How Obasanjo brought Nigeria into OIC - Sharia Council

Hassan Ibrahim, Kaduna - 31.03.2008

THE Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Supreme Council for Shari’a in Nigeria (SCSN) at the weekend said it was former President Olusegun Obasanjo who formally led Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in order to reap financial benefits that would enable the country to get back to the path of development.

The Muslim organisations in a statement signed by Malam Umar Zaria, said although Nigeria had been a full member of OIC and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) since the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, it was the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that paid the outstanding membership fees to allow Nigeria enjoy the gains accruable in several sectors of its economy reaped by other members of the OIC.

“Nigeria became full member of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) many years ago to reap economic benefits that would revamp its epileptic power supply, repair its poor roads, resuscitate its redundant factories and generally boost its economy,” they said.

JNI explained that despite its name, the OIC membership was not restricted to Islamic nations as many secular and multi-religious countries that saw the economic benefits of being a member are part of the OIC and IDB either as full members or as observers. Such countries, among others, included Senegal and Ghana from West Africa, they said.

According to the JNI, “Nigeria became a full member of OIC over 20 years ago which is not secret. Joining OIC is not to benefit Muslims in the country alone, also the economic benefit that will accrue from it which may be used to correct our epileptic electricity, repair our rugged, poor roads, or revamp our closed down factories shall not benefit Muslims alone.

“The benefits accruable to OIC members’ according to one of those who attended the last conference, Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, include ‘grassroots human rights issues, such as education and health, as 10 of the 15 countries with the world’s highest maternal mortality rate are OIC members!

“If there are people who felt that OIC money smell Islam and they need it not, the choice for such people is to switch off their light or refuse to travel through such roads or stop buying from the products of such factories or reject any of the benefits when they are supposed to enjoy them.

“A conference attended by presidents of countries like South Africa, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Russia, and Togo who are all Christians could not be seen as a threat to Christianity or Christians. A conference where U.N., U.K. and even USA are observers could not be said to be secretly planning against Christians or Christianity. What one would like to say to these Northern CAN officers is that they want to be more Catholic than the Pope,” they said.

“We think the formation of NIREC (Nigeria Inter-Religious Council) where Christian and Muslim Leaders meet regularly to resolve misunderstandings have put a seal to an era of occasional vituperation and threats by religious groups, against government doing its legitimate duty to its citizenry.”

They said the Northern CAN had a “sinister way of waking a sleeping dog when it suits them, just as it has been their stock in trade to cry wolf where none exist. Nigeria Foreign Minister Chief Ojo Madueke a Christian himself explained to the whole world on NTA the purpose of the going of President Yar’Adua to Senegal and the essence behind it. So CAN’s asking for immediate clarification regarding Nigeria’s status of the OIC does not arise.”