The management of the Umar Musa Yar’Adua University, Katsina, Katsina State, has banned every religious or tribal associations operating within the campus, except the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, MSN.
The school’s acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr. Sulaiman Kankara passed this notice through a circular, to students’ clubs and associations that were operating on its campus in an internal memorandum dated January 17, 2017.
Sulaiman said the new order was part of the resolutions of the institution’s management at its 59th meeting, which held on January 10, 2017.
The memo reads in part, “The Muslim Students Society of Nigeria is the only religious association allowed to operate in the university.
“All tribal and local government associations are prohibited by the university. Duly registered departmental associations should be allowed to operate, but they should observe item (I) above.”
But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Norrison Quakers, who is a pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, described the directive by the UMYU authorities as unconstitutional and one that could fuel crisis in the country.
Quakers, who argued that the directive was a specific affront to Section 10 of Nigeria’s constitution, called on the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), to immediately, as the country’s chief law officer, take issues with the UMYU.
Quakers said, “By virtue of Section 10 of the Nigerian constitution, we have what is called a secular society, meaning that the state has no official religion. No component state of the federating unit is allowed to promote any particular religion or place any particular religion above another.
“What the university authorities have done, in this case, is to promote a particular religion or prefer one religion above the others and that is actually calling for chaos and unrest.
“My position is that the decision of the university authorities is one one-sided, and what this has clearly shown is that this particular administration seems to be promoting ethnicity and religion and that, we must avoid.
“The constitution of Nigeria is very clear concerning our unity. My position is that all right-thinking Nigerians must rise up to condemn this directive; it is not something that should be condoned, it is not something that is acceptable. The Attorney General of the Federation should take it up; that policy is an infraction on the constitution and the Attorney General of the Federation is the Chief Law Officer of the country,” he told Punch.
