YAQOUB POPOOLA
As the nation awaits the reshuffling of the cabinet by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has reminded the president of the need to compensate Nigerian Muslims who were shortchanged in the first appointment of ministers.
The reminder was contained in a press statement issued on Wednesday 2nd October, 2024 by the Founder and Executive Director of the organization, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
He said:
“Reports of an imminent cabinet reshuffle have been rife in the past few days. It has brought excitement to various Nigerian circles, particularly the political and religious terrains.
“MURIC recalls the disappointment felt by the Nigerian Muslim community when ministerial appointments were first made early in the tenure of the Tinubu administration. As expected we lodged complaints but nothing was done to address our grievance.
“Those who called the Tinubu administration a Muslim-Muslim ticket know the raison d’etre for giving it that nomenclature. They know those who worked viciously against the duo of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. They know those who cursed them and those who prayed for them.
“Expectedly, the Muslims who stood behind the duo like the rock of Gibraltar, taking all the risks and insults became infuriated at harvest time when all the juicy posts went the other way. Meanwhile, those who cursed and threatened Tinubu and Shettima started praising them when the low-hanging fruits started falling in their laps. It was a paradoxical scenario.
“Political maturity led MURIC to continue to appeal to Muslims for patience even as we received bashing from the home front on many occasions in the past two years or so.
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“As we all wait for the coming cabinet rearrangement, we remind President Tinubu of the need to compensate Nigerian Muslims who were shortchanged in the first round of appointments. While we cannot dictate numbers for the president, we have the Allah-given right to demand adequate representation for Nigerian Muslims in the coming cabinet reorganization.
“We demand that the Muslim figure should be higher than any other slot as commensurate to its demographic percentage. The injustice done to Muslims in the South West was particularly inexplicable under a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“To date, Yoruba Muslims have no effective channel of communication to reach their Yoruba president. It became a double tragedy as they continued to suffer the same marginalization dished out to them in pre-Tinubu times. The president may not hear this from official Muslim circles, but it is in his best interest to take it as an authentic feeler from the Muslim masses (young and old) in the region.
“Yet his policies have not been quite favorable to the North in general from where he got humongous votes even more than he got from the South West.
“As at today, the North is yet to come to terms with Tinubu’s neglect of Muslims in the scheme of things after the 2023 presidential election while the embarrassment caused to major stakeholders from the North is igniting ripples.
“We affirm that skills and talents abound in all faiths. Expertise is not the exclusive preserve of Christians. For example, Nigerians are yet to see any performance in the Christian appointed to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Planning compared to the dynamism introduced by his Muslim predecessor. We can also beat our chests today that no federal agency has been better manned than the one headed by a Muslim professor of Islamic studies.
“We have every cassu belli, therefore, to ask for the parameter used in selecting majorly Christian appointees to the detriment of skilled Muslims. We put it to the presidency that whoever cannot find endowed individuals among Muslims is looking the wrong way. For the avoidance of blackmail and misunderstanding, we assert that our demand is for qualified Muslims, not for members of our organization.
“It is not in the character of MURIC to issue threats, heat the polity, or utter controversial declarations, but suffice it to say that it is high time we spoke some truth to power. It may be bitter but the truth must be spoken. Nigerian Muslims are generally unhappy at present. What we as stakeholders have done so far is to ensure that we do not rock the boat or join those who are trying to do so because it is our boat. It is still a Muslim-Muslim ticket. It must survive every storm.
“Therefore the success or otherwise of the present administration and, ostensibly, the Muslim-Muslim ticket and its future will be determined largely by the extent of justice for, and fairness to the aggrieved Muslims injected into the disposition of this administration as well as its good recourse to its medulla oblongata.
“Those who cannot identify their true friends and those who forget where they are coming from cannot escape the verdict of history. Many receive admonition, only the wise benefit from it.”
