Femi Fani-Kayode
Recently, Adewale Aladejana, the brain behind mytestimonys.blogspot.com, had an interview with outspoken commentator and a former aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Femi Fani Kayode aka FFK.
In this series, the one-time Aviation Minister known for his poems and articles on national matters, opened up a number of issues including governance, politics and his private life.
At a point in the chat, FFK indeed admitted that it would be first time he would reveal so much about his life and times.
Excerpts:
Tell me about politics; is it spiritual and how spiritual is it?
FFK: Anybody that does not know that all power belongs to God and that the heavens rule in the affairs of men, just as the bible says doesn’t even understand the essence of life, politics or the power game. That is the starting point. Everything in the physical realm is controlled by the spiritual realm. Once you accept and appreciate that truism and principle it would be very naïve to assume that politics is not a spiritual matter. It is very spiritual indeed.
Nobody comes to power at any level unless God causes him to be there for a purpose either for good or for bad. That is clear from the scriptures and all the holy books ascribe to that. Christianity, which is my faith, confirms and it teaches us that all power belongs to God. So if you want to be king or you want to be a leader the first thing you have to do is understand that only God can make you that king or that leader. If you look at our experience in Nigeria nobody that has aspired for the office of the President in this country and that has the entire wherewithal to do it, whether it’s the money or the power, has ever got there. Usually what happens is that somebody from out of nowhere, as a consequence of a series and a string of strange events, will suddenly be chosen by a group of other people to come and sit on the throne.
This happened from the First Republic to the Second Republic. Tafawa Balewa was a teacher and Shehu Shagari was a teacher as well. They didn’t have money or anything yet they became Prime Minister and President respectively. Those in the military that came in never dreamt they will be in power but somehow they got there. God set in motion a series of events and created a situation whereby they came in through the barrel of the gun. If you had asked any of them twenty years before they came to power or even ten, five or just one or two years before then, most of them will tell you that they had no idea that they would end up being there. So there is a deeply spiritual and mysterious element to these events. Even after the military boys stayed in power from 1966 till the end of Obasanjo’s tenure as military Head of State in 1979 and after Shagari was toppled by Buhari and the military stayed in power again till 1994, where did the next civilian Head of State Ernest Shonekan come from? That man had no idea that he would ever be Head of State. They just called him in and told him. After a while he was toppled as well and then came Abacha who died and was succeeded by Abdulsalami Abubakar.
The finger of God was in all these events but what happened after Abubakar’s tenure was the strangest and most significant of all. Out of the blue Olusegun Obasanjo, a man that had been jailed by Abacha, was brought out of prison and he became the President of Nigeria for the second time in his life. He went directly from the prison to the palace.
That is the power of God. Obasanjo came back to power in 1999 which was exactly twenty years after he released it and handed it over to Shagari in 1979. There is a lot of significance in numbers which is something that a lot of people in Nigeria cannot comprehend and don’t understand. Obasanjo came back to power after 20 years and after suffering the most brutal and vicious form of persecution and being jailed for three years. Yet he was not the only one. Let me mention two others. The Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, also suffered political persecution and was sent to jail for three years as well before he became the Premier of the Northern Region and the greatest leader that the north ever had. It did not stop there. A number of years later Obafemi Awolowo, the Premier of the Western Region, suffered persecution too and was also sent to prison. Just like Obasanjo and Bello he was in prison for three years as well yet immediately after that he was elected Leader of the Yoruba and became the de facto Prime Minister of the country during the civil war. Is this not truly remarkable? What is the significance of the number three? Why were they all there for three years exactly? Only a fool or a dullard would say that it is just a coincidence. All these things have a spiritual aspect and a deep and mysterious dimension. They were not contrived or planned by man but rather by God. What happened to all these people had already been written in their stars before the oracles of time. Every single thing that happened to them, whether good or bad, just had to happen because God had willed it long before they were even conceived.
Even the man that came in after Obasanjo, Umaru Yaradua, had no idea that he would ever be President and neither did he ever plan, fight for or prepare him to be one. I was there when he was chosen by Obasanjo. I was privy to the whole thing. It was completely out of the blue and it took us all by surprise. Only Obasanjo himself could understand that choice. I took Yaradua to see Ghaddaffi after Obasanjo told him that he would be President. The three of us sat together and we had a long conversation yet the two of them are dead now. I will never forget that conversation, what transpired and what each of us said. It was very revealing and I shared it with a number of people after it took place. The truth is that for a man like Umaru to ever become President of a great country like Nigeria is just extraordinary. He had no business being President and it could never have happened unless God caused it to be so, either for good or for bad. I think he was a terrible President but we cannot question God. God put him there for a period of time and when the time came God decided to take him away from us forever. All power, including the power of life and death, is in God’s hands and in His hands alone. And after God took Yar’adua away then came in the one that we have there now. The one by the name of Goodluck, who again, could only possibly have gotten there by the power of God.
He had no idea that he would ever get there. If you look at his life you will discover that that man never aspired for anything. There would be a number one before him and he would always be a number two that was just chosen out of the blue as a spare tyre. Yet in his case something terrible would always happen to the number one and he would end up taking their positions. This again is a deep mystery. It is the power of God being made manifest, whether for good or for bad. The truth is that God orchestrates everything that happens in the destiny of men and nations.
He alone knows tomorrow and He alone knows who and what He will use to achieve His purpose. That is why it is very important not to write anybody off no matter what he or she is going through. No matter what he or she is suffering today doesn’t write them off or mock them because only God knows their tomorrow. And no matter how big, how wealthy, how awesome, how connected, how brilliant and how powerful a man or woman is today; never assume that he or she will be there forever. It is all just a matter of time. Nothing lasts forever. If God decides to touch him, he loses everything. So only the fool or dullard is boastful of who he or she is or what he or she has. Only those that do not know God or fear Him can talk, think or behave like that. Again if a man or a woman is down in the gutter and has nothing, no education, no money, no connections, no friends and he or she is suffering somewhere and you come and laugh at him, you are a fool because God can make that man or woman your President, your Governor, your leader, your benefactor or your employer sometime in the future and in the fullness of time. This is especially so if he or she is a praying person that has God’s ear and favour.
Never write off anyone and never underestimate the power of a praying man or woman. As a matter of fact the most dangerous person that you can ever encounter on earth is a praying man or woman because they can take you to the forest with their intercessions, fasting and prayers. This is wisdom. Let me give you an example of someone that had such wisdom and that understood the implications of this deep spiritual truism. Queen Victoria was probably the greatest ruler that Great Britain ever had. She ruled at the height and power of the British Empire in it’s full splendour and glory. During her time as Queen, Britannia (which is known as the United Kingdom today) ruled and held dominion over at least half of the world. And she ruled the British Empire with an iron fist. Everyone feared her. Yet despite all her worldly power, wealth and glory she was also a deeply spiritual and God-fearing woman and nothing reflects this better than her interesting and insightful remarks when she was faced with a rebellion and armed insurrection from Scotland. She said ‘‘I do not fear the armies of Scotland but I fear the prayers of John Knox’’.
This short yet deeply profound contribution tells us everything about this great Queen, her understanding of God, her understanding of the world and of power and her mindset. At the time that she made this comment she was ruling half of the planet and most of the world was literally bowing before her yet she still had the humility and presence of mind to know that all power belongs to God and that a praying man is the most dangerous enemy to have. And John Knox was certainly a praying man. He was not just a pastor but he was also a great evangelist and intercessor. He was a man that knew how to invoke God’s power and favour and how to move the finger and hand of God. His knees were like camel knees because he spent virtually all his time on them praying to God and his prayers certainly used to result in miracles and move mountains. So Queen Victoria feared this humble yet powerful man because she understood the nature and awesome power of the God that he served and that he called unto. That is a wise woman for you. That is a wise ruler. How many of our people and our rulers today fear God and have such wisdom? The answer is very few.
Your question is very pertinent and the answer is very clear- politics is spiritual and the power game is spiritual. Nothing happens in the physical realm unless and until certain things cause it to happen in the spiritual realm. And this can be for good or for bad.
What phase in God’s plan do you think Nigeria is going through right now?
FFK: The fact is that Nigerians, I am sorry to say, I don’t mean to be rude but Nigerians don’t like to hear the truth and sometimes when we speak these truths, people get very upset. It’s still important to say the truth so it’s on record that at least it was spoken. God never does anything without showing his prophets first, without allowing a few people to tap into His Spirit. He tells them ‘‘I will do this” or ”I will do that’’. It is usually because of the prayers of the watchers, the intercessors, the believers and the saints; I mean those that intercede for the nation, that God holds back His hand of judgment for some time. But it gets to a point that the cup of that nation or people eventually becomes full and then something awful happens. In the case of Nigeria it is imminent. We are almost there. Something awful will happen soon in this country because our cup as a people is almost full. What our leaders are doing today and have been doing in the last four years is provoking God and He is about to do a new thing.
There will be change in Nigeria whether anybody likes it or not. It will be a brutal change. It is a change that will come as a consequence of the wickedness and the level of barbarity that so many of our people have resorted to today. There is so much wickedness, insensitivity, corruption and evil in the land. There is so much injustice and so much persecution. You persecute the innocent, you torment them, you misrepresent them, you jail them, you kill them simply because you feel that they are threatening you. You reward the corrupt, you pardon and free the guilty and you consider the possibility of granting amnesty to those that have shed innocent blood and that delight in slaughtering the children of the Most High God. Do you think that God does not see all this? Do you think that He is asleep? He that created the eye, can He not see? He that created the ear, can He not hear? Do you think that God is mocked by your evil? You just don’t know Him and you have taken Him for granted. He has hardened your heart unto destruction just as He did to Pharaoh before He destroyed him. And destroy you will he. You persecute the poor, you crush their spirits, you shatter their dreams, you destroy their future and you leave them with no hope and you believe that you will go scot free? Not unless there is no God. Judgment is coming.
80% of our graduates don’t have jobs in this country today. It has never been that bad. That means that out of every hundred (100) graduates that we have in Nigeria today, eighty (80) of them do not have a job. And so what are we saying? You look at the economy; I don’t want to go into facts and figures here because there is no need to do so. It is self-evident. Go and look at the facts and figures today and compare them to what we had 4 years ago when we left office in 2007. It is very depressing. I mean we have suffered degeneration and lack of growth in virtually every sector of the economy.
The facts and figures are there and I will not repeat them here because they are too painful to reel out, hear or list again and because a few of us have courageously spoken out and said it over and over again over the last few months and years but no-one, least of all our President and our Government, is listening and seems to care. And instead of doing anything about it or answering the pertinent questions that have been put to them about the economy, the way they are running the country and all the oil proceeds and foreign reserves that they have squandered over the last few years they disdainfully sit in the Villa and call us ”yesterday’s men”. They forget that ”today’s men” will also be yesterday’s men one day and that ”yesterday’s men” may well end up being ”tomorrow’s men” as well. This has happened many times before in our history and in the history of the world so no-one should think that he or she will be in power forever and no-one should try playing God. Whether we like to hear it or not the truth is that if we continue like this Nigeria will be worse off than the Republic of Zaire in a few years’ time and that would be a tragedy of monumental proportions. I mean things is that bad in our country.
Where there has been no retrogression or degeneration in the economy and in the various sectors we have instead suffered nothing but stagnancy. In terms of the economy we are either going backwards or we are quick-marching on the same spot. Then you look at the security situation in the country. You look at all the innocent blood that is being shed in the land. You have a government that can’t even control a situation where you have an open armed rebellion being waged by a brutal, primitive and relentless terrorist organisation who is executing a barbarous Islamist insurgency in the northern part of the country. We are at civil war in this country today yet we are all in denial of this hard and painful fact and we are pretending that all is well and that it will just somehow fizzle away. We have a government that will not fight the insurgency to its fullest extent but that is far more comfortable to talk to them, to beg them and to consider offering amnesty to them even where they remain faceless and where they never asked for any amnesty or handouts in the first place. You are considering the possibility of offering amnesty to people that have killed 4,200 of your own people in cold blood over the last two years. Pray tell me where is the justice and decency in that? What will you tell the families of those that have been slaughtered? Gosh what a government we have.
A few months back, the President was saying that Boko Haram were his siblings. I remember it well and I even wrote an article about it at the time. He said that they were his siblings that he wouldn’t fight them, that he wouldn’t kill them and then just a few months later he went to Borno state started saying something else and that he would fight them. Yet today he has changed his tune and changed his mind yet again. He has now told us that he is now considering the possibility of granting them amnesty. The question that I have for him is this? Why all these conflicting signals? Why is he blowing hot and cold? If he wants to fight Boko Haram and Ansaru then he should fight them. And if he wants to get into bed with them, forgive them, empower them and hand over the whole of northern Nigeria to them to become a Taliban Republic in return for peace then he should try and do so.
I mean most of us are appalled and utterly disgusted about how Jonathan finds it so easy accommodate and to stretch out his hand of friendship to a bunch of utterly ruthless and blood-thirsty maniacs who have massacred thousands of his own people and our compatriots in cold blood over the last two years. You look at all that blood they are shedding. Four thousand two hundred people (4200) in the space of two years- that is the highest number of civilian casualties inflicted by any insurgent or terrorist group on Nigerian soil during peace-time since our country was established in 1914. That is a statistical fact and it is getting worse by the day. The only time that it was worse than this was during our civil war. What people like Jonathan and those that speak up in support of amnesty for Boko Haram don’t appreciate or realize is that history has shown and proved that the display of weakness and the adoption of a policy of appeasement by any government when faced with insurgency, aggression, armed conflict, rebellion or terror only attracts more aggression from the aggressors. Hitler proved that before the Second World War and that is why western governments never enter into dialogue with terrorists and aggressors and they never seek to accommodate any group that raises arms against the state or that kill their people. In Nigeria we are yet to learn those lessons because most of our leaders know no history and have no sense of it. They are not even capable of seeing or understanding its relevance.
The other day in Kano, Boko Haram targeted primarily Igbos, Christians and southerners at a motor park which was peopled by mainly southerners and Christians that were preparing to go home. Those innocent souls had already boarded the buses and the terrorists and suicide bombers calmly went there and bombed them. And what was the response of our government and of Nigerians? As usual there was outrage for one or two days and then after that, the whole matter was forgotten and everybody has kept quiet. I guess that is the Nigerian way. We brush our problems under the carpet, we pretend that they don’t exist, we bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich and we live in complete denial about our precarious and dangerous situation. As a matter of fact we go further by labeling anyone that points out these problems and that calls for an urgent and decisive solution to them as an alarmist and an enemy of state. This is just not normal and clearly there is something wrong with us as a [people and there is something wrong with our government. It is almost as if we are all under a spell and our behaviour is clearly sociopathic and pathological. We just don’t care about the monumental loss of life and like our President most of us just ”don’t give a damn”.
What is very obvious to the discerning is that Nigeria has become nothing but a blood-soaked abattoir under President Goodluck Jonathan. There is nothing but blood in the land. You see my greatest problem with this government and my greatest criticism of them is not the fact that they have completely run down the economy. It is not the fact that they are incompetent, unfit to rule, unjust, clueless, corrupt, wicked and evil. It is not the fact that they are insensitive to people and that they persecute their perceived enemies and detractors. It is not the fact that anybody that criticises them they seek to hurt, to wound, to humiliate, to persecute, to shame or to lock up with the SSS or EFCC.
These are not the things that worry me the most about this government’s abysmal record, attitude and performance. It’s not that that worries me the most. They can continue doing all that from morning till night, they can run down the economy, they can make people’s lives miserable; they can destroy our people’s future. If that is what makes them happy they should just go ahead and we know that one day God will intervene and get them out. What worries me the most is not all these things but rather all the innocent blood that is being shed under this man’s watch. What worries me the most is that a situation whereby so much blood is being shed and you as a Government are not even in a position to protect the lives and properties of your citizens. That is utterly shameful and it is the greatest crime of all. That is the greatest sin of all and it is for that reason, because of all that innocent blood that is being shed under their watch that God is going to judge them. His mighty axe and sword of judgment will fall on them very soon. Wait and see. They must bear full responsibility for every drop of blood that is being shed, that has been shed and that will be shed because they swore an oath before God to protect the people of Nigeria. Whatever it takes for them to have stopped Boko Haram in their tracks, they were meant to have done it.
You cannot have a leader that is scared of going to war. The minute you have that you are in trouble because his weakness encourages insurgency, it encourages rebellion, it encourages violence and it encourages evil. They look at him and say to them, ”this man doesn’t have the guts to fight so let us do our worse and kill his people right under his nose”. That is what our country has been reduced to by Jonathan. We need a strong leader that is prepared to go to full scale civil war if necessary in order to protect the unity, secularity, integrity and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As long as we don’t have a leader like that all the bloodshed will continue. That is my fear and that is my greatest criticism of this government.
(To be continued)
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