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Alozie's Church and State
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Nigerian
Government Wages War on
the Catholic Church:
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Bishops, Priests, Laity Targeted
by
Austin Alozie, Ph.D.
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In a desperate attempt to silence
all Igbo nationalist and self determination groups in Nigeria and abroad, the Nigerian government has mounted a
secret but massive campaign aimed at neutralizing the increasingly agitated and outspoken Catholic Church in Igboland.
Employing all the "dirty tricks" perfected by Abacha: blackmail, threats, and various forms of intimidation
and harassment, the Obasanjo regime has targeted outspoken Igbo Catholic bishops, priests, and lay people for reprisals.
A highly
reliable and authoritative ecclesiastical source accused the Obasanjo regime of still carrying a vendetta against
the Catholic Church in Igboland for its pro-Biafra role during the Nigeria-Biafra War. According to the source,
Obasanjo has ordered Nigerian intelligence and security operatives to clamp down on activist Igbo Church leaders,
in order to prevent them from supporting Igbo self determination groups, who are disenchanted with the second class
status of their kith and kin in Nigeria. Consequently, bishops' phones have been tapped, their homes burglarized
and some priests killed. As a result of the lack of security in the region, virtually every Catholic parish and
convent in Igboland has been attacked by armed robbers, their proximity to police stations notwithstanding. Even
the Nigeria Police are alleged to be complicit in these attacks.
In the US, the Obasanjo regime has developed an "enemies list" of outspoken Igbo Catholic clergy who
oppose his anti-Igbo and pro- Moslem policies. One of those priests, who preferred to remain anonymous, accused
the Obasanjo regime of "fighting phantom enemies." He wondered what it would take for Obasanjo to realize
that the real enemies of Nigerian unity are neither the Christians of the Middle Belt nor those of Igboland. According
to him, the real enemies are northern Nigerian Moslems who have not only imposed the Islamic Sharia code on their
co-religionists and northern Nigerian Christians but have vowed to make it the law of the land. Tragically, the
Nigerian government has not only legitimized Sharia, it has allowed this destructive Islamic code to be funded
and sustained with oil money from Southern Nigerian Christians. Another prominent Igbo clergyman said that rather
than target innocent and peace-loving Christian clergy, Obasanjo should have the guts to confront more serious
issues, including the serial massacres of Christians by Moslems, the emergence of northern Nigeria as a terrorist
nest - an ugly development manifested by the recent arrest in Chad of four northern Nigerian Moslems in the company
of an al-Qaeda- affiliated Algerian Salafi terrorist leader, and the fact that Osama bin Laden is the most popular
figure among northern Nigerian Moslems.
Sources close to Rev. Dr. Ahamefule Nnorom, a former NADECO and pro-democracy activist, who has been critical of
Obasanjo's pro-Sharia policies, accused the regime of engaging in anti-Igbo and anti-Catholic vendetta. One source
quoted Dr. Nnorom as saying that Obasanjo's intelligence agents have sought to silence him by using dirty tricks:
Blackmail, defamation, intimidation, threats and harassment of family members and sympathetic ecclesiastical authorities.
Nigerian agents also planted two false and defamatory articles about the clergyman in Nigerian newspapers: While
one of the articles claimed that Dr. Nnorom had been appointed the head of "Biafra's representative in the
US" and head of the Biafran Government in Exile, the other stated that he had accompanied a dissident faction
of MASSOB to Geneva last April in order to present the Igbo case against Nigeria to the UN Commission on Human
Rights. None of the two reports was found to be true.
Another clergyman said that it was ironic that Obasanjo, who claims
to be a "born- again" Christian, should target innocent and peace- loving Igbo Christian clergy while
ignoring Islamic imams many of whom have been known to incite religious riots that led to the massacre of thousands
of Christians. He asked all true Igbo and their friends to resist the attempt by the Nigerian government to silence
the Church- the last line of defense against the total subjugation and exploitation of the Igbo. They were told
to register their protests by calling and/ or writing the Nigerian desk at the State Department, the National Security
Council, and the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC.
It should be recalled that in their joint pastoral statement, "Building a Just and Democratic Nigeria,"
issued in Enugu on December 18, 2003, Igbo Catholic bishops of the Onitsha and Owerri Ecclesiastical Provinces
had condemned Nigeria for its systemic oppression of the Igbo. In their letter, the first of its kind since the
end of the Nigeria-Biafra War, the Igbo bishops warned: "That there cannot be genuine peace and unity within
the country without restoring to the Igbo people in appreciably evident ways, their legitimate rights as full-
fledged citizens of Nigeria." The Nigerian government is also said to have recently allocated millions of
dollars to its agents in a campaign to infiltrate and destabilize Igbo nationalist and pro- Biafran groups abroad,
especially in the US.
Austin Alozie, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ
Nigerian Government Declares War on the
Catholic Church:
Bishops, Priests, Laity Targeted
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