By Saheed Salawu On Nov 11, 2022
THE Amir, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Nigeria, Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Alatoye, has urged Nigerians to defer to the guidance of God in choosing the next president in 2023.
Alatoye made the plea on Saturday at a national exhibition organised by the jama’at’s Majlis Ansarullah (Elders), held at the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan.
According to Alatoye, his position, and the position of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, is that Nigerians should beseech Allah to appoint a leader for them this time.
He said: “We should not force our own candidate on another person because we don’t know who God wants. We should pray for the person that God wants. We can vote for whomever we like. All the major candidates are good, in my mind, but we don’t know who among them God wants to use.
“I don’t want us to choose for God this time around. We should allow God to choose for us and choose those who will work with him so that we can get it right.
“My advice is that we request God to choose for us. And in choosing the leader, we should be very honest. We should look for a person who is competent and honest, somebody who is trustworthy.
“If we all allow an election process that is not manipulated, the leader that God and the people want will be thrown up. We should rely on Allah in choosing the next president, the governors and all the officers that are going to be helping Nigeria going forward.”
Alatote said the importance of the exhibition themed ‘Islamu-ul-Ahmadiyya in Prints and Visuals’ was to reawaken people’s faith in Allah and remind them of the need to follow the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad so that they could be of service to humanity.
“I want people to imbibe godliness because the challenge we have in Nigeria right now is the collapse of the value system ranging from justice and honesty to sincerity and competence. These are things that are of God. Everything that is negative is not of God. If everybody is God-conscious, we will be able to move forward and everything would be okay,” the Ahmadiyya leader stated.
Items on display at the exhibition included the Holy Qur’an in various languages of the world, history of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in Nigeria, the auxiliary organs of the jama’at, the jama’at’s interventions in education, health and other charitable endeavours, the Muslim Television Ahmadiyya (MTA), mosques and other publications by the jama’at, including the last addition; and the Minaret International University.
