Keeping Up With Issues That Affect Christians in Nigeria.

10^th January, 2020

Lord Alton of Liverpool has written to the BBC challenging a report that an orphanage for unwanted children which was forcibly closed by the Kano state authorities was functioning illegally. He has also highlighted the case in a letter to the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK).

On 25 December, Professor Richard Solomon Musa Tarfa, the co-founder of the Du Merci Centre in the Kano state capital, was detained by authorities. A report by BBC Pidgin reporter Mansur Abubakar, published on the BBC News website at 14.41 on 9 January, stated that police in “northern Nigeria” had “rescued 27 children from two illegal orphanages operating in Kano and Kaduna states”, quoting police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna.

On Friday May 17, 2019 one of the 276 schoolgirls abducted by terrorists in Northern Nigeria in 2014 earned an associate degree from a community college in the United States of America. Her graduation day came 5 years, one month and three days after the ignoble mass abductions that sparked global outrage and ignited the #bringbackourgirls campaign. 23 year old Palmatah Mutah who escaped that fateful April night by jumping out of a Boko Haram truck becomes the first escaped Chibok girl in the world to obtain an associate degree from an institution abroad.

COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE MEETING OF CHRISTIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (CSMN) HELD ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018, AT DAUGHTERS OF DIVINE LOVE RETREAT AND CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA

The Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) organized a Conference tagged “THINK DEMOCRACY” on Tuesday, 28th August, 2018, at the Daughters of Divine Love Retreat and Conference Centre (DRACC), Lugbe, Abuja, to evaluate developments in the country and the challenges confronting governance in Nigeria.  In collaboration with CSMN were the following Democratic groups:

July 13, 2018 by Lindy Lowry in Africa, Stories of Persecution

OPEN DOORS  USA 

Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the regions of West Africa, East Africa and Central Africa have become a stage for religious, ethnic, and political conflict, including ongoing violence and attacks from Islamic extremist groups, such as Boko Haraman extremist group that is located primarily in Northern Nigeria, al-Shabaab in East Africa and Muslim FulaniThe Fulani are a large ethnic group in West Africa.

A SPECIAL WARNING TO THE ENTIRE CHRISTIANS LIVING IN NORTHERN NIGERIA.

(This Message must be taken very seriously by every Church Leader, Christian and any responsible man or woman that wishes to live in safety in Northern Nigeria)

A Special Publication of the Hausa Christians Foundation (HACFO) on 3rd August, 2018 

The federal government has said that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has completed the separation of Christian Religious Studies Curriculum and Islamic Studies Curriculum. The decision was taken at the 63rd meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE), held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, from Wednesday 1st to Thursday 2nd August, 2018 which was presided over by the minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and supported by the minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Gozie Anwukah.

Coordinated military style attacks ravaged 15 communities in some local government areas of Plateau state from 23rd - 24th June, 2018, which resulted to the death of 233 persons with many others injured and several properties destroyed while thousands of villagers were displaced. 
Below is the list of districts, communities and people killed in the attack

(Intersociety, Nigeria: 7th July 2018)-The central Government of Nigeria headed by Mr. Muhammadu Buhari-a retired major general; has continued to make inflammatory, diversionary, deceitful, threatening and other injurious statements over the orgy of ethno-religious and state killings in Nigeria. These are followed by complicit government policies and conducts, which see the killings escalating and worsening in the country day in day out.

Despite several expert recommendations and pieces of advice given or offered to the central Government of Nigeria arising from research findings of various local and international research and investigative groups on how to end the ongoing killings by Government and non state actor Jihadist armed groups in Middle Belt and old Eastern Nigeria and fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice; the Buhari Administration has not only failed woefully to heed or act on such independent expert recommendations, but also clannishly chosen to remain inescapable complicit in same.

REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE UNITY AND COOPERATION COMMITTEE OF NCEF WITH CHRISTIAN LEADERS TO DELIBERATE ON CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE HELD AT THE NATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTER, ABUJA ON WED. 27TH JUNE, 2018 AT 12.00 NOON

The Chairman of the US Congressional House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Chris Smith, has requested that President Buhari should publicly speak out in condemnation of mass killings of Middle Belt Christian farmers in their ancestral homelands by the MACBAN-sponsored Fulani herdsmen militia. The powerful US congressman made his wish known while welcoming the release of the State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report by Secretary Pompeo’s announcement of a Ministerial Committee to Advance Religious Freedom scheduled for July 25-26, 2018. The committee on religious freedom, which shall be constituted in late July 2018, shall focus on collating reports of mass extrajudicial killings throughout Nigeria since the outset of the Muhammadu Buhari's presidency.

Since the proclamation of the 8th Assembly, I have noticed a consistent effort to emasculate the National Assembly, particularly the Senate. This matter has assumed an alarming intensity in the recent weeks and I am getting really worried for our democracy. 

 First effort, was the challenge to the power of the Senate to confirm certain executive appointments. Both the constitution and other extant laws gave powers to the Senate to approve, confirm or ratify specific appointments from ministerial through Commissions, Security service leadership, Boards and Agency leadership. But we have seen some effort to deny this power of the Senate. The classical and subsisting case is the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to replace Ibrahim Magu as the Chairman of EFCC after the Senate rejected his nomination twice due to adverse reports from a sister Security agency-DSS. Three years down the line, the President has ignored the Senate and has kept Magu on the job, effectively rendering the Senate irrelevant and impotent.

Since I arrived here the day before yesterday, the attacks have continued daily.

Three people returning from the same funeral I attended for the murdered priests were brutally butchered by the Killer Herdsman on Tuesday.

In the governor’s speech I included in my last update, 492 people had been killed by the Herdsmen. By evening of the same day, the death toll had risen to 495 from the latest attack.

Every well-meaning individual believes that peace should be the collective effort of everybody in Nigeria, but to our dismay, some saboteurs are out there doing everything humanly possible to disrupt the peaceful coexistence and set the people of Nigeria against each other especially the Christians against the Muslims.

Zainab Bulus Bawa is a 16 year old Hausa Christian Girl from Kugawa of Kubau LGA, Kaduna State Nigeria, who is now forcefully taken away from her parents, spellbound, converted to Islam and married her off by the Village Head of Anchau, Alhaji Idris Yusuf, Alhaji Usman Idris Kugawa and the Islamic leaders of that area without the consent of her biological parents. Saleh Idi Magami is a young Hausa Muslim man that goes to the Hausa Christians settlement of Kugawa on an unknown mission. Kugawa is a Hausa settlement of Both Christians and Muslims. Both of them have a history of living peacefully with each other, but the Muslim side are on the verge of destroying this peaceful co-existence by the support of the district and village heads of Anchau that are now sponsoring their Muslims brothers to commit evil against the Hausa Christians and then use the Muslims leaders to rally round and cover it with religion. They also use the LGA security team and the executives to support them, threaten and inflict pains on the Hausa Christian settlement of Kugawa.

Executive Summary

The NCEF visited the British High Commission in Abuja as part of its efforts to provide solutions to the crisis in Nigeria. The National Christian Elders Forum is aware, before the visit, of the role the British played in skewing leadership advantage to the Islamists of northern Nigeria, particularly the Fulani Muslims. The NCEF wanted to place on record its efforts to enable Britain review its policy of racial discrimination in view of modern day realities. However, it would appear that Britain remains unperturbed.

Therefore, it is clear to the NCEF that it is the responsibility of Nigerian Christians to resist Islamists’ attempt to replace Democracy with Sharia in the country and transmute Nigeria into an Islamic Sultanate. During the visit, NCEF invited the British Government to understand the issues unfolding in the country and assist in the following ways:

The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) met with the British High Commissioner, Mr. Paul Arkwright, on Wednesday 2nd May, 2018 in Abuja to solicit the support and intervention of the British Government for the setting up of Truth, Peace, and Reconciliation Commission in Nigeria.

The Christian Elders are persuaded that in order to bring healing, forgiveness and reconciliation to Nigeria, there must be Truth and Reconciliation Commission that would enable all aggrieved persons/groups express their grievances and seek redress for all acts of injustice.

The NCEF also demanded the payment of compensation to individuals and groups that have been affected in the wave of Islamic insurgencies in Nigeria.

Christians all over the country trooped on the streets of Nigeria on Sunday 29th April 2018 to protest against the killings of believers in Jesus Christ by Islamist insurgents, Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen.

Earlier, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had conducted a Press Conference on Friday 27th April 2018 to decry the continued murder and mayhem unleashed against Christians by Muslims in Nigeria. The President of CAN, Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle called on all Christians to undertake peaceful protest around their places of worship on Sunday 27th April and Sunday 6th May, 2018.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PROTEST BY NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS AGAINST GENOCIDE PERPETRATED BY ISLAMIST BOKO HARAM AND FULANI HERDSMEN AND COMPLICITY OF PRESIDENT BUHARI’S ADMINISTRATION

NOTES:

1. Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) held a Press Conference on Friday 27^th April, 2018 at the National Christian Center, Abuja, to condemn and decry the mindless bloodshed, destruction of Christian places of worship, abduction of Christian school girls, destruction of Christian communities and the apparent collaboration of Security Forces and undeniable endorsement of the Buhari Administration of the genocide.
2. Leaders of Islam in Nigeria, notably NSCIA (Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs) and JNI (Jamaatu Nasril Islamic Society) are clearly not doing enough to call their followers perpetrating this genocide to order. This suggests endorsement of the killings.

(Protest within your Church Vicinity)

With the killing again of Catholic Faithfuls receiving Mass in a village near Makurdi yesterday (24th April, 2018) and the continuous act of bloodshed, CAN calls on all Christian Churches nationwide to stage peaceful protest within their church vicinity to say "NO" to bloodshed in Nigeria on Sunday, April 29, 2018.

Government should be called upon to perform its constitutional responsibility of protecting citizens now. No excuse should be given for this wicked act again and perpetrators must be brought to book now.

Similarly, the peaceful protest must demand for the release of Leah Sharibu, the captive of faith and the remaining Chibok girls. All people in captivity must be released without delay.

Rev. Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha have been confirmed dead in the deadly attack by herdsmen/Jihadists early today (Tues 24th Apr. 2018) on Mbalom village and St. Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpor-Mbalom.

In their classic style they burnt  down homes, destroyed food items and killed at will.

The police seem to know nothing of the attacks which have been going on in other villages within Benue State since the Anti Open Grazing Law came into effect last year.

SUMMARY OF CHIBOK 4TH ANNIVERSARY REMARKS & RESPONSE TO CONTINUING INJURIOUS FALSEHOODS: NIGERIA’S GOVERNMENT IS A MASS MANUFACTURER OF FAILURE

Members of the press,

On the Chibok 4th anniversary our hearts go out to the parents. The news of over 90 dead is concerning and there’s need for the government to disclose the truth of what they know especially since the mass deaths have been attributed to them. The Dapchi abduction seems to be an indication that there are no more Chibok girls left to ransom thus they need for a “quick win” with the Dapchi schoolgirl “catch and release” affair. With the news of 93 Chibok girls dead, we can now understand why Dapchi was perpetrated. As a notable expert on the issue, we have tracked the reported casualties over time from 1 Chibok girl dead to 6, to 13 to 60 and finally now 93 as reported.