2023: SCIO Advocates Tolerance, Peaceful Coexistence Before, During, After Elections

By Frederick Peters, KADUNA.

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: The Sabil Charitable International Organization(SCIO) has advocated the need for Nigerians to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence before, during and after the forthcoming February and March general elections in Nigeria.

The one- Day lecture held at the Arewa House Banquet Hall, Kaduna on Saturday, attracted, religious and traditional leaders as well as key peace stakeholders, the Academia, women and youth groups among others.

Speaking on the theme, ” Promoting Tolerance and Peaceful Coexistance Before, During And After 2023 General Elections” the guest speaker, Dr. Usman Bugaje, said the essence of the paper is to remind people at this critical time that they owe it to their God to keep the peace, so that one will end it well with his God at the last day.

He faulted the emptiness of the country’s political culture and political actors who create violence, ” our politicians themselves generate the violence, so we need to look at our politics today, is empty, it has no content, it has no conscience”

” we only talk about big men, we never talk about big ideas, it’s about gossips, about this person, gossip about that person, we are not discussing ideas, we are already over 200million, we are expected in the next 7 years, to be 300million, already the out of school children is about 20million, this is bound to be some 30million or more and what are we going to do with these people,?

” so we need to visit our democracy and make sure the leadership recruitment mechanism is corrected, so that the more competent, the more knowledgeable, the more credible candidates would find their way to the front seat in politics, at the moment it is the empty, majority of the people out there, are the corrupt and empty politicians that are there and no country can grow with this kind of politics”

He further said another bane may be not be unconnected to our unwillingness to challenge our democracy, ” why can’t we customize our democracy?. “Without customizing our democracy, we are going to be burdened by a system that don’t really belong to us, considering our socio- cultural environment”.

Earlier, the President, Sabil Charitable International Organization ( SCIO ) Hajia Halimatu Sadiya, said the essence of the awareness for a peaceful election cannot be over emphasized, adding that, a similar one was hosted four years ago before the last election. ” We are so much concerned on peace in this country, we have seen so many crises, not only in Nigeria, but other places in the world ,

“So we feel it is better that we will continue to advocate for peace, there should be tolerance and peaceful coexistance in the country. Adding that the lecture is equally directed at the politicians “They seem to have a sort of grudges against each other, they give uncivilized comments against each other, it shouldn’t be so, if we should continue with this attitude, honestly, there will be no peace in the country.

“That’s why we called for this lecture, not only for the politicians but also the public, even the youths most especially, they’re the ones that are vulnerable, they can easily be waylayed, they will be given just a little sum of money just to cause havoc in the country, so that’s why we have this lecture so that we can have peace in the country, before, during and even after the elections” to attract meaningful development in our community and country”,She concludes.

On his part, one of the discussants, CAN Chairman Kaduna State and Country Director Global Peace, Rev. Joseph John Hayab, while commending the lecture initiative by the women group, said election is supposed to be a privilege and opportunity for citizens to decide those who lead them.” Unfortunately, in our society today, elections become a time, people create further divisions amongst community members, citizens and among people of diverse interests.

” I have joined this group today to say ,we must not promote religious or what ever division during elections, instead, elections should be a period when we come together to kick out those we probably feel have not served us right, so how do we do that, we must make our elections a violence free election”

According to him, “when we allow election to be marred with violence, we bring the question of credibility on the people we are going to vote, the fact is that legitimacy comes to bear; so I am appealing to Nigerians, we are crying that things are not going well, let us join hands for the candidate of your choice and change so that we get the desired change we want from government”

He said, there’s no need for violence, as ” no Nigerian is your enemy, no Nigerian is fighting you , every Nigerian is just tired, we are queuing together, we are all looking for Naira together, we all looking for opportunities together,” he stressed.

Another Paper Discussant, Chief Imam of Sultan Bello Mosque, Kaduna, described the paper presentation as ‘fantastic’, pointing however that as a country, we lack the capability to implement what we borrow from developed countries, noting the need to create our own system especially our democracy, with a call on the government, ” we have to sit down and look into our cultures our religions, our ethnicity and create what will be beneficial to the country.”

He further admonished the general public on a peaceful polls, ” we have to be very careful in our elections, we don’t have to destroy our country, because we have no other country than Nigeria, so we have to be patient and cast our vote to any candidate of our choice without any problem as this will help us as a country and as citizens”

In the same vein, the Chairman of the occasion, Manir Ja’afar, said, the lecture discussed the pros and cons of the 2023 elections, now, during and after, saying “our politicians must have the fear of God, they are the people who are instigating these youths , via inducements finances and use of drugs, narcotics and other dangerous things to commit these atrocities during the elections, but keep their children at home or some of them outside the country, I appeal to them to have a change of heart this time around”

Also, the Chairman BOT, SCIO Mohammad Yusuf Sahil Lere, said the lecture is a tradition and a national neccesity, “because we have a tradition whenever there’s election in Nigeria, we normally, talk to people and educate them about our coexistence, especially when it comes to peace, that is why this lecture today is talking about peaceful coexistence now, during and after the elections, that’s the main reason why we are here”

He further noted that “Sabil is an Islamic organization, but today’s event is both for Muslim and Christians, because we cannot live in peace without each other, so our lecture today is to bring about peace coexistence with all concerned noting that, the situation that, we are in today in Nigeria, nobody can predict what will happen, so it’s better for us to sensitize people to show them that there’s nothing better than peace” Adding that, the partcipants are to step down the message in their communities.