That allegation by South South Muslim Stakeholders
On a final note, from the foregoing, neither the Sultan of Sokoto-led Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) nor President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the issue. The main issue is you that is in you. Rejig it and you will count your blessings unlimited.
I stumbled over a media report in which some Nigerian Muslims identified as South South Muslim Stakeholders (registration status not ascertained) decried what they described as neglect by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), headed by His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto.
They accused the “Sultan of Sokoto” led NSCIA of neglecting and allegedly turning “blind eyes” to plight of Muslims in their geo-political zone.
According to the report titled, “S-South Muslims decry negligence by Sultan of Sokoto led NSCIA”, they reportedly expressed the concerns via a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day crucial meeting held at Asaba, Delta State on the 24th June 2023.
The communiqué signed by Alhaji (Barr) Mumbai Unagha as the Convener, said, “The meeting viewed with dismay the prefrencial treatment being accorded to other Muslim brothers in the Northern and Western part of the country.”
It added that the meeting was attended by representatives from the six states of the South -south geo-political zone of Akwa ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo, and Rivers states Observers from other states were also in attendance.
It also said, “That we deserve to be accorded our right and privileges as fundamentally guaranteed to practice our religious faith.
“The South South Muslim stakeholder pledge her unalloyed loyalty to the Council.and the leadership of the Sultan,” the South South Muslim Stakeholders said.
As a member of the Ummah, following keenly activities of the sitting Sultan since he ascended the throne on November 2, 2006, I feel challenged to react to the media report credited to the South South Muslim Stakeholders.
My reaction
And I start by commending them for even having the gut to come out, at least, under an umbrella to ventilate their concerns. What, however, is not right is the aspect of it that presents them as protesters against an alleged though inexistent injustice they claimed was being perpetrated by the leadership of the Ummah.
If you come out, jettisoning all available channels of communication to leadership of the Muslim Ummah that you profess to be part of, and now decide to drag them to public altercation using the media as weapon, it makes you more of a protester. You protest only when your rights have been infringed upon and you have exhausted all available means of calling attention of the leadership, to no avail. Yours is none of it. You chose to protest over unverified information.
Whereas, as a cross-regionally accepted, continentally influential king and globally counted Muslim leader with much respect, the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar is though one of the big, busy yet accessible multifaceted leaders around.
To drop all channels available and choose the public media as vehicle for the carriage of their complaints about an inexistent injustice and imbalance, purportedly, by the Sultan and leadership of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah he represents is the undoing of the South South Muslim stakeholders that they need to revisit.
As a king and Amirul Mu’mineen, the Sultan is father of all traditionally institutionalised and Islamically inclined Nigerians. So, it is not possible for him to be unjust or perpetrate imbalance among the ranks of the people he leads.
Not even the most critical inter-religious partner, which the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is with him on the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), has had cause to raise issues or give a damn.
Where the South South Muslim Stakeholders got their own idea from, of injustice, imbalance or turning of “blind eyes to the plights” of Muslims in the zone, they have the freedom of time and space to explain.
However, if the talk is about “preferential treatment to Muslims of North and South West geo-political zones” over others, they have a point there. Every Muslim of Nigeria is a Nigerian and deserves his or her rights to be whatever any member of other faith and zone of the country can be without prejudice or discriminatoon of any sort. Then, that is question of political appointments distribution that is not within the ambiance of control for the Sultan.
It is a political matter that only President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is who can address. But then, Tinubu, though a Muslim, is not President of Muslim Ummah alone but President of all Nigerians (Muslims, Christians, pagans and animists). The offices up for grab at his disposal are entitlements of adherents of Nigerian citizens across faith groups.
The South South Muslim Stakeholders should first and foremost consider their percentage as faith group in their own region. Take for instance, number of Muslims that go on pilgrimage to Makkah and Madinah from North West alone is larger by far than all in the entire Southern Nigeria put together.
Apart from South West, where Muslims are in the majority except for Ekiti and Ondo states where Muslim-Christian (all inclusive) percentage is 40/60, Muslims that go on Hajj from South South are largely Hausa-Fulani residents doing business there. Indigenous South Southerners have not gotten the strength of number to contest for who gets what politically except on ground of mutual understanding and negotiation.
The South South Muslim Stakeholders should harp more on Islamic da’wah, calling people to the way of Allah with wisdom and most beautiful of words. They should imbibe the good characters of an Islamic personality and use same to relate with their fellow indigenes from Akwa Ibom to Delta and Edo to Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers.
Let fellow geo-political zone indigenes see the beauties of Islam in you and in how you contribute positively to human capital development and regional economic and political growth. Do that along with your five pillars of Islam and six articles of faith for four years and let us return to the situation room and see what happens in the next general elections.
On a final note, from the foregoing, neither the Sultan of Sokoto-led Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) nor President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the issue. The main issue is you that is in you. Rejig it and you will count your blessings unlimited.
