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General News of Saturday, 8 February 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Nobody can Islamize Nigeria - Sultan of Sokoto

Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar II, has called for the arrest of hate preachers, whether Christian of Muslim.

According to the Sultan, their hate preaching is causing disunity in the country.

He made this known on Friday while speaking at the opening of the 2nd National Summit on Peaceful Coexistence and Nation Building in Jos.

“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", he said.

He added: “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.”

He also called for an end to the media war between the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Jama’tu Nasril Islam (JNI).

He said:”We are practicing religion the wrong way. We should be preaching about the commonality between Islam and Christianity. But our preachers these days are preaching superiority of one religion over the other instead of preaching what we have in common.

“The ongoing media war between Christians and Muslims should stop.A situation where a Muslim will make remarks in the media and the next day a Christian will counter the comment is unhealthy for religious harmony.

“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.”

The Sultan also reacted to claims that they are plans to Islamize Nigeria.

His words:”Let me emphasize that it is impossible for anyone to Islamize or Christianize the country called Nigeria, because the constitution recognizes the secularity of the country".

Reacting to the claim by a Fulani group that Nigeria is the property of Fulanis through Uthman Dan Fodio, the Sultan said: “I am the current leader of that kingdom and I have never seen any record where Uthman Dan Fodio said so.

“There are hundreds of books written about the kingdom, I have never seen in any of the books that lends credence to this claim. So I urge all Nigerians to ignore such claim;it is baseless and it does not exist anywhere.”

Continuing,he said: “the Sultanate has never laid claim to any portion of land in Nigeria.It only works on reformation of the Islamic religion only in Islamic countries.

“Dan Fodio came to reform Islam and preach good governance to Islamic religious leaders.

“So, the faceless Fulani group that came up with such claim is unknown to me. I have publicly denounced them.

“The only Fulani group that I know and I am its grand patron is Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). Any other Fulani group that is not MACBAN is not known to me and cannot speak for Fulani in this country. Miyetti Allah has been existing for 44 years, the other one Miyetti Allah Kalta-haure is just four years old.

“I am a very proud Fulani man and if I am to die and return to this world, I will want to come back as a Fulani man. But the stigmatization of the Fulani to the level that any crime committed in this country is attributed to Fulani… Yes, some Fulani are into various crimes but the security agencies have to arrest them for me to know if they are members of Miyetti Allah. It remains the responsibility of the security agencies to tell us which Fulani perpetrating crimes is all over.”