SINCE the commencement of debate at the ongoing national
conference, the speech delivered by Alhaji Nurudeen Lemu, a delegate from the
Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, is something I will love to share willingly
with Nigerian youths and old brigades as well; you will now agree with me that the youths of this country have a lot to
offer in term of proffer solutions to the current problems facing our dear
country.
Enjoy Alhaji Nurudeen Lemu’s speech: ‘As a delegate,
and as a people representing people of faith in God from the Islamic
perspective, one thing we believe is that God will protect the community that
stands for justice even if they are not Muslims and God will not protect the
community that goes contrary to justice even if they call themselves Muslims.
God is not a religious bigot. He is not a male
chauvinist. He is not an ethnocentric tribalist. God is not the oppressor of
anyone. God is with those who care; those who want for others those things they
want for themselves.
One tendency for people who claim to follow a religion is
to slide into the position of believing that we are better than the others. We
overestimate our virtues and underestimate the goodness in others. The tendency
is for us to become spiritually arrogant; to forget that others are people like
us.
There is always a tension between representing our
religious communities or our ethnic communities and our loyalty to the virtues
and values and teachings of our religion even those lofty ideals of our ethnic
groups.
It is our prayer that delegates will try and ensure that
the spiritual strength we have in us will keep us from not getting angry and
not allowing our bitterness from others to make us sail from justice. It is in
this vein and as a delegate from the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, we
condemn the murder of all Christians, we condemn the murder of all Muslims. Not
because they are Christians or Muslims, but because they are human beings –
creatures of God.
There is no compulsion in religion. We all own Nigeria.
We all belong here. And we all have the right to self-determination. We should
respect that right and do unto others what we will do unto ourselves.
There are many other countries that have ethnic and
religious diversity far greater than what we have here in Nigeria. But something
that distinguishes us from them, be it Singapore, United States, they have been
able to respect the rule of law so that any bigot, any nepotic individual who
tramples on the right of anyone especially that of the minority, the rule of
law will catch up. Satan will only find a hole if there is a crack in that rule
of law.
Every ethnic group is an oppressed minority somewhere.
Every group is a religious and ethnic minority somewhere. Every majority or
settler is an indigene somewhere. In one way, we are all settlers; we just
don’t remember where we came from or why we came.
But ultimately, we are all visitors to this planet, from
God we come and to Him we return. As Muslim delegates, we come in brotherhood,
as brothers and friends to solve our common problems and not as adversaries.
We come against the exploitation of religion and
religious sentiments. We come against stereotyping, stigmatizing and
dehumanizing of each other. We come against the use of religion as a political
decoy and as a distraction from the critical things that bedevil our nation.
I pray that at the end of this conference, we will all
grow in our humanity and respect for each other.’
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