Sharon Faliya Cham
Just like that, without defining her status as to whether she sees herself as the global police or the global judiciary or the global arbiter of matters concerning nations of the earth or whether she sees herself as the ruling monarch over all nations to which they must all account and bow to, the United States of America recently concocted and publicized a list of countries she sees as places where there is religious persecutions, or places with limited religious freedoms, which she arrogantly named as Special Watch List (SWL). If the United States of America cares at all about religious persecutions and religious freedoms, then shouldn’t she have put herself as Number One on her so-called Special Watch List based on the travel ban she placed on certain Muslim nations from traveling into the USA in January 2017? If that’s not religious persecution, then what else is? The so called travel ban was purportedly done to forestall Islamic terrorism but the lie and hypocrisy of it all was, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York, there has been no such terror attack associated with foreign Islamists in America again. Almost all the subsequent terrorist attacks within the US were pulled by either neo-Nazi White Supremacists or some other criminally-minded individuals usually termed as ‘mentally ill’ by government officials, and the terror attacks are usually either on Christians worshipping in churches or Jews worshipping in their synagogues, with the recent ones being on Friday, December 27, 2019 when Jews celebrating the feast of Hanukkah in the home of a Rabbi in New York were attacked, and on Sunday, December 29, 2019 when a gunman entered a Texas church and opened fire on Christian worshippers. And this is without even counting the regular gun attacks on schools, night clubs and other relaxation spots in the US by armed individuals!
But then, back home here in Nigeria, America has an ally in this show of lies and shame. Like a hungry kid glancing around to grab whatever seems like a feeding bottle to stick in its mouth, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and their fringe associates embraced the naming of Nigeria by America among her Special Watch List, and then turned it into their customary songs of pathos and bathos, which are always neither here nor there. According to them, it is true that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria, especially in the northern part of the country. They always cite as evidence the periodic mutual killings between farmers and Fulani herders in Southern Kaduna, and parts of Plateau, Benue and Taraba states. Each time a crisis like that erupts, they quickly attribute it to religion; that it’s part of an agenda by Muslims to Islamize the country!
They also always claim that Christians in the north are always denied land and Certificates of Occupancy to build churches, which always leaves any widely traveled observer to wonder whether the solid church buildings that dot all the capitals and major towns of all the northern states are built on air and not on land. And if the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy by state governments for the building of worship centers is part of what defines religious freedom, then the best way for CAN to win this argument is for them to gather copies of all the Certificates of Occupancy of all the churches in southern Nigeria, and present them to the media and the public as evidence of the unfettered freedom Christianity enjoys in the “Christian South’’. Or, to further make a very compelling case against the Muslim north on this frequent claim about denials of Certificates of Occupancy for the building of churches in the north, CAN should as well use northern (Middle Belt) states like Benue, Plateau and Taraba who are always governed (during democracy) by Christian governors as an example by showing to the media and the public the Certificates of Occupancy issued to all the churches in those states by the governors!
And for effect, they can as well get copies of the Certificates of Occupancy granted Muslims in southern Nigeria and the ‘’Middle Belt’’ to build mosques as evidence of the unfettered freedom Muslims enjoy in the south and the ‘’Middle Belt’’, contrary to the ‘’persecutions’’ Christians suffer in the Muslim north. And while at it, they can also do well by engaging the services of smart detectives to get them copies of the Certificates of Occupancy granted strictly to Muslims by Muslim northern states for the building of mosques while Christians are denied same. That’s how this argument can be won in a country like Nigeria where lies, propaganda and false claims of victimization have become the order of the day in our relationships.
If CAN is not being mischievous and dishonest, why can’t they even recognize that President Muhammadu Buhari is fairer to Christians in his appointments than any previous Christian President was to Muslims? The same Christian Central Bank Governor appointed by Jonathan has been retained by him for five years now, and his Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Naval Staff are all Christians, and these are all key appointments. So, what does CAN actually want? Or does CAN think because President Jonathan did the most lopsided appointments in history, Nigeria therefore belongs to only one religion that must corner all key positions of government, so much that because President Buhari has balanced it up in a most fair manner they are now persecuting him with the fiction of persecution of Christians?
The issues only need to be looked at and analyzed factually and truthfully based on what everybody can see, and not on some hysterical outbursts that are always influenced by sentiments and feelings of inferiority complex. However, it is a major weakness on the part of the Buhari administration to have allowed enemies of the administration to gain the upper hand in information warfare, especially overseas. By not rising to the occasion to dispatch a solid delegation of envoys comprising truthful religious leaders, intellectuals, media professionals, youth and women representatives and some government officials to tour the globe, and meet with all the groups and influential persons T.Y. Danjuma and his team of mischief were meeting since 2018 to sell them those lies of persecution in Nigeria, the administration unwittingly ceded its enemies the privilege and power to market fake news against it. Even back home in Nigeria, the administration is not aggressive enough in the dissemination of information that can counter the endless stream of misinformation warfare its enemies are waging against it. It must sit up, restrategise and win the war of information dissemination or continue to risk being overwhelmed by Nigeria’s criminal class with their lies and endless stream of fake news.
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