MURIC DENOUNCES LAGOS LIST OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FAILING INCLUSIVITY TEST

29^th July, 2023

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC DENOUNCES LAGOS LIST OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FAILING INCLUSIVITY TEST

   

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, Friday, 28^th July, 2023 unveiled the list of commissioners for the state. The list contained 39 names. But an Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has rejected the list for failing to pass inclusivity and integrity tests.

 

 

This was contained in a statement issued on Saturday, 29th July, 2023 by the Executive Director of the organization, Professor Ishaq Akintola.  

 

He said:

 

"The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday unveiled the list of commissioners for the state. The list contained 39 names.

 

 

"But to our surprise, only 8 of the nominees are verifiable Muslims. We find it difficult to understand why cabinet composition should be weaponised by the Lagos State Government (LASG) against Muslims. Ratio 31:8 fails inclusivity test. It also fails integrity test. What percentage is 8 out of 39? What is the rationale for coming out with this atrocious ratio?

 

 

"This is exactly what we have been saying about the political marginalisation of Muslims in the South West. It is a disease of the eyes, not of the nose. It needs no smelling. We can all see and read the list. It is all over the internet. Muslims groups all over the South West are expressing dissatisfaction with the development.

 

 

"We strongly denounce this deliberate and illegal attempt to deprive Muslims of opportunities to partake in the governance of their environment.

 

 

“It is illegal because Section 14(4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stipulates that ‘The composition of the Government of the Federation, a State, a local government council, or any of the agencies of such Government or council, and the conduct of the affairs of the Government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in such manner as to recognise the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the people of the Federation.’

 

 

“Sanwo-Olu’s proposed cabinet is therefore illegal, illegitimate, unlawful and unconstitutional to the extent that it failed to be fair to the teeming Muslim population in the state. It will remain so until he reviews it and makes the list inclusive. Lagos Muslims have been rubbished by this list. It is a dirty slap in the face. This list is disgusting, repulsive and therefore unacceptable.

 

 

“It is a betrayal of trust because Lagos Muslims voted en masse for Sanwo-Olu. MURIC in particular came out openly to support his second term and we persuaded fellow Muslims to drop their opposition to the governor. But imagine this!

 

 

"We are sending a note of warning to all political parties in the state. 2027 will not be business as usual. Don't come to lobby us for votes if your candidate is not a Muslim. It is the turn of Muslims in 2027 and we will vote massively for any party that picks a Muslim as it's gubernatorial flagbearer.

 

 

“MURIC has no political tabula rasa. We are open to all parties. The welfare of Nigerian Muslims is our major interest. We will not hide that. Neither do we owe anyone any apology for it.”

 

#RejectAntiMuslimList

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola, 

Executive Director,

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).

MURIC TO TINUBU : LOOK BEHIND YOU MR PRESIDENT

 

30^th July, 2023

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC TO TINUBU : LOOK BEHIND YOU, MR PRESIDENT

   

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remember that the North supported him to ameliorate the suffering of Muslims in the South. The group maintained that Tinubu's ministerial appointments should therefore reflect some improvement in the status of Muslims in Southern Nigeria. 

 

This was revealed in a statement issued on Sunday, 30th July, 2023 by the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola.

 

The group said:

 

"Only two or three Muslims can be identified among all the ministers nominated from the South by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This is disappointing because whereas Christians from the region ganged up against him, the Muslims rallied to his support. 

 

 

"The story of how a group of Muslims from the South West mobilised themselves to seek the support of the North in ensuring that a Yoruba Muslim emerged as president of Nigeria is already in the public space.

 

 

“Of particular importance is the fact that MURIC began the campaign for the emergence of a Yoruba Muslim president as early as 23^rd February, 2021 with our visionary and rhetorical caption ‘2023: Why Has No Yoruba Muslim Ever Occupied Aso Rock? – MURIC’ (https://dailypost.ng/2021/02/26/2023-buharis-successor-must-be-yoruba-muslim-islamic-group-vows/; https://newsdigest.ng/no-yoruba-muslim-muric-laments/;https://www.nairaland.com/6435075/muric-why-no-yoruba-muslim/5; https://dailynigerian.com/yoruba-muslim-occupied-aso/)

 

 

See the following links also for several followup press statements made by MURIC on the same subject matter  https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/muric-clarifies-stand-over-2023-yoruba-muslim-presidency/; https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/2023-presidency-well-only-vote-for-a-yoruba-muslim-from-south-west-muric/; https://www.thecable.ng/muric-yoruba-muslim-must-get-2023-presidential-ticket-regardless-of-political-party)

 

 

 "Equally didactic is the fact that MURIC based the campaign on the fact that Yoruba Muslims had been under religious persecution, political marginalisation and socio-economic ostracisation because no Yoruba Muslim had ever ruled Nigeria since independence. This was the argument we used to persuade the North to support our struggle and they gave us their full support.

 

 

"This explains the bold antics of the 12 Northern governors and other pre-primaries manouvers which produced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the ruling party. Strategic considerations and the intense activities of Islamic scholars led to the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Nobody can deny that this religious card eventually gave victory to the Yoruba Muslim candidate in the 25th February presidential election. 

 

 

"The implication of this is that Northern Muslims supported the emergence of a southern Muslim as president in order to mitigate the suffering of Muslims in the South and to emancipate them from religious oppression and socio-economic enslavement.

 

 

"But the story so far has not impressed Nigerian Muslims, North or South. Complaints have flooded the Muslim communities. Tinubu's appointments have not in any way allayed the fears of Muslims in the South West. Equally alarming is the fact that Northern scholars have started reminding MURIC that with only 2 Muslims out of about 17 ministerial appointments for the South, the pendulum still continues to swing the other way. 

 

 

"We therefore call the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the need to rectify things before all ministerial appointments are concluded.

 

 

“This is our message to the president.  Look behind you, Mr. President, and see how you emerged as president. It is done everywhere.

 

 

“We know you are capable but there were things you and your fellow politicians could not do. But the scholars penetrated the labyrinths of the Northern Islamic landscape to soften hardened minds. Look behind you and visualize how naira re-design and petrol politics were luciferously ‘emefiolised’ to turn the hoi polloi against you. 

 

"Mr. President sir, this is the time for Muslims to emerge as ministers from Oyo, Ogun and Osun. Ekiti and Ondo already have Christian governors and Christian deputy governors (Christian-Christian tickets). Heaven will not fall if Muslims emerge as ministers from there. Give us at least 4 ministers from the South West. 

 

 

"One or two Muslim  ministers from each of the South South and South East sub-regions will not be out of planet earth. Afterall Christians are known to have emerged as ministers from core Muslim zones in the past. Our Muslim brothers from the East feel what we feel in the South West. They should also be considered. Lagos can have a Christian minister because both the president and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are from there. 

 

 

"There is agony in our hearts as we reach out to you from a region that has 17 states but all 17 states are ruled by 17 Christian governors. What crime has Southern Muslims committed?"

 

#TinubuRememberMuslims

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola, 

Executive Director,

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).

 

 

MINISTERS : MUSLIMS ROOTING FOR PROF OLAIYA – MURIC

 

 

28^th July, 2023

PRESS RELEASE:

MINISTERS : MUSLIMS ROOTING FOR PROF OLAIYA – MURIC

   

The Nigerian Senate has unveiled 28 names of ministerial nominees sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A top party official of the ruling party has also indicated that twelve more names of other nominees are in the offing. 

 

 

While reacting to the ministerial list, an Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has revealed that Nigerian Muslims expect the name of Professor Abideen Olaiya to be among names of ministerial nominees from the South West. 

 

The expectation was revealed in a statement issued on Friday, 28th July, 2023 by the Executive Director of the organization, Professor Ishaq Akintola. 

 

The full statement reads:

 

"The Nigerian Senate has unveiled 28 names of ministerial nominees sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A top party official of the ruling party has also indicated that twelve more names of other nominees are in the offing. 

 

 

"The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) can confidently reveal the name that is making waves among Nigerian Muslims at the moment. Muslims North and South of Nigeria are rooting for Professor Abideen Olaiya as one of the ministers that must emerge from the South West. 

 

 

"It will be recalled that MURIC had demanded that at least four out of the six ministers from the South West should be Muslims in order to partly make up for the injustice of the past, particularly in the days of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan when all six ministers from the region were Christians to the chagrin of the majority Muslim population. 

 

 

"No excuse can be acceptable for omitting Olaiya's name in the ministerial list, not competence, not party loyalty, not even diligence or antecedent. We plead that the choice of the Muslim Ummah be respected.

 

#ProfAbideenOlaiyaForMinister

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola, 

Executive Director,

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).

 

MURIC TO ADELEKE: REINSTATE SACKED RECTOR

 

26^th July, 2023

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC TO ADELEKE: REINSTATE SACKED RECTOR

   

Governor Ademola Adeleke yesterday sacked the rector of Osun State Polytechnic, Dr. Kola Odetayo. He was immediately replaced with Mr. Kehinde Alabi. However, an Islamic human rights advocacy group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has condemned the rector’s sack and demanded his immediate and unconditional reinstatement.

 

 

A statement issued on Wednesday, 26^th July, 2023 by the Executive Director of the Muslim group, Professor Ishaq Akintola, described the rector’s sack as an anomaly, a gross aberration and one act of impunity too many.

 

The full statement reads :

 

“Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State yesterday sacked the rector of the state’s polytechnic, Dr. Kola Odetayo. He was immediately replaced with Mr. Kehinde Alabi Adeyemi who is from Ede, the same town with the governor.

 

 

“MURIC totally condemns Governor Adeleke’s action. It is an anomaly, a gross aberration and one act of impunity too many. The appointment of Kehinde Alabi Adeyemi is an abuse of due process because, ceteris paribus, the deputy rector should be the next choice when a rector is removed according to the polytechnic’s rules.

 

 

“The governor had wanted the sacked rector to influence the election which was held to pick the deputy rector to favour his kinsman, but this was impossible as his kinsman was unpopular. He scored 9 in the election and came third behind Oyeleke who scored 51 and was declared winner and deputy rector.

 

 

“Instead of the governor to ratify this election and approve the appointment of the winner as deputy rector, he raked trumped up charges against the rector, sacked him and picked the man who came third in the election as rector. Who does that?

 

“The man who won the election and became the deputy rector should have been made to act as rector if indeed the latter had to be suspended. But the governor bent over backwards to pick the man who came third. This is an exhibition of vested interest. Adeleke is a tyrannical ruler. He will plunge Osun into unimaginable crisis.

 

 

“Already, the polytechnic is boiling. Students are protesting against the governor’s erratic choice. The association of polytechnic lecturers have also declared an industrial dispute based on the governor’s disregard for the result of their election. By bypassing the result of a properly, freely and democratically conducted election, Adeleke has exposed himself as an enemy of democracy, a dictator and a totalitarian enforcer. Osun State is in the hands of a misfit.

 

 

“The sacked rector holds a doctorate degree. He is therefore eminently qualified as rector whereas the man picked to replace him is among the lowest chief lecturers. The only consideration is that he is from Ede, the governor’s town. It is therefore a manifestation of nepotism of the highest order.

 

 

“The list of acts of nepotism under Governor Adeleke is now as long as River Mississippi. He made his late brother’s wife a commissioner. Another woman appointed commissioner has a relationship with the Adeleke family.

 

 

“A fresh graduate of the Adeleke family was appointed chairman of the Local Government Service Commission. Adeleke (jnr) is the governor’s nephew, the son of governor Adeleke’s elder brother and the late governor of Osun state, Isiaka Adeleke.

 

 

“This governor allocated around 31 juicy posts, including 7 permanent secretaries to Ede. Again without bashing an eyelid, Adeleke ensured that 6 out of the newly appointed 30 special advisers are from Ede town, his country home. Already, the leader of the lecturer’s union in OSPOLY has accused Adeleke of wanting to put Ede indigenes everywhere in the school. Nigeria never had a worst governor.

 

 

“If Governor Ademola Adeleke does not win the nobel prize for nepotism, his name will definitely enter the Guiness Book of Records for acts of impunity, abuse of due process and reckless infringement on decorum.

 

“Before we drop the anchor, we assert that we are not unaware that Mr. Kehinde Alabi Adeyemi, the man who was wrongfully and illegally appointed as rector, is a Muslim. But that is neither here nor there. There is open injustice here. We will rather eschew sentiment and settle for merit and justice. We therefore demand the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of the sacked rector, Dr. Kola Odetayo.”

#ReinstateSackedRector

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola, 

Executive Director,

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).