Nigeria @ 60: Inter-Religious Women in Politics hail Nigerians, Call for Sovereign National Religious Conference
By: Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Abuja
As President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation on Independence Day, Nigerians have re-echoed the need to restructure the country while suing for peace and tolerance amongst its citizens.
The Inter-Religious women in politics in its independence day message thanked the Federal Government for its role in making Nigeria stand high and mighty in the past 60 years.
According to the founder of the group, Dr Philomena Eriyo, Nigeria has a lot to put in to attain the desired nationhood which every citizen craves for.
She called for the establishment of a Sovereign National Religious Conference with emphasis on nationality, purity, morality, love and honesty to enable conflicting religious groups to reunite and dialogue for national development.
She said Nigeria is a blessed country full of potentials and abundant creativity that can be better harnessed by laying the foundation for inter-religious bodies to meet and strategize on ways to better empower the society.
“October 1st is Nigerian’s independence day, a day we celebrate as the birth of our sovereignty, considering the long journey so far in our Nationhood the Federal Government should strongly consider laying the foundation for a Sovereign National Religious Conference wherein all conflicting religious groups can converge together and dialogue for national development.
No country can attain full independence without tolerance among the different inter-religious groups in the country.
Inter-religious conflicts in Nigeria defile resolutions and seem unending because these are intractable conflict fueled by the vested interest of some few religious leaders who exploit the crisis for the pecuniary gains”
We commend the President of the Federal Republic 0f Nigeria and the Federal Executive council for their efforts in the struggle and their sacrifices in making Nigeria great.
‘‘Nevertheless, there is a lot more to be done, especially in leapfrogging our prevailing developmental challenges by leveraging on the empowerment of our women in our society.”
If we must march on as one indivisible country then we must take into cognizance the differences in the Inter-religious groups we have in Nigeria and make concerted efforts in bridging the gap for national growth and development.
The Inter-religious women in politics have identified key areas in which the majority of the women need empowerment such as trading, farming, tailoring, and Basic Skills Acquisition.
The statement also calls on leaders at the state and Local Government levels to introduce and sustain policies, laws and programmes that will better a lot of women.
