COAS APPOINTMENT : STOP MISLEADING THE PUBLIC

 

2^nd June, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

COAS APPOINTMENT : STOP MISLEADING THE PUBLIC

 

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has advised those criticising President Muhammadu Buhari over the recent appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to desist from misleading the public.      

 

 

The Islamic human rights group joined issues with those criticising President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement issued by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday, 2^nd June, 2021.

 

 

The statement reads:

 

“Some Nigerians are making a mountain out of a mere mole hill. The recent appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new COAS has attracted a tornado of criticisms. Unfortunately most of the comments were short in objectivity but long in sentimentality.

 

 

“MURIC will like to place the issue in its proper perspective in order to put the records straight. Many of the criticisms were full of outright lies and deliberate inexactitude. Some falsely claimed that the South has produced only four COAS against the North’s seven.

 

 

“For the records, Victor Malu, a Christian from Benue State was COAS from 1999 to 2001. He was succeeded by Alex Ogomudia, another Christian from Delta (2001 – 2003). Martin Luther Agwai who was also a Christian from Kaduna State took over from 2003 to 2006. Agwai handed over the baton to Owoye Andrew Azazi, another Christian from Bayelsa (2006 – 2007). Luka Yusuf, a Christian from Kaduna served in the same capacity from 2007 to 2008. He was succeeded by Abdul Rahman Danbazzau, a Muslim from Kano (2008 – 2010).

 

 

“Azubuike Ihejirika, a Christian from Abia State, came on the scene from 2010 to 2014 and he was succeeded by another Christian from Rivers State, Kenneth Minimah (2014 – 2015). Tukur Buratai, a Muslim from Borno State and the longest serving army chief had a taste of leadership of the Nigerian Army in 2015 and he left office in 2021. Ironically, he was succeeded by the shortest serving COAS, Attahiru Ibrahim, another Muslim from Kaduna. Attahiru was in office for just four months (January 26, 2021 – May 21, 2021). The newly appointed COAS, Farouk Yahaya, is a Muslim from Sokoto.

 

 

“It is clear from the above that seven Christians have been COAS against only four Muslims. No Muslim was deemed fit to be COAS during the reign of Obasanjo (1999 – 2007). Interestingly enough, there is no record of Muslims in the country accusing Obasanjo of Christianising the country the same way Christians are screaming to the rooftops today about a phantom Islamisation.

 

 

“Also self-evident from the above data is the indubitable fact that seven Christians were appointed as COAS over a 14-year period with only one Muslim who served for less than two years. Cumulatively also, Christians have served as COAS for fourteen (14) years in the last 22 years while Muslims have served for eight (8) years only.

 

 

“Nigeria’s armchair critics will not provide any data and when they do, they manipulate and skew it to send their perceived enemy to the guillotine. PMB’s appointment raised such a storm that we thought the heavens would come tumbling down.

 

 

“Yet this is not the first time a Nigerian president will appoint a COAS from his own region and religion. Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan removed Danbazau (a Muslim from Kano) in 2008. He replaced him with a Christian from the South and the Muslims did not complain. Neither did the Northerners raise any eyebrow. Azubuike Ihejirika (September 2010 – January 2014) whom Jonathan appointed to replace Danbazau, is a Christian from Isuikwuato, Abia state. Jonathan still appointed another Southerner and a Christian, Major General Kenneth Minimah (January 2014 – July 2015) from Opobo, Rivers State.

 

 

“This trend has also proved that hate merchants will not be satisfied no matter what Buhari does. Exempli gratia, Buhari appointed Rauf Aregbesola, a Yoruba, to replace Abdul Rahman Bello Danbazzau from Zaria as Minister of the Interior (2015 – 2019) yet the Yorubas who also have their kinsmen as the vice president, minister of works, etc are still pursuing an irredentist agenda.

 

 

“Ninety percent of Nigerian critics lack the power of critical analysis. Unfortunately Nigerians are so gullible that they swallow the shallow baits hook, line and sinker. Majority of Nigerians suffer from mass amnesia. We do not look back to compare events.

 

 

“The appointment of a COAS, particularly in the African context, is a matter of trust. Presidents appoint those with whom they feel comfortable. No president wants an Orka or a Dimka or, worse still, an Nzeogwu. That is the reality. We either take it or leave it. Those behind this false propaganda should stop misleading the public.

 

 

“They should also stop trying to dissuade us from speaking the truth. We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled by their agents who spend hours talking to us on telephone and sending to us text messages which qualify for the Longest Text Messages in Africa Award (LTMAA) in an attempt to convert us into the wailers’ camp. Their threats mean nothing to us because as an Islamic human rights group, we take our inspiration from Islamic tenets where thanatophobia (the fear of death) has no place at all.

 

 

“The Glorious Qur’an says, “Say, ‘Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us. He is our Protector’. And in Allah let the believers put their trust.

 

 

“We call on Nigerians to jettison this North-South dichotomy. It is an ill wind that will blow no good towards any Nigerian. It is slowing us down. It is creating bias, narrowing our perspective and beclouding our senses of judgement. Let us embrace integrity as yardstick for electing leaders and meritocracy as perimeter for appointments. But above all, let us love and forgive.

 

 

“For the umpteenth time, we affirm that MURIC is neither for the North nor for the South. NIGERIA is our tribe. NIGERIA is our region. We are for all states and all tribes because we have members in all parts of the country. Neither shall we be partisan because our members are in all political parties. Our truth may be bitter but we will not forsake it for falsehood. We will continue to strike a balance using facts, figures and objectivity; eschewing sentiments, with malice towards none, with charity for all.”

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

MURIC TO PFN : MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

 

29^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC TO PFN : MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

 

Islamic human rights group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) to mind its own business. This followed a warning issued by the PFN on Thursday, 27^th May, 2021 against any move by any group to introduce Sharia law to the South-West zone of the country through the ongoing constitutional review being carried out by the Senate.

 

 

MURIC’s reaction came via a statement issued by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Saturday, 29^th May 2021.

 

 

According to MURIC, “Our Christian neighbours have come again. They are always the ones who fire the first shot. They are always heating up the polity. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) warned on Thursday, 27^th May, 2021 against any move by any group to introduce Shariah law to the South-West zone of the country through the ongoing constitutional review being carried out by the Senate.

 

 

“This is a well-known pattern. Our Christian neighbours know very well that Shariah is the Allah-given fundamental human right of Muslims. But they are determined to deprive us of it using unorthodox methods. They believe they are at war with Muslims and to them, everything is fair in war. They are using both fair and foul means to achieve their objective

 

 

“It is the gospel according to Niccolo Machiavelli : the end justifies the means, no matter what they do to achieve it. Like the German Otto Von Bismarck, they do not just wait to strike when the iron is hot, our Christian neighbours believe in striking to make the cold iron hot. This is why they heat up the polity all year round.

 

 

“PFN and other Christian groups are fully aware that Shariah was in the South West decades before the arrival of Christianity in 1842. 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 and the Christian leaders are not oblivious of the fact that it was the British Christian colonialists who stopped Shariah in Yorubaland and imposed Christian common law.

 

 

“However, they are equally aware of the rising tide of Islamic awareness in the same South West. They have seen the hitherto passive Muslim community being transformed into an active, articulate and politically conscious populace. They are afraid that the sleeping giant is waking up to take back what belongs to it.

 

 

“We call on Nigerians to understand the siege mentality of our Christian neighbours. Like all aggressors, they believe that attack is the best form of defence. As the benefactors and inheritors of colonial rampage that lasted more than a century, they are determined to keep all the loot which their principal bequeathed to them. They are determined to keep the Muslims in a concentration camp into which the colonial masters drove them.  

 

 

“They have forgotten that the only thing that is constant in life is change. We are worried about the voyeuristic disorder which has again manifested in the PFN. It is a Peeping Tom syndrome that propels our Christian neighbours to crane their necks in order to see what is in the pot of soup of the Muslims. It is called ‘giraffing’ in examination hall parlance.

 

 

“The Constitution Review Panel asked Nigerians to forward their views regarding what they want in the constitution. Each group is supposed to submit its needs. But instead of telling the panel what the Christians want, PFN has gone ahead to say what they do not want Muslims to ask for. It is an attempt to gag Muslims in the South West and it will not work.

 

 

“The issue is what do the Christians want? It is clear that they have been overpampered by the colonial master who handed over our common patrimony to them on a platter of gold. So now they want nothing because they already have all they need. But they want to sustain the status quo because it favours them.

 

 

“Decorum, courtesy and protocol demand that Christians should ask for what they lack and what they want. But instead of doing that they are asking the committee not to tolerate the demands of Muslims. Yet Christians already have their own common law and the shariah has nothing to do with them. It is Muslims who need Shariah.

 

 

“This attitude can be compared to that of the dog in the manger whose master gave it its own meat and bone. The dog ate and was filled up. But when the master gave hay to the horse, the dog came barking ferociously in order to prevent the horse from accessing the grass. But do dogs eat grass? How uncharitable can our neighbours be?

 

 

“MURIC warns the PFN and its co-travellers to steer clear of the path of Muslims in the South West. The demand for Shariah is a civil rights matter. It is a demand for change, a demand for the status quo ante. Britain compelled the whole South West to don the toga of Christian ways of life and agents of neo-imperialism are pushing this diabolical scheme. It will not work. We say capital ‘NO’ to neo-colonialism, neo-imperialism and modern slavery.

 

 

“We are being deceived daily by those who claim that there is religious tolerance in the South West. Why is the Muslim girl child in hijab always targeted for persecution if it is true that there is religious tolerance in the South West? Why are Muslims always marginalised in political appointments if there is tolerance in Yorubaland? Why is the South West civil service totally dominated by Christians? Why is the ministry of education in particular and the teaching service authorities in the hands of Christians in all Yoruba states? The claim of religious tolerance is a sham, a phantom. It is a mantra designed to keep Yoruba Muslims in perpetual slavery.

 

 

“Muslims in the region are waking up and asking for freedom. We demand a halt to the forceful use of Christian school uniform, Christian education, Christian law, etc. We demand civil Shariah, not criminal Shariah that involves the cutting of hands but civil Shariah to regulate Muslim marriages, inheritance, family affairs, etc. It has nothing to do with Christians. We will use every peaceful and constitutional means available to attain this objective. We declare a caveat emptor in Shariah-related matters. PFN should mind its own business. No retreat, no surrender.

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

HIJAB: OAU MUST INVESTIGATE HARASSMENT OF FEMALE MUSLIM STUDENT - MURIC

 

26^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

HIJAB: OAU MUST INVESTIGATE HARASSMENT OF FEMALE MUSLIM STUDENT - MURIC

 

An Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, to investigate the circumstances that led a Muslim parent to withdraw his daughter from the school after a teacher allegedly harassed the girl.     

 

 

MURIC’s request was made by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday, 26^th May, 2021.

 

 

MURIC said, “One of the teachers of the Obafemi Awolowo International School (OAUIS), Mrs. Adeyemo, has allegedly harassed a female Muslim student of the school. The intimidation has made the girl’s parents to withdraw her from the school.

 

 

“The girl who was in the habit of using her hijab from home and removing it at the school’s gate (since hijab is not allowed by the school’s authorities) was harassed by Mrs. Adeyemo. Although the girl had removed her hijab as usual at the school’s gate, the teacher still confronted her after she entered the school claiming that she had seen the girl in hijab within the university premises. She gave the girl a totally contemptuous washdown that the latter wept profusely.

 

 

“The parents reportedly came to the school in protest. They argued that their daughter had not violated any of the school’s rules because the girl had removed her hijab before entering the school’s premises. The school authority allegedly argued that it was against the school’s policy for any female student to wear hijab on her uniform anywhere at all and that OAU campus was part and parcel of the school’s premises. Consequently, the girl’s father withdrew his daughter out of frustration.

 

 

“MURIC is greatly amused by this ugly development. As far as the school authorities are concerned, they see this as a win-win situation. On the contrary, it is a dent on the school’s image. We find it interesting that an international school within the premises of an ivory tower will encourage child abuse of such high level. It is quite nauseating.

 

 

“Or do we need a lawyer from outside OAU to explain the implications of what the authorities of OAUIS has done to a little girl? OAUIS has locked out a girl child from its premises. A girl child has been denied access to education on account of a small head scarf at a time the whole world is clamouring for education for the same girl child. It is child abuse of high level magnitude.

 

 

“Worse still, the Psychology Department of the Faculty of Education in OAU needs to work on the mentality of some of the teachers in its international school before further damage is done. Are they aware of the damage done by Mrs. Adeyemo to the psyche of the female Muslim student who was harassed by her and on account of which the girl lost her studentship?

 

 

“Records show that a number of students treated with disdain by their teachers have been known to go into a state of despondency. Many of them become melancholy, incommunicado, drooling all day long. They get detached from all types of academic work. Depression sets in. They also have high propensity for suicide if no urgent steps are taken to reset their pshyche and many are known to have committed suicide on account of tongue-lashing by insensitive teachers.

 

 

“This is exactly where we are going. Mrs. Adeyemo derided the poor female Muslim student because of hijab until the girl lost her self-confidence. She burst into tears, wishing she were never born. Mrs. Adeyemo’s behaviour on that day was contrary to the dictates of the noble profession of teaching to which she belongs. It was unethical, repugnant and despicable. She needs to be counselled before she can do further damage.  

 

 

“We must place on record the fact that the Muslim students in OAUIS are allowed to observe their Salat (prayer) in the school and Islamic Religious Knowledge is also taught there. Credit for this goes to both the OAU Muslim community and the school authorities. But the refusal to allow female Muslim students to don hijab dwarfs all these.

 

 

“Our position is based on the fact that fundamental human rights have always been whole, not partial. Whoever grants some civil liberties only to withhold some has granted no rights at all. It is like giving somebody gold with one hand and using the other to take it back. It is either you recognize all civil rights or you deny all. There is no middle way in Allah-given fundamental human rights. They are not even yours to give in the first place. They are from Allah. That is why we call them Allah-given rights.

 

 

“The argument that the use of hijab violates the school’s rules does not hold any water. The Nigerian Constitution grants religious freedom, including freedom to use hijab. It is important to note that the Constitution is the font et origo and any rule, regulation or law of any local or state government, agency or institution that contravenes any clause therein remains null, void and ultra vires. To that extent, therefore, no school within the country by whatever nomenclature it is called has the power to declare illegal the hijab which the Nigerian Constitution authoritatively makes legitimate.

 

 

“This is another example of the persecution of Muslim children in the hands of overzealous and intolerant Christian civil servants and teachers in the South West. It is interesting that Mrs. Adeyemo bears a Yoruba name. The female Muslim student is also a Yoruba girl. Will Yoruba Muslims not face worse persecution in the hands of Christians if the Yorubas eventually succeed in their plan to secede? Will Muslims be safe at that time when they are not safe even now? Will the Muslims of Yorubaland enjoy any religious freedom if the proposed Oduduwa Republic becomes a reality?

 

 

“The interesting thing is that Muslims only suffer like this in the southern part of Nigeria. They enjoy their Allah-given fundamental human rights in the whole North. Yet Nigeria has just one constitution, not two, not three. Why then should hijab be legitimate in Northern schools but ‘illegitimate’ in Yorubaland?”

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) 

 

DON’T LEGITIMISE CANNABIS – MURIC

 

19^th May, 2021

PRESS RELEASE:

DON’T LEGITIMISE CANNABIS – MURIC

Mr. Benjamin Kalu, a spokesman of the House of Representatives, has said cannabis would aid Nigeria’s industrial drive and boost her internally generated revenue (IGR). Kalu spoke on Monday, 17^th May, 2021. But an Islamic human rights group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has countered this claim. According to the group, the legalisation of cannabis will be the last nail in the coffin of morality in Nigeria.

 

 

MURIC’s reaction came through its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday, 19^th May 2021.

 

He said, “A spokesman of the House of Representatives, Mr. Benjamin Kalu, has solicited for the legalisation of cannabis in Nigeria. We strongly condemn this attempt to compartmentalise Nigerians into vicious drug cartels. Benjamin Kalu wants to turn Nigeria into another Mexico on the African continent.

 

 

“We already have serious security challenges. Boko Haram has been here for more than a decade. We have homegrown kidnapping crisis. Desperate separatist movements have turned into terrorists. We have cultism-related killings in our cities and among our young students.

 

 

“The Glorious Qur’an has diagnosed the Nigerian problem with microscopic accuracy. It said, ‘Evil has appeared on both land and sea as a result of the handiworks of men so that Allah may give them a taste of their deeds and perchance they will turn back from their evil (Qur’an 30:41 Zahara al-fasad fil-barri wal-bahr..)

 

 

“The security challenges we are currently facing are punishments for our recklessness. Instead of thinking of making criminal elements in the country ‘turn back from their evil’, Kalu wants to cap the edifice with drug war. There is no gainsaying the fact that the legalisation of cannabis will be the last straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of its impact on insecurity and the last nail in the coffin of morality in Nigeria in terms of the country’s descent into the abyss of moral debauchery which began a long time ago.

 

 

“Of course we know where Kalu is coming from. This lawmaker spoke in Akure, the capital of Ondo State on Monday 17^th May, 2021. Nigerians will recall that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has been advocating for the legalisation of cannabis since 2019. There is no doubt that he has not given up. Kalu is his latest recruit into his cannabis promotion camp.

 

 

“The Akeredolu school of thought is only thinking of the material aspect and economic gains obtainable from the legalisation of cannabis sativa (also known as Indian hemp). According to Kalu, The Global Industrial Hemp Market which was valued $5b in 2019 is projected to reach $36b by 2026. He also argued that countries like Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa have legalised cannabis. In addition, he contended that marijuana is medicinal, that it would create jobs, boost foreign exchange (with an estimated value of $125 billion by 2025).

 

 

“We know about all these but has Kalu and his principal, Akeredolu, given the ‘Nigerian condition’ any thought? Have they put in place the necessary precautions? Do Nigerians obey laws? Do they listen to simple instructions? Where else in the world do you have people driving in the opposite direction (one way) when there are bold traffic signs warning against it?

 

 

“Has Kalu thought of thousands of innocent lives cut short by commercial drivers who indulge in taking drugs at the motor parks and immediately jump inside their vehicles to take unsuspecting Nigerians to their early graves? Can Kalu convince us that those who burned hundreds of brand new luxurious buses of the Lagos State Government during the #EndSARS protests were sober and totally drug-free? Cannabis had not been legalised at that time. Does he want a proliferation of that disaster by giving easier access to cannabis?

 

 

“Nigeria is passing through unimaginable social trauma at this period. The crime rate is very high and it is mostly induced by drug. Suicide is rising by the day and many cases have been traced to drugs. The major point raised by Kalu and Akeredolu has been economic benefit but what have the politicians done with all the billions of dollars from oil all these years?

 

 

“The Bible says, ‘For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul’ (Mark 8:36)? What does Nigeria stand to gain if it makes billions of dollars from cannabis but destroys the country? You cannot sow the wind without reaping the whirlwind. We already have large number of youths whose lives have been ruined by taking drugs even without legalising cannabis. What then should we expect if we eventually make it legal? Students, area boys, cultists will go haywire. Drug-related cases will increase in psychriatic hospitals.

 

 

“Cannabis may have its benefits but the disadvantages outway the advantages. We therefore call on the House of Representatives to reject any attempt to smuggle the cannabis bill into the hallowed House. This House must not become the House of Marijuana. It must remain the House of Reform, Progress and Dignity.

 

 

“We advise Governor Akeredolu to drop his cannabis dream for massive investment in food production. Our people are hungry. Our land is fertile. Give us yam, rice and cassava pyramids. No to drug addiction. No to marijuana.

 

 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director, 

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)