CV NEWS FEED // Nigerian author, filmmaker, and journalist Albert Afeso Akanbi has issued a stern response to mainstream media coverage of the Christmas terrorist attacks in Nigeria that killed nearly 200 Christians.
In an interview posted to Wrong Speak Publishing, Akanbi blasted mainstream media outlets, saying “Christians in Nigeria appear to have been almost forgotten. These issues do not reach mainstream media.”
The conflict between Muslim extremists from the Islamist northern region of Nigeria and Christians “have been going on for so many years,” said Akanbi. “From the seizure of land and burning of churches to even allowing Christians to hold church services in the north, the issue has been ongoing.”
According to the Abuja Declaration, which calls for Muslims to conquer Nigeria entirely, Akanbi explained, the tension between the two groups is not merely a competition over land, as government officials say.
“There is more behind it,” he added, “it is a competition of who controls the country, a competition for the soul of the country.”
Akanbi continued, “The point that I am trying to make is that there are people who believe that one of the factors that is leading to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is an agenda to ensure that Islam will dominate our country.”
Despite continuous persecution against Christians in Nigeria’s north and middle belt, which International Christian Concern (ICC) has called “a 20-year-long genocide,” Western media has turned a blind eye, according to Akanbi:
If you watch BBC, CNN, and other media outlets, the killing of, for example a hundred Christians in Kano State inside a church will get one minute of their airtime, while at the same time, when Biden sneezes in the White House, that will get much more coverage, if you know what I mean.
“It just shows how unimportant we are to them,” he added.
As CatholicVote reported on Tuesday, at least 150 Nigerians were estimated to have been killed and 500 wounded in terrorist attacks since December 23.
