The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has advocated that the teaching of both Islamic and Christian Religious Knowledge be made compulsory subjects in the school curriculum.
Sultan Abubakar made the call during the closing ceremony of the 30th National Qur’anic Competition in Lafia on Saturday.
“It is important for us to get the basic in our children’s life to have moral upbringing through teaching of religious knowledge”.
“Education is the only legacy parents can bequeath on their children; if a child is well educated, he grows to become a reasonable and responsible leader.
“I therefore want to appeal that teaching of religious subjects should be core and compulsory in the school curriculum,’’ he said.
He maintained that if this was done, children would be morally brought up to become good and disciplined citizens.
Royal father also appealed to Nigerians to always pray for their leaders rather than curse them so that God would give them knowledge to engender good governance, adding that the appeal had become imperative considering the negative attitude of some Nigerians toward their leaders.
“It is important to always at any time of the day remember that we have a president, remember he is our own president as God Almighty brought him there for us”.
“It is our duty to pray for him day and night to enable him succeed. We must change our selves if we want to see a general change in our society; we cannot continue to be doing what we have been doing decades ago, and sit down thinking that things will change”.
Similarly, President Muhammadu Buhari urged organisers of the annual National Quran Recitation competition to use the yearly exercise to promote peace and unity in the country.
Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, expressed appreciation to parents and religious tutors for investing in the moral upbringing of the competitors.
“I appeal to the organisers to use the opportunity of the competition to promote correct recitation of the Quran and interpreting its true message of promoting unity and peace in the society. It calls for the promotion of justice, respect and honour for all human beings, honesty and sincerity”.
Mallam Umar Yusuf from Bauchi state was the overall winner of the National Quran completion champion while Asmau Jibril from Adamawa state was the female champion.
