by Rachel Ogbu
A group of Islamic organisations have urged the Federal Government to see past the declaration of state of emergency in tackling the security challenges facing the country.
The group led by Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, condemned the outbreak of terrorism and violence in parts of the country, but said that military force alone could not solve the Nigerian security problem.
Director of MURIC and university don, Prof. Is-haq Lakin Akintola reportedly said what Nigeria needed for enduring peace is good governance and transparency. “We are of the opinion that the remaining 33 states of the federation have been under emergency for long,” Akintola said.
“With hunger and starvation, with homelessness and joblessness among our army of graduates, what further declaration of a state of emergency do we need? Where is electricity? Where is water? Where are the roads? Corruption remains Nigeria’s middle name and it has worsened under the present administration.
On another note, the network, also questioned the logic of banning the use of hijab in public schools by the Lagos State government.
The Vanguard reports:
It chided the state Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, over a comment credited to her speech communicating the government’s decision where she remarked that Muslim parents desiring the use of hijab in schools should take their daughters to Muslim private schools, adding that by so doing, the commissioner had declared war on Muslims in Lagos State.
On the ban of hijab, Akintola lashed at the government of Lagos State querying why the Nigerian Constitution would guarantee people freedom of religious practice but, under a SAN-led administration, such constitutional and natural rights were being denied the people.
He said, “Instead of allowing free dialogue, the Lagos State Government is pushing Muslims in the state to the wall. We reject the claim made by the Commissioner for Education that the issue was discussed at length and that “We reached certain agreements”. Concerned and well-informed Muslims and Islamic organizations were either deliberately ignored or edged out of purported discussions while handpicked surrogates of the commissioner/the state government and uninformed few were picked.”
Vanguard’s investigation revealed that Governor Babatunde Fashola had taken what many Muslims considered anti-Islamic decisions in the last few months. He was said to have destroyed places of worship within the Lagos Secretariat, destroyed mosques in Lekki and recently that he activated a plan to cause division within the state Muslim community by giving the Muslim Council in Lagos State an assignment to open centres across the state as the Fashola administration had chosen the “less Islamically informed” council to be related with in matter affecting Muslims.
This action of the governor was viewed by the network of Islamic organizations as “evil a Muslim can do to Islam” as they said it was wrong for the government to choose a people who were not well-informed about Islam to represent the entire Muslims in Lagos State. This was said because, the group was sure that there was no Muslim anywhere in the world that would compromise the fundamental basis of Islam like the government had programmed the Muslim Council to do.
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