(Intersociety, Onitsha Nigeria, 6th of
January 2017)- It is no longer hidden or news that
Christian leaders have continued to compromise and endanger the Christian Faith
in Nigeria. This they do through cowardice, ethnic bias, denominational
mercantilism and merchandizing; and “ritualized presidential or gubernatorial
cola nut” or “brown envelope”. Once any of these is the case, such Christian leaders
instantly lose their canonical independence, sense of reasoning and judgment;
which result in endangering and compromising of Christian Faith and Worship in
Nigeria or any part thereof.
It is recalled that the leadership of
our organization had on 26th July 2016 issued a strong worded
statement, titled: Killing Of Christians And The Rise Of State Jihadism In Nigeria
and cited the 2015 report of Open Doors
International, among others, which empirically noted that the attacks against Christians have become
rampant in the North and in 2014 alone; there were 4,028 Christian killings and
198 attacks on churches, which nearly doubled those of the previous year. The Open Doors International also stated
in its report that 1.3 million Christians had fled their homes to safer places
to avoid being hacked to death by religious fanatics and that between 2009 and
2014; a period of five years, 11,500 Christians were killed and 13,000 churches
and 1500 Christian schools destroyed in Boko Haram insurgency.
We
had also in our Christmas Day Message to all Christians in Nigeria, dated 25th
December 2016, identified Christian Leaders in Nigeria, among others, as a
major threat to safety and growth of Christianity in Nigeria. We further held
that threats to Christian Faith in Nigeria have alarmingly worsened and become
State actor and non State actor oriented; meaning that violent attacks on
Christians are driven and reinforced by
the State’s Islamist policies and actions which have intensified since late May
2015.
It
also means that Christians are facing attacks directly from Government through
its highly divisive and selective non secular policies and actions including
deliberate failure of the Buhari Administration and its security agencies to
protect Christians and their holy places of worship under attack and fish out
the culprits and bring them to justice. On the other hand, Christians are also
facing steady and well coordinated attacks from government backed non State
violent entities particularly the Nomad Fulani terrorists; reminiscent of the
atrocities of the Sudanese Government backed Janjaweed in Darfur Region against
defenseless black Sudanese.
Since
the issuance of the two statements of ours under reference, we have carefully
watched and studied reactions of the Buhari Administration and its security
agencies; the Government of Kaduna State as well as that of the violent and
terror Nomad Fulani group through its mother body: the Miyatti Allah Cattle
Breeders Association of Nigeria. We have also read and carefully studied the
text of the December 30th 2016 press conference of the Catholic
Archdiocese of Kafanchan in Kaduna State, in which it shockingly revealed that
808 mostly Christians were killed in few months in late 2016 in Southern Kaduna
alone with 57 others injured, 53 villages and 15 churches destroyed.
The
leadership of ECWA Church in the State had earlier addressed a press conference
in which it shockingly revealed that not less than 38 of its members were lost
in the first six months of 2016 with several of its holy places of worship
destroyed. Both the ECWA Church and the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan
strongly accused the Government and Governor of Kaduna State and federal
security agencies particularly the Army and the Police as complicit in the
menacing butcheries.
We
have as well read and carefully studied a press statement issued by the Kaduna
branch of the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, in which it
shamelessly and defiantly claimed responsibility for the massacre and
primordially, crudely and barbarously labeled it as a reprisal for the “post
2011 general violence” and killing of their cows. To the extent that Nigeria is
now a social clime where lives of cows have become more sacred, important and
equated with human lives is shocking, alarming and deafening. This further
exposes the level of primitivism that has befallen Nigeria under the Buhari’s
civilian Administration.
The
Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force’s reactions by raising
indiscriminate mercantilist and
extortionist roadblocks in the affected areas under phantom security
circumstances are also noted with serious concerns; likewise the biased and pro
Islamic statement of the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Kpotum Idris
in which he shamelessly stuck himself disputing the number of Christians killed
in Kaduna by government backed Nomad Fulani terrorists cited in the press
conference of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan. Till date, the culprits are
on the prowl with utter alacrity while the IGP is busy shamelessly running from
pillar to pole instead of fishing out the culprits and bringing them to
justice.
In
all these, the most shocking and disappointing of all was the official
statement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), through its
President, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, and dated 5th January 2017.
The statement of the top Catholic Clergy body is considered by the leadership
of International Society for Civil
Liberties and the Rule of Law as totally cowardly, empty, watery, shallow and
un-apostolic. Further lacking fundamentally in the statement are statistics and
specificity. The CBCN’s statement is also ethnically biased and rubber
stamping. This is on account of the fact that the President of the CBCN is a
northerner and possibly working to protect the interests of the Northern Muslim
controlled Federal Government of Nigeria.
This
was similarly seen recently when the local head of one of internationally
respected rights groups nearly frustrated and messed up the release of its
report on Nigeria simply because he is a northern Muslim. In another international
rights group that has a Nigerian as its researcher, similar ethnic bias and
selectiveness are clearly manifest. Strangely and curiously too, the Presidency
has issued a similar statement, dated same day, which is utterly spineless,
grossly belated and diversionary.
We
had expected the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria to have issued a strong
worded statement with available statistics, demanding for a total halt to
violent attacks on all Christians and destruction of their holy places of
worship in Nigeria or any part thereof, with statistical references to Plateau,
Nasarawa, Benue and Kaduna States.
The
CBCN is also expected to have strongly condemned the complicity of the Governor
and Government of Kaduna State and gross incompetence and selective security
handling styles adopted by the authorities of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria
Police Force in handling the Nomad Fulani terrorism organized and launched
against Christians in Nigeria using the auspices of the Miyatti Allah Cattle
Breeders Association of Nigeria.
The leadership
of CBCN and other leading Christian leaders in Nigeria are further expected by
this organization to have challenged the Buhari Administration to disclose to
them or publicly its Government’s policy direction in handling the secularity
of Nigeria and its application in the command and rank and file compositions of
the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Airforce, the
State Security Services, the Nigerian Custom and other members of the Nigerian
Armed Forces.
Where
the CBCN and other Christian leaders independently and credibly found existence
of a different and possibly pro Islamic or Jihadist policy direction or secret
operational or regime code, the CBCN and other leading Christian leaders can
deploy all non violent measures at their disposal including All
Christian Sunday Street Matches or Processions throughout Nigeria to
get the dangerous trends reversed ad infinitum and the Buhari Presidency revert
to constitutionalism and secularism..
While
we commend the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan and the ECWA Church in Kaduna
State for their courage in speaking out and calling spade a spade; that of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria is totally condemned. We are also not
surprised at leprous and medicine-after-death reactions of the Presidency and
the authorities of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force. This is
because we never expected the contrary from them having steadily aided and
abetted with reckless abandon most if not all the violent attacks on Christians
in Nigeria in recent times including heartless destruction of their holy places
of worship and total failure to fish out the culprits including key leaders of
the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule
of Law (Intersociety)
Phone Number: +2348174090052
Barr Obianuju Joy Igboeli
Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law Program
Phone Number: +23481807715506
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