Pledge to rebuild churches destroyed by Boko Haram

President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to reconstruct and renovate northern churches destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency. More than 350 of the destroyed churches are Catholic ones, writes Fredrick Nzwili.

The insurgency has destroyed more than 1,000 churches since 2006 when Boko Haram launched its homicidal campaign.

On Friday last week, Mr Buhari said he will renovate churches, mosques and shops destroyed by the terrorists and establish peace after the insurgency, which he hopes to end in six months.

“It is possible to do this if they mean it,” said Fr John Bakeni, secretary of the Maiduguri Diocese, a focal point of Boko Haram atroci­ties. While some clerics ­welcomed the promise, Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto Diocese doubted whether Mr Buhari could address the deep-seated problems of  Christians in the north, which were were often “seen as a nuisance and treated with contempt”.

In an interview with the widely-read Punch newspaper, Bishop Kukah said Christian denominations cannot buy land and so rely on what was allocated to them by the British colonial Government.

Meanwhile, Ekiti Diocese has warned against negotiating a ransom with kidnappers of Fr Emmanuel Akingbade, abducted by gunmen on 9 June from his residence.

Fr Innocent Umor, kidnapped in early May, was released after two days.