By Femi Fani-Kayode
A few days ago, the United States of America placed Nigeria on a Special Watch List (SWL) of countries that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom”.
In his official reaction the Honorable Minister of Information of Nigeria, Mr. Lai Mohammed said, inter alia, that
“The United States have been misled by propaganda” and that the Americans were “sowing seeds of religious mistrust in Nigeria”.
If there was ever a misplaced, misguided, inelegant, impolite, inappropriate, unacceptable and wholly irresponsible response to a very serious issue from a senior Government official this is it. And in his characteristic manner Lai Mohammed has once again outdone himself with his dirty and habitual lies.
This is the same repugnant and ugly little creature that told us in 2014 that banning Boko Haram and labelling them terrorists was “unfair and unjust”. It is the same goat that once bleated to the nation that he had “never told a lie before” in his entire life.
Yet the truth is that Lai Mohammed is a pathological liar and a very sick man. Like the Biblical satan, he was “a liar, the father of lies and a murderer from the start”. Lying comes naturally to him because that is his nature, that is his name and that is what he came to the world to do.
He and his master Buhari complement each other very well. Both are heartless, deceptive, deceitful, callous, dangerous, mendacious, insensitive, self-serving and, worse of all, they have no fear of God.
It is trite to say that not only are the Americans right about the vicious and murderous persecution that Christians are faced with in parts of Nigeria, but they are also right about their fears for Christians and religious persecution in our country. We as Nigerian Christians welcome their concern and I am glad to see that CAN has said so publicly.
Yet it doesn’t stop there and Lai is not alone in his brazen display of falsehood and perfidy. Others in the Federal Government have made as much of a fool of themselves on this matter as he has done.
For example, on his own part, the village idiot of Aso Rock, Mr. Femi Adesina, the Special Advisor to President Buhari on Media and Publicity said: “The United States itself has enough to chew solving its own problems not to talk of poke-nosing into that of another country. No man, no country, nobody has appointed them the Policeman of the world, let them face their own issues”.
Strong and predictable words yet why would anyone be surprised about such an obnoxious, shallow, specious and pernicious contribution from this certified dullard. After all this is the same man that said that we should either give up our land to the Fulani herdsmen or give up our lives.
He also said that Nigeria would have been a better place by now if Buhari’s military regime had remained in power in 1985. This was a regime that abducted, injected and crated its critics and opponents, like Umaru Dikko, on the streets of London, locked up many people indefinitely in detention, passed legislation to jail people for criticising the Head of State and the Government even where the allegations were true, clamped down on the media by jailing journalists and executed people by applying the death penalty retroactively.
It matters not to him that thousands of Christians have been targeted and butchered all over the north over the last four years even though he claims to be a Christian himself.
On Christmas eve and Christmas day in 2016 alone no less than 800 defenceless Christian’s, including women and children, were slaughtered in their homes by Fulani herdsmen yet the Federal Government which Femi serves did not arrest or prosecute any of the perpetrators and terrorists but instead turned a blind eye to their inhuman and barbaric behaviour. And this has been the pattern since 2015!
One year ago, before the entire world, when Femi’s boss crawled and lobbied his way to the White House and President Donald Trump gave him a public warning before the entire world at a press conference at the White House to “stop the killing of Christians”, Femi Adesina and Buhari did not say that America is not the world’s policeman but instead smiled sheepishly, stood at attention, saluted with gusto and offered a very timid “yes sir, thank you sir!”.
Today it is a different story simply because they believe that they have sufficiently cowed the Nigerian people into accepting anything including the most barbarous atrocities.
What an unfolding tragedy this is and whether Femi and his boss like it or not the truth is slowly coming out. Only God knows where it will all end.
This brings me to a wider issue. As an Anago and a proud son of Oduduwa I am disgusted and disturbed that most of those that attempt to defend the indefensible actions and policies of Buhari are fellow Oduduwans and Anagos like Lai Mohammed, Femi Adesina and Yemi Osinbajo.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s inglorious reaction to the suffering, mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Christian’s in northern Nigeria earlier this year was to run with his tail between his legs to Vice President Mike Pence of the United States and attempt to sell the lie that reports of such atrocities in Nigeria were “wildly exaggerated”.
This is tragic coming from a man that claims to be a Pastor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a Professor of law and unfortunately for him his deceitful attempt to spin the lie and pervert the course of justice did not work. Pence, Trump and the United States of America were not fooled.
I am constrained to ask, whatever happened to the Anagos and sons and daughters of Oduduwa as a people that such certified dimwits, filthy garbage, servile quislings and gutless and incredulous characters are amongst those that are representing us at the Federal level. Surely we can do better than that!
Permit me to end this contribution with the words of my friend and brother and one of the most profound and respected men of God of our time, Prophet T.B. Joshua. He said,
“Evil is rampant everywhere in our society today. Unfortunately, evil seems to prevail more than good. When you put love in your life, in your home, in your relationship, in the place of work and all around you, you drive out evil. Evil cannot stand love”.
How I wish that Buhari and his men could learn from this. How I wish they could see the light. How I wish they were believers. How I wish they knew the virtues and awesome power of love and recognised the futility of hate. How I wish they knew the Living God.
May the Lord deliver our nation from the hands of deceitful liars and evil and bloodthirsty men!