AHEAD of the upcoming general election, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar and the National President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Dr Samson Ayokunle have called on religious leaders to desist from partisanship and preach peace and love to their congregation.
The two religious leaders who spoke at the 2nd General Assembly of the Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace, are also the Patrons of the Forum.
The duo having know the power of religious messages urged religious leaders in both faiths to use their various prayer grounds as an avenue to preach peace and love for humanity and Nigeria.
The religious leaders also cautioned politicians against using thugs, disrupting the propane of the country and using divisive words during the campaign and also during the election proper.
In his remarks, Sultan Abubakar said already, there has been much noise and so much tension being created by the politicians themselves.
“Let’s be very careful as religious leaders on how we promote our personal views at our churches and Mosques and other prayer grounds, whatever we want to say as religious leaders, we must do so with the fear of God who created us.
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“The best we can give to our children is education, and when we educate people especially girls, we are educating a large percentage of humanity because they are the first teacher to every soul that comes into this world, and when you have educated a community, you now have a community that lives in peace, trying to have progressed in whatever they do, trying to love one another more than they even love themselves, trying to do good at all times, that is education, and that education must be given by all of us.
“So as religious leaders, let’s continue to preach peace, let’s continue to preach love for one another, let’s continue to preach love for humanity and our country, ” he said.
He also urged parents and guardians not to allow their wards to be used by politicians to ferment trouble and cause violence during and after the election, maintaining that no child must be used by politicians.
“We need to tell our children not to follow the whims and caprices of these politicians who just want to use you to get into office when they get there, they will forget you, we should not be used, we must never be used.
“As religious leaders, let’s preach the word of God with sincerity and love of humanity and country Nigeria, that’s our role, we are not to promote any candidate because we don’t know if God almighty like him or not”, the Sultan added.
Speaking, the CAN President, Reverend Ayokunle while calling on religious leaders to continue praying for the country, said the relative peace Nigeria is enjoying today was as a result of the prayers being offered by both faiths over the years.
“I want to urge the faith community here, both the Muslim faith and the Christian faith that one thing that we have been doing we have been doing which have not allowed Nigeria to be in tatters or complete wreck is our prayers, the relative peace we are witnessing is because the faith communities believe in prayers and they are praying, don’t let us give up.
“Let’s pray that God will install for us in this forthcoming election task-oriented leaders, people that will have the love of the citizens at heart, not just politician, but transformational leaders, people that are creative, people that are ready to put into use all these God-given endowments for the betterment of each Nigerian”, he said.
Furthermore, while calling on politicians to desist from politics of desperation, Reverend Ayokunle urged the electorates not to vote any politician who takes politics as a full-time job.
“I want to caution our politicians and political leaders not to be too desperate to win, not to be desperate at all. Desperation should be taken out of it completely. In advance countries, politics is not taken as a full-time job.
“Let’s be careful we electorates, people that don’t have any other job apart from politics should not be voted, and when you see them carrying money about to persuade you to follow them, please run away from them because when they win, they will, first of all, recover what they have expanded, they will be recovering good roads from you, pipe borne water will not be there.
“I want to urge those in government once again and politicians generally to please calm down and not break down law and orders in this coming election, we need our peace, we don’t want to set our nation on fire, election is for better society and future, enough of destruction of our nation, therefore, don’t let your ambition be greater than the existence of the nation and the well being of Nigerians.
Addressing the law enforcement agencies, the CAN President said “don’t help to install wrong leaders, those who want to use you to get there, they are your own enemy and they are enemies of the nation, don’t use your uniform to do dirty jobs, the nation that gave you the opportunity to serve in that position should not become your enemy.
“You turn us to your enemies when you allow yourself to be used by these politicians either to intimidate voters, shoot in the air or prevent voters from getting to their polling units, we have seen all these things before and we are saying we don’t want to see it again, if you don’t want us to place heavy curses upon you, don’t do that again, if you don’t want to mortgage the future of your children, don’t do that again.
“Good government is not about religion, it is about an individual who is credible, when we gather people who are credible together, they will make waves, if you have good road, the good road is a good road, and everybody will use it.
To the religious leader, he said: “I want to appeal to my fellow religious leaders, please let us not make divisive statements at this time, the nation will catch fire if something wrong comes out of my mouth, we have to be very careful, I love this nation.”
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