By the grace of God I have today reached that point
and I will bare my mind to the sickly tyrant. And after I have had my say I
shall gallantly take my stand and with faith proclaim: let the demons of hell
be invoked and conjured up and let them come forth and do their very worse, for
they shall not pass and neither shall they prevail.

And so it shall be as I stand on these holy words
and boldly proclaim, o wicked tyrant, I stand and I fight against you. I stand
and I fight in the name of the Living God. I stand and I fight in the name of
Harrow and Cambridge. I stand and I fight in the name of Kelly and London. I
stand and I fight as the son of my father. I stand and I fight as a proud and
strong African. I stand and I fight as a resilient and irresistible Nigerian. I
stand and I fight as a man of courage. I stand and I fight as a beautiful and
irrepressible black man.

I stand and I
fight as a man of faith, a Christian who knows that his God is mighty and can
never be defeated. We are what we believe ourselves to be. I am unbeatable,
irrepressible and indestructible. I am a covenant child of the Living God, a
prince of the Faith and a son of the Kingdom. My head may be bloodied but it is
not bowed. I do not know the meaning of fear and I have learnt to master the
affliction of pain. I do not flinch.

I stand and I fight with my whole being: with my
body, with my spirit and with my soul. I stand and I fight to win and not to
lose. I stand and I fight, tall and proud and by the power of the God that I
serve, I shall always prevail. I stand and I fight because children of Israel
are never alone. I stand and I fight because all tyrants must be resisted. I
stand and I fight because God’s word says “He shall cut off the spirit of
princes” and “He is terrible to the kings of the earth”.

And so to the tyrant, I have just this to say: you
can detain me, you can malign me, you can arrest me and you can misrepresent
me. You can persecute me, you can subjugate me, you can lie about me and you
can scatter my household and my loved ones. You can vilify me, you can torment
me, you can jeer at me and you can mock me. You can sack my associates, you can
query my loyalists and you can cause my friends to flee the land.

You can humiliate those who stand for me, you can
pour scorn on those who love me, you can threaten those who speak for me and
you can bribe those who work for me. You can plan, you can scheme, you can
assign and you can direct and delegate destruction at my doorsteps and at my
gates. You can intimidate and torment and you can use your kingly power to
abuse and to destroy. You can do all these things yet ultimately you will fail
because, like all beastly tyrants, you have forgotten the power of God in all
your subterranean wickedness and in all your sinister schemes.

Let him plot and plan both night and day. Let him invoke strange spirits,
consult the stars, torture, detain, defame, destroy, charge, frame, kill and
maim. Let him “cry havoc” and let slip the horrific dogs of war. Let him break
and let him crush the very spirit of the people. Let him enslave the whole of
our nation and cower us all into silence and submission. Let him unleash his
kinsmen and cattle-rearers on the southern part of our country. Let him
engender the philosophy of Boko Haram. Let him turn us into cowards and
quislings, let him plunge us into darkness and let him bewitch our feeble
souls.

Holding on to power at all costs? That is nothing
new, Saul tried it and failed. Agag tried it and failed. Herod tried it and
failed. Pharaoh tried it and failed and so did Nero and Caligula and Jezebel
and countless others.

For the God that stopped them is still alive and
continues to rule in the affairs of men and He alone forges the destiny of
nations. And in all this know one thing: that you cannot break me, you cannot
kill me, you cannot defeat me and you cannot destroy me. This is because I am
anointed for greatness and I am truly blessed by He who sits above the circles
of the earth and by He who created all that is. The lines have fallen for me in
pleasant places and yea I have a goodly heritage. My future has been
established and decreed by the oracles of God. It has been inscribed in the
stars and it has been written in the books of heaven. It cannot be altered or
aborted by you or your invocations and spells and your wicked ways.

And yet perhaps you should know another: that your
end has already been decreed by the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the
God of Jacob and it is only a matter of time before it suddenly comes. For my
soul stands defiant against you. I defy you with all my being. My contempt for
you is resounding, for you are nothing but sickness and weakness and failure
and deceit and emptiness. You are nothing but the darkness that seeks the darkness,
both you and the Amalekite foundation from which you come.

My God has spoken and on His word I stand. My spirit
is lifted and it is filled with joy and strength. I stand and I fight because
my victory is assured. I stand and I fight because I despise the shame. I stand
and I fight because there is a greater tomorrow. I stand and I fight because I
will never bow before this beastly and deceitful tyrant. I stand and I fight
because I am who I am. I stand and I fight because my God is “a man of war”.

I stand and I fight because the Lord has steeled my
body, my spirit and my soul. I stand and I fight because the fewer the number,
the greater the share of honour. I stand and I fight because King David stood
and fought, and Gideon and Joshua and Jehu that went before him. So let the
sickly tyrant rant and rave. Let him do his very worse. Let him, like Nero,
play his fiddle whilst Rome burns and let him make merry in his wickedness and
inglorious ways.

Let him plot and plan both night and day. Let him
invoke strange spirits, consult the stars, torture, detain, defame, destroy,
charge, frame, kill and maim. Let him “cry havoc” and let slip the horrific
dogs of war. Let him break and let him crush the very spirit of the people. Let
him enslave the whole of our nation and cower us all into silence and
submission. Let him unleash his kinsmen and cattle-rearers on the southern part
of our country. Let him engender the philosophy of Boko Haram. Let him turn us
into cowards and quislings, let him plunge us into darkness and let him bewitch
our feeble souls.

Yet in all his treacheries and schemings let him
know one thing, that we are not shaken and neither are we moved. For even if he
were to carve up our flesh and send our dismembered limbs to the four corners
of the kingdom, our God is able to put us back together again and give us life,
even more abundant. And even if he can kill our weak and worldly bodies, he
cannot break our spirits and neither can he take our souls. For if our God can
move mountains who and what is he?

We stand and we fight because the Lord
is our defence and the Holy One of Israel is our king and our God. We stand and
we fight because His word boldly asks, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that has chosen to defy the armies of the Living God?” We stand and we fight
because He goes on to affirm that “I have found David my servant and with my
holy oil have I anointed him”. We stand and we fight because His holy word
proclaims “who art thou o mountain before Zerrubabel? Thou shalt be made a
plain”.

If our God be for us, what can he possibly do? Our
God’s word says “who is he that sayest a thing and it cometh to pass when the
Lord God of Hosts has commanded it not?” It says “who is he that lays a charge
before God’s elect, is it not Christ that justifies?” It says “whose report
will you believe and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” It says
“who can separate us from the love of the Lord?” and that “nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”.

We stand and we fight because we are indeed “more than
conquerors”. We stand and we fight because tin pot tyrants come and go: they
are a dime a dozen, soon to be forgotten. We stand and we fight because heroes
and martyrs, even if they fall in their course, will always live forever. We
stand and we fight because we serve a mighty God who never fails and who will
never leave us or forsake us. We stand and we fight knowing that the victory is
ours. We stand and we fight for our honour, for our nation, for our women and
for our children. We stand and we fight with courage, strength, defiance and
joy knowing that though weeping may tarry in the night, “joy comes in the
morning”.

We stand and we fight because His word says “once
has it been spoken and twice have we heard that all power belongs to God and
the heavens do rule in the affairs of men”. We stand and we fight because we
have no other choice, for good will always triumph over evil and light will
always overcome the darkness in the end. We stand and we fight because we fear
not death, we fear not the tyrant and we fear not his gods and idols. We stand
and we fight because our God will always love us and through Him and by Him our
salvation is secure. We stand and we fight because we have been prepared for
war.

We stand and we fight because the Lord is our
defence and the Holy One of Israel is our king and our God. We stand and we
fight because His word boldly asks, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that
has chosen to defy the armies of the Living God?” We stand and we fight because
He goes on to affirm that “I have found David my servant and with my holy oil
have I anointed him”. We stand and we fight because His holy word proclaims
“who art thou o mountain before Zerrubabel? Thou shalt be made a plain”.

We stand and we fight because we wax strong in battle.
We stand and we fight because we cannot be defeated. We stand and we fight
because we are not in the hands of men but rather we are under the power of
God. We stand and we fight because He is our shield, He is our glory and the
lifter of our heads. We stand and we fight because He will “pour out His wrath
upon the heathen that have not known Him and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon His name.”

So let it be and so it is and yet until then, we
stand and we fight, we stand and we fight, we stand and we fight.