In this interview by SAHEED SALAWU, the director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Professor Ishaq Akintola, speaks on some issues affecting religion and Nigeria.
You recently made some Restructuring demands, one of which is the establishment of Shariah courts in all south-western states, including Edo. Wouldn’t you say such a demand has come at an inopportune time – when the authorities are being accused of trying to Islamise Nigeria?
What we need to consider is whether the demand is justifiable or not, not whether it has come at the wrong time when the Federal Government is being accused of trying to Islamise Nigeria. Given the pace, velocity and vehemence with which the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has been consistently accusing the Federal Government of trying to Islamise Nigeria, there will never be an opportune time for Muslims to make any demand at all. How do we determine the right time when ‘Islamisation’ is CAN’s 24/7 magical word?
Now, concerning whether the demand is just or unjust, consider a situation where a father has two children but he gives only one child all his needs and abandons the second child (the older one for that matter) in permanent deprivation. Worse still, it is the same overfed younger child who cries foul each time the older one appeals to the father for some reprieve.
Islam is the older child. Christianity is the younger one and Nigeria is the father. The facts of history are there for all to see. Islam has been on ground since the 11th century since 1085, to be exact. The British brought Christianity in 1842. Yoruba Muslims enjoyed their Shari’ah in Ede town under Oba Abibu Olagunju, in Iwo under Oba Momodu Lamuye and in Ikirun under Oba Aliyu Oyewole.
It was the British who stopped Shari’ah practice in the South West. We want it back. Don’t forget that the British came with force. Lagos was bombarded with artillery from the sea in 1851 and the king had to surrender after seeing the level of killing and destruction. Intimidated and coerced, other towns in Yorubaland feverishly submitted.
The same thing happened in the North where Muslim rulers surrendered after wholesale massacres of their subjects by British soldiers. Shari’ah was debilitated in the North via British repugnancy and validity tests which restricted the application of Islamic law to civil matters only. But the fact that the British halted Shari’ah practice totally in Yorubaland and did not even allow the continuation of its civil aspect there exposes British double standard and crooked sense of justice.
Nigeria is no longer under colonial rule. This is an independent country. Isn’t it? Or are we trying to re-enact the scenery in apartheid South Africa? Is CAN trying to tell us that ‘Nigerians are free except the Muslims among them’? Many states in the North have reinvigorated the Shari’ah system since 1999 but Yoruba Muslims are still denied same despite several petitions and despite the fact that some of the governors are Muslims. You know why? They were afraid of CAN and its weapons of blackmail.
This issue must be addressed during restructuring. That is if we are restructuring at all and, as far as we are concerned, any restructuring which fails to address the demands of Yoruba Muslims is only scratching the surface. It is sheer window dressing. We Muslims are demanding our freedom. We want to enjoy the dividends of democracy like our Christian neighbours and all we are saying is that the Federal Government should return to us what the British ruthlessly and violently took away from us. Give us what our Christian neighbours already have. No more, no less. We are asking for Shari’ah courts, Christians already have magistrate courts, high courts, court of appeal and the Supreme Court. Does that sound like asking for the moon?
CAN has programmed itself to making unsubstantiated allegation of Islamisation against the government of the day. I mean any government even if the president is a non-Muslim. Attack is a major dogma of CAN. It doesn’t matter whether such attacks create anarchy or not. Pugilists say attack is the best form of defence. I think that is a cardinal principle of CAN.
The sad thing is that Nigerians are yet to unveil CAN’s psychology of social interaction which informs its adopted strategy. This is a situation where the aggressor makes the loudest noise and rushes to the media to accuse the victim. It is viciously malicious. It is calculated to permanently silence the victim of aggression. This is CAN’s strategy of demonising Islam and inciting innocent and ordinary Christians against their Muslim neighbours. The allegation of Islamisation is also aimed at permanently scaring government away from listening to the cries of oppressed Muslims even when government can see clearly that Muslims are at the receiving end.
Government is always reluctant to offer any palliative to Muslims for fear of being accused of Islamising the country. It is subtle blackmail. But it is dirty religiousity. CAN politicises religion to blackmail governments, to silence Muslims and at the same time to incite Christians against their Muslim neighbours. So, if you ask me what the major problem facing Nigeria is or what has been causing religious crisis in this country, I will say it is CAN.
Mind you, I didn’t say it is Nigerian Christians. No, my Christian neighbours, both on the streets and in my workplace are easy-going, friendly and accommodating. But trouble comes from the tiny cabal in CAN. It feeds ordinary Christians with false and malicious information. It misleads its followers. Consequently, Christians who would have been warm and friendly, ceteris paribus, suddenly become cold and suspicious.
I invite CAN to the dialogue table. We Muslims have no agenda called Islamisation. It is a concoction on CAN’s menu. There is an urgent need to diffuse tension and I am very optimistic that the leaders of CAN can still be friends with our leaders. We have so much at stake. Religious crisis must be halted. I look forward to the day when Christian and Muslim leaders will sit together at dinner. I look forward to the day pastors and Imams will hold hands and walk into an audience made up of adherents of both faiths. As responsible leaders, we need to reassure our followers that there is no cause for hating ourselves and until we do that, we are not actually practising religion.
Islam does not demand of Muslims not to work on Fridays, why are you demanding that of the nation?
I think you should leave that to Muslims and Islamic scholars to decide. It is a matter of exegesis of the Glorious Qur’an 62:9–11. The interpretation of those verses under the influence of colonial mentality has led to your question. Yes. The British colonialists interfered with that interpretation. They gave an official version as presented by you above. This was done for two reasons. One: to suppress the agitation of Muslims at the time for work-free Friday because Friday was free before the advent of Britain. Two: to facilitate the replacement of Friday with Sunday as work-free day.
The colonial camp twisted the phrase “…fantashiru fil-ard wabtagu min fadlillahi…” to mean “…and go back to your various duties seeking the blessings of Allah…” so as to make Muslims believe that they must go to work on that day, briefly attend the Friday prayer and go back. What a slavish indoctrination. But the wind has blown. We have seen the ruff of the hen.
I will interpret the verse with Islamic liberation theology uppermost in my mind. The expression ‘fantashiru fil ard’ does not mean ‘to go back’ but ‘to spread out in the land’. Therefore, Muslims are not necessarily expected to go back to work after the Friday prayer but to spread out in the land preaching the peaceful message of Islam, rendering humanitarian services, reciting their holy book and remembering Allah (by engaging in dhikr) after the Jum’ah prayer. This is what the verse means by ‘seeking the blessings of Allah’.
You cannot be seeking Allah’s blessings typing memo after memo in the office. You cannot be seeking Allah’s blessing while virtually tied to a chair in the conference room holding a marathon meeting. You cannot be seeking Allah’s blessing standing there in the classroom teaching your students. For crying out loud, we should know where to draw the line of demarcation between performing official duties to satisfy the employer and pleasing the Lord of Mankind.
It is noteworthy that the same verse ends with the words ‘…wadhkurullaha kathiran la’alakunm tuflihun’, meaning ‘…and remember Allah abundantly so that you may prosper’. This is a clear instruction that we must engage in dhikr after the Friday prayer. Is it possible for a clerk to do dhikr while filing papers? Can a teacher stand in front of his students with rosary in hand? What will others say if a Muslim keeps whispering something and using the rosary to count in a meeting?
Besides, there are many rituals associated with Friday which Muslims must perform on that day. I am referring to pre-Jum’ah rituals which are ordinarily impossible unless Friday is work-free. Some of them include general cleansing, shaving of hair from different parts of the body and recitation of special portions of the Glorious Qur’an.
These rituals are not hearsay. They are enshrined in the authoritative hadith of the Prophet (SAW, Bukhari, vol. 2, pages 2 – 7). But of particular interest is the Prophet’s instruction that Muslims going to the mosque for Jum’ah prayer on Friday should not be in a hurry, instead they should walk gently. Can this be possible in Nigeria where Muslims are given just one or two hours at most for Jum’ah break? There is even the worse case of Muslims who are not allowed to leave their workplaces during the Jum’ah prayer.
This is why Friday is a work-free day in all Arab countries. The weekend begins on Thursday. They go to work on Saturday and Sunday. This was the system that the British met on ground when they arrived in Nigeria in the 19th century. We are not calling for the cancellation of Saturday and Sunday as free days for Christians. They have two days. We don’t mind. Just give us one day. Give us Friday. The government has all the administrative paraphernalia to work out the logistics. Let the Muslims go.
We are asking government to redress the gross imbalance. My Christian neighbour goes to church every Sunday with his wife and children but I must become a ‘Russian’ every Friday running from the lecture room to the mosque without my family. Yet, CAN has the temerity to say Nigeria is Islamised. Who is fooling who? The naked truth is that this country is over-Christianised. CAN knows the truth but it wants to maintain the status quo by grandstanding all the time. That is unacceptable. We will not ask for the status quo ante (i.e. the situation as it was before the advent of the British when only Thursday and Friday were free and Sunday was not free) because we don’t want anarchy but government as a good and responsible father must balance the equilibrium.
Before I leave this question, you wondered why we are demanding work-free Friday when Islam does not demand of Muslims not to work on Fridays? First of all, Christianity also does not demand of Christians not to work on Sundays. So, we may have to go to the fundamentals. I will give my October 2017 salary (that is all I have anyway because I am a poor teacher) to anyone who can show me where the Bible says Sunday should be work-free. There is no such thing in the Bible.
Genesis 2:2 confirms that God rested on the seventh day after creating the world in six days and that seventh day was a Saturday (Sabbath Day). Exodus 20:8–11 contains prohibitions from working on Saturday but there is no such in the Bible for Sunday. This means there is no biblical evidence for a work-free Sunday but it has been imposed on us. In the same vein, I will give my November 2017 salary to anyone who can show me where the Bible says Christians should go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But there are several verses in support of hajj in the Qur’an.
This is a good example of social truth attempting to subjugate divine truth. So, how can anyone start faulting the demand of Muslims for their Friday which the Qur’an confirms as a holy day? Well, the difference between a ‘holy day’ and a ‘holiday’ is the difference between six and half a dozen.
In a series of reactions to the MURIC press release, some Nigerians accused you of sentimentalism and committing a historical fallacy on the grounds that what you referred to as the Christian holidays were actually of pagan Roman origin. They said the holidays pre-dated the Christian era. What have you to say to this, sir?
I see. Are they disputing the fact that Islam came to Nigeria before Christianity? What effrontery! Did those Christian holidays or pagan Roman holidays as you called them exist in Nigeria before the arrival of the British? I have given the historical facts in answer to the first question above. They want to twist the facts of history. Now I know those who were behind the removal of history from the curriculum.
I am amused by their reference to Nigerian holidays originating from pagan Roman background. What a contrast! If it is pagan, what has Christianity got to do with it? This must give us food for thought. But only the deep can call to the deep. Well, I am pleased to inform you that Islamic holidays are divine, not pagan. They came straight from Almighty Allah and with scriptural evidence (See Qur’an 62:9–11 for the Friday prayers and the hadith in Sahih Bukhari, vol. 2, page 1–5 for the holiness of Friday).
Why is it that MURIC always defends every action of President Muhammadu Buhari? Is it because he is a Muslim?
On the contrary, it is because he has integrity. MURIC wants a corruption-free Nigeria. We want improved infrastructure, qualitative education, sophisticated medical facilities which will attract people from other African countries and even Europe instead of our people going to India for ordinary migraine. It is not about Buhari or any Muslim. There are many Muslims in the opposition, too. So, it is not about religion. It is about pedigree.
What we need in this country is a good Christian or a good Muslim in power. The religion of the president is unimportant. That was why we gave the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, our support when he was Acting President. MURIC supported Obasanjo even though he is a Christian. We supported him because he is always objective. Do you know that Obasanjo built a big mosque in his library? Abacha was a Muslim but MURIC gave him a tough time. I was arrested by Abacha’s agents inside Mapo Hall, Ibadan, where I was delivering an anti-military speech in 1997. We fought him even though we know he was a Muslim. What we care about is justice, fair play and adherence to the rule of law.
The crisis in the NNPC is an eye opener into how things work in Buhari’s government. Are you not worried that this government is going the way of its predecessor on corruption matters?
Not at all. Although it is too early to make a pronouncement on the NNPC imbroglio, I have absolute confidence in Buhari’s transparency.
Will MURIC back Buhari for a second term?
Absolutely, yes. For a man who achieved this much in spite of an early and frightening legislative coup, hand-over landmines made in Otuoke and several political inhibitions, we will stand by him, come rain, come shine.
Some have insinuated that MURIC is a one-man organisation. Is this true?
I have heard it several times. I am not bothered. I don’t blame them. Spiteful elements will say anything to run down an organisation when it is performing. They have tried to penetrate and they have failed. They will continue to fail because we are focused. This is a body that started as far back as 1994. But look at it this way: if they say MURIC is a one-man show, I think that is also a commendation because they are only looking at me as the arrowhead. MURIC branches are active in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Ogun State branch of MURIC has held dialogue sessions with the Ogun State government officials and the Ogun State police command at different times. Osun State chapter is buoyant. Borno, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, I can go on and on. They are casting aspersions because MURIC is united, contrary to their wish.
Who are the other members of the organisation?
It is not in our best interest to mention names of our members on the pages of newspapers. For what reason, anyway? Just to satisfy your curiosity and that of other doubting Thomases? I will not like to endanger the lives of our state chairmen and our executive at the national headquarters. I know the dangers which have confronted me as the man exposed as the head of MURIC. You are free to believe or not to believe. This is against our rules. Human rights groups don’t expose details of their membership unnecessarily. I was once in the Campaign for Democracy (CD) under the late Dr Beko Ransome Kuti, so I should know.
MURIC is not a federal agency, so the press cannot compel me to reveal information unless I am ready to do so. But at least, some journalists have attended our press conferences where we introduced our officials. Many of you have met us in public programmes where our members turned up in large numbers with some of them wearing the same T-shirts with me. So, is MURIC still a one-man organisation? Many of our members are civil servants and the revelation of their names may attract persecution from their bosses.
What is your view of IPOB and secession calls in the East?
I stand for one Nigeria. IPOB could have achieved great feats if it had remained pacifist and civil. The use of threats and the provocation of the police and the army was IPOB’s Waterloo. But why don’t we discuss Igbo agitation for restructuring instead of IPOB? Any section of the country that feels marginalised has the right to speak up though it should be done without recourse to violence or without provoking other tribes through intolerable insults and unbearable name-calling. Apart from that, I don’t see what is wrong if the Federal Government takes a good look at what the Igbo race is demanding. I am for a united and strong Nigeria but I am also for justice and fair play. Islam detests oppression.
However, the Igbo should note that they are not the only race that has complaints. I like the Igbo people because they are a hardworking race, highly industrious. They should be great by all standards if they can jettison some other weaknesses.
Take the Niger Delta case for example. I totally condemn the environmental degradation of the region. What can a people do if they have no access to clean water and arable land? Political leaders of the area have a moral burden on their conscience because nothing is there to show in terms of development after sinking billions of tax-payers’ money into projects meant for the region. FG’s recent support programmes for the region is however commendable.
I strongly condemn the killing of Ken Saro Wiwa. It was extra-judicial. It was state murder. His family should be heavily compensated. The Federal Government should come down from its high horse on the issue of Saro Wiwa. Buhari should immortalise him, give him a posthumous award and name a federal university in the Niger Delta after him. Saro Wiwa deserves that and even more.
Similar things should be done for other tribes who have grudges in order to assuage them. An example is the Yorubas whose son, Chief M. K. O Abiola, was robbed of electoral victory in the monumental June 12, 1993 presidential election. Buhari should name Abuja National Stadium and Eagle Square after MKO. He should further immortalise him by declaring the results of that election and giving him a posthumous award.
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