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Christian leaders have said that the greatest threat to the unity of Nigeria was no longer the Boko Haram insurgency but the menace of Fulani herdsmen who go about killing innocent citizens in different parts of the country.
At the opening of the first plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) yesterday in Abuja, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson Ayokunle; President of CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama and Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, canvassed for a clear policy followed by concrete and creative measures to stop the menace of herdsmen.
While Kaigama called on the government to deploy the same zeal used in tackling Boko Haram to the issue of herdsmen and kidnappers, Okoh and the CAN President lamented that the National Assembly was pretending to be busy with lawmaking while Nigerians were being killed. They called on the Federal Government to provide security, social amenities and protect the rights of the citizens.
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Kaigama observed that the lesson drawn from the recent Southern Kaduna crisis was that “we intentionally as a nation hardly get into the root causes of crucial matters,” adding that our approach was often lackadaisical, parochial or indifferent, tinged with sentiments of ethnicity, regional interests and religious bias.
He dismissed the statement from some highly- placed Nigerians that only prayers can solve the problems of Nigeria, saying that even though it might be true in one sense, the statement is not only a fallacy but a passing of the buck.
Okoh told government officials present at the event to let the government know that Nigerians are not happy with this development.
