Former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has described the recent statement by the Muslim umbrella organization, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), where it said there was a grand conspiracy by Christians against Muslims in Nigeria as dangerous, irresponsible, misguided and a lie.
According to him” There are some misguided people in our country who are hell-bent on establishing an Islamic fundamentalist state and on introducing 17th century Islam throughout the north. They also intend to wipe out Christianity and to eradicate what I call true Islam in that same region”
He also insisted that any form of negotiations with the deadly Boko haram would not produce any positive result because” they are evil, that they feed on blood, that they are a group that are determined to wipe out everything that we believe in and cherish and that they must be fought into the ground. No sensible leader will sit down with murderers, shake their hands and tell the world that they are ready to negotiate with them simply because in doing so they would be shaking a set of accursed hands that are soaked with innocent blood. Unless our government fights them vigorously the rebellion and insurgency of Boko Haram will never stop. ..They are committed to using terror to effect their purpose and they are not interested in taking prisoners or in talking to anyone”
The ex-minister maintained “You see attempting to appease bullies and tyrants never work. History proves that. The British tried it just before the Second World War when Neville Chamberlin, who was Prime Minister at the time, attempted to appease Adolf Hitler. He appealed to and implored Hitler and he asked for negotiations with him. Meanwhile Hitler continued the carnage that he had unleashed in Europe, broke his every word to Chamberlain and literally ate up the whole of Europe before his very eyes”
Fani-Kayode wondered why a Muslim organization would reach such conclusions when “ For the last one year we Christians have sat back silently and watched our churches being bombed and our worshippers being slaughtered all over the north”
According to him “Nothing could be further from the truth and the truth is that the overwhelming majority of Christians and Muslims in our country get on very well. It is however important that we avoid divisive statements such as the one that JNI has just issued from either side and we must not attribute the actions and the activities of a few misguided and violent individuals from either of our two faiths as being reflective of the will and desire of every Muslim or every Christian in the country”
The former adviser to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who urged all sides to deplore the activities of Boko Haram insisted the violent Islamic sect is nothing else but a terrorist organization.
He condemned statements by some groups who alleged that the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor was on a mission to divide Nigeria, when he urged the United States of America to brand Boko Haram a ‘terrorist organization’.
Fani-Kayode in an interview said “As far as I am concerned those that have said that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of CAN, wishes to ”divide Nigeria” simply because he asked the United States of America to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization at a Congressional hearing in Washington last week are simply misguided. If Boko Haram is not a terrorist organization then they should tell us what is. This is an organization that kills women, children and defenseless people in the privacy of their own homes, churches and offices. This is an organization that has killed many of our security personnel and attacked many of our cities and public institutions including media houses and the U.N. Headquarters in Nigeria. This is an organization that has killed more Nigerians than any other since the civil war. This is an organization that is committed to wiping out Christianity in northern Nigeria”
Excerpts:
1. What really is the problem with NIGERIA and how do we get out of it?
ANSWER- There are so many problems but I think that the fundamental issue is the fact that we have never been able to answer what is commonly referred to as ”the Nationality Question” in this country. That is the problem with Nigeria. We are a nation of people that do not know our own history, who and what we are, how we came about, what we were meant to be, why the British lumped us together, what we really want for ourselves and what direction we are meant to be going.
Simply put the Nationality Question is this- ”What is Nigeria?” Are we one united and indivisible nation made up of numerous ethnic nationalities? Or are we a collection of incompatible ethnic nationalities that have been forcefully cobbled together into an artificial entity despite the fact that we have no cultural or historical affinity, no common aspirations and no truly national identity? These are the questions that need to be answered and we have to go back to the beginning if we really want to find those answers. The easiest and most convenient thing for me to say is that bad leadership is our problem but in my view it is not only bad leadership. Quite apart from bad leadership it is also a structural and fundamental problem of nationhood. We need to answer the Nationality Question and that means we need to understand and need to know what Nigeria was meant to be, how it came about, who put it together and for what purpose this was done. And we need to accept the fact that we have been wobbling along without answering these questions at our own detriment and peril.
We need to accept the fact that we must answer the Nationality Question before we can effectively forge ahead, establish a truly united nation and achieve anything truly meaningful as a country and as a people. I believe that one of the most insightful contributions that Chief Obafemi Awolowo ever made to the intellectual and political discourse on Nigeria was in 1947 when he described Nigeria as a ”mere geographical expression” in his famous book titled ‘‘Paths To Nigerian Freedom”. That is the starting point and once we accept that fact then we can begin to understand why we have so many problems. Yet this does not mean that Nigeria should break up. I think we have gone much too far for that. I do not believe in the breakup of Nigeria especially when over two million people died in our civil war in an effort to keep us together. It would be a great disservice to the memory of those that paid the supreme price to keep us one for us to now say that we want to break up.
What I do believe however is that in order to strengthen our unity we must answer the Nationality Question and we must renegotiate the terms of our so-called federation. This is especially so if we want Nigeria to continue into the distant future. That is what we need to do and the reluctance to do this and to do it quickly is our problem. We have over 300 distinct and proud nationalities in this country each with their own culture, history, religious faith, identity, insight, worldview and understanding and we cannot just wish that away. And as Chief Awolowo said in that same book there is as much difference between a Fulani and an Igbo as there is ”between a Turk and a German”.
We need to accept, appreciate and understand that as a starting point and then take things from there. The situation is compounded and made worse by the fact that everything is concentrated at the center in Nigeria. All the power, the money, the coercive arms of government, the government patronage and the largesse is concentrated in the hands of the Federal Government. In this country there is no devolution of power, no true federalism, no autonomy for the regions or states and worst still some regions are living off the means, resources, hard work and sweat of others. This breeds resentment and division and the fact of the matter is that it is not only inequitable but it also slows down the pace of development for all. This is because some regions and zones are just so far behind others. The truth is that such an iniquitous arrangement is ultimately bound to fail. This is because everybody is depending on the center for everything and once that is the case every single one of the various nationalities in this country will be prepared to do anything to be able to control that all powerful center and hold it for them. Whoever holds the center and controls the reins of power at the Federal Government in Nigeria has effectively become the landlord and demi-god of over 160 million people and this should not be the case. Once you have that type of ridiculous arrangement you know that the quest and fight for whoever controls that center becomes a do or die affair. In such an atmosphere there can never be lasting peace and harmony amongst our people and neither can we ever really progress as a nation.
That is our problem. Our reluctance to go on an honest and diligent quest to discover our national identity, our reluctance to answer the Nationality Question and our reluctance to accept the unassailable fact that we need to convene a Sovereign National Conference at the soonest to restructure our country, to renegotiate the terms of our union, to confirm the secularity of our state and to give every single nationality in this nation, no matter how big or small, a greater sense of belonging and a larger stake. Yet if we want Nigeria to continue into the distant future as one nation we must do these things. Sadly Nigerians do not like to hear the truth and they do not often take the pains to analyze problems very deeply. We are in complete denial about our situation and the complexity of the issues that bedevil us. We just sweep everything under the carpet, bury our heads in the sand like the ostrich, pretend to each other that all is well and keep trudging on wishing away all our problems and trying to survive. Yet this cannot solve our problems and it cannot be the way forward. The bitter truth is that whether we like to admit it or not the Nigerian people are more divided today along regional, ethnic and religious lines than they have ever been since our civil war. And if we are not careful and we keep on going like this we may end up fighting a second civil war which will make the first one look like child’s play.
2. ARE THERE ANY OTHER COUNTRIES THAT HAVE OR HAVE HAD SIMILAR PROBLEMS AS WE DO IN THE PAST AND HOW DID THOSE COUNTRIES SOLVE THOSE PROBLEMS?
ANSWER- Most other countries that the British cobbled together as artificial and unworkable entities answered their own nationality question very early. Some did so by going to war and then breaking up afterwards whilst others did so by peaceful negotiation. Malaysia is a good example of the latter.
Immediately after they gained independence from the British they quickly accepted the fact that they could not survive as one nation so they broke into two. Singapore went one and the rest of Malaysia went the other. They agreed to break up peacefully, they successfully negotiated the terms and they both prospered and progressed as a consequence of that. Many people in Nigeria don’t even know that those two nations were once one. They are both doing very well today because they realized right from the beginning that in order to help their own people to achieve their full potentials they had to go their separate ways, work hard, develop at their own pace and prosper. India is another good example. She was initially one country but she broke into three (Bangladesh, Pakistan and India) basically on ethnic and religious lines. Pakistan and Bangladesh were carved out of India for the Muslims and India itself remained home to the Hindus. Sadly the breakup of India came only after a period of genocide, mass killings and protracted civil and sectarian strife.
The Sudan (like India) is the other great British amalgamation that we can compare to Nigeria. She struggled for many years to paper over her ethnic divisions and sectarian divide. The Arab Muslims of the north controlled everything right from the start whilst the Christian and animist Africans of the south were fighting for their very survival, self-respect and dignity. This was a terrible, protracted and barbaric conflict. For many decades the Africans were ruthlessly suppressed, humiliated, treated as sub-human, enslaved and subjected to rape, mass killings and genocide by the Arabs. They literally stripped them of everything that they had. Eventually the tyranny was resisted with the formation of the SPLA and the Africans fought back. After a protracted and long civil war the country eventually broke into two with the Arab Muslims going one way and the African Christians going the other. Consequently, just last year, the Republic of Southern Sudan was established. The fact of the matter is that out of the three major amalgamations of ethnic and religious incompatibles that were created by the British in the 19th century the only one left standing and that still remains together as one nation is Nigeria. The other two (namely the Sudan and India) have broken up and have crumbled. Nigeria is the only one left and we are just wobbling along, managing each other and pretending as if we don’t have a problem.
3. ARE YOU SUGGESTING THAT NO-ONE CAN HOLD NIGERIA TOGETHER SUCCESSFULLY? IS THERE NO HOPE FOR NIGERIA TO BECOME ONE TRULY UNITED NATION? IS DISINTEGRATION INEVITABLE?
ANSWER- Once in a lifetime a strong-willed leaders like President Olusegun Obasanjo may emerge that can manage such artificial amalgamations and hold them together by the sheer force of his will. This is very rare but it does happen from time to time. A lot of people don’t give Baba Obasanjo enough credit for what he achieved in this country almost miraculously. You can have a strong leader who somehow emerges, holds everything together and pulls the nation forward regardless of our strong differences and internal contradictions. We have seen other instances of this in world history.
A good example is that of Yugoslavia where for many years a great and powerful leader by the name of Colonel Broznin Tito did precisely that. Yugoslavia was essentially a balkanized and exceptionally volatile melting pot of many different ethnic nationalities and religious sects and faiths. As a matter of fact the area was actually called ”the Balkans” for many years simply because of its fractured, diverse and unstable nature. You had Muslims, Catholics, Protestants and Greek Orthodox Christians all in the same space, vying for supremacy and seeking to dominate the area. Worst still they all had a long and bitter history of vicious wars amongst themselves for hundreds in that same territory.
Yet when Tito took power under the garb of a benevolent socialist dictator he worked wonders and literally kept the lid on the keg of gunpowder. He held together the Serbs, the Bosnians, the Monte Negrans, the Croats, the Kosovars, the numerous Christian sects, the Muslims and all the other nationalities that made up that culturally, racially and religiously diverse country by the sheer force of his personality, the provision of inspirational and exemplary leadership and with a very firm hand. Yugoslavia flourished in peace and prosperity under his leadership for many decades. However as soon as Tito died things quickly fell apart and the ancient religious and ethnic divisions did not only come to the fore but also ended up transforming what was one of the most beautiful areas of Europe into a frightful arena of fratricidal butchery and a cauldron of fire. One of the most brutal and vicious civil wars that Europe has ever witnessed was fought there throughout the 90’s and it was as a consequence of the brutal conduct of that war that phrases such as ”ethnic cleansing” was introduced to the English language.
The first ever cases of ”ethnic cleansing” were committed in the old Yugoslavia after the whole place exploded. The bitterness, hatred and mutual suspicion between the various nationalities and between the Christians and Muslims in that area had festered and brewed for so many years until the whole lid blew off after Tito’s death. When the war eventually came it was sudden, it was horrific and it was a brutal descent into butchery and madness. It was simply terrible and for many years the world watched silently as they just killed one another like flies. By the time it was all over what was once the old Yugoslavia had been broken up into no less than five new countries. I sincerely hope and pray that no-one honestly believes that this sort of thing can never happen in Nigeria. We already had one civil war and many believe that the underlying causes for that war are still very much there. Worst still we are beginning to see the same sort of animosity, bitterness and resentment brewing and unfolding amongst the various ethnic nationalities and religious faiths in Nigeria today as we witnessed in Yugoslavia before the outbreak of all out civil war. Obasanjo did very well from 1999 till 2007 in keeping us together through the sheer force of his personality, his firm hand and his understanding of the complexity of our nation.
He was totally detribalized as President, he led by example, he encouraged us to ignore and put aside our ethnic and religious differences, he held us together, he provided good leadership, he ensured that the economy flourished and he fought corruption. He did all these wonderful things for our country and under him we witnessed the whole concept of Nigerian nationhood being forged and being given birth to. People were beginning to forget about the sordid past and he did all that he could to ensure that the rest of us stopped thinking along ethnic and religious lines. However by 2007 Obasanjo’s mandate ran out and he had to go and unfortunately after he left power we went back to precisely where we were before he got there. This was because his successor President Umaru Yar’Adua was simply not the kind of leader Obasanjo was and neither is the sitting President Goodluck Jonathan. Neither of them could nor can hold Nigeria together in the same way that Obasanjo managed to do. They do not have his strong will, his strength, his energy or his understanding of the Nigerian state and people. Consequently we are now back to square one and things are beginning to fall apart again. Obasanjo did well and built up the concept of national unity again. But now things have gone crazy. Crazier than ever before. Everyone is quietly talking about division now.
They do so in hushed tones but that is what they are talking about. All we see and hear about are bombs, mass killings and the most barbaric type of terrorism that we have ever known in our history being unleashed on our people. Worst still we are saddled with a weak government that is clearly out of its depth and that can do nothing to put a stop to it all. Other than during the civil war, in the entire history of our country we have never had as many bombs going off and as many innocent civilians being targeted and killed as we do today. We were not bombers before but today, under this government, Nigeria has been transformed into the Boko Republic of Haram where people are slaughtered like flies, where bombs go off every other day and where Muslim fundamentalists hold sway. We cannot even call our country the Federal Republic of Nigeria anymore and this saddens me. It is an outrage. Before our very eyes these terrible things are happening, our country is falling apart, our people are being slaughtered like Salah rams and Christmas turkeys and we are still in denial of the fact that we have a major problem. We must wake up, smell the coffee and get real and we have to answer these fundamental questions about our nationhood. We must determine who we are, what we are and on what terms we shall continue to remain as one nation.
4. The major problem IN NIGERIA today is the Boko Haram issue. How do we tackle it?
ANSWER- As far as I am concerned the Jonathan administration has been too soft on Boko Haram, too soft on those that attempt to justify their barbarous actions and too soft on those that secretly encourage and support them. Worst still as a people we have misunderstood the whole issue of Boko Haram and we are simply in denial about the implications of their Islamist agenda and open rebellion.
For me it is a very simple issue and it goes like this. There are some misguided people in our country who are hell-bent on establishing an Islamic fundamentalist state and on introducing 17th century Islam throughout the north. They also intend to wipe out Christianity and to eradicate what I call true Islam in that same region. They are committed to using terror to effect that purpose and they are not interested in taking prisoners or in talking to anyone. They are determined to kill as many Nigerians that do not share their religious beliefs and worldview as possible in order to effect their purpose and I believe that the only answer to such people is to meet them head on with the full force of the Nigerian military and state. They must be identified and brought to justice and it is the government’s sole responsibly and duty to do that. I say this because it is obvious to me that you cannot put out a raging fire by pleading with it, bowing before it or running away from it. You cannot fight fire by cringing in front of it in the most servile and pathetic manner and continuously whimpering ”please let us negotiate”.
You can only fight fire with large amounts of water and you put it out by applying that water promptly, fearlessly, vigorously and courageously. And if they bring out the guns you must be prepared to bring out larger, better and more deadly weapons and you must be prepared to use those weapons without batting an eyelid if you must. That is leadership. That is strength. That is what Presidents are meant to do when confronted or challenged by an evil and relentless enemy like Boko Haram. Throughout the civilized world no responsible government ever negotiates with terrorists. Nobody sits down and talks to those who kill innocent women and children and that bomb churches and mosques. As a government you are not meant to appeal to such people. You are not meant to encourage or appease them by consistently displaying weakness. You are meant to meet them in the field of battle and fight them with everything that you have got. As a government you are supposed to crush them and send them to their maker and to an early grave and not tolerate them, seek to talk to them and sheepishly ask them why they are killing your citizens. It is not done that way at all and it is completely erroneous for anybody to say that it has been done like that anywhere else.
5, BUT NEGOTIATIONS HAVE WORKED ELSEWHERE IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. WHY CANT THEY WORK HERE TOO?
ANSWER- Did President Kamal Attaturk of Turkey, who was a moderate Muslim, negotiate with the islamists in his country? No he did not. Instead he recognized them for the evil that they were and wiped them out killing hundreds of thousands of them in order to save Turkey from their contagion.
Did President Bouteflika of Algeria, who is a moderate Muslim, negotiate with the islamists in his country? No he did not. He wiped them out by killing hundreds of thousands of them and thereby saved Algeria from their cancerous evil. Are the Pakistani or Afghan governments of today (both moderate Muslim governments) negotiating with the islamist Taliban in their respective countries? No they are not. They are fighting them vigorously in the field and they are attempting to defend the lives and property of their people. As a matter of fact both governments have enlisted American and NATO help to assist in that fighting. Negotiation is nice but that is only when the other side is prepared to listen and to be reasonable. When it comes to negotiations people often cite the examples of Northern Ireland (the IRA), Afghanistan (the Taliban), Spain (ETA) and all such places but in none of those places did negotiations begin from day one and whilst innocent people were still being killed, bombed and maimed. Not one.
In every single one of those cases the relevant governments spent many years fighting the terrorists into the ground, protecting their citizens from terror, breaking the will of the terrorists and their ability to function effectively and waiting until they sued for peace and begged for negotiations. And such negotiations would only come after a ceasefire had been agreed upon, honored and observed. In the case of the war between the British government and the IRA in Northern Ireland the fighting raged on for almost a hundred years before there was any talk of negotiation and before there was an eventual settlement. For those one hundred years the British were certainly not negotiating with anybody and they killed and jailed as many members of the IRA as possible.
The same thing happened in Afghanistan. The Taliban government that once ruled that country was toppled and sent packing by America after 911 because it was sponsoring terrorism all over the world. As a government the procedure is that you first of all address the issue by confronting the terrorists with a greater force and you certainly don’t start the process by appealing to them to talk to you at the outset. You must negotiate only from a position of strength. The policy of negotiating from a position of fear and weakness just doesn’t work and it is premised on ignorance, cowardice and insensitivity to the suffering of your own people. It also represents an abdication of the government’s sworn duty to protect those people and the territorial integrity of our nation from enemies from without and within. Worst still it encourages those enemies to inflict even more harm on our people with utter impunity and that is exactly what Boko Haram has been doing. Even in Spain, the government fought the terrorist organization called ETA for almost 50 years before anybody spoke about negotiation. You fight them first, meet them bullet for bullet and drive them into a corner and it is after they have been driven into that corner that they will sue for peace and ask for negotiations.
You don’t at the outset, whilst they are still butchering your civilian population, say ”let us negotiate and let us talk”. President’s don’t beg when faced with evil. It is not done that way at all. The more a government cries for dialogue and discussion with terrorists and those who believe that you don’t have the right to exist or to live your life the way you wish to live it, the more evil we will see from the terrorists. There ought to be zero tolerance for terrorism and there is a precedent for this. During the time of Obasanjo he leveled the town of Odi because the leaders of the Niger Delta area did not produce or apprehend the militants that had attacked and killed Nigerian soldiers and policemen.
After that the killing of soldiers and policemen stopped immediately in the Niger Delta area up until the time that Obasanjo left power. That is what firm, decisive and strong leadership can do and Obasanjo did not shirk away from using his power when he had to. The former President sent in the military and Odi was hit from the sky, from the sea and from the land with the full force of artillery and the whole city was leveled in a matter of hours. The only building left standing was the bank. It was a very harsh thing to do but it was necessary and effective and most importantly it worked.
Immediately after that did you ever hear of one soldier or policeman being killed in the Niger-Delta area again? The answer is no. Yes the militants continued to bomb pipelines, they continued to kidnap people and they continued to agitate for resource control but they did not kill people anymore. The killings stopped until Obasanjo left because he had established a precedent and he had sent a strong signal that he was prepared to destroy everything in sight in order to protect the lives and properties of the Nigerian people from the tyranny of terrorists and killers. I believe that the only answer to Boko Haram is to accept the fact that they are evil, that they feed on blood, that they are a group that are determined to wipe out everything that we believe in and cherish and that they must be fought into the ground. No sensible leader will sit down with murderers, shake their hands and tell the world that they are ready to negotiate with them simply because in doing so they would be shaking a set of accursed hands that are soaked with innocent blood. Unless our government fights them vigorously the rebellion and insurgency of Boko Haram will never stop.
6. BUT THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE LIKE ALHAJI DATTI AHMED AND OTHERS WHO HAVE SAID THAT THEY KNOW WHO BOKO HARAM ARE AND THAT THEY ARE WILLING TO REPRESENT THEM IN ANY NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE GOVERNMENT. SHOULDN’T THIS PEACEFUL COURSE BE FOLLOWED?
ANSWER- Well that particular initiative was dead before it was even given life because the following day Boko Haram publically warned the government that they were not prepared to negotiate with them and they also warned Alhaji Datti Ahmed not to hold himself out as their friend or representative. You see attempting to appease bullies and tyrants never work. History proves that.
The British tried it just before the Second World War when Neville Chamberlin, who was Prime Minister at the time, attempted to appease Adolf Hitler. He appealed to and implored Hitler and he asked for negotiations with him. Meanwhile Hitler continued the carnage that he had unleashed in Europe, broke his every word to Chamberlain and literally ate up the whole of Europe before his very eyes. There was only one man in the British Parliament by the name of Sir Winston Churchill who had the courage to say that you do not talk to people like Hitler, you do not negotiate with them, you do not trust them and that there could never be any compromise between light and darkness or between good and evil. And of course eventually he was proved right and later became the Prime Minister himself after Chamberlin fell due to the failure of his appeasement policy.
At the end of the day Chamberlin’s appeasement led directly to the Second World War and put Hitler in a very strong position in Europe before the war actually started because he had bought time and he had consolidated his position before the British got into the fray. That war cost the world the lives of 50 million people that were killed during the conflict. If Chamberlin had not attempted to appease Hitler from the beginning and if he had taken a hardline approach from the very start we may never have had the Second World War and Hitler may have been deterred from indulging in any further aggression. The morale of the tale is as follows- the longer we keep calling for dialogue with the evil called Boko Haram the more we feed and encourage that evil and the more our people will be killed.
7.Who do you think are those sponsoring Boko Haram?
ANSWER- I do not know who is sponsoring Boko Haram but what I do know is that there are many people within the system that have sympathy for them and that COVERTLY support and encourage them. Some indirectly defend their actions on the pages of newspapers by attempting to rationalize those actions and others openly calling them freedom fighters and claiming that they are fighting for justice. Others say that it is because the south has too much money and the north does not have enough, as if to say that poverty is an excuse for mass murder and genocide. Others say it is because their leader, Mohammed Yusuf was killed by the police and when they say that, I wonder what that has to do with bombing of our Churches, media houses, UN building or the massacres of Christians in Jos. Was it the Christian churches, the media men, the UN or the people of Jos that killed Yusuf? Such rationalizations and subtle attempts to justify the barbarity of these beasts disgust me. Then you have the relative silence of most core Northern leaders about the activities of Boko Haram. Why do they not condemn them more or do more to fight and expose them? Is it out of fear or is it that some of them are secretly encouraging and covertly supporting these animals? I really don’t know but it is very worrying.
8. WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE TO THE CLAIM MADE BY THE MUSLIM UMBRELLA ORGANISATION, JAMA’ATU NASRIL ISLAM (JNI), THAT THERE IS A GRAND CONSPIRACY BY THE CHRISTIANS AGAINST THE MUSLIMS IN NIGERIA?
ANSWER- The assertion that there is a grand conspiracy by the Christians against the Muslim community in Nigeria by the JNI is simply not true. This is a dangerous, reckless and unguarded statement to make and it cannot possibly help us to achieve the religious harmony that we so desperately desire and all pray for in Nigeria. For the last one year we Christians have sat back silently and watched our churches being bombed and our worshippers being slaughtered all over the north.
There have been no reprisals and neither have we decided to take the law into our own hands and defend ourselves from those that kill our people. The murderous activities of the Muslim sect known as Boko Haram have provoked us beyond measure and we are doing our best to keep the peace and to prevent our youth from hitting back. We shall continue to do that but no-one should add insult to injury by suggesting that we are involved in some fictitious grand conspiracy against the Muslim community. Nothing could be further from the truth and the truth is that the overwhelming majority of Christians and Muslims in our country get on very well. It is however important that we avoid divisive statements such as the one that JNI has just issued from either side and we must not attribute the actions and the activities of a few misguided and violent individuals from either of our two faiths as being reflective of the will and desire of every Muslim or every Christian in the country. Most of us deplore violence and would never subscribe to it or condone it. I call for restraint, calm and understanding from both communities and I urge our Muslim brothers in the JNI to desist from any act or words of provocation that will push us over the brink and plunge Nigeria into an inferno.
9. PASTOR AYO ORITSEJAFOR, THE PRESIDENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CAN) HAS COME UNDER HEAVY FIRE BY THE AREWA CONSULTATIVE FORUM’S NATIONAL VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATOR JOSEPH WAKU, WHO HAS ACCUSED HIM OF TRYING TO DIVIDE THE COUNTRY BY APPEARING AT AN AMERICAN CONGRESSIONAL PUBLIC HEARING AND URGING THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE BOKO HARAM A TERRORIST ORGANISATION. WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THIS?
ANSWER- First of all I must tell you that Senator Waku and I are very close and he is someone that I not only respect but that I also look up to and have deep affection for. I have learnt a lot from him over the last few years and he is one of those rare and peculiar people that stick with their friends through thick and thin. He is also deeply courageous and that is something that I admire about him. However with the greatest respect to him on this issue I think that he is completely wrong.
As far as I am concerned those that have said that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of CAN, wishes to ”divide Nigeria” simply because he asked the United States of America to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization at a Congressional hearing in Washington last week are simply misguided. If Boko Haram is not a terrorist organization then they should tell us what is. This is an organization that kills women, children and defenseless people in the privacy of their own homes, churches and offices. This is an organization that has killed many of our security personnel and attacked many of our cities and public institutions including media houses and the U.N. Headquarters in Nigeria. This is an organization that has killed more Nigerians than any other since the civil war. This is an organization that is committed to wiping out Christianity in northern Nigeria, establishing a Muslim fundamentalist state on our soil, to kill as many Muslims that don’t share their own interpretation and understanding of Islam as possible, to divide and balkanize our nation and to wash her from head to toe in blood.
This is the sort of organization that some people are defending and protecting? This is the sort of organization that they will claim is not or should not be labeled as a terrorist organization? And if they are not terrorists what would they call them? Angels or boy scouts? The truth is that not only are Boko Haram terrorists in every sense of the word but they are also messengers of the devil that have come to Nigeria to do nothing but to kill, steal and destroy. They are doing Satan’s work and the sooner they are dispatched to hell by our Armed Forces to meet their master Satan the better. They and those that provide sanctuary and safe haven for them deserve nothing less than the Odi treatment. The fact of the matter is that those that really wish to divide Nigeria are not people like Oritsejafor but rather those that secretly support, fund, encourage and seek to justify the activities and existence of Boko Haram.
The President of CAN has done the right and proper thing by telling our story to the United States Congress and to the world and this is all the more important given the fact that our government has completely failed to stop the terror or curb the activities of these evil, relentless and barbarous islamists. They have killed as many real Muslims as they have Christians and they have divided our country along religious, ethnic and regional lines more than at any time since the civil war. For anyone to complain about the fact that the President of CAN is doing his job and seeking to protect the lives and property of the Christian community in Nigeria by creating international awareness about such beasts is simply absurd. This is a very serious matter that we must not play politics with and that we must not sweep under the carpet because people are being killed every day. We must all join our hands together to fight Boko Haram and we must do all we can to keep Nigeria one. We must also condemn in the strongest terms those that wish to compel us to silently and stoically accept their terror and not express our outrage and pain about it. They cannot silence us with their insults, their aggression and their threats. The President of CAN represents every single Christian in this country in the same way that the Sultan of Sokoto represents every Muslim. I believe that we must all show him far more respect than we are doing and that we should appreciate his efforts rather than condemn him at every turn.
10. What role did your father Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, play in the moving of the motion for Nigeria’s independence?
ANSWER- What a lot of people don’t know is that my father was very active in the politics of Nigeria throughout the late 40’s and 50’s. They tend to think that his career started in the 60’s when he became Deputy Premier of the Western Region but this is not true. In fact I would argue that his golden years of politics were in the ’50’s whilst he was at the Federal House of Assembly and where he made some of the most remarkable contributions in the floor debates on behalf of the Action Group. He achieved many great things in those years and one of them was the fact that he had the singular of honor of being the one that successfully moved the motion for Nigeria’s Independence in 1958.
A lot of people didn’t know this until recently when we made it public knowledge, provided the evidence and challenged people to go and look at the records of Hansard (the official records of the proceedings of Parliament) and find out who did and said what and what really happened. We also urged them to read the very detailed, well researched and historically accurate book written by the well-respected American scholar and historian by the name of Professor Richard L. Sklar. Sklar actually lived in Nigeria throughout that period and he witnessed most of the key events personally. His book, titled ”Political Parties In Nigeria- Power In An Emergent African Nation” was the leading authority on the politics of Nigeria in the ’40’s and ’50’s and it is an excellent source of accurate information and facts for those that are interested in the politics of that era.
Another excellent source of information which confirmed our findings was the book written by a former Minister of Education in the 50’s, who was a member of the Federal House himself and who also witnessed all the relevant proceedings by the name of Professor Sanya Onabamiro. That book was titled ”Glimpses Into Nigeria’s History” and it comes highly recommended. You know that Nigerians don’t like to read so they often make mistakes when it comes to matters of history and they allow themselves to be blinded by sentiment and subjective thinking. Yet the facts of this matter are very clear and can easily be established and ascertained by anyone that is patient enough to check all the records and to do the research.
The first time that the motion was moved was in 1953 by Chief Anthony Enahoro who had moved that Nigeria should be granted ”self-rule” in 1956. Unfortunately the motion was unsuccessful because the House rejected it and it was not passed. Actually Enahoro’s motion was as a motion for ”self-rule” rule and not even for independence but it failed because the north said that they were not ready and when they were pushed they actually walked out. That is where Enahoro’s efforts began and ended. Four years later in 1957 Chief S.L. Akintola moved a second motion (this time for full independence) and it was accepted by the House and passed by them. Unfortunately the British authorities refused to acquiesce to it and it therefore failed. He had asked that Nigeria be granted her independence in 1959 but it failed. The third attempt and only successful attempt came in August 1958 when my father, Chief Remilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode moved the motion for full independence and asked that we should be granted independence on April 2 1960.
The House not only passed it but the British authorities also acquiesced to it and accepted it. This was the first time that the motion had not only been moved successfully and passed by Parliament but was also acquiesced to and accepted by the British colonial authorities. It was indeed a monumental achievement for both my father and the Action Group as a party because they spearheaded it from the start and it was a thing of joy. There was however a slight amendment made to the original motion a year later in 1959 when Sir Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister, moved another motion in Parliament asking for a change in the month for our independence. My father’s 1958 motion had asked for April 2, 1960 as the date of our independence but, at the instance of the British who all of a sudden said that they needed an additional 6 months to tidy things up, Tafawa Balewa’s 1959 motion for amendment asked for the date to be shifted from April 2,1960 to October 1 of that same year instead. The important point to grasp is that Balewa’s motion was simply a ”motion for amendment to the original 1958 motion” which everyone, including the British, had already agreed to and it was not a fresh motion for independence. Balewa’s ”motion for amendment” was seconded by Chief Raymond Njoku and it was passed by the House. That is how we arrived at October 1, 1960 as our date of independence.