By A. A. Ayama
POLITICS DIGEST- The demands seem like they’re right out of an opposition or secessionist group!
Please read their list of demands with an open mind, be objective, and then judge for yourself.
They demanded, among others:
state police or a decentralized policing system –
Response: The idea for the creation of a State Police has been shot down several times by both the executive and the legislative arm of government.
Several reasons have been adduced for this, one of which is due to the unconstitutional nature of the request, and the likelihood of abuse by a large section of our Pharoahic-like nature of our state governors.
We already have vigilantes in all the states, Civilian JTFs assisting our military in combating terrorists & banditry in infested states.
We have regional security outfits in the South, such as Amotekun in the SW and others in the SE, etc.
devolution of power to states –
This issue is a giant and a constitutional matter that’s beyond the powers and purview of the president to decide on his own.
Devolution of powers has the potential to dismantle the presidential system of government as we know it today.
Only the NASS can legislate on this issue and the concurrence of 2/3 of the 36 SHoA would have to be sought before the type of far-reaching amendment envisaged by CAN can pass into law… but can it, will it pass?
Can our political establishment commit hari-kari to satisfy a whimsical demand from the mostly opposition/secessionist/foreign funded & enabled CSOs/foreign grant seeking NGOs & Anarchist LGBTQ+ groups who have no idea of what devolution means other than for them to seize power by other means on behalf of their masters, having found it impossible to do so via the ballot box??
equal rights for all religions and their adherents
–
Nigeria is a multi-religious country and not a secular nation as most informed commentators are wont to espouse.
The freedom granting a citizen the right to practice a religion of his choice is constitutionally guaranteed.
However, the same constitution gives the powers to states where the penal code is applicable to the rights to regulate religious practices under Sharia law. (In the North)
We have had cases of some states in the South such as Rivers under Wike and Plateau under Dariye declaring their states to be “Christian States”, and also seen states such as Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Plateau, Benue, etc sponsoring pilgrims to Jerusalem, erecting multi-million & multi-billion naira churches and cathedrals for the benefit of their majority Christian population, which is okay by me.
The same situation applies to states in the North that have declared themselves to be Sharia states and are also using funds belonging to their states to sponsor pilgrims to Saudia, build mosques, etc, this is also fine with me.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, no state government has outlawed adherents of a particular faith from practicing their religion every day, or on Fridays and Sundays.
(Save for parts of IPOB terrorists-infested SE, where it’s a death sentence for one to be identified as a Muslim).
Rather, what we have are individual state governments initiating policies or actions to stifle the practice of a minority faith within their political and jurisdictional domain.
As an example, we have seen where certain state governors, and heads of Federal MDAs located in the South, demolish mosques for one reason or another and have refused to grant permits for mosques to be built within their domain, especially in the SE & SS.
While in the Muslim North, it’s evidential that churches are allowed to buy land and erect their structures anywhere in the Sharia and majority Muslim states, but they are in most cases denied official land allocations, denied C of O/R of O, and denied building approval/permits by the state and local governments concerned.
CAN or whatever religious group or body involved in such agitations must know that the type of idealistic religious freedoms they envisage, or seek to see exist throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria is impossible to attain.
It’s a mere daydream!
Nigerians are not a homogeneous people either by tribal, cultural or religious makeup in any sense of the word.
Therefore such sweeping demands for uniformity across the vast and large Nigerian landscape is a mere expression of utopianism and is unachievable.
Finally, there’s no president or NASS that can legislate or enforce this type of request or demand from any group or body regardless of their feelings or perception of importance or infallibility.
Nigerians as adherents of different faiths, should simply imbibe the spirit of tolerance and expression of respect for other faith and adherents of other faiths.
I will however advise our clergy and their groups, especially those showing undue interest in politics that they should drop the Cossack and adorn the Agbada, and apply to INEC for registration of their groups as political parties.
This is in light of their undue interests and interference in our national political discourse.
Demand for Universality or conformity of religious or cultural rights within an ethnically pluralistic, culturally diverse, regionally antagonistic, and politically hostile Nigerian environment is basically theoretical and practically impossible.
right to self-determination by all ethnic groups –
The demand for “self-determination by ALL ethnic groups” is basically the same demand made by all secessionist groups, from MEND militia in the ND to the terrorist IPOB-ESN Biafran group, to the Ighoho’s Yooba Nation Militant group or the quasi-religious cum political Middle Belt Forum, and the terrorists Boko Haram & ISWAP groups in the North whose desire is to establish their fake Islamic Republic carved out from the NE territory of Nigeria.
I’m surprised a religious group can come out to publicly make such seditious demands on a presidential candidate vying for such a high office. . Wow!
The leadership of CAN must have been infiltrated by “secessionists”, or the speech writer to Pastor Okoh the CAN president is himself a secessionist!
right to control natural resources by communities that bear them
– 👆same response as above applies and will suffice.
no, to open grazing –
This demand is not new coming from CAN and must be viewed as a continuation of CAN’s long held Anti-Fulani posture and negative profiling.
It is also a matter that has little to do with the FG and is the business and concern of the individual states involved. It’s certainly not a federal matter (save for the FCT).
States that are desirous of implementing this policy have already gone ahead to pass bills and legislation in their individual SHoA to that effect.
However, almost all the northern states save for Benue & Plateau states will only laugh at this suggestion or demand by CAN.
an equitable electoral system that guarantees the right to vote and be voted for by all. –
I thought we’ve always had a ‘single’ electoral act & system in Nigeria, with only one electoral body which is INEC 🇳🇬.
I want to be educated please, do we have different electoral acts or laws, for people of different faiths, regions, or states in this country??
(Save for LG Elections).
