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| (CJN) Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad |
Like has been observed,
no government in the history of Nigeria has exploited the ethnic and religious sentiments
of the Nigerian masses for personal gains as Muhammadu Buhari’s government has.
Also, Nigerians have never been as disappointed in any government as they have
been in the government of Muhammadu Buhari. Another manifestation of this
exploitation can be seen in the recent comments made by the Chief Justice of
the Federation, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad.
At the 20th
Annual judges conference held at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU) on 12th December, the
representative of the CJN, Grand Khadi of Niger State, Justice Muhammad Danjuma,
was quoted to have said among other things, “As we all know, there are sections of the
constitution that allow the implementation of Shari’ah personal law and apart
from that, we cannot do more…However, we have the number to emend the
constitution to suit our own position as Muslims…The Shari’ah law should be
taught in Arabic not English. There is no university in Nigeria that runs Shari’ah
in Arabic".
The Centre for Islamic
Legal Studies (CILS) of ABU and the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja
are said to be the organizers of the event.
The question should
also be asked, ‘What immediate progress does the government want to achieve by the infusion of Shari’ah law into the Nigerian constitution?’ Is it tackling massive
unemployment, insecurity, corruption, epileptic electricity supply, poor quality
education or deplorable health care system?
Between 1999 and 2000,
12 states in Nigeria adopted the elements of the Shari’ah code in their
constitutions. Through the years, much of the grounds gained by the implementation of
the code have been lost as in most of the states; the laws are violated without
repercussions. Buhari's government has never made a statement in favour of Shari’ah law
since he (Buhari) clinched power in 2015.
Why is this coming now when a lot of the northern
Muslim masses have acknowledged the futility of supporting the administration? Does the
government want to get more states including the southern states to adopt the ‘Shari’ah’
code?
The statement, “we have
the number to emend the constitution to suit our own position as Muslims”,
gives away the intention which is to pitch the Muslim against non Muslims. In other words, divide and conquer; a great tool of the politicians.
This clamour cannot be
coming from a government that has endorsed people with corruption cases hanging
on their necks for political offices. An establishment that is not righteous enough
to implement the basic principles of justice will not be righteous enough to
implement the Laws of Allah.
This is another move by
the government to make the northern masses oblivious of their impecunious state
and consider support for Buhari as support for Islam which is of course far
from the truth. Is this a move to condition the minds of northerners ahead of
the rumoured third term bid of Muhammadu Buhari? Time will tell.
On 28th August 2019,
the Buhari government laid out its case against the Islamic Movement of Nigeria
(IMN) led by Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.
In
a 56-paragraphed counter-affidavit deposed by Deputy Commissioner of police in
charge of operation, FCT, Enyinnaya Adiogu, it was stated: “That from history
and facts available, the Movement Called Islamic Movement of Nigeria founded by
El-Zakzaky has its sole aim of creating an Islamic State”.
Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad’s
prevarication on the issue leaps off the page at those who care to observe.
Another question goes
begging, how is it that an establishment that declared a group ‘a terrorist group’ on
the grounds that it is an advocate of Shari’ah law is now pushing for the
infusion of Shari’ah law into the country’s constitution? There is no milder term for this than 'sanctimonious'.
The truth of the matter
is that the administration has never seen the need for a Shari’ah compliant state;
the comments can simply be described as sententious. The actions of the
government which include total disregard for the rule of law and cronyism are totally
incongruous with Shari’ah law.
The ignorant ones have
continued to make the inane allegation, ‘Buhari wants to Islamize Nigeria’. People
who make this comment do nothing but boost Buhari’s popularity in the Muslim
north. There isn’t a single action the Buhari administration has performed to
promote Islam in Nigeria, if you really understand what Islam is about.
I end this write-up with the statement of my fictional hero, Agent Fox Mulder, of The X-Files, “Fear, it is the oldest tool of power. If you are distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from the actions of those above”.
God bless Nigeria
As kidnapping and banditry have remained an indaba in
northern Nigeria, reports have confirmed that the district head of Birnin Gwari
central in Kaduna state, Alhaji Abubakar, was abducted today around 2pm on the
high way leading to 
The community of
Maitumbi in Minna, the Niger state capital, have made a call to the Police
command of Niger state pleading for urgent assistance with regards the growing
security challenges in the area. 
