Sultan Abubakar III, Cardinal Onaiyekan Rally Support for Religious Dialogue
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and Arch-bishop of the Abuja Arch-diocese, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, are to attend a two-day conference in Abuja that is aimed at exploring common grounds for supporting interreligious dialogue in Nigeria
The event, organised by International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), an intergovernmental organization that promotes dialogue to build peace in conflict areas that is based in Vienna, Austria, and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), in collaboration with the Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC), is to bring “together 100 key actors from diverse Nigerian communities, both Christian and Muslim, to find common ground to build and support a platform for interreligious dialogue in Nigeria.”
According to a press statement released by KAICIID on Tuesday, the two-day event is aimed at the promotion of dialogue through improving on the successes of previous conference held in September.
According to the statement, “The conference entitled ‘Coordinate to Achieve 2 – Inclusive and Sustainable Interreligious Dialogue in Nigeria’ (CtA2) will be held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 25 to 26 January and is a follow-up of the Coordinate to Achieve conference held in September 2016. The conference will be structured along both intra- and interreligious tracks and will be an opportunity for community leaders to coordinate their efforts toward establishing a sustainable interreligious dialogue platform and securing an action plan for the platform. They will also discuss promoting religious coexistence, an initiative led by the IMC.
“The success of the first Coordinate to Achieve conference was indicative of the fact that leaders in Nigeria want to work together to promote religious coexistence and dialogue,” said Fahad Abualnasr, Director General of KAICIID. “Dialogue will support inter- and intra-religious understanding among religious leadership to enable inclusive dialogue to build peace. We look forward to acting as a facilitator to support the efforts of religious communities.”
The first Coordinate, according to the statement, was aimed at achieving a set of action plans to establish a platform for dialogue and founded the Central Coordination Committee (CCC), a committee composed of a wide variety of esteemed religious representatives, both Christian and Muslim.