It was a sad day on 24/10/2024, for the Nigerian nation. That day proved beyond reasonable doubt that twenty five years of democracy have not created the needed religious tolerance in Nigerians that will allow for peaceful coexistence.
On that day the bill sponsored by Hon. Aliyu Misau, the PDP House of Representatives member representing Misau/Dambam Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, was thrown out by the House in a show of religious bigotry and extremism.
The bill sought the amendment of sections 24, 262, 277 and 288 of the 1999 constitution as amended to expand the jurisdiction of the Federal and States Shari’ah Courts of Appeal. The bill was simply asking for the word “personal” to be removed from the statement “Islamic Personal Law” wherever it was mentioned in the constitution.
Hon. Misau pointed out that the need for this amendment arose as a result of developments recorded in areas such as the application of Islamic commercial law by banks like Ja’iz and Taj banks. The existence of the word “personal” would not allow these institutions to appeal their cases to the Shari’ah Court of Appeal to be fully adjudicated by Islamic principles.
We need to understand that wherever Shari’ah law is referred to in our laws it is always referred to with respect to Muslims only. There has never been an effort to generalize Shari’ah law to include non Muslims. The non application of full Shari’ah law in Nigeria has severely curtailed the rights of Muslims to practice their religion. The application of Shari’ah law on Muslims on the other hand will in no way harm any non Muslim or result in any negative effects on the nation.
Yet a team of Christians, led by a member who converted to Christianity from Islam, Bamidele Salam, fought to have the bill rejected. This was done under the watch of the Christian deputy House leader Beni Kalu, by a voice vote, in what can only be described as an act of bigotry. They said the amendment was an attempt to islamize the country!
Yet we need to ask: the Muslims in the House of Representatives have a simple majority over Christians, so where were all these Muslim representatives when this bill was rejected? Where was the Speaker who is a Muslim?
This makes me believe that rather than the Christians, it was our Muslim members who were responsible for our loss. They were either not available, having preferred their personal engagements over their official duty of attending sessions in the House or they voted along with the Christians to have the bill thrown out.
Modibbon Gusau.
5/11/2024.
