Mr. James Barnett, a PhD candidate at Oxford University, wrote the following in an essay titled ‘Nigeria’s Crisis Runs Deeper Than Just A War On Christians’ for the Washington Post a few days ago.
He wrote, inter alia, that, “Christians absolutely are being threatened and killed in parts of Nigeria. I can personally attest to it. But to frame Nigeria’s crisis entirely in that way badly distorts the complicated and tragic reality on the ground. Shaping U.S. policy around such distortions, especially when U.S. troops may be put in harm’s way, will not yield good outcomes. For several years, I lived and worked in Nigeria, studying its conflicts and interviewing different militant groups. I would never advise anyone to downplay the suffering of Christians who have experienced horrific attacks. I have seen and heard from many victims firsthand. But I have also seen the impact of similarly horrific violence across Muslim communities. To ignore the latter is to misunderstand what is really going on. Voices ranging from former Trump officials to the Vatican have cautioned against framing Nigeria’s complex insecurity in solely religious terms. Conflict has grown rampant in Nigeria under successive governments and the country now faces various militant groups pursuing different agendas. Lumping them all together and reducing their motives to anti-Christian animus is a mistake”.
Barnett is absolutely right. I sincerely hope and pray, for all our sakes, that someone in the White House is listening before it is too late.
Permit me to begin this contribution with the following basic points.
My belief is that we must eliminate every single terrorist and those that are sponsoring them in Nigeria.
I do not believe in dialogue with them or forgiving them. I do not believe in negotiation with them. I do not believe in pampering them or managing them. I do not believe in rehabilitating them into the Nigerian Armed Forces.
I believe in crushing them and sending them to their maker and in doing so quickly and decisively.
This has been my position for the last 20 years and it will always be my position.
Demons and vampires do not have any place in the land of the living and they have no right to life.
The Bible tells us that there can be no fellowship between light and darkness and you either choose God or Belial: I choose God.
Every single one of them, whether they be Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, Al Qaeda, JNIR, Lakurawa, the killer herdsmen, the kidnapping bandits or any other must be despatched to hell where they came from and our country must be cleansed of their filth and verminous evil.
They are a cancerous plague that must be eradicated with clinical precision and by brute force.
Outside of that I believe that genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes and mass murder of the most horrendous nature HAS been carried out by each of these groups in Nigeria over the last 20 years against Christians and I have been saying so for many years perhaps more than ANYONE else but today there is a difference and a caveat that makes the problem even more horrendous than it already is and which we ignore at our own peril.
The caveat and difference, and this has been so for the last ten years and is a fact that many, including yours truly, were totally oblivious and blind to is the fact that their villainous and callous butchery was not limited to Christians alone: they butcher the Muslims too and they do so in equal if not greater numbers.
That is the reality and challenge that we are faced with which is lost on many whether anyone cares to believe it or not.
We are ALL victims today and not just the Christians and this doesn’t in any way diminish the suffering that the Christian community has experienced for many years. It only means that we have not suffered it alone.
The solution to the problem is for our political leadership and Armed Forces to muster the resolve and political will to ruthlessly wipe out the Islamist terrorists and foreign militias once and for all.
That is an obligation that falls on the shoulders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alone and he must honor it.
From what I have seen so far it appears that he has the fortitude and courage to do that but he must go all the way and finish the job.
The world and the Nigerian people want to see concrete action and the implementation of extraordinarily ruthless, violent and aggressive methods and not just hear long talk, promises of success or long-winded and outworne platitudes from Government officials.
To be fair to the security apparatus and the current administration more terrorists have been killed in the past two years than the previous eight years put together.
This is commendable but they must go further. The Nigerian people are baying for the blood of these terrorists and they must see it flow into an ocean of divine retribution.
What certainly doesn’t help is when, instead of that, we are assaulted and provoked with pictures and video footage of Islamist terrorists having so-called “peace talks” with state Government officials in places like Katsina.
Yet as traumatising as all this may be our greatest challenge today comes not from the Islamist terrorists in the North or even from the equally barbaric savagery of separist groups in the South East like ESN but rather from the wild, puerile and infantile tantrums, psychotic delusions and sadistic disposition of the Jekyl and Hyde character, feral psycopath and malevolent narcissist who currently presides over the affairs of the United States of America and who sits in the White House.
Let me make this clear: anyone that does not fully appreciate the fact that Donald Trump’s motives for threatening our nation with war are disingenuous, self-serving, baseless, unfounded and questionable and anyone that does not recognise the fact that his mental instability, thin skin, fragile ego, incendiary emotions, pernicious deceit, avaricious appetite, obessesion with money, lust for power, low intelligence quotient and volatile disposition is capable of driving him into actually dropping bombs on Nigeria and sending in American ground troops for no just cause does not know Trump.
Make no mistake: his intention is NOT to help us fight the terrorists or to save Christians in Nigeria but rather to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims, ignite the fire of a brutal and never-ending religious war, establish a Sudan-like arena of butchery and carnage, send in the Marines or Derek Princes’ CIA-funded private army of Blackwater mercenaries and finally carve up and occupy our land and pillage our rare earth, gold, lithium, uranium, diamonds, gems, precious metals, crude oil, aluminium, natural gas and other mineral resources.
His intention is NOT to help our country fight the terrorists and rid us of them but to subject her to the same thing they did to Yugoslavia in the 1990’s by bombing the entire country to smithereens, shattering our fragile unity and breaking us up into five or more smaller countries and vassal states each of which will be compelled to have U.S. military bases, each of which will take orders from Washington and each of which they will control, manipulate and dominate.
Total and complete oppression, subjugation and re-colonisation: that is their ultimate objective and anyone that cannot see or appreciate that knows nothing about the intrigues and deadly power-play of world politics or world history and is chronically and willfully blind.
It is true that Christians have suffered immeasurably in our country over the years and have been subjected to genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the most vicious and pernicious forms of persecution at the hands of foreign-backed terrorists and Islamist militias but it is not true that they are the only ones that have suffered this terrible fate and horrendous ordeal.
Muslims have suffered the same fate and in equal measure at the hands of the same barbaric monsters and terrorists.
As a matter of fact if you want to talk about state-sponsored persecution and genocide in the North over the last twenty years it is not the Northern Christians that were subjected to this but rather the Shia Muslims of Kaduna who had over 1000 of their members slaughtered in one afternoon in Zaria, Kaduna state in 2016 simply for blocking a road when Gen. Tukur Burutai was Chief of Army Staff, Nasir El Rufai was Governor of Kaduna state and President Muhammadu Buhari was President.
Outside of that I am not aware that Christian communities in Northern Nigeria were targetted for elimination or mass murder by officers of the state anytime or anywhere over the last 20 years.
They have been targetted by non-state actors and terrorist militias but certainly not officers of the Nigerian military as the Americans are trying to suggest.
Trump claims that Nigerian Christians are facing an existential threat yet this is far from the truth.
It is true that many Christians and Muslims are being targetted and killed by terrorists in Nigeria but it is not true to suggest that Christianity is facing an “existential threat” and if it is true then it means that Muslims are facing an existential threat as well.
How can we be facing an existential threat when there are over 120 million Christians in our nation which represents 50% of the overall population?
How can we be facing an existential threat when every single one of the seventeen states in Southern Nigeria and three of the 19 states in the North are headed by Christian Governors and Chief Security Officers.
How can we be facing an existential threat when 62% of all Governnent appointments have been given to Christians under the Tinubu administration?
How can we be facing an existential threat when the Senate President, the Secretary to the Federal Government and the majority of Federal Ministers, including those that preside over key Ministries like the Minister of Finance and Co-Ordinating Economy, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of Works, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, the Minister of State for Oil, the Minister of State for Gas, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and so many more are all Christians?
How can we be facing an existential threat when the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the DSS, the Chairman of the EFCC, the Director of Military Intelligence, the Comptroller General of Immigration, the Comptroller General of Prisons and so many more that head our nations military, para-military and security agencies are Christians?
How can we be facing an existential threat when for the previous eight years before Tinubu came to power every single operational security chief in our nation’s seventeen security organisations was a Northen Muslim yet when he assumed office he changed all that and balanced the equation by appointing and including Christians?
How can we be facing an existential threat when the Governor of Central Bank, the Chairman of the Tax Reform Commitee and the Chairman of the FIRS are all Christians?
How can we be facing an existential threat when three out of the ten largest, richest and most powerful and influential Churches and Church leaders in the world who have broken enormous boundaries and spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in a remarkable and ground breaking way both in our nation and outside of it are Nigerians?
How can we be facing an existential threat when the President’s wife is not only a Pentecostal Christian but also a Pastor?
How can we be facing an existential threat when, for the first time in many years, Christians are treated with respect and accorded decorum in all spheres of human endeavour in our nation ever since Tinubu took over the reigns of power.
We may be facing a strong challenge from Islamist terrorist organisations and there may be tensions between Christians and Muslims in some parts of our country but to say that Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria is not only absurd but also betrays a sinister and malevolent motive in the hearts and minds of those who propagate and assert it.
They are crying wolf where there is none and they are setting us up for the kill.
Trump is driven by a pathological hatred for Africans, black and brown people and Muslims.
He is also driven by an overwhelming, compulsive, all-consuming and inexplicable greed and avarice for material things.
He has been afflicted with what the those of us in Pentecostal circles describe as a ‘Demastic annointing’ (named after the Apostle Paul’s loyal disciple called Demas who lost his way and fell in love with worldly things) which has resulted in his obsession with and addiction to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the the lust for power, the lust for treasure, the lust for land and the pride of life.
He is also totally and completely irrational, unpredictable and unbalanced which makes him a very real danger to the entire world.
His words must not be taken lightly and we must prepare for the very worse.
Those that believe that he can be talked into not doing what he clearly wants to do to our nation are ignorant, undiscerning and deluded and they are oblivious of his innate and irredeemable lunacy.
I say this because there are speculations and reports in the media that President Tinubu seeks to meet with him at the White House in an attempt to “resolve” all the issues.
If true, such an initiative is as incredulous as it is baffling and it will come to nought.
As a matter of fact it may make matters worse as our President may be verbally and savagely assaulted, insulted and berated right in front of the White House Press Corps.
Surely our Jagaban is bigger and better than that and he certainly does not deserve it. And neither would he take it lying low like others have done.
Some have also said that our President may opt to meet with Trump or his Vice, JD Vance, on the sidelines at the G20 meeting which is scheduled to hold on the 20th of November in South Africa.
One wonders why some of our Government officials that say such things find it necessary to clutch at straws rather than to cultivate a firm resolve to stand up for the Government they serve and their country and act with a level of self-respect, decorum and dignity.
I say this given the fact that Trump has said that no U.S. Government official will attend the G20 meeting in South Africa because the white Afrikaans people of that country are, according to him, being subjected to “genocide” whilst their farmlands are supposedly being confiscated without compensation.
He concluded by saying that he believes that South Africa is a “disgrace” and should not even be a member of the G20.
I ask those that are indulging in wishful thinking and fantasy about this proposed “peace meeting” between Trump and Tinubu in South Africa at the G20 meeting who exactly our President is supposed to meet and discuss our problems with “on the sidelines” once there given the fact that the Americans have made it clear that they are not attending?
It is important that those that are charged with the task of telling us what is going on get their facts right otherwise it complicates the issue.
Diplomacy is one thing but shameful capitulation with our tail between our legs is quite another.
Outside of that it is trite that the open and public display of weakness and fear attracts even more aggression.
Surely we are bigger, better and stronger than that. We are not a nation of slaves and beggars. We are not a nation of cowards and peasants who bow and tremble before a school yard bully.
I do not understand the logic and cannot appreciate the wisdom in seeking to sit down with a man who has contempt for you and your people, who considers you and them as being sub-human, who has referred to your country as a “disgraced” one and who has referred to your continent as a “shithole”.
You are talking about diplomacy and a diplomatic settlement when the man and country that you are up against has thrown diplomacy out of the window, designated your country as one “of concern”, has placed your nation on a “watchlist” and has said that he intends to violate your sovereignty on a false premis, bomb your country and attack you with his military?
His Defence Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Press Secretary and other key Government officials have reiterated the threat and you are hiding under the table and saying that it will all be resolved at the G20 meeting in South Africa when you know very well that Trump has said he has no intention of attending that meeting.
When will those in high places in Nigeria learn that you do not kow tow to Nazis, racists, religious bigots, ethnic supremacists, ethnic cleansers, schoolyard bullies, genocide enablers, lawless brigands, treasure hunters, drunken sailors, shape-shifting reptilians, sons of perdition and those that threaten the very essence of our existence?
When will you accept the fact that you have no choice but to stand up to them?
When will you appreciate the fact that peace without honor, self-respect and dignity is a curse.
When will you understand that the peace of the graveyard in which we must smile as we are being insulted, ravaged and threatened, is no peace at all but rather the most refined and supreme form of servitude, bondage and torment.
I would rather die on my feet as a free man than live on my knees as a slave. We are a nation of 250 million people. We are not weak and we are not small. We are resilient and strong and our spirit cannot be broken. We are too big to take this nonsense from anyone.
We liberated Sierra Leonne, we liberated Liberia, we liberated Sao Tome and Principe, we liberated South Africa, we liberated Chad, we liberated Zimbabwe, we liberated Congo, we liberated Angola, we liberated Somalia, we liberated Mozambique, we liberated Namibia, we liberated Zambia, we liberated Uganda, we liberated Kenya, we liberated Equitorial Guinea, we liberated Burma and if it comes to it and we are attacked or occupied by the Yankees, by the grace and power of God, we shall liberate ourselves.
The Bible says “the Lord shall trouble those that trouble us” and that “He shall contend against those that contend against us”.
Pharaoh, Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Jezebel and Sennacherub fell and so will the bestial creature that sits in the White House who issues brazen threats against us and refuses to let my people go.
You call my country a “disgraced country” as if yours were any better.
You say you will come in “guns blazing” as if you are in the old “wild west” and that you are dealing with a small tribe of defenceless Native Indians and Aborigines.
You say it will be “fast, vicious and sweet” as if you are a rapist.
Who the hell are you and who do you think you are talking to?
Are you God?
Not all of us are cowards and cheerleaders.
Not all of us are intimidated by you in this country.
Not all of us fear death or are too timid to speak up in defence of our nation.
Not all of us have lost our sense of self-worth, self-respect and dignity.
Let me assure you that those turncoats and blacklegs that are on their knees begging you not to attack us and calling for dialogue and understanding are a minority.
The majority of us cannot bear your insolence, arrogance and corrosive disposition and will stand up to you like men despite the odds.
We reject any form of dialogue or understanding with you as long as you keep threatening us with violence and tormenting us with insults.
How can there be dialogue and talks with a bully and a thug who believes we are sub-human and who has contempt for us?
How can there be dialogue with a man who defies the Living God and who openly oppresses and supports the genocide of both Christians and Muslims all over the world?
How can there be dialogue with a man who supports the barbarity of the State of Israel and the evil of Zionism and who sees Arabs, Muslims, people of colour and those that do not share his morbid world view of American supremacy and domination as nothing better than lap dogs and rodents?
If you honsestly believe that it will be easy for you to take on a nation of 250 million people like ours then please try your luck and go ahead.
I advise you not to be fooled by the treasonous, ignorant and cowardly malcontents, neverdowells, vultures, whores, secessionists, traitors and cheerleaders in our country who have chosen to be your accomplices and co-conspirators and that are telling you to come in to conquer and kill us all.
They are a misguided, confused and deluded bunch of servile minions and perfidious quislings who do not know the implications of what they are saying and who have sold their souls and lost their minds.
Satan is using them to justify your lust for the shedding of Nigerian blood and your desire to destroy God’s plan and purpose for our great country.
They do not represent us because the overwhelming majority of our people are loyal, united and fiercly patriotic souls who refuse to be intimidated by you and who will never accept to be your vassals.
If you do come in “guns blazing” as you have threatened, know this: you will suffer the consequences in a dramatic way as American soldiers will be forced to pay a heavy price and many will not survive it.
Worse of all you will ignite a war in our sub region that will result in all your strategic interests being burnt to ashes.
You may destroy our country and spark off a religious war (which is what you want) but ultimately you will get tired, you will lose and you will run away with your tail between your legs as you have done everywhere else that you go and indulge in your vile and fruitless military adventures.
You lost in Somalia and ran away. You lost in Afghanistan and ran away. You lost in Korea and ran away. You lost in Viet Nam and ran away. You lost in Iraq and ran away. You lost in Cuba and ran away. You lost in Nicaragua and ran away. You tested Iran and got a bloody nose.
The only reason you won in the 1st and 2nd World War and defeated the Germans is because of the help and support you received from Russia and the Soviet Union respectively.
Actually it was the Soviets that defeated the Germans in World War 11 and took Berlin and not you after 20 million Russians lost their lives!
What a great and noble sacrifice that great country made to free the world and to stop the Nazis!
The question is what was yours outside of dropping two nuclear bombs on innocent and defenceless Japanese citizens in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima killing hundreds of thousands in a matter of seconds.
Where is your invincibility? You have none and neither are you infallible.
Today you threaten, intimidate and insult Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Nicaragua, Greenland, Gaza, Yemen, Cuba, Syria, China, Russia, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Denmark, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Chad, Sudan and much of Europe and the Middle East and you treat their respective leaders with disdain and contempt.
Truth is you have emasculated and castrated most of them and turned them into a bunch of quivering quislings that are little better than your house help.
Yet you will soon find out that we in Nigeria are very different to others when faced with intimidation and we do not easily bend the knee.
Do not mistake the apparent timidity and low self-esteem of many of our leaders for weakness on the part of our people.
We are polite, patient, humble, kind, compassionate, accomodating and long-suffering but at the same time we are strong-willed, proud, stubborn, confident, courageous, adventurous and extreemly tough.
Our strength lies in our spiritual foundation and faith and belief in God which makes us slow to anger but irresistible in battle.
The Lord will finally humble you if you try any nonsense with us and He will take the battle right back to your own doorsteps in America.
Like David said to Goliath before their historic battle I say to you Donald Trump that “who is this uncircumcised Phillistine that has chosen to defy the Armies of the Living God?”.
Like David, I say our defence lies not in sophisticated arms and nuclear weapons but rather in the power and might of the Living God who is irresistible in battle.
I say “thy servant slew the lion and the bear and so it shall be for this uncircumcised Phillistine who has chosen to defy the Armies of the Living God”.
We are the anointed of the Lord and He has a special purpose for our nation at this end-time: touch us and see your end.
Strike us and know that we are not the cowardly weaklings that you perceive us to be.
Attack us and discover that we are made of steel and that even though you may level our cities and spill our blood you will never break our firm resolve or shatter our irrepressible spirit and neither will you ever make us forget who we are and the proud and noble stock from which we come.
Whether you like it or not Nigeria is great and Nigeria shall remain great.
We are not a “disgraced nation” but rather a strong and proud nation that has achieved far more than you care to know and shall achieve even more well into the distant future after you are dead and buried.
May the Lord defend our borders and seal them with His precious blood and may He deliver us from the evil hand and wicked intentions of our detractors and enemies.
He surely will because He is faithful, just and true. He is the defender of the weak, the champion of the poor and the liberator of the oppressed.
We shall not go the way of Sudan, Darfur, Gaza, Palestine, Congo, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan or any of the other nations that they have shattered, destroyed, broken, brought to ruin and blighted with their wickedness and vile intrigues and neither shall our nation be subjected to war or a violent and unconstitutional regime change.
We are Nigerians: we serve and worship a mighty God and by His power we shall survive all these threats and intrigues and we shall overcome.
The Lord will see to that.
Glory be to His holy name!
(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, the Otunba Joga Orile, the Ajagunla Otun Ekiti, a former Minister of Aviation, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and a former Special Advisor on Public Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo)