A Word For Professor Osibanjo by Femi Fani Kayode

I am glad that the APC eventually took my advice and saw the wisdom in not fielding a muslim/muslim ticket for the 2015 Presidential election even though I hear that, right up till the last minute, they almost did.

I congratulate my friend and brother Professor Yemi Osinbajo on his nomination as the Vice Presidential candidate of the APC and running mate to General Muhammadu Buhari.

I have known Yemi for a number of years and I must say that he is not only a very pleasant and civilised person with a warm and gentle disposition but he is also a cerebal lawyer with a brilliant mind. I have immense respect for him.

Yet sadly ever since I heard about his nomination and announcement as Buhari’s running mate I have felt nothing but sheer pity for him and a deep sense of pathos. My counsel and words for him are as follows:
Woe unto the children of light that secretly delight in darkness and that seek to thwart the counsel of God for their nation by joining hands with the sons of Boko and the daughters of Haram.

The bible says ”what fellowship is there between light and darkness?” It says ”what does God have to do with Belial?” It says ”what profiteth a man to gain the world and lose his soul?”.

A respected Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a devout and committed Christian and an intellectually-sound, well-bred and well educated Professor of Law accepts to be running mate to a closet fundamentalist, a bloodthirsty, cruel and murderous military dictator and a die-hard believer in the philosophy of ”born to rule”? This is serious.

A gifted servant of God who is a favored spiritual son of Rev. Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church Of God has jumped into bed with one of the most notorious troublers of the faith and one of the most consistent enemies of democracy and Nigeria? This is very sad.

Rev. Enoch Adeboye is undoubtedly one of God’s greatest and most respected generals on the planet and one of the Church’s most humble and best-loved precious gems, yet one of his spiritual sons has surely let him, and indeed the Kingdom of God, down by choosing to play ”man Friday” and second fiddle to an individual that represents everything that is troubling, unsettling and repugnant to the modern world and to the 21st century? What a tragedy.

A learned Professor of Law and a senior member of the Nigerian bar who is the leading authority on the law of evidence and who has written numerous books on that topic chooses to play number two to a man that failed all his exams at military college and that never went to a decent school or to any university? Jumping Jehoshaphat.

It is only in Nigeria that this sort of thing can happen. Poor Yemi. Look at what the Haramites have done to him and look at what they have reduced him to. Is there anything that these creatures from hell will not do?
Is there anyone that they will not use and is there any norm that they will not defile, pervert, debase, violate and corrupt in their ignoble quest for power and as a consequence of their insatiable lusts and manifest greed?

The truth is that each and everyone one of us, including my friend Yemi, will ultimately have to answer to God for the choices that we make and we must live with the consequences of those choices.

It is no wonder that the Redeemed Christian Church of God has disassociated itself from a false claim that the Church and, by implication, Rev. Adegboye himself, was supporting the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket.

Thankfully they have come out to say clearly and categorically that this is not so. One can always trust Adegboye to do and say the right thing because he is a man that is truly ”after God’s heart”.

Yet the denial of an endorsement and tacit support from his Church is just the first of many shockers and unwelcome surprises that Yemi will be served with in the next few weeks. He will get shock after shock and surprise after surprise until the battle is over and circumstances compel him to go back to his very lucrative legal practice.

Yet before he does that he should learn a thing or two from one of his esteemed colleagues and yet another Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the courageous Pastor Bosun Emmanuel. Bosun said the following words in his famous sermon titled ‘The Nigerian Church’ which went viral just a few months ago.

He said, ”woe be unto any believer who joins hands with the enemies of God in an attempt to bury the Church and destroy the gospel”. This was a timely admonition and these are strong and wise words from a true servant of God who is under no illusion about what is going on in the politics of Nigeria and who is brave enough to say it as it is.

Yet whether we choose to heed Bosun’s words or not I am absolutely certain of one thing: those that have aligned with the servants of satan and the children of darkness and that seek to thwart God’s counsel for our nation shall not prevail.

Boko Haram abducted 185 women in Borno state on December 18th and they killed no less than 52 innocent people. Despite that some people are still supporting Buhari and his army of desperate Haramites? What a people, what a country.

Those that say that Buhari has changed simply because he chose a Pastor as his running mate are ignorant. Did he not have a Pastor as his running mate in his last outing in 2011? Did he not still say that it was his intention to ”spread sharia throughout the country” and that ”an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the north”?

Did he not oppose a state of emergency in the north eastern states and say that it was unfair for the military to kill Boko Haram members? Did he not say that instead of killing them they should forgive them, pamper them and treat them in the same way that the Niger Delta militants were treated?

Did the spokesman of his party Alhaji Lai Mohammed not say that the proscription of Boko Haram by the Federal Government was ‘’unjust’’ and ‘’unconstitutional’’? How does the fact that Buhari has opted for a Christian running mate change any of these things?

In any case he only opted for a Christian running mate because he was compelled to do so as a consequence of the hue and cry that the prospect of a muslim/muslim ticket had already started to generate.

Are those that cite the fact that he has a Christian running mate as evidence of his new-found love for Christians aware of the fact that during the American civil war a small, ignorant, misguided and deluded group of negro slaves actually fought on the side of the southern confederate forces in an attempt to keep slavery in place?

Did that suggest that the leaders of the southern confederate ‘’secession’’ states suddenly changed their minds and fell in love with the blacks that they had enslaved and treated like animals?

Is Buhari’s claim of not being partial to his own hausa-fulani tribe not a little far-fetched? Did he not lead a northern delegation to Alhaji Lam Adesina, the late Governor of Oyo state, just a few years ago when some Fulani herdsmen were slaughtering Yoruba farmers on their own land and ask him ‘’why are YOUR people killing MY people?’’

Apparently Buhari believed that the aggressors that had invaded the land and farms of others and that killed all the occupants had a right to do so simply because they were fulani. Yet some people still claim that the man is not a tribalist.

Ignorance and lack of knowledge is a terrible affliction but in this context it is not only terrible but also very dangerous. Buhari’s choice of a Christian Pastor as his running mate means nothing and changes nothing about him or his entrenched views and ancient mindset.

It rather provides clear evidence of his sheer desperation to win power at all costs and it is a reflection of his obvious and deep-seated deceit. Let the truth be told even though the heavens may fall: Christian Vice President or no Christian Vice President, Buhari’s heart remains as dark as ever.

We shall meet him in the field: let God’s will be done.