By EMMANUEL OGEBE

A comedian, a musician and a European soccer team are new rocks rising to cry out for Nigeria’s grievously persecuted Christian population.

Esteemed Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah has apparently retired from being a voice for the shed blood of martyrs of his faith when he reportedly said: “There’s no genocide or persecution of Christians in Nigeria. You can kill 10 million people and it still won’t amount to genocide…If you are a Christian in Nigeria and you say you are persecuted, my question is: how? At least 80% of educated Nigerians are Christians, and up to 85% of the Nigerian economy is controlled by Christians. With such figures, how can anyone say Christians are being persecuted?”

Apart from the improbability that killing 10 million people isn’t genocide, one wonders under which theory or definition he is laboring because given his vocation as a clergyman, even the 10 commandments prohibit the killing of just one person.

Rwanda was million people slaughtered mostly by machete like the Fulani militia do plus AK47 and constituted a genocide. Biafra was also a million killed via combination of munitions and weaponization of starvation. It too was genocidal just like the Fulani terrorists who burn peoples’ crop barns and graze on their farms.

Dr Bitrus Pogu, head of the Middle Belt Forum, said at a gathering of Christian traditional rulers from the north this week that Gwoza in Borno State has been completely deChristianized – an atrocity recently highlighted by community leaders who documented that only 28 of 176 churches in Gwoza were destroyed.

Bitrus said Chibok, another majority Christian region of the state, has been under attack but has survived decimation thanks to vigilant youths. Accordingly, since the definition of genocide includes the systematic destruction of a people from a place, the case of genocide was established in southern Borno.

The formerly Reverend gentleman makes spurious assertions that “Christians control 85% of the economy…Most educated Nigerians are Christians.” Apart from being utter fabrication, his thesis is intellectually and logically bankrupt even.

That the Jews were prosperous was precisely a reason for historical anti-semitism and yes, Hitler’s genocide that claimed over six million lives.

The Ibos of Nigeria are exceptionally prosperous but they’ve been marginalized and excluded from governance. No Igbo has been in the presidency or vice since 1983 – 42 years ago in the 3rd Republic – but the Fulanis who have occupied either for 23 out of the last 26 years of the 4th Republic are slaughtering them and hundreds of other Nigerian tribes.

The fact is that the north is severely destitute as are its minority Christians. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is a northern Muslim as are Dantata and numerous others. Here are some of the top billionaires from Northern Nigeria:

- Aliko Dangote ($12.8 billion) – Cement, sugar, oil refining (Dangote Group)

- Abdul Samad Rabiu ($8.2 billion) – Cement, flour, oil (BUA Group)

- Mohammed Indimi ($1.5 billion) – Oil & gas (Oriental Energy)

- Dahiru Mangal ($2.1 billion) – Aviation, construction, oil,

- Atiku Abubakar ($1.4 billion) – shipping, business, etc, Adamawa

- Aminu Dantata ($1.2 billion) – Construction, trading, real estate.

Gen. TY Danjuma is the only known Christian billionaire from the north and even he a former Army Chief and Defense Minister is complaining about the killings of his people.

Northern Christians are third class citizens in their own states. Apart from denying Christians deputy governorships, Muslims are appointed chairmen of Christian-majority local government areas and denied commissionership and councilorship.

Kukah’s own Kaduna only produced a Christian governor once by a deputy’s ascension despite being majority Christian.

However El-Rufai imposed eight years of Muslim-Muslim governorship succeeded by another Muslim-Muslim governor after him before exporting that formula to the Tinubu presidency.

It gets worse. He annulled Christian chiefdoms in southern Kaduna and established Fulani Islamic caliphates in their place after imprisoning and neutralizing traditional chiefs.

This same El-Rufai had traveled abroad to find Fulani killers, pay them off and announce that one of their own was now Governor resulting in the transnational domestication of industrial scale kidnapping in Kaduna that forced even generals to fundraise ransoms for generals.

Rather than be a voice for all oppressed people as a man of God should truly be, Kukah denied the brutal decimation, persecution and cultural genocide of his very own birthplace not to mention martyred brother clergy. He sold out his brethren by birth and his brethren by rebirth thus aborting pretensions and prospects for being Nigeria’s Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Kukah’s betrayal goes further. Although named Matthew he dances dangerously close to being akin to another disciple named Judas.

Biblically his role is between Pilate who found Jesus not guilty but sentenced him to death to curry political favor or High Priest Caiaphas who made the shrewd political calculation that it was better for Christ to be killed to protect the religious powerbrokers and their interests. He thus twisted words and fabricated facts to procure a self-preserving outcome. This is perhaps a less dishonorable scenario than to assume that 30 pieces of silver is the raison d’eter.

Kukah center receives funding to assist victims of persecution. How can he say with a straight face “there’s no persecution” unless he’s running a scam?

Ironically some years ago, his offer to build schools to help the millions of out of school kids in which Nigeria is number one globally was roundly rejected by Muslim leaders. Yet the good Bishop at whose doorstep Deborah Emmanuel was savagely sacrificed as a burnt offering with utter impunity deludes himself that his “interfaith dialogue” is the antidote to extremist barbarism.

Kukah tried to obfuscate facts by disputing data on persecution claiming Catholics were never solicited for data.

I have solicited data from Kukah Center staffers multiple times some of whom are international research resource persons.

One Bishop reported that 50 out of 51 churches in Borno Catholic diocese were attacked and that was a decade ago. It’s even in the media.

Kukah risks reducing himself to the likes of FFK and Reno legendarily ignoble for their situational ethics, patronage-based patriotism, coin-operated courage and genocide recantation.

As Kukah gives up his birthright for Esau’s mess of pottage, the blood of the martyrs is not unspoken for.

A comedian, Bill Maher, a musician, Nicky Minaj and a European soccer team are new rocks God raised to cry out for Nigeria’s grievously persecuted Christian population abroad.

Jesus said that if the people wouldn’t praise, God will raise rocks.

As Nigeria’s prominent clergy in the south and now the north, sacrifice poor northern Christians on the altar of eco-political self-interest, God raised unlikely champions internationally for his saints.

And yet another significant biblical story has been reenacted. A prophetess and only female judge of Israel prophesied to the army chief that he would win the war against their oppressors. He demurred that he wouldn’t go to battle without her physical presence. To which Deborah prophesied further that he would lose the glory of victory to a woman.

As Bishop Kukah resigns from the righteous side of history, God has not left himself without a witness. Pastor Sarah Omakwu, Nigeria’s foremost female Christian minister from northern Nigeria, who incidentally is from Southern Kaduna, just held her latest all-black mourning service. She’s prophetically a Deborah in her generation - a Mother in Israel - when grown men quake.

Her church Family Worship Center has catered to over 3,000 Christian widows in 30 years - some 1900, widows of pastors in northern Nigeria. At a point she requested church leaders to adopt and educate orphans of pastors in their homes and she hosts widows every year in her church.

Nevertheless, Kukah’s actions were not even as bad as Cardinal Onaiyekan who went to Catholic University in USA to claim there was no persecution in Nigeria shortly after CAN President Ayo Oritsejafor testified in the U.S. Congress to designate Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization over a dozen years ago.

Kukah had been requested to go to Washington and do likewise this year but probably some modicum of self-respect restrained him from disgracing himself abroad though not at home.

Onaiyekan on the other hand recently tried to dissimulate that genocide must be a personal feeling of Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Benue over what is happening in his community.

The Cardinal who is the highest ranking Catholic in Nigeria tried to localize and minimize the mass murders and kidnaps of his clergy and congregants. He denigrated Anagbe for speaking truth abroad although Anagbe never upbraided he or Kukah for speaking lies abroad.

Benue and Southern Kaduna incidentally have about the highest number of Catholics slaughtered in the middle belt as the terrorism has heightened in the Kogi/Kwara axis where Onaiyekan himself is from.

Bishop Matthew, like the same-named disciple still has a chance to historically and accurately document Christianity in Nigeria like Matthew’s eponymous gospel. He can live true to his name “Kukah” (“Cry”). His actions henceforth following his recent apologies will determine whether his remorse is like the Denier Peter or the Betrayer Judas. All said and done, there’s a reason why Jesus was a friend of sinners and a foe of religious rulers.

•Emmanuel Ogebe, ESQ writes from Washington.