Matthew Kukah, Catholic bishop of Sokoto diocese, says it is only the use of bomb that differentiates the federal government from Boko Haram insurgents.
Kukah said this on Tuesday while speaking with Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need, in the UK.
He was said to have spoken on the killing of 10 Christians by the Islamic State West Africa Province on Christmas eve.
The bishop reportedly accused the government of using different methods to achieve the same goal of “Islamic dominance like Boko Haram.”
He added that the federal government had failed to tackle Boko Haram insurgency and has instead created room for the group to operate as it is doing currently.
“The only difference between the government and Boko Haram is (that) Boko Haram is holding a bomb,” Kukah was quoted as saying.
“They are using the levers of power to secure the supremacy of Islam, which then gives more weight to the idea that it can be achieved by violence. With the situation in Nigeria, it is hard to see the moral basis they have to defeat Boko Haram.
“They have created the conditions to make it possible for Boko Haram to behave the way they are behaving.”
Kukah said if those in authority do not do enough to integrate Christians, “then they give oxygen to Islamism.”
“If they have countries where everybody is Muslim in power, then you give vent to the idea that Islam should be supreme,” he added.