Widening income gap root of instability: Nigerian cleric

LAGOS Nigeria

Nigeria's leading Muslim cleric on Saturday said the widening gap between the rich and the poor is responsible for instability in the country.

Sheikh Habeebullah Adam El-ilory said the country's middle class is fast eroding, leading to more people embracing crime to survive harsh economic realities.

El-ilory is the son of the late African 20th-century Muslim philosopher, Adam Abdullahi El-ilory, whose centenary was recently commemorated.

"The country must do something about the emasculation of the middle class. What the killing of the middle class means is the unacceptable gap between the haves and have-not," El-ilory said at a session for Quran exegesis at Markaz Agege, the leading center for Arabic and Islamic learning in southwest Nigeria which he heads.

El-ilory also rejected the bid to pay the country's outgoing and incoming lawmakers some allowance, and hailed the country's President Muhammadu Buhari for his efforts to curb greed and corruption.

His comment came a few days after a civic group -- Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) -- launched national action to prevent the lawmakers from paying themselves severance packages that many consider as insensitive in a country recently rated as the world's poverty capital.

He called for a law banning public officials from taking allowances that encourage desperation for public offices and deepen poverty.

El-ilory also said Nigeria must curb hate speeches and reckless comments, warning that failure to do so constituted a threat to peace.

"Anyone caught making inflammatory comments should be barred from holding public office. Such persons should in fact be severely published to deter others," he said.