The Truth about the Crisis in Nigeria

Dr. Olywasayo Ajiboye

On Jan. 17, 2019, Dr. Oluwasayo Ajiboye, the founder of Mission Africa International, spoke on behalf of the Christian community of Nigeria in Washington D.C.  Dr. Ajiboye has spent years helping Christians and others fleeing the ongoing violence in Northern Nigeria.  Throughout this region, Boko Haram & their Fulani militant allies have been waging a war to create an Islamic Caliphate that not only encompasses Northern Nigeria, but will with time expand to neighboring nations and span through Sub-Saharan Africa.  They want to do in Sub-Saharan Africa what ISIS tried to do in Iraq and Syria, and they are willing to slaughter anyone who stands in their way.   Christians are especially targeted.  To the Jihadist militants, the Christians are  infidels, enemies of Allah, and no presence of Christianity can exist in their Sharia State.  As the Christians are driven out, the militants bulldoze down their homes and churches, they want to eradicate all presence of Christianity in their domain.  

This conflict began in 1999 when Governors in Muslim controlled Northern Nigeria made Sharia Law the Law of the State.  They assured the Christian minority that these laws would only extend to Muslims.  However, Christian leaders warned that such a policy would inevitably cause problems, and they were right.  Within a year mass killings, rapes, and abductions became a frequent occurrence in Northern Nigeria as radical groups like Boko Haram formed and began violently enforcing & expanding Sharia.  Today, Northern Nigeria is officially a Sharia State.  To ensure their control, the Militants are recruiting Fulani Islamist allies from neighboring nations to settle in ethnically cleansed regions, officially colonizing the land.  

Dr. Ajiboye could barely hold it together when he spoke about the children who suffered in this conflict.  Many had lost their parents, some of whom saw the militants rape and murder their mothers right in front of them.  He also stated that if the militants continue their aggression unchecked, they will expand their domain and gain control of the vast mineral wealth of the region, which would make them a dangerous threat to world stability.  

Dr. Ajiboye also said that the world must not refer to what's happening as a conflict.  A conflict implies two armed forces fighting each other.  What is happening is that armed Jihadist militants are butchering Christians and any who oppose them, while they are fleeing for their lives.  It's not a conflict, it's a slaughter.  Dr. Ajiboye and his colleagues believe that the only hope for the region is if the U.S. and other nations send a special envoy to the region and expose to the world what is being done to their people.  Allies of his organization like Faith McDonnell of the Institute on Religion and Democracy successfully pushed Congress to send a similar envoy to the Sudan in the early 2000's, saving the Nuba people from imminent annihilation.  It is estimated that in 2018 alone, over 6,000 men, women, and children have died at the hands of Boko Haram and the Fulani militants.  This cannot be allowed to continue.  Action must be taken, now!