Sharia as an Albatross
The controversial introduction of the sharia legal code in Zamfara State by Governor Ahmed Sani Yerima six years ago seem to dog the governor’s presidential ambition

Governor Sanni Yerima of Zamfara State

By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Signs that the vexed issue of Sharia will be a major hang-over in the presidential ambition of the Zamfara State Governor, Ahmed Sani Yerima, especially in the Southern part of the country, has started manifesting. Virtually, every participant and speaker at the “Meet the Media Forum” organised by the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) last week, where the governor featured as Special Guest practically held him hostage with questions bordering on his introduction of Sharia in Zamfara State; Yerima plans to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo next year.
Female participants at the event which was held at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, particularly wanted to know from the governor whether the rights of women would be assured under his rule as president. They also wanted to know whether all Nigerian women– Moslem and Christians alike– would be forced to wear the traditional Islamic veil known as Hijab.
Other participants inquired from the governor what the outlook of the federal civil service would be – that is whether under his presidency, it will be wholly composed of Moslems or not. Others pointedly asked the governor whether under his presidency the country will be Islamised and subjected to the Islamic legal code, Sharia.
Evidently unruffled by the barrage of sharia-related questions thrown at him, Governor Yerima made spirited efforts to explain the idea behind the introduction of sharia in his state upon the dawn of the current democracy. He quoted relevant sections of the constitution to justify the introduction of the sharia legal code in Zamfara.
Labouring hard to shake off the toga of an Islamist, which a section of the society see him as, Governor Yerima described himself as “a moderate Moslem” saying, “compulsion has no place in Islam” and so “what we have in Zamfara is not the extreme version of the sharia legal code as obtained in some countries.”
Nigeria, under him as president he disclosed, will continue to enjoy its secular status, as according to him it will never be possible for any one to introduce, at the federal level, a legal code like sharia considering the country’s multi-religious and cultural nature. Yerima said that if elected, he will be president of all Nigerians and not that of Moslems alone assuring, “under me, there will be absolute freedom of religion.”
He denied that Christians in his state were having a raw deal as he told the audience that Christians in Zamfara State are today better off, in terms of freedom of worship, than they were before his coming as governor. To demonstrate that he is not biased against Christians, the governor disclosed that his commissioner for Moslem – Christian affairs is a Christian while a Christian, he said, is manager of his (the governor's) farm.
On the economy, Yerima stated that his presidency will run what he called “public sector – private sector partnership for development”. He applauded President Obasanjo for initiating the various economic reforms, pledging to continue with them, if elected. Describing democracy as the best for Nigeria, the presidential aspirant praised the media, for in his words, “the critical role the media is playing in the country’s democratic process.”
The “Meet the Media Forum” which is a platform provided by the Lagos NUJ for politicians and policy makers to ventilate their views afforded the Zamfara State governor the opportunity to bare his mind on the vexed issue of rotational presidency and the agitation of the South south and South east zones to produce the country’s next president, as well as the crisis rocking his party, the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).
To Yerima, the next president could come from any part of the country. And since according to him, the quest to occupy the nation’s topmost position is not a do-or-die affair, if his party eventually picks a Southern candidate, he would whole-heartedly support such a candidate. On the crisis rocking ANPP, the presidential hopeful told the audience that he was not prepared to actualise his presidential dream on the platform of any other political party other than the ANPP. According to him, the intra-party squabbles are not exclusive to only ANPP, as virtually all the other parties are currently engulfed in one form of crisis or the other. He, however, expressed optimism that his party would soon get over its crisis so as to be in good stead for the 2007 elections.
Born on July 22, 1960, Yerima, who is the first civilian governor of Zamfara State, caused a major disquiet in the polity during the embryoic days of the current democratic dispensation when, against opposition from individuals and groups in other parts of the country, especially Christians, he introduced the sharia legal code, which among other things stipulated that criminals tried and convicted in a sharia court stand the risk of being amputated. Months after the introduction, sharia recorded its first victim in the state when a man who was accused of stealing was tried in a sharia court and convicted. The man subsequently had one of his arms amputated.
Instructively, several other Northern states governments have since followed the Yerima example by introducing the sharia legal code in their states – but in many of them, politics appear to be the major determinant.