We must look beyond partisan politics if we want peace and progress in Nigeria…

Paul Obi and Kasim Suimana in Abuja
The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Metropolitan
See, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, on Saturday said
many Nigerians were now using the recent
herdsmen attacks to fan embers of religious
battle, discord and hatred among fellow citizens.
Onaiyekan stated this while unveiling a N300
million skill acquisitions and humanitarian centre,
tagged Marian Soup Kitchen in Abuja. The centre
was initiated by the priest of the Holy Cross
Catholic Church Gwarinpa, Rev. Dr. Willy Ojukwu.
The Cardinal told the gathering that the rise of
herdsmen attacks had continued to fuel division,
hatred and religious tension in the country, with
severe consequences for the nation.
“There is a terrible wind blowing around our
country right now. There are so many people who
are fanning the flames of discord and of hatred
and it is becoming very difficult to preach unity
and mutual natural love and there are those who
are already envisaging a clash between Christians
and Muslims.
“There are those who are interpreting the clash
between herdsmen and farmers as the front line
of this battle. Some are sharpening their
cutlasses getting ready for the big battle,”
Onaiyekan said.
He said: “Concerning the herdsmen, everybody
knows what government should do because one
of the primary duties of government is to ensure
security of life and property of all Nigerians;
which means that where you have any group of
people, whether they are herdsmen or kidnappers,
or armed robbers, government should device ways
of effectively checkmating them.”
He explained that even in the midst of this
quagmire, there are still exceptional cases.
“Thanks be to God there are many Nigerians who
believe that we are not doomed to kill one
another and that there is hope for us to live
together as fellow Nigerians.
“We have done it for many years. Despite the civil
war, we have lived together and the civil war in
any case was not a war between Christians and
Muslims. We have proved to the whole world that
we can live together,” Onaiyekan added.
He further stated, “I will go all over the world
boasting of this, telling them that in Nigeria, we
have not less than 80 million Christians, 80
million Muslims, living side by side, day by day at
every level of our lives, from the Executive Council
meetings in Aso Villa down to the women in Wuse
market. We must live together because nobody
has anything to gain in conflicts, confusion and
differences. Despite our differences, there is
something common that we share.
“What the Sultan and I have been preaching all
along is that the things that we have in common
are much more important than the things that
divide us. Even in doctrine, to believe that there is
one God, that is something great. Only a few mad
people will tell us that the God of Christians is
different from the God of the Muslims.
“To believe in this one God, that is something
great. When we suffered Ebola disease outbreak in
Nigeria, there was no Christian Ebola or Muslim
Ebola. We all faced it together. When we suffered
from corruption and bad government, is it as if
Christians are not concerned, only Muslim? Or,
Muslims are not concerned, only Christians?
“Among the thieves, there are Christians and
Muslims. And among all of us who are suffering
it are Christians and Muslims. We have a
common task to insist on good government, to
insist also on honesty in government. To do this,
we must come together and fix our common
challenges”, he added.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III,
represented by the Executive Secretary, Abuja
National Mosque Management Board, Alhaji
Ibrahim Jega, said government should do more
for the less privileged, adding that Islam will never
teach violence, insurgency and wanton killings.
Jega urged the youth to shun violence and stick
to the teachings of both faiths. He further
encouraged the youths to make good use of the
centre and also appealed to the management of
Marian Soup Kitchen to make the centre as active
and accessible as possible to the less privileged
which is the core purpose for setting up the
centre.
On his part, Ojukwu contended that “religion
should not separate but unite us, hence, the
promotion of inter-religious harmony from the
grassroots. We should be our brothers’ and
sisters’ keeper, hence the feeding of the hungry,
counseling the downtrodden and giving hope to
the hopeless from all segments of the society”.

www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/05/08/onaiyekan-nigerians-using-herdsmen-attacks-to-incite-religious-crisis/

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