President Bola Tinubu has urged Nigerians to preserve the unity of the country despite their differences, stressing that dialogue and understanding are essential to keeping Nigeria together.
The President, represented by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, made the call on Tuesday at the International Conference on Security and National Unity organised by Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah in partnership with the Muslim World League.
Tinubu said his administration remained committed to tackling Nigeria’s security challenges and working with other countries to promote peace.
He urged Nigerians to remain united regardless of their religious, ethnic or other differences, saying the country’s challenges should be addressed through discussion rather than division.
The President described the conference as timely, given the security challenges facing Nigeria and other parts of the world. He expressed hope that its discussions would contribute to efforts to achieve lasting peace in Nigeria, Africa and beyond.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Nentawe Yilwatda, also warned political leaders against using religion and ethnicity to gain political advantage, saying such actions could worsen divisions and cause lasting harm to the country.
Yilwatda said Nigeria’s diversity should be treated as a strength rather than a source of conflict. Recalling his experience as a displaced person during the Bauchi crisis, he said violence affected everyone regardless of their religion.
He urged politicians to avoid exploiting religious and ethnic sentiments for temporary political gains, stressing that no political victory was worth the permanent damage such actions could cause to the nation.
Yilwatda also called on religious leaders to make mosques and churches centres of peace, reconciliation and responsible citizenship. He urged them to promote faith without hatred and avoid messages capable of encouraging violence or division.
He further appealed to traditional rulers, political leaders, religious leaders and ordinary citizens to reject hate speech and protect vulnerable communities.
According to him, Nigerians should learn to protect one another because they share the same humanity, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council, Cornelius Omonokhua, similarly called on Nigerians to reject attempts to use religion, ethnicity and poverty to create divisions.
Omonokhua said Christians and Muslims should promote compassion, respect for human dignity and peaceful coexistence. He stressed that religion should never be used to justify violence, noting that both Christianity and Islam value human life.
The Sultan of Sokoto and Co-Chairman of NIREC, Sa’ad Abubakar III, called for better implementation of agreements reached at conferences, saying Nigeria already had many solutions to its problems but often struggled with putting them into practice.
He also appealed to Christians and Muslims to stop insulting one another and instead promote mutual respect as a way of strengthening peaceful coexistence.
The conference was attended by the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, Sheikh Mohammad Al-Issa, who witnessed the signing of the Abuja Declaration. The declaration seeks to establish a stronger partnership between Muslim and Christian leaders and create a peace-building mechanism to help Nigeria and West Africa prevent religious tensions from escalating into violence.
The event was also attended by federal ministers, governors, religious leaders, traditional rulers and other dignitaries.
