The immediate past acting President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo World Wide, Nze Ozichukwu Fidelis Chukwu has tasked members of Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to focus on policies that will seek to address some historical grievance and managing diversity as the best steps towards achieving national unity.
Speaking on his paper tittled “Building Mutual Trust for National Unity” delivered at the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) First Quarter meeting at Rockview Hotel. Owerri, he advised the religious leaders to also use any opportunities they have to speak the truth to authority
He said fostering sense of shared citizenship and promoting cross-cultural understanding can also help build trust and unity while effective governance and leadership are essential in promoting national unity and development.
He said: “National question including General Yakubu Gowon’s 1970 Declaration of “No Victor, No Vanquished is recurrent with the burdens of the 3Rs of reconciliation/reintegration, rehabilitation and
rconstruction
and the question of nationhood and respect for the Rule of Law stares us on the face”.
He said: ” I recall that during the time the Igbos were to go into crisis in North, His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto, stood up and spoke out. He instantly calmed the storm. It was a rare show of courage and exceptional leadership”.
He observed that the President, Governors, Principal Officers of the various legislative assemblies, as as well as the shakers and movers of the Nigerian State, are all at the beck and call of Spiritual and Temporal Leaders; but only when these spiritual leaders act as a Collective with courage, in their resolve to seek justice, fairness, equity, and the dignity of human life.
Ozichukwu identified integrity, citizenship mobilization, sensitization and education, inclusive policies and programs, community engagement, leadership and governance amongst other as the key strategies for driving national unity
He advised the religious body to ensure effective, accountable, and inclusive leadership that promotes national unity and development more importantly living by example.
Ozichukwu noted that His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a staunch Muslim is married to a Christian Pentecostal Pastor Senator Oluremi Tinubu and both have enviable relationships adding that it’s incumbent on NIREC to ask Mr President to step out with the same values to tolerate dissent and accommodate diversity to avoid adversity and national calamity.
The Igbo leader paid special tribute to President Olusegun Obasanjo for helping to facilitate the establishment of this historic institution adding that Olusegun Obasanjo will go down in history as one of the best things that happened in Nigeria.
According to him, Obasanjo pursued nation building with missionary zeal and Apostolic ideal, holding his life in the palm of his hands, not willing to sacrifice it with a spirit of weariness and bravado but ready to lay it down if duty demands.
He said: by providing a platform for dialogue and mediation, NIREC can help resolve disputes and address dissentions before they escalate into full-blown conflicts. The function of NIREC in this regard is rare and uncommon. Indeed, this function supersedes every other privilege”.
The former PG pointed out that there have been efforts at segregation in aggregation and aggregation in segregation to achieve national unity and cohesion but unfortunately, the more efforts that are made, the more the disarray and disenchantment.
He said: ” There is seeming consensus among Nigerians that everything depends and falls on leadership. Consequently, the average Nigeria looks up to the spiritual and temporal leaders for direction.
He said that unfortunately, there are so many confusions, conflicts, and contradictions as much as trust and confidence deficit, adding that today, more than any time else in our history, ethno-religious sentiments have been elevated to statecraft.
Nze Ozichukwu harped on some of the uncommon privileges and uncommon rules in conflict resolution which the committee must tackle to include to ensure the restoration of peace and return of His Excellency Governor Siminalayi Fubara to his seat as the democratically elected Governor of Rivers State along with the members of the House of Assembly, fostering an end of Farmers Herdsmen clashes across the regions and bringing an end to banditry and violence in Nigeria and dibilitating sense of entitlement
Others include discouraging the urge for territorial aggrandizement, ensure there is freedom for all prisoners of conscience, ensure the release of Nnamdi Kanu as ordered by the courts as well as fostering peace and religious tolerance among peoples of different faiths amongst others.
and then