Oritsejafor: Only muslim clerics can end Boko Haram

Oritsejafor: Only muslim clerics can end Boko Haram

Wednesday, July 23, 2014 11:23 pm


Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta

President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has reiterated his belief that the Boko Haram insurgency in some parts of Northern Nigeria, cannot be tamed by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Instead,  he said, the insurgency can be brought under control  with the intervention of religious leaders from the northern part of the country.

Oritsejafor  spoke today in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun state during the graduation send forth/ prize giving day ceremony held by Stephen International Centre. The centre also takes care of children orphaned by Boko Haram insurgency.

The  occasion  was attended by prominent personalities include the Secretary to the State Government,  SSG, Barr. Taiwo Adeoluwa, Coordinator of CAN, South West, Arch. Bishop Magnus Atilade, State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Elizabeth Sonubi and National Coordinator of the Voice of Christian Martyrs, Bro. Isaac Oluwole  among others dignitaries.

According to Oritsejafor, “with all sense of all responsibility, I use this opportunity to call on all Muslims religious leaders, traditional rulers and political leaders in the north, not necessarily in the South west, because in the South West, we have lived together and I know the way it operates in the South West.

File Photo:Oritsejafor and President Goodluck Jonathan

File Photo:Oritsejafor and President Goodluck Jonathan

“I was told this land where this school was built was bought from a Muslim. If a Muslim organization needs a land and a christian has it, sell it to them, that’s the way to live and the kind of country we are looking for. So, I am challenging from the north, our religious leaders, political rulers and traditional rulers, as a matter of urgency, to step forward and take responsibilities for the way out of this problem.

“Boko Haram is propelled by a religious ideology, it is not poverty. Anyone who tells you it is poverty is not telling you the truth,  It is not poverty. When you blame it on poverty, it is an insult to poor people. There are poor people everywhere even Christians all over the north. Bin Laden was not a poor man, he is from a rich Saudi Arabian family.

“The Nigerian boy who almost blew up a plane on Christmas day is a son of one First Bank Chairman and he is still one of the richest people in Nigeria today. Boko Haram insurgency is an ideology, people are being radicalised by an ideology.

“Salafism and Wahabism are doctrines that come from Saudi Arabia and they have crept into the South west.They have taken people to Saudi Arabia and sent them back to you and coming into our mosques, they start their own new mosques and radicalising some of them. Boko Haram is a strong, devilish ideology and it is a terrible thing and we must not run from it, we must face the fact.

“Now, this ideology must be countered with a superior ideology. You can only counter an ideology with another superior ideology. They must engage them and win them with a superior argument and spread a positive view to Nigerians  in the grassroots to their followers in mosques and everywhere”, Oritsejafor posited.

The Director of the Centre,  Bro. Isaac Oluwole urged government and philanthropists to assist it.

“There are millions of Nigerians who can do good work and they need encouragement from the federal government”,Oluwole stated


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