Today, we are beginning a three part series on how to manage and end the persecution of Christians and the Christian religion in Nigeria by Muslim fanatics.
We would be learning from the wisdom of the early saints who witnessed worse persecutions than we presently experience in Nigeria and apply such methods in Nigeria as they did apply to manage and eventually ended their persecution by consecutive Roman Emperors of the imperial kingdom of Rome.
It has become necessary to do this research and bring to the knowledge of Nigerian Christians the true facts about the persecution of Christians from the earliest history of Christianity because the body of Christ in Nigeria is doing the wrong things to stave off their persecution by some Muslim fanatics. Every Nigerian Christian should read, internalize and circulate this discourse.
First, we shall be looking at the true reasons why Nigerian Christians are at the receiving end of religious fanaticism, hooliganism and murder in Nigeria in the hands of Muslim religious fanatics. We will be offering two alternative solutions for solving the problem of extra-judicial killings of Nigerian Christians by Muslim fanatics, to open up a new vista of peaceful co-existence for the members of the two religions.
According to Open Door (A human and Civil Right group that monitors inter-religious relationships across the world), Nigeria was the country where the most Christians died for their faith in 2021, recording 4,650 deaths. The number of abducted Christians during the same period was also higher in Nigeria than the rest countries of the world with more than 2,500 people making the list. Open Door report also recorded that Nigeria was only second to China in religious persecution with the number of churches attacked being 470 during the same year 2021.
By the way, the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed in 2020 the receipt and review of petition on Nigeria filed by 101 Nigerian lawyers at home and the Diaspora on the persecutions of Nigerian Christians by Muslims. The legal brief challenged the ICC with the Prosecutor, as Fatou Bensouda (who served from June 15th 2012, till 15th June 2021; the present ICC Prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan assumed office since 16th June, 2021) of ignoring the atrocities of the Fulani Herdsmen in its interminable review of the Nigerian situation and extensively cited submissions and reports made to the ICC over the past ten years (since 2010), alleging inordinate delay in making a decision to save northern Nigerian Christians, especially those in southern Kaduna, from extermination.
The petition was entitled, “Communication to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court concerning the ten-year Preliminary Examination into International Crimes Committed in Nigeria”.
The petition alleged that “Insurgency caused over 48,000 deaths. These deaths included over 8000 members of a Church denomination and represents date as at 2016 only. Recent years show extremely high levels of structural repression and discrimination. In 2012 Nigeria accounted for over 50% of Global Christian deaths; by 2018, it had peaked to 90% of all Christian death worldwide”.
With the rising wave of these persecutions, by the time new figures of displaced, maimed and murdered Christians in Nigeria emerge, we will discover that the figure has risen to a very high percentage of Nigeria Christian population with the spread engulfing up to 75% of the geo-political regions of Nigeria where Christians domicile.
Replying the petition, Mark P. Dillon, Head of the Information and Evidence Unit in the office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has attributed the delay to office procedure in ascertaining that there was reasonable ground to warrant investigation. Mr. Dillon concluded the ICC response, referenced OTP-CR-459/20, by promising that “as soon as a decision is taken on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, we will advise you promptly and will provide reasons for the decision”.
It has become a normal occurrence in Nigeria that some Christians must either lose their lives, get their homes burnt, or have their worship and business places destroyed by the slightest provocation of their Muslim neighbours. The murder of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto is now history.
To prove their recalcitrance, some miscreants who obviously were not happy with the arrest of two suspects incriminated in the murder of Deborah Samuel went on rampage to ransack and loot three Churches in Sokoto. In unbridled effrontery, they marched to the Palace of Sultan of Sokoto, the leader of Islam in Nigeria, and demanded the release of the arrested suspects for the murder of Deborah Samuel.
As if to underline the calculated rape on Christians and Christianity in Nigeria, Churches and Christian homes were burnt down in Bauchi state with a Pastor mortally wounded as Muslims in a city in that state accused another young woman of blaspheming the Islamic Holy Prophet shortly after the murder of Deborah Samuel. Incidences of murder of Christians in Nigeria nowadays happen so fast and in very close and quick succession that unless one is constantly glued to the breaking news twenty four hours every day of the week, it might be difficult to follow up with the number of Christians who are killed by Muslims in Nigeria every day.
The list is endless and the end to the carnage seem not be to in sight because the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Mohammadu Buhari has either been overwhelmed by the rate the persecution happens and hence unable to stop it, or that it has deliberately decided to look the other side while Christians are killed in Nigeria as Christianity is being destroyed in Nigeria.
Some of the recent assaults on Christians, their properties and Christian worship places in Nigeria include:
- On May 29th, 2022 The Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence Samuel Kanu Uche was kidnapped together with the Bishop of Owerri Diocese, Right Reverend Dennis Mark and the Prelate’s Chaplain. A ransom of N100m was paid to the kidnappers before they were released.
- On May 25, 2022 two Catholic Church Priests and their cooks were kidnapped by gunmen at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Gidan Maikambo in Kafar Local Government Area of Katsina State.
- A Bishop of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, in southwest Nigeria was recently kidnapped together with his wife as they were on their way for a Church assignment.
- Officials of the Kaduna State Government most probably with the explicit instruction of the Governor, El-Rufai, swooped on the site of the only Church building being constructed within the premises of Kaduna State University and demolished the structure. Meanwhile, several Mosques have been built within the University premises. The University was established some seventeen years ago and no Christian worship center has been allowed to be built within the University.
- A get-together (Party) organized recently by Christians in Okene, Kogi state, was bombed and many Christians died as a result of the attack. According to an American consultant on terrorism who once worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Mr. Evan F. Kolmann, the deadly terrorist organization, ISIS, (an Islamic Organization) claimed responsibility for the bombing.
- Unknown gunmen attacked the Celestial Church of Christ, Oshoffa Parish at Wasimi, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State dragging away two worshippers. They later called in and demanded N50m as ransom to release the abductees.
- The world was shocked and thrown into confusion with the attack by gunmen on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State. The gunmen who, not only shot sporadically on worshippers but also detonated a bomb to finish off their unholy task of killing all the congregants in the Church, desecrated the Church of Christ with impunity. At the end of that wickedness, 80 people laid dead with scores of people wounded. It was a national tragedy which shocked the world to its marrow.
In a well-crafted, intelligent yet ominous poetic metaphor surreptitiously woven to unmask the conundrum that the Owo massacre has become – an expression which is also reminiscent of the veiled lines of the lyrics of the Jamaican freedom fighter and Reggae music maestro, Robert Nestor Marley (Bob Marley) that the late Marley used to cajole the white racists and demand equal rights for the black race, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adeshina, who obviously may have been incensed by an unwarranted terror attack on one of the ancient cities in his Yoruba ancestral home, wrote in response to the mayhem in the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo state, that “only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act; eternal sorrow awaits them both on earth here, and ultimately in the hereinafter.”
- But the most annoying murder of a Christian where the kettle called the pot black and even went ahead to destroy the pot took place in a brothel in Lagos state. A sex worker in Lagos was killed by one of her patrons and his friends after being ‘served’ by the sex worker. According to a friend of the deceased, an argument started between them after both of them had done the ‘thing’ and the man refused to pay for the lady’s ‘service’. Rather than pay, the man claimed he saw a copy of the Islamic Holy Book in the lady’s room. He invited his friends and they murdered her.
Kaduna State has become the grand theatre of war against Christians as it looks like a decision has been taken by the local Islamic authorities there to kill to the last man, all Christians in that state. The world read cases of the persecution of Christians in Kaduna State every day. It is not possible anymore to keep track of the persecution of Christians in Kaduna State. I am sure right now as you read this material, some Christians are being persecuted in Kaduna state. A few bad, very bad cases which took place recently in Kaduna state will suffice for this discourse.
- On Sunday 19th June 2022, worshippers at St. Moses Catholic Church in Robuh, Angwan Aku, Kajura Local Government Area of Kaduna State was attacked leaving three worshippers dead. Thirty six Christians were also abducted during that attack.
A former Special Adviser on Media to the Governor of Kaduna state Mr. Reuben Buhari said that the attack on Robuh village on the 19th June was one in so many of such attacks in that village revealing that many of the attacks have always escaped media attention.
- Christian worshippers at the Robuh Maranatha Baptist Church, Robuh were also attacked the day the St. Moses Catholic Church worshippers were attacked. Three locals killed in that simultaneous attack were identified as Peter Madaki, Elisha Ezekiel and Ali Zamani.
- The worst of the attacks on Christian communities in Kaduna State recently which have attracted much condemnation from around the world happened about noon on 5th June, 2022. According to Rev. Dennis Sani of First Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Maikori “It was around noon on June 5, while we were in the church that we got information that armed Fulani herdsmen were attacking Dangoma and nearby villages……” They hurriedly closed the worship, went home, took their dane guns and laid ambush on the intruders. As they nearly succeeded in forcing the intruders back, he continued “Eventually we saw a helicopter coming towards Maikori, and we were happy that help has come”. He said that he was surprised that the white helicopter started firing in their direction. He concluded by saying “I saw my people running for dear lives and some were falling. I also ran. It was not possible to face the armed Fulani and the bullets from the helicopter, so we ran for dear lives”.
The herdsmen having gotten easy access to their villages aided by the helicopter went on a murdering and burning spree in their villages. Within two hours, the villages lay desolate with no house standing. Thirty two people were killed and the rest scampered to other villages not touched in that attack.
More corpses were reported to have been picked up from the bushes days after that attack. The total number of causalities in that attack has not yet been known. According to the Reverend Gentleman, other villages that were attacked earlier that day by the same herdsmen killers were Sabon Gida, Angwan Sarki and Dogon Noma.
Meanwhile, while the villages say that the helicopter attacked them, the Kaduna State Government claims that the helicopter was actually sent to repel the intruders. Between these two contrary positions, the question arises; why is it that none of the gun men was killed by the helicopter while an indeterminable number of the villagers died as a result of the siege?. It looks obvious that the personnel who manned the military helicopter either failed in their duty, or deliberately compromised to aid the killing of innocent Kaduna Christians. The Kaduna state government must be clear in clarifying this paradox since Nigerian Christians are not morons.
Addressing a news conference at Wesley chapel, Ikoyi during his apostolic, valedictory tour of the Archdiocese on Friday 20th May 2022, the released kidnapped Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria Dr. Samuel Chukwuemeka Uche who had given a graphic description of his kidnap by herdsmen who were aided by some serving Fulani Nigerian soldiers called on the National Assembly to promulgate a Bill that will put an end to the Barbaric culture of religious killings in the country.
Some other Nigerians have also called on the international community to stem the tide of descent of Nigeria into an ethno-religious war in insisting that the Nigerian government calls the Nigerian Muslim fanatics to order by checking their excesses. They all called for legislation by the Nigerian government to address the issue.
In a letter addressed to several international bodies including the United Nations and the African Union, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba-land, Iba Gani Adams petitioned these International Bodies to urgently prevail on the Nigerian government to do the needful in checking the excesses of Nigerian Muslim fanatics before they set the country ablaze. All these admonition which is my first solution recommended to ensure peaceful co-existence of the two major religions in Nigeria have been to the Nigerian government by different people and groups but nothing has been heard from the government.
In response to all life situations, one can either be complicit, which may portray connivance/active support, or complacent, which may portray incapacity, connivance, or active support/participation. There is no middle way to this because the Nigerian government cannot relinquish its responsibility to protect Nigerian citizens and their properties for as long as it is still legitimately in power. Not protecting Nigerian Christians and their properties from the onslaughts of Muslim fanatics in Nigeria constitutes surrendering the nation’s sovereignty to these Muslim fanatics, because the government cannot convince Nigerian Christians that it lacks the capacity to deal with the fanatics.
This non-action on the part of government gives room for a suggestion as to the possibility of the Nigerian government being an accessory to the persecution of Nigerian Christians by Muslim fanatics. This non-action, by the way, is the first reason why Nigerian Christians are at the receiving end of religious fanaticism in the country. The possibility of the government being an accessory becomes viable and more plausible with the knowledge of the fact that these fanatical Muslims have surrounded the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, ever ready to unleash mayhem to the Christian communities within their area of occupation where government surveillance is supposed to be mounted.
From the accusation of blasphemy as an excuse to maim and kill Christians to the inordinate desire to appropriate the ancestral lands of Christian in Kaduna state, the action of Nigerian Muslim fanatics tantamount to intolerance for the Christian religion in Nigeria by these Muslim fanatics. But Nigeria is supposed to be a secular country where plurality of religious worship is allowed.
(To be continued).
ABUCHI OBIORA
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