I am an advocate of the opinion that the Nigerian youths deserved to be heard. Therefore I found worthy the decisions reached by the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) B-Zone, comprising of 17 States in Southern Nigeria led by the Ameer Alhaji Mushafau Alaran in voicing out on many national issues affecting religion, peaceful co-existence and the general wellbeing. The following decisions of MSSN B-Zone is reproduced hereunder.
Nigerians have been watching with great concern the prevalence of insecurity in our nation and the entire world at large. The political and economic situation we find ourselves particularly in Nigeria leave no choice than to come out and say something at this point. It can be stressed that Islam and Muslims are nothing today than synonymous with Boko Haram, Terrorism, Fundamentalism and extremism among other acronyms both at the national and international levels. The situation has witnessed uncomplimentary public outcry, name calling, the denials of the rights of Muslims, name tagging and exclusive harsh treatment especially on those who bear the symbols and identity of Islam. MSSN from the foregoing therefore wishes to state as a matter of urgency our position on the CHIBOK GIRLS AND THE BOKO HARAM.
We are kept in darkness and left with psychological trauma over the reality in the kidnap of the Chibok Girls, we and as well some Nigerians queried the authenticity of this claim and we suspected a foul play where more than two hundred (200) Girls were kidnapped without a serious effort or result by the Federal Government to make concerted efforts at bringing back these Girls. The arrival of American troops for the rescue mission, the widespread claims on the daily discovery of the location of these Girls and the eventual denial of such, leave us to doubt whether in the actual sense the kidnap is a reality.
If it is a reality, then the Federal Government had failed in the cardinal objective of the security of lives and property and we opine and join the several groups that are clamoring for the bring back the Girls. We say “BRING BACK OUR CHIBOK GIRLS”.
However, the series of observations and information gathered coupled with verdicts by many Islamic Scholars both in and outside the country, most especially several statements from the Nigerian Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) led by the Sultan of Sokoto Alh Sa’ad Abubakar, made us to conclude that Boko Haram is in no way fighting the course of Islam and can never be part of the religion of Peace (Islam). The massacre of Muhammad Yusuf and other members of the Boko Haram after his encounter with the police led to the end of the sect but its ideology is now left in the hands of hijackers who found it as a good ground to perpetuate the will of their sponsors who allegedly could be politicians or otherwise. The kind of weaponry, the strategic manners with which they carry out attacks either directly or through suicide bombing will not have been accomplished except through intelligent working and spying. An International human concern recently gave the figure of this Boko Haram killing to be over a Million within the space of three years.
We urge the Federal Government to be very proactive in curbing this dreaded situation that is threatening the existence of our nation and ensure justice and fairness to all and sundry. The revelation of the Australian Diplomat and intelligence expert indicting Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (former Governor of Borno State) and General Ihejikica should neither be taken with levity nor swept under the carpet. We fear that since the allegation and counter allegations, there is no clear direction taken by the government on these allegations while those accused are moving freely without the fear of any trial in the court of justice. Our Society will not hesitate to take the matter to the international court of justice for appropriate prosecution if justice does not prevail.
POLITICS AND 2015 ELECTIONS:
Let us at this juncture, urge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be a ray of hope for the development of the nascent democracy. If democracy is to be accepted and Nigeria be assumed to have been liberated from the scourge of colonialism, we believe that politicians, the political parties and the INEC will have to do more in order for justice, fair play and equity to prevail. Politics and democracy, in essence have to be done to the admiration of every citizen. INEC needs to prove its integrity and independence by not allowing the influence of political class or any party to dictate its actions.
EDUCATION:
The situation in this country is such that government action is antithetical to what she preaches. Often a lot of development plans and programmes aimed at giving education to all had been executed by the government. The long term effect is that the education sector is not moving forward. We decry the long strike action embarked upon by the various unions in the education sector which emanated as a result of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians in this sector. We commend those states government who have reduced their school fees and removed discrimination against non-indigenes. We believe that more can still be done by various strata of the Government of Nigeria to better the lot of Nigerians in the education sector.
INFRASTRUCTURE:
We in the MSSN B-zone decry the insensitivity of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the infrastructural development in the nation. We consider the campaign of having met all the infrastructural needs of this country as making much ado about nothing. A good example is the dualization of the Ilorin -Ibadan road which had got stocked between Oyo town and Ogbomosho over a decade ago and many lives have been lost due to the insensitivity of the government and frown at the implication of abandoning this project. We use this medium to appeal to the Federal Government to consider the dualisation of every road for the security of lives of the road users. It should be realized that most Nigerians travel by road and we believe this should be given adequate consideration. The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) rehabilitation of the end of the Ilesha dualisation up to Akure should enjoy the quality of work done between Ibadan and end of the Ilesha dualisation. We equally decry the dilapidation and neglect of the road between Eiyekorin in Ilorin and Mokwa in Niger State. The situation of these roads is so bad that urgent attention should be given to them.
SYNAGOGUE CHURCH OF THE WOLD SAGA:
We commiserate with the leader and founder of the Synagogue Church and the entire families of those who had lost their lives in the incident of the collapsed church building and we wish those that had sustained injuries quick recovery. However it will be rather unfortunate for the church to have heaped the blame on Boko Haram when the issue is more of negligence and overbearing. It should be noted and recalled that many of such incidents happened in Lagos, Abuja and many states in the South-South and South-Eastern Part of the country and nobody had placed blame on Boko Haram. We hereby call on the Lagos State government to carry out the necessary investigation in order to get to the root cause of the incident and ensure that there is no sacred cow in this regard. We urge that the issue should be treated with vigour and urgency and not be swept under the carpet.
PASTOR BOSUN EMMANUEL PROCLAMATION:
We have carefully listened to Pastor Bosun Emmanuel’s relayed information at the Redeemed Christian Church Lagos where Pastor Muyiwa is presiding. We have made a critical analysis of his position and nothing came out of it than creating dichotomy, bias, and destruction of nationhood and cooperate co-existence, political anarchy and hypocrisy. It is to be stated without reservation that, in colonizing Nigeria, the Northerners were met with a system of government based on Sharia and which the colonizer found difficult to scuttle with their culture and religion (Christianity) as was done in many towns and villages in southern Nigeria. We use this medium to advise the Christian world in Nigeria not to encourage the creation of disunity, anarchy or call for war. We actually know that such campaign made by this Bosun Emmanuel was a sponsorship aimed at destroying the religious coexistence enjoyed in Nigeria despite our challenges. It is absurd to see that men of God are now partisan, bias and fabricating lies and prophesizing doom on our beloved country.
Also, we received the news of the involvement of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) President in the $9.3million arms deal in South Africa with shock and surprised that he can actually do that. It is very disturbing that the Federal Government will maintain a position of using the private jet belonging to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor to transfer such whooping amount to South Africa. Such position is suspicious, undemocratic, undiplomatic and uncivilized. The Federal Government at this juncture should allow the rule of law to take its course in this episode and stop unnecessary intervention that will make all Nigerians to totally lose confidence in the present administration’s will to defend the Constitution of Nigeria and Nigerians at large. The Pastor and those who are alleged to have been involved must be brought to book if it is to be believed that the present administration is actually fighting corruption to a standstill.
We rejoice with the entire Muslims all over the world on the New Hijrah Islamic Year 1436 AH