The Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) says the call for an amendment of the constitution to accommodate
certain ‘peculiarities of Shari’a’ by Ibrahim Muhammad, chief justice of
Nigeria(CJN), is reckless and insensitive.
In his speech at the 20th annual
judges conference in Kano last Wednesday, Muhammad also asked that the language
of instruction in Shari’a law at universities should be Arabic and not English.
The CJN was represented by
Muhammad Danjuma, the Grand Khadi of Niger state, at the event.
In a statement on Saturday,
Samuel Kwamkur, national director of legal and public affairs, CAN, described
the CJN’s statement as “the most reprehensible, reckless and insensitive
statement (ever) made by a public officer, a jurist and the head of Nigeria’s
judiciary”.
“CAN observes that the CJN has
neither denied any of the reports attributed to him nor has he clarified it. No
person or association has come out with a contrary opinion. We, therefore,
regard it as a settled fact: the CJN did indeed say it. And much more, he meant
it,” he said.
“He called for amendment to alter
Nigeria’s current constitutional status to be religiously inclined – inclined
towards one religion – Islam. Clearly, this looks like the path to making Islam
a state religion.”
“Related cases are the heads of
the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force who chose to cite specialised
universities in their home areas using public funds. Perhaps, the CJN is
reinforcing the same mentality, this time using religious self-indulgence.
“But then, we may pause and ask
ourselves the following questions: are these actions by the military chiefs and
the pronouncement of the CJN deliberately synchronised to promote regionalism
and religious bias?
“Are we seeing the implementation
of part of a much bigger plan to turn the country into one behemoth of a region
and also one grand religion?”
“Is Nigeria about to witness the
sure move toward becoming an Islamic state and the possibility of the country
being forcibly transformed into a Shari’a state?
“Could all these be part of the
motivation for calling for laws that could stifle any national debate or crush
opinions that are branded as hate speech and for the regulation of the social
media?
“Was the CJN already speaking on
behalf of those who are conspiring to allow Islam to dominate and subjugate
other faith? Was this agenda the reason Justice Walter Onnoghen was crudely and
hastily removed and Justice Tanko hastily sworn in as the CJN?”
“If the less educated, those who
are not enlightened, the mischievous and the politically extreme can tinker
with such permutations, certainly not a man of the learning, age, experience,
exposure and publicly centered personality as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“Does his position speak
positively of a man who can still be trusted to hold the judiciary together as
belonging to one nation with one people of various opinions, religious
convictions and political persuasions?”
The 1999 constitution prohibits
the adoption of any religion by the state or the federal government as state
religion though it makes provision for the creation of Shari’a courts — its
application is limited to personal law.
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Whatever their grand design is, it has failed in Jesus name Amen.
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