By:Femi Fani-Kayode
The warrior is noble and strong. His resolve is firm and his commitment
is total. His is to kill, to shed blood and to be killed. His is to die
for his King and for a worthy cause. His is to protect and lay down his
life for his faith, his nation, his people and his loved ones.
What manner of men are these whose spirit speak of such valour and
nobility? Consider the ancient Spartans and the Roman warriors of old.
Consider the fearsome Vikings who believed that it was a curse to die a
peaceful death and that the only way to heaven was to die violently and
heroically in fearsome battle.
Consider the greatest warrior that ever lived, the noble and gallant
Achilles, the pride of the Greeks and the glory of the Mermidans, who
slew noble Hector and brought down the walls of Troy.
Consider Aragorn, King of Gondor, who saved the Middle Earth from the
power of the Ring and from the hordes of Mordor. Consider beautiful
Legolas, Prince of the Elves, who gallantly stood behind him with his
mighty bow and strong arrow. Consider brave Horatio who stood at the
Roman gate.
Consider Ragnar the Viking King who crushed his enemies under his feet
and brought glory to his people.
Consider Kahl Drogo of the Dothraki who rode into battle with fire and
fury and who crushed all that stood in his path.
Consider Jon Snow Targarayan of the Nights Watch who manned the wall,
who rode dragons into battle, who loved Khaleesi and who saved the Seven
Kingdoms from the army of the dead.
Consider Alexander the Great who said “lose your fear and conquer the
world” and who established the greatest empire that the world has ever
known.
Consider King David, the greatest of all Kings, who relished in blood
and war yet who was a man after God’s heart.
Consider David’s “strongmen” who stood with him through thick and thin
and who fought for him to the very end.
Consider their gallant Captain, the mighty Joab and the others, Abishai,
Asahel, Eleazer, the Tachomonite, Shammah, Benaiah, Eliam, Igal and
Uriah the Hittite.
These were David’s ”strongmen”: all great and valient men of war whose
courage was legendary and whose loyalty to their God and their King was
unflinching and unquestionable.
Consider Richard the Lionheart, Shaka the Zulu, Robert the Bruce, Bonny
Prince Charlie, Beowulf the Nordic King and William Wallace the
liberator of Scotland.
Consider King Henry V of England who routed the French at Agincourt even
though he was outnumbered by three men to one.
Consider Julius Caesar who came, who saw and who conquered. Consider
Ertugrul Gazi who resisted the mighty Mongols, who rallied the proud
tribes of the Orghuz and Anatolia, who called God’s name as he rode into
battle, who laid the foundation for the Turkish state and whose brave
son Osman Gazi was the founder of the mighty Ottoman Empire.
Consider Salahudeen the Compassionate, who fought the Crusaders, who
re-took the City of Jerusalem, who rejected the path of vengeance and
who showed the Christians mercy.
Consider Aslan, the great Lion of Narnia, who sacrificed himself, who
rose again, who killed the white witch, who saved the world and who
crowned Kings and Queens.
Consider the great Heracles who fought giants and monsters and who
brought them to their knees. Consider the mighty Hercules whose father
was a god, whose strength was unmatchable and who never lost a fight.
Consider Spartacus, who turned slaves into men. Consider Samson, who
slew a troop with the jaw bone of an ass and yet who fell at the touch
of a woman.
Consider Gideon who slew the Midianites, Jeptha who sacrificed his
daughter, Joshua who brought down the walls of Jericho and Jehu, the son
of Nimshi, who drove his chariot like a madman, who slew the witch-Queen
Jezebel and who fulfilled prophesy by ensuring that the dogs ate her
flesh and licked her blood in the fields of Jezreel.
Consider those that laid down their lives for our great and noble faith:
Paul of Tarsus, the greatest of all the Apostles, who brought the
glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the gentiles and to the
wider world.
Peter the disciple, who became the Rock on whom the Church of God was
built. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Stephen, Isaiah,
Elijah, Daniel, John and all the other disciples and Prophets of old.
For martyrs and heroes that lived and died for God are also gallant
warriors who feared not death and who stood firm to the end in defence
of their faith.
Consider George Washington who led his troops into battle and whose
battle cry was “victory or death”.
Consider the noble Samurai and the 47 Ronin who avenged their Lord.
Consider the great Oduduwa who came down from Heaven and who established
the Yoruba race.
Consider King Alfred and his gallant Saxon warriors who took their last
stand at the Battle of Hastings.
Consider the charge of the Light Brigade, the sheer courage and
discipline of the famous 600, at the battle of Balaclava in the fields
of the Crimea.
Consider Robert E. Lee and Ulysses Grant at the battle of Gettysberg,
Oliver Cromwell at the battle of Nasby, Horatio Nelson at the battle of
Trafalgar, King Leonides with his gallant ”300”, at the battle of
Thermopalye and Dilios the Spartan at the battle of Plataea.
Consider Generals Marshal, Patton, Eisenhower, Rommel and MacArthur in
the great battles of the Second World war.
Consider Zhukov at the siege of Leningrad and his courageous exploits at
the battle of Moscow. Consider Bernard Montgomery, with his fearless
”Desert Rats”, at the battle of Alamein, Charles De Gaulle at the
siege of Paris and Chiang Kai-Shek in the war against Japan.
Consider Attila the Hun, Ghengis Khan, Peter the Great, Yoni Netanyahu,
Hannibal Achuzia, Benjamin Adekunle, Crazy Horse, Marcus Garvey, Sitting
Bull, Sir Lancelot, Khalid Bin Al Waleed, Katsumoto the Samurai,
Dieneces of Sparta, Hannibal of Carthage, Hector of Troy, the Dragonborn
of Skyrim and the mighty Viking of Stamford Bridge.
Consider our gallant Amazons and female warriors of old- Boudica of East
Anglia, Joan D’Arc of France, Elizabeth 1 of England, Amina of Zaria,
Moremi of Ife, Golda Meir of Israel, Margret Thatcher of Great Britain,
Indira Ghandi of India, Idia of Benin, Funmi Ransome-Kuti of the Egbas,
Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Esther of the Medes and Persians, Cleopatra
of the Blue Nile and Egypt, Yaa Asantewaa of the Ashanti, Eowyn of Rohan
and Nwayereuwa, Nwannediya, Ikonnia and Nwugo of Aba and the Igbo
nation.
Consider Daenerys Stormborn Targaryan, the Mother of Dragons, the
Breaker of Chains, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Ruler of the
Seven Kingdoms and the Queen of the Iron Throne who burnt down Kings
Landing.
Consider Arya Stark, the Lady of the North, who slew the Night King.
Consider Arwen, the beautiful Elf Queen, who lifted her sword in battle
and who gave up immortality for the love of Aragorn.
Consider King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Consider King Theoden and the Riders of Rohan at the siege of Gondor.
Consider Greyworm, the Unsullied, the Dothraki and the Army of the North
at the battle of Winterfell.
Consider Legolas and the golden Elves at the Battle of Helms Deep.
Consider Aragorn of Gondor at the battle of the Black Gate and Jon Snow
of the Nights Watch at the battle of the Bastards.
Consider Ntshingwayo Khoza and the Zulu Army at the Battle of
Isandlewana and consider Lt. John Chard and Lt. Gonville Bromhead and
the British forces at the Batte of Rorkes Drift.
Consider Generals Foche and Hague at the battle of the Somme. Consider
George Armstrong Custer at the battle of the Little Big Horn, the Duke
of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo, Balogun Oderinlo at the battle
of Osogbo and Napolean Bonaparte, in his full glory and power, at the
battle of Marengo.
Consider Ajayi Crowther, Herbert Macauly, Patrice Lumumba, Jaja of
Opogbo, Thomas Sankara, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah,
Leopold Senghor, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jerry John Rawlings, Nelson Mandela,
Robert Mugabe, Oliver Tambo, Ayo Adebanjo, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe,
Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Emeka Ojukwu, Isaac Boro, Aminu Kano,
Alfred Rewane, Dappa Biriye, E.K. Clark, Solomon Lar, Jonah Jang, Ken
Saro-Wiwa, Paul Gindiri, J.S. Tarka, Gideon Orkar, Phillip Effiong, MKO
Abiola, Frederick Fasheun, Bola Ige, Hannibal Achuzia, Nnamdi Kanu, Gani
Adams and so many others.
Had these great men and women all not stood their ground and had they
all not played their role in our collective history, where would the
world be today? They sacrificed their today so that we may have our
tomorrow.
They lived for the sake of others and asked for only one thing in
return: that their names should live forever and that we should never
forget their noble deeds and their worthy sacrifices.
And we must not forget, nay we dare not forget, for as Martin Luther
King once said “if a man is not ready to die for something, then he is
not worthy of living for anything”. The warrior is prepared to die for
his cause. That is what makes him so noble and that is why he will
always have a special place in our hearts.
May the spirit of the warrior fill us all and, like the true warriors
that we are, when the angel of death comes may the Lord give us the
strength and boldness to look him fearlessly in the face and treat him
with the contempt and disdain that he deserves.
May we never forget that he has lost his sting and that, by the power of
Christ Jesus, he has been conquered and crushed.
When the dark angel comes, as come he must for us all, we must be men
and we must die a good death, not cringing and crying like fearful
puppies but, like true warriors, fighting to the bitter end.
For it is never for the warrior to ask the why: it is only for the
warrior to do or die.
The warrior does not vanish into the night. The warrior will not go down
without a fight.