Former President, Olusegun
Obasanjo, has recalled how his handling of the sharia law averted disaster
in Nigeria.
This is contained in a book
entitled “Making Africa Work,” co-authored by the former president with Greg
Mills, Director of Brenthurst Foundation; Jeffrey Herbst, President of NEWSEUM
and Dickie Davis, a retired major general.
“The second big challenge under
my presidential watch was the issue of Sharia law,” Obasanjo wrote.
“As a country shared almost 50:50
between Muslims and Christians, Sharia has always been part of the legal and
judicial system in the north, but only at the customary, or so-called
magisterial level. Even then, the Nigerian Constitution has provision for
establishing a Sharia Court of Appeal if the need ever arises.
“The initiator of the Sharia
controversy, the then Zamfara State governor, Sani Yerima, raised the issue,
however, for self-serving and self-preservation reasons, not for genuine or
authentic religious conviction.”
Obasanjo explained that when
Yerima stood for the governorship of his state under the banner of the then All
Peoples’ Party, the man who later became the National Security Adviser, NSA,
General Aliyu Mohammed, sponsored a candidate under the banner of the then
ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Obasanjo wrote: “The PDP
candidate lost the election but it would appear that the NSA, intending to find
fault against the governor, started surreptitiously to collect evidence of
misconduct and corruption against the governor.
“Meanwhile, I made several
attempts to reconcile them, but to no avail. I even took both of them on an
official visit to China, an opportunity to bring them together. When it
appeared that the NSA persisted, Governor Yerima decided to make himself
untouchable.
“He (Mr. Yerima) invited the
Imams, Muslim leaders and priests in his state, and informed them that he was
turning Zamfara into a full sharia state. He promulgated a law declaring
Zamfara as a sharia state. And, true enough, he became untouchable.
“Wanting not to be seen as acting
in isolation, he instigated imams in other Islamic states in the north to
agitate for a full sharia law declaration. In all, 12 states out of the 19 in
the north promulgated full sharia law.”
He said Muslims in the country
were watching closely to see what he would do, as a wrong statement or action
could be seen as incendiary, “because an ‘infidel’, an anti-Muslim president
would be seen as trampling on the holy religion of Islam.”
Obasanjo argued that Christian
clergymen and leaders, both within and outside Nigeria, were calling on him to
stamp out the new phenomenon of wholesale sharia in states where there was a
Muslim majority but with substantial contingents of Christians too.
“Throughout this controversy, the
only statement I made was to the effect that if the sharia that the governor of
Zamfara was touting was genuine, it would survive and thrive. If not, it would
fizzle out”.
“Muslims, who had expected me to kick against sharia, thereby giving them ammunition to cause mayhem, and Christians, who felt angry and disappointed that I did not roll out military tanks to crush the proponents of sharia, both felt winners and losers at the same time.
“Muslims, who had expected me to kick against sharia, thereby giving them ammunition to cause mayhem, and Christians, who felt angry and disappointed that I did not roll out military tanks to crush the proponents of sharia, both felt winners and losers at the same time.
”But Nigeria was surely the
unmistakable winner. Eventually, Yerima weaned himself off the Muslim clergy
and sharia crumbled in his state.
“A few months later, Yerima
visited me in my official residence and, greeting my young female cousin,
hugged her familiarly in my presence. I jokingly remarked to Yerima that this
action was not sharia-compliant. Yerima retorted, ‘Didn’t you say sharia would
fizzle out and has it not fizzled out?’
“At that point, the matter had
turned into a joke,” Obasanjo noted.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com