Northern CAN Chairman Hayab says denying persecution of Christians – which predates Boko Haram – in Northern Nigeria is unfair to victims.

Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 Northern states and the FCT, Reverend John Joseph Hayab, has described the killings of Christians in Northern Nigeria as genocide, insisting that continued denial of their persecution is unjust to the victims and their families.

He called on Nigerians to embrace dialogue and acknowledge the problem as a first step toward finding lasting solutions.

Speaking in an interview on ARISE News on Wednesday, Reverend Hayab made the remarks where he reacted to recent comments by US President Donald Trump expressing concern over the killing of Christians in Nigeria. He said while global leaders have raised alarms, Nigerian authorities must admit that religiously motivated attacks have been ongoing for decades before the Boko Haram insurgency.

“Can I consider what has been happening as genocide against Christians? And my straightforward answer is yes. Y-E-S, Yes,” Reverend Hayab declared, stressing that the violence predates Boko Haram.

According to him, several groups have tried to deny or downplay the situation, dismissing it as farmers-herders conflicts, but those who have witnessed and buried victims know the reality.

“Anybody who comes out and says there is no Christian genocide, it’s not fair to the Christians of Northern Nigeria,” he said. “Some of us have buried many in numbers… We can give those numbers and incidences with dates.”

He recalled major crises that targeted Christians before Boko Haram, including the 2000 Sharia crisis in Kaduna and the 2002 Miss World riots that left hundreds dead. “I actually did the burial,” he added, describing how pastors were killed and churches burnt across the region.

Beyond killings, Hayab noted that discrimination against Christians extends to education and worship in public institutions. “Our children cannot be admitted to certain universities, and their crime is not because they are not qualified, they are Christians,” he said. “Even in public schools, they have to worship in classrooms because there are no chapels for them.”

He urged the government and society to first acknowledge that something went wrong. “If we acknowledge that Christians have been killed and truly, we’ve buried many, then we can start to correct it. But when you say there was nothing wrong, we will keep lying to ourselves.”

When asked about the roots of religious extremism before Boko Haram, Reverend Hayab traced it back to the 1970s, citing violent incidents like the Maitatsine uprising. “The only challenge is that at that time, there was no use of the term terrorism,” he explained. “What Maitatsine did was exactly terrorism.”

According to him, Boko Haram only made such ideology more official. “Their ideology is that anybody who does not believe in their brand of Islam is an infidel… The ideology is Islam and Islam alone,” he said.

Reverend Hayab also recalled statements by past religious leaders in the 1980s that fueled division. “One particular leader came out publicly and said, according to Islamic teaching, a Christian cannot lead him and he cannot also be led by a woman,” he said, noting that such teachings helped entrench intolerance that still influences Nigeria’s politics and coexistence today. (ARISE NEWS)