HURIWA RAISES ALARM OVER SCHEMING OUT OF CHRISTIANS

A prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has warned of the grave consequences of marginalizing a bulk of the Nigerian populations who profess Christianity as their religion in the scheme of leaderships of the Executive Arm of Government; Legislature and the Judiciary in the unfolding democratic dispensation marking the second and final tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari's administration. 

HURIWA said the exclusion of Christians was well coordinated at the highest levels and started with the illegal removal through a kangaroo trial resulting in the removal of the first ever Southern Nigerian and indeed the first Christian to become the Chief Justice of Nigeria in about three decades Justice Walter Onnoghen. HURIWA said the plot to supplant only Moslems as heads of the National Assembly is a sinister mechanism of ensuring that unfriendly laws which will undermine Religious pluralism are made and signed in the coming 9th National Assembly. HURIWA said the exclusion of Christians Is a direct invitation of anarchy and doom for Nigeria.

HURIWA in a statement issued by 7.30pm on June 9th 2019 from the venue of a high wired lobby for the selection of the next Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Abuja, the Rights group expressed consternation and apprehension that the exclusion of Christians from headship of any of the three constitutional arms of government at the center offends section 42 of the constitution which outlaws discrimination and also constitute a gross infringements of the constitutionally guaranteed provisions on the Federal Character Principles enshrined in the highest laws of Nigeria. 

HURIWA through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf has prayed President Muhammadu Buhari and all political stakeholders to save Nigeria from sliding into a state of mass distrust and mutual disharmony because if one of the largest constituents of Nigeria being Christians are excluded from the headship of the three arms of government it may not portend well for national peace, unity, and inter religious harmony that are essential for sustenance of constitutional democracy.

Section 42

42. ( citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person:- 

(a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or 
(b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions.

(2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth. 
(3) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall invalidate any law by reason only that the law imposes restrictions with respect to the appointment of any person to any office under the State or as a member of the armed forces of the Federation or member of the Nigeria Police Forces or to an office in the service of a body, corporate established directly by any law in force in Nigeria.