It is strange how the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria conflates economic policy and religion, in this day and age, and in a democracy, not a theocracy. The organisation’s president, AbdurRrasheed Hadiyyatullah, disclosed at its recent national conference that they supported and voted for the Muslim-Muslim ticket in order to help the country achieve progress, success and triumph. Instead, he wailed, the nation had sunk deeper into economic hardship.
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He did not say why he thought a religious ticket could achiev the miracle the Council craved. The APC presidential ticket made no such claims, drew no correlation between religion and economic and social progress, and indeed emphasised to the contrary that the party’s same-faith ticket was nothing more than a strategy to win the presidential poll. Clearly not many people were listening to the party’s standard-bearers; instead, groups like the Sharia Council were looking only at the face of the ticket. If it is any consolation to the Council, he should be informed that the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world neither pray nor have a state religion.