The President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Most Reverend Jasper Peter Akinola, has said that recent ethno-religious crises in Plateau and Kano States were not a war against the church but the leadership of the nation under President Olusegun Obasanjo. Akinola's explanation came amid criticism of the President over his outburst against the chairman of CAN in Plateau State, Rev. Yakubu Pam, who Obasanjo last Thursday described as an idiot during a peace parley on the state's ethno-religious crisis.

The CAN president, who spoke Friday after the third session of the Fifth Synod of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Diocese of Abuja, stated that the crises were not only targeted at the corporate existence of Nigeria but also the Obasanjo administration. Akinola attributed the problem to "many people who are aggrieved with the present government because they are hungry, people who are very much disturbed because of injustice, people who are disturbed because of corruption in high places and people who are disturbed because of poor standard of living."

He noted that something had gone wrong fundamentally with the nation, pointing out: "We have not yet accepted one another as fellow Nigerians; we have not yet accepted one another as people who are posted by God deliberately to live together in peace.

"Until we come to that understanding, it will be difficult to prescribe any law and authority. The way we are using religion, like I used to say in my church, it is not the best; it is not good at all", the CAN president stated. The Bishop of Abuja & Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communion) declared that religion is meant to be a way of communicating with God, a way of honouring God, a way of giving glory to God, not to be killing ourselves", adding: "Life is God's gift to man and no man has the right to destroy another man's life, it is simple, and the earlier all people began to realize this, the better for us"

"On our part, what we can do is to teach and to explain to ourselves and spread this religion to all people and we pray that with time, everybody will come to understand that the use of religion for selfishness is not the wish of God and interest of many people", Akinola added.

Corroborating the views of the CAN president, the Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, blamed the pogrom on some negative policies of this present government, which he said Nigerians are direct victims. Chukwuma also attributed the crisis to the handiwork of politicians who lost in the last elections and are aggrieved, alleging "they are employing every means to destabilize this government and it is our role as a church to begin to pray that the will of God be done and peace of God covers our country because no country strives and develops in the midst of violence".

The Enugu Diocese bishop called on the Federal Government to take drastic measures to alleviate "the suffering of Nigerians and stop ethno-religious killing in some part of the North because Igbo people of the South East are very much angry over this development that their relations are being killed".

He alerted that the people may carry out retaliatory attacks on Northerners resident in Igbo States if the killings in the North continued. "Igbos at home are angry that Igbos in the North are targets of the attacks and we cannot take it if the attacks continue. They should remember there are so many Hausas living in Igbo land, if they don't take time, the Igbos would start to retaliate", Chukwuma warned.

He explained that "but we the church are holding them back that they should not do that because we must respect human life".

The bishop said "the solution is that government should find a way of pacifying people when they are aggrieved and we should have the kind of democracy that will ensure that government will be sensitive to the needs and aspiration of the people which include provision of education, roads, and employment and above all, get everybody involved in government"

Catholic Church and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) were among those who at the weekend condemned the president's tongue lashing of the CAN chairman last Thursday at the Plateau State parley.

The president had during his peace initiative on the crisis lost his temper, calling the state CAN chairman an idiot.

The CAN chairman had asked the president why he failed to show the kind of concern he was now showing when over 40 Christians were massacred in Yelwa in February.

The February massacre ignited penultimate week's reprisal attack which claimed hundreds of lives of people believed to be Muslims in the Plateau town.

"It was a rash language that is unbecoming of a father", the Catholic Church which spoke through the director of social communications at the Catholic Archdiocese, Reverend Father Gabriel Osu, said at the weekend.

Osu pointed out: "In the interest of the nation, the president and his fellow politicians must refine their language especially when making efforts to soothe frayed nerves".

PFN National President, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, doubted the authenticity of the report of the president's outburst, but said: "If they are true, then President Obasanjo should, without any further delay, exercise some restraint in his utterances".

According to him, there are better ways for a man at that level to speak even when provoked, maintaining that it was unethical for leaders to employ foul language either in public or private.

Okonkwo, who is CAN national vice-president, told Sunday Vanguard he was still studying the situation while making frantic efforts to reach the CAN president, Primate Peter Akinola, who was said to be attending a synod in Abuja, before the national body would make an official pronouncement on the issue.

He, however, noted that such open outbursts of fury and the president's often recourse to blanket accusations were no longer acceptable globally.