4th March,
2022
PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC HAILS POLICE HQ FOR APPROVING HIJAB
The High Command
of the Nigeria Police Force under the watch of the Inspector General of police,
Usman Alkali Baba, has approved the use of hijab for the rank and file of its
female workforce. In the meantime an Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
has reacted to the development by hailing police high command. The group
described the approval as a landmark development and the beginning of a new
dawn.
The statement was issued on Friday, 4th March, 2022 by the chairman
of MURIC, Zamfara State Chapter, Professor Ahmad Galadima.
The statement
reads :
“The High Command
of the Nigeria Police Force has approved the use of hijab for police women who
are willing to use the Muslim scarf. The single-paragraph statement reads:
‘The High Command
of the Nigeria Police Force under the watch of the Inspector General of police,
Usman Alkali Baba, has approved the use of hijab for the rank and file of its
female workforce. The approval is one of the efforts of the leadership of the
NPF, to encourage freedom of worship and promotion of religious tolerance
within the police force and by extension, the general public. However, its use
is optional and must conform to the approved style and design. This will be a
welcome development to many Muslims, and accords respect to the Nigeria Police
Force. In many, other countries of the world, especially in America, Canada,
Britain, police women are allowed to wear the Hijabs, as part of their uniforms’
(http://www.crystal4peace.online/nigeria-police-approves-hijab-for-its-women/).
“MURIC hereby
expresses deep appreciation to the Nigeria Police High Command, particularly
the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba for listening to the
pleas and advocacies of MURIC and other Muslim groups which have been demanding
the use of hijab in the security and uniformed agencies for decades.
“This is a landmark development in the history of
the struggle for Muslim civil rights. It is the greatest news of the century and the beginning of a new dawn. It is
another bite from the dividends of democracy for Nigerian Muslims. With this
approval, the Nigeria Police High Command has proved that it is keeping pace
with global best practices in police formations around the world.
“It is an open secret that female Muslims in police formations
(including their army) in Britain, the United States, Canada, etc use hijab
with their uniforms. Nigerians who travel abroad cannot deny this. Therefore what
the Nigeria Police High Command has done is not new.
“We advise wailing wailers to accept the
development as a natural evolution in civil rights struggle in the country. It
will be petty, parochial and archaic to oppose the introduction of something
that is already being practised in advanced countries. Only those who want to
deprive Muslim women of the dividends of democracy and those whose agenda is to
keep Muslims in perpetual bondage will cry foul over the approval of hijab for
female police women.
“It is only in Nigeria that religious maradonisation has taken
control of our thinking faculties and we have consequently excommunicated
objectivity from our boarders. The hijab does not interfere with the
professional efficiency of the person wearing it. A Muslim woman who wears
hijab has only covered her head, not her brain! Hijab is a crown, not a crime.
“It is also important to note that the High Police
Command statement was entitled ‘Newly Approved (Optional) Dress Code for Police
Women’. It is therefore meant for female police women who wish to use it alone.
Some female Muslim police women who do not wish to use it are free to continue
dressing the old way. This means no police woman will be compelled to use
hijab. We are deliberately laying emphasis on this to foreclose mischief and
misinterpretation.
“MURIC appeals to other security agencies to approve hijab for their
female Muslim staffers who wish to use it. This appeal goes to uniformed security
agencies like the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC),
Immigrations and Customs as well as para-military bodies and traffic formations
like the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA).
“At this juncture, we are constrained to
reveal that many female soldiers, police women, female traffic officers, female
immigration staff, etc, who are Muslims, have complained to MURIC that they are
yearning for use of hijab because they are not comfortable without it.
“We thank all those
who have worked behind the scene in collaboration with MURIC, particularly the
Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and Senator Ibrahim Shekarau. Equally worthy of mention
are various Islamic organisations in the country.
“We appeal to
Nigerians to exercise patience and decorum in all their demands from the
authorities. Violence is not the way to go. We will all get what we want at the
end of the day if we can be patient. The key words here are patience, advocacy,
constant enlightenment, persuasion, dialogue and behind the scene
consultations. Nigerian leaders are not blind. They will respond positively
when convinced.
“This was the method adopted by MURIC in its struggle
for hijab in the police and it paid off at long last. We carried no placards.
We held no demonstration. For instance, as far back as three years ago, MURIC
did coloured full page advertorials on the matter
in the Daily Trust of Tuesday, September 24th, 2019, page 19 and The
Nation newspaper of Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019, page 35. The advertorial showed pictures of female
Muslim police women from different parts of the world with all of them wearing
hijab.
“We also sent a petition to the Nigerian
Senate. The petition titled ‘Position Paper
on the Need to Allow Hijab in the Army, Police and Para-military Agencies was
dated 6th January, 2020 and copies were sent to the heads of all uniformed agencies
including the presidency.
“It has been a long
road in our struggle for recognition of hijab in the security agencies. Its approval
by the police yesterday signals hope for our dear country, Nigeria. The wind of
freedom is blowing.”
Professor Ahmad Galadima,
Chairman,
Zamfara Chapter,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC).
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