Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar, Joint Admission And Matriculation Board, JAMB, says muslims in the South west of the country have been suffering in silence because of absence to Sharia court.
According to him, the Muslims in the region have the rights to chose whether to have Sharia courts or not, because other religious organisations also have their own way of resolving issues.
The JAMB boss who is also the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, says “there’s nothing wrong” with muslims demand for the islamic jurisprudence in the region.
Prof Oloyede spoke amidst the controversy trailing the agitation, by some Muslim leader, for the establishment of Sharia courts in the region.
The issue has fueled some concerns amongst traditional and religious leaders in the country, as mitigations continue to douse the tension to stop it from leading to a major crisis, after some Islamic leaders in Oyo and Osun states insisted on the establishment of sharia panels in the six states of the zone.
Oloyede said the agitations for Sharia courts, by Muslims in the zone should not be discountenance, for peace to reign.
He explained that those opposed to Sharia in the zone are doing it in ignorance, saying Muslims have been under psychological torment because they were denied their rights of living under Sharia jurisprudence.
Oloyede said, “I believe that Nigeria is great and Nigeria will continue to be great but it requires a lot of rethinking. Recently, people are talking about Sharia Panels in South-West and I was just smiling; I was smiling that I had never seen that level of ignorance being displayed. Sharia Panel in Oyo State, somebody did a PhD thesis on it in 2007 which means it had been there before 2007.
“The person who wrote on that appraisal is a professor today in Ibadan. He is Prof Makinde, and the governor coincidentally is Makinde. I don’t know whether they are related.
“When you have such a situation (of religious tolerance) and you do not continue to monitor what you are doing, you will be living in the past. I’m a Muslim from the South-West. The Muslims from the South-West pay psychologically for the peace and harmony that we are talking about.
“The churches are licensed by the government to conduct marriages that are statutory and if you have any dispute within your marriage, you go to government-funded high courts for dispute resolution.
“If there is a dispute in my marriage, where do I go? I don’t have the opportunity because I married according to Islamic rites, I will have to go to customary court where the customary judge knows next to nothing about my faith, about the laws on the basis on which we got married. He would now use customary law to determine Islamic marriage and the Constitution of Nigeria allows it to say where the state of assembly allows it, there should be Sharia Courts of Appeal.
“There have been Sharia Court of Appeal in different parts of the country, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria. When we say there is harmony, it means somebody is suffering in silence but when the person speaks, they say: ‘Why are you making noise?’” he said.
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