Chukwudi Nweje
Professor Ishaq Akintola is the Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MU- RIC). He has condemned what he de scribes as the violent tendencies of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) insisting that the sect must respect the rights of other Nigerians. Akintola wants the Shiite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky to sign an undertaking to shun violence before he is released. He spoke on other national issues.
The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (NIM), Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky remains in detention after sev- eral court orders that he be released. The result has been violent protests in Kaduna and Abuja resulting in several deaths. How can this be resolved?
You are talking about a court order that Zakzaky be released? Court orders do not stop at orders. There are other things to be considered. A judge can actually set Nigeria on fire with a radical judgment pronounced without thinking of the currency of the atmosphere. You cannot just release somebody who is a public figure and whose release could cause some conflagration. Remember Nnamdi Kanu of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), he was released on bail, what happened afterwards? Did Kanu present himself in court when he was to appear for trial again? He jumped bail and that is unlawful. It did not just stop there; Kanu created chaos and contin- ued to give the Nigerian state problem.
Followers of Zakzaky have this tendency to excesses. When they first clashed with the Army in 2004, MURIC issued a statement supporting them and condemning the killing of their members. But after our statement, we started receiving complaints from Muslims and Christians in Zaria, complaining that the Shiites exhibit irrational display of violence, that they molest and intimidate people, that they attack both Christians and Muslims, particularly Muslims who are not Shiites. People around them continue to live in fear. Because of these reports we received we could no longer make comments to support them. Yes, the Shiites have their Allah given fundamental human rights, but they must also respect the rights of other Nigerians. This is what the Shiites have not been doing. You can see that their demonstrations in Kaduna and Abuja were characterised by violence.
When you engage in open violent attacks on the police, you are looking for trouble.The Shiites claimed they were not armed, so who killed the Deputy Commissioner of Police during the Abuja protest?
This is a question the Shiites must answer. We are not against Zakzaky being freed but he must satisfy certain conditions. He must sign a document vowing never to be involved in violence. Islam does not teach violence, that is why we condemn Boko Haram, we condemn ISIS. As it is today the way the Shiites are behaving is not representing Islam and that is a problem. We advise the Shiites to change their tactics so that they can be acceptable within the country.
The Senate has confirmed Justice Mohammed Tanko as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) …
Cuts in) Yes, I congratulated him on his confirmation. I think it was a victory for democracy and the rule of law. Light has finally overwhelmed darkness. This is the people’s Senate. Unlike the Eight Senate which was confrontational, diversionary, wasteful and unpatriotic, we can see the signs of a red chamber ready for real business. True to the principle of separation of power, we do not expect the Ninth Senate to be a rubber stamp but at least it is not likely to become a bottle-neck for governance.
Nigerians are worried that Justice Tanko’s qualification in Islamic Law could be an encumbrance. Nigeria’s legal system is based on the English Common Law and the Customary Law, specifically the Sharia Law in the northern Nigeria. How can a CJN whose specialty is only in Sharia Law handle a country whose legal system is dual based?
Why are Nigerians challenging his appointment? The Nigerian press is sometimes part of the problem we have in this country. This question is loaded, it is pregnant with prejudice. It presupposes or suggests that Justice Tanko is not qualified. What does anyone want to gain from that question? In any case, I’m not a lawyer and I’m not qualified to comment on a legal issue.
President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled his list of ministers. But, it did not meet the expectations of many Nigerians who expected technocrats in the new cabinet. What do you think?
I don’t see why it should be a list of dominated by any particular group of people. You can see it a list of mixed grill of politicians and technocrats. There are administrators, businessmen and politicians on that list. For instance, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Patami from Gombe State is an internationally recognised information technology expert, who has won awards in the United States, Sweden and Britain. Many of the people complaining do not have the interest of Nigeria. Many of them have their own candidates who were not appointed. Are they saying they want President Buhari to appoint technocrats that he does not know? Such will throw Nigeria into another four year rule where there is motion without movement. The President in his own wisdom has picked his own men who have moved depart- ments and state governments. We don’t need to listen to armchair critics; they are people who do not want the progress of Nigeria. They want to ambush the ad- ministration again but the government will not allow that.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently wrote President Buhari an open letter, the second in two years, warning about rising insecurity, poor governance style of Buhari among other thing. What is your reaction to the letter?
Why do we keep idolising a serial let- ter writer like Obasanjo? He is accusing the Buhari-led government of taking action on issues of insecurity. Was Nigeria secure during the administration of Obasanjo? Who committed the Odi massacre? Who killed hundreds of people in Zaki Biam, Benue State? No-body has exhibited impunity and shown disregard on insecurity like Obasanjo. During his administration, a serving governor was locked up inside the toilet by agents of Obasanjo who tried to kidnap him. Many governors were impeached within 24 hours without notice under his administration. Obasanjo is being insincere because Boko Haram started during his administration; how did he handle it? He cannot be talking about insecurity; his administration was not free of the allegations he is raising against Buhari. Obasanjo has personal grudge against President Buhari. Insecurity is everywhere in Africa. He should stop distracting our attention and allow Nigeria to move forward. He made so many accusations against his Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, today he is retracting all of them. He has no integrity because he cannot make a statement and stand by it.
What is your advice then to Buhari because the issues Obasanjo raised are glaring for all to see?
The Federal Government is already addressing these things and actions taken so far can still be improved upon. Nigerians seem to forget the problems created by past administrations and they keep blaming the Buhari administration alone. This administration is already talking about introducing community policing, it also plans to recruit additional 40,000 policemen. How many policemen did Obasanjo recruit in his eight years in office? For over 10 years now the number of policemen has been hovering between 317,000 and 330,000 men. Nigeria’s population continues to rise. The military is under 100,000 troops, the State Security Service (SSS) is under 33,000 men, how can these numbers of security officials monitor and secure this large population? Since Buhari came to power, there has been recruitment of policemen at least twice and on each occasion about 10,000 men were recruited. Nigerians should allow the government to sit down and work. Obasanjo is an expired statesman, a mere distraction and I will advice the government to ignore him.
All these talks of Fulanisation, Islamisation and so on are the talks of disgruntled and unscrupulous politicians who lost election and now want Nigeria to crumble. What Obasanjo could not do in the eight years he was in power he wants Buhari to perform like a miracle. These security challenges did not just crop up, they were meticulously planned. It is the foundation that was laid by a former Head of State that the next one will build upon. What foundation did Obasanjo lay, what we know about Obasanjo is impunity.