• “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. 2. They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me,” John 16:1 - 3

“Where Persecution Comes From…An Open Door Report on Nigeria:

“Much of the Christian persecution in Nigeria is the result of radical Islamic teaching and activity. Islam is the dominant religion in the north of the country, while Christianity is dominant in the south. Ongoing rivalries between ethnic groups contribute to the persecution of Christians who are caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile, radical groups, such as Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herdsmen, heavily persecute believers in the northern and Middle Belt regions. Criminal groups engaged in human and drug trafficking also contribute to the persecution, and corruption at all levels of government only adds to the danger for believers.”

How Christians are Suffering

“In the southern part of Nigeria, Christians experience religious freedom. However, in the northern and Middle Belt regions, they suffer from violence perpetrated by Islamic militant groups. Death, physical injury and loss of property are commonplace, as well as loss of land and livelihood. In northern Nigeria, society as a whole treats Christians as second-class citizens who deserve to be discriminated against and excluded. Christians from Muslim backgrounds also face persecution from their own families who reject and pressure them to renounce Christianity. To make matters worse, corruption has made the government ill-equipped to protect Christians from violent attack.”

Examples

“In May 2016, church leaders in Kebbi State governed by Sharia (Islamic) law were arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. This arrest happened after local Muslim vigilantes had violently disrupted worship at their church, claiming church leaders built it without a permit.

In the same area, Christians have been facing pressure from Muslim evangelists to renounce their faith to get funding for wells, schools, and clinics. One Christian villager shared that his son died because doctors were only willing to offer treatment if he converted to Islam.

In November 2016, raids conducted by suspected Muslim Hausa-Fulani herdsmen killed 45 people, mostly Christians, in southern Kaduna State in the Middle Belt region. In July 2017, a gunman attacked a church in the city of Onitsha in southern Nigeria, killing 12 and injuring 18.”

https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/countries/nigeria/, accessed: 22/09/2018

https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/nigeria/, accessed: 22/09/2018

THE BIG QUESTION

What if all these mindless persecutions of the Christians by the Muslims in the North of Nigeria were the other way round?

What if the reverse has been the case, where it is the Christians in Nigeria who have been prowling about and preying on and tormenting the Muslims – killing them in a genocide-like manner; kidnapping them in the name of carrying out crusade, abducting Muslim under-aged youngsters and holding them up in captivity in palaces, where Christian monarchs perform paedophilic acts on the Muslim children and youngsters; put their girls in family way, even at school-going ages; raping Muslim women; disembowelling pregnant Muslim women and forcing foetuses, premature and unborn babies out of their wombs; destroying the crops belonging to Muslims right on their farms; stealing from them, maiming and destroying them; taking them unawares at night and setting their houses afire and burning all the households therein, and afterwards dispossess them of their ancestral lands after having desecrated their ancestral graves - taking a long pause, I ask what if all the Chibok and Dapchi girls were all Muslims girls brutally abducted from their school dormitories and ferried into unknown destinations, with some getting killed and some put in family way against their collective wishes?

What do fellow Nigerians and all of humanity think would have happened to Nigeria by now?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Odey Aduma was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator and the Public Affairs Manager of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; Core Committee, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF)/Ford Foundation, Kano Eastern Bypass Roadside Tree Planting Exercise, 1997; member, core Committee of the National Technology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endangered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.

He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001.

General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.

That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge successes during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birth Day. Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.

In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism with Specialism in Environment at City, University of London in 2003-2004.

Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).

He is also, involved in professional mentoring at Post Graduate level on the City, University of London’s Post Graduate Professional Mentoring Strand.