Femi Adesina: ‘CAN speaks like a political party’

President Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina, has likened the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), to an opposition political party.

After Chairman of CAN in Michika local government area of Adamawa State, Lawan Andimi, was beheaded by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Monday, January 21, 2020, the association accused President Buhari of “colluding with the insurgents to exterminate Christians in Nigeria, bearing in mind the very questionable leadership of the security sector that has been skewed towards a religion and region!”

The terrorists also claimed to have killed 11 Christians on Christmas Day.

Allegations of partisanship

In an article he titled: ‘Beheaded Adamawa Pastor: CAN Got It Mixed Up’, Adesina said CAN has become increasingly reckless with its public utterances.

“If any purging is to be done, is it not by those making allegations? The allegations lasted for many years, but truth eventually overtook them,” Adesina wrote.

“If CAN would then still dwell on the discredited accusations, it must be the one to purge itself, as millions of Nigerians, including Christians, have already done. The insecurity in the country is not about any religion. It is pure evil, from the pit of hell.

CAN President, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, says Buhari has lost it on security (Punch) ece-auto-gen

“Let’s consider this part of the press statement. Maintenance of security is the least responsibility of any government that knows its worth. Not news. The constitution says so. But don’t you glean a hint of bile and bias in ‘that knows its worth?’ Oh, CAN, this is not the mind of our Master.

“He gives praises when due. Security is number one on the priorities of the Buhari administration. It has pumped time and humongous resources into it, and while the job is not fully done, we are not in the same position we were before the administration came.”

The president’s spokesperson also added that CAN has become embarrassingly partisan.

“CAN says kidnappings and killings are shameful to a government that boasts that it has conquered insurgency. Boasts. So that is all that matters to CAN, as if it was an opposition political party? Boasts. No. This would not augur for unity and cohesion in a country.

“We are not asking the Christian body to be in bed with government, that would not help anybody, but the organization has been sounding too long like a political party," he said.

The Buhari administration maintains that the decade-long insurgency, which has led to some 50,000 deaths and a humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s northern region, is on its last leg.