Tinapa is set to become a world-class integrated business resort. Located on the Calabar River, and contiguous to the Calabar Free Trade Zone (Calabar FTZ), Tinapa is the realisation of an exciting dream - the first integrated business and leisure resort in Nigeria.

The Vision of Tinapa is described as...

...to play a catalytic role in establishing Calabar as a trade and distribution hub in West Africa while at the same time providing a unique tourism experience that will inform the growth and enhancement of the tourism sector in Calabar, Cross River State and Nigeria.

Calabar, with its natural potential for tourism, through the unique vision of Tinapa, will transform itself into a global trading hub reminiscent of great international free zones like Hong Kong and Dubai.

The complex will provide international standard wholesale emporiums, integrated shopping complexes and product distribution elements supported by business tourism and entertainment facilities. The location of these, in close proximity to a free port on the east-west trading routes, provides exciting opportunities for Tinapa to serve as:

The distribution point into Nigeria and the growing economic hub of West Africa
The ultimate centre for retail and wholesale commercial activities with the ECOWAS sub-region taking advantage of the international agreement on free movement.

The vision

The vision for Tinapa is bold, exciting and insightful, highlighting the determination of Cross River State Government, under a Public Private Partnership, to deliver a project that will ensure high economic growth and prosperity for the people of Cross River State, and Nigeria at large. The vision builds on the principle that the creation of a trade hub will attract investors, traders and business travellers and subsequently domestic, regional and international leisure tourists. The mix of components brought together in the phased development of the project creates an ideal environment for trade and business tourism to flourish and lays the foundation on which to build a successful leisure tourism industry

In the days of internal self-government, violence was almost entirely alien to the conduct of elections in Nigeria. The December 1959 elections, which produced the late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as an elected Prime Minister of Nigeria, only witnessed a stalemate predicated on moves by the leading political parties to achieve a coalition. This is because none of the parties achieved the required membership of parliament to form the government at the centre.

With the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC), which came third at the polls, forming a coalition government at the centre with the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) which literally swept the polls, the Action Group (AG) that came second in the election and managed an alliance with fourth-placed Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) was confined to the opposition. The attainment of independence on October 1, 1960 did not materially alter the status quo.

What happened on the floor of the Western House of Assembly on May 29, 1962 when members went on the rampage and broke the mace, spurring the federal government to declare a state of emergency in Western Nigeria cannot pass for election violence, since the incidences that culminated in the restriction order on AG leaders were not preparatory to any polls. It was merely a budding conflict ensconced in a failed bid by the Obafemi Awolowo–led AG to pass a vote of no confidence on the Premier of Western Region, Samuel Ladoke Akintola.

Similarly, the protest against rumoured moves by the Ahmadu Bello government of Northern Nigeria to Islamise and eternally subjugate the more republican middle belt provinces of the North, a protest championed by the Tiv was only at best a foreshadowing of future election imbroglio. The incarceration of the Joseph Tarka, Aper Aku and others of the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) could not pass for any form of election violence. At the most, the orgy of sudden loss of mirth to pseudo-religious ire amongst the peoples enveloped in the present Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa, Niger and the Southern Zauzau part of Kaduna State stared the projecting analysts in the face as a premonition of election violence.

Not even the October 1964 federal elections which were boycotted by the Michael Okpara-led United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA) in protest against perceived clandestine moves by the establishment Nigeria National Alliance (NNA), which was for all practical purposes led by the Sarduana of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. The UPGA, which comprised the so-called progressives’ fronts, namely AG, NCNC, UMBC, NEPU and others boycotted the polls in all the existing regions except the Midwest and conceded major electoral defeats to the NPC and Akintola’s Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP). Not even the momentary refusal of Nnamdi Azikiwe as President to swear-in Balewa for another term as Prime Minister nor the backing of the military was enough to engineer any anomie.

The long history of election violence was incorporated, perhaps for all times, by the phenomenon of wetie in the October 1965 elections in Western Nigeria. Before then, what has been experienced was brazen malpractice with pockets of malevolent incidents. Before the crisis in the region that led to the appointment of Moses Majekodunmi as Administrator, before the Supreme Court resolved the AG crisis in Akintola’s favour, elections in the West have been twice deferred. It was the opportunity the people of the West had patiently waited for to throw Akintola’s regime overboard.

But the astute lawyer-politician from Ogbomosho hill-country understood too well what was at stake and the import of upsetting the ballot in his own personal interest. The elections were massively rigged with virtually all NNDP candidates declared winners against very popular AG candidates led by Dauda Adegbenro. When Akintola’s return speech was snatched at "gunpoint" within the premises of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (WNBC) in Ibadan by someone identified in latter days as the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, what followed was classical illustration of William Butler Yeats’ Mere Anarchy Is Loosed Upon The World with each succeeding day’s anger rested on housetops, chimneys and other high places, a premonition of Dennis Brutus’s Nightsong City.

The wetie reign of arson and terror in retrospect did not only lead to massive loss of lives and property, it ensured a malfunctioning of the state apparatus, more justifiable for the declaration of a state of emergency in the region than the dramatic skirmishes on the floor of the House in 1962. But the federal government shied away from that prospect because it did not wish to oust the administration of the Sarduana’s ally, Akintola through the declaration of emergency rule that would have permanently questioned the sanctity of the coming polls. The ousting of Akintola’s regime and indeed, every other in the country was carried out by a group of youthful Army officers on January 15, 1966 led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna. The Nzeogwu coup came up nearly three months after the crisis in the West commenced with the ill-conceived re-election of Akintola, who was silenced in the putsch.

As a corrective regime, the military held on to power for 13 years, producing the greatest violence and inter-ethnic bloodbath in the nation’s history in the form of a needless civil war. On October 1, 1979, the duo of Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua handed over to democratically-elected President Shehu Shagari and his vice, Alex Ekwueme. The August 1979 elections was violence free, and this was because, though the election was not free from the Nigerian-type electoral fraud, the injustices involved in the democratisation process were not so obvious.

For instance, of the 19 states in the federation, opposition parties won governorship elections in an aggregate of 12 states, leaving the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) with seven, without prejudicing the chances of Shagari’s victory. Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) won governorship elections in five states, namely, Lagos, Ogun. Oyo, Ondo and the defunct Bendel State, while Azikiwe’s Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) controlled the two Igbo states of Anambra and Imo, creating an upset in far-flung Plateau State through the efforts of a maverick, Solomon Lar. Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) won governorship elections in Kano and Kaduna States , while Waziri Ibrahim’s Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) controlled the North East states of Borno and Gongola.

By August 1983, when the general elections held an additional party, the Nigerian Advanced Party with a near Marxist philosophy had been registered by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO). That new parties, and virtually all the other parties, failed to make any serious impact, as the ruling NPN with the collaboration of the Victor Ovie-Whiskey-led FEDECO and the Nigeria Police with Sunday Adewusi as Inspector General, won a landslide. They took over the governorship of hitherto opposition states as Oyo, Ondo, Bendel, Anambra, Gongola and Kaduna States, losing only Kwara State to the UPN, because of intra-party ego feud.

But the controversial victory of Omololu Olunloyo and Akin Omoboriowo, respectively in Oyo and Ondo States , created a great insurrection that literally led to the toppling of Omoboriowo’s government in Ondo State , before the Supreme Court nullified his "election" in favour of UPN's Michael Ajasin. Many lives were lost in Ondo urban centres, where egg-shaped voodoo bombs were used to thwart efforts of law enforcement agents to establish an administration inimical to the wishes of the people. There was some measure of disquiet in Anambra State where Christian Onoh and Jim Nwobodo, two kinsmen held each other’s heels. What with members of Ikemba front on the rampage, a major crisis brewed in the state before the military intervention. Above everything else, the gross malpractices of 1983 and the violence that followed led to the demise of the Second Republic, with the resurgence of another autocratic military regime on New Year eve, December 31, 1983.

A series of democratic transition timetables were released by the Ibrahim Babangida junta, which overthrew the interventionist regime of Muhammadu Buhari, with handover dates twice postponed, from October 1, 1990 to same date in 1992 and eventually to August 29, 1993. The Babangida democratic transition which witnessed the first and only institution of state-owned political parties, the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), also accommodated so many electoral injustices that culminated in the controversial annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by businessman, philanthropist Moshood Abiola.

For the next six years and until the advent of the present democratic dispensation, there was a persistent mass protest over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, with the June 12 dateline becoming a metonymy for democracy and civil justice. The greatest incident of bloodletting as security forces checkmated chaotic protest was the killing of several protesting youths in several parts of Lagos metropolis on July 5, 1993. What was supposed to be a civil disobedience was on that day transmuted by miscreants into an occasion for looting with impunity.

Every June 12 in the years that followed, the police and the military had a not very easy challenge keeping protesters and vandals off the major highways. Even in the course of the Sani Abacha self-succession plot in the guise of democratic transition, soldiers supervised voters at gunpoint, not to manipulate election figures – for elections in those times needed not be rigged as all antigovernment elements were already rooted out of the system through forced exile and imprisonment - but to prevent pro-June 12 agitators from disrupting the voting exercise. It could be said of the June 12 struggle that it began with a mass appeal that subsumed all the strata of the Nigerian society only to degenerate into a reverie of pro-democracy groups and the irate hoi polloi.

Mercifully, the very sensational death of Abacha and the emergence of Abdulsalami Abubakar as Nigeria ’s next Military Head of State began the precursor of the present democratic dispensation. Abubakar, at the climax of a transition programme that commenced two months after his assumption of office and lasted for nine months, handed over the reins of government to gaol returnee, Olusegun Obasanjo of the victorious Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Both the 1999 general elections and that of 2003 did not witness much violence compared to what happened in preceding democratic eras. But the 2003 general elections have been the most fraudulently rigged of all polls since the British granted internal self-government to the regions in the 1950s. The elections of that year were characterised by gangsterism, flagrant violations of the Electoral Act and justifiable voters’ apathy. This is one dispensation that saw an Electoral Appeal Tribunal sack a sitting governor who obtained his mandate by doubtful means, declaring his opponent dully elected after a protracted legal duel that lasted 34 months. The activities of ethnic militias have been the most vicious aspects of the present episode of civil rule in Nigeria. Again, the militias and the militants have shown more concern for attainment of economic power and sometimes sovereignty than influencing or challenging the outcome of elections.

Before today’s polls, there have been reports of loss of lives as a result of clashes between rival political groups, especially in the South West states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti States, as well as Imo and Abia in the South East. The PDP determination to win in Lagos, Anambra and Kano States, amongst others, on do-or-die basis promises to be the harbinger of several ontological woes. Sometimes the crisis is as bad as the perpetuators being from the same political party. Already, the ruling party has forfeited its right to field a candidate in the Imo State governorship election as a result of intra-party feud amongst governorship aspirants in the Imo PDP

Politics and elections can be perceived as Siamese twins (inseparable) when viewed from a democratic prism. Though, the political history of Africa paints a different picture, with series of coups and counter coups, civil wars, secessions and rebel uprising, all showing the possibility of politics devoid of elections.

This grim reality actually underscores Aristotle’s assertion that all human beings are political animals either through conscious acts or unconscious actions.

Putting a date to the history of politics and by extension elections in Nigeria can be a bit tricky as a starting point can as well extend beyond pre-colonial periods, when the present day modern Nigeria was more or less an unformed embryo. What is called Nigeria today was the result of Sir Frederick Lugards’ amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate in 1914, with the whole territory named the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. By that time British administrators, traders and missionaries had been at work, particularly in the southern area, for about 100 years, during which the influence of western education and other social institutions had continued to expand while portions of traditional local systems declined.

Colonial Period (1914 – 1960)

Events do not occur in a void as such because there are historical connections to every development. According to a book titled: Nigeria: a country study, one of the serial Area Handbook Series published by the American University, Washington D.C., it notes that activities of Portuguese navigators have been noticed in the West African coast since the early 15th century. In 1481 emissaries from the King of Portugal visited the court of the Oba of Benin. By 1851, Britain captured the colony of Lagos in a bid to have a firmer grip over its commercial interests in the coastal town and proclaimed Lagos a Crown Colony in 1861. In 1885, the Berlin-West African Conference of major European powers agreed to entrust Britain with the sphere of influence of the Niger River Basin.

The 1914 unification introduced the principle of indirect rule of administration which literally gave the power of administration to the traditional rulers but with instructions and prodding from the colonial officers. In 1916 Lord Lugard formed the Nigerian Council, a consultative body that brought together 6 traditional leaders – including the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano, and the Alaafin of Oyo – to represent all parts of the colony. Though it is on record that they have no major role to play in policy formulation as Lord Lugard dictates the policies of the British Crown to them.

Colonial Constitutions and Political Parties

With the exit of Lugard in 1920, Nigeria experienced 4 successive constitutional changes with the Hugh Clifford Constitution of 1922 being the first followed by the Richards’ 1946 Constitution, 1951 Macpherson’s Constitution and the Federal Constitution of 1954 popularly known as the Lyttelton’s Constitution. Political agitation for representation led to the birth of political parties in Nigeria. The first party to emerge was the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in 1922. The party was founded by Sir Herbert Macaulay, reputed to be the father of party politics in Nigeria. It contested seats in the Lagos Legislative Council created by the 1922 constitution. Though, different associations and groups existed before the formation of the NNDP but they were not organised in a party structure. By 1944 another party – National Council of Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC) - emerged with the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as the Secretary General and Herbert Macaulay as the President. It was initially a coalition of all the major labour unions, social groups, political clubs, professional associations and over 100 ethnic organisations, the NCNC had an almost national spread and appeal.

The Action Group led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was founded in 1951 as the political party arm of the socio-cultural organisation, Egbe Omo Oduduwa and the Produce Trader’s Association which he gave leadership role. Other political parties soon came into the political picture, like the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) led by the late Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana (war leader) of Sokoto, Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) led by Alhaji Aminu Kano, United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) led by Joseph Tarka, Bornu Youth Movement (BYM), Ilorin Talaka Parapo (ITP), United National Independent Party (UNIP), Niger Delta Congress (NDC), Benin-Delta People’s Party (BDPP), Mid-West State Movement among others.

With the 1954 constitution which introduced principle of ministerial responsibility under British-style parliamentary form of government, events in the Nigerian state moved rapidly. By 1957, the Western and Eastern regions became formally self-governing in regional affairs within the Federal structure and in the same year the Federal Executive Council was created to prepare Nigeria for independence. In the year 1959, the Northern region became self-governing and the National parliamentary elections in December, 1959 led to the formation of a coalition government under the prime ministerial-ship of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

The story of Mary Slessor's battle to bring the gospel
and civilization to the "Dark Continent."

The place is the Calabar River on the slave coast of Africa. The time is an afternoon in September 1876. A rusty ocean steamer is heading toward the mouth of the Calabar. This part of Africa is known as the White Man's Grave, and only a fool could come here without being afraid. The land a few miles from shore is unexplored. Killer elephants and lions, swarms of insects, witch doctors, and cannibals live there. To enter that land would mean death.

Life means little along the Calabar. Slavery is common and to kill a woman or a slave means nothing. If a family has too many children, they will just leave the unwanted child in the bushes to die. The birth of twins is thought to be an evil sign. Twin babies are cruelly murdered, and their mother is driven from her home to die in the jungle.

There is no respect for truth and honesty here. "Do right" would be a meaningless phrase, for these people do not understand what is right. The law of the jungle is "do whatever you can get away with." For this reason, people live their short lives in fear and filth.

The boat drops anchor well up the Calabar River beside a rough town. This is Duke Town. The mission station at Duke Town is the destination for the only woman traveling aboard the steamer. Mary Slessor is coming from Scotland to serve God in this harsh climate. A small boat from the mission comes alongside the steamer and takes her to shore.

Mary Slessor is 29 years old. She comes from a poor family. Her father was a drunkard, but her mother was a godly woman. Since she was 11, Mary has earned her living working in factories for twelve hours a day, six days a week. Despite these hard circumstances, she served God faithfully in Scotland, and the hardships have helped prepare her to serve Him now in Africa.

The Duke Town missionaries have had some success in the coastal regions. They have built a school, hospital, orphanage, and chapel at the station. Through their preaching and teaching they have been able to stop some of the worst heathen practices. The village leaders are beginning to realize that what they call "God-law" (the teachings from the Bible) makes sense. On any Sunday there are several hundred natives in services.

This was the situation when Mary Slessor began her work teaching in the mission station and visiting in the coastal and river villages. As soon as Mary could learn the local languages, she went without a translator. She was told that it was dangerous to travel alone, but she found that she could get to know the people better in this way.

The farther Mary traveled from the mission station, the greater needs she found. Mary told the natives the good news of Christ. She urged them to quit worshiping the skulls of dead men and not to be afraid of "evil spirits." The new missionary taught, "Do not kill the wives and slaves of a 'big man' when he dies. They cannot help him in the next life." She showed the women better ways to fix food and keep homes and children clean.

Sometimes at night Mary would lie awake on a dirt floor in some coastal village. "Oh Lord," she prayed, "I thank Thee that I can bring these people Thy Word. But Lord, there are other villages back in the jungle where no white man has gone. They need Jesus, too. Help me reach them!" Then, whenever she had an opportunity, she would ask another missionary or a native about her going to these villages. The answer was always the same: "No. You would be killed. They cannot be reached."

Her worst enemy was the tropical diseases which hit her so suddenly. There were many times when it seemed as though she were about to die, but she pulled through. It was a real temptation to forsake this unhealthy area and return to the cool mists of Scotland.

The Scottish missionary did go home on a short furlough, but she soon came back to Africa. She was thrilled to learn that she was now to be on her own at an outstation. Her new home was Old Town, some distance upriver from Duke Town.

Her first view of Old Town was of a human skull swinging from a pole in front of the town meeting house. Each hut had its own little gods. Mary's "home" was a mud hut next to a trader.

Her days were full of treating sick, teaching the Bible, and visiting neighbors. Mary became known throughout the area for her wise, fair counsel. There was a Christian chief, King Eyo Honesty the Sixth, who often asked Mary for advice in dealing with white men. She, in turn, asked him for help in working with the natives.

Mary was successful in Old Town, but she was also deeply burdened for the remote Okoyong tribe that had never heard the gospel. How could she bring the love of Christ to these people as well? They valued only three things: guns to have power, chains to keep their slaves, and liquor to dull their minds. But God was leading her there, and Mary was willing to trust God to show her how to win these savage people to Christ.

Mary prayed for God's leading. At last, in June 1888, she quietly announced that she would go upriver alone and find a place to settle. "You will die. You will die," her friends told her. They wept at the prospect of her leaving.

King Eyo Honesty said that if she must go, he would send her as a "big person" in his own special canoe. It was the grandest canoe in all of Calabar. Mary accepted Eyo's offer and headed for the land of the Okoyong. The farther they went, the more her twenty paddlers wanted to turn back. They feared the Okoyong. But the Lord was with the group, and they arrived safely. The Lord had also prepared the heart of the chief of the first village they found. Mary was the first outsider ever allowed to live there. The chief also said that she could build a school.

This area was far more wicked than any Mary had seen. The people respected only vengeance and cruelty. To a people who did not know what love was, Mary brought the love of Christ.

This was a wild time for the missionary. Hardly a day went by without a serious crisis. Mary knew that she could not expect to change their lives immediately, but she could not merely stand back and watch these people do wrong. She got little rest and her health was bad. But she was always there when she was needed.

Whenever Mary heard of any trouble, she would rush to the scene. As she approached, the men would be preparing for war. They passed around liquor, danced, and yelled threats at the other side. They were in war paint, and their spears and shields glimmered in the sun. The skulls and scalps of earlier victims waved from poles.

Just as the two sides were about to rush together, they saw a small, seemingly calm woman standing on a log between them. "Out of the way, Ma. We fight!"

She ignored the shouting warrior.

"Out of the way. You die, too, white Ma. Move on!"

"Shoot if you dare!" she called back.

When the two sides came to remove this gray-haired obstacle, Mary knew that she had won. She would scold them as children, plead with them to show mercy, or suggest they move to the shade of a tree to talk. Mary knitted while they talked, and she got a lot of knitting done. After hours of talking the men were calmer and too tired to fight. They went home without bloodshed.

News of trouble might come too late for Mary to get there in time. If this happened, she would go to her table, pull out a fine piece of parchment, and quickly make big marks all over it. She then sealed this with wax and tied it with a great red ribbon. A runner sped this important document to where the fight was about to begin. Mary's scribbles were nothing but nonsense, but none of the Okoyong could read! The warriors would spend the day puzzling over the important piece of paper sent by the "white Ma." They would still be studying the document when Mary arrived in person to settle the dispute.

After a time, Mary realized that as long as the Okoyong had nothing else to do, they would get drunk, and drunkenness always led to fighting. "Perhaps," she thought, "if they knew there was something better, this would stop."

Mary displayed her nicest possessions: some cloth, a teapot, and an old sewing machine. The Okoyong liked what they saw. "You can have nicer things than this if you take the palm oil and yams to the traders," she told them.

"These things you have--very nice," said one chief. "But it is no good. Traders afraid to come here. No good for us to go to them. River gods kill us."

"I will go with you. You will be safe.

"No. Too much bad."

Mary told of the wonderful things down the river. Finally they agreed to go and loaded a canoe. The chiefs and warriors shook with fear as they set off towards Duke Town and Old Town.

King Eyo hosted a great feast for the visiting chiefs. He showed them the good things they could have if they gave up their old ways. He told them that the God of the "white Ma" was the true God. Eyo was kind to the poor, backward Okoyong chiefs. Before they left he gave them each presents, including some fine cloth. The Okoyong could hardly believe their good fortune.

As a result of these meetings, the Okoyong region was opened to outsiders. Mary had done what traders, soldiers, and diplomats had been unable to do for four hundred years. There was now a reason for honest work. This experience was a turning point in the life of the Okoyong people.

In time, many of the Okoyong would accept the gospel. Free of their pagan fears and drunkenness, they could now understand God's love for them. The idols disappeared from the villages and in their place small churches were built. A court system was established to settle disputes, and Mary was made the first judge.

Civilization came more quickly to the Okoyong than it did along the coastal regions. For hundreds of years the white traders along the coast had tried to force the natives to change. It was not until the gospel changed the people's hearts that real progress was made.

As for Mary, she felt a tug on her heart for the region beyond the Okoyong. Her converts in Okoyong protested, "We love you. They will kill you. Do not go." Mary loved the Okoyong people, just as she had loved the people of Old Town. But her call was, "Onward! I dare not look back."

Mary's reputation as a great and wise woman and as a fair and honest judge had gone before her into the land of the Azo, a dreaded cannibal tribe. At first the Azo people seemed to show little interest in her message, but soon many accepted Christ. Mary reported that there was one town that had two hundred converts. None of them could read, so she pleaded for pastors to come to instruct the new Christians.

In the time she had left, Mary did all she could. She walked the paths until she was too old and feeble. Some Scottish friends sent her a cart that could be used to pull her to the villages. They urged Mary to come to Scotland for a rest. She wanted to, but prayed instead that God would give her the strength to finish the job among the cannibals. Strength came and she worked faster and harder.

Two years later, in January 1915, the Lord took Mary home to be with Him.

A government boat was then sent to carry her body down the river to Duke Town. She was buried on a hillside by the mission station where she had first served.

The group which gathers on that cemetery is a testimony to the life Mary Slessor lived. There are high government officials who found they could trust this woman's advice. A dignified tribal chief, once a cannibal, stands there. He found the "white Ma" a faithful friend. There is a young man whom Mary nursed through a fever. Twins are there who would have been murdered at birth had she not come. As they look up from her grave to the land around them, they see a country that Mary Slessor claimed for Christ while standing on the deck of a rusty ocean steamer almost forty years before.

This land cannot be the same again, nor can they.

Today I want to say with a big smile on face and open arm waiting to hug you all in celebration of the risen of Christ. Yeah JESUS CHRIST is alive. Today I call for special prayers for all those who are sick, depressed, diseased, rejected, evicted etc all over the world that as Christ riseth so shall all the solution to their problem rise in the favour from this day onward.

Have a wonder day today

Love you all

Prince