There comes a time in the life of a man when he must be a man and stand up and speak the truth, even when others are too timid and intimidated to do so.
By the grace of God I have today reached that point and I will bare my mind to the sickly tyrant. And after I have had my say I shall gallantly take my stand and with faith proclaim: let the demons of hell be invoked and conjured up and let them come forth and do their very worse, for they shall not pass and neither shall they prevail.
And so it shall be as I stand on these holy words and boldly proclaim, o wicked tyrant, I stand and I fight against you. I stand and I fight in the name of the Living God. I stand and I fight in the name of Harrow and Cambridge. I stand and I fight in the name of Kelly and London. I stand and I fight as the son of my father. I stand and I fight as a proud and strong African. I stand and I fight as a resilient and irresistible Nigerian. I stand and I fight as a man of courage. I stand and I fight as a beautiful and irrepressible black man.
I stand and I fight as a man of faith, a Christian who knows that his God is mighty and can never be defeated. We are what we believe ourselves to be. I am unbeatable, irrepressible and indestructible. I am a covenant child of the Living God, a prince of the Faith and a son of the Kingdom. My head may be bloodied but it is not bowed. I do not know the meaning of fear and I have learnt to master the affliction of pain. I do not flinch.
I stand and I fight with my whole being: with my body, with my spirit and with my soul. I stand and I fight to win and not to lose. I stand and I fight, tall and proud and by the power of the God that I serve, I shall always prevail. I stand and I fight because children of Israel are never alone. I stand and I fight because all tyrants must be resisted. I stand and I fight because God’s word says “He shall cut off the spirit of princes” and “He is terrible to the kings of the earth”.
And so to the tyrant, I have just this to say: you can detain me, you can malign me, you can arrest me and you can misrepresent me. You can persecute me, you can subjugate me, you can lie about me and you can scatter my household and my loved ones. You can vilify me, you can torment me, you can jeer at me and you can mock me. You can sack my associates, you can query my loyalists and you can cause my friends to flee the land.
You can humiliate those who stand for me, you can pour scorn on those who love me, you can threaten those who speak for me and you can bribe those who work for me. You can plan, you can scheme, you can assign and you can direct and delegate destruction at my doorsteps and at my gates. You can intimidate and torment and you can use your kingly power to abuse and to destroy. You can do all these things yet ultimately you will fail because, like all beastly tyrants, you have forgotten the power of God in all your subterranean wickedness and in all your sinister schemes.
Let him plot and plan both night and day. Let him invoke strange spirits, consult the stars, torture, detain, defame, destroy, charge, frame, kill and maim. Let him “cry havoc” and let slip the horrific dogs of war. Let him break and let him crush the very spirit of the people. Let him enslave the whole of our nation and cower us all into silence and submission. Let him unleash his kinsmen and cattle-rearers on the southern part of our country. Let him engender the philosophy of Boko Haram. Let him turn us into cowards and quislings, let him plunge us into darkness and let him bewitch our feeble souls.
Holding on to power at all costs? That is nothing new, Saul tried it and failed. Agag tried it and failed. Herod tried it and failed. Pharaoh tried it and failed and so did Nero and Caligula and Jezebel and countless others.
For the God that stopped them is still alive and continues to rule in the affairs of men and He alone forges the destiny of nations. And in all this know one thing: that you cannot break me, you cannot kill me, you cannot defeat me and you cannot destroy me. This is because I am anointed for greatness and I am truly blessed by He who sits above the circles of the earth and by He who created all that is. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places and yea I have a goodly heritage. My future has been established and decreed by the oracles of God. It has been inscribed in the stars and it has been written in the books of heaven. It cannot be altered or aborted by you or your invocations and spells and your wicked ways.
And yet perhaps you should know another: that your end has already been decreed by the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and it is only a matter of time before it suddenly comes. For my soul stands defiant against you. I defy you with all my being. My contempt for you is resounding, for you are nothing but sickness and weakness and failure and deceit and emptiness. You are nothing but the darkness that seeks the darkness, both you and the Amalekite foundation from which you come.
My God has spoken and on His word I stand. My spirit is lifted and it is filled with joy and strength. I stand and I fight because my victory is assured. I stand and I fight because I despise the shame. I stand and I fight because there is a greater tomorrow. I stand and I fight because I will never bow before this beastly and deceitful tyrant. I stand and I fight because I am who I am. I stand and I fight because my God is “a man of war”.
I stand and I fight because the Lord has steeled my body, my spirit and my soul. I stand and I fight because the fewer the number, the greater the share of honour. I stand and I fight because King David stood and fought, and Gideon and Joshua and Jehu that went before him. So let the sickly tyrant rant and rave. Let him do his very worse. Let him, like Nero, play his fiddle whilst Rome burns and let him make merry in his wickedness and inglorious ways.
Let him plot and plan both night and day. Let him invoke strange spirits, consult the stars, torture, detain, defame, destroy, charge, frame, kill and maim. Let him “cry havoc” and let slip the horrific dogs of war. Let him break and let him crush the very spirit of the people. Let him enslave the whole of our nation and cower us all into silence and submission. Let him unleash his kinsmen and cattle-rearers on the southern part of our country. Let him engender the philosophy of Boko Haram. Let him turn us into cowards and quislings, let him plunge us into darkness and let him bewitch our feeble souls.
Yet in all his treacheries and schemings let him know one thing, that we are not shaken and neither are we moved. For even if he were to carve up our flesh and send our dismembered limbs to the four corners of the kingdom, our God is able to put us back together again and give us life, even more abundant. And even if he can kill our weak and worldly bodies, he cannot break our spirits and neither can he take our souls. For if our God can move mountains who and what is he?
We stand and we fight because the Lord is our defence and the Holy One of Israel is our king and our God. We stand and we fight because His word boldly asks, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that has chosen to defy the armies of the Living God?” We stand and we fight because He goes on to affirm that “I have found David my servant and with my holy oil have I anointed him”. We stand and we fight because His holy word proclaims “who art thou o mountain before Zerrubabel? Thou shalt be made a plain”.
If our God be for us, what can he possibly do? Our God’s word says “who is he that sayest a thing and it cometh to pass when the Lord God of Hosts has commanded it not?” It says “who is he that lays a charge before God’s elect, is it not Christ that justifies?” It says “whose report will you believe and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” It says “who can separate us from the love of the Lord?” and that “nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”.
We stand and we fight because we are indeed “more than conquerors”. We stand and we fight because tin pot tyrants come and go: they are a dime a dozen, soon to be forgotten. We stand and we fight because heroes and martyrs, even if they fall in their course, will always live forever. We stand and we fight because we serve a mighty God who never fails and who will never leave us or forsake us. We stand and we fight knowing that the victory is ours. We stand and we fight for our honour, for our nation, for our women and for our children. We stand and we fight with courage, strength, defiance and joy knowing that though weeping may tarry in the night, “joy comes in the morning”.
We stand and we fight because His word says “once has it been spoken and twice have we heard that all power belongs to God and the heavens do rule in the affairs of men”. We stand and we fight because we have no other choice, for good will always triumph over evil and light will always overcome the darkness in the end. We stand and we fight because we fear not death, we fear not the tyrant and we fear not his gods and idols. We stand and we fight because our God will always love us and through Him and by Him our salvation is secure. We stand and we fight because we have been prepared for war.
We stand and we fight because the Lord is our defence and the Holy One of Israel is our king and our God. We stand and we fight because His word boldly asks, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that has chosen to defy the armies of the Living God?” We stand and we fight because He goes on to affirm that “I have found David my servant and with my holy oil have I anointed him”. We stand and we fight because His holy word proclaims “who art thou o mountain before Zerrubabel? Thou shalt be made a plain”.
We stand and we fight because we wax strong in battle. We stand and we fight because we cannot be defeated. We stand and we fight because we are not in the hands of men but rather we are under the power of God. We stand and we fight because He is our shield, He is our glory and the lifter of our heads. We stand and we fight because He will “pour out His wrath upon the heathen that have not known Him and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon His name.”
So let it be and so it is and yet until then, we stand and we fight, we stand and we fight, we stand and we fight.
PREMIUM TIMES
END
Lo, Femi Fani-Kayode [FFK] has suddenly but only turned poetic, yes, not prophetic as he merely yet dubiously uses the Prophetic and the Scriptures to further evince his somewhat delusional suppositions and pretty, if not roundly misleading conclusions. Like a cowed villain posing as demagogue, FFK cowardly and shoddily hides under the authority and infallibility of the spoken and living WORD of G-d and the Spirit of the LORD to spit outright illogical and say sheer nonsensical of the things sanctimonious and ordained.
Just like Saul, the son of Kish, who later became the first chosen king of Israel, Femi, the son of Fani-Kayode, with (t)his writings, feigned to have been filled with the Spirit (and possibly the Letter of the WORD) of G-d and seemed to have joined ‘a company of prophets’ as he seemed to be prophesying among them – seeing that he’s wont to the citation of the Scriptures and invocation of the Spirit to advance his points.
And just like the Israelite ‘knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets’, then the people [those of us learned and lettered in the things Spiritual and Scriptural; Social and Political] said one to another: “What is this that has come upon the son of ‘Fani-Kayode’? Is Femi also among the prophets?”
Well, the answer is not farfetched as it is written: ‘Now there was a day when the sons of G-d came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.’ ‘And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ‘ministers’ also be transformed as the ‘ministers’ of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works’.
And what is their works? It is the fruits of their lips and deeds of their hands readily spoken, aptly written and scintillatingly read by all. But ‘by their fruits, ye shall know them’ is the gauge by which the ‘poetic feigning to be prophetic’ must be weighed. And suffice to note that any fruit that leaves a sour taste of discord and produced vexation of the spirit among brethren in the land is of familiar spirits – characteristic of soothsaying which must be ostracized.
And like the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, some ‘knew him beforetime’ – yes, FFK is well known by many for thing garrulous and incredulous which some mental laggards, religious bigots, and spiritually naïve care less to spot which makes them fall prey and precariously so at the antic of those professing to hear from, speak of and stand on the WORD of the LORD to deceive and delude others.
Using the content of the Holy WRIT to advance his position and indeed defend himself, FFK succeeded in exposing his real fears and perceived mistrust; his vulnerability and vanity; his cowardice and meanness; his timidity and absurdity; his quest for vengeance and plead for mercy. The learned and the lettered can read and definitely can see between, beneath and beyond the lines of what FFK wrote. Wolves in sheep clothing are those with that saintly but treacherous appellation of ‘the voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’.
The Spirit, the Name and the Word of G-d had for ages being the veil, the cloak and the ground used by many to further whatever cause – noble or ignoble. Many of those disposed to these spiritual and scriptural vagaries are oftentimes self-proclaimed social, political and spiritual converts but in reality are charlatans found in the streets, in government, within the marketplaces, the media and even in the church. Such is the character of the old, brute Serpent and its cohorts who use everything and anything G-d and godly to beguile and mislead others.
The question is: Why did FFK left his readers in that state of mental guesswork as to identifying the HIM he pointed to as being the ‘sickly and wicked tyrant’ in his piece? One will be very pleased to know that very particular person/entity FFK qualified with that pronoun ‘him’ in this line “…Let him unleash his kinsmen and cattle-rearers on the southern part of our country. Let him engender the philosophy of Boko Haram.”
And as the Yoruba parlance has it: ‘San lan rin, aje ni muni pekoro’. Thus and as a true son of Yoruba race, it behooves FFK to be pointedly clear about the object of his discourse especially when he noted that he has ‘today reached that point’ in his life to bear his mind as a man who must stand up and speak the truth, even when others are too timid and intimidated to do. Omo akin ko gbodo sojo.
Suffice to note that FFK is entitled to his own opinion as he saw things and he’s covered by law to freely express and advance his positions on things that caught his fancies. However, it will be good for him as well as for all, if and when he places issues in their proper context, doing so with all sense of responsibility and sensitivity, lest his well-founded arguments and suppositions become the leeway to suspicions, capable of further unsettling the relative balance within this geographical enclave dubbed Nigeria.
time will tell
oh dear
Hmm….This is a double-edged ode. All I can say is, when the said tyrant came into power, I promised myself not to say anything ’bout him but allow the Will of God to be done. I am not surprised that Fani would say this of the said tyrant, though. Let Fani remember that there are certain things we humans can’t control. However, we all just have to pray that all things eventually work for our good. There is a reason for everything….
Balderdash.
Ranting again are you, Femi Fani-Kayode?