Defence Minister Musa Inhabits the Secret Place, Hence His Invincibility -By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

You’ve got to love it when a highly-placed public official is so unassumingly sold out to God that they don’t mind a decrease in their esteem for an increase in people’s estimation of God. What do you say of a seasoned Army general publicly testifying that the Lord fights his battles? Before dismissing such a confession as a mark of incompetence or irresponsibility, just know he wasn’t referring to the battle of flesh and blood but the one waged by principalities, powers and spiritual wickedness in high places!

Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd), returned to the altar of Conquerors Global Assembly in Abuja to testify to how divine intervention catapulted him to national leadership when circumstances and possibilities seemed bleak. We deliberately used “return” because he was on the same holy ground to exalt God after being unceremoniously relieved as the Chief of Defence Staff. At the time, he expressed how prayers and the support from Bishop David Abioye kept him going at the war theatre in Maiduguri. He then inspired patriotism in the congregation by urging Nigerians to safeguard their country from rabid jihadists through prayers.

In that outing, Musa stated what has a bearing on his latest testimony. This was when he disclosed that, “We serve a living God who will never let us down. I grew up in the Church. I was born and raised in Sokoto. (Deborah Samuel’s fate and aftermath highlight what life in the Seat of the Caliphate can be like for the Christian.) …My wife is a prayer warrior.” This remark by the Defence Minister is the idea behind the caption and the fulcrum for this intervention. Patience, we shall return to it in a bit.

Last Sunday, General Musa created time from his busy schedule to worship in Church. (After all, some VVIPs are too busy to attend Sunday services.) When it was time for testimonies to be taken, the man took to the podium to say the following: “We give God the glory for what has happened this year. Even when the enemy thought they were putting us down, they did not know God was going to lift us up. In their small mind, they conspired and thought they had won.”

“In their small mind”, indeed! That has always been the limitation of forces against those who have God as their pillar. These villains are as myopic as Satan, who thought he could win by orchestrating the harrowing death of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Alas, that became his nemesis as Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross.” (Colossians 2:15 AMP)

You see, followers of Christ like General Musa are still reaping the benefits of that grave miscalculation by the devil. This informed Apostle Paul’s assertion in 1 Corinthians 2:8 that, “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” If it offers any comfort, anti-Musa conspirators should know that their plot to pull him down did the opposite because they were up against a man who dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High. Such a man, according to Psalm 91:1, abides under the shadow of the Almighty, which makes him invincible to the enemy.

To understand this invincibility, think of the “You can’t see me!” Hail Mary by now-retired WWE sensation, John Cena, which precedes his trademark Five-Knuckle Shuffle and AA. Of course, General Musa’s sweet victory can be enjoyed by everyone who has God in their corner while the enemy rages or rampages. The testimony teaches that the Lord is sovereign and intentional enough to make all things work for the good of His people. The Defence Minister’s reality isn’t much different from the lived experiences of biblical characters. If those scriptural stories are too abstract, the one delivered in Bishop Abioye’s Church a few days ago shouldn’t be.

It is actually not the first time that God will be evidently taking over General Musa’s battles. In my last article, a reference was made to how over 1,000 Boko Haram fighters surrendered to General Musa-led Operation Hadin Kai in the Northeast. He acknowledged the September 2021 victory as what “looked like part of divine intervention.” Even as the serving Minister of Defence, God is helping him succeed with the active involvement of Uncle Sam in the campaign to exterminate ISWAP terrorists from Nigeria. Recall that his predecessor, Abubakar Badaru, was thoroughly criticised for claiming that the Nigerian Air Force cannot rout forest-hiding terrorists because some hideouts are too thick for bombs to penetrate. As it turned out, the recent United States airstrikes in Sokoto State have exposed the lie.

Providing spiritual insight on the development, Bishop David Oyedepo pointed out that it is the first time in nearly 20 years that the persecutors are being persecuted. “Fear has come to their camp. They will never recover from it. God has taken over the battlefield. Kidnapping will become history in Nigeria. Armed banditry has come to an end in Nigeria,” declared the Bishop.

It all goes to prove that Nigeria will be better off with more Christopher Musa in national leadership. Functionaries like him who embrace God as their pillar clearly know Him. Going by Daniel 11:32, “the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Even when hobbled by bureaucracy and political exigencies, Nigerians can still say of them, like Laban of Jacob in Genesis 30:27, “I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”

Hey! What an Eldorado the country will be if exploit-achievers and graced people are the ones pulling the levers of government and at the commanding heights of the economy. Definitely, for such anointed officials’ sake, deus ex machina will become commonplace!

VIS Ugochukwu, a sage, poet and essayist, can be reached on X @sylvesuguwanyi