Following recent statements credited to religious leaders in Nigeria, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has appealed for peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, urging adherents of both faiths to resist incitement in any form.
In a statement made available to Blueprint in Abuja Thursday, which was signed by NEF’s Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the elders called on government to decisively deal with security threats from any part of the country.
The statement reads: “Northern Elders Forum (NEF) is concerned over disturbing comments with distinctly religious undertones, which are causing anger and fear in the public domain. The Forum’s concerns have been compounded by published warnings from the Department of State Security (DSS) over attempts to cause breaches in security and peaceful co-existence through incitement in many parts of the country.
“The Forum invites attention to multiple pressures and stresses under which Nigerians of all faith live. It will be cruel and tragic if communities are set up against each other in the names of their faiths. There are no threats to any religion under current circumstances that would justify action, which will threaten peace and harmonious co-existence in this country. If there are indeed reasons that could be exploited to engineer religious conflicts, the Forum demands that governments deal decisively with them.
“The Forum calls on Nigerians to be wary of mischief makers and subversives whose objectives could be to worsen the difficult circumstances under which Nigerians live today. Muslims and Christians have no reasons to fight each other.
