The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who was recently re-elected for a second term as leader of the Christian body spoke on a wide variety of issues with the Vanguard newspaper in an interview.
During the interview he stated that a major goal of his is to ensure that Christians in Nigeria “are treated as true citizens of the country.” His interviewer immediately asked for some substantiation to what he said. “In what ways are Christians treated as second class citizens,” he was asked.
“Actually, in my opinion, Christians are being treated as second class citizens in virtually every way! Let me give you some examples because if I begin to tell you everything, you will not even have space to publish it,” said Oritsejafor.
Then he listed these 7 examples:
1. In the education sector, Almajiri schools are being built everywhere in many states of the North. I don’t know how many of such schools, but everybody knows that in 2012, the Federal Government spent N5 billion to construct Almajiri schools.
The Almajiri schools are exclusively for Muslim children. There are millions of Christian children who cannot go to those schools. How are we giving those Christian children the same opportunity to be educated? So automatically they have been made second class citizens.
Don’t forget that the schools which Christians used their money to build were taken over by government and the same government is using public funds to build special schools for Almajiri Muslims. That shows that Christians are just second class citizens.
Government is running all those schools taken from Christians the way they want. Both Christians and Muslims go to those schools but the Almajiri schools are exclusively for Muslim children only.
2. When you go to the judiciary, it is the same story.
I read what a lawyer, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, said in the newspapers recently. He noted that the constitution is being reviewed and there are provisions for Sharia for Nigerian Muslims, there is customary court, what is the provision for Christians? The general courts are shared by both Christians and Muslims. When Christians have very knotty issues that are purely Christian in nature, where will they go to? The regular courts may not have clear solution to such cases. So Agbakoba has come out to say he may sue the Federal Government and the National Assembly. This, to me, is a very interesting move. I just hope that our Muslim brothers will appreciate what I am trying to explain. In the Sharia courts which are funded with public funds, only Muslims are employed there.
From the cleaner to the judge, no Christian can be employed in the Sharia court. In the regular courts, there are both Muslims and Christians as well. From the lowest level of the court, to the highest level, they are there. They are the ones that head the Supreme Court and most of the courts with the Sharia court exclusively for them. What is the judicial system for Christians? It is not there, so they are second class.
3. Go to the government owned media houses and see what is happening there, especially the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA). I don’t know now because some of them retired at a point, but, before their retirement, the seven directors out of eight were Muslims. Turn that around and see what will happen. What do you call that? Second class citizens.
Let me even go further, if I go to NTA Sokoto today and say here is my money, I want to preach on NTA that is funded with tax payers’ money, they will throw my money away and say you cannot preach Christianity on NTA Sokoto.
4. A judge in Abuja came out to say Islamic banking is illegal, but he added a caveat by saying that his hands were tight, he could not do anything about it because it was not the right people that came to court. I am still wondering who the right people to come to court are! But the important thing he said was that Islamic banking is illegal.
It is illegal but it is functioning at its peak, established and financed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), not Central Bank of Islam. The Governor of the CBN almost seems to be working for a section of the country and nobody can say anything about it. Yet it is something that is supposed to be illegal.
What the CBN ought to have done was to have one unified system for non-interest banking, but, instead of doing that, what it did is to specifically come out with a set of guidelines for Islamic banking, saying they had another set of guidelines for others. And who are these others? They are the Christians. It is amazing when you see these things happening. Every area you look at, it is the same story.
5. Go to higher institutions of higher, especially in the North, there are courses that Christians will never be offered admission to study, that is if you even get admission at all because you are a Christian and that automatically makes you a second class person.
You recall how a Christian was rejected for appointment as the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria some years back even when he emerged as the most qualified during the interview for the position.
In some northern states, the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) in public schools is prohibited. Why do you allow for the teaching of Islamic studies, but you cannot allow the teaching of CRK? I am puzzled.
6. We know that in some of the northern states, there is an unwritten law that you cannot sell land or building to be used for church or a brothel. So the church and brothel are put on the same level! How do you describe that? In the last 20 years, there is no church in some of these northern states that has Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
This is one Nigeria, but it is like animal farm. Some animals are more equals than others. That is what we are seeing in this wonderful country called Nigeria.
In some of the northern states, the government spends millions of naira to sponsor Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca without extending same gesture to Christians who are even indigenes of those states.
We are aware that in some of the far northern states, foreigners, who are Muslims from Niger and Chad republics, are more accommodated and are accepted into the scheme of things than Nigerians who are Christians from other states of the federation.
7. They can abduct your daughter and forcefully marry her. They literally kidnapped people’s daughters who are Christians and give them out for marriage but they will never allow their daughters to marry Christians. Imagine a pastor going to abduct an Imam’s daughter; do you think we will still have one Nigeria? From the www.scooping.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment