MUSLIMS are not in the business of oppressing and subjugating the rights of women and would, therefore, not be opposed to any law that seeks to protect them, The Muslim Congress (TMC), has said.
It described Muslims as being accustomed to promoting women’s rights and freedoms, a practice which, it said, had continued for more than 1,400 years “even when it the Western world of that time did not deem it fit to accord women such rights and freedoms.”
The Islamic organisation stated this in its quarterly state of the nation release, read by its Amir, Dr Luqman AbdurRaheem, in Lagos, which, among other things, looked at the modified version of the gender equality bill in the Senate which, it noted, “has dropped all the vexatious issues it initially delved into and now only seeks to address discrimination against women and protection of women from violence and sexual abuse”.
TMC said it agreed that making of laws was necessary for human growth and progress but there was the need for the process of lawmaking not to be fraught with “antics to heat up the polity” and cause disaffection among religious and ethnic communities.
“This is exactly the area where our lawmakers need to take utmost care so that they do not ground the smooth running of the same society they seek to regulate.
“Lawmakers, who are representatives of the people, should relate more with their constituents and sample their opinions before initiating processes that could be inimical to the progress of their people.
“A little research and analysis would have revealed to the lawmaker initiating the inheritance bill, Senator Biodun Olujimi of Ekiti South senatorial district, that such a bill was wrong in its very foundation because it failed to take into consideration the different and diverse needs of the people.
“If the lawmaker had done her work well, she would have known that Muslims already have an inheritance ordained by Allah and guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through religious freedom rights”, the organisation said.
On the crisis in Southern Kaduna, TMC called for a concerted effort by the federal and the Kaduna state governments in stopping the violence and bringingbg peace and harmony to the war-torn communities.
According to the organisation, it is also paramount at this juncture that the Federal Government must institute a more timely and effective response and logistics framework that enables the deployment and arrival of military personnel in troubled areas in a short Time.
While commending the Federal Gvernment and the military forces for the gains recorded in defeating Boko Haram by capturing its stronghold in Sambisa forest, TMC noted that a major component of the fight against the terrorist group was the freedom of the Chibok girls that remained in captivity.
The organisation appealed to the government to initiate policies that would bring down the prices of commodities and see to it that the people no longer “have to pay so much for so little”.
On the Code of Corporate Governance administered by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, TMC urged the Federal Government to be more careful in implementing its policies so that it would not take one step forward and many steps backward.
“We believe that the government should not have suspended the code but should ordinarily have allowed the process to go on while giving more time for the organisations involved to adjust.
“The confidence and trust of people in the government of the day are based on their perception that the government is sure-footed and knows what it is doing. It would have been better that government did not implement the code in the first place rather than suspending it along the way.
“Government also needs to be sure that it is not sending the wrong signals to its officials who are executing its programmes and policies. If an officer is dismissed for doing his job, it will eventually tell on the way other officials do theirs. The government could have suspended the code without necessarily dismissing the officer involved”, the organisation added.