CAN tackles Islamic council over lopsided federal appointments

By ONYEBUCHI EZIGBO, Abuja

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has chided the leadership of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) for allegedly making an indefensible claim over issues raised on the ‘lopsided appointments made by the federal government in favour of Muslims in the country’.

In a statement issued by the General Secretary of CAN, Joseph Bade Daramola, the association accused NSCIA of using ‘vulgar, immature language and unprintable words to describe CAN in its bid to justify the obvious lopsided appointments of the federal government in favour of its members’.

According to CAN, “The council was smart by half when it picked an example of just one arm of government without addressing the totality of fundamental questions on all the arms of government.”

CAN further accused NSCIA of assuming the position of the spokesman of the federal government to respond to issues of obvious bias by the federal government.

According to the association, “Should it not have been better for the council to have been bold enough to examine the entirety of appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari as serially referenced by CAN?

“The NSCIA evaded those troubling issues that are well known not only to Nigerians but members of the international community; those knotty issues that have pushed our country on the edge of precipice. By so doing, NSCIA has unwittingly exposed itself as a promoter of bad governance, divisiveness and injustice in Nigeria under the Buhari administration.”

CAN, which accused the Muslim group of unwarranted and disrespectful attack, said while it can back its allegation of lopsided appointments with facts and figures, NSCIA has no basis for its counter claim.

The Christian body said: “We dare either the federal government or its self-appointed spokesperson NSCIA, to publish names, state of origins and religions of the appointments made by President Buhari into the following offices since 2015 to date: ‘Ministers of Defence, Police Affairs and Interior; the National Security Advisers (NSA), the Inspectors-General of Police (IG), Director-Generals of the State Security Service (SSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA); past and present Chairmen of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA); the Comptrollers-General of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) and Federal Fire Service, as well as the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC)’. Out of all these, maybe only one or two are Christians and from the South.

“Others are the Accountant-General of the Federation, all heads of the agencies and parastatals. The world will then know the agent of falsehood and character assassination between CAN and NSCIA.”

CAN alleged that the grand plan of subtle Islamisation is to make a Muslim the head of every key board, committee, parastatal, and put Christians under them without much influence in the decision-making process in the establishment (irrespective of their number).

It said its observation has been recently strengthened by the ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Nigeria’ by the United States Department of State.

In the report, CAN said it was stated that ‘traditional relationships were used to pressure government officials to favour particular ethnic groups in the distribution of important positions and other patronage’.

CAN said NSCIA just decided to use figures to pervert the truth and mislead the public.

It added: “They were economical with the truth. We need to go back to history to understand why in the early years of the emergence of our country as a nation, more Christians were eligible for employment into the public service.

“Where were the members of NSCIA in the 1800s when Western education was brought to this part of our world and Christians in the northern and southern parts of the country were sending their children to schools?

“Were they not sending theirs to Arabic and Qur’anic schools? Was it Arabic or Qur’anic studies that they would use to get appointment in government offices and the courts?” (THISDAY)