The Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN), Ondo State Chapter, has called on Nigerians to retrace their steps to the era when leaders and the led reciprocated total trust, mutual understanding and empathy.
This was contained in a statement on Sunday by Mallam Issa Olatunji and Alhaja Fatima Muraina, Chairman and
General Secretary of the MMPN state council, to mark the Islamic New Year, Hijrah 1444.
The MMPN said the time had come for self evaluation, soul searching and stock – taking as individuals, families, groups or entire societies.
It said Hijrah, among others, was one of the numerous lessons for a country in dire need of moral rebirth and socio-political overhauling.
It also said sincerity of purpose could not be more elucidated elsewhere than the story of migration from Makkah to Madinah, with the noble prophet of Islam as the arrowhead of servant leadership, while his followers too reciprocated by trusting him without any cause to doubt his truthfulness.
“As we mark Hijrah 1444, it should be borne in mind that Nigeria must retrace its steps to the era when both the leaders and the led have total trust, mutual understanding and empathy for each other.
“Undiluted perseverance is needed at this point in time more than ever before in our national history with the myriads of challenges manifested in insecurity, widespread corruption, economic upheavals and political desperado.
It’s “Just like the emigrants abandoned their place of birth, loved ones and what could generally be seen as “familiar terrain” for the unknown environment in the scorching heat of the desert.
“All Nigerians must, as a matter of urgency, be ready to forsake our individual and collective comfort zones to redirect the ship of the nation from poverty to prosperity, impunity to probity, greed to selflessness.
“We must note that there is no shortcut to tangible breakthrough and one cannot put something on nothing.
“Dignity of labour should not only be preached but be promoted and encouraged by concerned authorities so as for millions of Nigerians to have a firm belief that a brand, new nation is possible,” The MMPN said.
The MMPN appealed to religious, traditional, political leaders, and other opinion moulders, as a matter of urgency, to shun any ember of discord which could only spell doom for the most populous black nation on earth.
It said that unity in diversity, otherwise known as multi-culturalism, made it possible for Muslims, Christians, Jews and Pagans to coexist for the evolvement of an economically flourishing and politically stable city-state in Madinah.
According to the MMPN, “we should be ready to jettison religious fanaticism, ethnic bigotry and other forms of intolerance, which pervade our national atmosphere today after sixty years of independence.
“As we approach another election year, it is incumbent we steer away from utterances, behaviours and endeavours that promote segregation, but rather understand the fact that the popular maxim ‘united we stand divided we fall’, is not a myth.
“Because nations like Bosnia Herzegovina, Sudan, Lebanon and lately Ethiopia, have tasted the bitter pills of war which arose from ethnic or sectarian differences.
“Nigeria is endowed with the human and material resources and the path to progress or perdition lies ahead of us, like the story of hijrah; the choice is ours to make”.
The MMPN wished Nigerians a fulfilling and rewarding new year, 1444 After Hijrah, saying “may we all be the very change we desire to see in our beloved country”. (NAN)
