Nigeria: No 'Religious War' in Nigeria

7 December 2012

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently launched his Faith Foundation's initiative in Abuja aimed at playing a role in fostering tolerance and peaceful co-existence between adherents of Islam and Christianity in Nigeria. In attendance were the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan; the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar, and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

At the launch of the initiative, the Foundation set its main focus, as "work in Nigeria to facilitate truce between Christians and Muslim communities," thereby giving the impression that Tony Blair and his NGO believe that there is a raging war between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria that needed their intervention as mediators. That would be a grossly mistaken notion, a fact that he must have realized by now. While Blair was in the country, he would have observed that the fellow-feeling and mutual goodwill between adherents of Islam and Christianity in Nigeria is generally healthy and strong, and this is so largely because of the many formal and informal organizations, including the Nigeria Interreligious Council (NIREC) under the joint-stewardship of the Sultan and the CAN president, that have continued to build and forge understanding between the two religions and the necessity for everyone to imbibe tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

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