Rev. Fr. Barkindo of the Kukah Centres highlights 2 points to tackle insecurity, at the Ashraaf Islamic Foundation Centre Ramadan Lecture

By AbdulRahman Obaje

The Rev. Fr. Atta Barkindo, Executive Director of The Kukah Centre (TKC), and Head of Secretariat for the National Peace Committee has identified two cogent points to tackle insecurity in Nigeria.

He revealed this during the 9^th Annual Ramadan Lecture and Prayer for the Nation, presented by Ashraaf Islamic Foundation in Abuja, Nigeria.

While answering questions from journalists at the event, Rev Fr. Barkindo highlights misrepresentation of religion as the first problem.

He said, “I think for me, the first thing is to understand where is this problem coming from? Number one, we cannot keep denying that this thing has nothing to do with Islam or has nothing to do with Christianity. I think if you make this denial, you have not understand.

“If you have ten children and one of them becomes a thief, are you saying that that thief is no longer your child, is your child.”

“So, the first thing is that people are exploiting religion, they are misrepresenting religion and we need to get religious leader who understand the situation, who have the influence, the respect in order to proffer solutions and to help us to stop the exploitation and the misrepresentation of religion.

He further revealed that education is the second key element in the equation.

“And the second element for me actually is education. People are really not very educated and it is difficult for you to practice democracy in a context of illiteracy. So there has to be proper education that can offer jobs, meaningful jobs to people. And I think once people have this job they are likely going to leave atrocities and concentrate on their work.”, he continued.

While reacting to questions on why he is part of Muslim gathering, he said, “God is God, where are the human beings trying to make distinction, God has absolutely no problem.”

“The Christians are fasting, Muslims are fasting, there is nothing wrong for me to come and grow from the Islamic perspective. If I get to heaven and there is no Christianity, I have Islam, I will enter heaven; If I get to heaven and there is no Islam, I have Christianity, I will enter heaven; so, I am pretty very much okay with it.”

“My biggest interest was actually to look at the Islamic jurisprudence, either supporting or making illegitimate terrorist activities in this country. Does Islam support terrorism through jihad or does Islam prohibit terrorism and condemn jihad rather than personal effort and I think for me this is really an interesting aspect and I think this will afford the government in developing some very strong strategic policies recommendation from lectures of this nature.”

“To see how they can work with religious leaders particularly Islamic groups in supporting the justice system, the judicial processes that will hold perpetrators of atrocities accountable.”

“And at the same time, what sort of mediation, conflict resolution, reconciliation platform can communities create in their local area in order to mitigate the violence across this country.”

“We don’t have to wait for another country to come into Nigeria and tell us what is happening. We can all see for ourselves. It’s not Christians, it’s not Muslims, Nigerians are dying literally from every part of this country; in Sokoto, in Zamfara, in Katsina, in Benue, in Plateau, in Adamawa, Christians, Muslims, atheist; at the end of the day, Nigerians are dying.”

“And I think for me we should look at it from that perspective. Death is about Christians or Muslims. It is about the fact that Nigerian citizens are being killed and what can we do to stop the killing together?”.

The Ashraaf Islamic Foundation is always striving to tackle the socio-economic problem bedeviling the nation with its Annual Ramadan Lecture and Maolid Nabiyy.  This year edition of the Annual Ramadan Lecture had gathered notable Nigerians focusing on the Islamic perspective on banditry and terrorism with theme “Faith & Justice, The Islamic Judicial Perspective on Terrorism, and Banditry in Nigeria.”