23rd April, 2024
By Paul Dada
The Founder and Executive Director of the Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, is well known for taking controversial positions on issues. In this interview with Deputy Editor PM News, Paul Dada, Ishaq among other things, claims Muslims are marginalised in Nigeria.
There are people who see you and MURIC that you founded as rabble rousers and needlessly controversial. But tell me the vision behind the formation of MURIC.
It started from the time human rights activism began in Nigeria. That was in the 90s, in the days of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, during the days of Campaign for Democracy (CD), during the days of the Civil Liberty organisation (CLO) although the CLO came much later.Those were the two popular human rights organisations in the days of the late M.K.O. Abiola. None of these organisations understood the plight of Muslims and none of them empathised with it. They didn’t identify with the Muslims.
When the Sharia debate was going on in the 90s, these two human rights groups opposed Sharia and they condemned the Muslims. They didn’t see any reason the Muslims should demand Sharia.
By the time the June 12,1993 election was held, it was only the Campaign for Democracy that was defending the mandate of Chief M.K.O Abiola. The CD was defending him, and those of us who were Muslims, who were conscious and committed, felt embarrassed that the Islamic groups in the country were not speaking up. It was the CD who was speaking up and the leaders of the CD were all Christians. I was happy with them. I was happy with Dr Beko Ransome Kuti. I made inquiries and I moved closer to him. I joined the CD and in fact, I was playing an active role like bearing messages, particularly from the CD to other activists in the North. I won’t mention names but one of them is a governor now. I was also translating CD leaflets in English into Arabic. They would have loved to find somebody who could translate into the Hausa language but I don’t speak the word of Hausa, I read Arabic in Cairo so I could translate it into Arabic and most of the Northerners understood Arabic. From there, they could translate it into Hausa. We connected with somebody who would interpret my Arabic into Hausa and then share the leaflets.
My interest was the actualisation of the June 12 mandate which was criminally, and mostly illegally annulled by the military but along the line, when the Sharia debate was still going on, people remained controversial, and of course, I was one of those who were writing articles on the Sharia, defending the position. I discovered that the most outspoken opponent of the Sharia was the human rights groups and they did not even allow me who was a member to straighten out certain points.
Muslims didn’t have an Islamic human rights group that would speak for them. Neither the CD the CLO nor any other human rights body would speak for the Muslims. So, I decided to establish a specialist human rights group to actualise the fundamental human rights of Muslims. That will
Also, the Muslims had been given different names, and stereotyping Muslims and it was worse in those days. In Nigeria today, it is reducing due to the activities of MURIC. Every Muslim in those days was seen as a terrorist and a violent person. I saw this and I felt if we established an Islamic human rights organisation without addressing that core issue, we might be laboring in vain. Therefore, we adopted a motto that centrally addresses the issue of terrorism and violence. We adopted “Dialogue, No Violence” making it clear to everybody who came across our letterheads and also in some of our statements.
Some states started adopting Sharia when we returned to democratic rule under former President Obasanjo. But some people wonder why that Sharia is needed in a secular state. They also allege it is only being applied against the poor. How would you respond to these concerns?
Let me correct the impression that Nigeria is a secular state. Nigeria is not a secular state. A secular state is like a communist state where religion is not manifest but Nigeria is a multi-religious state. Any country where you have two to three religions and they are being openly practised is not a secular state. And I want to throw a challenge. Give me a SAN or any Nigerian lawyer who can show me the word “secular” in the Nigerian constitution and I will give that person 90 billion naira. We are being deceived by the elites of the Nigerian society. And the elites in this country are mostly Christians. I would even tell you it is a Christian state. Nigeria is a Christian state because every practice here is Christian and that is why the Muslims had to fight for every right before they could get it. This Salah day, we know many of our members who are elderly, who told us that when they were in school, there was no Salah holiday in the 50’s, in the 60’s. In 1950, 1960 even the 1970 there was no Salah holiday.
The Muslims would be forced to go to school (on Salah days), and work and the colonialists didn’t recognise them. After independence, even our leaders didn’t recognize these holidays. They found it difficult to realize that the Muslims needed to be free on Salah days. Some of those holidays were granted in piecemeal.
Up till now, we are still asking for a Hijrah holiday. It was not quite 6 years ago or 5 years, I think, in the time of President Muhammadu Buhari that the Maulud Nabiyy was recognized. Now tell me why Nigeria had been marking Christmas holiday as the birthday of the leader of one religion whereas the birthday of the second was not recognised for more than 60 years. It was just recognised 6 years ago and up till now, many Christian institutions, civil servants, and authorities still find it difficult to allow the Muslims under them to enjoy this civil liberty. Just last week when we celebrated Salah, two universities scheduled an examination. One of them actually scheduled a test. When you schedule a test or an examination during salah the Muslims would miss that examination, so they are persecuted. So Nigeria is not a secular state in the real sense.
Who do you blame for this for the late recognition of Muslim festivals? Do you blame the Christians or do you blame the colonial masters?
I would blame the Christian leaders like CAN because they pursued a policy that was so hard-lined extremist, racist, right-winged that refused to recognise the rights of the adherents to any other religion and they deliberately instructed their followers not to allow Muslims to do this. We have records. Don’t let me bring out those records because it is not time to bring them out.
On the issue of Sharia, who raised the loudest cry? It was CAN. Why? CAN knew that it was only Muslims that would apply the Sharia. CAN knew that Christians had already enjoyed common law, and that law is from Britain. Britain is a Christian country and the British legal luminaries confirmed that the Bible is the foundation of common law and that common law came from the Bible.
When we told them that Christians would not be taken to the Sharia court, they still even insisted that we would not have the Sharia court.
Let me give you another example, CAN has nothing to do with the hijab. It is Muslims who need hijab. The hijab does not bite. It’s a piece of cloth. It’s most ridiculous and laughable that CAN spent the whole of 10 to 20 years fighting the struggle for hijab and the most ridiculous of those fights was when a court ruled in Osun state that the Muslims had the right to hijab. CAN, instead of going to an appellate court, instructed all the Christian students in Osun state that they should come to school wearing masquerade dresses, oro dresses, babalawo dresses, church choir robes. The students came to school in those attires and pictures were taken by journalists, they sat in the classrooms and MURIC actually told them at a time “This is just drama, you are just comedians. No comedian stays on the stage forever. It won’t last.
The hijab lasted. It is the dress of the Muslims . We use hijab in the market. We use hijab while driving. We use hijab when we are accompanying our children. There’s nowhere our women go in all parts of the world, they won’t wear hijab and the Christians want to stop them.
Now, talk to me about the alleged selective application of Sharia
Very recently, a poor man stole a tuber of yam somewhere in the southern state. He was taken to court and sentenced to six months for petty larceny, for a tuber of yam. Whoever steals a tuber of yam has proved that he is hungry. Six months is the maximum that a judge can give for petty larceny. One week was there, he didn’t give him, one month was there, he didn’t give him. But he gave him the maximum sentence for stealing a tuber of yam.
They are looking for an ex- Governor. Now, he has been declared wanted but the money allegedly stolen by him is humongous. I bet you, when he finally shows up, he will be bailed within 48 hours. From home, he would be appearing in court .He would not one SAN but 23 SANs to defend him because he has the billions.
Let me give you the example of one notorious kidnapper who was jailed. He was responsible for the killing of six active policemen pursuing the course of justice but the notorious. But the alleged criminal is free now.Those policemen died in vain. Wadume was sentenced to two years imprisonment but now he is out.
He got two years and on coming out of jail about three weeks ago, his people in his community organised a party for him. They gave him a warm reception; a hero’s welcome.
When you want to look at the weakness of Sharia, look at at your backyard. What has common law done?
Remember the issue of common leverage of plea bargain. If you steal 50 billion, you can arrange with the EFCC to pay back 2 billion or 5 billion and Nigerians will say he has returned the money. But the rest is yours for life.
This is the kind of society we live in and it has happened on several occasions, so, what do you have against Sharia? Talking about Sharia, we say if you buy a car or your television, it comes with a manual. That manual contains instructions on how to use your television, how to put it on. For the car, it contains instructions on where to put water, engine oil and pour fuel.
The manufacturers of the car knew what they manufactured and they knew how it would function well. If you don’t obey it, you are in trouble.
That’s why we are at war. We’ve disobeyed the laws of Allah, and that’s why there is Boko Haram and corruption. He has a manual which is called the Quran.The Bible is the manual of the Christians.
There are Christians who allege that they are being marginalised in the core north in respect of their being deprived of land to build churches just as Muslims allege marginalisation in the southeast. Don’t you think this is just an evidence of the tyranny of the majority?
In the core North, I have seen churches. Archbishop ( Mathew Hassan) Kukah lives in the Sokoto Diocese. His house is very close to the palace of the Sultan. He does what he likes. He has a big church. He may not have huge followers because it’s a Muslim- dominated area. Apart from the Catholic church, I have seen churches in Sokoto, Kano,and Kaduna.
This gospel of denial of land rights to Christians is being promoted by those who want to cover the iniquity of the Christians of the South-West who have persecuted Muslims under them.
The issue of religious persecution in the South-South and South-East is a forgone condition because we have heard those who are outspoken in the South-East and South-South, saying they don’t want Muslims.
Today, MURIC has branches all over Nigeria. We have branches in 35 states. There’s one state where Muslims who are our members are afraid to come out. That is Anambra and we know how many Muslims have been killed in the open in Anambra and some other South-Eastern states.
We are aware of job denials in the South West here. Muslims cannot be denied the right to build mosques in the South-West because we are the majority in the first place when it comes to headcount. But when it comes to political and economic advantage, we are at a disadvantage.
You said in a recent press release that in 2027, the governor of Lagos state must be a Muslim. Aren’t you forgetting the fact that Muslims have had it for 16 years in Bola Tinubu and Raji Fashola. But with Ambode who had only one term and Sanwo-Olu, Christians are only having it for 12 years. Also, is it just about religion or performance?
In the 12 years of Ambode and Sanwo-Olu, how fair have they been? How many Muslim commissioners did they appoint? How many Christian commissioners did Ambode appoint? How many did Sanw-Olu appoint?
Immediately, the Christians come on board they set an iron curtain between them and the Muslims, and they remove even the doors of their offices for the Christians to come in without knocking. If one of the G.Os of the churches is coming to Ikeja today at the Alausa secretariat, he doesn’t even give notice and he doesn’t park outside the gate. He doesn’t stay at the garage. He drives into the governor’s driveway and alights by the governor’s door. Not only that, the governor would come and meet him at the door by his car door because he is G.O. But if a chief imam wishes to meet the governor, getting an appointment would be a problem and he must have written a notice earlier.
In your press release, you said Sanwo Olu is performing but what you are saying now seems like a contradiction.
Do you think MURIC is so bigoted that it will ignore what the governor is doing. His good performance doesn’t mean he is fair. He is not a democrat, he is not a true Democrat. In a true democracy, you must involve all sectors. And what he is doing is a contravention of a section of the institution, I think, 41 or 42 that says all sectors of the states should be carried along in appointments. But Sanwo-Olu is focusing his appointments on Christians.
Why exactly is there a disconnect between what the religions teach and the corrupt practices among public office holders despite the fact that major of them identify as Muslims and Christians?
Don’t look for religion to look for the cause of corruption. When they go to the government they do not say they belong to any mosque or church. Nigerians don’t carry the religions into office. It is the system that has to be mended. When you catch a civil servant who has stolen government money, what do you do to him? You sentence him to two months imprisonment or three weeks imprisonment. When he comes back he continues to enjoy the money. If we have tough rules and the system allows the laws to be applied people would sit up.
How can we build harmony, trust, cohesion, and brotherhood despite the differences in our religious beliefs?
I will say our Christian brothers have failed us. Every year, during Easter and Christmas, to bring harmony among our Christian neighbours, we would issue press statements congratulating Christians on the Christmas celebration and felicitating them and also the Easter period. We have some extremists who criticize MURIC for doing that. They said that why should you recognise Christmas? Is it not a reality? Are they not people celebrating it why should we pretend like we don’t see them?