By Shola Abayomi.
The Christian Association of Nigeria has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to Saudi Arabia to attend the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a day after his inauguration.
The association questioned why attending the Islamic conference was the first assignment of the president just after being sworn-in.
CAN added that Nigeria’s membership of the OIC is unconstitutional and queried if the president would be willing to attend the meeting of the World Council of Churches or delegate the Vice President to represent him whenever the members meet.
The Christian body also frowned at what it perceived as lopsided appointments by the president, “especially in the appointment of chief security officers”, noting that the upsurge of the Fulani people in power makes the fulanisation agenda more believable.
In a statement released yesterday by Adebayo Oladeji, the media aide to the CAN President, the association disclosed that the country was “smuggled into OIC during the military.”
“With all the cries we have made about the unconstitutionality of Nigeria’s membership of OIC, going for such conference was still the first assignment of President Buhari after being sworn in. Are the government officials listening to those who voted them into power at all? Is the government not heating up the polity? We wonder if the President is ready to attend the meeting of the World Council of Churches or be asking the Vice President to represent him whenever the members meet.
“As President Buhari begins another term, we appeal to him to have a blueprint for the security challenges facing the country. He should avoid lopsided appointments in every facet of the government, especially, the appointment chief security officers. The security councils and other agencies of the government must not be dominated by people who share the same faith and ethnicity with him. The preponderance of the Fulani people at the corridors of power is what Chief Olusegun Obasanjo refers to as fulanisation agenda.
“We have many states in the North where churches are being denied of Certificates of Occupancy. This is a ploy to allow excuses to be given later for these churches to be pulled down whenever religious fanatics are in government in those states. As we rejoice with all the Northern State governors as they assume office, let them revisit this ungodly policy of discrimination against fellow Nigerians”, CAN said.