President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, and other leaders have urged Nigerians to rise above religious, ethnic and political differences and unite against insecurity and other challenges facing the country. They made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the International Conference on National Security for Socio-economic Development, organised by Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS Nigeria) in collaboration with the Muslim World League of Saudi Arabia. They warned that allowing religious and ethnic differences to divide the country would worsen insecurity and undermine development. Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, who represented Tinubu at the conference, said the Federal Government was working to address the country’s security challenges while strengthening national unity. He said the conference came at a critical time when Nigeria and other countries were facing complex security threats. “This government is working very hard to ensure security in our nation and is also collaborating with other countries in the world to ensure global peace,” he said. Jibrin urged participants to share experiences and develop practical solutions to support efforts to restore sustainable peace. Stop religious insults – Sultan The Sultan urged Christians and Muslims to stop insulting one another, saying mutual respect and religious tolerance were essential for peaceful coexistence. “We must be honest with ourselves that Christians can stop insulting Muslims. Muslims can stop insulting Christians. And that’s how we live in peace,” he said. He said neither Christians nor Muslims should regard themselves as superior to others, stressing that all people were created by God. “We are not here to say we are better than anybody. We are not better than anybody. He is the creator of us all. He will determine who is better,” the Sultan said. He also urged Nigerians to revive the culture of caring for their neighbours regardless of their religion or ethnicity. The Sultan expressed concern over abuse on social media, warning against the spread of false and disparaging statements about public officials. He urged Nigerians to focus on solving the country’s problems rather than promoting disintegration. ‘Unite against insecurity’ Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the diversity of participants at the conference demonstrated a shared commitment to peace. He urged Nigerians to work together irrespective of their religious, ethnic and political differences. “All of us need to come together, think as Nigerians, think as human beings, and work together, irrespective of our differences, so that we can act as one,” Idris said. He warned that allowing religious differences to influence the fight against insecurity would worsen the situation. “There is no time for differences. If, in our fight against insecurity, we allow religious differences, it will only exacerbate the problem,” he said. The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, said Nigeria’s diverse faiths, ethnicities, languages, cultures and traditions should be turned into sources of strength rather than division. He urged Nigerians to look beyond religious and ethnic identities and focus on their shared humanity and common destiny. Yilwatda said the key question was not whether Christians and Muslims could live together, but “what kind of nation are we building by the way we live together?” He said the cordial relationship between the country’s Muslim and Christian leaders demonstrated that religious differences should not prevent friendship, mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. The Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, Sheikh Dr Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, warned against extremism, saying it sought to impose a single way of thinking on humanity. He said diversity was part of God’s creation and that attempts to eliminate it through violence and conflict were bound to fail. “Anyone who fights the reality of this diversity is not merely waging war against people; they are fighting the very decree of God in this life,” he said.
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