In the North, Fulani herdsmen who grazed their cattle in the Lake Chad basin have been moving southward on “a collision course with the agriculturalists of the Middle Belt Area and the whole people of the South,” the cardinal said.
“The handling of this farmer-herder conflict by the federal government of Nigeria seems to show that the herdsmen, who are mainly of the Fulani extraction, had the tacit support of some people in government,” he said, adding that there is “suspicion of a Fulani agenda to take over Nigeria and Islamize the country.”
“Against this background, the Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations operating in Nigeria appeared to be tools for the achievement of the goal of destabilization and takeover by the Fulani of the territory, Nigeria, from the indigenous peoples,” Okpaleke said.
On Pentecost Sunday last year, the Islamic State West Africa Province was responsible for an attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Nigeria’s southwest Ondo state that killed at least 40 people, according to government authorities.
The cardinal pointed out that the violence in Nigeria not only affects Christians.
“There is so much violence and insecurity in the country,” he said. “In my opinion, the violence is not directed specifically against priests or the Christians. Having said that, it has to be acknowledged too that in some parts of the country, depending on what is stoking the conflict, priests or the Christians often stand in the line of direct attack.”
Four Catholic priests were killed last year in Nigeria and 28 priests were kidnapped, according to the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need, with more than 7,600 Christians killed in Nigeria between January 2021 and June 2022.
Poverty capital of the world
Nigeria was declared “the poverty capital of the world” by the World Bank in 2016. Okpaleke has seen how this economic crisis has been “matched with an increase in crime.”
“With a police force that has been stretched thin and seemingly lacking morale, criminals and bandits who kidnap for ransom had a field day,” he said.
Today double-digit inflation in Nigeria is at the highest it has been in nearly two decades, according to The Economist.
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In one of Buhari’s last acts as president, the leader introduced a redesign of Nigeria’s currency, which has resulted in a currency crisis with lines at ATMs so long that some people are sleeping outside of banks as millions of people are left without the money needed for basic necessities.
On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that critically ill patients have been left untreated and have died as families struggled to get cash to pay for medical treatments amid the severe cash shortages.
“To say that the scarcity of the new currency is causing challenges for the people is an understatement,” the cardinal said.
“A lot of people are going through hell. Economic activities have almost ground to a halt.”
‘Embodying the hopes of the people’
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