First with a pinch of salt: "an attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen" // "Two Catholic priests were said to have been beaten up, while another was shot in the leg."// "The herdsmen were said to be unhappy with security men in the seminary" // "During the attack,which was said to have taken place on Monday, some students were reportedly injured and many cars destroyed."
The report gradually moved from speculation and allegation to what certainly sounds like credible first person eye witness testimony, somewhat quelling a sceptic's uneasy question : Is this reliable, factual reporting or just more scapegoating of the omnipresent army of "armed Fulani herdsmen"? And if they were armed and meant business how come that only one priest was " shot in the leg"?
Although initially riddled with uncertainty this is the kind of sad bad news that we really don't want to hear, but we cannot escape from reality. Let's pray for the speedy, even miraculous recovery of Rev. Fr. Cornelius Kobah ( shot in the leg) and the two other Catholic priests ( said to have been beaten up), the students that were injured and the cars that were destroyed. Let's give thanks and praises that at least the human beings under attack escaped with their lives (Some of them like preaching about heaven but no one wants to die)
I believe that in the circumstances it's a good move that "the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, asked Christians in the country to get ready for war against the killers. He said time had gone when Christians would fold their arms and watch their enemies kill them like fowls."
So that's what he calls them: the killers. Not very different from His Holiness the Emir of Kano saying the same thing : We must defend ourselves
The passive resistance and non-violent breed of Christian theologians may be wondering what's happening with " love your neighbour as yourself" and the doctrine of " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you" ?
The more militant theologians must be happy with this radical move from the Gospel ethic of turning the other cheek to the dictates of self-preservation by a near endorsement of "an eye for an eye " - even it it cuts both ways as when e.g. Malcolm X also talked about " an eye for an eye" ( assuming that it was indeed the " Fulani Herdsmen" up to no good again.
And if it was indeed the Fulani Herdsmen, should we rush to conclusions that they or their alleged backers " have declared a full scale war against Nigerian Christians" when in fact what they are really after is green pastures for their cattle? As reported, " They said if they see grass inside the church, their cows will graze "
Perhaps ditto should apply to mosque and synagogue too ? "If they see grass inside, their cows will graze"? No respect for places of worship? The holiness of place and space?
But the saddest and baddest news that I'm sure that none of us wants to hear are these ominous words from the Bishop, hopefully not speaking in tongues here or prophesying war :
"Some people , somewhere, have declared a full scale war against Nigerian Christians...We have to be vigilant. It is obvious we are no longer needed...It is now a full declared war. We have to safeguard our lives. We must defend ourselves...We will not allow these bloodsucking demons to continue to kill and maim us like chickens."
Let us pray that the Vatican and the World Council of Churches will prevail upon the Nigerian authorities to protect Churches and Christian seminaries from being turned into cemeteries,. At all costs we have to avoid the ugly consequences of what could begin as a war of self-defence and escalate into a full scale religious war in Nigeria....
On Tuesday, 29 May 2018 17:36:56 UTC+2, Okechukwu Ukaga wrote:
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