The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at (AMJ), Nigeria, has called on the federal government to tackle poverty, recruit committed Nigerians into the police and armed forces and equip them with modern communication technology gadgets and logistics as part of measures to checkmate the insurgency and crimes in the country.
The Amir Sahib of the AMJ, Nigeria, Dr Mashhhud A. Fashola made the plea yesterday in Abuja at the three-day 3rd Northern Region Conference on Moral Training (Jalsa Tarbiyyat) themed “Islamic Model for National Reconciliation and Re-birth”.
“The heart of all human beings should bleed with these killings. It is barbaric; it has nothing to do with religion; it has nothing to do with civilization. But they have their causes, both immediate and deeper causes and I feel that we need more enlightenment that there is freedom of worship. People who are extremists and killing people think they have freedom to impose their belief on others. But they have no such rights; we are all accountable to God alone.
“Secondly, Islam teaches us to fight poverty. We should not allow any citizen to be hungry in the land, to lack clothing or shelter or access to water. If the citizens are taken care of, there would be less insecurity. If someone is hungry, has nowhere to go for survival, you would have turned him into an animal like a goat that has no means of livelihood and go anywhere for food. We have dehumanised many of our citizens and they have no hope, they have no help, so they can be used to cause trouble because they can kill for money. We are all to blame for this anomaly, including the international community because what is happening in Nigeria has the hand of the international community.
“Our leaders should fight poverty. They should devote more money to security. We have too few police officers in Nigeria; over 160 million citizens with less than one million policemen, that is too bad. We should have policemen everywhere and they should be equipped with modern equipment, including communication technology. There should be more employment of committed men and women of integrity into the nation’s armed forces and should be equipped with modern communication technology”, Fashola said.
