THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF NIGERIA by ASU EKIYE

AS LONG as there is a God, a Devil and human beings , there will always be War between God and the Devil. There will always be war between good and evil . There will always be war between righteousness and unrighteousness. However, One of the battle grounds for that war is your mind. Your mind and my mind. Our minds constitute a battle ground. When the battle is worn through the spirit  at the level of the mind, several other front of the battle is as good as worn. 

There has been a ferocious contention for the soul of Nigeria from inception. And the battle  has been between three major interest . The traditional occultist, the Christians and the Moslems. Among these three broad groupings,  the Christians have remained the most docile, nonchalant, innocuous, unenthusiastic and dismissive in every sense of the words . They have been profoundly short changed in this battle for Reasons attributable to some or most of the foregoing factors  and for other reasons partly linked to the following 1. lack of vision for this kind of battle, 2. lack of unity, 3.denominational heterogeneity, 4.Self Centeredness and 5. The erroneous Unscriptural impression, that political power is evil. 

More So, when genuine Christians find themselves at the corridors of power, they regrettably tend to forget that it is a battle field for the soul of the land. They forget their base and foundation. 

However, The other two groups have been so focused, strategic and aggressive as to have made tremendous inroads into the leadership of this country and through that, they have carried their unapologetic penchant to dominate  the leadership and fulfil their spiritual mandates. 

This is the scenario. While the Islamist and unrepentant jihadist held  sway in the north, the occultist and traditionalist were the dominant element in the South. There were those who surreptitiously infiltrated the church, bore Christian nomenclatures, carried on with a facade of Godliness and deluded the people with false alignment  but yet They are politicians with dangerous and ravenous antecedents.

 The Ocultic alliance have been the dramatist personae in the political leadership of the entire south of Nigeria. At a time in most states of the south, most of the Governors and principal forces at the federal level were nominal Christians who were incurable occultist and members of Some malevolent confraternities. They would ensure that nobody outside that circle smelt power. It was so bad that intelligent Christians with powerful resume' and experience could not handle power. It was only recently that God was so merciful as to allow some notable Christians who became Federal ministers and head of agencies that we had a similitude of some spiritual agenda for secular leadership. At least I have been close to a key former Minister of the federal Republic whom I am convinced is a true believer and a servant of God. GPO Is a true Christian leader. 

But the issue at stake right now, is the present reality  of this Battle. Among the three key contenders, The Moslems have remained the most aggressive, crafty, doggedly uncompromising and visionary. They are unlike the Christian south who  would always betray themselves, and would sell out at critical times. 

The moslems have been known to set short term,medium term and long term goals most times . They know what they want to achieve at all times. They are so consistent in pursuing this  Islamic agenda. They seek political office for the primary objective of fulfilling that mandate. The irony is that the Koran allows them to use every means to achieve this end result . Their strategies cut accross every thinkable area of  attack. They kill, maim, rape, lie, defile and enter into false pact and treaties which they know is a decoy and will not be honored just to achieve same result. 

They adopt Two basic principles in the Koran that we must not ignore;  the law of Taqiyya  and  the treaty of Al-hadiyah. 

Taqiyya means lying and deception. A moslem man is allowed by the Koran to lie to advance the cause of Islam. And it is the belief that Allah will forgive him. 

And the next model is the treaty of al-hadiya  . Which is an Islamic treaty of war on how to deceive your enemy when you sign a peace treaty . It was modeled after the antecedents of Prophet Mohammed  who attacked the Meccans  and their caravans  when he lived  in Medina. One day he attacked  them because this was  how he got his bounties and shared among his men. In that battle of al-hadiya, when he realized that he couldn't prevail over them, he signed a deceptive ten year Peace treaty with them that says he would not attack them, he would have peace with them and would not declare war on them. MOHAMMED used the treaty for two years to build his military might, and strengthen his army. When He realized that he was strong enough, he attacked them again when they least expected.He broke the treaty within two years and attacked Mecca and Mecca fell within 24 hours in December 629 AD and that became a principle of war in Islam.
Remember the recent UN treaty with Iran? That's why Donald Trump has vowed not to recognize that treaty.
It is so amazing how These people do anything to achieve that one aim. They can carry out Suicide bombing, kidnap, take  hostage and some time propose certain peaceful overtures with a plan to suddenly swoop in on the enemy.

Who is lying to you that Islam is a peaceful religion?  How deluded we are. Recently, Governor Elrufai donated a land to the Methodist Church and begged the church not to relocate. Some people think that was  a good intention. Never. Christians are so naive in this matters. We have refused to learn from history. We have refused to study the enemy quite well. We have arrogantly under rated them. And this remains our greatest albatross. 

Have you observed that the nation  of Isreal is always on top? They have so studied their enemy, that they are on high alert 24/7. Have you asked yourself why Isreal remains indomitable and impregnable Inspite of the fact that they are garrisoned by hostile moslem nations? Besides the fact that God is with them as he is with us Christians, The Israelis don't just go for prayer meetings and forget to keep watch. If the Israelis behaved like the Nigerian Christian they would have been erased from the map of the world as envisioned by the Ayatollahs of This world . 

The Israeli model of defence is so telling. They fight this battle at the global policy level, at the tactical military level and at the spiritual war fare level . No wonder at the Isreal Arab war of 1967, Isreal routed the three border nations of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in 6 days. 

Islam's agenda for Nigeria  started at the birth of the country. 

When the colonialist invaded Africa at the level of the partition for Africa, Nigeria became a colony of the British. Now because of the homogenous emirate councils in the North, it was easy to enforce Indirect rule in the north which didn't quite succeed in the South East and South West. The Northern protectorate became the darling of the colonialist. The North was more subordinate and easy to rule because of their emirate structure. The indirect rule sustained the religious status of the North while they introduce quite successfully the Christian religion in the south.  As a consequence, the Colonial power were ready to enter into some Inglorious and tremendous concession with the North against the south. This was the genesis of political superiority of the moslem dominated North against the disorganized but more educated south. 

From that moment until the era of military Incursion into Nigerian Politics, every head of government either military or civilian has taken certain bold steps to further the paramount mission  of gradual Islamization Of  Nigeria. Which was clearly enunciated in the 1989 ABUJA declaration. That was why Nigeria was forced into OIC, Organization of Islamic Conference by the Babangida administration and today, we have been once again dragged into the Saudi Arabia led Islamic military Alliance by this administration without our consent . That was why very wicked Islamic provisions were smuggled into our constitution when the Christians were sleeping. And today it is binding on us. "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares  among the wheat" 

It is  an open secret that the heads of all sensitive organs of Government today are moslems. That is one of the strategy. And this time, because we have a die hard jihadist as a leader, it has become so obvious. The current national security council of this country is an entire moslem assemblage. That is where they scored a strong political point. When the security apparatchik of government meets to decide on issues of security in this country, no Christian is represented . No wonder, they would declare curfew for the sole purpose of making room for their foot soldiers to kill and maim helpless masses recklessly. This same security council constituted by only moslems would feign ignorance to such escapades. Did you hear the press statement from  the highest security organ of Nigeria the other day? That what happened in southern Kaduna recently was not a religious problem. So ludicrous.  They agreed to release that as their conspiratorial response. Imagine the pretension. 

Are you now surprise that this whole deception started as a dubious political deal with a major church in Nigeria?  The church was hoodwinked into believing that a Vice Presidential  slot will be  a position worth fighting for in the pretext that the Vice President would be imbued with so much power to protect the interest of Christians. And greedily the church fell for it. Moreover, shamelessly and without the slightest compunction, the church betrayed The former Christian President of Nigeria who embraced them as his family for filthy lucre. That was a master stroke from our moslem brothers. 

But the truth of the matter is that the Vice President has remained a toothless bulldog, only good enough for petty errands, miserable junketing that has no bearing in the blundering agenda of this regime. He cannot influence any dam policy in government especially when it crosses the part of our faith. He has been so neutralized that he cannot cough at the face of the ferocious onslaught at his primary constituency. 

Before his eyes, uncountable policy decisions that affect the soul of this nation have been taken. He has no temerity to object to anything . So much so that even when a Redeem  church pastor was beheaded for committing no crime, The Vice President could not make any authoritative statement. His hands were tied. And to add salt to injury, the RCCG could not make a statement. What a pity. It is sad if not shameful that we rendered ourselves so gullible as to imbibe, lock, stock and barrel the obvious campaigns of lies and deception. Our spiritual eyes were blind not to see this doom. 

Imagine the effrontery.

Have you heard the recent one? Just Last week, the University of Katsina has banned all Christian student fellowships and have only approved the moslem student to operate in the school. Mark you, this might  go round most schools in the North and will gradually creep to the South. And yet I hear Christian shouting "it is well". What is well?  It is not well o. Stop using Spiritual parlance to becloud your sense of reasoning.  Faith without work is dead. The earlier you know this, the better. This battle is beyond holding prayer meetings alone and going to sleep. The battle must be fought from all angles. We have remained at the level of prayer meeting for so long . 

Let us go beyond rhetorics and get on to brass tacks. It is time to set an agenda for the believers in the land. Let us now begin to plan clear strategies. If not our children will not have a voice in this land. TO BE CONTINUED