Alaafin at Baptist Church, condemns ‘religionisation of politics’, advocates tolerance

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba (Dr.) Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, has called for tolerance and mutual understanding among religious leaders to erase the mutual suspicion that has become the order of the day in the country.
Oba Adeyemi also  cautioned against politicising religion,  and using religion as a platform to achieve political office.         
Nigeria, he pointed out, is a diverse entity in terms of culture, tribe, ethnic affinity, as well as religion with Islam and Christianity being the two dominant religions as obtainable in most countries of  the world .                                                  Speaking in Otu town, in the Itesiwaju local government area of Oyo State, at the 10th year anniversary and thanksgiving service of Gethsemane Baptist Church, the Alaafin said essence of religion in either Christianity or Islam is the development of the spirit of appreciation by man, the appreciation of aesthetics of the environment beautifully created by God for man’s convenience.                                                      
The paramount ruler, who is the Special Guest of Honour at the occasion  explained that religious violence is rooted in the notion of individual seeing his religion as more important, more sacred and better than others.
This, he described, as “holier than thou syndrome”, adding that while a group considers its belief system normal and civilized, the opposite group finds absurdity in it which is why we cannot communicate amicably and effectively in a dialogue session.
Cognitive obstacle, he added, is the “behavioural pattern of the adherents of Islam and Christianity which is either a clear display of ignorance of a given tenet of the religion being professed or a deliberate attempt to ignore it.
Speaking further, Oba Adeyemi listed some common values which Christians and Muslims share as explicitly stated in the two holy books of Quran and Bible.
The values, he listed, included Justice, God, Worship, last day, and goodness to parents.  The differences we are creating are artificial, most of the differences we are creating, you can’t find them in the Quran, you can’t find them in the bible”.
Alaafin also  condemned religionisation of politics and politicisation of religion” in the country,, noting that Nigerians should be more concerned in fighting the common issues of poverty, ignorance or unemployment, among others, which are not peculiar to a particular religion.                         “If we sermonise from this morning till tomorrow morning, people will not change except we have effective leadership, leadership that says, ‘do as I say’ and ‘do as I do’, not just merely ‘do as I say’. We have examples of Imams and pastors who themselves are corrupt but if we live by example, some of these problems we have will be eliminated.”
Oba Adeyemi further stressed that the real issues confronting this country are issues of poverty, ignorance, unemployment and inadequate education.
“Poverty has no religion, there is no Islamic poverty, there is no Christian poverty and these are the things bedevilling our society, these are the things driving the youths into extraneous, outrageous. Millions of Nigerians are graduates, no job and you are wondering.       while they become armed robbers, you are.  wondering why they become more violent. I think our leaders should take these fundamental problems”.
The paramount ruler said for peace to reign in Nigeria, “there must be tolerance, there must be mutual understanding. We should erase the mutual suspicion that has become the order of the day in Nigeria and also we must avoid politicising religion, using religion as a platform to achieve political office at the end of which we just kick out religion out of our way.
Alaafin averred,  “I conceive that in Nigeria today, we are more religious but we are not spiritually developed. More religious in the sense that there are many churches, there are many mosques but how many people are applying the teachings of these religions in their private and public life. “Oba Adeyemi continued, “so, it is a thing that has been giving the country a serious concern. And i believe that  our religious leaders should not fold our arms,  they should try our very best in order to raise the enlightenment level of the people for them to appreciate that religion is for God and God is for peace and stability”.