He presented a paper entitled: ‘Engendering religious tolerance for national unity.’
According to him, Nigeria, like other similar nations, is confronted with the challenge of religious intolerance and persistent religious conflicts with attendant consequences on peace, unity and development of the country.
“Given experiences of the 2023 general election, Nigerians expect that tackling the issue of religious intolerance will be a top priority for the incoming administration comes May 29.
“Without curbing religious intolerance and enthroning the culture of religious, ethnic and political tolerance, our quest for true democracy, good governance and national development will continue to be a mirage.
“This will continually threaten the peaceful co-existence in Nigeria,” Dogo said.
He recalled that the last two decades had seen an increase in the level of religious intolerance with obvious effect on peaceful co-existence.
According to him, the incursion of religious intolerance into the political space has become a matter of great concern.
“The 2023 general elections were characterised by religious intolerance such as toxic sermons, religious hate speeches and intimidation of voters,” he said.
Commenting, the Chief Executive Officer, Hadid Consult Ltd., Mrs Rebecca Ede, stressed the need to expose youths to the ills and dangers associated with youths who travelled abroad for greener pastures, known as “Japa syndrome”.
Ede spoke in a paper entitled: ‘Undue attraction of our youths to foreign lands for greener pastures (Japa Syndrome).”
She said, “(My) advice to everyone here today is that we need to expose our youths to the falsehood and deceptions around Japa phenomenon.
“You see, our active demography of between 18 and 45 are leaving in droves for greener pasture.
“We need to expose them to the socio-cultural perspective of potential realisation.
“Let them know that they have so much within them to solve and manage their problems locally.
“You may want to ask how? We will use psychometry analysis and behaviour modification methods, not just surface counselling.
“This is because we need to profile them to see who they are and what they are capable of executing from within the country.”
NAN
