The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned that any party that picks a Yoruba Christian as its 2023 candidate should forget Muslim votes.
MURIC, therefore, reaffirmed its preference for a presidential candidate from the Yoruba Muslim stock.
MURIC, through its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola said, “No political party should tell us that they cannot find competent Yoruba Muslims.”
MURIC’s statement said no Yoruba Muslim has ever occupied Nigeria’s State House either as President or Vice-President since 1960.
The MURIC advised presidential aspirants and parties mapping out strategies for the next general elections to heed its call.
Prof. Akintola condemned the “stigmatization galore” for Yoruba Muslims in Nigeria since independence. The organisation claimed they are denied almost all civil liberties, including admission into schools.
Prof. Akintola alleged many cannot get international passports, driving licenses, and voter registration cards because they are asked to remove their hijab for capturing.
He said schools humiliate hijab-wearing female Muslim students while the courts in the South-West are littered with litigations “on this ignoble stereotyping”.
“It is our belief that Yoruba Muslims need the federal might to eliminate or at least scale down the tornado of oppression and the Tsunami of anti-Muslim sentiment. “Only a Yoruba Muslim president who knows what has been happening can do this effectively. Who feels it, knows it”, Akintola insisted.
The MURIC added that its position was not a categorical rejection of a Christian presidential candidate in 2023.
