The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has said the only difference between Nigerian government and the Boko Haram insurgents is that the later operates with bomb.
From an article provided by Aid to the Church in Need UK, Catholic Herald reports that Kukah spoke in the wake of the Christmas Day attack by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and an attack by Boko Haram on Christmas Eve in which seven people were killed.
ISWAP had released a video on December 26 in which it was beheading 10 Christians and shooting a Muslim.
The group said it was avenging the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghadi, Daesh (ISIS)’s leader, and other senior Daesh members killed during a US raid in October.
While condemning ISWAP’s action, the clergyman said the Nigerian government uses different methods to achieve the same goal of Islamic dominance.
“The only difference between the government and Boko Haram is Boko Haram is holding a bomb,” he told Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need.
“They are using the levers of power to secure the supremacy of Islam, which then gives more weight to the idea that it can be achieved by violence. With the situation in Nigeria, it is hard to see the moral basis they have to defeat Boko Haram.
“They have created the conditions to make it possible for Boko Haram to behave the way they are behaving.”
Kukah alleged that the Nigerian government had given key positions to hardline Muslims thereby giving tacit support to ISWAP and Boko Haram.
He said, “If the people in power don’t do enough to integrate Christians then they give oxygen to Islamism. If they have countries where everybody is Muslim in power, then you give vent to the idea that Islam should be supreme.”
The cleric said Western nations are only interested in exploiting Africa’s resources and are therefore not doing enough to defend Africans.
He said: “Western nations are not doing enough. They have shown that the resources of Africa are more important than the ordinary people.
“Clearly, the Western nations could have reduced the influence of Boko Haram by 80 or 90 percent – they have deliberately not done enough.”
Kukah said it was the peaceful tenets of Christianity that had prevented Nigeria from sliding into civil war.
According to him, “Christians have every reason to feel insecure and also there is a general feeling of their marginalisation from the political process. If the principles of our religion were different, there would be a civil war by now.
“It is the glory of our religion that this hasn’t happened. It is difficult to preach peace in this context. Any resolution depends on how Christians decide to react. They won’t use violence but what will they do?”