President Muhammadu Buhari has said seeing the wreck caused by the Boko Haram insurgency as a national threat and not a religious battle is a step towards winning the war.
Mr Buhari said this in a tweet on Tuesday, on the heels of the vicious beheading of Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Michika local government area of Adamawa State.
The president maintained that the terrorists have hatched plans to turn Nigerians’ back against each other along religious lines, and a slight walk down that line is a win for the terrorists.
The president has, on other occasions, urged Nigerians to unite in the fight against terror which has lingered for over a decade. The government, at first, had described the group as being “technically defeated” but, now describes the group as “now-failing” in their activities.
He said contrary to the narrative being spread that insurgents target Christians; about 90 per cent of their victims are Muslims. He added that 2014 kidnap of 276 Chibok girls, shooting inside mosques and murder of two prominent imams are proofs to his assertion.
“Contrary to those falsehoods, Christianity is not contracting under pressure in Nigeria, but instead expanding,” Mr Buhari wrote. “Neither is it the case that the terrorists are targeting only Christians; the reality indeed is that some 90 per cent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims.”
