Due to the country’s suffering from a religious crisis, Nigerian leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and former head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, urged Nigerians to embrace religious coexistence and reject all forms of animosity between Christians and Muslims for the sake of a better society.
The three leaders spoke during the Kaduna Centre for the Study of Christian-Muslim Relations’ foundation-laying ceremony.
A representative of President Buhari, Chukwuemeka Uwanjiuba, said the religious crisis has created tremendous pain and distrust among diverse religions over the years. Therefore, the study centre was built on a foundation for peace.
“This centre is indeed a foundation for peace and completing the project will require courage, commitment and resilience. I call on all and sundry to support the centre and as a government, we will always support any project that will bring about peaceful and religious coexistence,” the President said.
The founder of the centre, Archbishop Idowu-Fearon, pointed out that education is key to peacebuilding, saying the crisis is caused by a lack of knowledge regarding peaceful coexistence.
He stressed the need for religious knowledge for both Christians and Muslims, noting that the centre was founded on four principles: “principle of understanding, principle of mutual engagement, principle of mutual contribution, and principle of mutual support.”
As a part of their goodwill messages, Obasanjo and Abubakar thanked Fearon for establishing the centre and hoped that it would foster understanding and religious tolerance among Christians and Muslims.
