Northern Leaders, not Jonathan Have the Responsibility to Tackle Boko Haram – Oritsejafor-

The President of the Christian Association of  Nigeria,  Pastor  Ayo Orisejafor,  has said the Boko Haram scourge can only be halted by religious leaders in the North and not  President Goodluck  Jonathan.

He said this on Wednesday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during the graduation,  send off and prize giving ceremony of the Stephen International Centre.

Oritsejafor said,”With all sense of responsibility, I use this opporunity to call on all muslims religious leaders, traditional rulers and political leaders in the North (not necessarily in the South -West because in the South- West, we have lived together and I know the way it operates in the South- West) to rise up to solve this problem.

“I was told this land, where this school is built, was  bought from a Muslim. If a Muslim organistaion needs a land and a Christian has it, sell it to him. That’s the way to live and the kind of country we are looking for.

” So, I am challenging our religious leaders, political rulers and traditional rulers from the North as a matter of urgency, to step forward and take responsibilities for the way out of this problem.”

Boko Haram, he said, “Is propelled by a religious ideology, and not poverty. Anyone who tells you it is poverty is not telling you the truth. It’s not poverty. When you blame it on poverty, it is an insult to poor people.

“There are poor people everywhere, even christians all over the North. Bin laden was not a poor man; he is from a rich Saudi Arabian family.

“The Nigerian boy, who almost blew up a plane on Christmas day, is a  son of one First Bank chairman and he is still one of the richest people in Nigeria today. Boko haram insurgency is an ideology. People are being radicalised by an ideology.

“Salafism and wahabism are doctrines that come from Saudi Arabia and they have crept  into the South -West . They have taken people to Saudi Arabia and sent them back to you and coming into our mosques, they start their own new mosques and radicalising some of them.”

He described Boko Haram as a strong and devilish ideology, which must be confronted now.

He said, “Now, this ideology must be countered with a superior ideology. You can only counter an ideology with another superior ideology. They must engage them and win them with a superior argument and spread a positive view to Nigerians  in the grass roots, to their followers in mosques and everywhere.”

The director of the centre, where some orphans, who lost  their parents to Boko Haram attacks in the North were being taken care of,  Isaac  Oluwole, appealed to the government and philanthropists to assist  the centre.