Boko Haram: Borno Governor declares Monday for fasting, prayers

Borno Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has declared next Monday, February 24, 2020 for statewide fasting and prayers to combine with intensified offensive by Nigeria' military and volunteer forces against boko haram insurgents.  

Zulum made the declaration  in a six-minute broadcast to the people of Borno State. He however said there will be no public holiday on the coming Monday.

The insurgents have lately resumed serial attacks on communities in different parts of Borno state with the latest in Chibok on Tuesday after previous one in Auno last Sunday.

The Governor after enumerating ongoing collaboration with the military, mass recruitment, equipping and deployment of thousands of volunteers in the Civilian JTF, hunters and vigilantes, said his call for prayers was a strange but necessary decision made based on popular wish of Borno people. 

"Even though this decision is based on the popular demand of our people, some observers may rightly argue that it is a strange call. But then, Borno has been befallen with a strange evil since 2009, and sometimes, strange ailments require strange approaches.

As your Governor, I hereby declare Monday the 24th of February 2020 as a day of devotion to pray for the return of peace in Borno. I intend to fast on that day and I appeal to every one of us in Borno, who can, to join in that simple, but pricelessly rewarding spiritual endeavour. I also appeal for the sacrifices of all other well-meaning friends and associates of Borno who can, to join us in fasting on Monday, insha'Allah, for the restoration of peace in Borno State and rest of Nigeria.

I urge all of us to be steadfast in prayers. But in doing that, we certainly do not need to congregate in open fields for dramas. 

It would also not matter whether we are within or outside Borno State and whether we are at work places, markets or not. There will be no public holiday, after all, God is everywhere, at home and at work.

Let us pray to Him with the purest intention, total devotion, submission and unwavering faith. 

His eminence, the Shehu of Borno has assured me of his call on imams of all mosques across the 27 local government areas of the state to recite the Qunut throughout the five congregational prayers on Monday. 

Leaders of the Christian community have also assured me of special prayer sessions in churches. 

However, as citizens, we are all free to pray in the best ways we prefer" the Governor said. 

Zulum began his broadcast by recalling recent security threats posed by the Boko Haram.  

"Fellow citizens, in the last couple of days and weeks, Borno has faced resurging attacks from insurgents. The latest of these attacks happened around Chibok yesterday while the most horrific took place at Auno town in Konduga. Fellow citizens were  atrociously set ablaze, amongst them, an infant and nursing mother. 

Before these recent incidents,  many communities also came under varied degrees of murderous attacks in the north, south and central parts of Borno State.

I share the grief of fellow citizens who have either lost their loved ones or confronted the agony of watching loved ones on hospital beds. I feel the trauma of hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens who have lost everything and have been forced to live on makeshift shelters and rely on food and non-food aid as internally displaced persons and refugees in neighbouring countries.

Beyond sharing the griefs and pains of fellow citizens, I assure you, that we have never for one second, ignored our constitutional and moral obligations towards you, the good people of Borno State.