*You don’t have to own them before, Respondent counters CAN, NCEF
*Says, ‘President doesn’t stop you from visiting him, check yourselves’
*Watch it, PDP’ll join in this to show CAN, NCEF are political, he predicts
In his condemnation of the CAN and NCEF’s reactions, the Respondent said, “Tell me, you are a pressman, did those Arewa Pastors tell the President that they came on behalf of Christian Association of Nigeria or that they are representatives of Northern Christian Elders Forum? As far as my memory is concerned, they said they are Arewa Pastors’ Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria. Why are CAN and NCEF having sleepless night with that? Are they saying that other people do not have their freedom to belong to any association of their choice after all not all Christian groups are members of CAN or NCEF? Okay the Arewa Pastors promised the President that they would expose Christian groups who sponsor and plot hate speeches and dangerous rumours in order to cause chaos in the land. Are CAN and NCEF actually into plots to set this country on fire?”
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), under the leadership of Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, its President, and the Northern branch of the group as well as Northern Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF), over the weekend, disowned some pastors who made a solidarity visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa last week.
The Christian cleric who visited the President were in the Villa under the aegis of Arewa Pastors’ Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria, led by Bishop John Abu Richards, and urged him to continue his good works and not be distracted by naysayers.
Ayokunu, CAN President: His Christian group accused of being political ally of opposition.
The two opposing groups of CAN and NCEF, national and in the North, were however responded to by one of our numerous respondents who dismissed their reactions to the Arewa Pastors’ visit to the President as needless.
He added that except the CAN and NCEF have proof justifying them as religious groups to be in conflict with the President of the country, this being the first time they would be presenting themselves as opposition to any sitting President in the last 19 years. He added that they lack the moral justification for their condemnation of the Arewa Pastors, whose visit to the President had no connection with CAN or NCEF.
During their visit, the President thanked members of the delegation and also used the opportunity to debunk accusations in some quarters that he is biased against Christianity.
But in a swift reaction, both CAN and NCEF came out strongly to lampoon the Arewa Pastors in two separate statements.
According to a statement signed by Reverend John Hayap, CAN’s publicity secretary, “these folks who described themselves as Arewa Pastors are unknown to us,” insisting that the body is not known to the Christian Association of Nigeria in the North and cannot be said to be representing Christians in the North.
“We have searched through all our chapters in the 19 Northern states and Abuja and we found out that the leader of the delegation and most of them reside in Port-Hacourt, Rivers State,” the CAN PRO stated.
He alleged that the leader of the group is from Benue State, according to findings with most of them from the South-South states.
Rev. Hayap wondered why the Christian leaders did not seize the opportunity of being with the president to draw attention to Leah Sharibu’s plight.
“Boko Haram was said to have retained Sharibu, the only Christian among more than 100 kidnapped girls who were freed recently, prompting the Northern CAN to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to obtain her release. Boko Haram refused to release Leah Nathan Sharibu, 15, because she would not renounce her faith and convert to Islam. The Northern Christian leaders are all busy praying for the safe return of Leah Sharibu, and would not engage in politics. We love the president and we pray for him daily,” he concluded.
On its part, the NCEF, in a statement signed by the chairman, Elder Solomon Asemota, said, “President Buhari made a veiled reference to NCEF in his speech when a group of persons purporting to be Arewa Pastors’ Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria led by one Bishop John Abu Richards visited him”.
According to NCEF, “this group portends danger to all Christians in Nigeria, especially when these impostors want the President to link them with the security agencies. One newspaper quoted them as saying: ‘we demand His Excellency, 1. That you support our 5,009 Arewa Pastors Peace and Unity National Delegate Prayer Congress at the Eagle Square on Thursday, April 26, 2018. We will want His Excellency to link us with the relevant security agencies in our crusade for peace and fight against hate speeches and those dark walls that separate us as we will network with our counterparts from the East and West to hand over those of our colleagues being used by the enemies of our togetherness to inject confusion and false stories into the public space resulting to the destabilization of peaceful co-existence we were enjoying in the country’”.
“This request,” NCEF pointed out in its statement, “shows clearly that these people are not Christians much less pastors. When a child of 15 years, Leah Sharibu, can defy death, they are asking for security protection”.
On the issue of Islamisation raised by the Arewa Pastors, NCEF pooh-poohed their position, saying “this statement portrays ignorance of the meaning of jihad. Muslims killed in jihads are martyrs while Christians and non-Islamists including traditional worshippers are the victims of conventional jihads. It is stealth jihad by Islamists (fundamentalists) in the establishment who have assembled impostors posing as Christian pastors to promote political Islam by discrediting responsible Nigerians in their defense of Democracy and Rule of Law.
“This explains why no Christian should speak in defense of Islamism or political Islamism because of extreme ignorance on the subject. It is clear that this body of impostors of Christianity wants protection in their crusade against democracy in the promotion of Sharia in Nigeria. The same security that did not protect Leah Sharibu, now must protect them against Sharibu’s religion. In the face of the above fact, CAN is being gradually replaced by impostors before the present administration,” NCEF chairman stated.
The Arewa Pastors, during their visit, had pledged loyalty to President Buhari: “Your Excellency, we the 19 Northern States pastors under the New platform called the Arewa Pastors Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria believe in your leadership and we are here to let you know that we are fully standing by you and your government to ensure that you succeed and peace is restored to every and corners of the country.
“And to counter those deceiving and poisoning Nigerians with fake news to destroy your good intentions for the country especially those giving the impression that you are against Christians and some ethnic groups in Nigeria which is a big lie for instance: Some Pastors using places of worship to preach hate. People using Church to preach violence”.
In his condemnation of the CAN and NCEF’s reactions, the Respondent said, “Sometimes it is laughable to listen to these groups of Christians talk as if they own everything in this world. Tell me, you are a pressman, did those Arewa Pastors tell the President that they came on behalf of Christian Association of Nigeria or that they are representatives of Northern Christian Elders Forum? As far as my memory is concerned, they said they are Arewa Pastors’ Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria. Why are CAN and NCEF having sleepless night with that? Are they saying that other people do not have their freedom to belong to any association of their choice after all not all Christian groups are members of CAN or NCEF? Okay the Arewa Pastors promised the President that they would expose Christian groups who sponsor and plot hate speeches and dangerous rumours in order to cause chaos in the land. Are CAN and NCEF actually into plots to set this country on fire? If they are not, they should fear nothing about the Arewa Pastors as their condemnation of the Arewa Pastors’ Non-Denominational Initiative for Peace in Nigeria will only rubbish them if they do not desist.
“Instead, they should come clear and tell the world why they so much loved Jonathan then and now but have just chosen to so hate President Buhari with passion such that even when some Christians publicly declare their love for the President, they must find a way of neutralizing that declaration or fighting those Christians.
“And the funniest part of this is that, just watch it, CAN has always been the group to start a controversy that heats up the polity, the PDP will follow suit now. Just watch it, this particular visit of Arewa Pastors held since on Thursday, they didn’t talk. But because the group that is in the physical portraying self as religious but in the real life is political ally especially in the struggle against Muhammadu Buhari since 2015 and now against his 2019, CAN, has opened the controversy, watch it again I say, the PDP will now begin to talk,” he said.
