Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, has said the country is struggling with religious crisis because Nigerians fail to understand that both Christianity and Islam share the same root.
Tambuwal disclosed this when he received the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Ayokunle Samson Olasupo, who paid him a courtesy visit in Sokoto.
He said both Islam and Christianity have been coexisting even before the union of the country came into existence. He also affirmed that no one group of people, no matter their religious affiliation or tribe, can arrogate the leadership of Nigeria to themselves to the exclusion of others.
“Those who know history said Christianity and Islam belong to the same root. Jerusalem and Damascus were examples of places where the two religions are being practised side by side.
“There is a need for us to continue practising the teaching of the two religions as ordained by God,’ he said, emphasising that ‘if we go by the real teachings of the two religions, there wouldn’t be friction or any reason to fight one another.
He commended the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and the CAN President for their efforts in preaching peace and unity in the country, indicating that Sokoto state is home to every Nigerian irrespective of religious, tribal or ethnic differences.
He explained that in pursuance of this objective of unity all children of other Nigerians resident in the state who attend public schools are exempted from paying fees just as the indigenes of the state enjoy free education.
Ayokunle has been expressing concerns over attacks on innocent Christians in the North, especially in Southern Kaduna where many lives have been lost with little or nothing being done to address the problem.
Reacting to one of such attacks, Ayokunle, said it is now clear that there is a war going on against Christians in the country since assurances from both the Federal and Kaduna State Governments, has failed to end the senseless attacks on innocent people in Southern Kaduna.
Describing the attacks as ‘highly suspicious and alarming’, Ayokunle said the ongoing crisis in Southern Kaduna shows Nigeria is at war with internal enemies of the state. He said more worrisome is the fact that both governments seem powerless against the attackers, something he said is questionable.
Ayokunle said, “There is no doubt that the victims of these incessant assaults are indigenes of Kaduna State who are mostly Christians.
“Why is it the predominantly Christian Southern Kaduna all the time? Don’t we have Northern Kaduna?
“While the senseless murder is not desirable in any part of the state or Nigeria, the continuous assauIt of the Southern Kaduna people has become highly suspicious and alarming. Only a fool or somebody who is a party to this evil would not know that there is something fishing.”
