Don’t Sell Tinubu For Pot Of Porridge, MURIC Urges Northern Muslims To Keep ‘Midnight’ Deal

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has urged Northern Muslims of their nighttime deals over Asiwaju Bola Tinubu urging them not to sacrifice the deal because of a pot of porridge.

A statement signed by the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday, 15th February, 2023 urged Islamic scholars based in the North to remind Northern political leaders of their pledge to support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The statement while noting that Yoruba Muslims have mostly not featured in the national leadership averred that the development has weakened Muslims in the region and emboldened their Christian brothers.

“Yoruba Muslims had to seek justice in the courts and several cases are still in the courts. The sufferings of Muslims in the region led our organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), to demand, as early as 2021, for the emergence of a Muslim of Yoruba extraction as a presidential candidate. 

“Working in concert with a prominent Islamic organization based in the North and a newly established group of Yoruba Islamic scholars with the support of some Northern leaders, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress.

“Tinubu’s victory at the primaries was the product of intensive lobby and insistence on power shift to the South by twelve Northern governors whom MURIC later tagged ‘The Noble Dozen’. The heroic role played by Governors El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Ganduje of Kano and Zulum of Borno cannot be over-emphasised in this regard.

“The ‘Noble Dozen’ were able to prove to Nigerians beyond any iota of doubt that the spirit of the great Sadauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first prime minister, is still very much alive.

“It is now ten days to D-day. While we do not want to give credence to rumours, we find it necessary to reiterate our commitment to the deals reached in the days before and after the primaries. We still call attention to agreements reached with our Muslim brothers in the daytime as well as pledges made in the dead of the night on this subject matter. Our sleepless nights, the long hours of brainstorming together, the long trips and security risks taken together must not be in vain.

“But the act of solidarity manifested by the twelve Northern governors before the primaries has assured us that Northern Muslims do not have any trait of treachery or hypocrisy in them. For this we give kudos to the El-Rufai camp. Even El-Rufai’s latest utterances have further reinforced the commitment of the North to our agreements.

“We remind President Muhammadu Buhari that the emergence of a Yoruba Muslim president was the crux of the discussion during his one-on-one with the Executive Director of MURIC in Aso Rock in 2022.

“To Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso we have this to say: ‘The emergence of a Yoruba Muslim as president of Nigeria is sine qua non to the liberation of millions of Yoruba Muslims who are languishing in the ‘sugarcane plantations’ of the agents of neo-imperialism which they call schools in the South West. You both stand on the threshold of history today to decide whether you must put your ambition first or freedom for fellow Muslims in Yorubaland. You have the right to choose but note that we do not forget those who stand by us in time of need.’

“As we drop the anchor, we remind our Northern brothers and sisters that only a formidable Muslim Ummah in Nigeria can confront the challenges posed by neocolonialism. All eyes are on the North today as Southern Muslims struggle for emancipation. They must not be mortgaged for a pot of porridge. The noble ideals of a united and indivisible Nigeria for which Sardauna and Balewa died must be kept alive,” the group said in urging northern Muslims to keep the deal on Tinubu.

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