Prayers Will Crush Boko Haram – Catholic Bishop

The Catholic Bishop of Maiduguri Diocese, Most Rev. Oliver Dashe, has urged Christians to intensify prayers against insecurity. He said spiritual intervention, combined with decisive action by security agencies and government, would be crucial to permanently defeating Boko Haram insurgents. He spoke in Maiduguri after a church session held at St Patrick’s Cathedral. The event was to commemorate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The bishop, who acknowledged the relative peace recorded in parts of Borno after years of insurgency, said the gains should not lead to complacency. He stressed that both citizens and authorities still had responsibilities to discharge. “From the religious angle, we know that prayers will crush Boko Haram. However, we should know that as we pray, human beings must also do their work,” he said. According to him, Christians must remain vigilant and strengthen their commitment to prayer as part of the collective response to the security challenges facing the country. “It is very important that Christians should be on alert, and one of the best ways to be alert is to be prayerful,” Dashe said. He said the Mass and other activities marking the Assumption provided an opportunity for the Catholic faithful to seek divine intervention not only for Borno but for the country as a whole. “This is what we have done today. We have come in order to pray, thank our Mother Mary and to ask for more of her own intercession in our lives, our state and our country,” he added. Dashe also attributed the relative calm now being experienced in the state to the intervention of the Virgin Mary. He recalled the devastating impact of the insurgency when it began about 17 years ago. “One of the things she has done is the fact that she brought relative peace in this axis. We know that when the Boko Haram crisis started about 17 years ago, it was not funny, but now, we are experiencing peace,” he said. The bishop noted that the improvement in security had also enabled some residents who fled their communities at the height of the insurgency to return home. “People who fled have come back and are now serving their own God and that can be attributed to the intervention of our Mother Mary,” he maintained. However, he stressed that prayers alone should not replace concrete security measures. He urged the federal and Borno State governments to give security personnel the necessary support to confront terrorists in their hideouts. He called for sustained operations in forests and mountainous areas where terrorists may still be hiding. Lasting peace, he noted, would require the authorities to confront the remnants of the insurgency directly. “In this wise, I call on the government, both at the federal and state levels, to do the needful in ensuring that security personnel are able to go to the forest and mountains in order to fetch these terrorists and their members for peace to return to our state and country at large,” Dashe said. Reflecting on the religious significance of the occasion, the bishop described the Assumption as an important feast for Catholics and said the Virgin Mary had remained central to the spiritual life of the Maiduguri Diocese. He said various Marian devotions, including the recitation of the rosary, wearing of miraculous medals and pilgrimages, formed part of the diocese’s efforts to deepen the faith of its members. “I have been the Bishop of this diocese for the past 17 years, and as I stand here before you, it is because of her intercession,” Dashe said. He added that the diocese had also continued to reconsecrate itself, families and individuals to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as part of its spiritual response to the challenges confronting the faithful. His call comes against the backdrop of more than a decade of Boko Haram violence that turned Borno into the epicentre of the insurgency in the North East, forcing large numbers of residents from their homes and disrupting livelihoods across many communities. Although military operations have significantly weakened the insurgents’ ability to seize and hold territory as they did during the height of the crisis, attacks and other security threats have persisted, particularly in remote areas and along communities vulnerable to infiltration. The conflict has also left many communities with destroyed homes and infrastructure, while the displacement it caused continues to shape life in the state. The state government has also continued to support the security and recovery efforts in Borno. In June, Governor Babagana Zulum handed over two Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, operational vehicles and motorcycles to the military to strengthen troops’ capacity against ambushes and improvised explosive devices. The administration has equally pursued the return and resettlement of displaced residents, while working with security agencies on the rehabilitation and rein

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