Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed
Nigeria’s membership of the Islamic Coalition Against Terrorism being
spearheaded by Saudi Arabia amidst speculations of alleged plan to
Islamise the country.
The President made the disclosure in an
interview he granted to Al-Jazeera during his recent visit to Doha,
Qatar, while the interview was aired on Saturday.
When asked whether Nigeria was part of the Islamic coalition, Buhari answered in the affirmative.
He attributed the reason behind the decision to the fact that there are terrorists in Nigeria who claim to be Muslims.
“We
are part of it (the Islamic coalition) because we’ve got terrorists in
Nigeria that everybody knows which claim that they are Islamic.
“So,
if there’s an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism, Nigeria will be part
of it because we are casualties of Islamic terrorism,” the President
said.
Buhari said he discussed Nigeria’s membership of the coalition
with King Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz during their meeting in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia when he visited the country recently.
He however did not disclose how the membership of the Islamic coalition would be beneficial to Nigeria when asked to do so.
He said it would be wrong to disclose the details to the media.
“Well,
that we mentioned under Lake Chad Basin Commission, our regional
grouping compromising Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin and we
dedicated a certain number of troops to be deployed in our own
sub-region and I don’t think we have to tell the press the details of
that,” he simply said.
Buhari however justified Nigeria’s membership
of the Islamic coalition, saying there is nothing wrong in joining the
coalition since members of the Boko Haram sect fighting in Nigeria have
claimed they are Muslims even when their activities are anti-Islam.
He added that the Boko Haram itself had declared loyalty to ISIS
He said, “I’ve just told you it is the Boko Haram itself that declared loyalty to ISIS.
“ISIS
is basically based in Islamic countries. Now, if there’s a coalition to
fight Islamic terrorism, why can’t Nigeria be part of it, while those
that are fighting in Nigeria as Boko Haram claim to be Muslims? But the
way they are doing it is anti-Islamic.”
When confronted with the fact
that Nigeria has large populations of both Muslims and Christians and
that some Christians are complaining that he is giving Islamic identity
to the country by his actions, Buhari wondered why the Christians who
are complaining have not deemed it fit to confront members of Boko Haram
in the North East or militants in the South South
“Why can’t those
Christians that complained go and fight terrorism in Nigeria or fight
the militancy in the South. It’s Nigeria that matters, not the opinion
of some religious bigots,” he declared.
The President however denied any attempt to change the religious identity of the country.
He said, “How can I change the religious identity of Nigeria?
“No
religion advocates hurting the innocent and just because the Muslims
are the ones that claim to be Boko Haram and they are killing innocent
people whether in the church, in the bus or in the market place, then I
will just sit and look at them because I too am a Muslim? Islam is
against injustice in any form.”
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