It's Time For Christians to Watch and Pray: Beyond the Words of Apostle Johnson Suleiman

“This New Nation called Nigeria, should be an estate of our great grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We will use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South, as conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future.” ---Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto in THE PARROT of October 12, 1960

If there is a single receipt Nigerian Christians must not misplace from the "Shoprite" of History, it is the receipt detailing how Uthman Dan Fodio, an ordinary Fulani immigrant and Islamic teacher, waged a bloody Jihad which conquered the whole of Hausa land, converted its people to Islam, established the Sokoto Caliphate, and handed over its rulership to his sons and the generations yet unborn.

Permit me to say that the jihad succeeded largely because Dan Fodio and his forces refused to be diplomatic - it was either a conquered people allowed their hearts to be sliced by Islam and Sharia or the sparkling swords of the jihadists. Of course, these made most of the locals summit to Islam to stay alive.

It is true that Uthman Dan Fodio is now dead. It's even true that the whole of Northern Nigeria, conquered by the Fulani forces of Uthman, was later amalgamated with Southern Nigeria by Lord Lugard, a British imperialist, in 1914. It is also true that the Independence Constitution of 1960 proclaimed Nigeria a secular state, giving every citizen the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. However, it is not true that the Jihad has ended in Northern Nigeria and that the sons of Usman Dan Fodio are pleased to see the victory of their great grandfather slide into secularism, slide into a branded phrase of religious tolerance. The subjects of Dan Fodioand some who have the blood of Fulani following in their veins have a plan to re-Islamize the whole of Northern Nigeria and then move southwards, disguising as nomads during the day and wielding AK-47 at nights.

The agenda of these mindless jihadists has manifested as Boko Haram, a group fighting against western education, and the rampant murdering and maiming of Christians in several parts of Northern Nigeria by purportedly faceless Fulani herdsmen who are never arrested. The most recent of this barbaric act of killing Christians is the genocide presently going on in Southern Kaduna. So far, independent sources have put the death toll at over 300. May the soul of the dead rest in perfect peace.

Nevertheless, what worries the wakeful mind is that so far no single arrest has been made by the security agencies neither has the Fulani Governor of the state, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, declared a state of emergency in the affected areas. What then is the worth of the life of a Christian living on the conquered soil of Usman Dan Fodio? Five naira or less?

Very recently, the controversial and daredevil Apostle Johnson Suleiman charged his Christian members, and by extension the Christian community in Nigeria, to behead and bath with the blood of any Fulani herdsmen who attempt to attack them. The Apostle also admonished Christians to stop becoming widows and widowers by defending themselves from Fulani attacks, of course not with bare hands and sticks like Samson, but, if you like, with guns and knives; with daggers and diggers. Perhaps, it is now time for churches to budget a portion of their tithes for the procurement of arms and ammunitions for self defence.

Apostle Johnson Suleiman has been heavily criticized for inciting violence and shunning the message of Christ which admonished Christians to always turn the right cheek to those who slap them on the left. However, these critics have forgotten that the Lord himself also charged Christians to always watch and pray. What does it mean to watch? To watch means to be ready and not be caught unawares - in this case by the devils masquerading themselves as Fulani herdsmen. Christians are quick to forget how Apostle Peter went about with sword and caught off, in self defence, the ear of one of the servants of the High Priest who came to arrest Jesus. It is now time for Christians to truly watch and pray.

While this work is not an ode to Apostle Johnson Suleiman of the Omega Fire Ministries International, it is a call for Christians everywhere in Nigeria to be vigilant, to resist any force that would not make them worship their God, to exercise their legal rights of self defence which exempts them from criminal responsibility according to section 286 of the Criminal Code 1990. It is not a call for Christians to be violent but to peaceably put a licensed AK-47 and the Good Book under their pillows at night. That's how to watch and pray. After all, did the fearless Okonkwo, in defending his own clan, in Achebe's Things Fall Apart not say, “If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does. These people are daily pouring filth over us, and Okeke says we should pretend not to see.”?

Indeed, it is now time for Christians to break the heads of any one, whether Fulani or otherwise, who would not peaceably allow them to worship their God.

David Ademule is a student of Human Society and Crime; he lives and writes from Lagos where he goes about carrying his magical pen in his pockets.