Election And Not War, Religious Leaders Tells Nigerians

Religious leaders have urged Nigerians to view the general elections as a moment of peace rather than violence with only 25 days until the vote.

The clerics offered their counsel at the Interfaith Peace Summit in Abuja, which was put on by the NTA Abrahamic Mission in collaboration with the Al-Habibiyyah organisation and had as its theme “Prosecuting peaceful election: The responsibility of religion groups.”

Every candidate was a creature of God, according to Bishop Peter Ogunmuyiwa of the African Church (Diocese of Abuja and the 19 Northern States), who spoke at the event.

According to him, Nigerians should allow the will of God to prevail, putting away religious and ethnic bigotry.
He said, “Every candidate is a creation of God and we must see ourselves as brothers, irrespective of their ethnic or religious inclinations. Good leaders are in every part of this country and in every religion. Hence, we must jettison nepotistic mentality in our attitude to other tribes.
“Let us preach love and peace to our people, before, during and after the elections. Nigeria is bigger than everyone of us and we must work to preserve it. Above all, the will of God will prevail, the signal is that God is interested in Nigeria whatever way the election goes.

“Anybody can be our President, any religious person can be our President. What is important is what they have to offer Nigerians. Religion of a candidate should not be the basis of our choices but their antecedents and commitment to the development of our country.
“The effect of bad governance is felt on every Nigerian, irrespective of their ethnic group or religious background. We therefore need to be wise this time around and make wise choices in the forthcoming elections, we need peace in Nigeria and can’t afford religious or civil war any longer which ordinarily is instigated by sentiment of religion or tribes.”
Speaking in the same vein, Presenter of Abrahamic Mission, Imam Fuad Adeyemi, said one of the ways of getting things done in Nigeria was through the religious path and that it was pertinent to sensitize religious leaders and followers on the need for peaceful coexistence.

He said, “We are mainly religious people in Nigeria and if China can introduce a special event in the Olympics that nobody knows except them, nothing stops us from using what we have in achieving what we want.

“What we have is being religious and we want to use that religiosity to get peace and to do things rightly in Nigeria. As you are aware, anything you want to do successfully in this country, if it passes through religious houses, it’s likely to be easy.

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“The politicians, followers, thugs and everybody have one religious house they go or the other. It is in those houses that we want to sensitize the religious leaders in what their religion says about living a peaceful life.

“My message to the Muslim community is to mimic what God actually wants. What does God want? God wants us to live in peace. Arising from this, God will decide who gets what. We should not think that what we want is what God wants, we should be able to accept the judgment of God.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, Executive Director, Programs, NTA, Wole Coker, said the most important thing was for Nigeria to remain as one after the elections.
He maintained that Nigerians should relegate to the backseat religion and ethnicity saying that the indivisibility of Nigeria was more important.

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