The Travails of Apostle Suleman II

Without instigating violence by any means possible, Christians must continue to defend themselves and their homes against aggressors, writes Femi Fani-Kayode

President Donald J. Trump summed it up rather well, when he said in reference to the Islamist terrorists and those that derive joy from committing genocide against Christians that “they are sneaky dirty rats. They blow up people in shopping centres and they blow up people in a church”. He went on to say “We are fighting sneaky rats right now that are sick and demented. And we are going to win.” Finally, he said “the execution of Christians is no longer acceptable”.

How right President Trump is. I thank God for his life every day. With him as leader of the free world, win we shall. Yet, sadly, our Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who is undoubtedly a fine gentleman and who is a practising Pentecostal Christian, appears to be helpless and has done absolutely nothing to help and protect his own from the “sneaky dirty rats”.

Clearly, he has no power and he does not have the disposition or the political will and clout to take a stand against this great evil. The persecution and killings of Christians just goes on and on even when we have a man that is a Christian as our Acting President. Yet, consider what happens when Christian leaders complain and speak out against the mass murder, the genocide and the insidious attempt to wipe away our faith from the face of the earth.

When our Christian clerics and political leaders rise up and call on Christians to defend themselves and their families where and when the state refuses or is unable to defend them against the practitioners of radical Islamic terror and the barbaric and cruel Fulani Janjaweed militias, our government starts storming their homes, locking them up and inviting them for questioning.

Government is arresting, questioning, detaining and harassing those that are being subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide on a daily basis and they are turning a blind eye to those that are inciting and doing the killing! I say shame on them. And let this be made abundantly clear: no one is intimidated or scared of arrest or even death because eventually death must come to us all. There are at least 100 million Christians in Nigeria today and they all cannot be killed or locked up.

To the last man and woman, we will continue to call on our people and our brothers and sisters in Christ to defend themselves, their homes and their loved ones wherever and whenever they are attacked by those that hate and seek to wipe out our faith, where the government of the day refuses or fails in its constitutional duty to defend and protect us.

The Christians of Nigeria will no longer behave like lambs that are silently being led to the slaughter. We will no longer be killed without a fight. Our God and our constitution requires of us to protect our own and fight back when we are attacked and that is precisely what we will do.

The great American patriot and one of the principal players in the war of independence against British colonial rule, Thomas Jefferson said, “When injustice becomes a law, resistance becomes a duty.” The leaders and the people of Nigeria need to learn from these profound words and take a cue from them. Nobody likes violence and no one wants a religious war. Peace and peaceful co-existence has always been our preference and has always been the Christian way.
However, it must be clearly understood that if the radical Muslims in our midst insist on waging a bloody Jihad against us, we will not sit by idly but defend ourselves. Everyone must be clear on this. It would be a case of mutually assured destruction. That is why the violence and the genocide that the Fulani militants are indulging in and perpetrating all over the north against Christians must stop.

That is why they must be arrested, prosecuted and hanged for their crimes against humanity. His Grace, Prelate Sunday Ola Makinde of the Methodist Church got it right, when he said “He should be law-abiding, let him go and face the DSS. Let us see if they will detain him and they will detain so many religious leaders in Abuja. Nigeria is greater than any religion and Nigeria is greater than anybody.

“The DSS should watch it. If they like, let me be the next victim. What is annoying them is that Suleman converted from Islam to Christianity. Self-defence is permissible. They slapped our first cheek; they slapped the second cheek and we have no other cheek to turn for them. We may therefore resort to self-defence because this thing is becoming intolerable.”

The Prelate has spoken the mind of every right-thinking Christian in the country. Whatever happens to us as individuals does not matter. The only thing that matters is the defence of our people and our Church and the survival of our faith.

Apostle Paul tells us in the Holy Bible that “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. Consequently, we do not fear what any man, any government or any cruel despot and tyrant can do to us. Rather, we count it all as joy. When we are absent in the body, we are present with the Lord. As they say, Christians don’t die; they only change address.
The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was spread by the blood of the martys and the suffering and sacrifice of the saints. The history of the Christian faith and the Church over the last 2000 years since the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ is replete with examples of such suffering and sacrifice.

The matter is simple and clear: the more Christians you torment, persecute, lock up and kill, the more the glorious gospel of our Lord and master will flourish and grow. It is a deep and inexplicable mystery but it is very real. You cannot kill Christianity. You cannot shake our faith. You cannot stop the spreading of the gospel. You cannot deny us our rights. You cannot overwhelm us. You cannot intimidate us and you cannot defeat the God that we serve. And, like Pharaoh, some may ask “who is that God?”

He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Blood of the Sprinkling, the Holy One of Israel and the I Am That I Am. He is the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Lamb of God, the Lord of Life, the El Shaddai, the Elohim, the Adonai and the Ancient of Days. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God of Gideon, Jeptha and Samson. He is the God of Moses, Joshua and David and the God of Daniel, Shedrack, Mishak and Abendego.

He is the solid Rock and foundation on which Peter built the Church. He is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless. He is the Comforter, whose Holy Spirit comes like a small white dove and who roars and burns like an all-consuming fire. He is the Man of War, the Prince of Peace, the Creator of the Universe and the Lord of Hosts.

He is the God of the Armies of Israel, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end and the giver and taker of life. He is the God of all flesh. He holds the universe together by the power of His word – none can stand against Him and creation bows before Him. Not even one hundred million inciting words from anyone can change that.
For the Christians of Nigeria, despite all that we see, we must always remember that He is with us and in the end He will make all things beautiful. We must shed our fears and, if nothing else, we must always remember that “to live is Christ and to die is gain!”

May the Lord deliver His people from the rising tide of evil in our country and may He strike down those that delight in shedding the blood of His children and in crushing the bones of His servants. Shalom.

-Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation

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To the last man and woman, we will continue to call on our people and our brothers and sisters in Christ to defend themselves, their homes and their loved ones wherever and whenever they are attacked by those that hate and seek to wipe out our faith, where the government of the day refuses or fails in its constitutional duty to defend and protect us