Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has warned that if sufficient measures are not taken to tackle the insecurity plaguing the nation, Nigeria will be consumed by the crises. He said the level of insecurity in the country was alarming and fast becoming a disturbing trend as observed in other countries, where Muslims are in the majority.
He mentioned such countries as Algeria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Mali and Pakistan, and said Nigeria was witnessing her own share of insecurity through the Niger Delta crisis, kidnapping and now Boko Haram.
Aliyu said this on Friday at a three-day workshop for Chief Imams of North Central Zone in Minna.
He said these ugly trends could be attributed to greed and ignorance heightened by the socio-economic inequalities in the society.
He said, “We must arrest the situation before the problem engulfs the whole country; we must also not allow a situation where foreign countries and interests get entrenched in our domestic problems.
“In the religion of Islam, ‘Sallam’ means peace, moderation. There cannot be extremism of killing people in the name of that religion.
“And so, the most responsible people in the community are the Imams and the Muslim clerics, and we need to make them appreciate the position of the government in many of the policy matters and also to listen to them because sometimes, part of the problem is that people are not listening or those in leadership positions are not listening to the people to know what are the problems on the ground.
“Many of us are thinking that we know everything and begin to formulate policies that are at variance with what the people are looking for, and need to listen to. We need to understand and bring them closer.
“An example is the polio issue. There was a time some of them were saying that the polio vaccine has something that will stop the female from producing children, and it is not true.
“But I think at the point of policy formulation, they were not contacted, nobody spoke to them; now, we must speak to them so that during the Friday sermons, the Imams will enlighten the people on some of the government policies and societal ills so that we can bring the people to embrace peace.”
He also urged the Imams to educate the youths on issues like mode of dressing, girl-child education, street begging by children of school age and other societal vices that are detrimental to the socio-cultural development of the country.
Earlier, the state Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Alhaji Shehu Haruna, said what was being witnessed in terms of insecurity, killings, destruction of properties, degradation of human prestige and consequent humiliation were all against the teachings and dictates of Islam.
One of the Imams, Alhaji Abu Sumaiya, stressed the need for unity by all Muslims in the nation, saying through unity, they could achieve a lot.
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