By: Femi Fani-Kayode
The United States House of Representatives declared Nigeria as the most
dangerous place for Christians to live in the world last year.
More Christians have been killed in Nigeria than anywhere else in the
world in the last 67 years.
The President of the Christiam Association of Nigeria (CAN) has warned
against the continued killing of Christians in the country.
Well-armed and well-funded Fulani militias are slaughtering Christians all
over the nation and the Government has done nothing to stop it or to bring
them to justice.
808 Christians were killed in Southern Kaduna at Christmas. 1000 killed
in Agatu, Benue state last year. 13 killed in Southern Kaduna on Easter.
It goes on and on yet there have been no arrests.
Christian communities are being wasted and ravaged by Boko Haram.
Christian youths of IPOB and MASSOB are being butchered on a daily basis
whilst their leaders are being illegally detained.
Every single security and intelligence agency in the country except for
the Navy is now headed by a northern Muslim.
The spokesman for the Fulani militias and herdsmen has just been appointed
as Secretary to the Federal Character Commission.
Christian Pastors have been persecuted and subjected to humiliation and
arrest in the last two years like never before.
More Churches have been bombed, burnt down, sacked and destroyed in the
north in the last two years than at any other time in our history.
The International Terror Index has described Nigeria’s Boko Haram and
Fulani Militias as the first and fourth “deadliest terrorist organisations
in the world” respectively.
All this and yet our President has REFUSED to give the leadership of CAN
audience since he came to office 2 years ago despite ALL attempts by that
organisation to see him and table their concerns.
This is too much. The impunity and disdain is glaring. The disrespect and
contempt is nauseating. It is simply disgusting and disgraceful.
Never mind the pretense and the denials. Never mind the few slavish
“Christian” Uncle Tom’s and fifth columnists in the corridors of power who
will say anything to keep their worthless jobs.
The truth is that Buhari has NO respect for Christians and his Government
has palpable hatred for all believers. Not only does he hate Christians
but he also hates Shiite Mulims too.
If this were not so why keep their leader in illegal detention for over a
year after murdering over 1000 of them and burying them in mass graves?
This is the way of the Sunni fundamentalists, the Salafists and the
Wahhabis and that is the course that our goverment has chosen to take.
As far as they are concerned all opposition must be subdued, killed,
jailed or broken and they must hold on to power forever. That is their
ethos and they will never stop.
The truth is that ANY so-called Christian that supports or serves this
government should bow his or her head in shame.
This is all the more so when our Minister of Information can actually open
his lying mouth and say that “muslims have not killed Christians in
Nigeria”.
What a shameless man. He can say so only because he does not regard
Christians as being human beings. He does not regard the loss of a
precious Christian soul as being anything.
To him and to the Government that he so happily serves, Christians are
nothing. If this were not the case how could he say such things and tell
such monumental lies?
Our Lord and Saviour paid the supreme price on the Cross and rose again.
He shed His precious blood for us. He conqured death and gave us life
everlasting. He triumphed after much pain and suffering. He did not go
through all that for us to live as slaves or second class citizens in
Nigeria or anywhere else in the world.
We are the head and not the tail. We were born to be victorious, to have
dominion and to rule. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the
world. We cannot be repressed or destroyed.
Nothing moves us and nothing shakes us. Nothing can separate us from the
love of our Lord.
Not even persecution, marginalisation, humiliation, incarceration, torture
or death. The Church of Christ was built on the Blood of Jesus and on the
blood and bones of Christian martyrs through the ages.
For over 2000 years believers have been slaughtered and butchered yet the
Church and the faith is still standing strong and going from strength to
strength. The more you kill and persecute Christians the more the glorious
gospel will spread.
We have a President who is so sick that the only time he is seen is in the
mosque on fridays. What signal does that send? What has governance got to
do with the mosque in a supposedly secular state?
We have a Vice President who has been held captive and who is now a slave
to some dark, sinister, evil and shameless cabal.
We have a Government that hates our people and hates our faith. To them
the only good Christian is a subservient Christian who is prepared to turn
a blind eye to the murder, butchery and slaughter of his own.
To them the only good Christian is one that lives in fear and remains
silent even as his brothers and sisters in the Lord are being murdered,
persecuted, marginalised and humiliated.
I will never bow to those that hold that view. I will never shake or
quiver before them because I serve a mighty God who is noble and strong,
who is true to His own, who has filled me with His Spirit and who has
called me to lead.
The Bible says “he who is scared of losing His life will lose it” and “he
who is prepared to give up his life will gain it”.
I would rather die than be a slave to any person, any government, any
tribe or any other faith.
I am what I am. I am a Christian soldier. I am the Odum Agu of the South.
I am the Odogwu N’ Arah of Christiandom.
As long as my Lord and Saviour sits on the throne I fear nothing and I
worry about nothing.
I believe that Nigeria belongs to Jesus and whether anyone likes it or not
His counsel over this nation will stand, His will shall he done, His
purpose shall be established and His name shall be glorified.
The counsel of the ungodly and the will of satan cannot stand in our
nation. Nigeria cannot be islamised and she will NEVER be turned into a
vassal state of Saudi Arabia.
We must either reconfirm the secularity of our nation-state and
restructure her or we must break her. That is our duty and that is our
calling.
We must either accept the principle that people of ALL faiths are equal,
that they are free to worship their God in whichever way they deem fit and
that religion has no place in matters of governance and the state or we
must go our separate ways.
We must either accept the fact that our people will no longer be
subjugated or bow before any form of religious or ethnic hegemony or we
must redefine Nigeria.
To those that feel that they can stem the tide and oppose or stop it I say
it is too late.
This message has sunk in and it is loud and clear. The horse has already
left the stable. The cat is already out of the bag. The genie is already
out of the bottle.
The days of subservience and fear are over. The incessant and endless
bloodshed and the brutality and insensitivity of the ailing tyrant have
woken us up.
They have stirred something deep and dangerous within our souls. We are
defiant and we refuse to continue to wallow in self-pity and crawl on
bended knee.
Dr. Martin Luther King said “if you are not ready to die for something
then you are not worthy of living for anything”.
We are ready to lose our very lives for our faith and in defence of the
gospel. That is what Christian soldiers and believers are meant to do. We
are called to live in peace with our neighbours but we shall stand tall
and strong as they spit on us, cheat us, humiliate us, rob us and strike
us down.
We are mighty. We are strong. And as long as our people and our brothers
and sisters in the Lord are treated with contempt, disdain and hatred by
your people and your government, as long as we are killed in our homes,
farms and Churches, as long as we are misrepresented, humliliated, wrongly
accused and persecuted, we shall oppose and resist you in every lawful way
with every fibre of our being.
The truth is that there cannot be peace in Nigeria without justice. There
cannot be joy without equity. There cannot be blessings without God’s
pleasure. There cannot be progress as long as those in power and their
friends continue to target, persecute, marginalise and murder the children
of the most High God.
The Holy Bible says “once has it been written and twice has it been said
that all power belongs to God and the heavens rule in the affiars of men”.
It says “the nations are as a drop of water in the ocean before the Lord”.
It says “He holds the universe togeher by the power of His word”. It says
“He forges the destiny of nations and jealously guards His counsel”.
Any Head of State, President or leader whose sole objective is to destroy
the Christian faith or the Church and to diminish the influence and power
of Christianity in Nigeria shall meet a terrible and tragic end.
It has happened before and it will happen again. Our God does not sleep.
The Bible says, “He is a Man of War: who can stand against Him?”
The blood of all those innocent Christians murdered by agents of the
Nigerian state, the Fulani militias and herdsmen and other terrorists in
the last two years whilst our Government turns a blind eye and does
nothing is crying to God in Heaven for vengeance.
And until that vengeance comes the Buhari
Government and all those that support them shall know no peace. Like
Sennacherub and the Assyrians the Lord shall divide their tongues and they
shall turn their swords against one another until they are no more.
As for the believers and the Christian faithful, no matter what they throw
our way, we stand and we fight. We move on fearlessly because our God is
awesome and strong.
We stand firm and we do not flinch because our Lord is mighy in battle. We
are Christian soldiers and warriors of the faith.
We are on the frontline of the battle and we are ready to die for our
faith. We wear the armour of God and we carry the sword of truth.
We are the Sons of Gideon and the Armour-Bearers of Light.
Like David, we stand against Goliath, like Moses we stand against Pharaoh
and like Jehu we stand against Jezebel.
The Seven Fold Spirit of the Living God is with us: we cannot be cowed and
we shall not be defeated. Onward Christian soldier!