CAN Flays Aliyu Over Comments On Northern Unity

The spokesman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Sunday Oibe, has accused the Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu, of causing disunity among northerners. Oibe, in an interview with THISDAY on Tuesday in Kaduna, said there was no way unity could reign in the North, when leaders like Aliyu openly discriminate against Christians.

He described as farce the allegation by the governor recently that there was a plot to cause disunity among northerners ahead of the 2015 general election, saying Aliyu and some northern leaders, instead, were the very people working against the unity of the North. According to him, the governor who has suddenly become the apostle of northern unity is the very person, discriminating against Christians in his state.

"The Niger State governor should stop insinuating that some people are causing division in the North. He is one of those causing the division with his discrimination against Christians. If he truly wants northern unity, let him start by correcting the imbalance in the political arrangement in the state.

"Before Aliyu became the governor of the state, there used to be a Christian as deputy governor. But when he became governor, he picked a Muslim as his deputy and the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly is a Muslim, in spite of the fact that there is a large number of Christian populations in the state.

"Yet the governor does not see the need to treat them fairly, and he is shamelessly preaching northern unity when he is discriminating against the Christians in his own state. He is the Chairman of the Northern States Governors' Forum (NGSF), who is gallivanting and talking about northern unity forgetting that he is one of those working against the unity of the north.

"How can we be talking about one North and northern unity when people in leadership position openly discriminate against Christians? These so-called leaders are the ones causing division in the North. Let them go and find out how the late Premier of the defunct northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto, worked together with people like the late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, late Ambassador Jolly Tanko Yusuf and several other Christians with their religious and political differences," Oibe said.

According to him, "a North that is purely for Islam is not the type of North that we want to talk together. It is difficult for northern Christians to speak with one voice for a North that some people see as purely for Muslims. It is not the North that we can talk about unity because every Middle Belter today is not seen as a northerner and Middle Belters don't see themselves as northerners. So when they talk about the North, they are talking about Hausa-Fulani Muslims. They are not talking about other tribes."

Oibe noted further that "in Kaduna State alone, we have about 53 different ethnic groups in the southern part of the state and Hausa/Fulani are just two tribes, yet we have a vice-president, who is a Muslim and whose majority of his appointees are Hausa/Fulani Muslims

The CAN spokesman further added that "how can people be talking about the spirit of northern unity with this glaring discrimination we see everywhere in the North. I believe that President Goodluck Jonathan now knows better, and nobody can deceive or mislead him in any way." He maintained that the North was fragmented and nobody should be deceived about the idea of one North.
BY JOHN SHIKLAM