Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has alleged that religious extremists in the country were working to divide Nigeria.
The minister, who spoke with State House Correspondents after a routine meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa yesterday, also disclosed that Tinubu was working hard to address the challenge of terrorism in order to stave off the threat of sanctions and invasion issued by President Donald Trump of the United States of America.
According to him, the President has been engaging religious stakeholders and the international community to stop the violence in the country.
The Minister said: “Nigeria has Muslims and Christians and even those who do not believe in any of these religions; and our constitution guarantees everyone should practice their faith without hindrance and Mr President is going to respect that to the letter.
“Again, yes, we have these security challenges but nowhere has there been any decision to favour one religion or the other or to inflict violence over one religion.
“What has happened is that we have these extremists that are driving this narrative and their desired outcome is to see that this country is divided and we want to caution Nigerians to look deeper.
This is a time for us to reflect on our nationhood to reflect on our unity; this is not the time for division; this is not the time for rhetoric. It is the time for nation-building. It is the time for calling on everyone to come together so that we can continue to have the Nigeria of our dreams.”
Responding to a question on what the President was doing to stop terrorism and killings, Idris noted that Tinubu had earlier taken proactive steps to tackle insecurity in the country ahead of the US President’s categorization of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern by rejigging the Army hierarchy by changing the Service Chiefs.
He said: “Only two weeks ago, Mr President in his own desire to rekindle the security architecture of the country reinvigorated the hierarchy of the Armed forces, a new Chief of Defence Staff and other Service Chiefs were appointed.
