Nigerians seek action against Boko Haram as anger mounts

Southeast CAN threatens reprisal attacks

‘Govt has no plans to change security heads’

Sultan meets Jonathan, denounces sect

Madala boy in miracle survival

“THERE should be no sacred cows, the Boko Haram sect has its sponsors and government knows them, why can’t they be brought to book? We must have the courage to deal with lawlessness decisively. You don’t treat crime with kid’s glove, crime is crime, it doesn’t matter under which guise it is coming, whether religious, political, economic or Boko Haram.”

With these words, former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Most Rev. Peter Akinola challenged the Federal Government to demonstrate capability to ensure safety of lives and property of Nigerians by containing the carnage by Boko Haram.

Akinola spoke as the South-East chapter of CAN warned that unless a swift action is taken to arrest further bombing of Christian worship places around the country, the association would have no alternative than to start reprisal attacks.

To the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Christians in the country should defend themselves against further attacks.

He said: “If you are the one, won’t you defend yourself? Why should a mad man enter your house and kill you? Why should mad people go to a church and blow it? So, it’s a good advice. Even animals protect themselves. People who say they are Boko Haram and who are sponsoring them, they are worse than animals, but Boko Haram and their sponsors are cowards. If they are not cowards, they should come out to the public, identify themselves.”

And from the South West chapter of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has come a 30-day ultimatum for President Goodluck Jonathan to overhaul the nation’s security system and guarantee safety of life and property of Nigerians. The group urged the President to resign if he could no longer abide by his oath of office to protect all Nigerians wherever they live or work in the country.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government still has no plans to change its security top gear after the Christmas day bombings across the northern parts of the country. But security chiefs are of the opinion that public participation in the matter of security in Nigeria has become a crucial necessity.

This disclosure came yesterday as Jonathan met behind closed doors for over two hours with the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslims the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III at his residence in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Dismissing calls for a change of security guards yesterday, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Andrew Azazi admitted that it was absolutely difficult to man every point of the country when there are security problems.

Also, Christian leaders are planning a meeting to review the security situation in the country and fashion out appropriate response to the menace of terrorism by the Islamic fundamentalist group known as Boko Haram. The meeting expected to hold soon will address current sectarian violence across the northern part of the country which has virtually driven all adherents of the Christian faith into hiding and left several northern cities deserted by Christians who have been under ceaseless attacks from members of the sect.

At the end of the meeting, there will be a appropriate response by the Christian community which has been at the wrung of incessant violent attacks which have left countless number of children orphans and women widows while several others have been displaced in their own motherland.

The National President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor urged well-meaning Nigerians to await the outcome of the meeting.

On his reaction to the bombings, he said: “Anger! I am extremely angry. This is a barbaric and most uncivilised action of human beings in a civilised world. Even animals have respect for each other. It is inhuman! It is inhumane! It is barbaric! It is satanic!”

Oritsejafor wondered why some characters are sponsoring these acts of violence on fellow human beings “and go home without any feeling of guilt. I am not talking of people who are used to carry out the dastardly acts but those who sponsor them. So, these people go home, eat and probably have children whom they play with in their homes? Let us not deceive ourselves, as good as religion is, it can be a terrible thing because it is only religion that can give a man the conviction to do this kind of thing. It is incredible. Christmas is a day when over 80 million Nigerians join billions of fellow Christians across the globe to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, wouldn’t you just respect that?

“I don’t think anybody who cannot respect such a sacred date will have any respect for human life. It is totally barbaric and unacceptable. I am short of words to describe how I feel, because I finished the first service in my church and came to the office when I began to receive calls from different parts of the country of the shocking news of the attacks.”

It was gathered yesterday that security agents have begun intense searches and checks in the neighbourhood of St Theresa’s Church in Madalla, Niger State, one of the places ruined by the Boko Haram bombs on Christmas Day.

The development came as Spain and Morocco joined other members of the international community to condemn the bombing of churches in Nigeria, saying no nation can develop in an atmosphere characterised by insecurity and intolerance.

Akinola, who is a former Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) called for a national time of repentance and national dialogue to enable Nigerians determine how to live together as a nation, stressing that without these, Nigeria cannot move forward.

In an interview with The Guardian in Abuja, the cleric said: “The blood we are shedding are crying for justice, the life of flesh is in the blood, blood is life and life is blood. If you waste it, you pay for it. We need to come together as a people to say, ‘God, we are sorry’, and all those we have killed, we need to go to their people and appease them and ask them to forgive us. We need to ask for forgiveness from all those we have wrongly treated. If we fail to do that, there is no way forward.”

On whether government should engage the Boko Haram sect in a dialogue, Akinola said: “How would you say you want to parley with criminals? We keep telling these people that we want to dialogue with them; you are emboldening them to commit more crime against the nation. There is this thing about America; America will not dialogue with terrorists no matter what it takes.

“For us to move forward, we must call a spade a spade. Let there be justice. Don’t embrace crime as a way of life. We have shed so many blood in this country in the past 50 years and do you think God will just let it go like that? No, even in peace time, we have been shedding blood in this country ranging from the extra-judicial killings and political assassinations to armed robbery. We shed blood as if life doesn’t matter. The God that created life knows that it matters.”

On the way forward, Akinola said: “you cannot use military fiat to talk Nigeria into a nation, it won’t work. We must come together as a people to fashion for by ourselves and mutually accept that this is what we want for ourselves as a people and as a nation. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, our leaders need the courage to do the right thing. We need to come together to determine how to live together as a nation, then we can move forward.”

In a statement yesterday by the Secretary General, Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa, Southeast CAN urged President Goodluck Jonathan and security agencies to respond swiftly to the security challenges facing the nation, particularly the Boko Haram carnage.

While stressing that “enough is enough to the incessant killing of innocent lives, especially Christians across the nation”, the association said it would no longer fold its arms and watch some miscreants unleash mayhem on Nigerians who went to the Church to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Part of the statement reads: “We condemn the bombing on the Christmas Day and call for government’s quick intervention to avoid reprisal attacks. We are not happy over the incessant bombings by the Boko Haram Islamic sect. CAN Southeast zone will not continue to watch our members die like goats every day.  We call on government of President Jonathan to act fast, else we shall defend ourselves by ourselves. The security agents should do something about this madness of Boko Haram sect. The image is not telling well of a great nation like Nigeria.”

The security checks in Madalla covers about 200 meters before the church premises when coming from Abuja through Kubwa, and another 200 meters after the church up to the NNPC filling station on the narrow but busy road to Suleja, the second largest city in Niger State.

Houses up to 250 metres in the slummy area were affected by the blast, which shattered the glass windows and cracked some walls.

Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu visited the scene of the blast yesterday and left at about 2 pm. Most residents around the area wore long faces as the death toll of the blast rose to 26, according to figures given by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The Guardian has learnt that a five-month old baby, Isaac Ibu, is one of those who survived the bombing. His mother simply identified as Esther described her son’s survival at the Catholic Church, Madalla as miraculous.

Fielding questions from newsmen at the Villa at the end of marathon meetings, Azazi for the umpteenth, assured Nigerians that the security operatives were ever working to be on top of the situation however regretted that it was difficult to police all trouble spots in Nigeria.

Asked why it was difficult to check the recurring incidents along the Suleja-Zugba axis, he replied: “It is absolutely difficult to man every point of the country when there are security problems. Like I have said before, there is need for security awareness. There is need for public participation so that there must be cooperation between security and the society for us to make progress”.

On possible reprisal by the Christians over the Christmas bombings, the NSA said: “We can’t have a situation where we think that one bad turn deserves another. We are Nigerians and like we always say, I don’t see any major conflict between the Christian community and the Muslim community. You will find a situation where, certain individuals for whatever reasons are causing these problems. Have we thought of what their ultimate intentions are? Why will somebody go on to bomb

Christians on a Christmas day? Look at the ultimate intentions. Do they want to really raise temper elsewhere? I think the Christian leaders, CAN, are meeting tomorrow (today) to emphasise to the Christians that we must live together as a nation. Retaliation is not the answer because if you retaliate, at what point will it end? Nigeria must survive as a nation, that is the key thing”.

On calls for an overhauling of the country’s security system, Azazi said: “When you say overhaul, what do you mean. We need to improve security certainly…What changes are you talking about? Why changes in leadership? Everybody thinks that if you change leaders in security, everything will work fine. If you ask very simple question; what kind of security system have we been managing? Are the structures all been so good that we can overall produce result? It is a gradual process, anywhere there has been this level of terrorism, it takes a long time for the security to be overhauled. Even whatever you do, at some points, you expect limited successes but to ensure that over a period of time, you can actually put things in place that will work for the betterment for the society”.

On what was preventing government from holding dialogue with members of Boko Haram, he stated:  “Do you know them?” On the allegation that one of the leaders of the sect has been shuttling between Nigeria and Niger Republic, Azazi turned to the reporter and said: “I think I will like you to tell me more, I am talking of working together. So if you understand that one of the key leaders has been going between Nigeria and elsewhere, come and tell us so that we know how to follow the key leader.”

It was learnt yesterday that the meeting between Jonathan and the Sultan was held the idea of sprouting larger meetings involving religious and traditional rulers to seek a lasting solution to the increased deadly activities of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting with the President, the Sultan condemned the Christmas Day blasts, maintaining that the group was evil and both religions must come together to end their activities.

He said “We came in here to felicitate and commiserate with Mr. President over the unfortunate incident that happened this period. We’ve had very positive meeting with Mr. President on so many things and how to move this country forward, how to make our country stable and to approach those challenges that is facing Nigeria on a common ground”

The Sultan spoke further: “I want to assure all Nigerians that there is no conflict between Christians and Moslems, between Islam and Christianity. It is a conflict between evil people and good people and the good people are more than the evil-doers. The good people must come together to defeat the evil ones and that is the message. We want to assure all our Christian brothers and leaders that we stand on the part of truth according to our religion that we will continue to work Insha Allahu for the greatness of this country.

“There is no conflict between Islam and Christianity and I want to assure that we will do all we can in the best of our ability to solve the numerous problems confronting our country.”

Asked what was agreed on as way out of the crisis, the Sultan said the government will look at all the past reports “including the one set up by the President on the North East crisis, also the Solomon Lar report on the Plateau and other report and at the resumption of work Mr. President and his team will look through all those reports and then call for a meeting of a larger body for consultation with all of us, both religious and traditional leaders. So we believe that is a very good way because we have to close ranks because nowhere in our two religions both Christianity and Islam that says we should be violent in dealing with one another”.

The Sultan was also asked to react to the general belief that Muslim religious leaders have not been vehement enough in their opposition to the violent acts. He said: “Have we not been speaking out? Did you read the press statement I issued out the day before yesterday? What else do you want us to say? We are totally against what has been happening, we totally condemn all these. Nobody can take anybody’s life, its unIslamic, its ungodly, nobody can take anybody’s life, all lives are sacred, must be respected and protected by all. So we have been speaking out. We all know what the situations are and we can only advise the government and we have been advising the government on several occasions”.

On the fact that people who have dared to openly condemn the sect have been living in fear and have backed out, the Sultan replied: “There is no fear, I only speak as Muslim leader and you know that we don’t say what we don’t mean and what we don’t do. It is against Islam, a special verse in the Holy Koran that said so, don’t speak what you don’t do. It is distasteful in the eyes of Almighty Allah, but we are quite aware of Almighty Allah’s instruction to always speak the truth because we will go back to him to give account for what we have done on earth. So whatever we say to anybody or any group at any time, we wholly mean so.”

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By Oghogho Obayuwana, Nkechi Onyedika, Lilian Chukwu (Abuja), Wole Shadare, Chris Irekamba (Lagos) and Leo Sobechi (Abakaliki) 

Source: The Guardian