Buhari Praises Executed Adamawa CAN Official For Not Renouncing Christianity

President Muhammadu Buhari has praised the executed chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Lawan Andimi for not renouncing his Christian faith even as he affirmed that 90% of victims of the Boko Haram insurgents are Muslims.

While affirming that his government has technically defeated the Boko Haram insurgents with the support of British and American military forces, Buhari has nevertheless called on Christian leaders to remove sentiments in their assessment of his administration’s efforts in the war.

The president in an article he wrote to the influential Christian periodical, Christianity Today said while noting successes in the fight against Boko Haram, said:

“But we may not, yet, be completely winning the battle for the truth. Christianity in Nigeria is not—as some seem intent on believing—contracting under pressure, but expanding and numbers about 45 percent of our population today.

“Nor is it the case that Boko Haram is primarily targeting Christians: not all of the Chibok schoolgirls were Christian; some were Muslim, and were so at the point at which they were taken by the terrorists. Indeed, it is the reality that some 90 percent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims: they include a copycat abduction of over 100 Muslim schoolgirls, along with their single Christian classmate; shootings inside mosques; and the murder of two prominent imams. Perhaps it makes for a better story should these truths, and more, be ignored in the telling.”

Observing the call for religious tolerance by both the Christian and Islamic faiths, he said:
“For the Bible teaches, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion” (2 Cor. 9:7), while the Quran states: “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Similarly, the Bible states: “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror” (James 1:23). The Quran concurs: “Those who believe and do good works, theirs will be forgiveness and a great reward” (35:7).

“I call on Nigeria’s faith leaders, and Nigerians everywhere, to take these words of concord—and the many more that exist—to their hearts and their deeds.

“Rather, we might all learn from the faith and works of Pastor Andimi. There seems little doubt he acted selflessly in so many regards—giving alms and prayers to both Christians and Muslims who suffered at the hands of the terrorists.

“And he passed from us, rightly refusing to renounce his faith that was not for his captors to take, any more than his life. His belief and his deeds are a lesson and an inspiration to all of us.”

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