Prelates: Nation’s Leaders Seek ‘Islamization of Nigeria’

Father Valentine Obinna, a priest of the Aba diocese in Nigeria, told the online Catholic news outlet Crux that the recent murders of priests and other Christians are not isolated events but are tied to a long-term program of the “Islamization of Nigeria.”

“It’s obvious. It’s underground. It’s trying to make the whole country a Muslim country,” Father Obinna said. “But they are trying to do that in a context with a strong presence of Christians, and that’s why it becomes very difficult for him,” he said, in reference to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

The reason Christians have become targets is that Buhari and those in power “want to make sure the whole country becomes a Muslim country,” and they are using Boko Haram and the Fulani to achieve that objective, he said.

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In one of the most underreported stories of the year, Nigeria has seen rampant attacks on the Christian population of the country.

A recent report by the Jubilee Campaign asserted that 52 lethal, anti-Christian attacks took place in Nigeria during the first six months of 2019.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law declared that some 2,400 Christians were killed by the Fulani in 2018 alone. And Nigeria’s Daily Post reported last year that from June 2015 to June 2018, Fulani militants “killed 8,800 Christians and other non-Muslims,” torching “not less than 1,000″ churches and other places of worship during the same period.

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The secular media have largely downplayed the religious nature of the Fulani killings, preferring to attribute the violence to “ethnic tensions,” a “battle for land and resources,” or even “climate change.”

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