Baga: CAN Accuses Northern Leaders Of Bias

The Christian Association of Nigeria has attributed the lingering insecurity in the North to the bias of the region’s leaders.

The General Secretary of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, told SUNDAY PUNCH that no strategy would be effective in stopping the violence if northern leaders remained ‘dishonest about their support for Boko Haram members.’

He said, “All we want is a stop. The government and especially the leaders of the North know what to do to stop these killings. These people have continued their atrocities, they are well armed and we know them. Northern leaders are just playing with this thing.

“Whether state of emergency or amnesty, they are all bound to fail, if northern leaders will not come out with honesty and call black, black and white, white. They said they are going to meet them for dialogue; that means they know where they are. Why don’t they tell them to lay down their arms?”

According to Asake, the Baga massacre has received much attention from government and northern leaders, because the area is Muslim-dominated.

He said the plan to rebuild Baga was hypocritical, when none of the churches burnt by Boko Haram had been rebuilt.

He said, “Boko Haram members have killed several people in their houses and burnt people in their churches and these northern leaders did not say anything. But now, it happened in Baga, which is a Muslim-dominated area, and everybody is shouting. Even the Governor of Adamawa, Murtala Nyako, I read in the news, had to donate N20m of taxpayers’ money for them to rebuild Baga. What of the churches that were burnt in Adamawa? How about the Christians killed? What did he do? It is uncalled for. He is not a governor of Muslims; he is the governor of all in Adamawa.

“What is special about Baga? What is in Baga, except for the fact that it is populated by mostly Muslims? If he was quoted correctly, even the President said government will rebuild Baga. My question is: Who will rebuild the churches that have been burnt? The way northern leaders are talking about the Baga killings clearly shows their bias. We, Christians, are also in the North. If they are northern leaders, they should be concerned about us as much as they are about the Muslims killed in Baga.”

Asake also said the Federal Government’s approval of N5.7bn for victims of post-election violence was laudable but said CAN was waiting for the implementation.

All attempts to contact Nyako’s Chief Press Secretary, Maijama’ah Adamu, to respond to CAN’s allegation, proved abortive.

Several phone calls to two of his mobile lines did not connect and text messages sent him were not replied as at press time.

Culled from the Punch Newspaper