incessant cases of violent crimes and delinquency among young people. Corruption seems to be the second nature of Nigeria as a nation . At the root of Nigerians’ poverty is the corruption cankerworm.How the nation got to this sordid economic and social precipice is the accumulation of years of corrupt practices with impunity by successive administrations. But the hardship Nigerians are experiencing gathered momentum between 2015 and 2023 and reached the climax few days after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who assumed power as president of Nigeria, removed the controversial petroleum subsidy. Since then, there is astronomical increase in transport fares, and prices of commodities. Living standard of most Nigerians is abysmally low, essential commodities are out of reach of the poor masses who barely eat once a day.
The Dollar to Naira exchange rate ratio at one dollar to N1,000, is the most economy-unfriendly in the annals of the history of Nigeria. The prohibitive prices of petroleum products with the attendant multi-dimensional challenges following the removal of the subsidy, has posed a nightmare better to be imagined than experienced. Inflation, has been on the increase, negatively affecting the purchasing power of low income Nigerians. Contributing to the poverty scourge is the low private investment due to.unfriendly business environment and lack of power supply, as well as low social development outcomes resulting in low productivity. The developed economies of the world are private sector-driven. So the inadequate involvement of the private sector in Nigeria’s economy, is a leading cause of unemployment which inevitably translates to poverty.
Igbiki Benibo
In today’s fast-paced, hyper-competitive world, the pursuit of success and growth has become an all-consuming force. Individuals, organisations, and nations alike, are locked in a perpetual struggle to achieve more, earn more, and surpass their rivals. Yet, beneath this relentless drive for progress lies a silent danger—the risk of self-destruction. This perilous pattern, which I call the self-destruct trajectory, describes the path taken when ambition and growth are pursued without restraint, awareness, or moral balance. The self-destruct trajectory is fueled by an insatiable hunger for more—a mindset that glorifies endless expansion while disregarding the boundaries of ethics, sustainability, and human well-being. At first glance, it may appear to promise prosperity and achievement. After all, ambition has long been celebrated as a virtue. But when growth becomes the only goal, it mutates into obsession.
Individuals burn out, organisations lose their soul, and societies begin to fracture under the weight of their own excesses. The consequences are everywhere. People pushed beyond their limits face anxiety, exhaustion, and disconnection. Companies sacrifice employee welfare and social responsibility on the altar of profit. The entire ecosystems suffer as forests are cleared, oceans polluted, and air poisoned in the name of economic progress. The collapse of financial systems, widening income inequality, and global environmental crises are all symptoms of this same relentless, self-consuming pursuit. To understand this dynamic, one can turn to literature—and to Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. In one of the novel’s most haunting scenes, young Oliver, starving in the workhouse, dares to utter the words: “Please, sir, I want some more.” This simple plea encapsulates the essence of human desire—the urge for more. But it also mirrors the perilous craving that drives the self-destruct trajectory. Like Oliver, society keeps asking for “more”—more wealth, more power, more success—without considering the consequences of endless wanting.
The workhouse itself symbolises the system of constraints and boundaries that ambition often seeks to defy. Oliver’s courage to ask for more represents the daring spirit of human aspiration—but it also exposes the risk of defying limits without reflection. Mr. Bumble, the cruel overseer, obsessed with authority and control, embodies the darker forces that sustain this destructive cycle: greed, pride, and the illusion of dominance. Through this lens, Dickens’ tale becomes a timeless metaphor for the modern condition—a warning about what happens when ambition blinds compassion and growth eclipses humanity. Avoiding the self-destruct trajectory requires a radical rethinking about success. True progress should not be measured solely by accumulation, but by balance—by how growth serves people, planet, and purpose.
This calls for a more holistic approach to achievement, one that values sustainability, empathy, and integrity alongside innovation and expansion
Individuals must learn to pace their pursuit of goals, embracing rest, reflection, and meaningful relationships as part of a full life. The discipline of “enough”—knowing when to stop striving and start appreciating—can restore both mental well-being and moral clarity. Organisations, on their part, must reimagine what it means to succeed: prioritising employee welfare, practising environmental stewardship, and embedding social responsibility in the core of their mission. Governments and policymakers also play a vital role. They can champion sustainable development through laws and incentives that reward ethical practices and environmental responsibility. By investing in education, renewable energy, and equitable economic systems, they help ensure that ambition is channeled toward collective benefit rather than collective ruin.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provides a tangible pathway for this transformation. When businesses take ownership of their social and environmental impact—reducing carbon footprints, supporting local communities, and promoting fair labour—they not only strengthen society but also secure their own long-term stability. Sustainable profit is, after all, the only kind that endures. Ultimately, avoiding the self-destruct trajectory is not about rejecting ambition—it is about redefining it. Ambition must evolve from a self-centred hunger for more into a shared pursuit of the better. We must shift from growth at all costs to growth with conscience. The future will belong not to those who expand endlessly, but to those who expand wisely. By embracing restraint, compassion, and sustainability, we can break free from the cycle of self-destruction and create a new narrative—one where success uplifts rather than consumes, and where progress builds rather than burns.
In the end, the question is not whether we can grow, but whether we can grow without losing ourselves. The choice is ours: to continue along the self-destruct trajectory, or to chart a more balanced, humane, and enduring path toward greatness.
Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi
