Follow Us on Google
Says both Muslims and Christians are victims of insecurity
______________________
From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has urged President Donald Trump of the United States of America not to instigate religious war in Nigeria, adding his statement of genocide against Christians in the country is nothing but pure fallacy.
The student body said that Nigeria, like every other nation, is battling with internal security challenges such as banditry, terrorism and kidnapping; Trump’s dubbing the situation a genocide against Christians is capable of igniting and inciting religious skirmish in the country.
President Trump had described Nigeria as a country of “particular concern” where there was an ongoing genocide against Christians.
The American President who said he had alerted the Pentagon to prepare for action in Nigeria, also disclosed that he would not hesitate to send the country’s military into Nigeria to stop the genocide.
Other News
However, NANS in a statement signed by its National Vice President on Inter-Campus and Gender Affairs, Akinbodunse Sileola Felicia, on Thursday, condemned the statement of President Trump, saying giving religious colouration to the insecurity situation in Nigeria will cause more harm, distrust and division among Nigerians.
Akinbodunse added that Nigerians have lived together peacefully irrespective of their religious beliefs, warning Nigerians not to allow any foreign divisive element to polarise them along the religious line.
She, however, urged President Trump to make USA visa-free to Nigerian Christians if he truly loves and cares for them as he claimed, rather than fanning the ember of religious discord in Nigeria.
The NANS National Vice President noted that both the Christians and Muslims have been the casualties of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria, wondering why the US president would single out Christians as the only ones bearing the brunt of insecurity in the country.
Akinbodunse who charged the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration to intensify the fight against insecurity in Nigeria and stop the killings, particularly in Plateau and Benue States, submitted that “only the defeat of insurgency in the North East, an end to the massacre by the killer herdsmen in Plateau and Benue States, will neutralise the fallacy of genocide against Nigerian Christians as being championed by President Trump”.
