Christian youths reject amnesty for Boko Haram

BEING ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE YOUTH WINGCHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (YOWICAN) DR. SIMONDOLLY (JP) AT A WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE HELD ON THE 10THAPRIL, 2013, AT THE NATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE, ABUJA.

Gentlemen of the press

We find it important to address you this moment on the state of our nation, Nigeria. In recent times, there have been concerted calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria to grant amnesty to the Islamist group, Boko Haram

We are worried by this clarion call and the subsequent setting up of a committee byPresident Goodluck Jonathan to work out modalities for granting amnesty despite his earlier position on the amorphous nature of this terrorist group. We, the entireChristian Youths in Nigeria say NO to any form of amnesty to members of theBoko Haram sect or any such group.

In case the Federal Government is contemplating granting amnesty to willful murderers masquerading as political and religious insurgents who do not respect the basic tenets of humanity and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Federal Government should be prepared to face perhaps more deadly and sophisticated response.

If the proponents of amnesty are claiming that poverty, injustice and unemployment are the root causes of the unrest, our questions are: is injustice, poverty and unemployment limited to the Muslim youths alone? Are Christian youths in the north and, indeed, all over Nigeria not suffering from unemployment, injustice and poverty? Would President Jonathan accede to requests for amnesty to MASSOB, OPC, Middle Belt and other groups with complaint against the Federal Government if tomorrow they pick up arms to advance their causes?

We appeal to the President not to be cowed by politicians and few misfits and naturally rebellious persons in the north who are attempting to use the Boko Haram insurgency as a bait to correct what they have failed to do while they were in power. This planned amnesty for murderers is potentially dangerous to Nigeria and Nigerians because it is a clarion call to more terrorism in Nigeria. As it is, the Christian youths in the north who have all along been marginalized by these same advocates of amnesty to Boko Haram members would have been given more muscles to deal with Christian youths.

Before taking further decision on this request by these northern elders, Mr. President should remember that the amnesty being advocated is for Muslim youths who are the Boko Haram members and who have killed, maimed our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and children and also bombed and burnt our Churches without provocation. Many of us are now carrying the burden of our parents and brothers who have been killed. What kind of injustice can be more than this if amnesty is granted to those who wreaked this havoc. Mr. President, it would amount to pampering the same people who have turned Nigeria into another Bosnian state and calling the bluff of those who are the victims of the bloodthirsty sect members.

We ask Mr. President to go all out for these Boko Haram members by consolidating on the gains made by the various security agencies and to arrest the likes of Senators Zanna, Bukar Abba Ibrahim and others whose utterances and actions have implicated them. Injustice, unemployment and poverty is not limited to the Muslim north alone. It is injustice if Almajari schools are built for the muslim youths alone and funded by tax payer’s money. To now grant amnesty to Boko Haram members is compounding the injustice. The fact that Christian youths have not reacted does not mean we are cowards. We have simply been under strict instructions not to react by the CAN leadership. But Mr. President would help a great deal not to fuel the anger of Christian youths by disowning the amnesty request because we would have no excuse to give our youths if this amnesty deal is struck.

We have continued to watch how billions of tax payer’s money is being used to build “ALMAJIRI” Schools. We hereby demand unconditionally, the return of all missionary schools to their rightful owners and to also as a matter of necessity build “Christian Vocational Centres” in the 36 states of the Federation including Abuja. Furthermore, the continued lack of employment of Christian ReligiousKnowledge (CRK) teachers in most of the Northern states should be reversed immediately.

On the current SURE-P programme, we observed with dismay that having used the Nigeria youths to endorse the subsidy re-investment with good promises, the programme has turned out to be a sham and  complete deceit. We want to remindMr. President and his team to fulfill their pledges and stop politicizing this economic virtue.

As law abiding citizens of this great country, we will not fail to pray and watch with keen interest how situation unfold but wish to state that “nobody has the monopoly of violence”.

GOD BLESS THE YOUTH WING CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA(YOWICAN)

GOD BLESS THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA

GOD BLESS FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA