Kaduna Church Bombings Instigated By Buhari's Comments

A group of Northern Christians called have blamEd the recent spate of violence in Kaduna on the recent utterances of Muhammadu Buhari which they branded as inciteful. Buhari, the CPC presidential candidate in last year's election has beenn caught up in controversial statements of late. CHAIN released the statement below;

Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN) is very concerned that Muhammadu Buhari, a resident of Kaduna city in Kaduna state has kept a loud silence in view of the series of bloody suicide attacks that greeted five churches in Kaduna this past weekend. Our concern is all the more heightened given the fact that Muhammadu Buhari was very vociferous in calling for bloodshed only a few weeks ago and when bloodshed arrived at his door steps he has chosen to keep quiet.

It would be recalled that when Buhari made his call for bloodshed between "dogs" and "baboons", Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN) warned that his comments were capable of inciting violence from sleeper cells who were waiting for his commands to strike.

At that time we had warned in a widely publicized statement carried in most Nigerian papers that "Buhari should not turn the current war on terror to a North versus South affair. When Buhari says that "Since the leaders now don’t listen to anybody but do whatever they wish, there is nothing the north can do"

We call on Nigerians to recall those words of Buhari and note how those words have incited the recent events in Kaduna. But perhaps more damning is Buhari's loud silence when all around him in Kaduna extremists are fulfilling his prophecy. Does Buhari's silence mean consent?

We wish to state that we believe that there is a direct link between the inciting rhetoric of Buhari and the recent unpsurge of violence. Furthermore, we call on Nigerians to ask themselves the following questions;

When was the last time that Buhari condemned Boko Haram or any of their attacks?

Who are those calling for the Federal Government to dialogue with Boko Haram?

When Nigerians have objectively answered the above questions,they will find that Buhari and his political party and close associates habitually keep a loud silence when it comes to condemning Boko Haram, but are most vociferous when it comes to calling for dialogue with Boko Haram. Need we say more? Nigerians should read between the lines.

Nigerians may want to cast their minds back to only a week ago when Buhari who only a few days before was using the Dana Crash to score political points travelled to Kano to celebrate and felicitate with the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on his turbanning as Dan Majen Kano, just five days after the crash which threw the whole nation into mourning.

Buhari's comments on Shari'a just before the Shari'a riots in Kaduna in 2000 stoked the flames that ended up claiming over 2000 lives, his comments to Muslims to vote only Muslim candidates in 2003 polarized Nigeria and led to mutual distrust during the 2003 elections, his comments on lynching people stoked the post election violence that swept Northern Nigeria after the 2011 elections and finally his "dog" and "baboon....soaked in blood" rhetoric incited the recent violence in KYaduna just as the comments of Hutu politicians calling Tutsis "cockroaches" led to the ethnic cleansing that claimed 2 Million lives in Rwanda.

A slave who sees his fellow slave being buried in a shallow grave should know that he will be so buried when his own time comes if he does not escape. If Nigerians think Buhari's comments cannot lead to ethnic cleansing then they should be reminded of the recent statement by an Italian minister that what is happening in Northern Nigeria is ethnic and religious cleansing.

Pastor Caleb Ma'aji
National Coodinator,
Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN)
Kaduna.