Concerned Professionals Congress (CPC) has expressed support to the recent call by President Muhammadu Buhari on all Nigerians to be united against Boko Haram terrorists who were said to be collaborating with Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP).
The group also hailed Buhari’s remark that disunity is a disservice to the nation’s toiling military troops. The president had cautioned Nigerians against allowing terrorists to divide the country along religious lines following the recent execution of some Christians and Muslims by ISWAP, a sad incident which generated instant outrage and condemnations across the country and the world.
Describing terrorists as ‘’remorseless, godless and callous gangs of mass murderers that had given Islam a bad name by their atrocities’’, President Buhari said they did not represent Islam and millions of law-abiding Muslims around the world.
‘’No true Muslim would be shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while killing innocent people, an evil frequently condemned by the Holy Qur’an,’’ he said, stressing that under no circumstance should Nigerians allow the terrorists divide them by turning Christians against Muslims.
‘’These agents of darkness are enemies of our common humanity and they don’t spare any victim, whether they are Muslims or Christians, and therefore we shouldn’t let them divide us and turn against one another’’, he said.
Reacting to the call by the president, the civil advocacy group in a press release jointly issued in Abuja at the weekend by its Chief Media Strategist, Mr. Emeka Nwankpa and the Northern Regional Rapporteur, Kasim Baba Kasim, described the president’s call to arms as a welcome development, saying that religion posed the greatest potential threat to the nation’s stability.
‘’We welcome President Muhammadu Buhari’s clarion call to Nigerians to eschew religious differences at a critical time like this. We salute his courage and sense of responsibility to issue this call to arms to all Nigerians and genuine lovers of peace in the country.
‘We are particularly touched by his remark that: ’as a president, the collective security of all Nigerians is my major preoccupation and the death of an innocent Christian or Muslim distresses me.”
Nwankpa noted that Nigeria could not afford another war after fighting a gruelling Civil war in 1967 that claimed lives, properties and livelihoods.
‘’It is commonly said that no nation can survive two civil wars. A religious war is a worse war in a country with grinding poverty. Book Haram drives on the peoples’ poverty yet, in its atrocious attacks on soft targets, it chooses neither the rich nor the poor, the Muslim nor the Christian. Demography is nil. Nigerians should ponder over this’’, he said.
The group argued that fanning the embers of religious war amounted to a disservice to the sacrifices of gallant service men and women especially those who paid the supreme price to keep the nation safe, secure and stable.
The group praised the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin and the service chiefs for the sustained onslaught against enemies of the peace, unity, progress and growth of the nation, noting that their selfless service to their fatherland is not in vain and will continue to be appreciated by generations yet unborn.
The group called for more public support to the military and other security agencies across religious, regional, political and governmental levels in the country, cautioning against careless public statements capable of idolising Boko Haram.
‘’Nigerians across religious, regional and political divides should eschew division. Our diversity is an asset. We should give support to our military and other security forces currently combating Boko Haram, ISWAP, kidnappers and other criminals threatening the peace, security and stability of the country.
‘’The Federal Government has no greater duty than defending the Nigerian people, the Nigerian territory, and Nigerian interests including promoting its peace, prosperity, well-being, security and stability.
“Today, even as the optics are getting more challenging, it is good news that our defence forces have contained these extremist and criminal gangs to the fringes’’, Nwankpa said.
He praised President Muhammad Buhari for his confidence in the capacity and competence of the armed forces to dislodge criminal elements to guarantee the security, stability, peace and unity of the country.
‘’We commend the energetic Chief of Defence, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin. His unique style of leadership rooted in jointness, synergy and inter-agency cooperation has galvanized the entire national security architecture to effectively tackle Boko Haram and other national security threats’’, he said.
The advocacy group urged remnants of Boko Haram to drop their arms, saying that their days ahead were numbered. It maintained that time was fast running out on them in the light of the re-calibrated counter-terrorism operations.
It charged Nigerians to close ranks and fully support the military and other security forces by volunteering credible, useful and timely information to aid ongoing operations to rid the country of criminal elements in the interest of the security, unity, stability and sovereignty of the nation.
