National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who on Monday celebrated his birthday, in an interview spoke about ways of stopping insurgency and said that negotiation with Boko Haram is waste of time.
When asked whether constant attacks on his person will deter him from speaking his mind, his answer was: “God forbid. It cannot!” Excerpts:
What’s your birthday wish for Nigeria?
My birthday wish for Nigeria is that we will have a nation where everyone is equal; not just by national anthem, not just in words, but in deeds. That Nigeria will be a nation where people are not judged by tribe or by religion, but purely on the quality of their character, their person. My wish is to have a nation where anybody can go from Sokoto to Calabar and be accepted as a Nigerian. I don’t have to change my religion to live in a certain part of the country.
In view of the growing insurgency in parts of the country, why has NIREC not held any meeting to address the challenge?
I am as puzzled as you are because the Sultan and I are co-chairs of that organisation. We’ve not had a meeting now for almost two years and I’m puzzled because at least three times I have been informed of a meeting. I would love that we sit and talk. And we should be able to put these issues on the table and put timeline and agree on how we want to solve some of the problems facing Nigeria today. The traditional rulers, the religious leaders and political leaders; these three groups of people are very crucial to solving the problems facing Nigeria today.
Recently we heard that there was a ceasefire, later we were told that there was no ceasefire whatsoever…
I think I’m the wrong person to ask this because, first of all, I was not part of it. I don’t know anything about any ceasefire. You people should ask the relevant authorities to explain what they meant by ceasefire because I have no idea. What I know from what some very devout Muslims have told me is that when a Jihad starts, they don’t stop. The Jihad has to be completed. They either die or they achieve their goal. And the goal is to Islamize Nigeria. The real war is a war between the ideology of Sharia and the ideology of democracy. This is the war that is going on, and it is a worldwide war.
In Nigeria, we are ostriches; we put our heads in the sand. The western world is doing the same. They think as long as they are hiding in the sand, their problems will vanish. It’s not going anywhere. We have to face reality. The problem is real. Boko Haram will not negotiate with anybody. It’s a waste of time, energy and effort. They may end up talking with some people. But the problem is there are people who are still killing people and raising up their flags every day in different places. This is the reality on ground. Let’s stop the deception. Let’s stop the games. What is happening is real. People are being killed on a daily basis. So what ceasefire? There’s nothing like that anywhere. Shekau himself has been coming out almost every day, saying he doesn’t know anything about any deal. What deal is anybody going to strike with you that is going to stop this trend now that is going on?
Four-way solution
To me, there are three or four things that should be done to solve this problem of insurgency in Nigeria. I don’t know if we can ever totally eradicate it but I think we can reduce it drastically and isolate it.
Number one, Christians must not relent in their prayers. There has to be a divine input into what is happening. I have a feeling that God has helped us as a country; if not, the situation would be worse. So I want to plead with every well-meaning Nigerian to pray and pray harder.
Number two, the military must not relent. They must buckle up. I find it very difficult to criticise them and just pull them down to say they are useless and all that. I’m not telling you that I’m satisfied with what I see, but I find it difficult to do that. There are many reasons for that. Number one, these men are Nigerians like us. The difference is that they signed to become soldiers. They are married with wives and children. They are being killed also and their wives made widows and their children orphans. Why should I stand here now to say that they are useless? Having said that, there is a serious problem in our security agency, the problem of sabotage. I’ve been crying out about this for almost two years now, now a lot of people are talking about it. There is serious sabotage. It’s been there, it is just being magnified more and more. All our security agencies have this problem. There are people sympathetic to Boko Haram; some of them are even literally Boko Haram themselves. They leak information every day. It has become so bad that even reporters now get the stories.
The other day I read where a plane was to go and bomb a Boko Harm stronghold which could have stopped the recent invasion of Mubi; but as the plane was approaching its destination, the pilot got a call that he should return to base and he returned to base and these people did all they wanted to do, then they said he should go. So who made that call? Well, I don’t know if they’ve found out who made the call now. There was also an armoured car that was abandoned intentionally. When journalists report and say the soldiers ran away, they make it sound too simple. That’s not what really happened.
From the information I have sometimes, there are some commanders, not all, who will refuse to give the command. By military operations, soldiers cannot attack or respond without a command. Now, if the man who is to command them is not giving them command, and it’s obvious they are going to kill them, what do you expect them to do? So some of them drop their weapons and run. The picture has to be painted correctly. So that’s why some of them run away like that. Then there are some who the thing has been arranged, the people want to leave these weapons for the other people, so they are instructed to run. So they just run away and leave the weapons. It’s not really that they are afraid or can’t fight, but it’s still this sabotage issue. They have to work out the mechanisms by which they can fish out these people.
No matter the equipment you buy; you can buy all the modern equipment, it is getting to a point where the problem is not of poor equipment, the problem is that these saboteurs are using these equipment against government in the sense that they are handing them over to the insurgents. So these crazy people use these same equipment bought with Nigerian money to kill Nigerians. This is an issue that must be looked into seriously and addressed urgently.
Now the third thing; this is also very important, Nigerians, I beg us, let us stop this pretence. It is either we are totally ignorant, which I will be surprised of, or we are totally wicked and pretentious. We keep saying that this thing is not religious; it’s an insult to the sensibility of the average Nigerian. So when will we agree that this is a religious problem? When Nigeria is wiped out? When these people overrun the whole nation before we will know? I read in the papers today that an insurgent was walking around the streets of Mubi preaching. The report states that Boko Haram patrol captured towns preaching to residents. Are they going round begging for food? They are preaching. Preaching what? Don’t we know what they are preaching? They are preaching Sharia. Why are we pretending to be politically correct? Details on the Vanguard.
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