All over the world, Christians are already gearing up for another Easter. That is why issue of tolerance has become crucial at this time. This admonition was given by an expert in the Department of Guidance and Counseling, Federal College of Education (FCE), Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Dr. Joseph Filani.
According to him, people need to accept, understand and tolerate each other to promote peace in the country. The don said Nigerians should respect each another, irrespective of their religious backgrounds, ethnicity or cultural practices. Filani added that tolerating each other could lead to less stress, greater happiness, and create special bond, among other advantages. “If you look at the world entirely, the problem we are suffering from today is that of intolerance, religious intolerance, political intolerance and the likes. There is a shout of racism even in sports, which is meant for entertainment. When you can’t respect other people’s opinions and feelings, but see yourself as being superior to others, that is majorly the foundation of world problem. And so, if a day is declared for us to be able to tolerate, accept and understand ourselves despite our shortcomings, it is a good way to go at addressing our problems”, he stated further.
In the same vein, other religious leaders have called for tolerance and peaceful coexistence among Nigerians in order to make the country a better place to live. According to the Chief Imam, Adatan Central Mosque of Ogun State, Imam AbdSaburi Amolegbe, the term ‘peace’ is from the name of God. He added that when we look at it from the scriptures, it is a city of peace, where the people lived peacefully. He urged Nigerians to tolerate one another’s a way of life and religious beliefs. “In the society, we need to check ourselves and try as much as possible to bring ourselves to order”, he said.
He equally observed that Nigerians are very religious, but not righteous for society was against God. He said our society was having the oppressors, the oppressed, and the liberators, noting that religion should be among the liberators and that when people have peace of mind and good health, there would be development. Also, Bishop Richard Ige of the Covenant Lifeway Church, Abeokuta, said every individual needs to develop resilience and a mindset to be peaceful at all times and that it was literally impossible to achieve due to a lot of external factors.
The Bishop said Nigerians needed to come individually and regionally to know their common enemy, which he said, is the political structure. He stated that Nigerians require solidarity, oneness, and a sane mind, adding that society begins from home while home starts from individuals. “If we look at our social media, which is driven by what we called social media influencers, many of them are called celebrities, but I see nothing to be celebrated in them”, he said.
The Bishop said the country does not have peaceful influencer, adding that peaceful ambassadors should be raised with good moral standards and integrity so that the coming generation would be able to learn and emulate them. He said it is only a peaceful society that can develop, adding that there is no reasonable businessman that would bring his business to an environment that is not peaceful. Still on how to make the country experience peace, development and good governance, some philosophers have called for the involvement of critical, creative and proper thinkers, who are capable of harnessing Nigeria’s resources, for the country to overcome its many challenges. They said Nigerians needed to increase their level of thinking to take the country to the next level.
Also, a don at the Institute of Communication and General Studies, Prof. Onyekwere Nwoargu, said the role of philosophers in any society cannot be over-emphasised. The Professor argued that most of the problems human beings were facing had intellectual solutions. According to him, “Human beings came about philosophy by wandering and having experiences that lead to an evaluation of things that are happening, and you begin to interact with everything in your environment”.
The Professor added that philosophy creates intellectual satisfaction to those who pursue it, because what philosophy can do was limitless. “There is no room for hypocrisy in philosophy. If you don’t believe in something, you don’t need to believe in it, but most philosophers still believe in God and they are sincere”. Also, a social critic, Nicholas Iwuchukwu, lamented that Nigerians do not seem to appreciate philosophers, thus making them to be underutilised in the country. He described philosophy as the love of wisdom that deals with the knowing and thinking about peoples’ existence, stressing that philosophy was the root of all disciplines, as “There is no culture greater than human beings”. In conclusion, tolerance is key to peaceful co-existence, security and development, not only in the country, but in the world at large at Easter, and indeed beyond.