From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah, yesterday, said Nigeria’s problem is not religious.
The cleric who spoke at the National Inter-Faith Religious Conference organised by the Kano State government described as false suggestion that Nigeria’s main problem centred on an inherent conflict between Christians and Moslems.
He said the reason for the deep hatred and conflicts was related to a sense of relative deprivation by some communities in relation to others and the failure of Nigerian leaders to manage its diversities.
Represented by the Bishop of Kano Diocese, John Namaza Niyiring, the Sokoto Bishop said: “When people feel that others are better than them, they get jealous and may resort to violence to resolve their discontentment. Where there is a threshold of deprivation, people might react violently if they feel that the reason they do not have is because others have.”
He gave as example the present setting where Christians are upset with the Buhari Administration because of the skewed nature of his appointments and how these appointments are perceived to have favoured Northern Muslims.
He tasked Ganduje and other Northern political leaders to ease the stress faced by Christians in Northern Nigeria, saying these Nigerians do not feel a sense of belonging, despite their contributions in the areas of business and education,
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the conference was the fourth in the series of conferences organised at the state level and that the aim was to strengthen inter- religious harmony and build mutual trust between the two dominant religions.