90 per cent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims- President Buhari

President Buhari has said that contrary to the opinion in some
quarters, Boko Haram is not primarily targeting Christians as Muslims
form about 90 per cent of its victims.

The President said this in an op-ed published in Christianity Today, titled “Buhari: Pastor Andimi’s faith should inspire Nigerians,”.

In the article which was published on Monday February 3rd, the
president eulogised the chairman of Michika, Adamawa State Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lawan Andimi, who was recently beheaded by
Boko Haram for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.

President Buhari in the article, stated that the attacks by Boko
Haram members have repeatedly shown that it is not religious based.
According to the President, the sect members have over time attacked and
kidnapped many Muslim faithfuls.

“Christianity in Nigeria is not—as some seem intent on
believing—contracting under pressure, but expanding and growing in
numbers approaching half of our population today. Nor is it the case
that Boko Haram is primarily targeting Christians: not all of the Chibok
schoolgirls were Christians; some were Muslims, and were so at the
point at which they were taken by the terrorists.

Indeed, it is the reality that some 90 per cent 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” the article in part reads

He appealed to Nigerians never to allow themselves be divided along
religious lines. The president said Andimi’s attribute even in the face
of death, should inspire all Nigerians.

Read the article below

Nigerians everywhere, those of belief and those of none, are mourning
the death of pastor Lawan Andimi, taken from us by Boko Haram for his
refusal to denounce his Christian faith.

I did not know Pastor Andimi personally. Yet Nigerians and I both
know him and his church by their works: healing, caring, feeding and
educating, particularly in the northeastern regions of my country—in
those areas threatened for too long by terrorists. Every day, the Church
of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) places itself there bravely where the
brotherhood of man is most in need of sustenance.

Pastor Andimi’s ministry was located only 60 miles from the town of
Chibok, from where in 2014 the world witnessed the shocking kidnapping
of 267 schoolgirls. That even one individual—this time a man of the
church—could still be taken by the terror group seven years later might
be viewed as evidence the terrorists are fully functional, and
undefeated. But it is not.

Since I was first elected to office in 2015, 107 of the Chibok girls
have been freed. Today we seek the others. Boko Haram are no longer one,
unified threat, but fractured into several rivals. These splinters are
themselves degraded: reduced to criminal acts which—nonetheless no less
cruel—target smaller and smaller numbers of the innocent. We owe thanks
to the Nigerian defense forces, bolstered by our partnership with the
British, American militaries and other countries that we are winning
this struggle in the field.

But we may not, yet, be completely winning the battle for the truth.
Christianity in Nigeria is not—as some seem intent on
believing—contracting under pressure, but expanding and growing in
numbers approaching half of our population today. Nor is it the case
that Boko Haram is primarily targeting Christians: not all of the Chibok
schoolgirls were Christians; some were Muslims, and were so at the
point at which they were taken by the terrorists. Indeed, it is the
reality that some 90 per cent 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.

It is a simple fact that these now-failing terrorists have targeted
the vulnerable, the religious, the non-religious, the young, and the old
without discrimination. And at this point, when they are fractured, we
cannot allow them to divide good Christians and good Muslims from those
things that bind us all in the sight of God: faith, family, forgiveness,
fidelity, and friendship to each other.

Yet sadly, there is a tiny, if vocal, minority of religious
leaders—both Muslim and Christian—who appear more than prepared to take
their bait and blame the opposite religious side. The terrorists today
attempt to build invisible walls between us. They have failed in their
territorial ambitions, so now instead they seek to divide our state of
mind, by prying us from one from another—to set one religion seemingly
implacably against the other.

Translated into English, Boko Haram means “Western teachings are
sinful.” They claim as “proof” passages of the Quran which state that
Muslims should fight “pagans” to be justification for attacks on
Christians and those Muslims who hold no truck with them. They are
debased by their wilful misreading of scripture—at least those of them
who are able to read at all.

Of course, there is much of Christianity and Islam—both in teaching
and practice—that are not the same. Were that not so, there would be no
need for the separateness of the two religions. Yet though these unread
terrorists seem not to know it, there is much between our two
faiths—both the word and the scripture—that run in parallel.

For the Bible teaches, “Each one must give as he has purposed in his
heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion” (2 Cor. 9:7), while the Quran
states: “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Similarly, the
Bible states: “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he
is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror” (James
1:23). The Quran concurs: “Those who believe and do good works, theirs
will be forgiveness and a great reward” (35:7).

I call on Nigeria’s faith leaders, and Nigerians everywhere, to take
these words of concord—and the many more that exist—to their hearts and
their deeds. Just as my government, and our international partners,
quicken our campaign to defeat Boko Haram within and without our
borders, we must turn our minds to the future. There is no place in
Nigeria for those who seek to divide us by religion, who compel others
to change their faith forcibly, or try to convince others that by so
doing, they are doing good.

Rather, we might all learn from the faith and works of Pastor Andimi.
There seems little doubt he acted selflessly in so many regards—giving
alms and prayers to both Christians and Muslims who suffered at the
hands of the terrorists. And he passed from us, rightly refusing to
renounce his faith that was not for his captors to take, any more than
his life. His belief and his deeds are a lesson and an inspiration to
all of us.

Muhammadu Buhari is President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.