Nigeria Confab Raps Christian Body On 'Islamic' Agenda

Nigeria's national conference has dismissed as "frivolous, misleading and unbecoming" claims by the country's top Christian body of acting out an Islamic agenda.



"There is no truth whatsoever in the unfortunate alarm raised in the statement which tends to give the impression of an attempt to undermine Christians in the conference," spokesman Akpandem James said in a statement Thursday.



In a strongly-worded statement Tuesday, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) accused conference chairman Justice Idris Kutigi of acting out an Islamic script to undermine Christians in the three-month dialogue body.



James said it was "unbecoming of a religious body to peddle falsehood in a bid to prove a nonexistent point."



He belied CAN claim that the national conference's committee on religion is made up of 12 Muslims and eight Christians.



"That is not correct. The committee has 21 members - 11 Muslims and 10 Christians," said the spokesman.



He noted that the committee had about the least people indicating interest in being its membership.



James said that only 13 of the 303 Christian delegates and 20 of the 189 Muslim delegates to the conference had shown interest to serve on the committee.



President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the conference on March 17 with the hopes of addressing contentious issues.



A total 492 delegate are attending the three-month meeting, each nominated by different interests across Nigeria.



Christians and Muslims each have six delegates as representatives of their faith communities.



Religion of the remaining 480 delegates is just a coincidence, Jonathan had said recently.



-Fair-



James, the conference spokesman, refuted CAN's claim that Muslims were favored in the religion committee leadership.



He said the chairman of the national conference had excused himself from selecting the leadership of any committee.



"The chairmanship of committees was shared equally between the North and the South; and those that were seen as contentious committees are co-chaired by a delegate from the North and South," said James.



He added that the religion committee is co-chaired by respected Catholic Bishop Felix Ajakaiye and Alhaji Nurudeen Lemu, a delegate who had wowed the conference with a speech on religious tolerance and drew a standing ovation from all delegates at the time.



CAN said that Ajakaiye represents the southern state of Ekiti and not the Christian.



"It would amount to peddling ignorance to think that a Christian from the south does not know what Christians in the north are facing, as Christendom is one body," said James.



"The issue may well be that Bishop Ajakaiye is a Catholic Bishop and thus may have issues with CAN," he added. "Not being active in CAN does not make Bishop Ajakaiye a lesser Christian."



Catholics recently pulled out of CAN after accusing its controversial President Ayo Oritsejafor of meddling in partisan politics and unnecessarily dividing Nigerians along ethno-religious line.



By Rafiu Ajakaye



englishnews@aa.com.tr - Lagos