How would you describe your experience as CAN President? I have always believed in my life that a position of authority goes with responsibility. So, I see my becoming the President of Christian Association of Nigeria as a call to service and a position of extraordinary responsibility to stand in the gap for the church and for believers today. So, it is an awesome responsibility. You look at it. It is huge. What would you describe as your most challenging moment as CAN President? My most challenging moment and in a sense still challenges me is that I came at a time when Christians were being slaughtered like goats across many of the northern states. I came into this position at a very trying time for Nigeria, but specifically for the church, for Christians. I wake up some mornings and I turn on my television and the next thing I see is that a church has been burnt or somebody calls me at 2am to tell me that gunmen had gone into a church and killed 25 people. I remember vividly a night when somebody called me from Yobe, Damaturu, and was screaming. Around 1 or 2 am, and was screaming, ‘help me, please help me’. I don’t know how he got my number. Then I told him to calm down and asked him question: ‘What is going on?’ And he said, ‘they are coming, they are coming for me’. You know in that situation, you could here gunshots all over the place. I could here the gunshots and eventually he was shot. He was killed while he was talking to me. You can imagine the trauma and the pain. I didn’t sleep again that day. I can’t go to Damaturu. I don’t even know my way there. Who do I call? It was 2 O’clock in the morning. He was dead and that was why I didn’t hear his voice again. I only heard the sound of a gun and that was it. He was gone. So I came into this position at a time when there is such a strong challenge facing the church that whether I like it or not I would have to face. Well, God knows why he made me CAN president at a time like this. It is my greatest challenge. It is the challenge of the hour. It is an ongoing challenge, like I said, because this problem are still going on. Boko Haram to a large extent has been subdued but not completely eliminated.They are still there. They are still killing, maiming, creating more orphans, widows all over the place. So, it is very challenging, but God is greater than any challenge. And that is my confidence, that is my consolation, and joy. That God who put me there at this time would not leave me but will continue to give me grace and strength to face the challenge. You said Boko Haram has been substantially subdued but not completely eliminated.Many would share that view too. But we are also worried that when government was claiming victory in its war against the sect, in the past few days, we had unprecedented killings by gunmen suspected to be members of the sect in Yobe. What do you think is really the solution to this terrorist activities? First of all, terrorism is something that, in my opinion, you may not be able to, 100 per cent, eliminate completely. But to a large extent, you can bring to the barest minimum, to a point where a nation can ... for example America today is going on as a nation but you cannot rule out terrorist attacks. Once in a while, it happens and they take care of it and after a while you here of another one. That is what I mean. It will always happen. So, I think it is important for me to say that, because that is the world in which we live today. We live in a world where certain persons want to impose their beliefs on other people and it is a terrible thing. So, having said that, let me say that the security agencies have tried, they have done well. They have done a good job. I applauded Mr. President when he declared the state of emergency in those states and I think it was the right decision because you could see that immediately after that, there was a drastic drop in the activities of Boko Haram. I think it is on record that a lot of their key leaders have also been eliminated. But now why is it that we are seeing another upsurge of the same insurgency again? I think, probably, two or three things are responsible. Number one, I believe that Boko Haram is a confused organisation right now. And a confused man can run in any direction. As a confused organisation, they will still want to make you feel that we are here. We are not gone. You have not eliminated us, we are still around. We are still relevant, we are still a force to be reckon with. To register their presence, the easiest way is to go after innocent people, kill as many as they can. And naturally, the media will give them front page report and that is exactly what they want. They are looking for that. You must report it, anyway. So what do you do? But that is exactly what they want. By so doing, they get the attention and all eyes are turned to them again and that makes them relevant. You know. So, that is what, in my own opinion, what is happening right now. They are doing that to make sure that we don’t forget that they are still here, we have not gone yet, remember us, we are still around. That is what is happening now. The second thing is that, although I am not a member of Boko Haram, I don’t know how they function. But they look to me right now like a group without a structured leadership. They go this way, they kill and some are killing over there because they are scattered all over the place. It looks like a group of people who have no direction. Nobody to give them direction about where to go and how to go about whatever they should do. So, they are just... among themselves, they take a decision, at different locations and different places and say, ‘ok, this is what we will do and just go ahead and do it’. And sometimes, groups of people like that can be more dangerous than even the structured ones because at this time, it is like they have nothing to lose. Now, the third thing to me is the real painful thing and I believe that the security agencies must look inwards. One of the reasons I think that this people are getting more a little bit successful in what they do now is because they are getting information from within the military themselves. (Click to read more)
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 11:57:49 +0000
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