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MURIC gives conditions for supporting Christian president in 2023
Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern, which recently declared that Nigeria’s next president must be a Yoruba Muslim, has clarified its position, saying its demand is hinged on the condition that the political parties zone the presidency to the South-West.
This was made known in a statement on Monday by the Director of the human rights organisation, Prof. Ishaq Akintola.
MURIC said it would not oppose a Christian candidate should the position be zoned to any other zone.
It said, “Some stakeholders have misunderstood our statement concerning our demand for a Yoruba Muslim president come 2023. They wrongly assume that we do not want a Christian president at all. That is not correct. We have therefore seen the need for us to clarify our statement.
“Our true position is this. We want a Yoruba Muslim to be the next president if the presidency is zoned to the region by political parties. So there is a proviso and the key word is ‘if’. MURIC is not a fanatical group. We do not have a problem with a Christian president. This is a democracy and Nigeria is a multi-religious nation. So we are not opposed to a Christian emerging as president at any time so long as he respects the rights of Muslims.
“Our grouse is with the system in the South West. It is an open secret that Christians dominate the education sector in the South West. Although Muslims form majority of the mainstream population, the Christians constitute the majority among the elite class. That is why the civil service is fully in the hands of the Christians while the Muslims are an overwhelming majority among the artisans and traders in Yorubaland. This situation can be traced back to the British Christian colonial masters who manipulated the education system in favour of Christianity.
“Now we all know that artisans and traders do not make policies and decisions. It is civil servants who control the destiny of the citizens. The school teachers in the South West also dance to the tune of the influential Christian leaders in the civil service to harass, frustrate and oppress Muslim children in the schools.
“The Christians who control the civil service are so intolerant and self-centered that they victimise Muslims at any given opportunity. They are not willing to share the paraphernalia of political power, administrative influence and citizens’ rights and priviledges with their Muslim neighbours.
“This explains the cassu belli for MURIC’s demand for the emergence of a Yoruba Muslim president at the centre. Successive Federal administrations have paid no attention to the complaints of marginalisation and persecution lodged by Yoruba Muslims. It is our belief that a Yoruba Muslim president will hear the cries of Yoruba Muslims because he will know and understand the setting whereas a Christian president emerging from the same South West will make matters worse for Yoruba Muslims.
“For the avoidance of doubts, therefore, MURIC is not saying Christians cannot be president in 2023. We are only wary about such a Christian candidate being a Yoruba. The reason for our opposition to the emergence of a Yoruba Muslim president is two-fold.
“One, Yoruba Christians do not give their Muslim neighbours their Allah-given fundamental human rights. Examples abound in the way female Muslim children are persecuted in Yoruba schools, particularly over hijab and their refusal to allow their fellow Yoruba Muslims to apply civil Shariah which does not affect Christians in any way. We are reluctant to come under the presidency of people who do not respect our civil liberties.
“Two, Yoruba Christians have been military head of state and president (Mathew Olusegun Obasanjo, 1976 – 1979, 1999 – 2007), interim head of state (Earnest Shonekan, August 1993 – November 1993) and vice president (Professor Yemi Osinbajo, 2015 to date) but no single Yoruba Muslim has had the opportunity to taste power in the centre. Therefore, it will be unfair to give the slot of presidency to a Yoruba Christian again if the post is zoned to the region. Democracy is about inclusion and equal opportunity. Yoruba Muslims are saying enough of marginalisation and exclusivism.
“We therefore reiterate our position: on Yoruba Muslim president we stand unless the presidency is not zoned to the South West. To give the position to a Yoruba Christian is to sentence Muslims in Yorubaland to a life of perpetual slavery. Our Christian neighbours are yet to learn the art of living and letting live.
“Therefore, our message to the political parties is this: any party that gives the presidential slot to a Christian candidate in the South West will lose woefully. Yoruba Muslims have woken up from their deep slumber. Just as Abraham Lincoln warned, ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.’ A word is enough for the wise.”
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Saudi Crown Prince assures Tinubu of govt support
Saudi Crown Prince assures Tinubu of govt support
The Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has assured Nigeria of support in its economic reform programmes.
The assurance came when the Crown Prince and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met on Monday in Riyadh on the sidelines of the joint Arab-Islamic Summit.
Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
He said the two leaders explored potential areas for cooperation, particularly oil and gas, agriculture, infrastructure and the constitution of the Saudi-Nigeria Business Council.
Nigeria wants an agreement with the Saudi government over a proposed $5 billion bilateral trade facility between the two countries.
The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company, SALIC, invested $1.24 billion in 2022 to acquire a 35.43% stake in Olam Agri, one of Nigeria’s leading agricultural firms.
Talks are being held so that SALIC can have more stake in the company.
The Saudis hoped the investment would make Olam one of the biggest agro-allied businesses in the world.
The Crown Prince commended President Tinubu’s economic reforms, noting similarities to his steps to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s stability and development when he became Prime Minister.
He also assured Nigeria of his support and promised to motivate his team to realise the various areas of partnerships discussed at the meeting.
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At the meeting with the Crown Prince were the Saudi Minister of National Guard, Prince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Defense, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, and several senior officials.
Meanwhile, the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit has renewed the mandate of Nigeria and other member states on the Ministerial Committee assigned to engage with global leaders in seeking an end to the ongoing war in Gaza and Lebanon.
This decision was part of the resolution issued after the extraordinary Joint Arab-Islamic Summit, which took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 11, 2024.
President Bola Tinubu and other leaders from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OIC, and the League of Arab States were in attendance.
The Joint Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was formed by a resolution at the First Joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on November 11, 2023.
The group includes the foreign ministers of Nigeria, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Palestine, and Jordan.
In its final resolution, the summit urged the Ministerial Committee to “intensify its efforts and expand them to include working on ending the aggression on Lebanon.”
The committee will submit periodic reports, which the secretariats of the OIC and the League of Arab States will circulate to member states.
The Committee has also been tasked with further engaging actors across the Global South in the efforts to strengthen international support towards ending the war and Israeli occupation.
The resolution stressed the importance of protecting sea lanes by rules of international law and welcomed the signing of the tripartite mechanism by the League of Arab States, OIC, and the African Union to support the Palestinian cause.
The summit praised the African Union’s steadfast support of Palestine.
The leaders condemned recent Israeli military actions in northern Gaza, describing them as “crimes of genocide,” including allegations of torture, executions, disappearances, and “ethnic cleansing.”
They also criticised ongoing efforts to solidify Israel’s presence in occupied East Jerusalem, reaffirming it as the “eternal capital” of Palestine and calling for the unification of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem under a sovereign Palestinian state.
The resolution reiterated “the full sovereignty of the State of Palestine over occupied East [Jerusalem], the eternal capital of Palestine”. It rejected any Israeli actions aimed at altering the city’s identity or consolidating its occupation.
The summit also expressed unwavering support for Lebanon’s security, stability, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens.
Saudi Crown Prince assures Tinubu of govt support
News
Two Nigerian companies developed contactless passport renewal – FG
Two Nigerian companies developed contactless passport renewal – FG
The Federal Government has revealed that the contactless passport renewal solution, which went live in Canada on November 1, 2024, was developed by two Nigerian software companies.
The disclosure was made by Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, during the Politics Today programme on Channels Television on Tuesday.
Tunji-Ojo explained that the Federal Government deliberately chose to trust indigenous technology for the project.
“The solution is completely indigenous. We did not go to look for foreign technology. We got Nigerian technology – the two companies/vendors that came together to develop the solution are Nigerian software companies,” he said.
The minister expressed confidence in the solution, citing his over two decades of experience as an IT cybersecurity expert and his extensive history as a project manager on numerous occasions.
He did not, however, mention the names of the companies, and at this time, they are not yet publicly known.
The Interior Minister emphasized that the contactless passport renewal solution is designed to alleviate the challenges faced by Nigerians in the diaspora, such as long travel distances, accommodation costs, and taking time off work to renew passports.
He shared specific examples of Nigerians in Canada and London who had to cancel lectures or miss work to complete their passport renewal process.
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While acknowledging that the new solution has encountered some initial hitches, Tunji-Ojo reassured Nigerians that these issues would be addressed.
Tunji-Ojo also clarified that delays in passport issuance, such as those reported by some Nigerians in Canada who experienced waiting times of up to 42 days after using the contactless passport renewal process, are not linked to the system itself.
- Instead, he attributed the delays to the limited processing capacity of Nigerian embassies. For instance, he said that the UK embassy, which has received over 48,000 passport renewal applications (note: the contactless renewal system is not yet available in the UK and is currently exclusive to Canada), can only process 300 applications per day, leading to significant backlogs.
- The Interior Minister explained that the contactless system leverages biometric databases, facial recognition, and live authentication checks, enabling applicants to renew their passports via a mobile app without visiting the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) office.
- However, the system applies only to Nigerians aged 18 and above with existing biometric records, as first-time applicants must still visit the NIS office for interviews and biometric capture.
- The Federal Government plans to expand the contactless passport renewal solution to other countries in the coming weeks.
Additionally, a centralized personalization center is being established in Abuja, equipped with advanced machines capable of printing up to 32,000 passports daily, to improve the efficiency of passport issuance.
Two Nigerian companies developed contactless passport renewal – FG
News
New Edo Gov Okpebholo takes oath of office, Shettima, others present
New Edo Gov Okpebholo takes oath of office, Shettima, others present
Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday led the Federal Government delegation to the inauguration of Monday Okpebholo as a brand new governor of Edo State.
Other dignitaries at the event are Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, chair of the governors forum; and Philip Shaibu, the reinstated deputy governor of Edo.
Many sitting state governors across the country elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that also graced the ceremony are Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Hope Uzodinma of Imo, and Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto, among others.
The National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, and his predecessor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, were also at the ceremony, held inside the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.
Okpebholo took his oath of office at about 1pm on Tuesday.
Dennis Idahosa was also sworn in as Edo deputy governor.
The new governor rode in an open-top van round the stadium while acknowledging cheers from supporters.
As candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Okpebholo won the September 21 off-cycle governorship election in the state.
He polled 291,667 votes to defeat Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came second with 247,274 votes.
Olumide Akpata, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), came third with 22,763 votes.
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