In what she called a ‘genocide in Nigeria,’ internationally acclaimed speaker, strategist and scientist, Obianuju Ekeocha, has expressed heartbreak at silence by the international community to the killing of Christians in the country.
In a series of tweets which included pictures of a mass burial, Obianuju revealed that such burials have become frequent in the region with the latest being that of 23 people killed recently.
“I spoke to 3 Nigerian Bishops and also a priest from a region where the worst persecution of Christians is happening. For 1 hour I listened to the most horrific stories-Christians are being slaughtered. My heart is broken and I’m wondering why the world has turned a blind eye,” she wrote.
I spoke to 3 Nigerian Bishops and also a priest from a region where the worst persecution of Christians is happening.
For 1 hour I listened to the most horrific stories-Christians are being slaughtered.
My heart is broken and I’m wondering why the world has turned a blind eye.
— Obianuju Ekeocha (@obianuju) February 6, 2020
“Only a week ago, this priest I spoke to Fr Andrew, had a mass funeral for 23 people and it was not the first mass funeral he has had to do in recent months. 23 people killed! Is this not newsworthy? Dear Lord! This is horrific.”
I will record a video about this when I can get myself to stop crying and I can compose myself. This is a genocide in Nigeria and there seems to be a conspiracy of silence by the international community.
— Obianuju Ekeocha (@obianuju) February 6, 2020
Although the government of President Muhammadu Buhari says it has put a number of security measures in place to protect Christians, it has not prevented continuous violence and anti-Christian massacres.
In January, a leader of the Christian Association in Adamawa State, Rev. Lawan Andimi, was kidnaped and executed by Boko Haram militants.
In a ransom video posted online by his captors days, Andimi said he was not discouraged because “all conditions that one finds himself is in the hand of God.”
“By the grace of God, I will be together with my wife and my children and all my colleagues. If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God,” he said.
However, in an opinion piece published earlier in February on Christianity Today, Buhari said 90 per cent of all Boko Haram’s victims in the past years have been Muslims.
According to him, the victims included, “a copycat abduction of over 100 Muslim schoolgirls, along with their single Christian classmate; shootings inside mosques; and the murder of two prominent imams.”
He blamed journalistic bias saying, “perhaps it makes for a better story should these truths, and more, be ignored in the telling.”