A professor of Islamic studies and the Executive Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Professor Ishaq Akintola, appraises the nascent administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; he sued for patience from Nigerians with regards to the state of the nation’s economy, adding that he regime has so far marginalised Nigerian Muslims in favour of the Christians.

He said, “our experience since 1999 has been interesting. It has been an admixture of good and bad. Our politicians have not demonstrated enough zeal for the development and welfare of Nigerians. There hasn’t been freedom at all the ties of government. There has not been freedom of the judiciary at all, so rating them along that line, one will not want to give them any form of pass mark,” adding that the country has not achieved anything much so far/

“We haven’t. Imagine the impunity, the recklessness and the love for breaking the norms, the laws and the virtue of the land that have been exhibited by politicians. Look at what is happening in Rivers (State). I understand that bulldozers were called in to pull down the buildings housing the state House of Assembly. This development is not new, former President (Olusegun) Obasanjo had done it before when he used 16 lawmakers to impeach a governor who had 18 lawmakers on his side. This unabating impunity or the love to exhibit excessive power or abuse of power if you like, gives one the impression as to what our leaders have taught us. They have not taught us anything,” he explained.

On whether it wouldbe right to describe this development as an indictment on the religious bodies and their leadership, he said“Blame not the religions and their leadership, we should blame the practitioners. I think we should also blame the politicians for corrupting the religious leaders. I don’t think that our politicians have allowed religion to positively influence their conduct. Our politicians steal with impunity; they exhibit excessive power. They abuse it (power) at will. They engage religious leaders on a pecuniary basis, based on how to make them (religious leaders) speak glowingly about them. Our political leaders have no fear of Al- lah. There are few exceptions though. One might wish to exempt a governor such as (Borno State Governor, Baba Gana) Zulum from that maddening crowd.

“He once said that he feared the day that he would meet his Creator. He said he was elected to take care of the poor and that is a far reaching and monumental statement. Unfortunately, our politicians come into office with only one goal and that is to make the most of the people’s money. How many of our public officials went into public office and came out the same way? How many of our former presidents have come out of public office and remain the same way they went in? There is also an exemption in the person of former President Muhammadu Buhari who went into office with two houses. He left office without building an extra structure of his own. He went back to his house in Daura after he left office in May. Ninety-eight per cent of Nigerians are ungrateful people.”

On his supportthe emergence of the current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, early in the year and whether he performed to your expectations so far, he said, “When it comes to performance, President Bola Tinubu is a performer. He is replicating those things that he did when he was the governor of Lagos State. He knows where the shoe pinches Nigerians in terms of the hardships that they are currently facing and I am sure that he has the solutions to all the problems. We should all be patient because the government is still very young and it has many years to go. He is working towards reducing the problems affecting Nigerians. Nobody can fault his performance at this stage. However, I have some reservations in some areas with regards to the performance of the current government.

“I don’t agree with him in the area of appointments being made into government. I mean appointment of his key officials. He has marginalised a large section of the Nigerian population and that is the Muslims. He has favoured Christians unduly, it is wrong for the president to abandon the people who mobilised and voted for him. I mean the people who took bullets for him during the elections. The people who took curses on his behalf to be elected into office, while we were praying and mobilising ourselves and other Nigerians to vote for you, the Christians were in the churches praying and mobilizing for other candidates. Our brothers in Islam prayed and prayed for your success.

“In the end, after your election, you now begin to appoint those who opposed you into government. I don’t know, he may have his reasons for doing so but I will like to say that we are not happy with that. His major reasons for doing so that he has so far told us is that he is putting together people with the right skills and competence to work with him but I will like to say that we have Muslims with the same if not better skills that can be appointed too. It is even insulting to the Muslim community. Is he telling us that we don’t have Muslims with the same skills and talents? Look at Professor Ishaq Oloyede and what he is doing in JAMB. Buhari searched for him and gave him the appointment.

“Look at what he is doing there now. Let President Tinubu do the same by looking for the same kind of talents from the Muslim community to run the country with him. Don’t forget that former President Buhari also searched for and appointed Isah Pantami as the minister for communication. If former President Buhari had concentrated only on Christians, these two gentlemen wouldn’t have been appointed and eventually come to limelight. There are talents everywhere. I don’t want a president that will pick only Muslims, that will be unfair to the Christians. I don’t want a Muslim president to now underrate the Muslims by appointing only Christians into offices as well.

“What we are saying is that President Bola Tinubu has done it wrongly. We are not protesting and we are not doing so because of our deep love for the president as one of us. He is a Muslim like us but we want to know what has gone wrong. We are also waiting and watching to see whether he would still make the right amends. Don’t forget that he still has a long period of time to do so. I mean he has three and half years ahead of him. He can still look around for competent Muslims.

It is good politics to assuage feelings but it is an injustice if there is absence of equityby the government by locating talents who are adherents of the two faiths on equal measures. To overdo it is what is bad,” he added. (Story adapted from New Telegraph)