21st April, 2021
PRESS RELEASE :
SHARI’AH IN YORUBALAND : MURIC
REPLIES IGBOHO’S AIDE
Mr. Olayemi Koiki, the media aide to Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a. Igboho), has
been quoted as saying that Muslims will be allowed to practise their religion if Oduduwa Republic becomes a reality (http://saharareporters.com/2021/04/17/sharia-will-be-allowed-oduduwa-republic-igbohos-aide-replies-muric).
Koiki was responding to a statement by
the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) in which the human rights group demanded to
know what those agitating for Oduduwa Republic have in stock for issues concerning
the rights of Yoruba Muslims like hijab and Shariah. Speaking in an interview with a
leading online newspaper on Friday, 16th April, 2021, Koiki said the
Yoruba nation would respect the rights of adherents of the various
religions.
But in MURIC’s response to Igboho’s aide, the group said it
would like to hear from Yoruba socio-cultural groups like Afenifere, Yoruba World
Congress (YWC), Federation of Yoruba Consciousness and Culture (FYCC), Yoruba Council
of Elders (YCE), etc, to know the next line of action.
MURIC’s statement was issued on Wednesday, 21st
April, 2021 by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
The statement reads:
“Our attention has been drawn to the response to the demands of
Yoruba Muslims from the agitators for Yoruba Republic. The media aide to Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a. Igboho), Mr. Olayemi Koiki, has
been quoted as saying that Muslims will be allowed to practise their religion if Oduduwa Republic becomes a reality.
“However, there are too
many grey areas in his response. For instance, nowhere in his interview did he
mention hijab. He was not even categorical on the issue of Shariah. What he
said was ‘whether you want to practise Sharia, it's entirely up to you’. He did
not say, ‘it is allowed’ or ‘We will support the use of shariah’. That response
may be a mere diplomatic stunt.
“He also spoke out of context as he made reference to incidents
in the North. According to him, ‘In 2018, Christians were killed in Benue
because the people who killed them believe they own the land. If you look at
the Southern part of the country, even as a Muslim, your religion seems
different from that of someone from the North because the Northern Muslims
believe you must adhere to a particular dress code’
“Everyone can see transferred aggression in that statement. The
issue is Yorubaland and what the agitators for Oduduwa Republic think of the
demands of Yoruba Muslims. So the outpouring of bitter feelings against the
North should not come up here at all. For example, he said, ‘If I wanted to
live with my wife in Kano and insist she must wear a jean (sic), that is not
tolerated in Kano. Yet, they will accept money accrued from sales of alcohol
and use it to develop Kano.’
“Whether he spoke the truth or not is not the issue. But it is
very glaring that he has mixed up things there. He is using Kano parameter to
determine what to do with Muslims in Yorubaland. That is part of what Yoruba
Muslims have been complaining about. Female Muslims in Yorubaland are often
told ‘This is not Kano. You can’t use hijab here’. The question is, how
prepared are the agitators for the full integration of their fellow Yorubas who
are Muslims?
“Incidentally Muslims in Yorubaland cannot be referred to as
inconsequential, at least in terms of numbers. Muslims are in the majority in four
of the six Yoruba states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun). They also have at least
30% in Ekiti and Ondo states. Afterall democracy is about numbers. It is also
about inclusiveness. So what kind of democratic setting should we expect in the
event of the oduduwisation of Yorubaland? What fate lies ahead for the teeming
Muslim population in the region? These are the questions which Muslims in the
region have been asking MURIC.
“The response of Igboho’s
aide remains vague. According to him, the issue of Shariah will be up to the
Muslims (whatever that means). He also did not mention the hijab which has been
causing crisis in the region recently. There is also the possibility of denial
of any promise to grant Islamic civil rights in future since it was not Igboho
himself or any known Yoruba leader who spoke.
“It is because of this glaring lacuna in the response of
Igboho’s aide that MURIC must seek further clarification from well-known Yoruba
socio-cultural groups like Afenifere, Yoruba World Congress (YWC), Federation
of Yoruba Consciousness and Culture (FYCC), Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE).
Yoruba Muslims will equally like to hear from the Yoruba Welfare Group (YWG) though
the group has been telling Yoruba leaders to tread cautiously.
“We are therefore calling on the leaders of these groups to
speak up for all Nigerians and the rest of the world to know how well the
agitators are prepared to tolerate freedom of religion, free speech, free
movement, equal participation, equal representation, justice, fairness and
equity in the proposed Oduduwa Republic. This is important for posterity. It is
important for the records. Unborn children of Yoruba Muslims are going to read
all these and they will know that their progenitors sought to guarantee their
safety, their freedom and the dignity of their human persons.
“It is our contention
that if Igboho could hear MURIC’s demands (which made him respond), Yoruba
leaders also heard them. It is on record that MURIC had based its objection to
the idea of an Oduduwa Republic because of the open marginalization, oppression
and persecution of Yoruba Muslims in the region. The group is of the opinion
that unless there are guarantees from Yoruba leaders, Oduduwa Republic would be
hell on earth for Muslims as the repression of Muslims is most likely to get
worse.
“The statement made by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in which he said
he knew where to keep Muslims like Akintola after the actualization of Oduduwa
Republic is a major reference point. There are other cases in reference and examples
of the violation of the civil rights of Muslims in Yorubaland. Muslim female
teachers who went for a promotion interview in Abeokuta last week (Thursday 15th April, 2021) were told that they must remove their hijab before they could be
interviewed. The Muslim girl-child is being stigmatized in the school and
sometimes locked out of the classroom on account of an ordinary headscarf.
“The hijab of the Muslim girl-child is yanked off her head by
Christian teachers who are also Yorubas. Muslim girls are beaten up and sent
back home. Muslim parents suffer this humiliation on a daily basisin Yorubaland.
Muslim males are forced to remove their caps and turbans. Some are forced to
shave their beards before being attended to by government civil servants who
are also Yorubas. Court cases which bother on the infringement of Allah-given
fundamental human rights of Yoruba Muslims litter courts in the region.
“Political appointments are reserved mainly for Christians while
Muslims who constitute the majority are ignored. There are only four Muslims
among the fourteen (14) commissioners in Oyo and Ogun states where the
governors are Christians. All the board chairmen in the two states are
Christians except the Muslim Pilgrims Board and the governors have ignored the
complaints of Muslims. In Ekiti State, Fayose ran an all-Christian cabinet. In
Oyo State, the hijrah holiday which was declared by a former Muslim governor,
Isiaka Ajimobi, has been annulled by Seyi Makinde, a Christian governor.
“Muslims are also totally marginalized in the education sector.
Christians are in charge in the ministries of education in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo,
Ekiti and Ondo. All the teaching service commissions TESCOM) are headed by
Christians. Some of the heads are even church clerics. A pastor is the chairman
of Ogun State TESCOM while an evangelist heads the Ogun State commission. We
believe this is a deliberate and strategic ploy to perpetuate Christian
hegemony in the education sector in Yorubaland. This is the machinery of
oppression and it has served in the repression of hijab-wearing female Muslim
students and teachers. The perpetrators persecute Muslims with impunity since
they are assured of official protection up to the office of the commissioner of
education.
“Yoruba Muslims are also
asking why no Yoruba Muslim has
emerged as president since independence. Why? Earnest Shonekan was an interim head of state (around1995). Mathew Obasanjo has been president twice:
once as a military head of state (1976 – 79) and as a civilian president (1999
-2007). Today we still have a Yoruba Vice President who is also a Christian
(Professor Yemi Osinbajo). Former President Goodluck Jonathan (2011 – 2015)
appointed six (6) ministers from Yorubaland and all of them were Christians.
“We are nonplussed that Afenifere has never
commented on the above maltreatment of Muslims that has lasted decades (since
independence) in its domain but it revels in joining Ohaneze of the South East
and the Middle Belt Forum in complaining about marginalisation, nepotism and
Islamisation which they claim began six years ago.
“We call on Afenifere to put its house in order
first. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. For now Yoruba
Muslims see no difference between Afenifere and the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN). In fact, the former looks more like the political wing of the
latter in the South West. We are waiting earnestly to know which way the cat
will jump as regards Afenifere and the Muslim 2023 presidential candidate.
“These are issues we want
Afenifere and the Yoruba leaders to address in their response. Their silence
will mean they have a hidden agenda. It will mean they are determined to
continue oppressing their fellow Yorubas who are Muslims after the
oduduwisation of Yorubaland.
“Let us make it clear that the type of Sharia
which the Muslims want is not the one which involves the cutting of hands. That
has been the false propaganda of detrators. The type of shariah which Yoruba
Muslims want is civil shariah. It will only enable Muslims to settle marriage
cases among themselves and to share the inheritance of deceased Muslims
according to the teachings of the Qur’an.
“We
must also put the Shariah matter in its proper perspective. This was the kind
of Shariah that Yoruba Muslims have been practising even before the advent of
Christianity (which arrived in Nigeria in 1842 while Islam arrived in 1085). The
British Christian colonialists met Shariah in Yorubaland but they abrogated it
totally and replaced it with common law. This act of tyranny against Yoruba
Muslims should have been reviewed after independence in 1960.
“The fact that the British imperialists
totally annulled shariah in Yorubaland but merely curtailed it to civil shariah
in the North exposes the hypocrisy of the colonialists. If they could allow
civil shariah in the North (which they did), why didn’t they leave it in the
South West? That is British divide et impera for you. The British laid mines on
the Nigerian soil for Nigerians to step on and blow themselves up.
Unfortunately that is exactly what we are doing today instead of coming
together, sitting down and angaging in constructive dialogue.
“Coming
along the lanes of history, shariah was practiced in Ede under Oba Abibu Olagunju
(Habeeb, a Muslim name) and the Ede Shariah Court operated up till 1913 at
Agbeni area of the town. It was moved to Agbongbon area in 1914. Shariah was applied
in Iwo under Oba Momodu Lamuye (Muhammad Lamuye) who died in 1906. Even the
seventh Akirun of Ikirun, Oba Aliyu Oyewole (died 1912), instituted Shariah in Ikirun
in 1910. These are just examples of the existence and spread of Shariah in
Yorubaland.
“We are
not asking for something new. We are demanding the restoration of a right and a
religious practice unjustly halted and denied by the Christian colonial master,
Britain.
THE WAY FORWARD:
“The way forward is for leaders of the agitation to
respond to this statement by making pronouncements on their position on the
hijab affair and civil shariah. That is the first step. Next, they should
engage Muslim leaders in Yorubaland in genuine dialogue. The record of the
discussions and the names of those involved must be made public in order to avoid
a repeat of the Aburi Accord fiasco.
“Thirdly, all
threats and blackmail against those who speak against secession or against the
breakup of Nigeria should stop. That will signal goodwill and readiness to accommodate
all Yorubasons and daughters regardless of their religious background or
ideological leaning. In particular, the attempt to blackmail MURIC by falsely
alleging that the leader collected $200,000 from terrorists was a bad omen of
what Muslims should expect in Yorubaland if the Yoruba Republic agenda
succeeds.
“Contrary
to the claim being made by Oduduwa Republic ideologues, MURIC seeks peace in
Yorubaland. We are not out for mischief. MURIC has never been known for
violence. Our motto is ‘Dialogue, No Violence’. Many of our members are Yorubas
and they cannot betray their font et origo. Finally, Yoruba Muslims do not want war with any
part of Nigeria. They prefer a peaceful and negotiated arrangement either way.”
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
