A Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdulrauf Abdulhamid Oloriomokewu, has urged Muslims against complacency and to make the best use of the Ramadan fasting to get rewards from Allah.
He gave the advice on Sunday in Abuja, at this year’s annual Ramadan lecture organized by the Right Path Prayer Group, Abuja, with the theme, ‘Peaceful Co-Existence: A Solution to National Insecurity’.
According to him, it is important for Muslims to take the maximum advantage of the blessings of Ramadan and that since worshiping Allah did not start with fasting, Muslims should be committed to other areas of worshiping Allah.
“Muslims should use the occasion of Ramadan to first take care of parents, cater for family, forgive quarrel, cater for indigent and stop bad habits to get the Ramadan fasting acceptable to Allah,” Oloriomokewu said.
He also said that some of the lessons of COVID-19 for Muslims and Nigerians is to cater for their health, check their homes and adhere to Allah’s commandments.
He noted that the COVID-19 ensure the coverage of face and especially for Muslim women, which is an advantage that Muslim women have been enjoined on and enjoying before the pandemic.
On tackling insecurity in the country, the cleric said that the Police should be equipped and the money for the military should be reduced, while previous allocations should be accounted for.
He noted that the ratio of police to population in Nigeria is 1:540 based on the population estimate of over 200m people and 371,800 police officers in the country.
He said, “The police to population ratio is below the United Nations’ (UN) standard of 1:450. This implies that as a country, Nigeria is grossly under-policed and this perhaps explains the police inability to effectively tackle crimes and security challenges.
“The rising crime rate, especially violent crimes involving kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual murders, political assassinations, ethnic and religious violence, election violence, has dampened the hope of the public on the capacity of the police to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property.
“The general feeling is that the police neither solve the crimes already committed, through arrests and successful prosecutions, nor prevent or, at least, reduce the incidence of crimes.”
He lamented that the Nigeria military budget is more than all other West Africa countries put together.
He also bemoaned the mismanagement of pension fund, saying “We have not heard of former governors and other political appointees being owed pension but pensioners who served the nation are being owed years of unpaid pension arrears.”
While urging the citizens to pay taxes to the appropriate authorities for societal and national development, he also called for the abolition of the federal character policy, which he said breed mediocrity and corruption.
He said that the immunity clause should be repealed as it entrenches corruption and make some people super human and unaccountable.
He equally lamented the weak judiciary, saying that the increasing impunity and dare devilry of looting and embezzlement especially of public funds are enhanced by the weakness of the Nigeria legal system.
“Justice and the rule of law do not just depend on the law but on the impartiality, astuteness and nobility of the judicial officers. Unfortunately, the Nigerian judicial system is weak and encourages criminality as many of the offenders easily find their way home even after being arrested and prosecuted,” he said.
He, therefore urged the federal government to among others promote common national interest, encourage patriotism, avoid marginalization and promoting equal economic opportunities to tackle the nation’s challenges.
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