Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has commended the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA for promoting interfaith peace, harmony and tolerance.
Osinbajo gave this commendation while declaring open a three-day General Assembly/National Executive Meeting, NEC of NSCIA at the Central Mosque, Abuja.
He said the council not only promoted solidarity among Nigerians, but it also served as an important intermediary between government and Muslim community and between Muslims and persons of other faith.
Osinbajo said that decade ago, it would not have been a major topic as leaders in the first republic did not consider religious intolerance as a major national issue. He said that Nigerian Constitution spelt out the equality of all Nigerians regardless of ethnicity, religion or status.
The Sultan of Sokoko Muhammad Abubakar said that Nigeria, like any other nation, was facing challenges which would be surmounted in people across faith and ethnicity joined hands.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Deputy Secretary, NSCIA Salisu Shehu, said the meeting was the highest decision making forum of the council.
Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, has said that restructuring is crucial to the growth and development
of the country.
Osinbajo, who spoke at
the 59th Independence Anniversary lecture at Island Club, Lagos, though, chose
his words carefully, as he reasoned that Nigeria could not be wealthy if all
the states were poor.
Addressing the diverse
economic and fiscal challenges confronting the country, Osinbajo said building
a wealthier and more prosperous Nigeria required that more powers be devolved from
the federal government to its constituent parts nationwide.
He urged Nigerians to
draw inspiration from the shared beliefs of the country’s founding fathers.
He added that the
country’s national indices “merely aggregate the realities of our weaknesses
and strengths as present in all our constituent units.
The vice president
said Nigeria’s population and diverse ethnic groups demanded that states in the
country should be strengthened, to enable them contribute more to national
productivity and development.
