Abuja, Nigeria — “It is past time for our politicians to put aside campaigning and unite to fight Boko Haram,” Monsignor Ignatius Aayu Kaigama, Nigerian Archbishop of Jos and the Council of Bishops stated. He was commenting on the attack that occurred on November 10 that resulted in at least 78 fatalities and injured 45 others in a secondary school in Potiskum located in Northeastern Nigeria.
Monsignor Kaigama, who had just arrived from London where he attended a conference on religious freedom stated, “Unfortunately, I am not surprised that these attacks continue to occur, because the approved strategy to combat Boko Haram is completely unreasonable. Despite the efforts of the military and security forces in those regions, the amount of progress that Boko Haram has made in Borno and Adamawa is especially disturbing. We are completely baffled by how this has happened. We have yet to receive an answer from anyone. I believe that our politicians are unnecessarily preoccupied with next year’s election campaigns.”
Kaigama added that, “It is time to leave behind inconsequential political interests and focus on the nation’s interests. Finally, Kaigama stated that, “Everyone must put aside their political squabbling for the time being and focus on strategies to deal with these perilous circumstances, because the entire population finds themselves in a situation where they either must flee the violence or live under circumstances where there is a complete lack of security.”
Translated by Donald Puhlmanfrom an article that originally appeared in Aleteia’s Arabic edition.
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