Talking Boko Haram and More On Soul Talk
A lot has been going down in the country of my birth, multiple deaths, the fuel subsidy , unrest and so much more. I know a lot of Nigerians are focused on the fuel subsidy issue which is a real issue because this affects everything that occurs in the day to day life of EVERY Nigerian, including Nigerians in the Diasporas. But, my thoughts are more on the boko haram issue, particularly since these attacks seem aimed towards Nigerian Christians living in the Northern part of the country.
To understand this issue fully, I invited Dr.Chukwuneke, who is one of the leading voices of CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria - an organization that houses all denominations of churches in Nigeria) and also is currently based in Nigeria. These are the questions addressed:
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#000080;">What is boko haram and what are they about?
We
really don't know much about them. We believe that they are sect of
Muslim fundamentalists. They believe that the Northern part of Nigeria
belongs to them. They don't want education or western dressing and they
associate Christianity as coming from the West and so they want to
clear off every christian so Christians can go with their western values
and education. They are a bunch of criminals and they are wicked and
even Muslims that are true worshipers, condemn them as criminals.
They've been going around killing people. They've been asking
Southerners to go back to the South. This shows how shortsighted they
are because in the South we have Muslims . We have so many Muslims that
have settled in villages in the south, this [the South] is all they
know. We see a lot of this in the South East and South West.
#000080;">What is really their issues with Western values?
Their problem is that they believe the shariah teachings about dressings. A woman has to dress a particular way so that men won't be attracted to them. They believe that we should not have two people [a man and woman] on a bike. They believe it is an obscene sight because it can arouse sensuality. So women should dress in a way to arouse men. They shouldn't study western knowledge, only Koranic education. You know that western education gives you freedom to study whatever you want to study. You can dress anyway you like but within a certain guideline if you are a Christian but they don't want those kinds of things.
You did mention that there are Muslims that are followers of Islam and they don't' accept this violence? What are they doing about this?
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This has been on for more than 4 years and it has never escalated to the level it is now. Initially, they were trying to push it to unemployment and Christians kept on telling them it is not a problem of unemployment but criminality. Then they wanted to use the situation in the Niger delta to their advantage , so these youths in the Northern part started clamoring for the kind of education offered to Youths of the but the scenario is different, you see the country has been using their resources [Niger Delta] without giving back to them and this is the first time the country is focusing on developing these youths [Niger Delta]. So why will they start clamoring to have the same kind of package. But, now, some of their governors are now coming out to say that the boko harams are criminals and whoever is caught will be treated as a criminal when they are caught.
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