Mr Olufemi Aduwo, a fiery public affairs analyst, has declared that the Constitution is the basis of the Nigerian State and not the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar lll, or Sharia.
Aduwo, the President of Rights Monitoring Group (RMG), stated this in a statement in reaction to a statement credited to the Sultan of Sokoto to the effect that Sharia can co-exist as a parallel system for Muslims across the country.
He described the defence of Sharia by the Sultan as “nothing but antiquated claptrap, a flagrant piece of constitutional heresy that deserves outright dismissal.
“This notion that Sharia can somehow coexist as a parallel legal system for Muslims, immune from abolition or scrutiny, is a preposterous balderdash that wilfully ignores the supreme law of the land.
“The Nigerian State is a constitutional republic, not a theocratic fiefdom or some half-baked “multi-religious” experiment where medieval edicts trump the 1999 Constitution as amended
“Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria could not be clearer, to wit, no state religion. Full stop!!!,” he stated.
He further averred that the Nigerian State operates under secular principles, with fundamental rights to freedom of expression, belief and equality that brook no religious veto.
“Any attempt to entrench Sharia courts or punishments, even if cloaked in the fig-leaf of “only for Muslims,” represents a blatant overreach that undermines the republic’s very foundations.
“The Sultan’s insistence that Sharia is “100 per cent for Muslims” and should not be abolished is utter twaddle. It is an anachronistic power play that belongs in the dustbin of history; not in a modern democracy.
“Countless Muslim-majority nations have long since abandoned this rigid, punitive approach to Sharia, particularly on blasphemy, proving beyond doubt that such extremism is a choice, not an Islamic imperative.
“Turkey, a secular republic with a Muslim population exceeding 90 per cent, maintains a purely civil legal system with no Sharia courts whatsoever and no specific blasphemy statutes enforced with medieval savagery, insults to religion are treated as free speech, not capital crimes.
“Azerbaijan, where Muslims comprise over 96 per cent of the population, operates under a strictly secular constitution that rejects Sharia entirely, criminal or otherwise, blasphemy is simply not a punishable offence.
“Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, all overwhelmingly Muslim states, follow the same civil-law path, with zero application of Sharia hudud punishments or blasphemy edicts. Their citizens criticise religion without fear of the gallows or the lash.
“Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, with substantial Muslim majorities, likewise maintain secular frameworks devoid of blasphemy laws.
“Religion is a private matter, not a bludgeon of state coercion. These aforementioned examples expose the Sultan’s position for the retrograde nonsense it is.
“Nigeria need not ape the barbarism of Pakistan or Iran when fellow Muslim nations have embraced modernity and constitutional sanity.
“The framework of the Nigerian Republic is non-negotiable. Sharia zealotry must yield to the supremacy of the constitution or it has no place at all.
Enough of this pious posturing. The time for such archaic drivel is long past,” added Aduwo, who is also the Chairman, Board of Directors, Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity Ltd/Gte (CCDI), a non-governmental organisation registered in Nigeria, with a Consultative Status of ECOSOC/ United Nations since 2017.
