The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has condemned the recent threat against the sovereignty of Nigeria by the United States President Donald Trump
NSCIA made its position known at a press conference held at the National Mosque in Abuja on Sunday afternoon.
Secretary General of NSCIA, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, who addressed the media said, after condemning the threat from America that, “We have not been emphasising the killings of Muslims because we do not see it as a religious war, but a national security issue.”
NSCIA said categorically, “We reaffirm that there is no “Christian genocide” in Nigeria. Under Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 9 and Article 6 of the Rome Statute 11, the crime is defined by a critical “mental element” known as dolus specialis. This is the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”. There is nothing of such in Nigeria.
Nigeria Faces ‘complex and tragic perennial security crisis‘
The Islamic body said ,”For the avoidance of doubt, what Nigeria faces is a complex and tragic perennial security crisis that brings immeasurable pain to all its citizens, regardless of faith or ethnic persuasion. From Katsina to Borno and from Benue to Plateau, as well as in Kaduna and Kwara, Nigeria bleeds through gruesome savagery against Muslims and Christians, Imams and priests. Non-partisan experts have refuted this blackmail and Amnesty International, which methodically investigated the insecurity in Nigeria, had stated that there is “no evidence of a religious motivation” to characterise it as genocide
Furthermore, NSCIA said, “We commend the principled stance of some patriotic and responsible Christians, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s Director of National Issues and Social Welfare, who noted thus:
The Council said further, “Sometimes, our situation is being taken advantage of by groups who know what they benefit from foreign interests. Those foreign interests have a right to poke their nose into what’s going on in our system, but we also have a right to report things as they are… Also, the spate of killings does not take any pattern. If they open fire in a marketplace, the bullets don’t look for a Christian or spare a Muslim or even spare a baby.
“So, all we must be doing now is adopt an all-of-society action to stop this insurgency and also address issues of groupthink. Why run to America when you have a Senate here where you can file your petition? In the end, when they place Nigeria as a country of particular interest, all of us will suffer. But those who run abroad to look for sympathy know why they do that.
Hails Falana, Soludo, Others
“For being factual, we also commend individuals like Mr Femi Falana, SAN, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Reno Omokri and Gov. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, among numerous other Christians for their sincerity, while we denounce irresponsible bigots in religious garbs and ethnic irredentists who fail to realise that you don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. The citizens that falsely concoct a genocide claim, which is capable of igniting divisions and religious war that can turn the country into a battlefield field are neither patriotic nor Godly. “