The Christian
Association of Nigeria, civil rights groups and the pan-Yoruba socio-political
group, Afenifere, on Wednesday said the comment of the United States President,
Mr. Donald Trump, on the killings in Nigeria was a wake-up call to President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Trump, before a closed-door meeting with
Buhari on Monday, described the killing of Christians in Nigeria as a serious
problem.
CAN, in its reaction, said Trump hit the nail
on its head when he informed Buhari that Christians were being killed in
Nigeria, noting that the American leader told the Nigerian government the right
thing.
The spokesman for CAN
President, Pastor Bayo Oladeji, said the President should address the killings
in the country.
He stated, “We are
happy that President Trump has told President Buhari the right thing to do. We
hope and believe President Buhari would do the right thing and sit up. He has
to sit up.
“Every time we tell
them Christians are being killed, they don’t want to listen, but that is the
truth. If the President cannot protect Christians, we have two options, we
fight back. The law of the land permits self-defence. Secondly, come 2019, we
vote him out. If he says there is nothing Christians can do, let him dare us,”
Oladeji stressed.
Two civil society
organisations, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and the Centre for
Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, said Buhari needed not to be told by external powers such as America before the killings
in parts of Nigeria were tackled and curbed.
The CDHR President,
Malachy Ugwummadu, said, “The admonition by Trump to stop the killings is a
reaffirmation of the constitutional obligation of the government, but we
needn’t hear it from external powers.
“It is not just
sufficient to make promises, but it is time to fulfil the existing ones. There
are already existing agreements between the US and Nigeria which should be
visited, not just military cooperation.”
Also the CACOL
Director, Debo Adeniran, said the US could assist in ending the killings and
violence in the Middle Belt region through the provision of attack helicopters
and other sophisticated weapons to Nigeria.
He said, “The present
administration must make the most of that visit to the United States. One, the
US has signified its desire to offer weaponised helicopters to us. That means
that we have more replenished arsenals to deal with all the internal
aggressions facing us.
“Also, that America has
agreed to work with us to defeat Boko Haram and other criminals is a plus which
the government must take a firm hold of. We should also look inwards at our own
security capacities.”
Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere
described Trump’s advice to Buhari as
good admonition, noting however that it was not only Christians that were being
killed.
Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, said the
President disappointed Nigerians by absolving Fulani herdsmen of involvement in
the killings, stressing that he spoke as “the patron of Miyetti Allah, not as
the President of Nigeria.”
“He should not have gone to the international
stage and say Fulani herdsmen don’t carry AK 47; that destroyed everything for
the President. This is why Afenifere said he should make a choice between the
Presidency and being the patron of Miyetti Allah. He spoke in America in
defence of Fulani herdsmen as their patron, not as the President of Nigeria and
that is conflict of interest,” Odumakin said.
Afenifere dismissed Buhari’s announcement that
6,000 police constables should be recruited, adding that it would not make much
difference to the security situation in the country.
But the Muslim Rights
Concern criticised Trump’s comments on the killings of
Christians in Nigeria.
The group said Trump
misfired by making the statement and alleged that he “is only using religion to
turn Nigeria into another Iraq.”
MURIC advised Nigerian
Christians against “swallowing Trump’s bait,” else the West African sub-region
would “be shaken to its foundation.”
MURIC in a statement by
its Director, Ishaq Akintola, condemned Trump’s statement.
He stated, “It is sheer
interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. Trump has a bully’s
instinct.
“If this is the same
Trump who called African countries ‘shithole’, the same American president who
threatened to wipe out North Korea, the same US leader who banned Muslims from
entering his country, the same Republican who said, “Torture works, ok folks?”,
Nigerians must be wary of America’s involvement in their affairs.
“We should remember
that Nigeria did not get the required support from the moderate and cool-headed
Barrack Obama in its war against terrorism. We should therefore not expect any
from Trump who treats vulnerable nations with contempt and has no respect for
African countries. Unless Nigerians unite, this country will become America’s
‘shithole.”
Also, a former
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bulus Lolo, said
the Federal Government should change tactics and strategies to end the
killings.
He stated that Nigeria could not afford to become a pariah state again,
stressing that the government would be called to question if it failed to act
appropriately.
Lolo, who is a former Ambassador to Ethiopia
said, “It is in government supreme interest to act in a manner that the
international community would applaud rather than be appalled by what is going
on in the country.
“You want to be commended, not condemned for
your action. Such spotlight would not cast us in very good light. Whether
government is doing enough or not, it means there is need to change tactics and
the strategies that had been used so far.”
But another former
envoy to Australia, Ambassador Ayo
Olukanni, said the exchange between Trump and Buhari was normal discussion on
the international scene, noting that the Federal Government had been doing what
it should do to address the killings.
Credit: Punch
Newspapers
Comments
Post a Comment