Is Obasanjo Biased Against Islam?

[mallamt]

I am not sure why myadudu is saying I am confusing issues.  Firstly I never said or gave an impression that nigeria is not a muslim/christian country what I raised was the fact that we are trying to make things a christian vs muslim issue and that is where the problem is.

Myadudu wrote

The fact is, we as muslims think a non-muslim will not do justice to us when entrusted with position of authority. Christian also feel the same way and I dont blame them.

This is the kind of statements that makes non muslims get angry.  How many muslim leaders have ruled nigeria?  We have had about 7 muslim leaders out of a total of about 11 diferent leaders in nigeria and the seven account for about 26 years out of around 44 years of the existence of nigeria, throughout these governments religion was not raised as an issue as it is being raised today why.  Do you believe that there were no injustices then to non muslims that was why they were quiet or do you think that because they were quite about it they were stupid?  I believe myadudu's statement is very arrogant and he owes non muslims that visit this site an appology!  For 26 years out of 44 years non muslims have not said a word on religious oppression/appointments.

All of a sudden now a new concept is being introduced into our polity called the "realities in Nigeria", when did this reality start from 1999?

I must make myself clear, I am not saying that OBJ has or has not appointed more christains than muslims, nor am I saying it is right to use religion to oppress any one group.  As it is a traditionalists (of which we have quite a number in nigeria) would say both muslims and christians have oppressed them.  What is paramount is that each group is able to express themselves and practise their beliefs in any part of the country as long as it is within legal boundaries, whitout hinderance.  The creation of all these classes of nigerians will not take the country anywhere, some of the questions that we will be raising by introducing a religion factor is that does being a christian from kano make a kano indigene any less from kano? or does being a muslim from enugu make the enugu citizen any less from enugu?

We must understand that when the tyre of a car goes flat we do not create a fifth wheel on the car, we take the tyre out examine it find the hole patch it or even replace the tube.  But the wheel is never taken out completely nor is a fifth wheel introduced on the car.  What in essence I am saying is what I have always said, we must first look back into our history what injustices and lopsided appointments based on religion have taken place, what is taking place today?  has there been any injustices due to these lopsided appointments or have all peoples been treated fairly despite these lopsided appointments?  what are the checks and balances we can introduce that will ensure that lopsided appointments must not equal injustice?  These are some of the questions that must be asked rather than complain there are more christians or muslims in a government, so what?  How does that infringe on peoples rights?

[alhaji_aminu]

Salam

I wish mallamt and others like him will realise that the emergence of military leaders in Nigeria, with the exception of the Gowon's, was never as a result of a collective decision by Muslims (or northerners for that matter). When this issue of the military being it's own, not the muslim, constituency is  factored out of the equation, it will seen that of the 6+4+5 years Nigeria practiced democracy, only 11 of them were headed by Muslims.  So the talk of many muslim heads of state should not matter because it is an aberration.

I sincerelyy wish I owe non-muslims an apology by making the comments I made. Because in that situation, I would know that I have erred by suggesting 1) Muslims need other muslims to protect their interests and 2) that what Obasanjo is doing has the likelihood of creating a wider gap between muslims and christians. And for mallamt to say, For 26 years out of 44 years non muslims have not said a word on religious oppression/appointments. is  disingenuous.  I will only remind mallamt of people like  Dan Suleiman, TY Danjuma, Solomon Lar, Zamani Lekwot , Awolowo, Chris Alli, and the Christian Association of Nigeria in the late eighties.

Mallamt has raised the issue of the rights and citizenship of minorities in Nigeria ( a non-muslim living in Kano for example) . My answer is simple; he has as much right as he is granted under the 1999 constitution.

....... to be continued.

[Dave_McEwan_Hill]

Because the people who made the constitution of Nigeria were aware of the dangers of religious differences in Nigeria they wisely made the constitution a secular (ie non-religious)constitution. This was to ensure that all citizens could have exactly the same rights under the law and that they would not be forced to submit to laws based on a religion to which they did not subscribe. This gave Moslems, Christians and those of no religion exactly the same rights as is the case in all well ordered societies.
The attempt to introduce Sharia law is a breech of this constitution. To introduce Sharia law legally you would have to either change the constitution or break Nigeria up and give the different parts their own constitutions.
Those who would wish to introduce Sharia law should be aware that these are the proper options to be considered.
Before I get enraged replies on this site please note that I have passed no opinion on the merits or otherwise of Sharia law.

[mallamt]

Before myadudu continues let me make some things clear with respect to his comment on portions of my posting.  Today in 2005 we are being told that military leadership in nigeria even though most were led by muslims, were not a result of a collective decision of muslims.  That is okay, so is one then to deduce that the other leaders were a result of a collective decision of muslims or can one say that it is the only muslims that should be allowed to decide the leadership in nigeria?  Furthermore, although the the leadership refered to by myadudu that were not a result of a muslim decision, it is okay for muslims to benifit and enjoy the spoils of such leaderships right (for instance in appointments)?  Can we really say there is an aberration? No sir it is the price we have to pay, you know it is like young white south africans who say they were not the apartheid enforces in south africa so why should you accuse them or present day white south africans of apartheid or the whites in europe and america who say they have nothing to do with slavery why do you keep holding it against them or why should they even appologise for it.

Myadudu appeared to have misunderstood my point on the kano citizen who is a christain (non muslim).  I am not talking of a resident of kano here I am talking of a kano citizen whoes village is in kano state, not just a person leaving in kano.  But a person whose roots are in kano but is a christain, does his being a christain from kano make him any less from kano?

[kilishi]

well it seems the debate is onesided as well.what i mean no woman is responding,let me bail the men out before the cry of marginalisation from the women.To me the blame is on the northern leaders or the so called elites,if they are not interested in thier own welfare instead of the masses,then we will not be molested,sidelined or even the cleanse upp ,why i said so is that they always kept us misinformed while when ever the have the chance to say out thiwer mind they will only look for a mean to sustain themselves,and before you hear them complain then it means they are out of govt,most of the time when they are in a position they will maintain a sealed lip,when they were shown a way out that time hell will let loose,they dont have sincerity of purporse,they were the same set of people that let our educational system detoriate,our health care service in shamble,and also the youht with nothing to do,if they are true to thier course then by now we would have some vibrant and feraless youthj to clamour for our right,but no they always want patronage in govt,any govt in power must go with them,i dont want call names but how many of them served in govt since independence?and how many times do they relent on thier effort to be recognised by the govt,so if now the govt of the day is filling the vacancy with people from a particular religion or tribe then is the handywork of our so called northern leaders,if they give opportunity for the younger generation to get chance,experience an d recognition then this would not have happen.

[Dave_McEwan_Hill]

Well said, Kilishi. The North has often been let down by its leaders who have shown very little concern for the mass of the people. Many of them been more concerned about keeping power to themselves and enriching themselves. It suits the elites very well to allow education of the masses to deteriorate. It also suits them well to have people arguing about religion when they should be concerned about the behaviour of Government and the honesty of the leaders.

[kilishi]

It seems some people wants to put sentiments to becloud their sense of judgement,somebody was reading my message and started complaining why should I exposed us to the world since I am writing in a place where everybody could get access to,  but he quite agree with my points his only quarrel is why should I wash away  arewa?s dirty linen in public?what comes to my mind was that if we continue to hide from the truth and continue to give cover to the exploitation of few, which type of life do we wants for our children ,grand children and even our own brothers and sisters, those people we are trying to protect in the next fifty years will not be able to make any impact on our existence, if we didn?t let them know our grievances against them then we are finished, marginalisation will not only mean sidelining us in govt appointments but we will as welll be regarded as not Nigerians, a different identity will be given to us, and if we are not carefull we have to work for the so called masters to get even electriciyty in our own locality.
   Our elders understand one language which is power,and even now they are loosing that, but instead of them to wake up from their deep slumber they continue pursuing shadows, for how long please lets be realistic lets observe our representatives in the legislative chambers and measure the impacts they made on us as people ,I can recall aqn incident that happened recently in the national assembly about ecological fund,the money was meant to curb the scourgre of the atlantic ocean ,bar beach precisely, the money allocated was not upto one third of the money required,which means it will not be even enogh to start the work,so a motion was moved that instead of  wasting the money why not divert it to something else,may be water or desert encroachment,the members from south west vehemently opposed and even try to boycott the session they said even if the money weas one tenth it should be used for what it was meant for,and at the end they got their way,what I want to point out is their concern and doggedness towards achieving their aims, but always our members do compromise our own well being for small token, I got a brother in the national assembly and one day we have a course to discuss some issues I asked him why are they not pushing the interest of their people at the national level, because any time they talked and raised dust it be about certain incentives meant to them personally, and his answer was the system doesn?t give them enough room to do so, I asked my self are they not responsible for changing the system?what about the promise made to poor people that troop out to elect them? Then if they cant change the system what are they doing their?what is their use after all,  and if they at the helms of affairs cant change the system then what will happen to the masses outside there?  Kai turanci na ya kare,my English don finish make stop wooo, but one thing is that don?t blame me and think I am against arewa, wallahi those that know me sunsan na?f kowa kabilanci, in naga ana fada da bahushe musulmi da kuma wani sai nayi kokarin taimakawa nawa tukunna koda kuwa shine bashi da gaskiya,to amma duk wannna ba zai taimaka mana ba in ba mun samu yanci da kuma kare mutuncin mu ba,akwai wani taro da na ga anyi ?yan kudu suke nuna koda zasu yi shekaru hamsin basa zuwa makaranta to da kyar ?yan arewa su isko su ta fanning ilmi, haka a taron kasa da akeyi akwai wanda ya tashi ya fadi irin yadda ilmi ya zama abin tausayi a arewa amma nan da nan wani ya maida martani cewa ba kawai arewa bane har da sauran bangarori,don haka in har za a gyara ilmi ba a arewa kawai za a gara ba sai dai kasar baki daya,zan zo da wani batu kan maganr taron kasa nan gaba kadan .

[kilishi]

It seems some people wants to put sentiments to becloud their sense of judgement,somebody was reading my message and started complaining why should I exposed us to the world since I am writing in a place where everybody could get access to,  but he quite agree with my points his only quarrel is why should I wash away  arewa?s dirty linen in public?what comes to my mind was that if we continue to hide from the truth and continue to give cover to the exploitation of few, which type of life do we wants for our children ,grand children and even our own brothers and sisters, those people we are trying to protect in the next fifty years will not be able to make any impact on our existence, if we didn?t let them know our grievances against them then we are finished, marginalisation will not only mean sidelining us in govt appointments but we will as welll be regarded as not Nigerians, a different identity will be given to us, and if we are not carefull we have to work for the so called masters to get even electriciyty in our own locality.
   Our elders understand one language which is power,and even now they are loosing that, but instead of them to wake up from their deep slumber they continue pursuing shadows, for how long please lets be realistic lets observe our representatives in the legislative chambers and measure the impacts they made on us as people ,I can recall aqn incident that happened recently in the national assembly about ecological fund,the money was meant to curb the scourgre of the atlantic ocean ,bar beach precisely, the money allocated was not upto one third of the money required,which means it will not be even enogh to start the work,so a motion was moved that instead of  wasting the money why not divert it to something else,may be water or desert encroachment,the members from south west vehemently opposed and even try to boycott the session they said even if the money weas one tenth it should be used for what it was meant for,and at the end they got their way,what I want to point out is their concern and doggedness towards achieving their aims, but always our members do compromise our own well being for small token, I got a brother in the national assembly and one day we have a course to discuss some issues I asked him why are they not pushing the interest of their people at the national level, because any time they talked and raised dust it be about certain incentives meant to them personally, and his answer was the system doesn?t give them enough room to do so, I asked my self are they not responsible for changing the system?what about the promise made to poor people that troop out to elect them? Then if they cant change the system what are they doing their?what is their use after all,  and if they at the helms of affairs cant change the system then what will happen to the masses outside there?  Kai turanci na ya kare,my English don finish make stop wooo, but one thing is that don?t blame me and think I am against arewa, wallahi those that know me sunsan na?f kowa kabilanci, in naga ana fada da bahushe musulmi da kuma wani sai nayi kokarin taimakawa nawa tukunna koda kuwa shine bashi da gaskiya,to amma duk wannna ba zai taimaka mana ba in ba mun samu yanci da kuma kare mutuncin mu ba,akwai wani taro da na ga anyi ?yan kudu suke nuna koda zasu yi shekaru hamsin basa zuwa makaranta to da kyar ?yan arewa su isko su ta fanning ilmi, haka a taron kasa da akeyi akwai wanda ya tashi ya fadi irin yadda ilmi ya zama abin tausayi a arewa amma nan da nan wani ya maida martani cewa ba kawai arewa bane har da sauran bangarori,don haka in har za a gyara ilmi ba a arewa kawai za a gara ba sai dai kasar baki daya,zan zo da wani batu kan maganr taron kasa nan gaba kadan .

[Nuruddeen]

You see EMTL, Obasanjo is really out to betray justice. This "president" is no respecter of law. All he does is Yorubanisation of Nigeria. He has succeeded in creating anarchy and fear at all angles. His confab is just a Christianised affair. Period!