The incoming government of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu has been advised to learn from the mistakes of the outgoing Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s mistakes and take Nigeria to the glorious position among the comity of nations.
The Chief Imam of the University of Ibadan, Professor Abdur-Rahmon Oloyede who stated this while addressing journalists shortly after Eidel-Fitri prayer at the University of Ibadan payer ground, said Tinubu-led administration should work as if the government would end tomorrow.
Professor Oloyede noted that when the Buhari-led outgoing government took over, people in power behaved as if it would last forever, urging the President-elect to do for Nigerians what will make Nigeria peaceful.
Fielding question about different pieces of advice on the possible appointments by the incoming government either to be based on government of national unity or competence, the Islamic scholar said:
“With due respect, I’m not a political scientist, but my point is let them be fair to all Nigerians. That is the message of Islam – fairness and justice.”
The Islamic scholar frowned at using religion to canvass for election, stressing that it has caused more problems for the country.
“Political leaders would have seen by now that it is not in our own interest to use religion to canvas political appointments. Rather than give us a way forward, it has caused more problems for us. We have become more divided than ever before on account of that campaign premise, which is not good enough. But what is important for whoever is in power is to be fair and fear Allah.
“If you are just to all manners of people, nobody will want to know what religion you practise. That is how it should be. We should have learnt our lesson by now. It does help us, it will not help us.
“More importantly, people raise that issue because we’ve seen injustice being meted out here and there. Let those in power be just and leave Allah to handle the rest. The moment they derail on the scale of justice, everything will catapult. That is what has happened.” Professor Oloyede stated.
Earlier in his sermon, the University of Ibadan Chief Imam charged parents to take parenting serious, noting that Muslims children nowadays dominate and give directions to wayward life.
“It is important we raise good human beings for the future of Islam and Nigeria. Today it is not matter of pride to say that Muslim children dominate the deviant ones. And it is unfortunate they are the ones giving bad directions to wayward life. We have them in music, in everything, meaning something is going wrong in the way we raise up our children and we must endeavour to do something about it, not only for Islam but for Nigeria as a whole.” The professor admonished.
He also charged parents to be watchful and pay attention to how their children handle social media and other information and communication technologies as it derails them a lot in the contemporary world.
Dignitaries at the UI prayer ground were the former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola among many others.