Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar has called on Nigerians to strengthen the bond of love despite their religious differences, saying love is the prerequisite for binding unity in any diverse society like Nigeria’s.
The advice was contained in his Eid el Fitr Sallah message released by his media office, a copy of which was sent to BusinessDay.
Atiku appealed to Nigerians to develop the spirit of tolerance and respect towards one another, despite “our ethnic and religious differences.”
According to him, “We should use religion as an instrument for creating unity, love and harmony rather than using it to feed hate and intolerance, which usually results in needless conflicts. Let’s not allow selfish politicians and people of bad faith to divide us and use us as fighting tools for their own sinister agendas.”
On the Ramadan fast, the Wazirin Adamawa said: “We shouldn’t abandon the useful lessons of the Ramadan and we should internalise its lessons instead.”
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“The Ramadan fast makes us appreciate what it means to go without food and drinks for the whole day, thereby understanding the impact of hunger on millions of poor people,” he said.
He explained that the self-discipline created by the Ramadan fast “encourages us to show compassion towards our fellow human beings who cannot feed because of poverty.”
While wishing Moslems a happy Sallah celebration, the former Vice President called for greater efforts towards interfaith dialogue in order to bridge the communication gap between members of the two religions.
“Let’s not associate with people who undermine the efforts towards interfaith dialogue because doing so may create the conditions for extremists to thrive. The agenda of the extremists is to promote hate and bigotry in order to cause confusion. Let’s not give them the opportunity to succeed,” Atiku said.
