The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has frowned at religious leaders who use places of worship to preach hate messages.
Speaking during a joint meeting with members of the Northern States Traditional Council in Kaduna, on Monday, the monarch attributed the crisis in the north to the hate messages preached by religious leaders.
According to Abubakar, “We are more worried with the use of places of religious worship to preach hatred, violence and other issues that tend to divide us rather than strengthening our unity as a people created by one God.”
Also speaking at the meeting, the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima said for the region to attain its greatness, solution must be found to the social, economic and political challenges ravaging the North.
Shettimma, who doubles as the Northern Governors Forum, said the challenges facing the North revolve around intolerance, illiteracy and lack of unity.
He said, “Our core challenges in the North today revolve around intolerance, absence of peaceful coexistence, poverty, illiteracy and lack of unity,” he said, and expressed confidence that the meeting “is more than able to provide solutions to our problems.
“As Governors, we are more determined than ever, to sincerely walk the talks generated from this important meeting.
“Nigeria’s wealthiest region by GDP and the region with the brightest prospects for accelerated economic growth; in short, arguably Nigeria’s most thriving region, has literally conspired against itself to be reduced to the laughing stock of the world.
“Northern Nigeria today is blighted by a deadly, albeit `retreating, insurgency, rural armed banditry, cattle rustling, ethnic and religious conflicts, the underlying causes of which are poverty, illiteracy, social exclusivity and severely limited economic opportunities.”
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