Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, of the Catholic Sokoto Diocese, in his recent paper at the conference on Harnessing Nigeria’s Religious Diversity for Sustainable Peace and National Development, in Kano recently, accused politicians of being responsible for the disunity and mutual hatred among Nigerians.
The Bishop listed ways of stopping mutual hatred in Nigeria. First, according to him, “If we say that there are problems between Christians and Muslims, what exactly are the problems, and how are we going to resolve them? Will these problems be resolved by Christians converting to Islam or vice versa?
The cleric argued that “We must find other reasons to explain the deep hatred in our society today; it is tied to other sources, not what has become popular today.
He recalled that, “The Kano uprising of 1964 was fought because the Caliph of Sokoto, not the Pope installed a new Emir. When Ife fought Modakeke over the years, how many Fulanis or Ijaws fought with either side? When the people of Umuleri and Aguleri, in Anambra State, fought and killed themselves, how many Hausas or Kanuris were there?
The people of Somalia have only one single ethnic group, and they speak one language; but who wants to go and live in Somalia today?
“So, our hatred and violence against one another does not have much to do with religion, ethnicity, or even region. It has to do with how politicians handle identities, how they manage the concepts of fairness and justice”.
“We must therefore find other reasons for conflict in our society. We must look elsewhere if we are really and truly looking for how to build a good society and how to live in peace with one another”, he emphasised.
