Don’t succumb to fear-mongering, hate speeches, MUSWEN Elders’ Forum urges Nigerians

The Elders’ Forum of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) has appealed to Nigerians not to succumb to fear-mongering, intimidation, falsehood and hate speeches and remain at peace with one another despite their religious and ethnic differences.

The forum made the plea in a reaction to what it called recent hate speeches and attacks on Islam and Muslims by the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF).

The forum, in a statement signed by MUSWEN’s Executive Secretary, Professor Dawud Noibi, expressed worry that NCEF was worsening Muslim-Christian relationship in the country rather than serve as a purposeful platform for harmonious relations and nation building.

“Nigeria has had several challenges as is common with countries with the size and ethno-religious diversity as Nigeria. In such settings, however, leaders at various segments of the society are to preach and demonstrate peace; they are not to spread falsehood or promote hatred as, disappointingly, the Christian elders have done.

“Indeed, there is no more appropriate time for leaders to be mindful of their utterances than this trying period in our nation’s history,” the forum said.

“There is no doubt about the fact that these Christian elders are taking Nigeria into an uncharted era of a new crusade with their infatuation for jihad, deliberate use of propaganda and fear-mongering as tools for propagating their ideas, deliberate falsification of historical facts and making of wild and weird claims.

“For instance, in one of their recent statements, the Christian elders relied on an imaginary and obscure source to put words in the mouth of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello. Their intention is obviously to portray the revered Sardauna of Sokoto in the bad light of religious bigotry.

“It is strange that given the import of the statement which was allegedly made by Sardauna on October 1, 1960, the very day Nigeria gained her Independence from Britain, it was never attributed to any well-known and credible media source.

“More strangely, checks revealed that the statement never became an issue for public discourse until 2012 and there has been no evidence of the reactions of other nationalists like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo,” it added.

The forum alleged an attempt by some Christian leaders to create dichotomy among the citizens along ethnic and religious lines, saying it was worried about the possible effects of politicisation of religion and ethnicity in a plural society like Nigeria.

The forum also reiterated its call on the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, to stop functioning as a “closed organisation completely dominated and led by Christians.”