The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, has asked security agencies to go after any religious leader who preaches hate and disunity or makes inflammatory statement, adding that such preacher be charged for public incitement.
The Sultan who spoke at the 2nd National Summit on Peaceful Coexistence and Nation Building organized by Da’awah Coordination Council of Nigeria, DCCN, held in Jos recently also disowned the Fulani group that claimed that it owns Nigeria.
“The preacher who incites his followers is as criminal as any agent of insurgency. They should be charged for public incitement.”
“One of the problems we are facing as a people is religious leaders who mount the pulpit and say anything they like and get away with it,”
“I don’t know why security agencies don’t often go after such religious leaders. I think we will be better off as a country if security agencies go after anyone who hides under religion to commit crime against the country.
“The preacher who incites his followers is as criminal as any agent of insurgency. They should be charged for public incitement, because he is putting Nigeria’s unity at risk.”
The Sultan who said religion is being practiced wrongly in the country, advised the hierarchies of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Jama’tu Nasril Islam (JNI) to end the media war between Christians and Muslims.
“These are the same religions that preach forgiveness. If so, why do we engage in this media war? “I plead with CAN, JNI to warn their leaders to put a stop to using the media to promote hatred and disunity. When you talk of reconciliation, we don’t talk of who is right or wrong.”
“Both religious have provisions that say if you don’t love your neighbor, you can’t love God, because your neighbor is created by God. But we now have fake preachers who claim good knowledge of the holy books, but in real sense they don’t know anything in the religious books. And that is why all they preach to their innocent followers is division and hatred.”
He dismissed fears in some quarters about alleged plots to Islamize of Christianize Nigeria saying, “Let me emphasize that it is impossible for anyone to Islamise or Christianise the country called Nigeria.”
