Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack Colonel Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser as well as General Aliyu Gusau, the Minister of Defence over the continuing Boko Haram attacks in Northern part of the country.
The Association said this while condemning recent violent attacks by the insurgents on innocent Christian civilians, Police stations, Prisons and military formations in different parts of Adamawa State in a statement signed by Musa Asake, its Secretary General on Saturday.
The body noted that while recent attacks by Boko Haram in Adamawa State was said to have affected civilians, police stations, prisons and military formations in different parts of the state, the bomb explosion at the Gombe Motor Park was said to have killed over 30 persons and left several others injured.
The umbrella body of Christians in the country maintained that the recent happenings in the North East part of the country had avidly confirmed CAN’s position all along that the Islamic group has no other mission than to annihilate all Christians in the region and install an Islamic regime.
This, according to CAN was because apart from the military infrastructure that were torched by the terrorist group, Ekklesiyar Yan’uaw a Nigeria (EYN), the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, other churches as well as individuals targeted for destruction were all Christians and their places of worship.
CAN therefore asked the Federal Government to explain to the nation the sins committed by the former National Security Adviser, late Gen. Owoeye Azazi who was summarily dismissed in June 2012. Was he sacked because of his Christian religion and to satisfy the cravings of his Muslim counterparts?
Continuing, Asake argued, that the President appointed a Muslim, Col. Sambo Dasuki to replace Gen. Azazi who was a Christian and later appointed another Muslim, Gen. Aliyu Gasau as Defence minister with a pledge to deal ruthlessly with the Boko Harām Islamic terrorists.
“The major task handed down to Col. Dasuki and Gen. Gusau is to tackle Boko Haram insurgency, which was already threatening to spread into other regions of the country.
But the Association said every Nigerian Christian today is asking about the changes have these two military tacticians brought to bear in the war against terror since they were appointed.
“What is the wisdom of entrusting the nation’s security in the hands of two relations from the North West?
“Why have these two relations from Sokoto and Zamfara states not changed their tactics in accordance with the presidential mandate given to them to root out the insurgents in the North East geo-political zone?
“Is this a game plan to eliminate people in that region and put them in perpetual subjugation?” CAN queried.
According to the CAN general secretary, Nigerian Christians are no longer comfortable with the continued inclusion of these two individuals in the cabinet even as the Islamic terrorists have not only changed tactics severally but have conquered more territories and established more caliphates in the North East during their regime than at any other period.
CAN said it wondered why the NSA and the Defence minister have not voluntarily resigned their appointments for poor coordination of relevant agencies to tackle the security challenges in the North East region of the country despite the huge budgetary allocations for the purpose.
View Comments (7)
If Nigerians work together, they can defeat Boko Haram. Unfortunately the way we are going BH will be there until a Govt of their choice wins
CAN is still fighting the battle of botched-money-aundering-and-gun-running noose hanging on the neck of it's leader, that it does not realize that the service chiefs are responsible for prosecuting the war and that Jonathan is the commander-in-chief!
Ignorance is not a virtue and willful-ignorance is foolishness.
CAN should tell Jonathan to resign, followed by his CAN-member service chiefs, and also Gusau and Dasuki - All of them should go.
We need change and it seems May 2015 is a long time to wait, but we'd be patient and do things democratically. In the interim, the folks in the affected areas should bear arms and defend their homes and themselves - and their state governments should help in this
The people CAN should first hang are unfortunately Christians. One of them is the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, the most pacifist officer ever known in the Nigerian military, the man who gleefully told Nigerians that the military had secured a truce with Boko Haram, only for Boko haram to give him a bloody nose thereafter. The second man that ought to go is the chief of army staff, Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah, also a Christian.
By the way the Bokos have seized the home town of Badeh and incorporated it and his palace therein in the emerging Islamic Cailphate, right on Nigerian territory.
Without holding brief for Sambo and Gusau, we are facing a war in North eastern Nigeria and what we require is a totally military response. Both Sambo and Gusau are mere political appointees. The service chiefs have their work cut out for them.
Let's ask them what has happened to the $1billion loan for weapons. The grapevine is agog with the story that the money may have been shared and that these soldiers really have no guts to fight any battle. They merely want to retire quietly to enjoy their loot.
Maybe it is time for CAN to start asking for a COMPETENT person - religion does not matter and these foreign gods only seek to divide us.
lay mans comment...absurd and callous!
Why has the President not voluntarily resigned his position?
The buck stops with him
ask them o