The Prof. Ishaq Akintola-led Muslim Rights Concern has asked
the Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss a suit seeking the removal of the
Arabic inscriptions on naira notes.
MURIC and Akintola filed a counter-affidavit to the suit
after the court granted their permission to be listed as defendants alongside
the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Government, the President and the
Attorney General of the Federation, who were the original defendants in the
suit.
A Lagos-based lawyer and rights activist, Chief Malcolm
Omirhobo, who filed the suit before Justice Mohammed Liman, is contending that
having Arabic inscriptions on the naira notes portrays Nigeria as an Islamic
state, contrary to the country’s constitutional status of a secular state.
Omirhobo, who said he does not know what the Arabic inscriptions mean, is praying the court to order the CBN to replace the Arabic inscriptions with either English, which is the country’s official language, or any of Nigeria’s three main indigenous languages – Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo.
According to the lawyer, with the Arabic inscriptions on the
naira notes, the CBN has been violating sections 10 and 55 of the Nigerian
constitution, which make the country a secular state.
He wants the court to restrain the CBN from “further
approving, printing and issuing naira notes with Arabic inscriptions, bearing
in mind that Nigeria is a secular state.”
But in their 42-paragraph counter-affidavit seeking the
dismissal of Omirhobo’s suit, the Registered Trustees of MURIC and Akintola
said the lawyer’s action was motivated by “religious bigotry, religious
intolerance and outright hatred for Islam.”
Contrary to Omirhobo’s argument, MURIC and Akintola said
there was nowhere in the constitution where it was stated that Nigeria is a
secular state.
They also argued that Arabic is just a language and not
synonymous with Islam, saying the Bible,
which is the Christian holy book, is printed in Arabic language in Israel,
Egypt, Palestine, Lybia, Syria and among other countries.
Opposing Omirhobo’s prayer that the Arabic inscriptions on
naira notes should be replaced with English, MURIC and Akintola said there was
no law making English Nigeria’s official language.
They further argued that if the sign of the cross,
synonymous with Christianity, could be used on government-owned hospitals and
ambulances, there was no reason why Arabic shouldn’t be permitted on naira
notes.
They said should Omirhobo’s suit succeed, the CBN and the
Federal Government “will incur colossal sums of money to discard the currencies
with Arabic inscription and print new Nigerian currencies.”
But Omirhobo, reacting through a further affidavit, said the
counter-affidavit by MURIC and Akintola was filed in bad faith and should be
disregarded by the court.
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