President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Boko Haram is not primarily targeting Christians as it is being wildly reported, saying that Muslims form about 90 per cent of its victims.
The President said this in an op-ed published in Christianity Today, titled “Buhari: Pastor Andimi’s faith should inspire Nigerians,” .
In the article which was published on Monday February 3rd, the president eulogised the chairman of Michika, Adamawa State Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lawan Andimi, who was recently beheaded by Boko Haram for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.
He said “Christianity in Nigeria is not—as some seem intent on believing—contracting under pressure, but expanding and growing in numbers approaching half of our population today. Nor is it the case that Boko Haram is primarily targeting Christians: not all of the Chibok schoolgirls were Christians; some were Muslims, and were so at the point at which they were taken by the terrorists. Indeed, it is the reality that some 90 per cent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims: they include a copycat abduction of over 100 Muslim schoolgirls, along with their single Christian classmate; shootings inside mosques; and the murder of two prominent imams. Perhaps it makes for a better story should these truths, and more, be ignored in the telling”