FAYOSE RUNNING DIARHEA OF THE MOUTH

28^th February 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

ALLEGATION THAT BUHARI IS ISLAMISING NIGERIA: FAYOSE RUNNING DIARHEA OF THE MOUTH   

The governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, yesterday alleged that Buhari was Islamising Nigeria by visiting Saudi Arabia.

By making such a wild and untenable statement, Fayose has just emerged as the most idle executive governor Nigeria ever had. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is now convinced that the landlord of Government House, Ekiti, is an unrepentant rabble-rouser and an advocatus diaboli nulli secundus whose only good quality lies in his high nuisance value.

In the ranking of present and former governors of this country, Bola Tinubu stands tall as the greatest politician of our time, Lateef Jakande and Raji Rasaki were action governors, Fashola was the most performing governor, Rauf Aregbesola is the unusual and activist governor, Kwankwaso is the liberator of the North, Tambuwal is the undeniable champion of education.

In the club of governors, Fayose is the only square peg in a round hole. Apart from being the brain behind Ekitigate, the self-confessed bus conductor should point at a single thing that he has achieved since becoming governor in Ekiti. Just as we have money-miss-road among money-bags, Fayose is simply the executive-governor-miss-road among our governors of today.     

Nigerians should help us ask Fayose where he was when his erstwhile mentor and former President Jonathan turned Jerusalem to the back-yard of Aso Rock, shuttling between Nigeria and Israel with jet-loads of marabouts and arms money. Was Fayose’s moth padlocked at that time?

Even a ten-year old Nigerian child knows the reason for Buhari’s visit to Saudi Arabia. Turbulence in the price of oil has greatly impoverished Nigeria and Buhari is employing diplomacy to turn round our oil fortune. Playing pranks with Buhari’s visit to Saudi Arabia simply shows that Fayose has lost all sense of objectivity. Like a comedian governor and a court jester primus inter pareil, Fayose prefers to cast a wicked joke with the fate of the Nigerian economy.  

But his attempt to whip up religious sentiment has failed woefully because Nigerians know that Fayose is a pathological liar, an unstable politician and an unreliable judge of men.

MURIC wonders how the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) picked Fayose as its gubernatorial candidate despite the existence of better options. The people of Ekiti are well-known as hardworking, resourceful, scholarly and highly intelligent. Why pick Fayose of all people? PDP is advised not to shop for its next candidate from Ado Ekiti motor park.

The landlord of Ekiti Government House is running diarrhea of the mouth. A counter-statement issued by the former minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, cements our position. While it is good that the statement came from a PDP leader, we must emphasize that Fayose needs more than ordinary counter-statements, what the man needs is regular and heavy doses of flagyl and tetracycline to curb his oral diarrhea.

Nigerians are tired of Fayose’s noise. This governor is not paying any attention to the problems of his state. Instead of working hard as a state governor, Fayose is working as PDP megaphone round the clock. Is the Ekiti State House of Assembly sleeping?  

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714

MURIC CONDEMNS DISTRIBUTION OF CONDOMS ON VALENTINE’S DAY

16^th February 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC CONDEMNS DISTRIBUTION OF CONDOMS ON VALENTINE’S DAY 

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, AHF, on Sunday 14^th February, 2016 distributed 500,000 units of condom across different locations of Abuja to commemorate Valentine’s Day. The Foundation also organized concurrent distribution in six states in Nigeria and 36 countries worldwide.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) strongly condemns this action. It is not only misleading but wrongly timed.

Apart from the promotion of sexual licentiousness, public and indiscriminate distribution of condoms to both married and single individuals (including secondary school students) on Valentine’s Day is both a disservice to history and a dishonor to St. Valentine himself.

MURIC wishes to straighten the records in view of this crude attempt to distort history. The proper way to mark Valentine’s Day is to mount a strong campaign against premarital sex in particular and sexual promiscuity in general. This is based on the fact that St. Valentine himself died fighting against these societal evils.

Students of history will recall that Emperor Claudius outlawed marriage in the 5^th century and forcefully conscripted young men into the army. Sexual recklessness followed the issuance of this decree. St. Valentine confronted the emperor’s draconian decree and joined young men and women in marriages in order to bring sanity back to society. He was subsequently arrested and executed on 14^th February, 270 C. E.  

It is therefore an attempt to distort history for any group to mark the day by distributing condoms. Valentine’s Day is not a day for encouraging young girls to lose their virginity. It is not a day to promote fantasies and secretive datings. All these lead to fornication, adultery and the attendant pains of abortion, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood and irresponsible parentage.   

St. Valentine can be better honoured and productively remembered by mounting a campaign against premarital sex, encouraging preference for marriage to immoral relationship, showcasing the beauty of the institution of marriage as opposed to celibacy, promoting family values, and highlighting responsible parentage.

By the same token, we opine that the distribution of condoms gratis to the public as a way of fighting HIV and AIDS is sheer window-dressing. Those who are genuinely interested in stopping the AIDS scourge are advised to strike at the roots. Indecent and provocative dressing among women is at the root of sexual recklessness in society. Any country which succeeds in controlling this phenomenon will find it easy to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases to their barest minimum.    

In conclusion, we remind Nigerians that every single habit in society is a parameter for judging its people, its present as well as its future. We owe it a duty to check today’s immoral practices to avoid descent into the abyss of Sodom and Gomorrah. We charge religious leaders to focus on the reorientation of moral values in general and the reengineering of sexual perceptions in particular.  

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714

PUNISH CROOKS BEHIND BUDGETRY INEXACTITUDE

11^th February 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

PUNISH CROOKS BEHIND BUDGETRY INEXACTITUDE  

 The National Assembly (NASS) yesterday suspended debates on the 2016 budget claiming that it is full of errors.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is deeply worried by the controversy surrounding the 2016 budget proposal. We are nonplussed by the revelations emerging from both the Presidency and the NASS. There is strong evidence of sabotage. Corruption is fighting back.

There is no gainsaying the fact that any delay in passing the budget has far-reaching effect on the nation’s economy. What is most disturbing is the attendant bandwagon effect on the jamaaheer (masses) who will certainly bear the full brunt of the delay.

We recall that the same budget was once declared missing in mysterious circumstances with accusations and counter-accusations between the Presidency and the NASS. The discrepancies recently discovered in the budget suggest the involvement of a sophisticated budget cabal collaborating with an unrepentant extremist opposition clique determined to wreck the economy in order to score a political point.

This is corruption fighting back and dirty. It will be recalled that the Ministry of Health had also cried foul over the contents of its own allocations in the proposed budget.

MURIC strongly suspects that fifth columnists are actively engaged in a bitter and desperate battle to re-open the drain pipes which the new regime has been struggling to block.

It is obvious at this point, even to the blind, that there has been an age-long practice of siphoning the nation’s resources into private pockets through the doctoring of the budget on an annual basis. The irregularities in the budget proposal may also be traced to the landmines laid by the past regime with its zero hour recruitments and appointments.  

The budget department in the Ministry of Finance cannot claim ignorance of this fiscal inexactitude. Accounting error emerging from such a sensitive unit of government is unprofessional. It smirks of gross ineptitude and it should not go unpunished. The Federal Government needs powerful pesticides to exterminate the budget parasites.  

We therefore call for the immediate overhauling of all government departments and units associated with the preparation of the budget. This budgetgate must be probed and the culprits must be punished according to the laws of the land in order to serve as deterrent to others. We must not allow a budget cabal to hold 180 million Nigerians to ransom.  

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714

BEWARE OF RULE OF LAW WITHOUT BORDERS

25^th January 2016,

PRESS RELEASE:

BEWARE OF RULE OF LAW WITHOUT BORDERS

Members of the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and some sponsored groups have accused the Federal Government (FG) of failing to respect the rule of law in its ongoing war against corruption. They want looters, saboteurs and traitors to be granted bail and set free even when it is obvious that such people are most likely to jump bail by fleeing from the country.

        

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) frowns at any attempt to make a mockery of the rule of law. It is a flagrant abuse of the principles of democracy to talk of human rights in defense of those who diverted huge funds earmarked for the purchase of arms. It is only in Nigeria that self-confessed criminals are indulged under the guise of democracy and the rule of law.

How can anyone be talking of the rule of law now when the same rule of law gave those who stole N33 billion police pension fund a pat in the back and asked them to pay N750,000 only! The rule of law guaranteed the freedom of a dictator’s son who laundered N446 billion. The rule of law gave everlasting immunity to a former governor of Rivers State who stole $500 million. The list is endless.

It has always been looting ad infinitum and the law had always looked the other way. But now that integrity is in power and it is making thieves accountable, suddenly we find the rogues appearing in court on wheelchairs, some with crutches, all in an attempt to hoodwink Nigerians. Some insist on being allowed to travel abroad just to treat ordinary sore throat. How can we be so careless as to grant their wish?    

Can’t we see the implications on the lives of 180 million people if 55 people only have the temerity to steal N3.1 trillion within six years and they still have the audacity to hide under the rule of law to enjoy their loot while the rest of us whistle for our dinner? Does that not explain why there are no good roads, no electricity, no qualitative education and no drugs in the public hospitals? Should we still play dumb by allowing them to escape to some remote island?

Rule of law without limits will protect, promote and project corruption. It will provide escape routes for kleptomaniacs and put our gallant propagators of the war against corruption in chains. We must draw a thick line of demarcation between corruption and rule of law.

Nigerians should beware of rule of law without borders. Even the greatest democracies in the world apply limits to their practice of rule of law. That is why the United States has Guantanamo Bay, the widely condemned practice of rendition and waterboarding as a special form of torture. Yet it is all in the national interest. They are all practiced to fight terrorism, America’s greatest challenge of our time.

Terrorism is America’s greatest challenge and the rule of law was not allowed to protect it. In the same vein, corruption is Nigeria’s greatest challenge today and we should not allow the rule of law to stand between us and victory over corruption. We must see the need to create a border line between corruption and rule of law.

The two are incompatible. Corruption is like a gangarene sticking hard to the national anatomy, sucking its blood dry. This gangarene must be burned out with hot iron if necessary. Corruption is a giant monster with its jaws wide open to swallow up the social order.

In fact, corruption is a potent threat to the rule of law. We must therefore destroy corruption to save the rule of law otherwise society will collapse.

It is difficult to understand the mentality of the PDP as a party as it continues to defend the indefensible. Shameful confessions are being made on a daily basis yet the party’s megaphones still find ways of extenuating the shocking revelations. Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. It is birds of the same feather that flock together. We must leave the thieves to defend the thieves. They have the noun ‘thief’ and the verb ‘to steal’. Men and women of integrity must stand firm on the path of transparency, probity and accountability. We must allow the world to see that we are prepared to stand by the truth.

For the avoidance of doubts, MURIC remains non-partisan and we do not care about the fortunes of any political party. But we must raise the alarm if the PDP which has been in power for 16 years is found to have taken this country to the cleaners.

How can we remain neutral when in his popular hadith man raa minkunm munkaran, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned against sitting on the fence on matters like this? He said, “Whoever sees any evil should use his hands to change it. If this is not possible, he should employ his tongue (i.e. speak out against it). If this is not possible, he should use his heart (i.e. pray against it) but that (i.e.) using the heart) is the weakest form of faith”.

How can MURIC turn the blind eye when the Glorious Qur’an also warned, “Beware of a calamity that will not befall the perpetrators of evil alone” (i.e. both the guilty and the innocent will suffer, Qur’an 8:25). No wonder 180 million innocent Nigerians are suffering from the iniquities of a tiny cabal comprising of 55 selfish, greedy and avaricious people.

The Italian poet, Dante Alighieri argued that “The hottest part of hell will be reserved for those who in times of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.” Therefore every conscious Nigerian must speak out against this massive fraud which led to the deprivation of our gallant soldiers of much needed weapons, the resultant death of several gallant soldiers, the destruction of many churches and mosques, the loss of more than 150,000 lives of innocent Northerners among them women and children as well as over one million people of the North East who fled their homes.

We must not leave the ruling party, the All People’s Congress (APC), to do all the fighting alone. It is not about the APC. It is about Nigeria and our collective survival as a people. All of us are now suffering for the moral debauchery and financial recklessness of our past leaders.

Finally, we appeal to the world community to ignore the crocodile tears of the opposition camp, the campaigns of calumny of its sponsored agents and the claims of vendetta and political victimization by PDP’s cronies. Nigerians support the war against corruption but we cannot afford rule of law without borders at this point in time.

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714