Abuja — Politicians in Africa were yesterday roundly fingered for being the brain behind the incessant religious crisis in the continent because they bring religion into their craze to grab power.
President Goodluck Jonathan and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar were among top religious leaders in Africa who lampooned politicians for the abuse on religion by politicians
The occasion was at the three-day First African Union (AU) Interfaith Dialogue Forum taking place in Abuja.
Jonathan, who blamed the political class in the continent for instigating both ethnic and religious crisis to feather their political interest said, "we all know the role religion plays, but of course we are also aware that some people play politics; people who can play politics with anything, and they use religion as a platform for political purpose and that is the cause of conflict".
Taking a swipe at some religious sects, Jonathan restated that "some times we assumed that, some of these sects exploits the poverty in the land and know those men who are idle, who are probably are ignorant about what the religion is all about, they exploit them to cause trouble, for us government; political and religious leaders, we have common challenges, challenges of creating wealth in our society, the challenge of beginning to appreciate the moral value of doing things and communicating with ourselves".
The President went down memory lane on why the use of religion as a political weapon to achieve self-fish interest is not only in Africa but also the developed world.
The President also charged religious leaders on the continent to look for ways to change the perception of religion from the way it is being.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar also at the occasion blasted politicians in the country for using religion as a cover up to achieve their political aims, according to him, "religious crisis are poorly managed by those in authority".
He added that, "most politicians use religion to attain and maintain power".
The Sultan therefore urged all religious leaders in the continent to embrace interfaith dialogue as a means to curtailing crisis. "The task of advancing peace, justice and development in Africa is the primary thing we should do, Political Leaders serving should work hand-in-hand with us in the task of finding enduring peace in the continent", Abubakar said.
On his part, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja and President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop John Onaiyekan maintained that, "in today's world, the relevance of religion in government is now critical, today, it has become clear that we cannot work without religious leaders, how then can religious communities in Africa work with the African union? He asked.
He assured the gathering of the resolve of the African Union Interfaith Dialogue Forum to continue with the desire to ensure that peace, security and development remain key to the continent, as religious Leaders in Africa will continue to work in that direction.
While presenting his papers, the Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Traditional Churches and President of World Council of Churches (WCC), His Holiness Abune Paulos stated that, "ethnic and religious tensions always destabilize peace and security of the public, hampers development effort of the government and other partners'. He decried that while the world is moving forward rapidly, Africans are lagging behind in many standards, and the tragic religious conflicts that manifest themselves occasionally in Nigeria are unacceptable and must be strongly discouraged". He added.
Paulos rather advised that no religion justifies violence as a solution for achieving peace and prosperity, in other words, no religion discipline encourages wrong doing to achieve certain goals. Other religious Leaders who spoke at the opening ceremony of the event include Dr Robert Mensah, Vice President of All African Council of Churches (AACC) for West Africa, Sheikh Harun Sengooba, Secretary General, Union of Muslims Councils for East, central and Southern Africa, Dr Jinmi Adisa of the African Union Commission among others. The interfaith dialogue forum is expected to end on Thursday with a communique.
Comments 1 to 2 of 2 Post a comment
It is true that politicians wrongly use religion for their selfish ends. It is also true that Nigeria has the highest re-occurrences of religious conflicts. It is proofed that most of these conflicts have the blessings of some religious leaders.
If Jonathan Goodluck, the Sultan and the CAN president really mean what they say, the first step is for government to hands off religion. The second is for the religious leaders to speak the truth always. They say one thing and do the other. it is then and only then that we will know the seriousness in what they are saying. We have had enough of these empty words. They are mainly hypocritical. They only say this in gatherings like this and it ends there. They go back to do what they said we shouldn't.
What on earth is religion doing in our constitution? Why is government spending huge amount of money meant for the infrastructure of the country, the poor electricity, dilapidated hospitals, schools, roads etc and the teeming number of unemployed youths sponsoring religious rituals (pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem)? STOP SPENDING OUR RESOURCES ON RELIGION PLEASE.
If Nigeria is actually a secular state as enshrined in the 1999 constitution,then the government should come to the understanding that it is not in their jurisdiction to sponsor religious devotees to visit their various religious pilgrimages because then it will only go ahead to involve itself in religious activity which it purportedly exempted it self from by virtue of section 10 of the 1999 constitution.They should remember that the constitution is the grundnorm of the nation and any act outside it is ultravires.