ADDRESS BY DR. BOLA ADEWARA, EDITOR OF E-LIFE MAGAZINE AND PRESIDENT, CHRISTIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CPAN) AT THE DISCUSSION FORUM ON THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN NIGERIA, TAKING PLACE TODAY FEBRUARY 1ST, 2019 AT GOD OF GLORY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, KETU, LAGOS.
I welcome you all to this discussion on THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN NIGERIA.
I was born in Zaria in the 1960s and raised in Kaduna where I had my primary education and did my WAEC. My father got to Kaduna in 1948, got married and lived there till his death in 1992.
My mother continued to live in Kaduna after the passing on of my dad till she was sacked from Kaduna by the incessant religious riots.
In other words, my family saw Kaduna grow from a near village into a city. It was a city we loved and to date, I often refer to Kaduna as my hometown.
All you need is to check the Facebook profiles of my siblings and I. All of us, without discussing it with one another, entered Kaduna as our hometown. This background story would show you the love we accorded the Kaduna and the North, and the bitterness in us when the same North began to treat us as aliens.
When we were in Kaduna, the north was a peaceful environment. The Hausa, Yoruba, Idoma, Tivs, Ijaw, Bajju, Berom, Kaje, Igbo lived in peace.
There was nothing like tribe. We all spoke pidgin English. We never knew any difference. The Christians and Muslims ate together and celebrated all religious festivities together.
However, we knew the real owners of Kaduna town were the Gwari people, who by then were carrying their loads on their shoulders and would not stay in the city.
The word Kaduna means crocodile. The whole length and breadth of Kaduna I had padded with these feet. From Kawo, the then northern end of Kaduna to Television, the southern end, from Rigasa to Unwan Rimi, I had walked with these legs.
From Ugwan Kanawa to Ungwan Shanu, Malali to Sabon Gari, from Kabala Doki where we watched Bala Miller play in Costain club to Kalaba West which led to Mando and the local airport then side by side with the air force base, as pupils in primary school, we walked all.
I remember with fondness Leventis Stores facing Chellarams. I remember the Post Office lying between the British Council where we read, and Standard Bank and Barclays bank.
I remember Nanet restaurant which was then the only eatery in Kaduna, and UTC directly facing 44 army barracks. I remember the primary schools built by the Churches along Lokoja road and Constitution road.
NO CHRISTIAN IN NORTHERN NIGERIA EVER PROVOKED ANY MUSLIM. IF WE FOUGHT, IT WAS IN SELF DEFENSE
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Baptist School, Methodist school, St Michaels, St Gregory primary school directly facing our house on Lokoja Road and UNA primary school by Gwari Road.
Virtually all the schools in the north were built by the Churches. Today, these schools bear names like Alhaji Isiaka Meidoki primary school. St John’s College, (built by the Catholic Church) where I wrote my WAEC is today known as Rimi College. In spite of that, we still lived in peace and Kaduna was home for all.
But in 1985, the game changed. One day, we heard that there was a riot in the Tudun Wada area and people were being killed and Churches burnt. One of our Churches, Ore Ofe Baptist Church, Tudun Wada was burnt.
It was unheard of. It was like who burnt a Church? To date, I have not recovered from the shock. Kaduna state has not recovered.
The whole North has not recovered and Nigeria cannot be the same again. Since 1985, it has not stopped. I was perhaps in the University when the name Zango Kataf precipitated into our consciousness.
I remember the trials of General Zamani Lekwot and his sentence. I remember the killing of Akaluka in Kano, whose head was hung on a pole and being taken around town in a show of Islam winning over Christianity.
Welcome to the persecution of Christians in Northern Nigeria. As I said, Nigeria has not recovered from this heinous hatred and crimes and I wonder if we will.
As a journalist of the gospel and editor of E-life magazine since 2002, in my quest to discover where the rain began to beat us, I have travelled extensively in the North.
I have seen how our north has fallen from the peak of civilization to the abyss of doom.
I have travelled around the North, Maiduguri, Kano, Bauchi, Jos, Sokoto, where I did my NYSC, Birnin Kebbi, Minna, Bida, Kotangora to Koton Karfi, from Gembu to Gombe, Katsina to Katsina-Ala.
I have come to realise that the North is not the same north I knew. When the Boko haram menace started, it was a strange phenomenon to many people.
But some of us all saw it coming. When it metamorphosed into the herdsmen killing people in the middle belt, it is very clear to us that doomsday is here.
In all our lives as Nigerians, what happened to our brethren in the North in the last four years is unheard of.
The saddest part of the narrative is the ignorance of our people down south here. When you discuss the persecution of Christians with many people here, they treat it with levity.
Many don’t see it as a serious issue. In the north, I see people, whose churches were burnt, still gathering under shades provided by trees to worship, sing and pray with all their hearts.
Down south here, if your church has no Air conditioning, the pastor has committed a crime.
It is enough for some Christians to change the church.
For this and many more reasons, we have invited our friend and brother, Barrister Mark Jacob to address us on the experience of the common man amongst the body of Christ in the northern parts of Nigeria.
We cannot divorce these issues from politics and the strong desire of some miscreants both in power and outside power to Islamise Nigeria. It is sad that some Christians still say nobody can Islamise them.
I ask them to go into history to see how this has been achieved in countries like Turkey and Israel where our Lord Jesus was born!
Gradually, the killing of our people has become moin moin as we say on social media, and it’s being attended to with impunity, especially in the last three to four years.
Criminals kill innocent people and nothing happens! Criminals kill and the leaders troway face as if nothing spoil.
Offensive weapons are found with people and they go scot-free. You kill a king of a town and to date, nothing has happened! In this 21st century! This is unacceptable.
The game has to change. We cannot take this anymore!
Thank you.
THESE ARE PICTURES TAKEN FROM THE FORUM
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