Once again, as it so often happens in Nigeria’s history, our country is at the cross-roads. A country that seems permanently located on the precipice, waiting for just about anything to tip it over, has come to the third episode in its history that threatens to shake it to its very foundations. Coming after the bitter 30-month Civil War and the June 12 saga, Nigeria has again sleep-walked itself into a most dreaded election year that will determine whether this nation will stand to fulfil destiny or miscarry its glorious prognosis. If 2014 was the centenary of our amalgamation, 2015 is the year that will determine IF Nigeria will stand and WHAT it will become by 2115. But of far greater significance than our political growth (or gains) and our socio-economic development as a polity is the fate of the Church for which Christ died on the Cross over 2,000 years ago.
Two incidents that underscore the present danger in our country happened during the last week of December 2014. The first happened almost unnoticed but the second raised all hell and has come to underline what may inform the pattern of voting in the coming election (along religious lines).
First, on 29 December 2014, most newspapers in the country reported that Saudi Arabia refused to grant flight permit for Nigerian arms procured from Pakistan to fight Boko Haram (seehttp://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/-s-arabia-refuses-to-grant-flight-permit-for-nigerian-arms-procured-from-pakistan/197883/). If anyone thinks this was an isolated case without any consequence, it should also be remembered that on 17 October 2014, barely two months before this incident, the nation’s newspapers gleefully reported that Nigeria was negotiating a ceasefire and the release of the Chibok girls with Boko Haram in Saudi Arabia (see http://www.punchng.com/news/boko-haram-negotiating-cease-fire-release-of-abducted-girls/). Most Nigerians didn’t query why the negotiation was taking place in Saudi Arabia; they only wanted peace to return but, of course, the negotiation failed. We blamed the government and never really found out why the parties could not agree after going all the way to Saudi Arabia.
Recall, also, that two years before this, precisely on 2 November 2012, the Boko Haram commanders had given their conditions for peace to return to the country. Among these conditions was compensation for families of its members killed in the course of its terrorist acts, the rebuilding of its mosques by the Federal Government and the release of all its members in the custody of security agencies. Furthermore, Boko Haram proposed a peace negotiation in Saudi Arabia and proceeded to pick its own representatives (all Muslim Nigerians). The terrorists even went further to pick those Nigerians that would represent the Federal Government in the Saudi negotiations. They were all Muslims, and the list included General Muhammadu Buhari (seehttp://www.punchng.com/news/boko-haram-wants-talks/). So Boko Haram wanted Muslims to negotiate with Muslims in Saudi Arabia on the terms of its ceasefire with Nigeria, and Buhari was their man, the one they could trust to represent Nigeria on such matters.
It follows from the foregoing that Saudi Arabia is not a disinterested party in all the goings-on in Nigeria. It is an accomplice. It is an open secret that final authority on governance and religious affairs in Nigeria are not settled until they are tabled in Saudi Arabia. So Nigeria is a de facto spiritual satellite of Saudi Arabia by virtue of secret treaties signed and ratified on our behalf, unknown to us. In the six years of incessant Boko Haram bloodshed in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia is not on record to have said anything good or bad about it. It has never shown any concern. Yet the Boko Haramists chose Riyadh as the place to negotiate peace with Nigeria. So what is the connection between Riyadh and Boko Haram that the terrorists would choose Saudi Arabia to negotiate? Secret support. Covert assistance. Till tomorrow, nobody knows what precise role Saudi Arabia played at the so-called peace negotiation that failed. And nobody was told why it failed. But the moment Nigeria succeeded in procuring weapons from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia suddenly rose up like the Amalekites of old to deny air passage for the goods purchased. Again, as usual, no reason was given.
Never forget that it was the same Saudi Arabian haven that Nigeria’s former President Umar Yar’Adua was kept in near-death state for months while Nigeria was undergoing a constitutional crisis as a tiny Northern cabal ran their macabre dance of preventing the non-Muslim Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, from assuming office as President when the former became incapacitated. The Saudi authorities preferred Nigeria to be “ruled” by a vegetable in its custody against the will of 167 million Nigerians. Only God knows how long we would have remained thus captive if America, Saudi Arabia’s stronger ally, had not intervened.
The second signpost of the danger hanging over the nation happened just two days after Saudi Arabia refused to grant flight permit for Nigerian arms. On 31 December 2014, The Guardian of London broke the news of how Nigeria abstained from a crucial UN resolution to grant Palestine an independent state. Nigeria’s abstention was what tilted the scales against the Palestinian’s hope of a UN Security Council resolution to force Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2017. This action gored the Arabian world which went wild with accusations against Nigeria. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) as well as other Islamic groups have shouted themselves hoarse and they have sharpened their swords, waiting for President Goodluck Jonathan on Election Day. The Islamic world, the foster parents of Boko Haram, wanted Nigeria’s President to vote for Palestine against Israel, the only country that has given Nigeria concrete support in its war against the terrorists. What would have happened if Nigeria’s President on 31 December 2014 was a Muslim? Nigeria would simply have voted against Israel and further sabotaged the Boko Haram war. That is what happens everywhere where a Muslim is in command. They always sabotage Nigeria’s interest to promote the cause of Islam.
The Palestinian Authority’s representative to the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) said Nigeria’s refusal to vote for Palestine was a “big disappointment” and a “clear contradiction” of its membership of OIC. He also said that by its abstention from voting, Nigeria had violated numerous resolutions passed at the Islamic Organizations’ summits. Question: Do Nigerians know these “numerous resolutions” passed in OIC which were supposed to be binding on Nigeria? Does the Church know? Who determined that these “numerous resolutions” were and are in Nigeria’s national interest as a sovereign secular state? Also, if Nigeria is a sovereign nation, isn’t it at liberty to conduct its foreign policy as it deems fit and in its best national interest without the Arab nations going into a swoon? What this portends is that Nigeria has been sold on a blind alley to the Arabian world. It means Nigeria’s secularity has been traded off through the “numerous resolutions” of OIC and other global Islamic movements.
The Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), which did not react to Saudi Arabia’s blockage of arms delivery to Nigeria, hit the roof the moment Nigeria withdrew its vote for Palestine. Ishaq Oloyede, a professor of Islamic Studies and the Secretary-General of the group, accused the Federal government of acting “against freedom” and abstaining from a “move to end a 66-year-old crisis”. He said, “What Nigeria has done is not only a summersault on its foreign policy but also a slap on the lovers of freedom all over the world and such action is condemnable”. He concluded that “the Nigerian government has betrayed the people of Nigeria and has created a very, very serious problem for our foreign policy”
Professor Oloyede’s statement on behalf of NSCIA is a coded message for the Church to decode for this season, for the coming elections, and for the future of the Nigerian Church and Nigerian nation. We would probably understand what he is saying better if we are conversant with the outcome of the OIC Meeting held in Abuja in 1989, which is now commonly referred to as the “Abuja Declaration of 1989”. Resolutions at this OIC meeting, as contained in its original communiqué (not the current disguise now posted on Wikipedia (seehttp://kingdomnewsng.com/news/ 103-beware-abuja-declaration-has-been-edited)) says, among other things, that the OIC resolved:
• "To ensure [that] only Muslims are elected to all political posts of member nations".
• "To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to Muslim)." (Christianity is underlined in the declaration)
• "To ensure the ultimate replacement of all western forms of legal and judicial systems with the sharia in all member nations before then next "Islam in Africa conference."
• "To ensure the appointment of only Muslims into strategic national and international posts of member nations"
On Nigeria, the host of the conference, the OIC communiqué revealed a little-known secret. It said:
The Joint Conference finally ratified the admission of Nigeria as a full member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference OIC, and thanked the government and people of Nigeria for having generously donated US $21 billion to the Islamic Development Fund of the OIC, and sincerely requested the Federal Government of Nigeria to implement all policies and programmes of the OIC to show the whole world that Nigeria is truly an Islamic nation.
These resolutions made nearly three decades ago clarify many things at the same time. It explains: (i) Why Saudi Arabia has been teleguiding political governance and Islamic terrorism in Nigeria (by agreeing to host peace deals between Nigeria and Boko Haram while never officially showing any interest in the matter shows that it has underground links with terrorism in Nigeria. Similarly, Pakistani sale of arms to Nigeria is not an indication of support; it is a mercenary act; they needed the money to fight their own local terrorisms); (ii) Why the Islamic world was shocked that Nigeria acted independently and within its sovereign rights to decline to vote in support of Palestine at the UN Council; (iii) Why the Nigerian Muslims will go to any length – even at the risk of setting the nation on fire – to install Muslims in critical leadership positions (presidency, military commands and postings, defence, transport, petroleum and finance ministries, etc) so as to ensure Islamic domination of the country. This philosophy has been disseminated to the lowest levels of society, including who becomes class captain in elementary schools and universities. Everything is being done deliberately to make Muslims and Islam dominate Nigeria in conformity with the treaties previous leaders of the country had signed which pronounced Nigeria an Islamic nation. The world may officially call Nigeria the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but in Islamic and OIC circles, it is The Islamic Republic of Nigeria. Read, for example, the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and see how Islam is generously projected and how Christianity is totally expunged.
But who was that man that who set this dangerous precedent by officially smuggling Nigeria into OIC? It was General Muhammadu Buhari, the same man who now wants your vote to become President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigeria’s Armed Forces.
CHALLENGE BEFORE THE CHURCH
It doesn’t require any serious argument to see that the foregoing has serious implications for the Church. But what is the reaction of the Church to the state it has found itself.
By nature, the Church will turn to prayer, and we have been praying. Paul rightly said in 2 Corinthians 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds”. But what is the testimony of our prayer?
In 2014 (last year), millions of Nigerians fasted for 100 days, but a few days after the fast ended, we had an Islamic terrorist bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja, in which about 100 people died and 16 luxury buses were burnt. Some of the victims might have fasted too. First puzzle: What was the national content of our 100-day prayer and fasting that we still suffered such national disaster? What was the content of our prayers that terrorism against the church was not affected at all?
We are fasting again: 70 days in some churches; 40, 21 and 15 days in others. What are the contents of our prayers again this year? We have evil prognosis hanging over the nation and the federal only a few weeks away. Politicians have moved their families away from our midst in preparation for battle – they either win or kill. Mass killings continue in North East Nigeria by Muslim jihadists. Many Christians still fast and pray without any mention the coming elections and the nation’s security. We must pray AND take necessary action, lest we are swallowed up. Can the 15,000 Boko Haram dead vote in the February elections? Can the exterminated churches in the North praise The King of Glory? That is the message. It takes the living (Church) to act before it is too late. Surprisingly, some who seem to be concerned about the elections are using this period to not only pray for Muhammadu Buhari to be elected as President, but are actually campaigning for him even from behind the pulpit.
Going by the declarations in the media these past few months, it is obvious the Muslims have made up their mind on who to vote for and on what basis (religious). In particular, the Jigawa Governor, Sule Lamido, has publicly castigated Buhari of divisive campaigns – of turning round to tell the people in the North that his contest “is anchored on promoting and guiding their ideological faith (Islam)” but “harping on the unity of Nigeria” once he is in the South (seehttp://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/lamido-accuses-buhari-of-divisive-campaigns/197882/). It was not his first time of playing the religious card. In 2003, Buhari campaigned that “Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam.”
Unlike the Muslims, Christians are divided on whether or not to vote for President Jonathan or to vote for Muhammadu Buhari to rule Nigeria till age 80 (he is 72 already). We have heard of a Pastor leading a prayer from the pulpit that the “the Caliphate rule that is coming this year should favour the church…” What shame! The man knows that voting for Buhari is voting for the Caliphate and yet he expects the Caliphate rule to favour the church? Does he know that the very spirit behind Caliphate rule is antichrist and can NEVER favour the church? The spirit behind Islam suppresses or destroys the church everywhere. If anyone didn’t know that before the North East of Nigeria has demonstrated it clearly.
A newspaper has also reported a very popular pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) openly pronouncing a curse from the pulpit on anyone who would not vote for Buhari. Why? Perhaps because APC has in its serpentine wisdom chosen an RCCG pastor as Buhari’s spare tyre (running mate). We know that the utterances of such pastors do not reflect the official position of the RCCG. Nevertheless, there is a general feeling sweeping across the Christian community in Nigeria expressing a soft spot for Buhari. Some people do not care what the facts are. To them, Buhari is the messiah of Nigeria has been waiting for. Brethren, this is not normal. Have you seen the massive sacrifices being deposited all over the land in preparation for these elections? Are we certain that the majority of us have not come under the bewitchment of politicians?
First, we need to point out that a Christian should not reject Buhari just because he is a Muslim or because he is from Northern Nigeria. A Northerner and a Muslim has a right to lead the country and we should be ready to vote for such a person. However, a Christian should either vote for or reject a candidate based on his known character, competence and history. A Christian who votes an Islamic fundamentalist in the age of Boko Haram has signed his suicide note. Period!
Christians should be very discerning and not just cast their votes foolishly (don’t throw your pearls you-know-where…)! Why do we have to warn Christians about this coming election? We do so because these are not normal times; we do so to preserve what is left in this left-to-destruct nation. Why would Christians who have suffered six straight years of persecution and mass murder not be wary of Buhari’s “I-win-or-Nigeria-will-scatter” mentality? What is the intent of the APC leaders like Tinubu and Lai Muhammad who reportedly vowed to form a parallel government if they do not win 2015 Presidential election? What is the intent of the APC leaders, Bola Tinubu and Rauf Aregbesola, who openly called on party members to dig up their charms and occult powers to win the 2015 elections? These people are not satisfied to leave the decision of who becomes elected to the electorate; they want the demons to vote and preside over Nigeria! To use charms and invocation means contracting demons to do something for you. Why such desperation? Hyper-patriotic love of Nigeria?
Buhari, too, is on record to have said, “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in their blood.” Pray, what happened in 2011 other than that Buhari lost the election fair and square? Was the 2011 election not the best in Nigeria’s history, an election supervised by the most senior Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian universities and all party agents? Did the whole world not watch and attest to the transparency of the election? But Buhari was not satisfied and incited bloodshed in which about 800 people were slaughtered, including 10 NYSC members who helped in the conduct of the elections.
Have we forgotten that Buhari’s loss of the 2011 election was the formal introduction of bombing into Nigeria’s political history. From then on, we have graduated into suicide bombing, female suicide bombing, infant suicide bombing, abduction of women and school girls, rape of women, etc. Is Buhari even a pretended democrat? They promised to make the country ungovernable and the result is what we have been seeing in the country. Now, he has come back to be rewarded with the crown for what ordinarily qualifies for treason – the second in his 72-year history (more on that later).
The international community and the Nigerian electorate are in agreement on the 2011 election. Goodluck Jonathan won. In 2013, two years after the election, Africa Confidential came up with an independent map of the 2011 election which further reinforced the fact that President Jonathan won (see below).
2011 Election Map of Nigeria As Produced by Africa Confidential, 2013
As clear and universally accepted as this election result was, Buhari rejected it. And blood has been flowing ceaselessly since then in Nigeria. What happens if, for instance, Jonathan wins clearly again but by a much smaller margin? Will Buhari accept? Can a man who is not democratic enough to accept the results of election he clearly lost be trusted to conduct free and fair election were he to be a sitting President? Again, is Buhari even a pretended democrat?
CHALLENGE BEFORE THE CHURCH
It doesn’t require any serious argument to see that the foregoing has serious implications for the Church. But what is the reaction of the Church to the state it has found itself.
By nature, the Church will turn to prayer, and we have been praying. Paul rightly said in 2 Corinthians 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds”. But what is the testimony of our prayer?
In 2014 (last year), millions of Nigerians fasted for 100 days, but a few days after the fast ended, we had an Islamic terrorist bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja, in which about 100 people died and 16 luxury buses were burnt. Some of the victims might have fasted too. First puzzle: What was the national content of our 100-day prayer and fasting that we still suffered such national disaster? What was the content of our prayers that terrorism against the church was not affected at all?
We are fasting again: 70 days in some churches; 40, 21 and 15 days in others. What are the contents of our prayers again this year? We have evil prognosis hanging over the nation and the federal only a few weeks away. Politicians have moved their families away from our midst in preparation for battle – they either win or kill. Mass killings continue in North East Nigeria by Muslim jihadists. Many Christians still fast and pray without any mention the coming elections and the nation’s security. We must pray AND take necessary action, lest we are swallowed up. Can the 15,000 Boko Haram dead vote in the February elections? Can the exterminated churches in the North praise The King of Glory? That is the message. It takes the living (Church) to act before it is too late. Surprisingly, some who seem to be concerned about the elections are using this period to not only pray for Muhammadu Buhari to be elected as President, but are actually campaigning for him even from behind the pulpit.
Going by the declarations in the media these past few months, it is obvious the Muslims have made up their mind on who to vote for and on what basis (religious). In particular, the Jigawa Governor, Sule Lamido, has publicly castigated Buhari of divisive campaigns – of turning round to tell the people in the North that his contest “is anchored on promoting and guiding their ideological faith (Islam)” but “harping on the unity of Nigeria” once he is in the South (seehttp://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/lamido-accuses-buhari-of-divisive-campaigns/197882/). It was not his first time of playing the religious card. In 2003, Buhari campaigned that “Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam.”
Unlike the Muslims, Christians are divided on whether or not to vote for President Jonathan or to vote for Muhammadu Buhari to rule Nigeria till age 80 (he is 72 already). We have heard of a Pastor leading a prayer from the pulpit that the “the Caliphate rule that is coming this year should favour the church…” What shame! The man knows that voting for Buhari is voting for the Caliphate and yet he expects the Caliphate rule to favour the church? Does he know that the very spirit behind Caliphate rule is antichrist and can NEVER favour the church? The spirit behind Islam suppresses or destroys the church everywhere. If anyone didn’t know that before the North East of Nigeria has demonstrated it clearly.
A newspaper has also reported a very popular pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) openly pronouncing a curse from the pulpit on anyone who would not vote for Buhari. Why? Perhaps because APC has in its serpentine wisdom chosen an RCCG pastor as Buhari’s spare tyre (running mate). We know that the utterances of such pastors do not reflect the official position of the RCCG. Nevertheless, there is a general feeling sweeping across the Christian community in Nigeria expressing a soft spot for Buhari. Some people do not care what the facts are. To them, Buhari is the messiah of Nigeria has been waiting for. Brethren, this is not normal. Have you seen the massive sacrifices being deposited all over the land in preparation for these elections? Are we certain that the majority of us have not come under the bewitchment of politicians?
First, we need to point out that a Christian should not reject Buhari just because he is a Muslim or because he is from Northern Nigeria. A Northerner and a Muslim has a right to lead the country and we should be ready to vote for such a person. However, a Christian should either vote for or reject a candidate based on his known character, competence and history. A Christian who votes an Islamic fundamentalist in the age of Boko Haram has signed his suicide note. Period!
Christians should be very discerning and not just cast their votes foolishly (don’t throw your pearls you-know-where…)! Why do we have to warn Christians about this coming election? We do so because these are not normal times; we do so to preserve what is left in this left-to-destruct nation. Why would Christians who have suffered six straight years of persecution and mass murder not be wary of Buhari’s “I-win-or-Nigeria-will-scatter” mentality? What is the intent of the APC leaders like Tinubu and Lai Muhammad who reportedly vowed to form a parallel government if they do not win 2015 Presidential election? What is the intent of the APC leaders, Bola Tinubu and Rauf Aregbesola, who openly called on party members to dig up their charms and occult powers to win the 2015 elections? These people are not satisfied to leave the decision of who becomes elected to the electorate; they want the demons to vote and preside over Nigeria! To use charms and invocation means contracting demons to do something for you. Why such desperation? Hyper-patriotic love of Nigeria?
Buhari, too, is on record to have said, “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in their blood.” Pray, what happened in 2011 other than that Buhari lost the election fair and square? Was the 2011 election not the best in Nigeria’s history, an election supervised by the most senior Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian universities and all party agents? Did the whole world not watch and attest to the transparency of the election? But Buhari was not satisfied and incited bloodshed in which about 800 people were slaughtered, including 10 NYSC members who helped in the conduct of the elections.
Have we forgotten that Buhari’s loss of the 2011 election was the formal introduction of bombing into Nigeria’s political history. From then on, we have graduated into suicide bombing, female suicide bombing, infant suicide bombing, abduction of women and school girls, rape of women, etc. Is Buhari even a pretended democrat? They promised to make the country ungovernable and the result is what we have been seeing in the country. Now, he has come back to be rewarded with the crown for what ordinarily qualifies for treason – the second in his 72-year history (more on that later).
The international community and the Nigerian electorate are in agreement on the 2011 election. Goodluck Jonathan won. In 2013, two years after the election, Africa Confidential came up with an independent map of the 2011 election which further reinforced the fact that President Jonathan won (see below).
2011 Election Map of Nigeria As Produced by Africa Confidential, 2013
As clear and universally accepted as this election result was, Buhari rejected it. And blood has been flowing ceaselessly since then in Nigeria. What happens if, for instance, Jonathan wins clearly again but by a much smaller margin? Will Buhari accept? Can a man who is not democratic enough to accept the results of election he clearly lost be trusted to conduct free and fair election were he to be a sitting President? Again, is Buhari even a pretended democrat?
WHAT BUHARI’S CANDIDACY REPRESENTS: THE IDEOLOGICAL WAR IN NIGERIA
It’s time for Christian leaders in Nigeria to recognize what is going on in their country. There is war in Nigeria, and it is not a remote or unidirectional war. It is total, national and belongs in a coordinated global chain. There is economic war by the ruling elite on the poor. The prototype of this war is what we see in the almajiri children. This is a picture of what the Northern elite wants to make of all the children of Nigeria. If they can do this to their own kith and kin what won’t they do to others?
There is also a political war of domination, whereby the Fulanis have cast themselves as the native colonizers and feudal lords to rule the country with Hausa hegemony, and they achieve this by playing the rest of the country one against the other. They watch in amusement as other groups in the country fight dirty over the crumbs. Nobody gets or becomes anything in the land unless with the permission of this retrograde group. The undeclared objective is to progressively ground Nigeria economically, politically and even militarily; reduce the nation to near destitution; sabotage the nation’s economy and security; sap its resilience; weaken its institutions; make democracy unworkable while progressively pushing the Sharia into our political, judicial, national and private space. Hospitals, schools, everything is marked for destruction so that there will not be any alternative way to the Sharia and the Islamic way of life. The Islamic jihad is a mass movement with volunteers stepping forward periodically to execute the same mandate and working assiduously and progressively towards the determined goal. They don’t mind how long it will take them. They will wait and keep making it impossible for any good thing to happen until such a time when they have weakened every resistance and then they strike with the most horrendous violence imaginable. The more people they can kill, the happier they become with the success of their mission. They are not afraid to die like rats in the process. Ghaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden are examples of the incurability of the lunatic affliction under discourse here. As it happened in other cases, the programme is to sabotage the nation’s progress in every way and by all means to make it easy for Islam to walk over the nation at the appropriate time. It is an agenda for all Muslims whether in the universities, the armed forces or in the Boko Haram dug-outs. The Islamic world is resolved on only one point of agenda: to destroy and never build. This evil alliance has determined that Nigeria will not arrive at the door of its destiny. They have determined to substitute God’s glory over the nation with their satanic programme.
But of all the wars ravaging Nigeria, the most debilitating is the religious war. It is self-deception to think we can avoid it. It started the day Nigeria got its flag of independence as a nation. It has become deep and entrenched, leaving us no alternative. We either pretend that it doesn’t exist and we are consumed, or we decide to stand and fight it out spiritually and physically. Incidentally, the resolution of the religious war in Nigeria will be the beginning of the resolution of all the types of war currently pillaging the nation.
The Church must understand that Nigeria cannot continue as a nation without resolving the ideological war which His Eminence Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has striven strenuously to explain but which the Church doesn’t seem to have understood. The ideological war proceeds from the irreconcilable differences, to wit, that all the Constitutions of Nigeria from independence proclaim that Nigeria is a SECULAR STATE, meaning that: (i) Nigeria has no state religion; and (ii) every Nigerian has inherent rights which allow them the freedom to choose their religion and mode and place of worship. But the post-Independence Constitutions, especially the military-inspired ones, have sabotaged the secularity of the Nigerian nation by inserting Islamic codes that breach our secularity and limit the space and freedom of non-Muslims to freely worship according to their conscience. They are denied spaces to build churches; they are refused employment and school admission from elementary to university levels unless they convert to Islam or change their names to Islamic names. Now they are being wiped out systematically in well-organized and well-funded pogroms. The sad implications of the mass murder of Christians in the North (not restricted to North East, remember) are many:
1. They strike terror in the hearts of Christians in the North
2. They put them on the alert that they are in constant danger of death
3. They mark their churches, schools and hospitals for the bonfire
4. They make an already educationally disadvantaged people balk at education
5. They sentence the Northern Christians to economic, emotional, social and political distress
6. They waste their children
7. They force parents to prefer to keep their children illiterate to protect them from being exposed to worse fate (the Islamic sermon on Chibok)
8. They reduce progressively and aim at total annihilation of Christianity in the North through unending attack on Christians
9. They attack moderate or non-supportive Muslims (sometimes with greater violence) to give a false impression of their real motive and to give the pretentious international community an excuse to turn a blind eye or be outrightly biased
10. They create a foothold from which to spread their gospel of hate and death across the nation without hindrance.
The dark intents of the jihadists are worse and more than pictured here.
The irreconcilable differences behind the ongoing ideological warfare in Nigeria are premised on the fact that Christians and all other religious groups in the country want to live in a secular state, as stated in the Constitution, while Muslims insist that they cannot live in a secular state. They must live in an Islamic State and under Sharia rule. All Muslims are united on this point and they fight for that common position everywhere. The university professors, Supreme Court judges and military generals are fighting it with the same intensity as the Boko Haram terrorists. In the 1999 Constitution that the Abdusalami Abubakar regime bestowed on Nigeria, Christ, Christians and Christianity are not mentioned even once; whereas Islam, Sharia and other Islamic signposts are strewn all over the Constitution as if Nigeria is an Islamic state. That Constitution was written solely by one Muslim named Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a former Special Adviser to Gen. Sani Abacha on Constitutional Matters. The 1979 Constitution of the Obasanjo administration was written by the so-called 50 wise men led by Chief Rotimi Williams. While the 1979 Constitution gave emphasis to Nigeria’s secularity, the 1999 Constitution of Yadudu abridged Nigeria’s secularity by making it an Islamic Constitution in content, and he was there to fight that position in the National Political Conference of 2014.
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has done an incredible job as the spiritual pastor of Nigeria by correctly interpreting the danger the Church is in. The Nigerian Church stands the chance of annihilation if it fails to correctly read the signs of the times and take decisive steps to checkmate the enemy. The Church Fathers in Nigeria are in the crucible of God’s gaze; and He is watching keenly to see what they will do with the Cross of the salvation and the sheep he has bestowed on them.
THE CHURCH HAS AN ANSWER
The only institution today that has an answer to the many ills of Nigeria is the Church. Christianity is the largest religious group in Nigeria (notwithstanding the Muslims’ propaganda to the contrary). The Church must take a number of steps that must begin to manifest from the next general elections in Nigeria. Among these are the following:
1. The Church must sit soberly to consider what it has failed to do in the past and how many lives have been lost needlessly because of its inattention.
2. As the Church goes into a default mode of spiritual warfare, it must research the entire realm of human experience called Arabism and Islam and then deploy Spirit-directed weapons against them.
3. The Church must learn the warfare strategies of Arabism and Islam and mount its counter measures to contain them.
4. The Church must find the mechanism to unite under charismatic, visionary and spirit-filled leadership and use CAN and PFN as strategic planks to shape the destiny of Nigeria and defend the Church. The Church must build itself into a mass-educated mass movement backed with a war chest. This is the last war Nigeria will have to fight, and it is the most decisive war. It is the war that will determine whether Nigeria will live or not. It is the war that will determine whether this generation will pass on Christianity to their grandchildren. The Church must work out its unity as Christ prayed:
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17:20-21).
It must be emphasized that most Christians will cooperate under a formidable Christian umbrella once they are properly schooled on the issues at stake. If it is taken as a major agenda and prosecuted with all diligence, the possible dissenters (such as the catholic leadership) will be in the minority. With effective education, most individual Catholics in Nigeria will eventually come to take a stand for Christian survival, irrespective of what their priests are saying (a discernible pattern in the Catholic fold globally is that many have already taken individual positions on church doctrines which they consider unacceptable or opposed to the Bible).
5. The Church must defend its position vigorously and fight until justice and righteousness is enthroned. The Church must never tire or give up, and must always choose its leaders carefully to lead the Lord’s army.
6. The Church must begin to use its numerical advantage to influence decisions for good in the land.
7. The Church should take interest in the emergence and choice of candidates for political and decision-making positions in the country
8. More than any other thing, the Church should do whatever is legitimate to ensure that the Church of Christ is not overrun in Nigeria. It must reverse its losses and make the Islamic Agenda dead on arrival.
9. If the Church chooses to continue to bicker and fight private wars or promote private enterprises instead of labouring collectively to advance the Kingdom of God on earth, we will wake up some day – or maybe our great/grandchildren will wake up – and find that the Church belonged to prehistory. It did in Turkey, as is famously known now.
10. The day Nigeria will be officially proclaimed “The Islamic Republic of Nigeria” as it is secretly done for now in the OIC and other Islamic documents around the world will never arise if the Church stands united on Isaiah 7: 7 and fights the Lord’s battle with everything at its disposal.
11. The battle for the liberation of the Nigerian Church from Islamic stranglehold begins with the Presidential election on 14 February 2015. The emergence of Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 Presidential Elections was a big blow to the Islamic Agenda, and that explains the massive bloodletting that followed it and the graduation of political and religious violence to an unmanageable state. The sabotage of the nation’s security and economic interest, as well as the widespread violence, massive bloodshed, political and social destabilization of the country are an organized platform of political blackmail of the Jonathan Presidency and an indirect campaign for a Northern Muslim Presidency to take over. To be sure, the violence will not cease automatically even if a Muslim becomes President; it will attenuate because the Muslim President will begin to endorse and implement the Islamic Agenda and legitimizing all official and unofficial actions taken in the land without necessarily resorting to open violence. Violence doesn’t need to be physical to be violence. Hunger and poverty could be more strategic weapons of warfare. These were the tools the Babangida regime used to castrate the middle class, and it has not recovered till today.
12. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, based on his antecedents and what he currently represents, is another delegate of the Fulani political domination of Nigeria and an agent of the Islamic Agenda. He is not Nigeria’s Messiah and the Church will be signing a suicide note by empowering him to become the President of Nigeria.
THE MUHAMMADU BUHARI FACT SHEET
1. General Muhammadu Buhari, the APC Presidential candidate, is one of the Nigerian army generals who has not amassed wealth on the ludicrous state that others have. It is however wrong to state that he is not corrupt, as it is often claimed, because:
• He is a product and primary beneficiary of the political, ethnic and spiritual corruption that breads economic corruption in Nigeria. He is the current face of the Caliphate and Fulani stranglehold on Nigeria. His double-face campaigns suggest a sinister objective other than personal ambition or patriotic zeal. He is the current champion of the feudal hold on Nigeria’s progress. Feudalism is antithetical to democracy.
• As Petroleum Task Force (PTF) Chairman under Gen. Sani Abacha, Buhari recruited his relation as a consultant to run the organization, and the fellow stole all the money that needed to be stolen (about N25 billion, according to some sources).
• As PTF Chairman, 80% of projects executed by the PTF were located in the North. Someone should ask what he did for Lagos from Bola Tinubu or what he did in the South generally.
• Buhari has been quoted in the press as saying Abacha was not corrupt. All the Abacha loot seized in foreign countries is balderdash to incorruptible Buhari.
2. General Buhari did not fight corruption, and cannot. When he seized power in the December 1983 coup, he kept Shehu Shagari, the profligate President in an Ikoyi Guest House and sent Alex Ekwueme, his Deputy, who had no official portfolio, to Kirikiri prison. All the UPN and NPP Governors were sent to Kirikiri. When the courts tried them and found them not guilty Buhari refused to release them. Governor Adekunle Ajasin was tried thrice and absolved thrice, yet Buhari refused to release him. He only released them after their health had failed, and they died one after the other soon after. Is that how to fight corruption? How many Fulanis did Buhari jail? Or were they all angels?
3. You surely remember that it was the Buhari military regime that changed the colour of the Naira to beat supposed economic saboteurs in 1984. Most Nigerians were caught at the wrong end. You could only withdraw a limited sum of your money in the bank, and you could not deposit beyond a decreed amount. Many people lost their legitimate earnings because of Buhari’s brand of economic management. But guess what? One whole year after the currency had been changed, the old currency which was no longer legal tender was still circulating freely in Sokoto. It was front-page news in the Nigerian Tribune. Can you then see to what intents the rigid rule of Gen Buhari was deployed? The laws were made for the South, definitely not for the Caliphate.
4. Remember the Emir of Gwandu story? While Buhari was waging his economic war, all travellers’ luggage to and from Nigeria was rigorously searched by security agents to prevent the importation of the naira. In the midst of this policy, the Emir of Gwandu arrived Nigeria with 53 suitcases which the Airport Command of the Customs under Atiku Abubakar refuse to clear. But within a moment, Gen Buhari’s ADC Major Jokolo surfaced at the Airport and forcefully cleared the suitcases. Do you know the implication of the ADC to the Head of State personally clearing goods at the airport? It is as good as the C-in-C himself appearing on the scene to clear the goods. Have you ever heard of an ADC to the President of any country leaving his principal to do any other thing under the sun other than the few hours when he is asleep? Gen. Buhari broke his iron laws to pass the Emir of Gwandu. Got the message?
5. The UPN Governors Buhari arrested and jailed were the most efficient in the country at the time. UPN states were called ‘the Progressive States’ and implemented the ‘Four Cardinal Programmes’, which included free education at all levels, free health services, integrated rural development, etc. What happened to these lofty pro-people programmes under Buhari? They were buried, and their propagators imprisoned – some of them for nearly 1,000 years – to underscore his iron rule.
6. Gen. Buhari is the author of the transportation chaos that Lagosians endure daily. He was the one who derailed the lofty Metroline Project of the Jakande Administration and actually paid more compensation to the French for the breach in contract than was required to complete the project. He never accused Jakande of corruption on the project; it was just not in his character to see good done and support it. Now he has been frequenting Lagos, piggy-backed by Bola Tinubu, to come and garner the votes he needs to rule Nigeria. Shouldn’t Lagos State reward him with 1000% vote for being such a visionary manager and engineer of progress?
7. A vote for Buhari in the coming Presidential Election is a positive vote for treachery. On 31 December 1983 when Buhari assumed leadership as head of State of Nigeria, he and his gang of professional coup-makers in the army, committed treason against the Constitution and people of Nigeria. It doesn’t matter whether the coup was successful or not. If it had failed, Buhari and his fellow conspirators would have been summarily shot or at best sentence to life in prison. A man who commits treason in any sane society is never rewarded with the crown. The Constitution of Nigeria is against it. If he escaped with his life, it is an insult to parade around the presidential not to talk of seeking power.
8. Buhari’s 20-month rule was characterized by two laws – Decree 2 and Decree 4. Decree 2 empowered him to detain anybody indefinitely and for whatever reason. A fall-out of this jungle law was his clamp down on public opinion. A front-page report in a national newspaper had a telling headline: “Don’t Debate the Future!” Buhari had all the answers to all national problems and any attempt at public discourse was courting a long jail term.
9. Nigerians might not have known the reason why they were barred from debating the future. But now we know. It was during this time that Buhari smuggled Nigeria into OIC. It was Buhari who smuggled Nigeria into OIC. It was Ibrahim Babangida who consolidated it and saw it through. Nigerians only saw the end of the action and not the Buhari beginning of it.
10. Decree No. 4, which Gen. Buhari promulgated also made the publication of truth an offence once a public official claimed to be offended by it. It was the only law of its kind in the whole world. Two journalists were jailed for this to emphasize that Buhari was not joking. Any king in whose court the truth is not a defence belongs in the jungle.
11. Gen. Buhari wants to be President of Nigeria in 2015. What vision has he outlined other than that he would (i) Fight corruption; and (ii) Fight Boko Haram? If his fight against corruption was effective the first time, why is the cancer still there? And why has it spread nationwide?
12. As a former Head of State, Buhari is a member of Council of State. It is well-known that he hardly attends meetings. If he has a genius of an idea on how to eradicate BH why didn’t he discuss it in the Council? Isn’t he concerned by the magnitude of unwarranted deaths in the country since he lost election in 2011? Is the Council of State, the highest advisory body in Nigeria, not a sufficiently distinguished body for anyone who belongs to contribute his best towards making Nigeria our dream land? Where is Gen. Buhari’s patriotism? Where does his loyalty lie? What is his mission in government? Is it only by becoming President that he can fight BH? Don’t we all eat without necessarily becoming farmers? What is Gen. Buhari’s declared and undeclared mission?
13. Understand this: Boko Haram is an expression of the Islamic Agenda over Nigeria. It is not an accident, as some people assume. It is a contrary ideology to the ideology of democracy to which the majority of Nigerians subscribe. Muslims don’t want to live in a democracy; they want to live under Sharia; the majority of Nigerians want to live in a democracy. The differences are irreconcilable. That is the underlying factor in Nigeria’s instability. Unless we sit down and iron that out Nigeria cannot make progress. It would be thoughtless to vote fundamentalists who don’t want to live in a democracy to preside over those who want to.
14. Buhari is a Muslim fundamentalist. First proof is that he took Nigeria to OIC while silencing us not to debate the future. Second proof is that Buhari has not changed and never will. In a speech that he delivered at a seminar organized by the Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria in August 2001, he said:
I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria … God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country…” (The News, 19 January 2015).
Again, just before the 2011 elections, Buhari said Muslims should not vote for a Christian. A few years back, Nasir El-Rufai, observed that Buhari remains “perpetually unelectable” as a result of his “insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus.” (see Vanguard, 18 January, 2015).
There are no suicide bombers in Christendom. Only Christians who want to commit suicide would vote a declared missionary of Sharia and the Islamic Agenda in Nigeria.
15. Let it be reiterated for emphasis that Buhari cannot stop Boko Haram. It is not in his fundamentalist’s interest to do so. Some people claimed that he crushed Maitatsine Movement in the 1980s. Buhari did not crush “Maitatsine Rioters” The leader of the sect was killed in 1980 and that was during Shagari’s rule. But the group continued their mass killings throughout the time of Buhari. They caused a lot of damage in Yola and Jimeta early 1984 where over 700 people were killed. In Gombe, in April 1985, over 100 people were killed, including police officers, and 1,000 others were killed in Yobe at the same time. All this was under Gen. Buhari and Idiagbon. It was after this that Musa Makaniki, the new leader of the sect fled to Cameroon and there was quiet. Maitatsine sect did not have bombs and sophisticated weapons and all the means of communication that Boko Haram now has. They were using bows, arrows, sticks and local guns. Yet they destroyed about 5,000 people under one of the most vicious military rules in Nigeria (Buhari’s). Their operations continued during Buhari’s reign. If it took six years to silence Maitatsine who were using bows and arrows. If Buhari, as a military government had a running battle with the bow-and-arrow Maitatsines, what is his magic wand for dealing with BH? Where is he hiding the blueprint even after over 15,000 deaths? Is Buhari a patriot? Is he a statesman? Is he a defender of the poor?
16. Gen. Buhari continues to demonstrate his disdain for the laws of Nigeria.
• He refused to appear before the Oputa panel to explain the excesses of his government; instead he went to court. He sought the protection of the court whose powers he emasculated with his military decrees. He believes he does not owe the nation or any individual any explanation for whatever he does. Nobody was crucified by the Oputa Panel. It was meant for national healing, clarification of issues, public apology where necessary, etc. But Buhari ignored it. That is the arrogance of the man who wants to rule us. Buhari did not and still does not believe in freedom of speech. He was quoted recently as warning Amaechi that he is not Jonathan (and so would not stomach Amaechi’s insolence towards a sitting President).
• He has refused to file a proper application before INEC to qualify him to contest election to the high office of President of Nigeria. The law says all contestants should file their applications and append photocopies of their certificates. Buhari told INEC to go and get his certificates from the Military Board? How can a man who cannot obey simple rules as a private citizen be trusted to rule with conscience and justice when he gets to power. Buhari, as things stands today, is not qualified to run for election in Nigeria because he has not fulfilled the requirements of the law. In law, if Buhari were to win the coming election he has disqualified himself by not following the rule. Don’t they have lawyers in APC? Elementary logic says you cannot put something on nothing. A candidate cannot have a JAMB score whose improperly filled application form has been rejected by the computer. Wherever the lawless insist on sitting in senate over the lawful, they must expect a divine joker. Whoever is intemperate enough not to serve the law in humility cannot be an enforcer of the law. Not in a decent society.
17. Gen. Buhari’s goons broke into Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s home during his military reign looking for ideas to run his government. Where does he intend to break into this time for a loot? RCCG?
18. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and Gen. Buhari only met yesterday morning. They don’t have any more shared vision than the party cards they both hold. Prof. Osinbajo has made his mark as a distinguished Nigerian. His vision is defined and known. The 2015 election is not the beginning or end of anything for him. He cannot be the Jihadists’ bribe to the Church of God. He is already a prince in the Kingdom. He is a wise man and the son of a wise man. He is made already for here and for the hereafter. He belongs to the Church; the jihadists cannot give to the Church as a bribe what already belongs to the Church. It was a hard thing – the Devil knew – yet he went ahead to tempt the King of Glory after a 40-day marathon!
19. Christians should tell with their votes all those with ungodly agenda over Nigeria that they don’t own Nigeria. They have killed, they have maimed, they made widows in their thousands, they have made orphans of many thousands, they have rendered hundreds of thousands displaced people living on charity in their fatherlands. Now they have come back for the crown as a reward for their crime.
20. No, Buhari is not the political messiah. The beautiful one is yet to come!
And President Goodluck Jonathan?
The Goodluck Jonathan administration has recorded measurable improvements in agriculture, aviation, railway system, road rehabilitation and construction. Considering the unprecedented security challenges faced by his administration, we can say that President Goodluck Jonathan has tried his best. Nevertheless, most Nigerians believe he could have done much more. Jonathan’s best is not good enough for Nigerians. For example, the Jonathan government does not appear to have done enough in protecting the lives of innocent Nigerians who were slaughtered by the Jihadists. Unfortunately, President Jonathan has been busy working round the agenda the Islamists set for him. The unconscionable violence and bloodshed was to blackmail him and prepare themselves for a takeover. Jihadists love to swim in blood. It is all a game of power to them. What glory! What civilization!
For the church, President Jonathan is a better option for now. He is not a threat to the corporate existence of the Church and his religious stand is not toxic to Christianity.
Buhari on the other hand has not hidden his malignant hatred for Christianity. He has declared his stand for sharia publicly. His beliefs are pro-Boko Haram.
Whoever and whatever rises against the Church is an antichrist, Christians should know what it means to cooperate with the Antichrist. Some people have written dissertations on why they endorse Buhari/Osinbajo ticket. May they not write same when the ultimate antichrist comes.
Half a word is enough for the wise...
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