13th September, 2013
PRESS RELEASE:
53 GOLD-PLATED IPHONES! IT HAD BETTER NOT BE
The Independent of London recently disclosed that the Federal Government has ordered 53 gold-plated iPhones via a Dubai-based business man, Mr. Amjad Ali of Gold & Co, to commemorate Nigeria"s 53rd independence anniversary. According to the report, each gold-plated iPhone may cost 50,000 British pounds or N12.2 million, totaling approximately N649 million. Each gold-plated iPhone is expected to be engraved with the Nigerian coat of arms, a shield and two horses.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is highly flabbergasted by the likely veracity of this allegation. It is nothing but a sheer exercise in executive insensitivity, official callousness and administrative brigandage.
It is unthinkable, laughable and irrational that this can happen in a country whose proletariat is wallowing in abject poverty, a country adjudged as the 20th hungriest country and 26th poorest, where 80 million people live below poverty line, where 11 million people are undernourished, where the citizens live on less than $1 per day and per capita income is less than $300.
Who are these 53 gold-plated iPhones for? Are they for the hungry jamaaheer (masses) or for the army of jobless youths? Are they meant to solve the imbroglio in the education sector or to eliminate our security challenges?
This disclosure further cements the hypothesis that 1% of Nigerians consume 85% of Nigeria's wealth leaving a paltry 15% for the remaining 99% of the population.
MURIC reminds those in power today that everything in this life is ephemeral. Our leaders should not think that amassing wealth will elongate their lives on earth. "He piles up wealth and thinks his wealth will make him live forever" (Glorious Qur'an 104:3-4) Nay! Why have our leaders failed to learn from history, particularly from recent history?
Where is Abacha? Where is ex-President Yar'adua? Where is Stella Obasanjo? The Qur'an affirms, "The death from which you flee will surely overtake you. Then you will return to the Knower of all things and He will tell you the truth of all you did" (Quran 62:8). Our leaders can hide their excesses from us today but they will not be able to do so Yaom al-Qiyamah (on the Day of Judgement).
What kind of message are our leaders sending to us? They ask us to be prudent but they are wasteful. They tell us to exercise patience but they are reckless. They talk about war against corruption but they are not transparent.
We implore our rulers to imbibe the fear of Allah and to have the love of the citizens in their hearts. Unless this happens, they will continue to attract the anger and the curses of the under-trodden jamaaheer.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC),
0818-211-9714
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC),
0818-211-9714
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC),
234-803-346-4974
234-818-211-9714
E-mail: muslimrightsconcern@yahoo.co.uk
Website: www.muric.net
Yahoo Group: groups.yahoo.com/group/muslimrights
Blog: muslimrightsmuric.blogspot.com
Twitter: twitter.com/muslimrights
MURIC's bank account :
Banker's Name: Guaranty Trust Bank
Be just
Justice is the soul of peace
Banker's Name: Guaranty Trust Bank
Account Name: Muslim Rights Concern
Account Number: 0112827277
Account Number: 0112827277
Justice is the soul of peaceNo one can deny one and have the other
Neither can violence or naked force bring lasting peace
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