An Islamic human rights group, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has urged Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate and former governor of Lagos State, to become involved in the hijab controversy in Lagos State.
You may recall that on July 17, 2022, the Supreme Court decided that hijabs might be worn in all Lagos State schools.
Because LASG has not released a comment since the decision, MURIC is concerned.
This information was provided in a statement made on Monday, December 5, 2022, by Professor Ishaq Akintola, the group’s director.
“We are gravely concerned that the Lagos State Government (LASG) has not commented on the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of the hijab on Friday, July 17, 2022,” the complete statement says. The decision put an end to a ten-year legal battle between LASG and the Muslims of Lagos State.
“On October 17, 2014, Justice Modupe Onyeabor issued a decision rejecting the hijab on the grounds that it violated LASG rules. But on Thursday, July 21, 2016, a five-person panel of the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos overturned the judgment of the high court in a unanimous ruling. The five-person court, led by Justice A. B. Gumel, concluded that wearing the headscarf is both a religious obligation and a fundamental human right for Muslim women.
“LASG appealed the Appeal Court’s decision to the Supreme Court, which made its ultimate verdict on the subject on Friday, July 17, 2022, six years after the Appeal Court’s decision.
Strangely, the Lagos State government has not spoken a single word since the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the hijab. In the meantime, school administrators and teachers continue to persecute Muslim female students while claiming to be unaware of the Supreme Court ruling. They insist on banning the hijab unless we can show them a LASG circular.
Muslim leaders and Islamic organizations involved in the situation “came into a dead end since LASG is not forthright about issuing the circular. There was no success in getting LASG to issue a circular.
“On behalf of MURIC, we wrote Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, Commissioner for Education, requesting an audience, and she met with us on Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The Muslim Lawyers Association (MULAN), Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Federation of Muslim Women Societies of Nigeria (FOMWAN), and Coalition For Hijab were among the Islamic organizations that MURIC coopted for the meeting.
“Despite the Commissioner’s assurances, the circular has yet to be issued. We started a text message to the Commissioner as a reminder as the pressure from the Muslim population, who were eager to know why female Muslim children who don hijab to school were still facing persecution, grew. On Monday, October 17, 2022, more than a month after she had committed to issuing the circular, this occurred.
However, in response to the text message sent a week later on October 23, 2022, the Commissioner just stated that the Head of Service would now be responsible for sending out the circular. We started noticing LASG’s use of delay strategies, as portrayed by the Commissioner. Or are we to be played like ping-pong?
“We’re disclosing all of this so Nigerians may see how patiently we’ve been waiting all this time. Since 2012, we have spoken with the court rather than staging protests due to the vulnerability of such actions.
“In Lagos, Islamic organizations surrendered to the rule of law and refrained from following the road of violent resistance, in contrast to the #EndSARS children of multiple rage who arrived with the demonic intention to destroy Lagos (may Allah never allow that to happen). The court case went on from 2012 until 2022, a ten-year period. Have we not waited long enough? Have we not followed the law?
“LASG is unaware that its silence over the Supreme Court’s ruling could be viewed as a purposeful effort to subvert the rule of law, and that doing so could result in it being found in contempt of the nation’s highest court.
“Perhaps the Ministry of Education, specifically, and LASG, generally, calculated that everyone would forget about the hijab problem in the frenzy of the upcoming electioneering campaign and that things should continue as usual.
“But those who experience the agony of stigmatization and the pain of rejection have not forgotten. The Muslim girl’s tears are still streaming down her cheeks as she endures daily abuse, intimidation, and dehumanization because she wears a headscarf. Muslim parents at home are distraught by their irrational fear of what may occur to their hijab-clad children on a daily basis at school. We won’t leave them behind.
It should be mentioned that MURIC chose to set up a
“Leaders of Lagos State’s APC government should naturally be interested in this issue. Timely intervention can save nine. Allowing the opposition to charge the ruling party with adopting measures that could jeopardize justice, equity, the rule of law, and democratic norms is not the time to do so.
“A topic of this importance should also concern the Lagos State House of Assembly. Muslims in Lagos make up a sizable portion of the state’s taxpaying population, thus the House should take an interest in anything that can have an impact on them. MURIC is speaking.
meeting between the Commissioner for Education in accordance with our proclaimed motto, “Dialogue, No Violence,” but whether or not the authorities were pleased with this decision is a completely different story. It won’t force us to give up the honorable course of conversation.
“There is still a dialogue option available. We have decided to include the designer of the Lagos superstructure, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an APC presidential contender and former governor of Lagos State whose presidential project is our project, in the case of the hijab and LASG’s refusal to implement the Supreme Court ruling.
“Hijab’s legal implications are over. The Supreme Court has signaled the conclusion. However, LASG has declined to reveal this game’s outcome. This is the political aspect, which Asiwaju may address at this crucial moment.
Procrastination is the time thief, and justice delayed is justice denied. We have made the decision to present our case to him as a significant and unique stakeholder in the Lagos project. What transpires when a government defies a court order? Is this the Lagos he had imagined?
“We want the intervention of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Threats are not made by MURIC. Both in the past and presently, we have never done it. We also don’t make demands. However, whatever the LASG decides to do about the hijab case, on which the nation’s top court has issued a ruling, will send a clear message to Nigerians, especially at this vital time.
“Lagos State, a center of excellence, shouldn’t have to defy a Supreme Court ruling, if any state government must. In a number of fields, LASG is in the driver’s seat. Other states adopt Lagos’ style. LASG shouldn’t change this trend, especially as it has an impact on the application of court rulings, respect for the rule of law, and acceptance of Lagos Muslims’ fundamental rights that Allah has granted them.
“LASG shouldn’t position itself against a brick wall. Where can a group of individuals go after winning a legal victory? Where Tinubu enters is where we want him to. His cognito terra is Lagos.
