NAN-H-92
Tolerance
By Angela Atabo
Abuja, Feb.15, 2018 (NAN) The Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan on Thursday called on Nigerians of all faith to embrace mutual acceptance in order to promote good relationship among humanity.
Onaiyekan made the call at the 4th International Conference on Love and Tolerance with the theme “Countering Violent Extremism’’, organised by Ufuk Dialogue, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Abuja.
According to him, practicing mutual acceptance means that as far as religion is concerned, Nigerians must admit that there is pluralism in the world.
“We have to open our hearts to admit that this pluralism is not undesirable or is a negative thing, rather we must be able to see it within the scope of God’s own plan for humanity.
“If God wanted all of us to be Christians or Muslims, he could have done it long ago, therefore, if he welcomes pluralism of religions, we must do the same.
“Linked with this is the beautiful concept of religious freedom, freedom to worship God according to one’s conviction and allowing others to do the same according to their own conviction.
“With this attitude, we would then move from sterile rivalries to fruitful cooperation for the good of humanity.’’
Onaiyekan said that with the above in mind, then tolerance and love would converge with powerful emotion of mutual acceptance working together to achieve the common good of all humanity.
He said that the planet had reached a stage in its development when people really had no option but to learn mutual tolerance.
“We either respect and accept one another or we tear each other to pieces, but surely, God wants us to be His children and love one another as God loves us .’’
The President of Ufuk Dialogue, Mr Kamil Kemanchi said that the event was organised to create a platform where people could meet freely and share their ideas.
Kemanchi said that it was to also help Nigerians exchange new opinions that could promote peaceful coexistence, mutual understanding and respect, as well as living together, which was what Nigerians need.
“We need peaceful coexistence more than food and shelter, sometimes we have houses and food but because of the breakage in the peace process everything is ruined.
“So we need to sustain peace and any effort to promote peaceful coexistence should be appreciated, that is the reason for the event and I hope it will help the peaceful coexistence process in Nigeria.’’
Kemanchi said that though there may be obstacles to achieving this, “but I believe that creating a world of peace is possible so we need to create this dialogue on peace so that we can go for it.’’ he said (NAN)
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Editing by Ese E. Ekama