An Ibadan-based Islamic preacher, Dr Amoo Alaga, has urged Muslim and Christian faithful to live together and tolerate one another for the purpose of a peaceful coexistence.
Alaga said this on Monday evening during the Iftar feast, organised by the management of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for its staff in Oyo state.
In a lecture, titled ”Essence of Co-Peaceful Existence”, Alaga said that there is hardly any family in South West Nigeria where there is no Muslim and Christian.
Alaga said people should not allow religion, ‘which is very volatile’, to divide the nation, adding that Muslims and Christians are bound to live together and tolerate one another.
“In the Quran, Chaper 10, verse 99; Allah says, if it has to be my wish everybody would be a Muslim.
“Likewise, in the Holly Bible, John, Chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus Christ says, only those who are directed to me by my father comes onto me.
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“That is a reality; that, it is not possible for everybody to be a Muslim,” the cleric said.
Alaga said there would not be a problem: “if Muslims know the peculiarities of Christians and respect those peculiarities, so also when Christians appreciate the peculiarities of Islam and respect those peculiarities.”
In his welcome address, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Oyo state, Mr Mutiu Agboke, said the Iftar feast was organised for their staff to see themselves as one irrespective of religion.
Agboke said the commission was using the opportunity of the lecture delivered in re-orientating those in attendance, who were majorly its staff to see themselves as one.
“We have observed the mood of the nation and of course, INEC family is part of what is happening in our society.
“We felt that one of the things we can do is to continue a kind of reorientation of our people and continue to educate ourselves.
“The key area we need to be talking about now is the issue of togetherness, the need for us in this country to look at ourselves as fellow human beings, regardless of the tribe/religion we claim,” he said.
Agboke called on every Nigerian to have attitudinal change and imbibe the spirit of oneness and to allow togetherness to be fundamental in relation with other people across the country.
The Chairman of the occasion, Oyo state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Rauf Olaniyan, charged politicians to combine politicking with Godliness and be close to the people who brought them into power.
Olaniyan said that fairness and justice on the part of politicians would make them to be upright before God.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that highlights of the occasion were Quranic recitations and prayers for those in leadership positions in the country. (NAN)
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