By Lateef Dada
Osogbo
The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday led Muslims all over the country in prayer for Nigeria and President Muhammadu Buhari.
The programme which was tagged “Prayer for our Nation for Peace, Security, Stability and Development” was organised by Osun State Muslim Community in honour of Deputy President General (South) Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Sakariyau Olayiwola Babalola.
Speaking, Sultan of Sokoto stressed the need to be fervent in prayer and called for the unity Nigerians and of the entire Muslims for the country to get out of the current economic downturn.
Sultan, who is the President, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), enjoined various religious groups across the country to make prayer a daily routine, noting that the country needs spiritual solutions to its peculiar challenges.
Also speaking, the Osun state Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, noted that economy and abject poverty, rather than religion, was the major springboard of the Boko Haram terrorism.
Aregbesola expressed displeasure over the arrest of acclaimed Muslim who confessed that she was paid N200 to attempt a suicide attempt.
He, therefore, called on Muslim leaders to undertake the task of how to eradicate poverty in the land in other that terrorism could be uprooted once and for all.
“It is disappointing to hear that Muslims are being asked to kill for paltry sum as low as N200. What is the problem with us, Muslims. Why is poverty afflicting us so terribly that we can now accept just any amount to kill ourselves.
“This should by now pose a serious challenge to us. And we must set up an organisation and saddle it with the responsibility of how to eradicate this grinding poverty.
“Unless we are not worried by the spate of this economic condition, by now we must develop capacity and strategy to end the poverty.
“Let the truth be told: Religion is not the cause of Boko Haram insurgency but extreme poverty is the root cause. Let us create an organisation to tackle and eradicate poverty now. This is a challenge to the entire Muslim Ummah.”
In his remarks, the Secretary-General of the NSCIA, Prof. Is’aq Oloyede, said Islam could live with any other religions, “but Islam abhors injustice.”
Oloyede said Aregbesola “understands this very well that Islam commands everyone, particularly a leader of people to do justice to all manners of subjects irrespective of their religions.”
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Musliu Smith, said the prayer came at the most appropriate time given the present situation the country is in.
Smith said “every Nigerian knows that the nation is going through serious political, economic and security crisis, an unusual situation which also calls for an unusual solution, which is the special prayer to Allah to rescue the ship of the nation from sinking.”
According to him, with constant and fervent prayers the efforts and labours of the leaders and the led would not end in vain.
“There is no disputing the fact that our dear nation, considering the state for quite a while now, requires the genuine regular prayer efforts of all to the Almighty so that the labour of our leaders and the led will in no distant future translate into a peaceful, stable and prosperous country benefiting all and sundry,” he said.
