Maiduguri — Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State has called on traditional rulers across the country to further work on cementing the peace and unity of the country by deemphasising the religious and ethnic differences of Nigerians.

The governor made the call in Maiduguri at the meeting of traditional rulers of the North-eastern geo-political zone called at the instance of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai to discuss ways of repositioning the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.

Sheriff said traditional rulers with the constitutional role of keeping peace, law and order in their domains have big duty to ensure that the sovereignty of the nation stands and the survival of its people is assured at all cost.

The governor explained that the main causes of conflicts are " mutual suspicion, land and boundary disputes, chieftaincy issues, religious and ethnic intolerance, proliferation of arms, involvement of mercenaries, negative attitude of religious and community leaders, rumour mongering, embellished media reports and lack of political and religious education". Sheriff, while urging the traditional rulers to continue to play their fatherly role to all without prejudice, assured that government on its on part is ready to work was liaison with them to address most of the problems encountered in their areas with the objective of restoring societal values of Nigerians being their brothers' keepers and re-orient the thinking of the youths towards a productive life devoid of conflict and rancour.He said his government is already making every effort to strengthen security agencies in the state by providing vehicles, communication gadgets and logistics support to enable them function effectively.

Earlier in his opening remark, the Shehu of Borno disclosed that the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in June, 2007 set up six-member technical committee, under Dr. Hamid Danboyi to work out way of strengthening the administrative and general activities of the council in order to make it more efficient and effective and to be able face modern challenges.

He said the North-east zonal meeting is at the instance of the National Headquarters and would act as the collating point for the views of the zone of ways to improve the organization, revealing that the other five zones are involved in the same process which will add to making NSCIA strong, versatile and efficient.