TheCable

Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi, says Christians have equal rights as Muslims in his state.

The governor spoke on Saturday when Abraham Damina, the state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), led the Christian community on a visit to the governor.

Mohammed said he decided to include more Christians in his administration because he realised they had been excluded in the past.

“I noticed there is a lot of exclusion and decided to include more Christians in my administration,” he said.

“I’m happy that during our tenure, we are deepening inclusion and we are creating love as well as breaking all the barriers that are preventing us from embracing each other in fraternity.

“We are building some huge churches as we are building mosques because I have discovered that you have equal rights and you must be respected.

“I assure you we are not going to allow anybody to use our communities anymore in order to get cheap popularity.”

The governor promised to give more slots to the upcoming Christian pilgrimage “to make them happy and to show that the government is grateful”.

Mohammed said his administration would ensure that the situation where some civil servants were deliberately removed from the payroll would soon be a thing of the past.

He said the state government had enforced the spirit of autonomy for the local governments, adding that they were given all their resources and had started paying salaries since November.