Politicians Dividing Nigeria Along Religious Lines Incompetent — Sultan

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar has asked politicians to focus on solving the problems relating to security, economy and infrastructure rather than dividing the nation along religious lines.

Speaking in Ibadan during the second quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), held on Thursday, he noted that those politicians politicizing religion were those who are incompetent and lack the capacity to solve the problems facing the nation.

Ahead of the 2023 elections, Abubakar, who is co-chair of NIREC, particularly tasked Nigerians to evaluate politicians on their ability to deliver on the immediate needs of the nation rather than on the basis of religion or region.

He bemoaned that the nation’s politics is devoid of compassion and decorum but characterised by greed and violence.

Abubakar said: “In the last decade also, our society has been facing enormous problems of security, economy and infrastructure. It is important to ask our politicians to focus on solving these problems which do not distinguish between Muslims and Christians but not to create new ones by dividing us along religious lines. After all, we all go to the same markets, same hospitals, and same places both as Muslims and Christians.

“Our politics is devoid of compassion and decorum but characterised by greed and violence. We must tell our politicians to stop dividing our society along religious lines by politicizing religion. Most of the politicians who fall back on religion are usually those with not much to offer in terms of competence or solving the problems of the society.

“We need to call the politicians to order and evaluate them on their ability to deliver on our immediate needs rather than religion or region. If they indeed care about religion, then they should avoid being corrupt and we shall know them by their ethical standards.”

Addressing the theme of the meeting, “Promoting Mutual Love and Understanding in Nigeria,” the Sultan wondered how people kill other persons in the name of religion.

He, consequently, tasked Muslim and Christian leaders to educate their followers that what is expected of them is to ensure that their families are built on love, compassion and mercy.

“When and how did we turn religion to be a source of conflict and animosity, killing in the name of religion; expressing criminal hate speeches in the name of religion and ethnicity, not loving your neighbour as you should love yourself?