7th February,
2019
PRESS RELEASE:
Retired Lt. Gen. TY
Danjuma recently warned Nigerians that Islamists must not rule Nigeria again.
He accused the Buhari administration of Islamisation of the judiciary and threw
his weight behind the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter
Onnoghen. The retired general and others spoke on the platform of the Northern
Christian Elders Forum (NCEF).
However, the Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC) in a press statement issued on Thursday, 7th February,
2019 has urged Nigerians to ignore the retired general. The statement was
signed by its founder and director, Professor Ishaq Akintola. The Islamic human
rights organisation described the allegation of Islamisation as baseless,
unfounded and mischievous.
“Lt. Gen. Danjuma is
trying to mislead Nigerians”. MURIC said. “He is inciting them against Muslim
leaders. He and those who joined him in this last journey to nowhere seek to
turn Christians and Muslims against each other. We will not allow that. Such a
move is self-serving and callous. It is the road to self-destruction. A house
divided against itself cannot stand. We urge Nigerians to ignore them.
“Nigerians who are not
victims of collective amnesia will recall that the cry of ‘Islamisation’ has
always been on the lips of Islamophobics from time immemorial. Yet nobody has
been Islamised. They ranted over sukuk bonds until they saw its fruits being used
to build roads everywhere, including the South East. Of the 36 ministers in the
country, 18 are Christians while 18 are also Muslims. In addition, Christians
were given two juicy posts by this Muslim president: the secretary to the
Federal Government and the Chief of Staff. Where lies Islamisation agenda?
Islamisation or Fulanisation is a mirage, a phantom. It exists only in the
imagination of disgruntled elements.
“Nigerians should ask Danjuma and his ilks the following
questions. Is it Islamisation to construct the Second Niger Bridge? Is it
Fulanisation to refurbish Lagos-Ibadan expressway? How many of the 9.2 million
school children who are being fed free by this administration are Fulanis or
Muslims? Is the new fast train in Abuja part of the Islamisation? How many
Muslims have taken the train without their tickets and how many Christians have
been turned back on the basis of their faith? Buhari may be a Muslim but his new roads
know no religion. His trains know no religion.
“How can anyone
interpret the suspension of a billionaire CJN who possesses 55 houses in Abuja
alone as Islamisation? The next qualified person was picked for the post and
that is due process. What crime has he committed for being a Muslim? How can
that be interpreted as Islamisation? Very soon it will be Islamisation for
Nigerian Muslims to get employment. It will be Islamisation if a Muslim eats.
It will be Islamisation if the pilot of a plane or the driver of a bus is a
Muslim. It is mass profiling and indiscriminate stigmatization of Nigerian
Muslims.
“It is the Acting CJN
today. It can be any Muslim tomorrow. MURIC will continue to defend Allah-given
fundamental rights of Nigerian Muslims with every legitimate means at its
disposal. No amount of blackmail, intimidation and name-calling can deter us.
Both Muslims and Christians have the right to rule Nigeria because this country
is a multi-religious state. We will not stand akimbo and allow some
self-acclaimed elders to mislead Nigerians or to blackmail or scare away
Muslims who have leadership potentials
“Progressive people
around the world are not using religion as a criterion for picking their
leaders. They look at industry, antecedence, integrity, competence and
morality. This should be the focus of Nigerians. We must free ourselves from
the bondage of articulated religiousity. Religion is not about hate, killing
and burning. Religion is love. We were human beings before we knew about any
religion. So religion is humanity.
“We charge Nigerians to be wary of peddlers of
hate. It is not religion. Neither is it ethnicity. We strongly suspect that TY
Danjuma is calling for a personal pound of flesh. The tap from which free money
has been flowing for so long has been closed by this administration. The Father
Christmas mentality of past regimes has given way to prudent management of
government’s resources. Oil licenses and blocks are not being renewed.
“No
wonder, therefore, that a prominent member of the tiny cabal is venting his
spleen on the Buhari regime. The electioneering period has been chosen to drive
the point home. But Nigerians should not be deceived. It is neither about
religion nor ethnicity. Otherwise why are the candidates of the two leading
political parties Muslims and ‘Islamists’? How did this come about in spite of
all the noise in the churches that Christians should not vote for Muslim
candidates? Why are the candidates of the two major political parties of Fulani
extraction despite the outcry in churches that Christians should not vote for
any Fulani man?
“The truth is that the
capitalist bourgeoisie political class to which the tiny cabal belongs are
fidgety. They see themselves as the owners of Nigeria and they are deeply
worried that power is gradually shifting to the masses. They are just 1% of the
population. But they are so powerful that they control 85% of the total wealth
of Nigeria. They control the media and they used to control government until
2015. The 99% who are the masses continue to struggle over the sharing of the
remaining 15% of Nigeria’s resources. It cannot go round and this explains why
we always fight among ourselves. To make matters worse, people like Danjuma and
his NCEF inject the opium in religion and the heroin in ethnicity into the
system to add fuel to the conflagration.
“It should be noted
that the NCEF has already been disowned by the officially recognized body of
Nigerian Christians. NCEF is no more than a concoction and an unknown
nomenclature, a pain in the neck even for Christendom and an embarrassment for
true and patriotic Christians.
“MURIC advices Nigerians to disregard religious jobbers and
spiritual busy bodies looking for a platform to unleash acrobatic religiousity
and gymnastic spirituality. NCEF is fanning the embers of religious extremism
among Christians. It can only lead to mayhem. This is a group known for
fomenting trouble and for crying wolf where there is none. Its stock-in-trade
has always been hate speech and incitement.
“Lt. Gen. Danjuma Must
learn to live and let live. We remind him that the world is watching. We appeal
to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to call NCEF to order once again.
We call the attention of foreign observers, leaders of the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States, the United Kingdom and the
European Union to the inciting statements of Lt. Gen. Danjuma and his cohorts.
Professor Ishaq
Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC)
No comments:
Post a Comment