2023: NSCIA Reveals Type Of Presidential Candidate To Elect

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has advised Nigerians to vote for a presidential candidate who will lead the nation with justice, fairness and righteousness.

The council gave the advice in a communique issued after its Special Extraordinary Meeting of the Expanded General Purpose Committee (EGPC) held last Wednesday in Abuja.

The council under the leadership of the President-General and Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, said Nigerians freely choose the best candidate that will be compassionate and fear God.

The NSCIA further urged Muslims to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) because evidence revealed that many registered Muslims were yet to do so.

The council also stated that there is an urgent need to raise the bar of leadership in Nigeria beyond basic qualifications, adding that unsuitable people were ultimately getting elected to positions of authority.

It also asked the Federal Government to ensure free, fair, peaceful, and credible 2023 general elections by providing the necessary environment for Nigerians to vote.

The communique read in part, “Nigerians should freely choose the best candidates and vote those who will lead with justice, fairness and righteousness in line with our usual prayer, ‘O Allah, make the best of us our leaders, and don’t make the worst of us our leaders. Don’t make us, on account of our sins, be under those who will neither fear you nor be compassionate to us.’

“The Federal Government should ensure free, fair, peaceful, and credible general elections in 2023 by providing the necessary environment through adequate voter mobilisation and appropriate security measures.”

The council also raised the alarm over the profiling and killing of Muslims in the South East and called on security agencies to do more to protect the lives and property of Muslims in the region.

The NSCIA also urged security operatives to bring the perpetrators of such killings to justice.

It said: “As Muslims are being profiled and killed in what appears as ethnoreligious cleansing in the South East by some non-Muslims which is evident in the recent confessions by some individuals, the committee called on security agencies to do more to protect the lives and properties of Muslims and bring the perpetrators of such killings to justice.”

Present at the meeting presided over by the Sultan included NSCIA Secretary General, Prof. Is-haq O. Oloyede; Director of Administration, Zubairu Haruna Usman-Ugwu; Deputy President General, NSCIA (South), Alhaji Rasaki Oladejo.

Others are former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed; Secretary-General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Dr Khalid Aliyu; and Executive Secretary of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), Prof. Muslih Yahaya.