The Kaduna, Kafanchan and Zaria chapters of the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, (NCDPA), have asked the Kaduna state governor, Uba Sani, to come out clean of the recent statements made by his predecessor, Nasir El-Rufai, concerning the governance of the state.
This was contained in an open letter to the governor, jointly signed by Joseph Gandu, Douglas Rock and Samuel Ameh – priests in charge of the NCDPA chapters.
The clerics condemned El-Rufai’s utterances which were recorded in a viral video clip that went viral on the social media.
In the video El-Rufai, who was addressing some Islamic clerics at a meeting attended by Sani, after the 2023 elections, spoke on why he excluded Christians in Kaduna state from top government appointments.
The former governor who spoke in Hausa language, said “most Christians in Kaduna do not vote for his party, the APC, maintaining that there was no point nominating them as deputy governor”.
He said as far as he was concerned Muslims will continue to govern Kaduna state as “we can win elections without them (Christian)”
El-Rufai also boasted that what happened in Kaduna had been extended to the federal level following the emergence of President Bola Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima, both of them Muslims.
“From now, no liar can come out and say he will play politics of Christianity in Nigeria and win. Peter Obi did it, see were he is!
“We have effectively tackle this. Since Asiwaju won the election, CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) has been very quiet…” he said in the video.
In the letter, the Catholic priests expressed shocked over such “divisive, bigoted, hateful and completely unstatesmanlike declaration”, by the former governor.
“Your Excellency, with consternation and utter disillusionment, we watched the now viral videoclip in which the former governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, while addressing a group of Islamic clerics with you sitting by his side, made comments that objectively amount to a divisive, bigoted, hateful and completely unstatesmanlike declaration of Islamic political supremacism in Kaduna State and Nigeria…”the letter reads.
“Having soberly considered the contents and implications of such communication by a former State governor who is known to be your close ally, we feel compelled to write you, to know where you stand with regards to the commotions Mallam El-Rufai intends to propagate and perpetuate in our state…
“We write you today because we are responsible stakeholders in the affairs of our beloved State with our own congregations and followers. “We cannot fold our hands and watch unpatriotic persons who neither live in the state nor care about it, come and set it ablaze at will.
“Moreso, we and our congregations have prominently been at the receiving end of the terrors of ineffective governance, especially in the last eight years.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the now-viral video in reference, is that in which ex-El-Rufai among other things, speaking in Hausa language, categorically made the following points, that: “most Christians in Kaduna do not vote his party (the APC), hence the reason why he orchestrated their exclusion from being even Deputy Governor;
APC can win elections without the Christians; for the same reason, he deliberately excluded Christians in all the top cadre of the governance of the state…
“Mr. Governor, this, to every decerning mind, is not only the evidence of discrimination and the provocation that most Christian communities and individuals have end at ured in our state, especially during the reign of El-rufai.
The letter also condemned the El-Rufai administration for alleged discriminatory policies against Christians in Kaduna state and the nonchalant attitude of the administration to the persistent attacks on Christian clergies and killings by bandits.
“It is also an explanation for the many unjust policies of his administration, uneven distribution of state resources, the wanton killings and kidnappings that afflicted the Christian dominated areas, and the nonchalance and sometimes scornful response of government to the distress calls of victims;
“It is important to call your attention to the fact (which we believe you already have details of), that during the pendency of the last administration, our association almost lost count of our members who were steadily being targeted, kidnapped and killed! In most cases, priests were executed after paying huge sums as ransom.
“This is apart from the several other pastors of other Christian denominations and countless whole Christian communities that are being steadily raided, ransacked, burnt down and their inhabitants either taken for ransom or slaughtered without any of the perpetrators brought to book, nor any support for the survivors from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), or the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA), nor from any other government agency.
“The only response that would usually come their way from government has been bizarre and inhumane accusations that they provoked their killers, tagging the atrocities as justified revenge killings, with punitive curfews and proscription of socio-cultural and developmental associations of some socio-cultural communities.
“We are fully aware that as guaranteed both by Natural Law and the Nigerian Constitution, Kaduna State and its resources is our common patrimony irrespective of ethnic, cultural or religious diversity and disparity.
“As such, elements who are notoriously seen to be despotic, divisive, inciting and eminent failures in building peace should be hiding their faces in shame, rather than be publicly seen standing by you and using your religion or party to promote extremist exclusion and anarchy without consequences, because ours’ is certainly not in a lawless society.
“Mr. Governor, our disappointment and shock did not stem only from the utterances of the former governor, but more from the endorsement he received from the audience, made-up of Muslim clerics who excitedly cheered him on.
“It was more shocking because these are the same clerics with whom we have been in constant dialogue and discussion on how to help entrench harmony, peace and mutual respect for our different faith-persuasions.
“They are the same clerics we have called friends and partners in inter-religious dialogue, and now they seem to stab their friends in the back.
“Mr. Governor, we do not intend to conclude that you are in agreement with all the content of the former Governor’s utterances, as you have given no explicit reason to suggest so (yet), even though you were present at the occasion!
“We therefore earnestly expect your direct official reaction to the utterances of your predecessor in office…
