The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) on Sunday condemned the Prohibition of Christian worship in some federal and state Universities by some Islamic fanatics, asking the federal government to cut off budgetary allocations to such universities pending compliance with the constitutional principles.
The group in a statement signed by the national coordinator Emmanuel Onuwubiko, also said the attack on a Christian centre in Kwara State by Islamic extremists is unconstitutional and offenders must be prosecuted.
Onuwubiko likened the destruction of the Christian centre in Ilorin to racism describing it as an intolerable crime against Christianity.
NewsNGR gathered through the statement that the destruction was allegedly carried out by the Ilorin Emirate Council.
The Rights group said Ilorin is not a Shariah entity and the police must arrest these Islamic extremists and charge them to court for arson and destruction of a Christian worship centre.
The statement partly reads, “We condemned this unconstitutional practice and ask that federal allocations from the federation accounts going to such schools should be suspended pending their compliance with the constitutional principles and provisions that specify that Nigeria is not a religious but a multireligious sovereign entity.
“HURIWA condemns as racism and intolerable crime, the act of destruction of a Christian Centre in Ilorin by persons allegedly sent by the Ilorin Emirate Council in Kwara State.
“The police must arrest these Islamic extremists and charge them to court for the act of arson and destruction of a Christian worship centre.
“Ilorin is in Nigeria and is subject to the laws of Nigeria and not a shariah entity but a place governed by constitutional norms.
HURIWA further affirmed the assertion of Bishop Mathew Kukah on a national television programme that public universities in the North are not open to the idea of having churches built on their campuses.
“The cleric said, “A mosque was constructed in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I delivered a convocation lecture in Calabar three weeks ago. After my lecture, the Chief Imam of the university came to congratulate me.
“But as I speak to you, Usmanu Dan Fodio University, which is over 40 years old, Bayero University, and other universities in northern Nigeria have decided to close their doors to the possibility of churches being built in the universities across this country.
“All this fanaticism we are seeing is expressed in public life. If students in the university or at the point of their growing up are not allowed to integrate and interrelate, and if churches or mosques cannot be built across this country, then there is a problem.
“There was a time when Ahmadu Bello University had lecturers from different parts of the world. Now, look at what has happened to our universities across Nigeria. Our universities have become just mere incubators of ethnic jingoism.
“So, I do not know which funded federal university that you will name that has a vice chancellor that is not a local boy.
“So the universities themselves have become playgrounds for the ambitions of the local elite. “The question is: Why should a place of worship be a problem for a university, whether it is for the Muslim students in Calabar or the Christian students in Sokoto?
“I approached the Minister of Education about this. I have a letter from the Nigerian Universities Commission. Universities in northern Nigeria have refused to implement this recommendation,” Bishop Kukah concluded.
The Human Rights group also asked some pertinent questions, “Why should federal universities build Mosques for Muslims but deny Christians the fundamental constitutional rights to worship their God in an environment of serenity and quietness?”
The statement further reads, ” This egregious breach of the Grund norm must never be accepted and it is tragic that several weeks after Bishop Kukah made this finding known to the public even the media, the National Assembly and the President of Nigeria have all pretended like nothing of such was said even at a time that President Tinubu subsidised Muslims pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia with the humongous public cash of N90 billion.”
“President Tinubu who is the Visitor to these federal universities must take transparent steps to correct this anomaly and stop this unconstitutional act of these federal universities located in the North. Why should federal universities in the South including in the South East be seen as allowing the building of Mosques whereas the universities in the North are flagrantly breaching the fundamental human rights of a significant section of their university community?”
The Rights group therefore called on the National Assembly and president Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take action to enable Christian students to have their churches built by the schools which also built Mosques.
“This religious apartheid is absolutely despicable. Just like the unfortunate action of the Ilorin emirate Council that banned Christians from setting up a worship centre in Ilorin, this action in Kwara state is absolutely intolerable and disturbing,” it stated.