By Samson Adeyanju\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Rev. Fr. Michael \u2018Leke Banjo, has questioned Nigeria\u2019s claim to secularism, noting that the Constitution contains explicit references to Sharia and Islam without a corresponding structural reference to Christianity.<\/p>\n
The CSN Scribe raised concerns about what he described as the possibility of a long-term religious imbalance within Nigeria\u2019s institutional structures.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the Joint All Catholic Knights (JACKs), annual summit held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja, Fr. Banjo pointed to complaints from some northern states where Christians reportedly face difficulties acquiring land to build churches or establishing chaplaincies in public institutions, while Muslim worship facilities are permitted.<\/p>\n
Referencing a widely circulated write-up titled \u201cThe Islamization of Nigeria Is Not a Theory. It\u2019s a Blueprint,\u201d noted that while its conclusions may be debated, the deeper questions it raised about constitutional provisions, Sharia courts, educational policy, judicial interpretation and strategic public appointments deserved sober and factual examination.<\/p>\n
Challenging Knights,\u00a0the Canon Lawyer said the Church\u2019s history shows that Catholic Knights emerged at moments when faith encountered political pressure, citing the example of the Knights Hospitaller, later known as the Knights of Malta, who defended Christian communities and protected pilgrims.<\/p>\n
According to him, the major battleground in Nigeria today is institutional; in how laws are drafted, how policies are shaped, what is introduced into school curricula, and who occupies key public offices.<\/p>\n
He urged Catholic Knights and Ladies to draw up a disciplined and realistic strategic plan to safeguard Christian presence in Nigeria and respond proactively to developments in legislation, education, public appointments, media narratives and public funding patterns.<\/p>\n
He charged them to establish competent national and diocesan strategy units to monitor trends, analyse bills, track policy shifts, and develop position papers rather than reacting only through press statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Islamisation advances through structure, then your defence of the faith must also be structured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fr. Banjo urged the Knights to be strategic for 2027 and vigilant beyond, insisting that their power and influence must truly serve the common good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Samson Adeyanju\u00a0 The Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Rev. Fr. Michael \u2018Leke Banjo, has questioned Nigeria\u2019s claim to secularism, noting that the Constitution contains explicit references to Sharia and Islam without a corresponding structural reference to Christianity. The CSN Scribe raised concerns about what he described as the possibility of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":82799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,1766,1386,172,1681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","category-history","category-judiciary","category-news","category-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82800,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82798\/revisions\/82800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}