NEW YEAR MESSAGE

25^th December 2012

NEW YEAR MESSAGE:

LACUNA BETWEEN THE LEADERS AND THE LEAD

As year 2012 rolls to an end, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) takes a retrospective look at events in Nigeria within the year with particular reference to the relationship between the leaders and the citizenry as well as the provision of infrastructure capable of improving the standard of living.

 

The oil subsidy controversy has continued unabated. Fuel scarcity is a common feature in most Nigerian cities with long queues at fuel stations. Palliatives offered by the Federal Government in the wake of the oil subsidy saga have vanished into thin air.

 

Boko Haram, kidnapping, armed robbery and related crimes have made a mess of the country's security system. The transport sector, whether by land or by air, is as safe as playing a game of rugby in a mined field. Electricity, which is the backbone of any economy, is assailed by epilepsy and has rendered the industrial sector prostate.

 

Except in a few states, Nigeria's public hospitals remain public mortuaries patronized only by desperate sicklers willing to commit suicide. To cap it all, the education sector which is the hope for a better tomorrow, is still crawling at 62 and receiving crunches that fall from the politicians' table.

 

Yet Nigeria's woes can be traced to the glaring lacuna between the leaders and the lead. There is total breakdown of communication between banquet-loving Aso Rock and the rest of the country. The leaders ignore the bad roads because they can afford to shuttle in helicopters. The Nigerian president has ten aircrafts in his fleet whereas the American president has only two. Yet the Nigerian president wants more presidential jets.

 

The losses suffered by the aviation sector within the year are symptomatic of the sheer neglect characteristic of the Nigerian leadership. The fact that the deficiencies in all these sectors have started affecting the leaders themselves must be enough lesson for these leaders who have hitherto refused to listen.

 

Perhaps those governors who are rumoured to be recuperating in hospitals abroad (Suntai in Germany, Imoke in the United States and Chime in India) would return home to turn the health sector around in their states. Perhaps the late governor Yakowa of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser, General Aziza (rtd), would have used the roads if the Niger Delta had been developed. Nonetheless, MURIC wishes to give kudos to governor Idris of Kogi State for rejecting foreign treatment after his crash.

 

Finally, MURIC charges President Jonathan to learn from the lessons of 2012. He should therefore focus the paraphernalia of governance on security, roads, education and health because he or his close relations may need these neglected infrastructure one day.

 

Professor  Is-haq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC),
234-818-211-9714

234-803-346-4974

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

25^th December 2012

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE:

IMBIBE THE QUALITIES OF JESUS

 

Christendom is presently marking the birth of Jesus, not only in Nigeria but throughout the world.     

 

The Glorious Qur'an reveals that the life of Jesus was filled with piety, humility and simplicity (Qur'an 6:85). He was "held in honour in this world and the hereafter" (Qur'an 3:45) just as he was righteous (Qur'an 3:46) and was blessed (Qur'an 19:31).

 

The lessons contained in the life of Jesus are enough to surmount the problems facing Nigeria as a country if only all the citizens would emulate him regardless of religious or ethnic background. If we can all be God-fearing, nobody would hate his fellow man or contemplate taking the life of another homo sapien.

 

Nigeria would be paradise on earth if we could all be as loving as Jesus. Seeking revenge would become history in our country if all would embrace the qualities of fortitude and forgiveness. Neither would poverty pervade the land if we adhere to Jesus' pattern of simple life. Adoption of simplicity, shunning the temptation to accumulate wealth, imbibing the hospitable art of giving and sharing are the only measures capable of alleviating the grinding poverty ravaging our nation.

 

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) cautions clerics of all divides and the elite to shun materialistic propensities. We charge holders of public offices to avoid the temptation to appropriate to themselves all the milk and honey in the land. We call on leaders to remember that those among them who died while holding public offices could not take any money or property to their graves with them. Leaders should therefore remember that their primary duty is not to line their own pockets but to cater for the welfare of the citizens.

 

To the generality of Nigerians, MURIC calls for a change of mindset. Nigerians must think positively of their country. The followership must resist the temptation to join the maddening crowd of corruption in the wrong and misleading dogma that only the corrupt can succeed in this country. In this regard, we urge parents to lay good examples for their offsprings and to desist from encouraging the latter to engage in sharp practices.

 

 

Professor  Is-haq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC),
234-818-211-9714

234-803-346-4974

 

'NO' TO ASO ROCK BANQUET HALL

5^th December 2012

PRESS RELEASE

'NO' TO ASO VILLA BANQUET HALL

 

The Nigerian Federal Executive Council recently approved a whopping N2.2bn for the purpose of building a banquet hall inside the palatial Aso Rock Villa.   

 

This approval raises more questions than answers. Is a dancing hall Nigeria's next priority? Have we provided accommodation for the homeless thousands who sleep under the bridge? Are our roads motorable? Have we conquered the power monster? Is the gangrene sucking the blood dry in the education sector plugged out yet? Do we now have drugs in the hospitals? Bombs are still exploding. Kidnappers are having a field day. What, therefore, does President Jonathan want to celebrate in a presidential banquet hall?

 

It beats the imagination of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) that a man who narrated his shoeless childhood to a sympathetic and gullible nation would turn around to propose N300m for plates and spoons in Aso Rock and N18bn for the maintenance of the presidential fleet of aircrafts. When will Nigeria grow? Saudi Arabia hosts an average of five million people for two months annually without the lights blinking for a second. The taps run ad infinitum. The roads are bumpless and macadam. When will Nigeria grow?

 

It was this same Nigeria that was declared the 26^th poorest and later 20^th hungriest country in the world. 100,000 Nigerians die of tuberculosis annually. Another 300,000 die yearly of ordinary malaria. Life expectancy, which was seventy as at independence, is now 47. Eighty million Nigerians live below poverty line. Per capita income is less than $300 and the average Nigerian lives on less than $1 per day. There is no hope of employment for Nigerian graduates. We therefore have every reason to declare the Jonathan administration as deaf, dumb and clueless.

 

The Glorious Qur'an says, "Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing and put a veil on their eyes…." (Qur'an 2:7). MURIC reminds Aso Rock of the divine warning contained in Qur'an 102: 1-4 "You compete in the accumulation of wealth…and it diverts you (from the welfare of the citizens)…until you go into your graves. Soon you will know…Very soon indeed you will know".

 

We assert clearly, unambiguously and unequivocally that the proposed banquet hall is an exercise in frivolity, opulence, gross irresponsibility and executive insensitivity. MURIC rejects this culture of reckless spending. The signals coming from Aso Rock confirm the fear earlier expressed by some activists in the country, namely, that Jonathan is out to out-Herod Herod.

 

Professor  Is-haq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
234-818-211-9714

234-803-346-4974