…. Lest we forget: ……………. The Vanguard, Friday, March 03, 2000 (Lead Story): Buhari, Ulamas rebuff Obasanjo on Sharia *Zamfara gov silent on Sharia in state broadcast WITH the controversy over Tuesdays decision on the Sharia by the National Council of State still raging, former military Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari said, yesterday, that no such decision was taken by the council. The highly influential Kano State Council of Ulamas that sponsored the Sharia Bill passed by the State Assembly also vowed yesterday to employ every legal force at its disposal to ensure the re-establishment of Sharia, while Gov. Ahmad Sani of Zamfara made a broadcast on state radio making no mention of the announced withdrawal of Sharia. Gen. Buhari, himself a member of the Council of State said on the Hausa Service of BBC that the council did not discuss the Sharia issue as it was not even on the meetings agenda. What happened, he told his interviewer was that the Vice-President called the state governors and discussed with them at the end of which President Olusegun Obasanjo asked them to announce to the press what they had decided on the issue of Sharia. His words: There was no discussion on Sharia during the Council of States meeting. The position of the Vice-President was based on his discussion with the governors. Responding to a question on whether he thought Vice-President Abubakars statement on the withdrawal of Sharia by some state governors was correct,Gen. Buhari said the V.Ps statement was wrong. He said, he (Vice-President) said they met and agreed but they (governors) said they did not agree and for us in that meeting as a whole, there was no discussion on Sharia. Because of that what he said could not have been the truth. The former Head of State was evasive when pressed about what would have been his position on the issue as a former Head of State if it had been revised during the council meeting. He said: There is nothing like my position as a former Head of State. This is an issue of Sharia and so it should rather be my position as a Muslim. I am a Muslim. Since the thing started in Zamfara State, I have been hearing on radio. I have been reading in the newspapers and I have been watching it on television and they did not say it will affect Christians. If we as Muslims want amputation or death penalty, we said we want it because it is our religion and the constitution of the country has agreed that everyone has the right to practise the religion of his choice. Those who know the provisions of the law have pointed them out accordingly, he said. Gen., Buhari also remarked that since the constitution which he noted was the basis for the military hand over has procedure for amendments, such a procedure should be followed in changing the laws. He added: Government must protect Muslims. It is not for soldiers or police to be used to fight Muslims since what they did was based on the constitution. *Ulamas kick over withdrawal of Sharia The Kano State Council of Ulamas at a press conference in Kano yesterday on the Council of States decision on Sharia said it was fed up with the fraudulent togetherness of Nigerians. Former SDP presidential aspirant, Dr. Datti Ahmed who spoke for the Ulamas vowed that the group would employ all the legal force at our command for the re-instatement of Sharia. He also spoke of the Ulamas preparedness for a sovereign national conference to decide Nigerias future. His words: We are happy to inform our Yoruba fellow citizens of Nigeria that we too have now come to the same conclusion. Let there be a national conference - sovereign or otherwise - to determine the basis of our continued togetherness or otherwise. We are fed up with fraudulent togetherness and the sooner all sections of Nigeria meet to determine our future co-existence, the better for all of us. Dr. Ahmed picked holes in Federal Governments directive that Northern states should abandon the introduction of Sharia and return to the Penal Code because according to him, the Penal Code was imposed on us as a guise to replace Sharia by the British administrators when they were leaving. The former presidential aspirant said we in Kano State do not see any reason why anybody should be so hysterical in opposing our legitimate effort at restoring the Sharia legal/judicial system in our state as this affects only the inhabitants of the state who are more than 99 per cent adherents of the Sharia system. To oppose the establishment of the Islamic legal system in Kano State by anybody, the Ulamas spokesman cautioned is to oppose democracy and the federal set-up in Nigeria. Besides, Dr. Ahmed said the group would support move by any other state in the country that wants to practise a system cherished by the vast majority of its citizens, stressing that we will regard it as their right to establish such a system within our federal democratic set-up. However, the group suggested that any individual who felt uncomfortable with any set-up established by the majority in any state had the right to relocate to another state with a more congenial set-up to live in happily. Dr. Ahmed denied that the action of his group could be interpreted to mean calling for the disintegration of Nigeria, insisting that all we are demanding is a return to true federalism where any component unit can run its affairs in the way most suited to its inhabitants well being within the sphere of its legislative and administrative competence. Reacting to President Olusegun Obasanjos Wednesday broadcast, Dr. Ahmed described it as showing gross ignorance of both the Penal Code and the Sharia, since according to him, the National Council of State (NCS) has no constitutional authority to dictate to any state legislature what law it can pass. This attempt by the council to unconstitutionally dictate to the states on the issue of Sharia is therefore unacceptable to us and will be rejected with all the legal force at our command as free citizens of a democratic Nigeria, he emphasised. On President Obasanjos fear that Sharia could violate human rights, Ahmed queried, whose human rights is he (Obasanjo) talking about. We are not talking of his own human rights because he is a Christian. He is not a Muslim and so it does not affect him. But we are talking of our human rights as Kano people who are 99 per cent at least Muslims. If the one per cent who live among us feel that this clamour is too oppressive for them and they dont want to share it, then the only thing they have is to vacate the place and go where the climate is good for them. Nobody says Kano must contain every segment of Nigerians. It is not possible. He appealed to Christians to take Sharia as an intellectual subject. Dont take it as a Muslim if you are not one. Take it as a subject you want to honestly inquire into. Investigate and see the merits or demerits. Dont close your mind and say it is Islam and so it must be false or evil. *Gov. Sani broadcasts In Gusau, capital of Zamfara State where Sharia law was first introduced,Gov. Ahmed Sani made a broadcast yesterday but made no mention of the announced withdrawal of Sharia. He was silent on Tuesdays meeting of the Council of State and withdrawal of Sharia in the state. He merely appeals for calm in the state, stressing that Sharia applied only to Muslims and not Christians. ….
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 18:20:52 +0000
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