By Victoria Ojeme

A professor of International Relations at Kaduna State University, Professor Usman Mohammed has said that solution to reducing religious intolerance  in West Africa is to embark on a deliberate and  sustained efforts of  interfaith dialogue.

Professor Usman Mohammed  made this know  in a paper presentation titled “ Religious Tolerance and Stability:  key factors to peace and development in the ECOWAS region” at the ongoing delocalised meeting of the ECOWAS Parliament on committees on Education, Science and Culture; Health ;Telecommunications and Information Technology , in Praia.

Using Ghana as a case study , Prof Mohammed said Ghana, for many decades , has demonstrated the possibility of harmonious  inter religious co existence   through individual and communal  efforts .

“Ghana remains a rare model  and evident justification that religious tolerance and harmony is a possibility  and is capable of ensuring peace and stimulating  development through decent and formable interfaith dialogue  because religious devotees in Ghana are more than those who claimed not to belong to any religion. Such initiative to ensure peace and societal  harmony can either be  communal or individualistic. Right from the past to the present , there have been deliberate and conscious individual and collaborative efforts , to ensure and enhance religious tolerance , harmony and calmness in Ghana.”

According to him, Ghana did not achieve such feat in a day but through a continuous effort in building a foundation of peace.

“You cannot have peace where you don’t build it. You have peace where the foundation is there already and then you continue to build on it . So in that light, it is not uncommon to find members of African traditional religion, Christianity and Islam living together. Thus Ghanaians irrespective of their religious background have consistently collaborated in seeking lasting peace, reconciliation, harmony in their county.”

While appreciating the Federal government of Nigeria in its drive to find lasting solution to security challenges in the country, Professor Mohammed emphasised the need for the government to redouble their efforts  and avail themselves  of all means including but not limited to engaging the group or groups in meaningful dialogue.

He called on secular Non Governmental Organisations , experts on interfaith dialogue and negotiators  to intensify  their efforts as facilitators of dialogue and mediators of conflicts between conflicting parties.  He also cautioned them against gratifications as they would be tempted to follow the dictates of their financiers.

For the Parliamentarians, he emphasised the need for them to engaged their constituencies in regular dialogue on peaceful co-existence.

The Scholar also hampered on equity and justice to be displayed by the various levels of government while law and order must be applied. He said Government at all levels  should avoid discrimination and marginalisation of people when dealing with developmental projects and religious matter in community.

“Again some of the problem of religious intolerance is as a result of lack of  deliberate good governance. First, there could be  group of people that there is no justification for visiting  violence on them , and so  they also visit violence on you . Second,  widespread disparity on income and standard of living. You have a lot of squalors. 

Those people in the squalors will go to your churches and mosques, and they  will hear you say “we are all equal,”.  They will just be looking at you and be saying , “look at this one , how we are all equal, how? In residence we are not equal, in schooling we are not equal, in fact the opportunities  we have for jobs are not as equal as theirs own and their children; in health matter, in the kind of food they eat , look at their skin , look at their bodies, they are all obsessed , we have ulcer, we are skinny and they say we are all the same.”