By Progress Godfrey, Abuja
The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has urged George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federal (SGF), to intensify efforts in tackling the challenges bedevilling Nigeria to ensure its
peace and stability.
The Sultan, who is the co-chairman of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) spoke in Abuja on Tuesday, December 5, at the fourth quarterly meeting of NIREC with the theme: ‘Restoration of hope in Nigeria.’
He said the SGF is not doing Nigerians a favour as the engine room of the federal government.
He expressed displeasure over the challenges facing the country as he vowed that NIREC will continue to assist in stabilizing the country.
The Sultan advised that Christians and Muslims must unite and live in peace and unity for a common goal.
He called for joint prayer by both religions for peace to reign in the country.
He said: “This is the first meeting we’re having as NIREC under a new government. It is the same APC government, but with different leadership, because people come in with their various ideas and agenda of how to run their administration, and some months back we had an SGF that time who opened our meeting.
“And as time changes everything, we must also change with time, and by the grace of almighty we have a new SGF as a new person attending our meeting for the first time, and on our behalf, I’d like to welcome him.
“We want to assure you, Your Excellency, that we will strengthen your hands the more for you to succeed as the SGF. When you succeed it’s our country that is moving forward, not only you. We want to help you so that you can also write your name in Gold, that during your time as SGF, so many things changed in Nigeria.
“You’ve seen the short documentary of NIREC. We did so to let the SGF know what NIREC is all about, for him to know there are challenges and he has to double his efforts. I want to say he is not doing us a favour, he is doing his job because the job of the SGF is to ensure the peace and stability of Nigeria because he is the engine room of the government of Nigeria.
“So for us to come together to work as Christians and Muslim leaders, we are working to save and to make Nigeria a better and more peaceful place, we are doing this with full commitment.
“We voluntarily came together to form this body, it’s not a government body but the government helps us fund our activities because the government knows we are helping them to stabilize the country. God knows without NIREC where we would have been by now.
“When things are bad, we must say so when things are good we must also say so, and we have to always say the truth. I remember very well one quotation from Usman Danfodio which says: ‘Conscience and open wound, only truth can heal it’. If you read the Guardian newspaper every day when you open up the editorial page, you’ll see everything there. Things are good, things are not good, but we must also love our country, we must be very patriotic, we cannot just every day condemn the country.
“We must admit that yes we have problems in our country, but we are much better than so many other countries. And it’s important for us to be very patriotic, we must pray for our leaders because when you pray for a leader who does good things, you will enjoy your benefit. But if you allow him to go and do whatever he wants to do, you will suffer the consequences.
“And I believe we must always do what is right as religious leaders, we are talking about the restoration of hope, we must talk to our people never to lose hope because God does not sleep. If there are challenges and there are difficulties brought about by God, yes.”