Ojo Sola Olusegun
Former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has warned the nation’s politicians not to heat up the polity “because politics is a game that produces a winner and not all contestants will emerge victorious at the polls.”
He, therefore, urged politicians to accept election results with grace and prepare for another race.
Babangida gave the warning in a speech he delivered at the presentation ceremony of two books authored by the Director-General of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Dr. Aminu Ladan Shareru, yesterday, in Kaduna.
The former Head of State, who was represented by Brigadier-General Dantsoho Mohammed, said as the campaign for 2015 gathers momentum, an overheated polity would produce “nothing other than chaos and anarchy in the land.”
He said: “I wish to advise politicians to be careful and responsible as they start their campaign train, Nigerians deserve nothing less than the dividends of democracy that will grant minimum comfort for better quality life.
“This is what is required to take the youths off the streets, restored the confidence of disenchanted and provide succour to the poverty stricken masses of this country. This is what is needed to check the menace perpetrated by militants and Boko Haram insurgency.”
Lending his voice along that line, Kaduna state Governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, said no amount of fighting or violence could bring one power, but only God and pleaded for peaceful coexistence amongst the people in the state and the nation in general.
Speaking earlier, the Sultan of Sokoto, Dr. Sa’ad Abubakar, tasked people with Islamic religion knowledge to imbibe the culture of educating the common folks with the basic aspects of Islam wherever they find themselves.
The Sultan, who was represented by the Emir of Zazzau, Dr. Shehu Idris, said “Nigeria is a country with diverse cultural and religious backgrounds where the natives speak different languages; therefore, the people must use available opportunity to propagate Islam as it is stated.”
In his welcome address, the author of the book, the Director-General of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Dr. Aminu Ladan Sharehu, said lack of knowledge of Arabic is no more an excuse not to learn the basic fact and principle of Islam.
He said “fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, but it must be done as stipulated in the Qur’an and that is why the book is written to enlighten the Muslim faithful on the right way of fasting.”
Meanwhile, the book written by Sharehu has its title as “Fasting According to Islamic Law” and translated in Hausa thus Matsayin Azumi A Shari’ar Musulunci.