Kaduna church hosts local peace building event

An Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Church in Tudun Nupawa, Kaduna in Northern Nigeria held a Friends Day Service on Sunday, on 13 April as part of peace-building efforts with the local community.

Around 50 Muslim traditional rulers and clerics attended the service, fifteen of whom received gifts at the end of the service. The dignitaries and over 50 disadvantaged and disabled Christians and Muslims subsequently joined the congregation in a shared lunch.

During speeches, Senator Aziz Zego, chairman of the event’s planning committee, said that commitment to peace should not only be in words but also visible in deed, while Sheikh Dahiru Adamu, the Imam of the Salam’at Jumu’at Mosque Bachama, Tudun Wada, called on members of both religious communities to live in peace in order to ensure development, stability and progress.

This is the second major peace building outreach by the ECWA Church, which is located in a predominantly Muslim community. In August 2012, the church donated food to six mosques in the area in a goodwill gesture aimed at assisting underprivileged families with their post-Ramadan feasts. The handover of the items, which included bags of sugar, maize, millet and beans, occurred at the residence of the local traditional ruler Alhaji Shuai’b Balarbe, the Sarkin Dutse, Tudun Nupawa, who also attended last Sunday’s service. Previously, the church had been attacked or burnt during every outbreak of religious violence. However, following the 2012 peace-building event, Muslim youths protected the church from potential attacks when violence broke out later that year.

Commenting on last Sunday’s event, Reverend Yunusa Nmadu, senior pastor of the ECWA church and CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide–Nigeria (CSW-N) said, “As Christians it is our responsibility to love our neighbours as ourselves and this is without exception. We did what we did to demonstrate the love of Christ and to contribute to peace building in our community knowing that as a local congregation, we are meant to impact our immediate community positively with the message of peace and reconciliation, which is at the heart of our faith.”

The reconciliation effort in Kaduna comes as continuing violence by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram claimed more lives. According to a senator from Borno State, on 12 April the sect murdered at least 210 people in attacks on several towns in Borno State. Boko Haram gunmen are also reported to have killed at least 37 people in Ngoshe Sama Village in Gwoza Local Government Area (LGA) on 13 April and in Kaigamari Village in Konduga LGA on 14 April. Elsewhere, official figures state that 71 people may have died in what is thought to have been a suicide bombing at Nyanya motor park on the outskirts of the federal capital, Abuja, on 14 April; however, eyewitness statements suggest the figure may be higher.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW-UK, said, “CSW congratulates the ECWA church in Tudun Nupawa for strengthening the courageous peace-building initiative that began in 2012. As Boko Haram’s divisive acts of appalling and indiscriminate violence continue to claim hundreds of innocent lives, there is a pressing need for more members of both faith communities across the country to initiate similar peace-building efforts to break down barriers of distrust and to foster reconciliation, unity, and the concept of common and equal citizenship, regardless of tribe or creed.”

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.