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Nigeria's Christian and Muslim leaders call for peaceful elections
2003-044-3
2/27/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Nigeria's Christian and Muslim leaders have united in calling for peaceful national elections, now scheduled for April, now seen my most observers as a critical test of the progress of democratization in Africa's most populous nation.
'There is the need for Muslims to rededicate themselves to making Nigeria and the world at large a safer place for human beings to live in,' said Roman Catholic Archbishop Anthony Okogie of Lagos who has expressed dismay that terrorism was being promoted by radical Islamic elements. 'God has created the world as a peaceful habitat for all living beings and no one should hide under any form of radicalism or religious over-zealousness to cause havoc.'
Other church leaders joined the call for peace and a spirit of tolerance, urging the separation of religion from politics in a country where some states practice Sharia, or strict Islamic law. About half of the 130 million Nigerians are Muslim and 40 percent are Christians.
Sultan Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido of Sokoto in northern Nigeria, regarded by many as the leader of the Muslim community in Nigeria, sent a message to Muslims urging them to spurn acts capable of destroying peace and harmony in the country. He warned that unless they practiced tolerance, Nigeria would never find economic and political stability. 'No nation can progress if its citizens live in bondage and an atmosphere devoid of peace,' he said.
Former prime minister John Major of Great Britain warned recently that Nigeria's ability to successfully conduct the April elections would significantly determine the country's political status among democratic nations. 'A successful ballot will entrench the transfer of power to a civilian administration,' he said at a speech in Lagos where he worked as a banker in the mid-60s. 'The extent of that result would signal right across the world that Nigeria, a modern democracy, is open for business. It will signal political maturity.'
Anyim Pius Anyim, president of the national parliament, said in a message to the Muslim leadership that the only way out of the religious conflict that has plagued the country was for both Muslims and Christians to confront the 'monster' that religious violence had become.
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