POLITICS-Nigeria: Sharia Controversy Far From Over

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Remi Oyo and Toye Olori

Lagos, Mar 2 2000 (IPS) - The suspension of the Sharia this week by the Council of State, comprising Governors of States and former Heads of State, has not ended the controversy over the introduction of the Islamic law in several northern states.

In a nationwide broadcast late Wednesday, President Olusegun Obasanjo described the violence over the introduction of Sharia, which broke out in at least four cities, as the ‘worst blood letting since the civil war’.

He told the nation that the Council ‘unanimously agreed that all states that have recently adopted Sharia Law should in the meantime revert to the status quo ante…that is Sharia, as practised in the penal code…’.

Obasanjo said that the penal code is consistent with the Sharia and the human rights principles enshrined in the constitution, replacing amputation for stealing or stoning for adultery with terms in prison.

In reference to the violence, which first began on Feb 21 in the northern city of Kaduna and spread to neighbouring towns and this week to the eastern cities of Aba and Umuahia, Obasanjo said there can ‘be no winners in the destruction, all Nigerians are losers’.

The President said in peace all Nigerians are winners, but stunned many analysts when he added: ‘..to respect the feeling of one another and to hasten the process of reconciliation, there is no victory to be celebrated and no loss to be mourned’.

“How can the President say there are no losses to be mourned!” one political analyst exclaimed.

In a telephone interview with IPS from his home in Aba the analyst, who asked not to be named, said; “What about the hundreds of people killed and rendered homeless for living in Kaduna, how about property and lives ruined because their businesses were burnt down?” he asked.

“A textual analysis of his broadcast does not read well. The President seems to be pandering to the north and instead describing those in the east who reacted violently to the arrival of the corpses of their dead in the north as renegades,” said the analyst, who is also a public servant.

Former President Shehu Shagari (1976-1979), who did not attend the Tuesday meeting of the Council of State said in a statement that “the Council is incompetent to take any decision that will be binding on the states”.

Shagari, 75, known to have openly backed the introduction of the Sharia which has led to the violence, argued that “in the democratic system which we now operate, the Federal Government has no right to direct the state governments to rescind any laws which they have enacted through the democratic processes”.

The former President, who handed over the reins of power to Obasanjo in Oct 1979, said “the only way the Federal Government can do so, in my opinion, is by taking the matter to court which is the only body competent to intepret the constitution and give a ruling that has to be obeyed”.

He acknowledged that the ‘Sharia issue is a very volatile and delicate one which must be handled with great care and statesmanship’.

But Obasanjo has said that his government will not spare any troublemakers.

“Government will resist any attempt from any quarter to pursue a line that can lead to the disintegration of this country. Those who break our laws will be puniched to the full extent of the law”.

Ahmed Sani, the Governor of north-west Zamfara state, who first adopted Sharia Law resulting in the start of the unrests, says his government will not honour the agreement at which 35 other state governors were present and at least three other former Heads of State of Nigeria.

Apparently speaking on behalf of Sani, the state Attorney- General Ahmed Mahmud has said: “There is no going back. The process has been laid. If it means I will resign, I will resign”.

However, the Niger Government formerly withdrew all bills on Sharia recently passed by the House of Assembly following Tuesday agreement by the meeting of the National council of State in Abuja that the controversial law be suspended.

“I believe the decision taken was in the interest of all. If suspending Sharia is the sacrifice some us have to make to sustain the nation’s unity, I abide by it,” Abdulkadir Kure, said in Minna after a meeting with traditional, religious and opinion leaders in the state.

Describing the reversal of the Sharia legal system as a welcome development, Odumegwu Ojukwu, who led the cessessionist bid of eastern Nigeria in 1966, called on the Nigerian government to use the opportunity of the reversal to reaffirm the secularity of the country.

“We thank the government for what they have done so far. The decision of the council of state is a significant step forward. We rejoice that our faith in the ability of Obasanjo as the president has been restored. That the country has returned to sanity,” Ojukwu told journalists.

The Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), a Human Rights Organisation, also commended the government’s decision to revert to the status quo.

“We have to commend the council of state for suspending the implementation of Sharia across the country … It was unfortunate they had to wait until the mayhem in Kaduna before taking a decision,” says Samson Bako, CRP director of Publications.

But Bako is worried that the Zamfara and Kano State governments are still not willing to accept the decision of the Council of State.

“Anyone who watched the level of distruction in Kaduna and the reprisals in other parts of the country, should have the common sense to know that the Sharia issue has to be suspended for now until things cool down and an interpretation is given to the issue by the courts.

“It is now the duty of the court to make a clarification on the Sharia matter,” he told IPS.

The Human Rights Law Services, another NGO, which has already filed a suit challenging the introduction of Sharia in Zamfara State, said it is going ahead with the suit which comes up for hearing next week Thursday.

“The courts have the capacity to settle the issue in an amicable way, even if we have reasons to be skeptical, we have no option than to pray the court will settle the issue once and for all, to ensure peace,” says Sam Amade who heads the Prison Litigation and Reform department of the NGO.