Alhaji Adekola Yinusa, Chief Imam, Federal Technical College Central Mosque, Asaba, has tasked Nigerians on the need to serve God, promote love and life of sacrifice for others.

The Imam gave the charge while addressing newsmen in Asaba on his message to Muslim faithful at Eid-el-Kabir, the feast of sacrifice.

According to him, the feast is a festival of commitment, as Abraham showed his commitment to Almighty Allah and Allah assisted him by ransoming the life of Ishmael with a big ram.

“So, we should be committed to God and to humanity in services for God to compensate us, the country and the generations yet unborn. This is the real thing about the festival of sacrifices.

“Religious tolerance is key and we have always said that without peace, there will be no growth and development. We must love ourselves and one another as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Mohammed.

“In fact, the prophet said that you are not a human being until you love others like yourself, so it means we have to tolerate one another, Muslims should see Christians as their brothers and vice versa.

“This is because if someone is not your brother and sister in your religion, he or she is your brother or sister in humanity.

“We are all from one God and from our sermon today, it says God created all of us from a pair; Adam and Eve into nations and tribes that we may know themselves and assists one another.”

The Chied Imam emphasied the need to help and care for one another.

“We must assist the weak, support the strong, we must recognise the widows and the orphans and assist them.

“Even those at the helm of affairs, though they may not be doing well, pray for them, this is how we can forge ahead not by waging wars and killing one another.”

Yinusa, however, charged the leaders to rise up to the challenge and address the plight of the people, adding that while some of the leaders are committed, others are corruptly enriching their pockets.

“My message to Nigerians is that they should shun the quest for wealth at all cost, also to shun the pull-him-down syndrome because of the desire to rise above.

“It is a common feature now as ritual killings, kidnapping activities are there; all these things are sinful before God and it brings a nation down.

“It is scriptural that righteousness exalted a nation, so we must get closer to God and serve humanity to become great,” Yinusa said.

On his part, Alhaji Muktar Usman, an Aide to Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, urged the Muslim faithful to embrace peace at all times and remain good ambassadors to the faith according to the examples of the Holy Prophet.

According to him, the political class needs to be sincere to themselves to curb the current security challenges in the nation.

“If we can come together to tell ourselves the truth, the issue of insecurity will not arise.

“As we celebrate, my advice to my Muslim brothers is that where ever they are, they should be good ambassadors”.

Alhaji Auwulu Tukur, State Chairman, Muslim Pilgrim Welfare Board, said the celebration was in obedience to God’s commandment, urging all Nigerians irrespective of religion to join in the celebration.

He said it was a time to pray for peace and for God to intervene and rid the country of banditry, kidnapping and ritual killings and for prices of goods and services to come down.

He also thanked Gov. Okowa for donating some rams to the Muslim community to celebrate the Eid-el-Kabir.

“I urge the political leaders to have the fear of God in whatsoever they are doing so that they will lead the people and the country right,” Tukur said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)