By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, has berated former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, accusing him of being “bitter and unsettled” by the relative peace currently being enjoyed in the state.
Hayab, who served as Kaduna CAN chairman during El-Rufai’s administration, was reacting to the ex-governor’s claim on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics that Southern Kaduna accounts for less than 25 per cent of the state’s population. El-Rufai had also maintained that he had no regrets over his policies toward the region.
Describing the remarks as “dangerous, divisive and hateful,” Hayab said the former governor thrived on tension and disorder, adding that harmony among residents undermined “the divisive agenda he lived on.”
“Everything El-Rufai promotes is evil,” the cleric declared, alleging that the former governor deliberately marginalised Southern Kaduna communities and pursued policies that fuelled disunity.
According to him, El-Rufai is “angry because Kaduna is no longer burying 40, 50 or hundreds of innocent people in mass graves, or paying his bandits millions as we used to do under his administration.”
He argued that the region’s population strength could not be dismissed, recalling how past census figures had even provoked threats of legal action by the state’s Shariah Committee. He claimed that population distortions in Kaduna were largely the result of inflated figures in other parts of the state, not an actual shortfall in Southern Kaduna.
Hayab further dismissed El-Rufai’s denial of being a religious fundamentalist, stressing, “I knew him personally and I speak from painful experiences under his government.”
The cleric, however, urged Nigerians to reject divisive narratives and called for religion and ethnicity to be factored into future census exercises to prevent manipulation of figures by politicians.
