…Says, “Everything he promotes is evil.”
by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), 19 Northern States and the Federal Capital Territory, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, has asserted that, former Kaduna State Governor, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, “is angry because sustainable peace has returned to the state, a reality that contradicts the divisive politics that once thrived under his regimes.”
Rev. Hayab, who was reacting to El-Rufai’s recent comments, on Channels Television, ‘Sunday Politics,’ stated that the former governor’s insistence that Southern Kaduna accounted for less than 25 percent of the state’s population, and boasted of having no regrets over his actions towards the region, only reinforced his hostility towards unity.
According to the cleric, El-Rufai’s latest outburst sparking the wide outrage was a proof that he remained uncomfortable with the peace currently being enjoyed across Kaduna.
“Everything El-Rufai promotes is evil, and his bitterness now is simply because harmony among the people has weakened his divisive agenda,” Hayab stated.
He also recalled that during a previous national census, the population of Southern Kaduna was so overwhelming that the Kaduna State Shariah Committee threatened legal action against the National Population Commission.
The episode, Rev. Hayab said, demonstrated that the region’s numbers were significant and could not be dismissed.
“Despite the fact that, some in Southern Kaduna are pastors, who do not marry multiple wives, many families in the area still have 15-23 children,” Hayab noted, while arguing that this further confirmed that the region’s population is robust and cannot be written off.
The CAN leader alleged that what has often distorted population figures in Kaduna was not a shortage of people in Southern Kaduna, but deliberate inflation of statistics in other parts of Kaduna State to create an illusion of ‘dominance.’
He also expressed disappointment that El-Rufai could openly boast about not regretting his policies against Southern Kaduna communities, stressing that such a posture only exposed the depth of his disdain for the people he once governed.
Further dismissing El-Rufai’s claim that only those, who do not know him, called him “a fundamentalist,” Hayab said he personally knew the former governor was speaking from the painful experiences of Southern Kaduna under El-Rufai administration.
He further argued that future census exercises must include religion and ethnicity to prevent manipulative leaders from distorting demographic realities for political convenience.
Reverend Hayab, therefore, urged Nigerians to reject divisive narratives and embrace fairness, justice, and inclusivity, warning that the country’s unity can only be strengthened when truth is upheld and all citizens treated with dignity.