The Interfaith Council of Nigeria (NIREC) urges Nigerians to imbibe an attitude of tolerance in their dealings with one another for the peace and development of the country.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, the Rev. Cornelius Afebu-Omonokhua, who spoke with the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) in Lagos State, urged political party leaders to deepen democratic culture in order to ease tensions within the regime .
He spoke as Nigeria marks Democracy Day on June 12.
Afebu-Omonokhua, who spoke against a background of good society and national democracy, said tolerance and advancing democratic standards are essential for an egalitarian society.
The clergy, who have described the uncertainty and lesser premium attached to human life in society in recent times as improper, said the essence of leadership was for the welfare of the people and not the other way around.
“I believe in a united Nigeria because I don’t believe that Nigeria’s problem is ethnicity, religion and democracy.
“I believe that the problem in Nigeria is more the greed of the few which has put the majority in abject poverty and hardship.
“We must not allow greedy and international politicians to fragment Nigeria with religion and ethnicity.
“The sooner we believe that there is no conflict between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria, the better for each of us and for the nation as a whole.
“It doesn’t mean that Christians and Muslims don’t have conflicts.
“It is this conflict which calls for dialogue, conflict prevention, conflict management and conflict transformation which ultimately boil down to tolerance and peaceful coexistence which give rise to the equal development of our dear country. .
According to Afebu-Omonokhua, what the country needs is a change of attitude and values on the side of the citizens if the nation is to progress.
“As we pray for good leadership, let us also pray for a mental reengineering of citizens.
“The challenges we have in Nigeria are more values and a vision than the failure of the structure.
“Leaders may be incompetent to provide security in a particular regime, it does not mean that Nigeria lacks credible and capable human beings with sufficient capacity to lead the nation.
“We must not allow tribe and religion to be our source of division and the choice of political leaders.
“If we are to fight, let us fight for the supremacy of moral values and the technological renaissance,” he said.
The cleric said if every Nigerian citizen was comfortable, safe and happy, no one would think about ethnic, religious and political profiling.
“Our common humanity is a call for a common nationality.
“If we believe that we all come from the same source, namely, Almighty God who is our common Creator, we can avoid ethnic and religious profiling.
“The fact that we are human beings created with intelligence, soul and spirit means that we must find unity in our ethnic and religious multiplicity,” he advised.
The NIREC boss, who expressed concern over the land’s endemic despair and dismay, said our common Nigerian identity should be our strength.
While calling on politicians to always follow the line of internal democracy in choosing flag bearers in elections, he noted that the imposition of candidates denies the principle of democracy.
According to him, this lays the foundations for most of the crises plaguing the political regime.
He stressed that such a scenario tended to call into question the social contract concluded by people with state actors.
He appealed to the federal government on the need to create an environment conducive to unity by strengthening the police and justice.
“The failure of the police and the judiciary could ruin any nation in terms of security.
“If there is justice for every citizen, it would go a long way to preventing ethnic and religious profiling.
“If there is justice, the nation will not need to deploy the army for an internal insurgency,” he said. (NAN)
