The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has pushed back against former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai’s comments on the population strength of Southern Kaduna, warning that such rhetoric risks deepening old wounds in a state long fractured along ethnic and religious lines.
Reverend John Joseph Hayab, chairman of CAN in the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, said in Kaduna that El-Rufai’s remarks on national television last weekend were not only “dangerous and divisive” but also emblematic of a leadership style that, in his view, worsened mistrust between government and communities in the region.
On Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, El-Rufai had asserted that Southern Kaduna accounts for less than a quarter of the state’s population, adding that he had no regrets over the policies he pursued during his eight years in office.
Hayab, who once led CAN in Kaduna State during El-Rufai’s administration, dismissed that claim, citing past census exercises that revealed significant numbers from Southern Kaduna. He noted that households in the area are traditionally large—sometimes with 15 to 23 children—making it implausible to suggest the region’s population is marginal.
“What distorts Kaduna’s population figures,” Hayab argued, “is not that Southern Kaduna lacks people, but that numbers are manipulated elsewhere.”
The cleric expressed disappointment that El-Rufai, even out of office, could publicly state he had no regrets about policies that left many Southern Kaduna communities feeling marginalized. “Such remarks,” he said, “do not promote reconciliation or inclusivity.”
On El-Rufai’s insistence that only those who do not know him call him a fundamentalist, Hayab countered that his own judgment was shaped by lived experience of the former governor’s leadership style. He contrasted the relative calm now prevailing in Kaduna with the tensions under El-Rufai, urging the state to preserve its fragile stability as a foundation for unity.
Looking ahead, Hayab renewed the call for future census exercises to include ethnicity and religion as official variables—an inclusion he believes would curb distortions and ensure fairness in demographic planning.
He ended with a broader appeal: that Nigerians must reject divisive narratives and commit instead to justice, equity, and inclusiveness. “National unity,” he said, “can only endure when every group is treated with dignity and fairness.”
