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Attack on Winners Chapel: Playing politics with name and numbers by Nnamdi Okosieme

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A man sneaked into the Living Faith Church(aka winners Chapel), on Sunday, February 2 in Kaduna with explosives intending to blow up the church.

He was unlucky as he was apprehended by church security and promptly handed over to the Police.

Ordinarily, his arrest ought to have rested the matter as Nigerians await his trial and sentencing if found guilty.

Sadly, in today’s Nigeria where religious divisions have deepened over the last few years, the man’s arrest has generated heated debate as to his faith.

Trouble started when the police released the name of the suspect as Nathaniel Samuel.

Moments after the release of the suspect’s identity, the age-old mistrust and division between Nigerian Christian and Muslims reared its head as some adherents of the Islamic faith accused Christians of hypocrisy noting that while its adherents were engaged in terrorist activity like bombing, they were busy accusing Muslims of targeting Christians for extermination.

The accusation by the Muslims came hours after a protest organized by Nigerian Christian leaders against what they felt were deliberate attempts to annihilate Christians.

The Christian community stung by the suggestion that perhaps its adherents were complicit in the insurgency in the northeast, responded by disowning the suspect.

John Hayab, who heads the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), suspects alleged foul play in the release of the identity of suspect.

Hayab said when the suspect was apprehended by members of the Living Faith Church he gave his name as Mohammed Sani.

In an interview with a leading Nigerian newspaper he stated:

“The police came to pick him up at the church. At the time he was interrogated at the church, he told the church that his name was Mohammed Sani, but when he was handed over to the police, the police told everyone that his name was Samuel Nathaniel”.

The Kaduna CAN chairman said the since the suspect was already in Police custody, they should expedite action to find out who his sponsors are.

An argument as to whether or not the Kaduna bomb suspect was a Christian or Muslim had hardly subsided than a new dimension was added to the debate.

On Monday, February 3, President Muhammadu Buhari in an article in Christianity Today, where he paid tribute to Lawan Andimi, a Christian leader in Adamawa State beheaded by the Boko Haram for his selflessness in bringing succour to the downtrodden added fuel to what was already an explosive debate when he wrote:

“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”

Many have considered President Buhari’s statement unhelpful given the already heightened distrust among the two leading faiths in the country.

Indeed, such intervention whether true or not is not what is expected of him given his position as the father of the nation.

As Nigeria’s leader he should be seeking to calm frayed nerves and take concrete steps to secure the lives of his people.

At another level, Nigeria’s religious leaders should show maturity in the way they respond to issues around the insurgency.

As leaders it is their responsibility to help calm frayed nerves and promote religious harmony.

The country cannot afford a situation where the already fragile situation is worsened.

See photos below:

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