By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Rights activists, who are Muslims, are not seeming to be done with Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, over its unapologetic stance on comparison of symbol of their Islamic faith, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to idol worshipping and tribalist ‘warlord’, Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a. Sunday Igboho.
This is as yet another spring up of condemnations erupted from the activists’ circle where they have concluded that the time is now to let Afenifere really know its place as more merely a side-taking political and sectional group than being spokesman-organisation for an entire race as sophisticated and highly cosmopolitan as Yoruba.
Recall that the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) had urged calm after Afenifere refuted the report but it did not apologized even as the Islamic rights group demanded and Sahara Reporters did.
In the latest development, the Muslim activists are saying that Afenifere failed from the word ‘go’ when it, by its body language and physical behaviours towards the people, chose to select one religious part and gave it full support against another and even confidently acted to prove that there are no Muslims in the Yoruba Land it claims to speak for.
The DEFENDER’s reports, in the past, had exposed Afenifere as, in justifying its belief there are no Muslims in the Yoruba Land, having no single member who is a Muslim. We once reported how a notable Nigerian figure of Yoruba extractions, who is also a Muslim, was snubbed and ignored when he asked a very outspoken Afenifere leader, who is now the acting leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, “why do you Afenifere people not consider us Muslims, well known Nigerian figures and Yoruba elders, to be qualified as members?”
Our checks revealed that Yoruba Land has got Muslims who are renowned professionals, elites and contributors of progress and opportunities and yet are not deemed to be qualified as Afenifere members let alone leaders.
Dr. Lateef Adegbite, OFR, who was a very active Commissioner of Western State (now split into Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti) and was Secretary General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and very fiery legal luminary till death was never accepted into the membership of Afenifere, we gathered.
That was said to be going on, although Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) leader and Anglican Bishop of Akure Diocese, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, and other active Christians with CAN agenda were accepted as members thus the persecutions and deprivations that Muslims face as female students in hijab and even male Muslim students, who suffered admission apparthy due religious intolerance of Afenifere backed Christian doing those evils.
Other Yoruba Muslim of leadership status that suffer exclusion imposed by Afenifere, which claims to represent and speak for a cosmopolitan tribe like Yoruba, include former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN), who was also a prominent Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, The Netherlands.
Others are Sheikh Qasim Yayi Akorede (Akure now late) but has since been succeeded, Sheikh Bello Kewulere (Ado Ekiti), many who Islamic scholars including Sheikh Muyideen Ajani Bello (Ibadan). There are others such as Otunba Lateef Owoyemi (Ijebu Ode), Alhaji S. O. Babalola, OFR, (Ede now late) and Alhaji AbdulAziz Arisekola Also (Ibadan now late) and more, who, the findings revealed, should have been accepted but rejected as Afenifere members on the account of their being Muslims.
Some of the Muslim activists, who spoke to us, asked questions bothering about sincerity of those in Afenifere that claim to represent Muslims and yet exclude Muslims from everything they do abd who know Muslims only when they need to persecute them.
Prof. Ishaq Akintola, Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) and many more, past and present, have been involved in asking questions of this nature.
Habeeb Atata, a school proprietor and human right activist, said it is time Afenifere should be told to its face that it does not represent Yoruba Land until it accepts that Muslims also exist and will not any more impose Christianity and paganism ideologies on the rest members of the race.
In a reaction sent to The DEFENDER Friday, Atata said: “We Muslims must speak loud and let this Afenifere know that they are not representing Yorubas because, there are no Muslims among them.
“This mean they believe there is no Islam in Yoruba land. Whereas, Islam has been in Yoruba land centuries before Christianity that is why Yoruba saying “Aye la ba ifa Aye la ba imale osan gangan ni igbagbo wolede” (meaning, in the world we met oracle and Islam, it was in the midday that Christianity came).
“Let us analyse Yoruba state and see the population of Muslims in it.
“Lagos – Lagos is majority Muslim community e.g. Epe is called Oni Kurani (Owners of Qur’an) because of dominance of Islam in it. Ikorodu is also dominated by Muslims same as Lagos Island etc.
“Ogun State – cities like Ijebu, Egbas, Yewa, Ifo etc – Muslims are in the majority.
“Oyo State – cities like Ibadan, Oyo, Iseyin, Oke Ogun – Muslims are in the majority.
“Osun State has places like Iwo, Ede, Osogbo, etc where Muslims are in the majority.
“Ekiti could be 50/50 Christian/Muslim
Ondo State has Christian in majority.
“In Yoruba speaking cities in Kwara State like Offa, Ilorin, Ganmon, Erin-Ile, etc has Muslims in the majority,” Atata presented analytical view of Muslim population of Yoruba Land that Afenifere ignored and refused to recognize.
“Why couldn’t this people (Afenifere) see Muslim elites that can be part of them? Even Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, by their thinking, is not Yoruba enough to join them and you say you are speaking for the Yorubas. The Muslims must wake up,” he said.
