24th July, 2014
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta
Only religious leaders, not President Goodluck Jonathan, can end the insecurity pervading the country, especially the northern region.
President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, stated this Wednesday during the graduation send forth/prize giving day ceremony held by Stephen International Centre, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, western Nigeria.
According to Oritsejafor, “with all sense of all responsibility, I use this opportunity to call on all Muslims leaders, traditional rulers and political leaders in the north, not necessarily in the southwest, because in the southwest, we have lived together and I know the way it operates in the southwest, to join hands to end insurgency.
“I was told this land where this school was built was bought from a Muslim. If a Muslim organization needs a land and a Christian has it, sell it to them, that’s the way to live and the kind of country we are looking for. So, I am challenging from the north, our religious leaders, political rulers and traditional rulers, as a matter of urgency, to step forward and take responsibility for the way out of this problem.
“Boko Haram is propelled by a religious ideology, it is not poverty. Anyone who tells you it is poverty is not telling you the truth. It is not poverty. When you blame it on poverty, it is an insult to poor people. There are poor people everywhere even Christians all over the north. Bin Laden was not a poor man, he was from a rich Saudi Arabian family.
“The Nigerian boy who almost blew up a plane on Christmas day is a son of one First Bank Chairman and he is still one of the richest people in Nigeria today. Boko Haram insurgency is an ideology, people are being radicalised by an ideology.
He further stated: “Salafism and Wahabism are doctrines that come from Saudi Arabia and they have crept into the southwest. They have taken people to Saudi Arabia and sent them back to you and coming into our mosques, they start their own new mosques and radicalising some of them. Boko Haram is a strong, devilish ideology and it is a terrible thing and we must not run from it, we must face the fact.
“Now, this ideology must be countered with a superior ideology. You can only counter an ideology with another superior ideology. They must engage them and win them with a superior argument and spread a positive view to Nigerians in the grassroots to their followers in mosques and everywhere,” Oritsejafor posited.
Speaking on the occasion, Isaac Oluwole, the Director of the Centre, where orphans who lost their parents to Boko Haram attacks in the north are being taken care of, urged government and philanthropists to assist the cause.
“There are millions of Nigerians who can do good work and they need encouragement from the Federal Government,” Oluwole stated.