By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
The Southern Kaduna Christians Leaders has called on Nigerians to stop making excuses, but hold President Muhammadu Buhari who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces accountable for the orchestrated attacks on Christians Communities and Christianity in a nation they are stake holders.
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PRESS STATEMENT
BY
Southern Kaduna Christian Leaders Association
(S.K.C.L.A)
THE CONTINOUS PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY IN NIGERIA: REFLECTIONS ON THE CASE OF LEAH SHARIBU
Fellow Nigerians, there is no doubt that events in the past weeks have subjected every individual with conscience to untold pressure, forcing us to doubt and ask questions on the competency, sincerity and neutrality of the current administration.
As bona fide citizens and responsible religious leaders/shepherds, we are now perplexed with the incessant and unabated persecution of particularly Christians and Christianity in Nigeria. We therefore submit that:
Nigerians should stop making excuses for, but hold the President (Muhammadu Buhari) who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces accountable for the orchestrated attacks on Christians and Christianity in a nation that we all are stake holders. We cannot forget so soon the incidence of Chibok, Borno State. Our Christian daughters were forcefully taken and converted, raped and abused before some of them returning with strange children. Then, in a recent laughable and most embarrassing twist for our image as a country in the 21st century, a similar situation again played out at Dapchi in Yobe State. This time with more Muslims involved, the girls were in a couple of weeks safely returned but without Leah Sharibu who is a Christian.
We call on Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible for the callousness of Boko Haram. This is evidenced as with so much appropriation for the fight against insurgency, our common wealth is clearly being used to embolden these terrorists under the guise of ransom payment.
We insist in strong terms that there is no doubt, about writing on the wall and that the handwriting is legible enough to those who care to read. Therefore, we raise the following questions:
How come that the federal government negotiated for the release of the “abducted” girls with exclusion of the only Christian amongst them? The government is already proudly putting this in her list of achievements when there are still more than 100 Chibok girls, mostly Christians, who are still in captivity for nearly 4 years now. Maybe, because they were kidnapped during former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration and mainly Christians that is why this current administration has chosen to leave them in captivity? Else, whoever helped to negotiate the release of the Dapchi girls should have been engaged to help release the Chibok girls.
Why has the Government appeared to be intolerant and unforgiving of IPOB and rather seem to have a special romance with Boko Haram?
In the light of the above, we demand the immediate release of Leah Sharibu and an outright end to all forms of human rights abuses particularly against Christians in Nigeria. The members of these terrorist elements should be made to face the constitutional/legal provisions appropriate to their actions against the state.
We therefore call on the international community including: ECOWAS, A.U, U.N, E.U, U.S Congress, Amnesty International and all other institutions genuinely concerned with improving human rights situation and good governance in the world, to come to the aid of Christians/Christianity in Nigeria. We have become an endangered specie because of our religious belief.
It is a known fact that Leah Sharibu is in the net of the Islamic extremists because she has held on to her Faith and in the face of unimaginable emotional torture.
We say to all Christians across Nigeria, that these are not moments to contemplate bowing to another god, but to remain steadfast and immovable because our salvation is now nearer than we first believed.
In the light of these, we dare to confront Christians within and outside this government who though in position of influence, have chosen the path of compromise for social (temporal) relevance; with the words of Modecai to Queen Esther:
“Do not think in your heart, that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)NKJV
Apostle Emmanuel Egoh Bako
Secretary General
Southern Kaduna Christian Leaders Association
(S.K.C.L.A.)
