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OPINION: Are Yoruba Muslims Truly Marginalised? [Monday Lines]
Published
6 months agoon
By
Editor
By Lasisi Olagunju
Each time we hear or read outsiders say they are fighting for Yoruba Muslims, some of us (Yoruba Muslims) laugh. Who told them that we cannot fight our war ourselves – if there is a war? A statement signed by an Imam Haroun Muhammad Eze on behalf of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) led by the Sultan of Sokoto alleged last week that Yoruba Muslims were suffering marginalization in Yorubaland. The statement headlined ‘Live and Let Live’ complained about what it called “calculated attempts to prevent Muslims in the (South -West) region from practising their faith.” I read it and asked myself if that truly was the case. I asked some of my Muslim friends also. We compared notes and laughed.
The statement from the NSCIA wanted Sharia law in Yoruba states. Eighteen years ago, Kano-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Adam Koki, was quoted as telling the New York Times that “politicians (have) started seeing Sharia as a gateway to political power.” They saw right and used it very well in pocketing Kano and its two million votes. They still annex and harness that gateway to arrive at power and wealth. With the piety of Sharia, a partnership in governance has evolved with northern Nigeria’s highbinders. And, because some persons pestled a tiger to death yesterday, some club-wielding people without muscles are on the prowl in 2025 Yoruba forest, hunting tigers and leopards. They do not know that it is not every leopard that is fated to fall to clubs.
The present cries and announcements are very unnecessary. Sharia never left Yorubaland. Our fathers called it seria. It has evolved, adopting adept procedures in deft accommodation of its environmental and social realities. Yoruba Muslim families, who desire it, still conduct their private affairs in accordance with Sharia without disturbing their neighbours.
A quiet Sharia panel has been sitting for decades at Oja’ba, Ibadan. There is another one in Osogbo. I suspect that other major Yoruba towns have them. They adjudicate on marriage and marital issues; they arbitrate on disputes among Muslims. They do their thing without noise and drama and excesses. Every willing Muslim who goes there loves what the panels do and how they do it. The respective state governments are aware of their existence but they do not disturb them. At the compound and family levels, check out what we do with Muslim weddings, burials, administration of estates and inheritance matters etc. Those who want more than this should be bold to say what exactly they want. They want hisbah, moral police on the streets of Ibadan, Abeokuta and Akure? They want a Yoruba Bello Buba Jangebe who would be amputated for stealing a goat while big men who steal roads and bridges hold court? Anyone who wants the Kano, Zamfara kind of Sharia in 2025 Western Nigeria needs counseling. They can have that only in an Islamic Republic of Yorubaland. And, to have that, they will need more than mere words and farty threats. The Nigerian state is a multi-religious reality; it exists to enforce its laws – your creed and my credo notwithstanding.
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The case for officially sanctioned Sharia in Yorubaland will be easy to argue and win if its solicitors can show how its introduction in the North has helped the North. They should just exhibit how 22 years of ‘Sharia’ has turned Kano to Dubai or Riyadh or Doha; how more religious, more pious, more equitable, more peaceful and more prosperous the Muslim North has become since ‘Sharia’ became their guiding moral and political philosophy. That is all they need to prove to the Yoruba that Western Nigeria is missing something cool and good for their physical and spiritual growth.
The claim that Yoruba Muslims suffer persecution at the hands of Yoruba leaders and principalities is absurd. The most powerful human being in Nigeria today is the president; he is a Yoruba Muslim. He possibly read that NSCIA’s press statement and laughed as I did. Am I, a Yoruba Muslim, marginalised in Yorubaland? Who is marginalising whom and who is complaining or should complain?
I come from a state (Osun State) that has had six elected governors since it was created in 1991. Five of those six governors are/were Muslims. And, I will identify them: Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke was the first elected governor of the state. He was in power from 1992 to November 1993 when General Abacha sacked everyone everywhere. With democracy in 1999 came Chief Abdulkarim Adebisi Akande, a Muslim. After Akande came Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a Christian. Then came Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, a Muslim who spent eight years in power and was succeeded by a Muslim, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola. Alhaji Oyetola’s successor, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke, flaunts his Muslim heritage and pedigree for all to see. No one has ever complained about the religious identity of these leaders – and no one will. Indeed, there is a governorship election next year; virtually all contenders that have shown their faces so far in the two principal parties are Muslims.
No one’s religion has ever truly been an issue in Osun State. On May 29, 2003, a Muslim Chief Judge swore in a Christian governor (Oyinlola) and a Christian deputy governor (Erelu Olusola Obada). The Christian-Christian ticket of Oyinlola/Obada was elected by an electorate from three senatorial districts, two of which are predominantly Muslim. There was not a single word of complaint from anywhere. The Muslim incumbent who lost that election did not bother to contest his loss in court.
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I work in a state (Oyo State) that has produced five governors from 1999 to date. Three of the five are/were Muslims. Again, I will identify them: Alhaji Lam Adesina (Muslim) was the first to take the baton in 1999. He was succeeded by Senator Rashidi Ladoja, a Muslim. Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala, a Christian, succeeded Ladoja. Alao-Akala spent a term and handed over to Alhaji Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi, a Muslim, who spent two terms. The incumbent is Mr Seyi Makinde, a Christian. He will be succeeded by a Muslim or a Christian in two years’ time – no one cares.
If Sharia as it exists in the North is truly a priority of the Yoruba, would those Muslim governors have ignored doing it? Or are those gentlemen not Muslim enough? Indeed, as recently as 2011 to 2015, the governors of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Osun States were all Muslim. We are talking of four out of six states being ruled by Muslim governors at the same time. I am referring to the years when Raji Fashola (Lagos); Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun); Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) and Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) were governors. The four states operated under Muslims – leaving Ekiti and Ondo states for Christians. And there was peace. There will always be peace because what throws in governors and what kicks them out in Western Nigeria is the sobriety that comes with good behavior and good governance –not praise and worship.
Where I come from, we were taught to learn how to state our case before learning how to fight. The statement from the NSCIA said sharia was a constitutional issue. If it was, shouldn’t it be properly handled in a constitutional way? If we, Yoruba Muslims, truly want codified Sharia law and Sharia Courts, there are Muslim legislators in virtually all the state Houses of Assembly. Sharia proponents should ask these Muslim legislators to sponsor bills on the matter and lobby their colleagues to pass them into law. Or, if they think it is already in the constitution, and it is their right, let them go to court for enforcement of that right. If I were they and I could not do this, I would keep quiet forever. Extra-legal, unilateral, self-help declarations cannot help them in a democracy.
I once wrote against some Yoruba Pentecostal Christians who said (and still say) my sallah meat is sin. We look at such here and say they’ve packed unwellness with their faith. Yoruba Muslims who jog to the North in search of pity and support are exactly like those ones. They are as misguided as the misguided Pentecostal Christians. They are both working hard to rip open the belly of amity in Yoruba land with their fundamentalism. And they cannot succeed.
Now, what do I think of Imam Eze signing a Live-and-Let-Live statement on Sharia in Yorubaland? An Eze, I assume and presume, is from the South-East. If that signatory is from the South -East, then it was a ghastly error on the part of those who procured him to sign that statement. It was also an insult to the Yoruba, a people with a robust history of engagement with Islam dating back to more than seven hundred years. Procuring outsiders to speak for the Yoruba Muslim is a misnomer. They have leaders; their leaders are the Imams; they listen to the Imams, the Imams listen to them. Channeling the Yoruba spring to flow desert-wards for rejuvenation is an effort that hurts.
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The Imam Eze statement will make me draw an analogy: We all know that Ilorin has no physical and spiritual space for Sango, the Yoruba god of thunder. Now, imagine an Ilorin man donning the costume of the Mogba, priest of Sango, and marketing the god of thunder to Oyo Alaafin, Sango’s hometown. Or who does not know that Mùsùlùmí Ìgbò gégé bi OníSàngó Ilorin ni? I will neither interpret nor translate that question. The Eze man should have first launched Sharia for his own home region before looking the Yoruba way. My people say if you think velvet is good and you would clothe me with it, I must first see on you velvet or something superior to velvet. How can the unclad clothe the clothed?
A group of eminent Yoruba Muslim scholars, seven years ago, published a book entitled: ‘Islam in Yorubaland: History, Education and Culture’. The editors were kind enough to give me a copy. Those who are seeking to fetishize Sharia today will learn from those scholars that what they seek to import has actually been part of their heritage before the white man created Nigeria with all its contradictions. Persons who are begging for external help on Sharia should read what the scholars say in that book. They will read the story of a Timi of Ede, Oba Abibu Lagunju (1817-1900), his court and the existence of Ilé Bàbá Kóòtù (compound of baba who holds court) in Ede. They will read also of Oluwo of Iwo, Momodu Lamuye, who became Oluwo of Iwo in 1858 and died in 1906. They will read of why a compound is named Ile Alikali (Alkali’s compound) in Iwo. They will read more of Islam, Sharia and the Yoruba society before colonialism.
The import of all the above is that pre-colonial Yoruba towns had Sharia for Muslims without the politics and the theatrics of today. That is the heritage. What has changed really is the existence of the (Nigerian) state and its multicultural structures. The ‘sharia’ towns of the distant past no longer exist as culturally autonomous entities. They exist within a multi-religious, multicultural state governed by mutually adopted secular laws and mores. Respecting that reality will give us a “live and let live” Yorubaland.
I should also add that Ìgbà l’onígbà nlò. Every era has its dynamics and its antecedents. The Islamic experience of the North is different from what the South had/has. Colonialism came in the 1860s, met Islamic law in northern Nigeria and preserved, codified and modified it for the northern Nigerian Muslim. There was no such official indulgence in the Yoruba towns where the law reigned before the British imposed its rule. So, today’s Timi and today’s Oluwo will have to travel back 200 years if they want to do what their fathers did in the 19th century. That is the journey which the Sharia patrons in the North and their clients in the South want to set before us.
Provocation excites and tickles us in this country. In 2016, a bill for a Christian court was sponsored by Hon. Gyang Dung (PDP) from Plateau State and eight other members of the House of Representatives. It scaled the second reading and that was the last we heard of it. The bill was an act of provocation and it was so treated and trashed. The statement from Imam Eze and its associated noise fall in the same category.
The difference between the past and the present is change. We live in a world that shifts with time. The World Bank in 2020 ranked Saudi Arabia as the fastest-reforming country in the world. That country has gone far doing that, redefining the concepts of right and wrong and striking a balance between Islamic law on the one hand; local politics and global economic realities on the other. Today, even rude Donald Trump lowers his voice when the subject is Saudi. Those who have knowledge tell us that the reforms that burnish and refurbish Saudi Arabia do not make that country less Muslim.
It should be the same here. Reform and innovation are at the core of Yoruba’s cultural resilience. That is possibly what the Muslim North has not sat down to study and understand about Western Nigeria.
Let me say finally that making Sharia a hot-button topic in 2025 Nigeria is suspect and very unnecessary. Elections are coming, especially presidential and governorship elections. Flightless birds need the winds of religion to fly their political planes. They will use all magic and talismans to conjure those winds. The sudden interest in Sharia is one talisman that worked wonders in other climes at other desperate times of polls. It cannot work in today’s and tomorrow’s Yorubaland. So, I appeal to the Sultan and other well-meaning Muslim leaders to back off on agitations that seek to use their respected and respectable anvil to forge this idle tool. Adding their weight to weightless claims does no one any good.
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News
Church Of Nigeria Formally Cuts Ties With Wales Over Lesbian Archbishop
Published
8 hours agoon
August 7, 2025By
Editor
The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has officially cut all ties with the Church in Wales following the appointment of Bishop Cherry Vann, an openly lesbian cleric, as the 15th Archbishop of Wales.
The decision was announced by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, the Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba, who described the development as ‘an abomination’ and a serious departure from biblical truth.
The announcement came during the opening session of the 14th Church of Nigeria Conference of Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers, held on Tuesday at the Church’s national secretariat in Abuja.
With the theme ‘Called as a Watchman’, the event brought together legal minds from across the Church to discuss matters of doctrinal integrity, justice, and governance.
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Primate Ndukuba delivered the keynote address titled ‘The Decade of the Reign of God: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects.’
Reacting to the Church in Wales’ elevation of a lesbian bishop, the Primate said, “We reject the election of the Right Reverend Cherry Vann as the Archbishop of Wales.”
He compared it to the 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson in the Episcopal Church (USA), which had also led to Nigeria severing ties with that province.
“Just as the Church of Nigeria took steps after the election of Gene Robinson in the United States, we are severing every tie and relationship with the Church of Wales,” he said.
Primate Ndukuba also criticised what he described as the growing influence of revisionist teachings within sections of the Western Church.
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“These individuals have not relented from their evil agenda; rather, they have intensified it. What they call their wisdom and culture is an abomination to God,” he declared.
Despite cutting formal ties with the Church in Wales, the Church of Nigeria reaffirmed its support for orthodox Anglicans in the region through platforms such as the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).
“We pray that the Church of God in Wales will rise up, and that the faithful among them will stand strong. We, the Church of Nigeria, alongside GAFCON, will stand with them,” Ndukuba assured.
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Looking ahead, the Primate said the Church of Nigeria plans to expand its global mission, with new registrations underway in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland.
“We feel that the Lord is calling us back to Europe for mission,” he said.
The Primate also used the opportunity to highlight the Church’s ongoing contributions to the GAFCON movement.
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He revealed that the Church of Nigeria had recently contributed $2.5 million to the GAFCON Endowment Fund and was planning a local Nigerian GAFCON Endowment worth $2.3 million to support orthodox Anglican work and mission.
On constitutional and legal matters, Ndukuba urged legal officers to strengthen the Church’s internal reforms and national engagement.
“You are to understand yourselves to be watchmen for the Church. You defend the Church against all forms of aggression. As modern-day watchmen, we must first listen to God, then speak His truth in love, knowing our duty lies in obedience,” he said, calling on legal professionals to support the Church’s constitutional review and advocate for a new Nigerian constitution.
News
EFCC Arraigns Six Katsina Revenue, Bank Workers Over N1.2bn Fraud
Published
9 hours agoon
August 7, 2025By
Editor
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Tuesday arraigned five officials of the Katsina State Board of Internal Revenue and a staff of First Bank over an alleged N1.2 billion fraud.
The accused were brought before Justice Musa Danladi of the Katsina State High Court by the Commission’s Kano Zonal Directorate on a seven-count charge bordering on conspiracy and diversion of public funds.
According to the anti-graft agency in a statement on Wednesday, the total sum allegedly diverted is N1,235,330,000, said to be tax remittances from the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Alliance for International Medical Action, which were due to the Katsina State Government.
The defendants, Nura Lawal, Sanusi Mohammed Yaro, Ibrahim Mamman, Abubakar Saidu, Rabiu Adamu Abdullahi, and Adam Alhassan Albashir, a Public Sector Relationship Manager with First Bank, were all docked and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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One of the charges reads:
“That you Nura Lawal, Sanusi Mohammed Yaro, Ibrahim Mamman, Abubakar Saidu, Rabiu Adamu Abdullahi and Adam Alhassan Albashir between January, 2022 to August, 2024 at Katsina within the jurisdiction of the Katsina State High Court, being staff of Board of Internal Revenue Services (BOIRS), Katsina and Public Sector Relationship Manager of First Bank, in such capacity conspired among yourselves to commit an unlawful act to wit: unlawfully converted to your personal uses the tax payments meant for the Katsina State Government and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 58 of the Penal Code Law of Katsina State and punishable under Section 298 of the Same Law.”
After their plea, prosecution counsel Musa Isah urged the court to fix a trial date to enable the Commission prove its case.
However, the defence counsels filed separate bail applications for the six defendants, requesting their release pending trial. Isah opposed the applications.
Justice Danladi, after listening to both sides, granted bail to each defendant in the sum of N5m with one reliable surety resident within the court’s jurisdiction.
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The Judge said surety must possess verifiable landed property, with the title documents to be verified by the court registrar.
The case was adjourned to October 27, 2025, for the commencement of trial.
According to EFCC investigations, Rabiu Abdullahi, a former Director of Collections and current Permanent Secretary of the Board, allegedly authorised the opening of an account named “BOIRS” with Sterling Bank. Sanusi Mohammed Yaro and Ibrahim Mamman were appointed as the sole signatories.
The commission said the account became the main channel for funnelling the diverted funds to NADIKKO General Suppliers, a company allegedly owned and controlled by Nura Lawal, an Assistant Director in the Career Skills/Staff Welfare unit of the Board.
EFCC findings also showed that NADIKKO and Lawal served as key conduits in laundering the proceeds, which were traced to multiple bank accounts linked to the suspects.
News
FG Urges Nigerians Abroad To Register With Embassies For Emergency Support
Published
9 hours agoon
August 7, 2025By
Editor
The Federal Government has called on Nigerians travelling abroad to register with Nigerian embassies and consulates in their host countries to enable timely intervention during emergencies.
The appeal was made by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dunoma Ahmed, during a meeting with the Diplomatic Correspondents Association of Nigeria, led by its Chairman, Idehai Frederick, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to DICAN, Amb. Ahmed stressed the importance of informing Nigerian missions upon arrival in foreign countries, rather than waiting until problems arise.
“I advise Nigerians to make it a point of duty to make their presence known to the Nigerian mission in the country they’re visiting.
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“This simple step can help prevent misunderstandings and ensure that Nigerians receive the support they need in times of crisis.
“There was a recent case of Nigerians trapped in the Central African Republic, where some Nigerians tried to give the Ministry a bad name,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary highlighted the role of timely and accurate information in managing crises and emphasised the need for closer collaboration with media organisations like DICAN to combat misinformation.
“Most of the time, giving the necessary information before they even ask for information is crucial in managing crises effectively.
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“We are saddled with the role of laundering the image of the country. Hence, the inevitability of a strengthened partnership between DICAN and the Ministry,” Perm. Sec. noted.
He underscored the significance of disseminating accurate narratives about Nigeria’s foreign policy, particularly in the face of growing disinformation.
Ambassador Ahmed also commended DICAN for hosting the maiden Diplomatic and Security International Conference, which brought together about 70 diplomats, security experts, academics, and representatives of civil society to discuss strategies for global safety and peace.
In appreciation of the Ministry’s cooperation, DICAN Chairman said, “The Permanent Secretary has shown commitment to working with DICAN, and we appreciate his efforts in promoting a positive image of Nigeria.”
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