The pro-democracy group also slammed the Federal Government for creating uncertainty and causing commotion to the businesses and the private sector by the unilateral and impromptu declaration of an extension of the public holiday to mark the end of the fasting season by Muslim faithful.
In a statement jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the Nigerian Constitution clearly provided in section 10 that no particular religion should be elevated to a status of a state religion.
It stressed that the wordings of the official press statement authorised by the Minister of Interior “conveys the impression that this government has tacitly adopted one of the two foreign religions as it’s administration’s official religion”, stressing that such move is absolutely unconstitutional and must be denounced forthwith.
HURIWA said it “strongly faults the aspect of the official government statement which clearly states that state institutions and officials now take directives from private leaders of religious bodies when according to the statement, the decision followed the directive by the President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, to the effect that the Ramadan fast continues on Tuesday as a result of the non-sighting of the moon.”
The group demanded “clear, concise and with constitutional precision, a Presidential explanation to Nigerians on why a private Religious leader who is not part of the democratically elected structures recognised by the nation’s grundnorm is now the person tele-guiding the Federal government on when and how to declare or modify a national activity such as the declaration of public holiday which is the statutory duty of the elected and inaugurated government.
“We are worried that at a time that President Muhammadu Buhari is accused of appointing and allocating almost 80 percent of all the strategic military and paramilitary positions to HAUSA/FULANI Moslems from the North, and at a time the entire maritime and crude oil sector are dominated by appointees by Buhari from his Northern region, the minister of Interior who recently appointed an entirely Moslem and “Northern heads of agencies under the Interior Affairs ministry is conveying this sinister impression that Islam is now the official religion,” the group submitted.
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Buhari is indeed a bigot,make no mistake about that. He has an agenda,Islam and Arewa are his preoccupation. But you can not succeed with the oil from Niger Delta. Make no mistake,Nigeria has gone beyond the 1960s which you always refer to!
ReplyDeleteThe minister should be charged to court. Corruption is not only when you steal money. If you breach constitution is corruption. President Buhari is guilty of the offense. I weep for my country
ReplyDeleteIn this government, it is Islam first. These religious bigots will certainly end this unfortunate zoo Republic called Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteU r welcome to naija
ReplyDeleteDoes it mean that there shouldn't be an extension because it is Muslims that will celebrate EIDEL FITR.Or was it Buhari that changed sallah day to be wednesday instead of Tuesday,incase you don't know the moon has to be sighted first and had Buhari known the moon wasn't going to be sighted on the anticipated day,I am sure he wouldn't have declared Tuesday and Wednesday as public holiday..and why would anyone think that he wants to Islamise Nigeria,what for and what will he gain,but if it were to be another religion that will celebrate am sure no any sane and responsible Muslim will complain. .Please enough of this Buhari wants to Islamise Nigeria because there is no compulsion in the religion of Islam for truth stands out clear from error....and as Nigerians we should try as much as possible to keep away religion from politics cos they are two different things and their differences have to be respected...Just because someone hates Buhari doesn't give him the audacity to insult his religion...the literal meaning of Islam is peace,so why all the noise making pls?I am sure Buhari will laugh at any body dat is saying he wants to Islamise the country
ReplyDeleteNo compulsion in Islam. Islam is peace. Hafsat can u please explain the meaning of jahad in respect to:
Delete1. Found in Quran
2. Who was first to use it
3. Which religion practice it today
And I will tell u what peace means
Happy EID-EL-FITR by the way. I love to c u saved.
Islam means peace abi? Tell me one Muslim country in d world apart from saudi arabia that is experiencing peace? u Better go find kunu drink.
DeleteJihad means the fight in the way of Allah.and the real Jihad in Islam is JIHAD ALNAFS BIL NAFS.meaning Jihad with oneself.that is to fight your soul to restrain from doing what is evil to doing what is good,this is the best form of jihad in Islam.even the people killing in the name of Jihad are doing it on their own.and they are misinterpreting the real message..and let me ask you one question pls,in human history there was never and would never be any person weda terrorrist or serial killer that would kill people more than Adolf Hitler,but I thought his evil act was never associated with his religion and he was a xtian right?
DeleteHajiya Hafsat u need to read very well to understand the meaning of jahad. And don't try to attempt questions like that in case of exams. The man u are talking here doesnt use name of any religion or religious book. Don't try to put blames try to see that u answer those 3 questions. To my understanding those boko haram are the ones implementing the best practice of prophet Mohammed (SAW) . hope u had a hitch free sallah celebration?
DeleteSome of you thought you can rewrite history. The Muslims will not answer you. You said the recently composed NNPC board of directors are Muslims check below
ReplyDeleteNNPC BOARD UNDER FORMER PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN...GEJ
BOARD CHAIRMAN-MRS. DIZIENI- SOUTH
BUKAR ABDULLAHI .NORTH.
STEVEN ORASANYA. SOUTH.
OLUSEGUN OKUNU. SOUTH
DANIEL WADZANI. SOUTH
BENARD O.N OTTI. SOUTH.
PETER NMADU. SOUTH.
TAYE HARUNA. SOUTH
NEWLY RECONSTITUTED NNPC BOARD UNDER PRESIDENT M.BUHARI.
BOARD CHAIRMAN, IBE KACHIKWU - SOUTH.
KACALA M. BARU. NORTH
MAHMUD DUTSE. NORTH
ABBA KYARI. NORTH
THOMAS JOHN. SOUTH
PIUS O. AKIN. SOUTH
TAJUDEEN UMAR. SOUTH
LAWAL MOHAMMED. NORTH
YUSUF LAWAL. NORTH
Which one is more reasonable?
For your information Nigeria belongs to all. There must justice. This means that if you have one Yoruba, one Ibo and one south south, you are going to have three northerners meaning one North Central, North West and North East. By implication therefore the North is always cheated by the previous governments for not following ratio 1:1:3 for Yoruba , Ibo and HausaFulanis respectively in their previous governments appointments. I don't want to reveal other damning cheating that was perpetrated against the North over the last 16 years. Anyway PMB/APC needs viable opposition but not hatred as seen from Fayose in Ekiti State.
Anonymous 11:32, you made sense. I am a Christian and I'm enjoying the holiday. PMB is biased shaooo.
ReplyDeleteWho says M.Buhari is not pursuing Northern and Islamic agenda? A lot of his appointments reveal this. Of recent, he reconstituted the Board of NNPC. Take a look at it below.
ReplyDeleteI. THE NNPC BOARD
A. Petroleum Minister, Muhammadu Buhari....................North
B. Chairman of NNPC (A Statutory, Ex-Officio position) ..............: PMB [but he delegated Kachikwu to act for him. Note that NNPC chair is traditionally the Minister of Petroleum, in this case, PMB himself]
C. GMD of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru...............North (Fulani from Bauchi)
D. PS, Ministry of Finance; Mahmoud Isa-Dutse ..... North
E. The following six board members of NNPC:
1. Mallam Abba Kyari, ..............North (Chief of Staff; an extra eye for Buhari)
2. Dr Thomas John.........South (Director of Sapetro, Danjuma's oil firm)
3. Dr Pius Akinyelure...........South (Tinubu as godfather; to represent ACN)
4. Dr Tajuddeen Umar........................North
5. Mallam Mohammed Lawal.................North (from Katsina, Buhari's State)
6. Mallam Yusuf Lawal..........................North (from Katsina, Buhari's State)
II. THE PS, MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM RESOURCES …… Dr. (Mrs.) Jamila Shu’ara (North)
III. THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF OPEC …… Dr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo (North)
NOTE:
(1) Dr. Shu’ara (the only female in this list of 12) was due to have retired on Feb 17, 2016 on turning 60, but in an unprecedented disregard for Civil Service rule, PMB ordered her tenure to be extended by one year.
(2) Both Dr. Ibe Kachikwu and Dr. Thomas John are close associates of Yakubu Danjuma.