Atiku to Muslims: Don’t allow selfish politicians to use you as fighting tools

Former Vice President of Nigeria and Peoples Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, has urged Muslim faithful not to allow selfish politicians use them as fighting tools for their own sinister agenda.

Atiku enjoined Muslims to use religion as an instrument for creating unity, love, and harmony rather than using it to feed hate and intolerance, which he said usually results in needless conflicts.

The PDP presidential aspirant made the call via a statement issued by his media office on Sunday in commemoration of Eid-el-Fitr.

The former Vice President further called on Nigerians to strengthen the bond of love despite the citizens’ religious differences, saying: “Love is the prerequisite for binding unity in any diverse society like ours.”

Atiku appealed to Nigerians to develop the spirit of tolerance and respect towards one another, despite the ethnic and religious differences.

“We should use religion as an instrument for creating unity, love, and harmony rather than using it to feed hate and intolerance, which usually results in needless conflicts. Let’s not allow selfish politicians and people of bad faith to divide us and use us as fighting tools for their own sinister agendas.

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“We shouldn’t abandon the useful lessons of the Ramadan and we should internalise its lessons instead.

“Ramadan fast makes us appreciate what it means to go without food and drinks for the whole day, thereby understanding the impact of hunger on millions of poor people,” he stated.

While wishing Muslims a happy Sallah celebration, the former Vice President called for greater efforts toward interfaith dialogue in order to bridge the communication gap between members of the two religions.

“Let’s not associate with people who undermine the efforts towards interfaith dialogue because doing so may create the conditions for extremists to thrive.

The agenda of the extremists is to promote hate and bigotry in order to cause confusion. Let’s not give them the opportunity to succeed,” Atiku added.

The Star