President Bola Tinubu has urged Nigerians to preserve the unity of the country despite their religious, ethnic and political differences, saying no disagreement is worth tearing Nigeria apart.
Tinubu, represented by the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, made the call on Tuesday at an International Conference on Security and National Unity organised by Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS) in collaboration with the Muslim World League.
The President said dialogue and cooperation remained critical to addressing the country’s security challenges and sustaining peace.
He said the Federal Government was determined to ensure that Nigeria remained united despite its differences.
“Not only that, the government is determined to make sure that we remain united as a country, despite our differences, whatever the differences may be. We should talk and remain in this country, and allow this country to remain a united nation, a united country,” Tinubu said.
He described the conference as timely, given the security challenges confronting Nigeria and other parts of the world, expressing confidence that its deliberations would contribute to regional, continental and global peace.
Tinubu also commended the Muslim World League for partnering with JIBWIS and choosing Nigeria as the first country to host the conference.
In his remarks, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Nentawe Yilwatda, warned political leaders against exploiting religion and ethnicity for electoral and political gains.
Yilwatda said Nigeria’s diversity should be regarded as a strength rather than a source of division, stressing that political victories were not worth the permanent damage that inflammatory rhetoric could cause.
Reflecting on his experience as an internally displaced person during the Bauchi crisis, the APC chairman said violence affected people regardless of their religious identity.
“When violence comes, it does not ask whether you are a Christian or a Muslim before it destroys either your home, or your humanity, or your dignity,” he said.
He urged political leaders to resist the temptation to weaponise religious and ethnic sentiments, while calling on religious leaders to turn mosques and churches into centres of peace, reconciliation and responsible citizenship.
Yilwatda also appealed to religious leaders to preach faith without hatred and conviction without incitement, urging traditional rulers to prioritise dialogue and reconciliation over retaliation.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council, Cornelius Omonokhua, similarly warned against using religion, ethnicity and poverty to divide Nigerians.
He said humanity remained the common bond among citizens, adding that both Christianity and Islam upheld the sanctity of human life.
“We should never allow anybody to weaponise religion or ethnicity or poverty to turn us against each other,” Omonokhua said.
The Sultan of Sokoto and Co-Chairman of NIREC, Sa’ad Abubakar III, said Nigeria did not lack solutions to its challenges but needed stronger commitment to implementing agreements reached at conferences and other platforms.
“We don’t lack solutions to our problems. What we lack is implementation,” the Sultan said.
He also urged Christians and Muslims to refrain from insulting one another as part of efforts to promote peaceful coexistence.
The conference featured the participation of the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, Sheikh Mohammad Al-Issa, as well as ministers, governors, religious leaders, traditional rulers and other dignitaries.
The event also featured the signing of the Abuja Declaration, aimed at strengthening cooperation between Muslim and Christian leaders and establishing a peace-building mechanism to prevent religious tensions from escalating into violence in Nigeria and West Africa.
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