President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said he was a descendant of Abraham, a biblical hero regarded as the father of faith.
The President said this in an article he wrote in The Church Times UK titled, “Don’t politicise religion in Nigeria.”
In the piece, Buhari eulogised the late Revd. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, reputed to have translated the English Bible into Yoruba language.
The President said just like the millions of Christians in Nigeria, he believed in peace, tolerance, reconciliation, the institution of the family, the sanctity of marriage, divine revelation, among others.
He wrote, “In 1844, Revd. Samuel Ajayi Crowther returned home to Yorubaland. Twenty years earlier, he had been kidnapped and sold to European slave traders who were bound for the Americas. He was freed by an abolitionist naval patrol, and received by the Church Missionary Society. There, he found his calling.
“Crowther made his voyage home to establish the first Anglican mission in Yorubaland. He came with the first Bible translated into Yoruba and Hausa languages. He opened dialogue and discussion with those of other faiths. And his mission was a success: Crowther later became the first African Anglican bishop in Africa.”
The President added, “Along with the millions of Christians in Nigeria today, I believe in peace, tolerance, and reconciliation; in the institution of the family, the sanctity of marriage, and the honour of fidelity; in hope, compassion, and divine revelation.
“Like Bishop Crowther, I am a descendant of Abraham; unlike him, I am a Muslim. I believe our two great religions cannot only peacefully coexist but also flourish together. But Muslims and Christians must first turn to one another in compassion. For, as it says in Amos 3.3: ‘Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?’”
Buhari further said he believed that there was far more that united Muslims and Christians than what divided them.
Unfortunately, he said there were those who sought to divide Nigerians along religious lines for their own advantage.He said he had been accused of trying to Islamise Nigeria and also accused by Boko Haram terrorists of being against Islam.
“My Vice-President is a devout man, a Christian pastor. He, too, is accused of selling out his religion, because of his support for me,” he said.
“This is not the first time that I – nor, indeed, my Christian-Muslim evenly split cabinet – have been the subject of such nonsense. Fortunately, the facts speak differently from the words of those who seek to divide us from one another.”
The President said since his administration had been in power, Boko Haram had been significantly and fatally degraded, adding that he had befriended church leaders and church groups both within and outside the country.