Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said he ran away from Ile Kewu (school for Quran teachings), because of koboko (horse whip).
He disclosed this on Tuesday during a lecture on tolerance between Christians and Muslims in Abeokuta, Ogun State, The Nation reports.
Obasanjo also called for religious unity in Nigeria and said such would ensure the country’s development.
He said, “If we can live in peace with our neighbour at the local, community, state, national, continental and global level, what a different world it would have been.“Let me tell you, I went to Ile Kewu (Qur’anic school). In my village, mosque and church were built close to each other.“When I was growing up in the village, there was no difference and I started going to Qur’anic school.
What drove me away was koboko (horse whip).“But what I imbibed in the village when I was growing up is what I have practised all my life”, the former Nigeria leader added.Meanwhile, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has said Nigerians are too religious, but without anything good to show for it. He said this life of hypocrisy has turned religion into a stumbling block, as it continues to tear the country apart.
He said a situation where Northern Governors meet in Kaduna or in Abuja drinking tea and taking photographs without properly addressing the problems tearing the North apart, is unacceptable.
“They should not only be talking about dialogue with Bishops, Imams and Emirs sitting together and taking photographs and drinking tea as there are needs for concrete manifestation of ideas between one another,” he said in a statement.“Nigerians are too religious in paper and not in practice and this has made religion to be a liability to us,” he added.