The General Overseer of Hour of Mercy Prayer Ministries Worldwide. (Ori oke Alaseyori) Prophet Moses Muyideen Kasali, has urged the National Assembly to enact a law outlawing and criminalising ethnicity and tribal identity in the country.
Kasali said that law abolishing ethnic and tribal sentiments and affiliations, would make the dream of a united and prosperous Nigeria realisable.
The cleric, who spoke on the occasion of his birthday celebration at the church’s headquarters in Ori Oke Alaseyori, Ibadan, Oyo State, said winning the war against tribalism was a necessary condition to tackle the twin challenges of hunger and insecurity confronting the country.
Kasali advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to step up efforts to ensure the return of the 110 school girls abducted in Dapchi, Yobe State and as well get to the root of the recent cases of corruption springing up in the country if the administration is to be taken seriously.
According to him, the country does not need elaborate restructuring other than to simply abolish all tendencies making citizens define themselves on the basis of tribes as Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Tiv, Ijaw etc, but to identify themselves as Nigerians.
Kasali said: “I want to advise our lawmakers at the National Assembly to do something. I once asked from God what really is wrong with us in Nigeria that we are having these challenges of insecurity, backwardness and scarcity of all good things. The Lord answered and said we have been the cause of these problems.
“Again, l asked Him how have we been the cause of our problems and the Lord sai d that In Nigeria, we identify ourselves first with our tribes but that what should be more paramount to us in identifying our selves should be the fact that we are all Nigerians.
“We must abolish all acts that prioritize our tribal differences over and above the fact that we are all Nigerians. This is why I want to advise our lawmakers that the only restructuring they can assist us with is to make a law that would abolish tribal identity and that anyone who identifies himself or herself as coming any tribe should be punished.
“If we can just get rid of seeing ourselves as coming from a tribe first before being a Nigeria, our problems, particularly security and sociopolitical ones, would be solved. Do you know why Ghana has solved many of its problems? When you see a Ghanaian, he identifies himself first as a Ghanaian before you know what tribe of that country he belongs. They have perish tribal identity.
“But here in Nigeria, we like to always identify and introduce ourselves as coming from the Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani or Hausa or Kanuri first before realising the fact that we are all Nigerians.
“If we can’t solve the problem of tribal differences, we can’t solve security issues. The insurgency challenge arises from our tribal differences and the way we have become too conscious of this. Abolish all forms of regional differences, dividing Nigeria along geo political zones and stop seeing yourselves first as Yoruba, Tiv, Fulani or coming from any tribe. Let us promote the fact that we are all Nigerians. We must identify ourselves as one Nigeria and all our security problems will be solved once and for all.
“When we have been able to solve the challenge of tribal differences leading to solving security issues, we would then have agricultural produce in abundance as we would no longer have security issues such as herdsmen menace, cattle rustling and Boko Haram among others,” the cleric said.
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