WE WANT POWER TO RETURN TO THE NORTH - NORTHERN CHRISTIANS

The Northeast Zonal Chairman of the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Shu’aibu Byal, has enjoined Northern Christians and Muslims to join hands together and ensure that the leadership of the country returns to the region in the forthcoming election.

Rev. Byal, who was speaking while receiving members of Arewa Citizens Action for Change (ACAC), during a courtesy visit to his office on Wednesday, recalled that their fore-fathers have not put a bedrock that will move the Muslims and Christians in the region towards togetherness.
Said he: “In the North, we have a challenge, our parents and great grand parents have left a legacy that has not helped our youths, and they have not promoted our young people. Today, the leadership is not in the North and we want to bring it back in whatever means possible.
“I pray for the North and its unity. In the North, we cannot rule ourselves alone, we must also partner with the South to be able to have one governance that will propel goodness in the society that we are all after.
“The challenge we get from the Southern people who are predominantly Christians so to say, is because we want to believe that we are more Christians than they are in the South. Theirs, they got on a platter of gold, our own we got it out of intense persecutions, but we stood our ground and say this is the religion we want to embrace”.
Byal explained that adherents of the two religions are tired of being used by politicians that often left them in problems, and warned people particularly the youth to desist the temptations of politicians who will simply waste them and darken their future.
He further stated: “I want to challenge all of us that whatever we have done and lost in the past, we should also blame our elites who have not helped matters”, the Northeast CAN chieftain said.
The Arewa Citizens Action for Change (ACAC) National Chairman, Barrister Sadiq Abubakar Ilelah said the association which comprised of Christians and Muslims, has the sole objective of promoting peace and unity among adherents of the two major religions in the country.
Ilelah recalled that in the 70s and 80s, peace prevailed among the Northern people regardless of their religions and tribes but that has now become past glory.
“We want revive that position, we want the Northern people to look at themselves regardless of their differences of tribes or religions as one and the same thing” Ilelah said.
Ilelah described as cantankerous the problems adherents of the two religions face, resulting from the disunity which, he observed, now badly affects their social and political life.
“The politicians have been using religions to bring disunity among us, now we are saying in all sense of humility and respect that this time it has come to an end”, Barrister Ilelah added.