Integrate Sharia Courts Into Nigeria’s Judicial System, MURIC Tells FG

A rights group, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has appealed to the federal government to fully integrate Sharia courts into the country’s judicial system.

The Muslim rights advocacy group argued that the country’s judicial system as currently being operated was lopsided because Sharia is denied in certain parts of the country whereas common law courts are available all over the country.

In a statement on Friday, the group’s founder and executive director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, called on the government to treat Sharia courts like federal courts by establishing Sharia courts directly in all states of the federation the same way federal high courts were established in them.

“The issue of Sharia continues to stir concern among Muslim communities. One of the questions recently raised is the fact that the federal government still went ahead to establish federal high courts in all states despite their existence at state level.

“It is also well known that the state and federal high courts exist in all states whereas Sharia only exists in the North. There is no single Sharia court anywhere in the South.

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“This implies that although Nigerian Muslims accommodate and tolerate common law courts which originated from Christianity, Nigerian Christians refuse to accommodate or tolerate Sharia courts. This amounts to denial of access to justice for Muslims while Christians enjoy full access to their own justice system.

“The onus is therefore on FG to ensure that Muslims are not shortchanged by ensuring that the judicial system is neither selective nor exclusive. The current system whereby all parts of the country accept one judicial system (common law courts) while another system Sharia is only allowed to operate in only one part of the country is discriminatory, unfair, unjust and therefore unacceptable.

“It shows clearly that full integration of Muslims and their way of life is still lacking in our society whereas Christian way of life has been allowed to dominate the Nigerian ecosystem.

“The question that may arise from this conversation is ‘What happens if Nigerian Muslims also insist on parity? What happens if they start to set conditions for them to accept any legal system other than their own? What happens if they make acceptance of Sharia courts in the South a condition for accepting Christian common law courts in the North and in predominantly Muslim communities,” the group queried.