President Bola Tinubu has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to strengthening security and promoting sustainable peace in Nigeria, as political and religious leaders called for an end to religious intolerance, hate speech and the manipulation of ethnic and religious identities.
The call was made at an international conference on national security for sustainable socio-economic development held in Abuja and attended by government officials, political leaders, religious scholars, traditional rulers, academics and other stakeholders.
Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau I. Jibrin, represented President Tinubu at the conference.
Speaking on behalf of the President, Barau said the conference was taking place at a time when countries across the world were facing multifaceted security challenges.
He said the President welcomed the opportunity for Nigeria to host the gathering and assured participants of the Federal Government’s commitment to strengthening security and supporting efforts towards sustainable peace.
‘Mr. President is glad that this conference is coming at this period, that the conference is holding at this very important period when the world is being confronted with multifaceted security challenges,’ Barau said.
According to him, the Federal Government was working with other countries to address emerging security threats and strengthen mechanisms for peace and stability.
Barau said the government remained committed to preserving Nigeria’s unity despite its ethnic, religious and regional diversity.
He said the conference provided an opportunity for participants to examine emerging threats to national and regional security and share experiences on approaches to restoring sustainable peace at the regional, continental and global levels.
The Deputy Senate President commended the Muslim World League for choosing Nigeria to host the conference and Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatis Sunnah (JIBWIS) for collaborating on the event.
He expressed confidence that the deliberations would produce recommendations that could complement ongoing efforts to address insecurity.
Also speaking, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, urged Nigerians to reject religious intolerance, hate speech and the use of ethnic and religious identities for political purposes.
Yilwatda said Nigeria’s diversity should be seen as a source of strength rather than division, stressing that citizens of different faiths shared a common history and destiny.
He said the issue should not simply be whether Christians and Muslims could coexist, but also what kind of nation Nigerians were building through their relationships with one another.
‘For me, I came here into this conversation not as a new person to diversity. I’ve experienced the painful part of diversity, and I’ve experienced the beautiful part of the same diversity,’ he said.
The APC chairman recalled growing up in an interfaith environment, saying his father, a pastor, maintained a close relationship with a chief imam.
He said the two families visited one another and celebrated religious occasions together, an experience he said showed that religious differences did not have to lead to division.
‘Religious differences do not have to produce human distances and separation because of our beliefs,’ Yilwatda said.
He also recalled experiencing communal violence after his father was transferred to Bauchi in 1991.
According to him, his family lost its home and belongings during the crisis, while both Christians and Muslims were affected by displacement and destruction.
He said he spent months in an internally displaced persons’ environment, where hunger, fear and uncertainty affected people regardless of their religious identities.
‘We may worship differently, but we suffer together. We dream together. We can build together, and ultimately we can rise and fall together,’ he said.
Yilwatda identified terrorism, banditry, communal violence, ethnic suspicion, religious intolerance and hate speech as some of the challenges threatening Nigeria’s stability.
He urged Nigerians to reject attempts to use religion and ethnicity to deepen divisions, saying violence affected communities irrespective of their religious affiliations.
‘Let us build a Nigeria where a Christian can protect a Muslim, and a Muslim can defend a Christian, and every Nigerian can stand for the dignity of another Nigerian-not because we share the same faith or ethnicity, but because we share the same humanity,’ he said.
Drawing from his experience of displacement, Yilwatda called for a society where future generations would have access to schools, homes and opportunities rather than displacement camps and memories of violence.
‘Let’s choose peace over violence,’ he said.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, called on Nigerians to refrain from insulting one another on religious grounds and work towards rebuilding trust, peaceful coexistence and national unity.
The Sultan said Nigeria had ideas and solutions to many of its challenges but had faced difficulties in implementing agreements and recommendations reached at conferences and meetings.
‘We don’t lack solutions or problems. What we lack is implementation,’ he said.
He urged participants to ensure that the outcome of the conference translated into practical measures that could improve security and strengthen national cohesion.
The Sultan commended the Muslim World League and JIBWIS for organising the conference, saying platforms that bring Nigerians together to discuss national challenges were important.
He urged religious leaders to engage one another honestly and identify areas of common ground rather than attack governments or engage in excessive praise of political leaders.
The Sultan specifically called on Christians and Muslims to stop insulting one another, saying mutual respect was necessary for peaceful coexistence.
‘We must be honest with ourselves that Christians should stop insulting Muslims, Muslims should stop insulting Christians, and that’s how we live in peace,’ he said.
He recalled that Nigerians in previous generations lived together without regarding one religious group as superior to another, adding that piety, good character and the way people treated their neighbours should matter more than religious differences.
The Sultan also criticised the abuse of public figures on social media and urged Nigerians to avoid spreading false information or making malicious statements about political and religious leaders.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua, also warned against the use of religion, ethnicity and poverty to create division and conflict.
Omonokhua said humanity remained the fundamental bond among Nigerians, noting that people were first human beings before identifying with particular religions.
‘No one is created a Christian, and no one is created a Muslim. We are created as human beings. Hence, what binds us together is humanity,’ he said.
He noted that Nigeria’s major religious traditions included African traditional religion, Christianity and Islam, while highlighting the country’s interfaith structure.
According to him, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) provided platforms for Muslims and Christians to engage one another.
He said the two organisations came together in 1999 to establish NIREC as a platform for sustained interfaith dialogue.
Omonokhua said NIREC, co-chaired by the leaders of the NSCIA and CAN, had demonstrated that Christians and Muslims could work together peacefully.
He said religion should promote mercy, compassion and love rather than hostility or mere tolerance of people of other faiths.
Citing teachings from Christianity and Islam on the sanctity of human life, he said religious belief should strengthen respect for human dignity and the common good.
Omonokhua said NIREC remained non-partisan and focused on promoting human dignity, common welfare and peaceful relations among Nigerians.
He appealed to citizens and leaders to reject attempts to exploit religious, ethnic and economic grievances.
‘I would like to appeal very passionately that we should never, never, never allow anybody to weaponize religion or ethnicity or poverty to turn us against each other,’ he said.