Christian group boycotts panel on religious matters

Stephen Oni/ Ilorin

The Christian Association of Nigeria in the central Nigerian state of Kwara today announced the suspension of the participation of their members in a state panel on religion.

CAN chairman, Rev. James Folaranmi made the announcement in Ilorin today at a press conference, where he also catalogued instances of Christian marginalisation in the state.

The group has given government seven days to make amends or “other actions may follow”.

Folaranmi did not specify the actions CAN will embark upon to mount pressure on government to address Christian marginalisation.

At press conference, he chronicled instances of Christian marginalisation in the state, an action that violates the Nigerian constitution.

He said: “For instance, out of 146 key political appointments in the state there are only 29 Christians, so if we want to go by percentage, what they have given us accounts for less than 10 percent, in a state where Christians are about 50 percent of the population.”

He lamented that aside the governor being a Muslim, most of his aides like the secretary to the State Government, Head of Service, the Chief of Staff are all Muslims, while the Chairman of Teaching Service Commission, Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, heads of State-owned tertiary institutions as well as all the Secretaries, treasurers, directors in the 16 local government areas are also Muslims. Besides, only five out of 18 Commissioners are Christians, only 7 out of the 21 permanent secretaries are Christians, while all federal government Chairmanship board appointees from the state are also Muslims.

On employment, Folaranmi lamented that the chairman and the three other members of the state Civil service Commission, a body that is in charge of employment, posting and discipline of civil servants, are all Muslims. Little wonder, he said, Muslims are daily being recruited into civil service despite the impression being created by the commission that there are no employment going on.

He decried that subtle agenda by government to fizzle out the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge by deliberately reducing the number of admission to institutions where teachers can be trained for this and the deliberate flooding of Christian Schools with Islamic teachers out of proportion to the number of Muslim pupils in such schools.

The latest absurdity, he lamented, was the systematic marginalisation of Christians in the selection rather than election of chairmanship candidates for the forthcoming local government elections by the ruling people’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, showing that only one Christian out of 15 candidates has been selected by the leader of the party, Senator Bukola Saraki, despite the preponderance of Christians in areas such as Irepodun, Oke-Ero, Isin, Ifelodun, Offa and Oyun.

He also pointed out that both the chairmen and deputies selected in some areas including Ifelodun where Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed comes from are Muslims.