The CAN President had last week kicked against any form of dialogue between the Jonathan-led administration and the sect that had unleashed violence in the Northern states.
Oritsejafor told newsmen shortly after delivering a sermon at the 46th annual convention of the United Church of Christ in Nigeria, also known as Hadediyar Ekklisiyar Krista a Nigeria (HEKAN) in Kaduna, that for the continued corporate existence of the country, the government should no longer condone any group threatening the security of lives and property of Nigerians.
According to him, no sensible government would agree to any form of dialogue with groups such as the Boko Haram sect which had remained faceless even while insisting on Islamizing the country.
“I don’t even know who they are, but my point is that, it depends on what you are trying to negotiate or dialogue with them, will you discuss with somebody who is saying Nigeria must become a Muslim or an Islamic nation?
“I don’t think any sensible government, whether the President is a Muslim or a Christian will want to sit down and discuss such thing because it is the greatest instrument of disunity that this country will ever experience,” he said.
However, the JNI in its reaction on Wednesday, said that the Muslim body do not know what the CAN leader intended to achieve by going against the dialogue between the government and the sect.
JNI spokesman and acting Administrative Secretary, Umar Ahmad Zaria in a statement on behalf of the Secretary General of the group made available in Kaduna, noted that the CAN President’s statement was done in bad faith, adding that “whatever his reasons might be, it should be made public for it takes a masquerade to know another.”
Also the JNI asked the CAN president to name the so-called 26 different group said to be the Boko Haram, saying that with his statements, it had revealed after all that Oristejafor “preferred the state of violence and anarchy the nation is going through” since he did not want the government and the militant sect to dialogue.
The two-page JNI statement entitled: “Conscience is an open wound” read: “If not that the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria owe us a duty to which I am obliged , I would have made this release, and in lieu of the CAN President’s vituperations on Boko Haram which was tagged “Why I am against FG , Boko Haram Talks’. JNI don not know what the President of CAN intends to achieve by saying that he is against the Federal Government talk with Boko Haram , whatever his reason might be , it should be made public for it takes a masquerade to know another. For indeed, after the Miya Barkatai foiled attempt to bomb a Church in Bauchi State, aren’t we witnessing the return of peace and security. Is he not interested? “In the light of which I strongly disagree with his assertions, particularly at a time that tension is gradually dowsing over security upheavals. May I at this juncture call on Oritsejafor to tell the world the so-called 26 different groups said to be the Boko Haram? Also it is imperative that the CAN President reveals to the nation his motives of not wanting the Federal Government to dialogue with Boko Haram, it seems he prefers the state of violence and anarchy the nation is going through.
“Similarly, why is he an advocate of violence for violence? The onus lies on him to tell the world what he wants as regards Boko Haram palaver. Hence, he is always truncating Federal Government initiatives.
“At this trying moment, patience, steadfastness, forbearance and fear of God , the Almighty should be our guiding principles in curbing these menace but the reverse is the case with CAN.”
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