Obasanjo sends important message to Christians, Muslims

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday said no one has the right to condemn or say that another man’s religion is inferior to his own.

Obasanjo stated this on Saturday while speaking to some young Nigerians on the need to imbibe religious tolerance in the country.

He spoke in Abeokuta while responding to questions posed by some students from selected secondary schools that participated in the final of the National Exhibition and Awards.

The event was organized by the Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE).

Speaking further at the event, Obasanjo advised the students not to see their own religion as superior to that of another person.

He said: “I have no right to say that another man’s belief is inferior to mine.

“If God had wanted all of us to be of the same religion, he would have made it so and since He did not make it so, no person should attempt to make it so.

“If you are a Muslim and you did not live the way God wants you to live, you can not enter Aljannah.

“Or you are a Christian and you did not live the way God wants you to live, the same thing, you will not enter paradise.

“If this is the basis of religion, doing the right thing for the benefits of mankind, you don’t have to condemn any person, because of what he believes.

“Practice your religion the way God wants you to do it and don’t condemn another person,” the former president said.

Welcoming participants at the event, the Chairman of SAGE Nigeria, Agwu Amogu, said the program was to celebrate the creative energies and commitments of teen entrepreneurs who see challenges in the communities as their responsibilities.

Amogu said that since the introduction of the program in Nigeria in 2006, it had shown that it remained a potent strategy and model for educational reform, youth re-orientation, jobs creation, and poverty alleviation and multi-cultural integration.

According to him, Nigeria urgently needs a new paradigm for education.

He said that the new paradigm must provide students with a chance to learn while solving community problems and immediately applying what they had learned in the classrooms by actually doing something great.

“We firmly believe that Nigeria can be a world leader in providing potent human capital to the rest of the world; setting a benchmark for other countries to follow,” he said

“Young people should learn at a very early age in life that if there are five religions in the world, that is how God wants it to be.

“If there are 10, that is how God wants it. All religions originate from the same source.