…warns against attacks on Buhari over Benue killings
The Secretary General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has said that the ultimate goal of the Boko Haram insurgents is to foist a religious war on Nigeria.
Oloyede also deplored those attacking President Muhammadu Buhari over the violence and killings by suspected herdsmen in Benue and other parts of the country.
The NSCIA secretary general said these while delivering a lecture titled: “Achieving Peace, Stability and Good Governance in a Multi-ethnic and Multi-religious Society” at The Point Newspaper’s Annual Ramadan Lecture held at the premises of the Lagos Television, Agindingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, last Monday.
Oloyede stressed that the sect had never hidden its mission to set Nigeria ablaze by igniting the fire of a religious war, which could consume the country.
He noted that it was in pursuit of such evil agenda to cause war in Nigeria that the insurgent group had decided to target innocent school girls for kidnap.
Citing the case of the kidnapped Christian school girl, Leah Sharibu, who has been held in captivity since February this year, he said that the group would do everything to achieve its evil goal of destroying the Nigerian nation.
Boko Haram insurgents had abducted 110 students on February 19 from Government Girls Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe State and released them a month later, with the exception of Sharibu and five other students, who died in captivity.
Sharibu was held back for refusing to renounce her Christian faith and she has since remained in captivity.
The NSCIA secretary general, however, expressed disappointment with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria for unwittingly playing into the hands of the insurgents by threatening a religious war over the kidnapped girl.
Oloyede said, “The unfortunate abduction of Leah and other girls, both Muslims and Christians, is intensely hurtful to all right-thinking persons. I am aware that the particular case of Leah made the leadership of the NSCIA reach out to all possible channels of reaching the group with a proposal to secure amnesty for the group provided Leah and other girls in captivity are released and the group surrender their arms. This knowledge made the careless threat particularly painful.
“The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) recently escalated the state of insecurity with its threat that should Leah Sharibu die in captivity of Boko Haram, there would be religious war!!!
“I am as astonished as the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) who recently expressed shock at the destructive and counter-productive statement.
“Boko Haram has never hidden its mission of setting Nigeria ablaze through a religious war. Whose interest was the call to serve? Definitely, not that of the innocent Nigerian Lady, Leah Sharibu. Is it fair, religious or Godly to, for the sake of political grandstanding and publicity-seeking, endanger the life of such a precious, principled and promising Lady? I am sure the immediate family members of the Lady would not subscribe to such politicisation of the misfortune.”
He also said that those deliberately attributing the violence and killings being perpetrated by suspected herdsmen in Benue and other parts of the country to religion were only playing to the gallery in a bid to satisfy certain selfish interests.
Oloyede then described such insinuation as “fraudulent, malicious, crude and ungodly.”
The NSCIA secretary general also said it was “religious bigotry and wickedness” for anyone to hold President Buhari responsible for the violence and killings by suspected herdsmen in Benue and other parts of the country.
He argued that the conflict between the herdsmen and Tiv people in Benue was as old as the country, and not a new development as Nigerians were being erroneously made to believe.
Oloyede, therefore, charged religious leaders in Nigeria to make concerted efforts to properly guide their followers in order to enhance peace and unity of the country.
He said, “On the issue of Christians being killed by herdsmen and other bandits, the truth remains that more Christians, like their Muslim counterparts, were killed by Boko Haram and other bandits during the Presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. No religious body then held Dr. Jonathan responsible. Despite the conspiracy theory that “Boko Haram” was an economic venture of some Public Officers, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) did not accuse President Jonathan as being the sponsor.
“Does it not smack of religious bigotry and undisguised wickedness that President Buhari is being directly targeted by the zealots? Did Muslims hold the former President responsible when Christian militants in the South South were killing Muslims and Christians? Why can’t all men of conscience, call, as the Catholic Bishops did, on the Government to take more drastic measures in arresting the deteriorating conflicts in Benue and other places in Nigeria rather than the false accusation with the attendant onslaught on the sensibilities of the Nigerian Muslims?
“Without equivocation or fear of contradiction, we insist that those who are suggesting that the violence of herdsmen is religiously-motivated are dancing naked to the tunes of the Devil. This is because the insinuation is, and can only be, fraudulent, malicious, crude and ungodly. Religion should not be used for devilish purposes.”
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Baba Adeen of Yorubaland, Edo and Delta states, Chief Sarafa Tunji Isola, said the term “Islamic terrorism” being used in certain quarters was a misnomer and part of the efforts to paint the Islamic religion in bad light.
Isola described Islam as a religion of peace, which ensures justice for all human beings.
Dignitaries at the Ramadan lecture included the representative of the the Mudeer, Markaz, Habeebulah Adam Al-llory; the President, Muslim Ummah of S/West Nigeria, and Vice President General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Chief S.O.B Babalola; the immediate past Registrar, APCON, Nigeria, Alhaji Bello Kankarufi; and the National Amirah, The Criterion, Alhaja Fatymah Yewande Oyefeso, among others.
