Nigeria: Oyewole - Boko Haram, Buhari and Northern Elite

21 December 2014
opinion

THE principal demand of Boko Haram is religious supremacy and inter-faith intolerance, this demand started in the current democratic era, when a Sharia movement started declaring some states as sharia states in clear violation of the secularity of the Federation contained in section 10 of the Constitution of Nigeria. In declaring such states as Sharia states, they were effectively shutting out anyone who did not subscribe to their religious beliefs from becoming anything of substance in such societies, an act that went against the United Nations charter on economic, social and political rights, an aggressive form of social exclusion. .

Many so-called political elite in the north such as Buhari, Sanusi and others were advocates of the Sharia movement that culminated in 12 states being declared as Sharia states. When this movement was sweeping across the north it was used for political mobilisation, many common people were fed on a diet of religious dominance and supremacy. At that time Gen. Obasanjo, a Christian, was president and even though he was advised to raise legal challenges to stem the religious intolerance being promoted by some state governments, he failed to do so, perhaps fearing religious backlash in elections. .

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