by Femi Fani-Kayode
”And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob”- Isaiah 49: 26.
Blessed be the name of the Most High God, the God whose I am and the God whom I serve. Blessed be His Holy name forever and blessed be His Holy Word.
This is essay is not for the easily excitable or the unduly emotional. It is a long and troubling essay but the subject matter is of such importance that I urge it’s readers to stay with it to the very end. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.
On June 11th 2014 the Governor of Borno state in north-eastern Nigeria, Mr. Kashim Shettima, warned that Boko Haram may soon extend it’s operations to the southern part of our country. Four days later, on June 15th, his prediction began to unfold when two disturbing incidents occured.
Firstly came the planting of three bombs in the premises of Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) in Owerri, the Imo state capital, by Boko Haram insurgents. This was done on a Sunday morning where and when approximately 10,000 faithful christian worshippers were gathered to attend their weekly Church service.
Thankfully the militants were caught in the act, apprehended by the police and the bombs were diffused. Had this not been the case the number of casualties would have been horrific and unimaginable. Yet it didn’t stop there.
On that same day no less than 486 men of northern extraction and eight women were caught by the army sneaking into Abia state in a 33-bus convoy at 3.00 a.m. in the morning from the north. According to the police these individuals are suspected Boko Haram insurgents that were on their way to carry out a sinister mission and create havoc.
The fact that one of those that were caught in this group has since been described by the authorities as a ”notorious Boko Haram commander” who had been declared wanted in the past and for whom a ransom had already been offered casts even more suspicion on their mission and intentions.
The ”notorious commander” has since been separated from the other suspects and has been detained not just by the police but by the military authorities in Abia state. A few days later the police confirmed that at least 86 of the detained suspects were definItely associated with Boko Haram whilst the rest remained under investigation.
This alarming news coupled with the startling revelation that was published in a British tabloid called the Daily Star on 8th June (and which was later reproduced in Nigeria’s Skytrend News on the 17th of June) that, according to British intelligence sources, no less than 50 British islamists ”mainly from south-east London” have joined the ranks of Boko Haram and are actually operating on Nigerian soil gives much cause for concern.
To make matters worse, according to police sources, on the morning of 20th June a Boko Haram suicide bomber was intercepted and arrested whilst trying to plant a bomb in a school in Owerri, Imo state in southern Nigeria. These are indeed trying and troubling times.
Given all these events can anyone still have any doubts about the seriousness of the situation or about just how desperate, deluded, hate-filled, sick and venomous these jihadists really are?
If so I would suggest that they pay a visit to my facebook ‘’community’’ page (as opposed to my ‘’friends’’ page) where I shared a long and detailed 4,800 word write-up that was authored by Pastor Jonah Isa on behalf of a group called the Middle Belt Dialogue and titled “The Chibok Girls”. Once there please read the insults and rage that the Haramites and their ilk have expressed on the thread.
I have left the posting there and have refused to remove the hateful comments about both me and the authors of the write-up simply because I think that it is an interesting case-study of how murderers behave when they are provided with the evidence of their hideous crimes. They scream, shout, threaten, insult and become dangerously violent in their language and tone.
Their reasons for getting themselves so worked up are two-fold: firstly because I ”dared” to share a revealing and factual write-up from the Middle Belt Dialogue and post it on both my facebook ‘’friends’’ and ‘’community’’ page and secondly because the bitter truth has been exposed to the Nigerian public. The strange nature of these Haramites never ceases to amaze me.
They are filled with so much hatred and rage that it is self-evident that they are not only homicidal in nature but also in word, manner and deed. They are simply incapable of indulging in any form of intelligent, civilized, refined and intellectual debate or discussion about the deep and genuine concerns that some of us have about the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters in the north or the serious and weighty assertions and allegations that have been made in the document.
Right from the outset, all they do is threaten, abuse, malign, misrepresent and insult and they do so with the most venomous and vicious words. In truth they are filled with poison and they are suffering from a deep, dark and malevolent disposition. What they need more than anything else is a good education about the sanctity of human life and the deep compassion and forgiving nature of the one true God.
They also need love, pity, deliverance and plenty of prayers. More or less every single assertion that the Middle Belt Dialogue has made in their write-up is credible and their scholarly work was a product of empirical research and in-depth analysis.
I commend it’s authors and the group generally and I wish that more people had the courage to reveal these facts and compile them for historical and academic purposes. I also recommend the document as essential reading for anyone that really wants to understand the nature of the religious and political crisis that we are facing in Nigeria today.
I urge each and every one of such people to simply google the docuement and consider the questions it raises about the role of the Governor of Borno state in the Chibok affair amongst many other things. This is especially so for those journalists at the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and other international television and radio networks that tend to see and report this matter in such a blinkered and jaundiced manner.
More often than not they are so far off the mark in their understanding, analysis and reportage of these matters that one honestly wonders whether it is borne out of ignorance and as a consequence of the disinformation that they have been fed or whether it is conspiratorial and contrived. In this respect Miss Isha Sesay of the CNN takes the crown for the Queen of fudgers and fumblers.
The truth is that the veracity, accuracy and credibility of the serious and grave allegations and assertions that the Middle Belt Dialogue have made in their write-up can hardly be faulted.
Yet, despite this, the murderous Haramites somehow feel that no-one has the right to expose these truths. They do not even believe that we have the right to complain about their collective atrocities or the demonic agenda that they have for Nigeria let alone resist it.
Worst still they have shown absolutely no empathy for their victims and they have expressed no remorse about the atrocities that they, their forefathers and their Haramite brothers and sisters have committed from time immemorial, and are still committing every day, against christians and moderate muslims in this country.
It is as if they have been programmed from birth and brainwashed into hating, attacking, insulting and butchering anyone that thinks differently from them, that dares to speak the truth, that has the guts to challenge their awesome and brutal power and that is courageous enough to expose their jihadist agenda, their sheer wickedness and their endless atrocities.
As far as I am concerned their religious intolerance, their aversion to moderate islam and their stated intention to wipe out Christianity is indicative of demonic possession. They are not only possessed but they are are also ignorant and willing tools in the hands of satan.
They are the emissaries and agents that the devil has used to torment Nigeria for the last 53 years and now is the time to confront them and stop them once and for all.
If we do not do so and if we continue to sit back silently and allow them to abduct our children, slaughter the innocents and impose their own understanding of their faith and will on the rest of us then we will all eventually be consumed.
Worst still our nation and people will continue to be visited with the harshest judgement from God simply because we have chosen to remain silent in the face of this great evil and injustice.
The blood of those that have been slaughtered by the jihadists in sectarian and ethnic violence in Nigeria in the last 53 years speaks against us all on a daily basis and not just against those that spilled and shed that innocent blood.
Until those that are behind these barbarous killings and evil and that secretly fund, encourage and instigate it are made to face justice and answer for their crimes and until such barbaric killings, abductions and forced conversions and marriages are brought to an end, Nigeria and the Nigerian people will not know peace and they will continue to suffer God’s judgement.
The bottom line is simple and clear: the secularity of the Nigerian state must be preserved at all costs. Religion has no place in politics or matters of governance and the greatest crime on earth and before God is to use religion as a tool for political destabilization and violence. It is not only irresponsible but it is also extremly dangerous.
Worse still, those that start it never know where it may end or who may be affected or consumed by it. The duty to resist the devil and his agents, to speak truth to power and to expose all manner of evil is ours: the consequences of doing so are Gods. Love me or hate me, this is the bitter truth.
May the Lord God of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel, the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah and He that is more than able guide, lead and protect those of us that are prepared to speak it. (TO BE CONTINUED).
Femi Fani-Kayode is a lawyer and former minister of aviation. He is a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he was once a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He writes from Lagos.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
