Earlier this month, the sultan, who is also the he president of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar has declared that Muslims girls have an unalienable right to wear the hijab to school and it is not a privilege that governments can extend to them. This was latched on by several; Christian groups and community leaders as an indication that there is a grand plans to Islamise Nigeria.
However, seeking to allay these fears, Sultan Abubakar declared that it is not possible for a multi- religious nation like Nigeria to be Islamised or Christianised. He spoke during the commissioning of the International Centre for Inter-Faith Peace and Harmony’s office in Kaduna, calling for harmony among Nigerian Christians and Muslims and also among the various ethnic groups, warning that no country survives a religious war.
Sultan Abubakar said: “We have seen countries where people are killing one another and obviously, there can be no peace in such countries. Killing is not part of the teachings of the holy book.
"Nigeria has a Muslim president and before him was a Christian president, so we must see ourselves as one big family, without that, we cannot have peace. It is not possible to Islamise Nigeria as if God had wanted that, He would have created all Christians or all Muslims."
According to the sultan, Nigeria is not secular but a multi-religious state because the people are so religious. Also speaking at the event, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State decried the successive religious and ethnic crises in the state.
He said that religion is no longer a matter of life after death but business, adding that those who run religion as businesses make money by promoting division. While he stressed the importance of the centre situated in Kaduna, he assured of the state government’s commitment towards ensuring that the message of peace and inter-religious harmony is taken to a higher level.
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