Former Minister and Senator, Mrs. Esther Nenadi Usman, from Kaduna south senatorial district, granted one of the leading Nigerian newspapers an interview sometime in 2014. We just want to bring to you the part of the interview that deals with religious tolerance. Enjoy.
I always tell people I’m a Christian, my husband is a Muslim. I have remained a Christian, my husband has remained a Muslim and I know there are people that have kept on criticising him that how can you have such a wife and not force her to become a Muslim? But he is okay with it.
I’m a pastor in my church. I think that is how we should live. Faith is in your heart, you just don’t practice religion with your lips. Your conduct and your relationship with God is what matter. If you talk about religion, just paying lip service and at the end, your conduct is just not near to God, I think you’ve lost it. So, I just want to use this medium to call on all citizens of Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State and in fact, Nigeria as a whole, we should try and look at ourselves as our brothers’ keeper.
Our tribes must certainly differ; we cannot all become one tribe. In Southern Kaduna, for example, we have over 60 tribes and I expect those 60 different tribes to live in peace with one another. We should be tolerant of one another. Because I’m a Christian, I should evangelise and wished everybody to be a Christian, anybody who is not a Christian, I cannot force them, I cannot hate them because of that. So, I think that should be the way it should. (Tribune)
Amen…sister! Take it PUBLIC!