Sariki Salisu Abba-Lawan, Leader of the Muslim Community in Cross River, has advised the nation’s leaders to ensure justice for the led, saying that peace and stability would be impossible without fairness.
Abba-Lawan spoke on Sunday in an interview with newsmen after the Eid-el Kabir prayers at the University of Calabar.
“Without justice, it will be difficult for Nigerians to be law abiding; without justice, Nigeria could return to the barbaric era,” the leader said.
According to him, people that are not law abiding can do anything, including behaving like animals, which can take the society back to the age of barbaric tendencies.
“For peace to reign in Nigeria, we must preach tolerance; everyone has the right to practice his or her own religion in the country.
“You have your religion, I have mine; it is wrong to just conclude that someone’s worship is wrong while yours is good. Everything is in the hands of God to know which to accept.
“Islam does not accept any form of discrimination; it encourages all to live in peace. Prophet Mohammed, in his days, attended functions of non-Muslims to show his happiness and love for all.
“He never went to destroy people’s Churches like what we see today in the North-Eastern part of the country.
“We don’t consider groups like Boko Haram as Muslims because they burn Churches and destroy Mosques and we don’t know their aims and objectives,” he said.
Sariki, who is also the grandson of Sariki Bogobiri, the first Muslim settler in Calabar, said that slaughtering of rams and going for Hajj in the holy land were important but not obligatory, “except a Muslim has the means”.
According to him, slaughtering of rams started with Prophet Ibrahim, who wanted to slaughter his son in obedience to Allah’s command, but Allah, seeing his heart, sent an angel who gave him a ram instead.
Similarly, Commander Mohammed Zakaria, Chief Imam of the Eastern Naval Command, said that celebrating Eid-el Kabir was important for all Muslims because it taught self sacrifice, a key factor to human success.
Zakaria said that Nigerians needed to be honest with themselves and be obedient, just the way Prophet Ibrahim did.
“Everyone must strive to exhibit the teachings of Allah and show love to others so that peace will reign in Nigeria.
“Part of the ways of showing love is to share the slaughtered ram into three parts, one for the family, the second for relatives, and the third for charity to be shared among the under privileged in the society,” he said.
