Nigerian Christians joined their counterparts all over the world to celebrate Easter from Good Friday to EasterMonday for the year 2015.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) sends special greetings to all Christians here in Nigeria and the rest of the world. We affirm our love for all our Christian neighbours and express the wish to continue to coexist peacefully in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
We reject the hate messages of Al-Qaidah, Boko Haram and other misguided elements who engage in killings and destructions. We denounce those who ask Muslims to kill Americans, Britons and other people in the West. We assert clearly and unambiguously that Islam does not destroy, it builds. Islam gives life. It does not teach killing. Islam is a religion of peace, not of terrorism.
This 2015 Easter celebration is significant as it coincides with the paradigm shift in Nigeria’s political arena. We call on Christians and Muslims to unite in order to consolidate the new wind of change currently blowing across Nigeria.
In tandem with the divine and highly revolutionary message in the Qur’an that Allah will not change the condition of a people until they themselves change the (evil) among them (Qur’an 13:11), Nigerians voted for change in the March 2015 presidential election. This means that Nigerians have hearkened to the divine message and they have taken their destiny in their hands.
Our religious leaders, Christians, Muslims and animists must also allow this change to reflect in their attitudes. We must put an end to mutual suspicion, unhealthy rivalry and violence. Above all, never again should we allow politicians to use religion to divide us. We must allow Nigeria to live again.
Finally, we urge all churches to pray for Nigeria focusing on the following prayer points: that God should direct the minds of Nigerian politicians to think of the masses first before their personal interests; that God should put an end to insurgency within a very short time; calm in the Niger Delta; peace and prosperity for the country and, above all,that God should open the eyes of Nigerians to stop seeing corruption as ordinary stealing and to recognize it as a huge monster with jaws wide open to swallow up the social order.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)