Jimoh Jimoh balances report of killings in Nigeria, as Prof Usman exposes hypocrisy in Christian genocide claim
By KEMI KASUMU and OUR REPORTERS
“In 2022, more than 10 Yoruba Muslims traveling back home from Bauchi to Ondo were massacred by Plateau Christian youths just like that… In 2025, 13 Muslims from Zaria going to MANGU Plateau State for a wedding ceremony were killed by MANGU youths, the Father and the mother of the groom were victims..,” Jimoh Jimoh listed and urged that “THIS GOVERNMENT MUST WAKE UP…”
Former Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Yusuf Usman, has described as unfortunate attitude of some Nigerian Christians going around the West lobbying United States of America to take up a misinformation or twisted information they call Christian genocide in Nigeria over the issue of terrorism.
He spoke just as more Muslims are now coming up to present balanced reports of the security challenges as they affect people across ethnic and religious backgrounds while the Muslims, if stocktaking along region line is necessary, are said to account for 90 percent of the killings, displacement and property losses that the terrorist activities have inflicted on Nigeria especially in Northern region.
Many have, therefore, wondered why Christian leadership in the country picked the one side of the report and slammed it to create impression that there is an official policy where Christians are target of killings with some believing that when these Christian leaders talk terrorists they talk Muslims and their leaders as sponsors, allegedly.
The hand of CAN in the crisis
This was as major culprit at the centre of controversy generated by United States of America’s misinterpretation of insecurity in Nigeria as official genocidal operation against Christians in the country, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) undauntedly owned up to its role in the issues, saying the threat by President Donald Trump regarding same should not be twisted.
It said the military operations, threatened against the same sovereign nation from where it along member churches operate from, are to fight terrorists and not Nigerians, knowing full well the many media campaigns it had allegedly sponsored throughout the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari tagging the now late former president as president for the actualisation of Northernisation Agenda under Islamisation Mission in the country.
In furtherance to that media campaign, social media and main media spaces have been awash – since over two years of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in office – with indefensible claims targeting profiling of leadership of Muslim Ummah of Nigeria as creator and sponsorship of terrorism, which the US President, Donald Trump is believed to have been acting up on.
It will be recalled how Trump, in his first coming, after unsuspectingly inviting the President Buhari to Washington D.C., only for him to ask the Nigerian Leader, “Why are you killing Christians in your country?” Trump met heated criticisms amidst global condemnation for daring to put such detestably biased question to Buhari, the Nigerian president globally respected for his integrity and simple policy of “live and let live”.
Although Tinubu is not regarded as Muslim with the consciousness of an Islamic practice, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has never relented in creating international dent for his government since he it on board as its Muslim-Muslim ticket based presidency is claimed to be the reason for the alleged CAN’s international campaign focusing on Christian genocide in a country where Muslims bear the brunt for 90 percent of Boko Haram terrorism being suffered in Northern Nigeria.
ALSO READ: OPINION: Nigeria’s crisis runs deeper than just a war on Christians
Those among CAN members cutting the dastardly mobbing-to-death of Deborah in Sokoto as a justification for their misinformation to US president have, however, been told to search their minds and tell more reasons they have not revealed for collaborating with US president to collapse their own country.
The untold truth
They are also reminded how their conscience fails them not to remember the role they play fomenting religious crisis in Plateau State from their Sallah Day genocide killing and roasting over a thousand Muslims on Eid Ground and still chanting fighting for Jesus hanging heads of burnt (turbaned) Islamic scholars on sticks and did procession with it in Jos North in 2008.
“These people know about this 2008 Sallah Day genocide against Muslims in Jos and the killing of over 500 Muslims buried in a mass grave in Yelwa Shendam in 1999 which led to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s forced visit that further led to the arrest of them rude CAN Chairman in the state.
“So they are using killing of Christians in Plateau State as evidence to back their invitation of American war department on their own country. Do they not remembering their role in the killing of Major General Idris Alkali, search for whom the Christian Association of Nigeria openly blocked using women protesting against Army troops on search duty following the missing of the General, who left Abuja for Jis and that became his last time be seen? No Northerner or Muslim leader took any international campaign against this CAN at the time.
“Or have they forgotten the killing of Tijanniyyah Sunni Muslims, who were returning from Jos to Ikare Akoko in Ondo State but were accosted by people who called the selves Beron Christians and who killed those Muslims. Under Buhari government without any Northerner or Muslim launching any Muslim genocide campaign.
Rather than viewing Trump’s comments as a trigger for religious friction, the association’s Chairman, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that the remarks should “serve as an opportunity for peace-loving Christians and Muslims to unite and demand concrete action by our government to stop the killing of anybody because of religion or any form of identity.”
Prof Yusuf Usman reacts
In his interventionist attitude to the current misgivings going on with threat if military operations in Nigeria by US President Donald Trump, Professor Yusuf Usman cautioned those who are behind such lobbied position to know that they do no better than messing up the country by taking side along religion line looking at the problem.
“Every life matters. And the moment you start bringing religion you mess everything up. A bomb was dropped by the Nigerian military, Nigerian Army, on worshippers during Malud in Tundun Biri, over hundred were killed. Muslims did not go to the world and say ‘Oh, Muslims are genocidalky killed.’ That’s a big word you wouldn’t use.
“The government has failed to protect every citizen in Nigeria regardless of his faith, regardless of where he comes from. So, if you’re saying Muslims, Christians, Jukun, Hausa, Fulani, you are missing the point.
“A life is a life. A Muslim, a Christian, a Jukun, an Hausa, a Fulani, a Kanuri, a life is a life. We are all creation of God and the government that is vested to take care of all of us is not doing its job. And that is why we are the mess we are in today.
“And people are saying ‘It is…..” That’s why you see all over the place, Magnus are fighting, Tivs are this, Idomas are this, Fulanis are this, Kanuris are this,” Usman said.
The DEFENDER recalls that, at the heat of international campaign against President Muhammadu Buhari, it was Professor Yusuf Usman who once attended a US Congress debate where he countered – thinking that all lies told to the Western collaborators were already exhaustively neutralised on this same Nigerian Christians’ petition that has thrived only under Trump (first and second coming).
ALSO READ: DEFENDER REPORT: We shall change our govt democratically not by US invasion – Analysts
The balancing by Jimoh Jimoh
A public affairs analyst in Nigeria, Jimoh Jimoh, in his own reaction, has provided details of other side of the terrorism effects the Christian leaders, who working with America to bring their country under fresh colonialist hegemony, have wittingly or unwittingly failed to let their foreign collaborators know.
According to Jimoh, “If truly there is genocide against the Christians in Nigeria, the government MUST expose the perpetuators of the crime…
“This is because anybody can be a killer irrespective of tribe, religion and region..
“1) Mr. John Alaku Akpavan, the man arrested in an attempt to bomb Radio House Abuja was a Christian.
“(2) Lydia Joseph (the failed bomber of St. John Catholic Cathedral) of Bauchi State who attempted to bomb a church on September 12, 2011 was a Christian.
“(3) Augustine Effiong, Akwa Ibom indigene on April 29th 2012 arrested in connection with BUK bomb attack, he was a Christian.
ALSO READ: By implication, people using power to steal resources currently ruling Nigeria – Ndume
“(4) Emmanuel King arrested in attempt to bomb the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, while camouflaged in Islamic attire on December 28, 2011. Emmanuel was a Christian.
“(5) Igbo traders that gunned down a dozen of fellow Igbo businessmen of the same Christian
faith inside the Christ Apostolic Church in Adamawa State on Friday January 6, 2012.
“(6) Samson Mangai who was arrested in Plateau state attempting to bomb a church was a christian in November 2011..
ALSO READ: FCT, Lagos lead in hostilities against civic, press freedom in Nigeria – Report
“(7) Madam Ruth, who attempted to bomb the
ECWA church, Kalaring Kaltingo, in Gombe State on 12 Mar 2012. She Was Christian
“(8) Case of the arrest of about eight Christians in Bauchi in an attempt to blast the COCIN Church on Sunday, February 26, 2012.
“(9) Case of the Christian bomber lynched while escaping after blasting the COCIN Church of Jos on Sunday, February 26, 2012.
“(10) Mr Alex Danladi involved in COCIN HQ bombing was lynched by worshipers. He was a church member disguised in military uniform in 2013..
“(11) Jonathan Gyanet, police officer was arrested attempt to bomb ERCC church in Akwanga Nassarawa State on 20 April 2014 was Christian.
“(12) Birom Christian militias killed a Muslim retired General Idris Alkali, dumped his dead in well, vehicle found in a pond in a village called Duradu in Plateau in 2018. Over 30 Christians were arrested as. Culprits from that village
“(13) On 2 February 2020, Worshipers at Living Faith Church, Sabon Tasha, Chikun local government of Kaduna state were on Sunday thrown into fear after a man suspected to be a suicide bomber gained access into the church’s auditorium carrying a device suspected to be an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). He was a Christian, a member of the church by name Nathaniel Samuel..
ALSO READ: Sokoto, Taraba Governors, Emirs attend closing of 12th Usman Dan Fodio Week
“(14) In 2022, more than 10 Yoruba Muslims traveling back home from Bauchi to Ondo were massacred by Plateau Christian youths just like that…
“(15) In June 2025, 13 Muslims from Zaria going to MANGU Plateau State for a wedding ceremony were killed by MANGU youths, the Father and the mother of the groom were victims..,” he listed and urged that “THIS GOVERNMENT MUST WAKE UP…”
ALSO READ: MURIC queries CAN’s petition to Trump, says “Tinubu treated Nigerian Christians well”
