By Chief Malcolm Omirhobo
The renewed remarks by Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo during his visit to Pastor Paul Enenche’s church once again frame Nigeria’s security crisis as Christian persecution. While no one denies that Christian communities have suffered brutal attacks, it is misleading and dangerous to reduce Nigeria’s complex insecurity to a purely religious narrative.
Let us be clear: Nigeria is facing a genocide against indigenous peoples, not Christians alone. Across Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Taraba, Niger, Zamfara, Yobe, Katsina and several other states, entire ethnic nationalities whether Christian, Muslim, or traditional are being displaced, massacred and replaced.
The common denominator is ancestral land, not faith.
Reverend Dachomo told Christians what to “do” in the face of unrelenting attacks. But it must be stated plainly:
Your prayers and your Bible cannot stop bandits when they arrive at your doorstep with AK-47s.
Self-defence is a right, not a crime.
Nigeria’s Constitution guarantees the right to life, and implicit in that right is the right to defend one’s life when the state fails to do so. Every sane society recognises lawful civilian self-defence as part of community security architecture.
For years, citizens have been slaughtered while waiting for divine intervention or empty political promises. What has been the result? Graveyards, IDP camps, widows, orphans, and ungoverned spaces overtaken by terrorists.
The Nigerian Police Force has practically frozen the issuance of gun licences, first under Buhari, and now under Tinubu, leaving law-abiding citizens defenceless while terrorists roam freely with sophisticated weapons.
It is unacceptable that:
Bandits and terrorists are fully armed,
while citizens cannot even obtain a licence for a pump-action shotgun for home protection.
Reverend Dachomo should be leading a campaign demanding:
1. Restoration of civilian firearm licensing for self-defence
2. Community defence formations with strict regulation
3. Federal transparency on why gun licences have been secretly suspende
4. An end to the hypocrisy of negotiating with bandits while disarming victims
This is not a Christian versus Muslim war. It is not about doctrines, churches, or mosques.
It is a war of land occupation, terrorism, state failure, and elite complicity including northern political, traditional, and religious leaders who openly romanticize bandits as “freedom fighters” or “peace ambassadors.”
Misdiagnosis leads to wrong prescriptions. Wrong prescriptions lead to more bloodshed.
While praying without ceasing, Nigerian communities must also:
Organise neighbourhood vigilance structures
Demand lawful access to firearms for self-defence
Hold government accountable for monopoly of force it fails to exercise
Reject divisive religious propaganda and focus on the real enemy: terrorism and its sponsors.
Nigeria cannot continue burying its citizens while pretending prayer alone is enough.
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