Islamists plod on with their Islamization plans for Nigeria

“Have I not done it before? Will I not do it again?  What is that power? Where is that god from? Who is that man that can question My integrity over Nigeria?

“There has been a contention over Nigeria. God stood and Satan stood and gave reasons why Nigeria should be handed over to him. But Nigeria cannot be released to them, no matter what price the enemy has paid. The price cannot be compared to the price The Lord has paid. This argument has no basis. But the ones called by the Lord should arise and uphold what the LORD has done.”

 

        Granted, as we highlighted in the last edition, that it’s the Islamists in PMB’s kitchen cabinet who are calling the shots, especially in matters of appointments in the coumtry; one nevertheless wonders how the President could claim he is “ for all and for none,” or that he means well for all, as he keeps on ratifying these appointments.  With the appointments, fundamental changes are simultaneously being effected in key sectors of our national life; and they are not necessarily for the better.  Most visible, in recent times, are changes in the areas of Security, Education, Oil and Gas, and the Civil Service. You ask what then is left?

       The recent announcement of Ibrahim Idris (Moslem from Niger State) as the acting Inspector General of Police, is the latest in the top echelon of the security sector that has swung things beyond what can be reasonably described by normal unbiased statistics.  Even before this particular appointment, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had issued a public statement expressing her disturbance “by the virtual northern Islamization of the key security units in the country.” Describing the development as “a total negation of the Federal Character principle in appointments into Federal offices” and a demonstration of  “outright disrespect for this erstwhile sacrosanct national value,” the CAN observed that the situation opens up the “possibility of a section of the country using the instruments of the state to oppress, suppress, and intimidate other parts of the nation.”  As documented in the list by the CAN,  appointments made into key security units in the nation all involving Muslims from the North currently include: Director General, Department of States Services, Minister of Defense, Minister of Interior, National Security Adviser, and Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    To these could be added: The Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, the Controller-General of the Nigeria Prison Service….  And now, as Solomon Arase completes his tenure as the Inspector General of Police, he is replaced by a Moslem from the North.  In other to effect this last appointment, some twenty-three more senior officers had to be retired from the Police Force.  Surely there would have been one competent and qualified Christian among that whole lot, who could have been appointed IGP!

     Some would argue that the Church would derive no special benefit, anyway, had the President chosen to appoint some Christian-in-name-only cronies into some of these positions. But that is beside the point.  The Church is certainly not asking for Christians to occupy sensitive security positions so as to derive any special benefits; nor even to impugn the competence and qualifications of those currently appointed into those offices.  But the Constitution apart, it would have at least convened the impression that the President and his Pushers care for the sensibilities of Nigerian Christians.  As things were, the clear message is one of frightening and ominous defiance – daring the Church to think and do her worst!  It also, of course, suggests that there is some nefarious agenda that require moslems’ occupying those key sensitive units.

     Developments in the education sector have been no less discomfiting. The Church in Nigeria is indebted to the Nigerian Christian Graduate Fellowship (NCGF) who has been at the forefront of raising the alarm concerning ongoing frantic efforts to islamize the country via the stealthy indoctrination of all school children into Islam (see last edition of CA!).  At the present time, the NCGF has engaged the National Education Research and Development Council on the issue, and there seems, at least on the surface, to be some response.  Prof Charles Adeyinka Adisa of the NCGF has been very active on the team, and he has recently posted some “matters of urgent national attention to the Nigerian Church.”  (see http://churcharise.blogspot.com/2016/07/matters-of-urgent-national-attention-to.html) 

     Issues highlighted in the posting by Prof Adisa include the report that all private schools in Sokoto state have been instructed to start teaching Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) to all students,  both Christians and Muslims.  In what he describes as a “daring and alarming” speed of activation,  the Professor  informed that the  Commissioners of Education in all the 7 states in the North West have just returned from Bangladesh after a training on overhauling the educational system.

     Similarly, still in the education sector, the Islamists are steadily pushing forward their plans to establish the wearing of hijabs in schools throughout the nation.  The battle ground for this agenda in the south (it is already a fait accompli in the North) is Osun state where governor Rauf Aregbesola had instructed the Moslem community to sue him to court and compel him to allow the hijab in all government schools.  Most of these were schools forcibly taken over from their original Christian owners.  Please see some of our previous reports on that issue at http://churcharise.org/archives/v17q1.pdf ).  The Christian Association of Nigeria in the state has filed for a stay of execution of the resulting court ruling in addition to appealing against the ruling.  Since none of these stopped Moslem girls from coming to school in hijabs, the CAN also instructed Christian pupils to feel free to also attend classes in their religious attires, such as choir robes!  According to Prof Adisa, the next move of the Islamists will involve attempting to introduce the hijab to all Command Schools run by the military in the country!

     The Nation’s golden eggs-laying goose, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has not been left out of the ill-boding islamist wind of change.  About the same time that the new IGP was being announced, the President removed Mr Ibe Kachikwu (current “deputy minister” of petroleum) from the executive and highly strategic position of the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, only to put a Moslem in his place. General Buhari himself remains the substantive minister of petroleum.  Furthermore, of the 9 members in the newly constituted Board of the NNPC, six (going by their names) seem to be Moslems.  Hardly the best approach to persuade the Avengers to sheath their bombs!

     Meanwhile, even more fundamental changes were being quietly effected in the Civil Service, the nation’s bureaucratic machinery, and tool for governance.  Earlier in November 2015, after barely six months in office, the President had announced he was changing the procedures by which Permanent Secretaries in the Civil Service are appointed and promoted. As quietly reported by the Press, the President “changed the tradition of subjecting permanent secretaries to written and oral tests before appointment, saying the administration rather​​ opted for a “more rigorous selection process”.  This more rigorous selection process happens to be entirely subjective and would now be based more on loyalty to private causes as perceived by the evaluator!  The President himself explains: the new process would entail “vigorous screening of candidates’ past records, potential and capacity for holding the office, integrity, honesty and sense of commitment.” (http://bit.ly/29QWFfN ).

     The question begging to be asked is why such a subjective “vigorous screening” which somehow would evaluate candidate’s “commitment” could not at least be preceded by the more objective traditional written test evaluating basic competence!  Informed observers have noted that with the new rule, the nation is back to the days of “Super Perm Secs”, as permanent secretaries (who don’t even have to come from the civil service anymore) could now stay in office for decades.

      Unfortunately, the President’s expressed hope that the “subsequent conduct and performance” of the new Super Perm secs will “not prove this administration wrong” doesn’t seem to be holding out.  Barely six months later, the Federal Ministry of Health was virtually on lock down in May, as workers demanded that the new Perm Sec, Amina Shamaki, be redeployed.  According to the Guardian newspaper, the workers accused the Permanent Secretary of “incompetence and overbearing tendencies”.  Specifically this included her brazen interference “with [the] activities of Human Resources Department in the ministry” http://www.nursingworldnigeria.com/2016/05/health-workers-shut-ministry-want-perm-sec-redeployed.   The discerning reader can easily decipher what all that means and implies: appointments!

       The development in the civil service might be part of the same agenda that has led to the proscription of any efforts by Universities and other tertiary institutions to independently administer any form of screening whatsoever (Post-UTME) to candidates pushed to them by a clearly imperfect and overburdened Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).  The education minister certainly could have curbed the excesses of these institutions, especially in the grossly unfair multiple charges they impose on the candidates, without throwing away the baby with the bath water.  Except, of course, there is some agenda to control admissions to these institutions from “the top.”

       Unfortunately, at a time like this, the Christian Association of Nigeria is embroiled in internal crisis emanating from the recent elections of national leaders.  Sadly, the matter has led to litigations at the present time.  The friends of Jacob are few, yet their rank is divided!

       Add to all these,  the brazen call that choice land all across the federation be forcibly acquired from their local owners by the government, and given as property to private Fulani people for their  cattle-grazing businesses!  Unfortunately, this absolutely meritless move is still being rushed through the legislature, even right now, despite all outrages generated!  Perhaps to convince the resistance to cool down, the rampages of the Fulani herdsmen has been allowed to continue unchecked, with scores of innocent natives being murdered in their land by the jihadist new army. Folks from the Benue and Niger states are the latest recipients of the herdsman bullet. Unlike faceless terrorists in other contexts, the people behind Fulani Herdsmen are well known. In fact the Miyetti Allah association is legally registered in the country and it is always giving one press conference or another, trying to justify the killing other Nigerians. President Buhari happens to be the grand patron of the association!   Meanwhile, government has pronounced that the matter does not call for a military action. If only people will see the wisdom of pacifying the herdsmen with the requested ranches, eh?

       Whilst we would still wish to give the President some benefits of doubts, we believe he needs more concerted prayers that in his bid to satisfy the constituency that got him into office in the most polarizing elections the nation has seen to date (as he himself conceded he is constrained to do), he will still be sensitive enough to call his Islamists instigators to order.

       Recent history and ongoing events have clearly shown that just like the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere, the Islamists behind the President apparently are incapable of decorum and tact. And they presumably don’t mind pushing their principal into the abyss.

       The confidence of the Church is that the almighty God of heaven and earth is not a mere phantom or helpless figure.  He is the almighty, all-wise, and only potentate Who specializes in catching the crafty in their craftiness (Job 5:12-13).  According to a prophecy through the Wailing Women, and corroborated by other witnesses, that  same God is only waiting for the Church to arise, and He would spring to action on behalf of our country.