The Yoruba Community in Northern Nigeria and FCT has held a prayer for the unity of Nigeria, free, fair and non-violent election in 2023 and peaceful co-existence of Yorubas and other tribes across the North and Nigeria.
The prayers, which took place at the secretariat in Kaduna on Saturday and coincided with the Yoruba Community Day 2022, was witnessed by a large gathering of Yoruba people from across the state with leaders of each of the 20 chapters from the 19 Northern states and the FCT. The prayers was rendered by both the Muslim and Christian clerics.
President of Yoruba Community for 19 Northern States and FCT, Alhaji AbdulRazak Mustapha, told journalists that, “we prayed for unity, peace development and growth of Nigeria, we prayed for peaceful election next year, we prayed for peace and security for all Yoruba indigenes in Northern Nigeria and FCT and other places. We prayed to have security, patience and peaceful coexistence with our hosts”.
The President, who cited lack of unity with each other, not working together for growth and development, said the orientation carried out after the prayers aimed at addressing the challenges facing the Yoruba in the North through love.
“The Yorubas in Kaduna state are large in number, in terms of population, i think we are second after the hosts, so we need peace, unity and understanding,” he said.
Speaking on the 2023 general elections, the Yoruba leader said, “the stand of Yoruba is to have peaceful free and fair elections in 2023. We have people in different political parties, so we cannot force anybody to vote for one party or the order but we support the proverb that said ‘charity begins at home’. So far, so good, government is doing everything possible to ensure peaceful free and fair election, but all stakeholders should work harder to help the government to ensure a successful changeover of baton”.
“We are doing everything possible within ourselves to educate the youth to use their energy in resourceful manners than engage in thuggery. We called for prayers and we engaged each one of our youth to be peaceful and ensure peaceful elections. We have traditional leaders representing the various communities in Kaduna state and Northern states, we urged them to ensure peace in their environment and where there is trouble, the council should be called upon to support them.”
On welfare programme for members, the president said, “We have a cooperative society which started six months ago. We beleived that with the support of civil society organisations, we would be able to reach some of our members particularly those engaged in petty trading”.
