Bello calls for interfaith cooperation
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, has stressed the need for interfaith cooperation while pledging the FCT Administration’s support for activities aimed at ensuring peaceful coexistence among different religions in the territory.
Malam Bello, who spoke yesterday in Abuja during a courtesy visit by the Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, also urged religious leaders to focus efforts at curbing incessant hate speech which, he said, was posing a challenge to peaceful co-existence amongst Nigerians.
“I want to urge you to use your position to fight the menace of hate speech, especially among our youth,” Malam Bello urged.
He decried the situation where the social media was being used as a platform to propagate hate and regretted situations where religious preachers were also involved in the harmful practice.
“This was not the case when we were growing up,” he continued.
“Back then we were each other’s keeper and that is how it is supposed to be,” he said.
The minister described Cardinal Onaiyekan as a man of peace and commended him for championing interfaith cooperation and promoting peaceful co-existence through dialogue. He also pledged the continued support of the FCTA to the archbishop’s activities in the pursuit of peace.
Malam Bello also commended the cardinal for the successful relocation of the church’s Daughters of Charity Hospital, Bwari to its new location. The old hospital, it was gathered had to make way for the Abuja-Kaduna railway line.
In his remarks, Archbishop Onaiyekan commended the FCT Administration for its support to the church’s activities especially in the area of education.
He solicited partnership of the FCTA in the management of some schools that will ultimately be of benefit to the less privileged.
The archbishop also intimated the minister’s on the establishment of the John Onaiyekan Foundation for Peace.