Olusegun Olanrewaju
Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, and other religious leaders yesterday raised the alarm, warning that Nigeria as a nation is heavily polarised along primordial lines, such as religion and ethnicity.

Speaking differently as guests at the Society of African Mission’s (SMA) 166th-anniversarythanksgiving in Lagos, Kukah and the religious leaders said that such divisions have continued to serve as clogs in the wheel of the nation’s quest for progress.

The SMA, one of the missionary groups of priests of the Catholic Church worldwide, is a reputed social service that has benefitted the Catholic Church and people of other service faiths.

As a leading humanitarian body, the SMA fathers, apart from establishing pro-human facilities, have also been in the vanguard of national cohesion through interfaith dialogue to foster
unity among the people.

The promoters said the theme of the event tagged, ‘Conversation on the Role of Faith in Nation Building’, was meant to sensitise Nigerians towards having a credible and free general election and free general elections in 2023.

Bishop Kukah speaking at the event, tasked Nigerians with national cohesion to enable the
country to develop.

According to the highly revered cleric, the identification of one as a Yoruba man, an Igbo man, or a Kanuri person, instead of a Nigerian has been one of the unhealthy attitudes of the nation’s life that have kept it below in the comity of nations.

Kukah, who described the nation’s diversity as an asset, charged Nigerians to promote things that could heal existing social disharmony in or- der not to pass such to the younger generation.

The bishop said the promotion of the country’s diversity, if well harnessed, can turn the for- tunes of the people into things that will benefit everyone.

He said: “I still don’t understand how our religion has been turned into a weapon of social upheavals in our country, without much happening in our neighbourhood countries.

“As a people, we should reject the antics of politicians trying to use our faiths to keep us
disunited for their selfish ends.”

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Kukah added, “There is nothing wrong with our religion, but what is wrong is our relationship
with people of other faiths.

“Our people should learn to resist those politicians with the evil agenda by peaceful protest to change them from the old order for a better Nigerian society.”

Similarly, the Chief Imam of Mende Central Mosque, Maryland, Lagos, Habeeblan Awofeso, said that Nigerians should learn to live in peace with one another in any part of the country they
find themselves.

The bishop, who said that he was a product of the Catholic missionary school, noted that by landmass, there were no parts of the country designated by nature as Yoruba land or Igboland, rather what we have is that some people have dominance residency in an area.

Also, Bishop Anthony Awe of the Orthodox Anglican Church, said that the church had remained steadfast in its teachings and appealed to leaders of the state to always emulate the church in the aim of building a better society.