Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
The Federal Government says the alleged Islamisation of Nigeria under
the current administration is totally false and should be perceived in
its entirety as a campaign of calumny.
The Minister of Information
and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this on Monday in Ilorin at the
Federal Government Town Hall meeting for the North Central zone.
He
noted that in recent times, the media had been increasingly awash with
incendiary statements designed to pitch the adherents of the two
prominent religions Christians and Muslims against one another.
The minister said the secular nature of Nigeria’s Constitution makes the issue of religious dominance and impunity improbable.
He
said, “Such fallacies like the Islamisation of Nigeria, the killing of
Christians by Muslims, the labelling of Nigeria as the most dangerous
place for Christians in the world can only serve one purpose: trigger a
religious war.
“Needless to say, that no nation ever survives a religious war.”
The
minister said those making the allegations were using religion as tool
to demonise the government and divert attention from the government’s
anti-corruption stance.
He said that more often than not,
conflicts between Muslims and Christians were fueled by political
motivations, ethnic differences, extremism, intolerance and terrorist
He
said, “Make no mistake about it, there have been conflicts between
adherents of the two major religions in certain parts of the country.
“To
now extrapolate from that to say Nigeria is the most dangerous place
for Christians in the world is a disservice to Nigeria and an
overkill.’’
He appealed to the media to desist from providing a platform for exponents of incendiary statements.
The
minister also appealed to Christian and Muslim leaders to emulate
Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan and Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar,
who formed the Inter-faith Initiative for Peace to promote inter-faith
dialogue.
Mohammed said the North-Central edition is the eighth in
the series of the Town Hall Meetings, which started in Lagos on April
25, 2016.
He said the intention was to bridge the communication
gap between the government and the people, carrying the people along in
the process of governance and also getting the much-needed feedback from
the citizenry.
The Ministers of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole;
Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; and Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu
attended the event.
Others are Ministers of State for Mines and
Steel, Bawa Bwari, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed and
Industry; Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar.
The ministers gave accounts of their stewardship and fielded questions from the audience on critical national issues.
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