Fani-Kayode And His Apocalyptic Pessimism
By Akingbade Thomas
I have followed the opinion articles of Femi Fani-Kayode since he started publishing in different news media.
At first, his opinions seem to me to be inspired by patriotism. After some time, he gradually descends into ethnical and partisanship inspired writings. His recent writings have now been conceived in the womb of Judeo-Christian theology.
In his opinion, the root cause of virtually all the challenges confronting national and international community is nothing but the religious conflict amongst the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), and that the solution to these challenges is the ultimate triumph of the Judeo-Christian over Islam.
This easy solution is not original to Fani-Kayode, he has probably just found likeness for this illusionary, apocalyptic and pessimistic solution which is original to the Judeo-Christian theology, which originally evolved from cultural fabric of the Haranites and indigenous Canaanites, the ethnic groups from where the Israelites got their origin genealogically.
I particularly found it amusing that a man who claimed to be soundly educated will now begin to derive inspiration from religious beliefs (as organized into Judeo-Christian theology) that fundamentally, essentially and largely derived it source from superstitions, myths, historical distortions and irrational fears.
Below are excerpts from his article titled: “What Donald Trump will not do,” published by The Eagle Online on August 2: “During the coming election debates, he should do the Nigerian people a favour and ask Hillary Clinton one question. That question is: Why did she and President Barack Obama refuse to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation until late 2014? This was after they had slaughtered over 100,000 innocent Nigerians in a space of four years. If the victims had been Americans, would they have taken so long to designate them as terrorists? Is Nigerian blood not red and do Nigerian lives not matter?
“Donald Trump would never have made such a mistake or tolerated such evil. If he had been the POTUS for the last seven years and not Barack Obama, Boko Haram would have been designated a terrorist organisation five years ago. Unlike Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, when it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump is incapable of tolerating and accepting evil from those who espouse terrorism and the cold-blooded murder of women and children as a way of life.
“That is the difference between him and them. He knows what to do to the Islamist terrorists and he will support any foreign government that will take a hardline against those that slaughter innocents in the name of their god. He will crush those that wish to establish a new world caliphate in which non-Muslims and moderate Muslims are slaughtered or turned into slaves. Unlike Barack Obama, he will not pamper the terrorists, encourage them in some parts and treat them with kid gloves. Instead he will wage a hard, full-scale, relentless and comprehensive war against them.
“He will, like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, see it as a battle of the forces of light against the citadels of darkness. He will view it as an end-time war between the sons and daughters of God and the emissaries and agents of Satan. He will decimate the ranks of the Philistines, the Amalekites, the Midianites and all the other vultures, vampires and blood-thirsty barbarians in our midst. He will not support a Nigerian government that has a clear-cut religious and ethnic agenda, that seeks to shame and dehumanise Christians and that is attempting to restrict the spreading of the gospel of Christ.”
The question Femi wished to ask Hillary Clinton is belated and a misdirected one. On September 11, 2001, the day terrorist group touched American soil, George Bush, the then president, in his broadcast, said: “We will either bring the terrorists to justice or take justice to the terrorists.” The fulfilment of this promise was immediate and completed when Osama Bin Laden was killed. George Bush didn’t wait for categorization before he acted as president should. My question to Femi is: why didn’t the president and Commander in Chief of Nigeria act decisively in 2010? What justification does Femi have for the Father Christmas acts of the Office of National Security Adviser, from where monies meant for the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram were shared to persons (among whom Femi is alleged to be prominent), who used it to prosecute personal vanities? I am not surprised, therefore, that he’s not still seeing the former president as the person largely responsible for all the atrocities committed by Boko Haram as itemized by Femi earlier. The president had the gun and the dry gun powder (apology to Governor Ayodele Fayose), he just didn’t release fire on Boko Haram for reasons that ranged from ineptitude to wicked political considerations. The sharing of the arms procurement money was taken to a ridiculous level, when, according to the revelation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, among those alleged to have been beneficiaries of this heinous act, are prayer merchants who were given millions of naira for the purpose of what the friends of Femi called ‘special’ prayer, which they went to offer at some places in Asia and Europe. Since Femi now claims to be an end time revivalist, may I ask him the rationale behind the dubious rigmarole to Asia and Europe to go offer ‘special’ prayer for Nigeria, to a God that the bible and Quran says is omniscient, omnipotent and above all omnipresent.
If Nigeria was so corrupt and dark then, to warrant God taking sabbatical in Asia and Europe, thereby making it impossible for him to hear and answer the prayers of these merchants, the likes of Femi forced God on the exodus. I wonder the kind of god Femi is claiming to know and serve. Could this god be author of schemes, tricks and bold face with which persons who were co-power brokers with Femi in the last government raped, plundered, and squandered the commonwealth of this nation? If he is, then this type of god that Femi is high on, is nothing other than primitive, corrupt and vain. These are the very attributes of the persons who had in past years conspired to retrogressively develop Nigeria.
The allegation of ethnic and religious agenda against this present government by Femi is stale and of no useful effect on the mind of Nigerians who know the shallow places Femi is speaking from. How come Femi has forgotten in a hurry how some religious groups and centres went almost berserk while they were promoting malicious ethnic and religious sentiments against President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 electioneering campaign. If this sinister propaganda couldn’t stop Buhari from winning the election, how can this ridiculous gist of Femi now be of any effect? Femi appears to be living in Nigeria of five years ago. If not, he would have sought other critical and logical basis to engage this government, other than this lifeless sentiment.
The business of managing and addressing the present challenges that confront the national and internal communities is a serious one and requires hard thinking, hard action, urgency and eternal vigilance. The answers to the challenges created by the inevitable conflicts of interests, culture and ideology of societies around the world can’t possibly be found in the easy but fatalistic theology of adherents of organized religious movements.
If in the thinking of Femi is the idea that the myriads of challenges that confront the world today can easily be resolved if we all just pessimistically succumb to the predetermined outcome concocted in the body of the teaching of eschatology, there is no need therefore for him to pretend to be writing about a better Nigeria when his bible has prophetically predetermined that one of the Abrahamic religions will ultimately prevail on the other in Armageddon. He should just patiently wait for the appointed time of fulfilment.
Thomas writes from [email protected].
