What CAN say over Buhari’s claim that Boko Haram victims are Muslims

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that it is not true that Boko Haram insurgency has claimed the lives of more Christians than Muslims.

He argued that the different was the case, claiming that “90 per cent” of deaths from attacks by the terrorists were Muslims.

Buhari gave his position in an op-ed published in Speaking Out, a guest opinion column for Christianity Today, a United States-based magazine.

The op-ed was a tribute to the Michika Local Government Area Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Adamawa State, the late Pastor Lawan Andimi.

The cleric was executed by Boko Haram. The op-ed was titled, “Buhari: Pastor Andimi’s faith should inspire all Nigerians.”

Buhari in the op-ed said it was not true that Christians were the main targets of Boko Haram insurgents.

The President of CAN, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, had in Ibadan on Sunday, urged Buhari to rise up to his responsibility of protecting lives and property in the country.

Citing the killing of Andim and a student of the University of Maiduguri, Ropvil Dalyep, he said there was no doubt that the Boko Haram terrorists were targeting Christians.

Reacting to the notion that Boko Haram targeted only Christians, Buhari disagreed, urging Nigerians to see the insurgents as common enemies they must team up to fight collectively.

He also wrote that since he assumed office in 2015, his regime had not relented in fighting the insurgents, adding that to a large degree, the insurgents had been weakened by the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Buhari wrote, “Boko Haram are no longer one, unified threat, but fractured into several rivals. These splinters are themselves degraded: reduced to criminal acts which—nonetheless no less cruel—target smaller and smaller numbers of the innocent. We owe thanks to the Nigerian defence forces, bolstered by our partnership with the British, American military and other countries that we are winning this struggle in the field.”