National Conference: Sultan of Sokoto, Muslim leaders protest marginalisation

By Ehi Ekhator

Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, has on Wednesday led a group of aggrieved Muslim leaders to the Presidential Villa to protest to President Goodluck Jonathan, the composition of the ongoing National Conference.

Sultan

The sultan refused to speak with journalists after the meeting with the President, but the Secretary General of Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said that the President assured that whatever happened is not a deliberate attempt to marginalize Muslims in Nigeria.

Oloyede said : “We came to consult with Mr. President. We are happy we consulted with him, and he has given us reasons to re-assure us that Muslims in Nigeria are not deliberately marginalised and he has asked us to convey the feelings of the government, the genuineness of the government, the fairness of the government to the entire populace.”

“That if there are issues that are not as they ought to be, they were not deliberate and we want to believe that Mr. President told us his mind but we also want to believe that while it is proper to protest, it is also proper to assume that a leader will always be just even if there are mistakes thereafter.”

“We just felt that we must convey the feelings of the Muslims in Nigeria to Mr. President and he has given us his words to re-assure the Muslims community that he is a genuine and committed Christian who will not be unjust to others even,” he added

The jama’atu Nasril islam (JNI) had opposed the composition of the national conference last week, alleging that the number of Christians in the ongoing conference is more than the Muslims, therefore raised alarm on Muslim marginalization.

JNI stressed that the method used in selecting delegates for the Conference was not free and fair. The secretary General of JNI, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu had earlier address journalist in Kaduna, stressing that Muslims were cheated in spite having the largest population in the country.

He said: “Although democracy is a game of numbers, this has not been respected. For instance, While Muslims constitute the majority in the country, Christians, who by all acceptable records are not more than 40 per cent of the country’s population, ironically constitutes 62 per cent of the total delegates.”

“We find it as disrespect to the conscience of the Muslims that of the 20 delegates of the federal government, only six are Muslims. No Muslim is deemed fit to make the list of delegates from the Nigerian Economic summit. In fact in the representation of the security agencies Muslims have been so unimaginably short-changed with only one Muslim out of the six retired military and security personnel, one out of six retired security and NIA officers, and two out of delegates of the Association of Retired Police Officers. This means, of the 18 security experts belonging to these three groups, only 4 (22.2 per cent) are Muslims. The question is, why is this serious short-changing of Muslims in these very sensitive groups?” he stated

Among the delegation are; Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Garbai, former Head of Service of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammad Uwais.

National Conference: Sultan of Sokoto, Muslim leaders protest marginalisation