I read the above captioned editorial in your PUNCH edition of Tuesday November 20, first on-line and later on page 18, of that edition and I have the following observations.

You claimed that the decision of the Osun state government to declare Hijrah holiday for its over 50 per cent Muslim population in the state “was odd and totally uncalled for”.

Interestingly, you quoted Public Holidays Act, which empower a state Governor to declare a public holiday in a state but you put a caveat that: “such powers should not be used to further religious interests”, but can it be used to further political interests?

Mark you, Public Holidays Act (PHA) chapter 378 recognises declaring public holiday on “New Year Day”, not January 1, but New Year Day.

In the said editorial, you also stated that “Interestingly, many predominantly Muslim states do not even have public holidays for Hejira”, this is wrong and not correct as Iran , Malaysia, and some states in Nigeria like Niger, Sokoto, Kano, Zamfara do declare public holidays for Hijrah.

You may also wish to go to Israel (the origin of Christianity) and complain to Benjamin Netanyahu on why Sunday, Christmas day, 1st January, Easter, etc are not declared Public holidays? As you claimed about Saudi Arabia not declaring public holiday for Hijrah.

Aregbesola acted within the law and if the PUNCH Management thinks otherwise, Court should be the option rather than writing a strange editorial.

Another misinformation and a wrong mind set in the said editorial is what I termed the wrong definition of the word “Secular”.

You stated “and what was the fortuitous holiday meant to achieve in a secular society like Osun”,

There is no such society or state in Nigeria. Nigeria is a multi-religious state and not secular. Secularism means a state without any religion or a system of social teaching which allows no part for religion.

In as much as I am not speaking for Osun state government nor the Governor as I have no such power or affiliation but your claim that Aregbesola “false optimism that his frivolous holiday “will promote religious harmony in the state” falls wide of the mark”, is unfair on the Governor nor the state, as there was nothing wrong in giving a holiday to the Osun worshippers to be able to worship their deity. This to me is the spirit of religious harmony.

I am aware that the Ijebus do have Ojude Oba celebration on the third day of Ileya celebration in Ijebu-Ode, if such day falls within Mondays to Fridays; the Ogun state government usually gives a work free day with the Governor in attendance to mark it.

The editorial also claimed that “Already, Nigeria is known for too many holidays. Excessive public holidays cause productivity slowdown and set the economy back”.

In as much as this statement seems to be considerate, a friend from Saudi Arabia sent in this while writing this rejoinder that “Saudi Arabia gives 10 days each as holidays during the Eid-el Fitr and Eid-el Adha. 15 days before and after, yet that did not affect its oil production and supply and we have not heard that OPEC has been disturbed by it.”

Another friend from Malaysia wrote: “When will Nigerians have large hearts to see clearly for eyes cannot do it! So if Saudi doesn’t have it, we must not, then let’s copy Saudi to the letter, Saudi weekend is Thursday and Friday, lets embrace it.

Saudi women cover, lets embrace it, etc.

Moreover, we had Hijrah day as public holiday in Malaysia. Funny enough, Tuesday (Nov. 13) was Deepavali holiday for Hindus while Thursday (Nov. 15) was Hijrah holiday for the Muslims.

When will Nigerians have large hearts to see clearly for eyes cannot do it!

I doubt if any country has holidays for religions as Malaysia withThaipusam and Chinese new year holidays for Buddhists, Deepavali for Hindus.

To crown it all, all states in Malaysia have Saturday and Sunday as work free while only Melaka spend weekend on Thursday and Friday.

All these rapport and accommodating values exist among Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist citizens of Malaysia till this 3.26pm Tuesday, 20/11/2012 (Malaysian time)’’.

Malaysia, I learnt, has about 13 National Holidays and variety of other holidays at the state level and this does not disturb its economic advancement.

Also, Dominican Republic as listed below has 17 holidays in a year and it has nothing to do with her economic development.

Dominican Republic

1 January – New Year’s Day
6 January – Dia de Reyes (Epiphany)
21 January – Dia de la Altagracia
26 January – Duarte Day (Juan Pablo Duarte)
February – Dominican Carnival
27 February – Independence Day
24 April – Viernes Santo
1 May – Labor Day and Ascension Day
22 May – Corpus Christi
Last Sunday in May – Dia de las Madres
Last Sunday in July – Dia de los Padres
16 August – Dia de la Restauración (Restoration Day)
24 September – Dia de las Mercedes (Mercedes’ Day)
6 November – Constitution Day
5 December – Discovery Day Commemorates the arrival of Christopher Colombus
24 December – Christmas Eve
25 December – Christmas Day

For want of space, I will like to recommend this site to the Punch editorial team on the list of holidays country by country: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_holidays_by_country

In Nigeria, however, States like Kano, Sokoto on Thursday Nov. 15, 2012 declared work free day to mark the new Islamic year 1434 A.H in the states while Niger and Zamfara declared half-day. Cross check this with your correspondents.

Nigeria Public Holiday Act recognises New Year as public holiday and such, it must be declared for both Muslims and Christians being the two major recognised and predominant religions in Nigeria.

To Muslims worldwide, January 1, is not their New Year, but Muharram 1, which coincided with Thursday Nov. 15.

So, what Governor Rauf Aregbesola has done was to encourage religious harmony and peaceful co-existence in the state in accordance with the law which other Governors in the country should emulate.

When the Federal Government declared May 29, as Democracy Day and some states especially in the South West declared June 12, as their own Democracy Day, the Punch editorial did not see that as odd and championing regional or political interest?

Why is it that anything that has to do with religion, especially Islam, we hypocritically pretend as if it does not exist?

Religion is already part of us and cannot be exclusively in the private realm in this country as appointments, elections, public gathering, pilgrimages, education curricula, mode of dressing, praying and speaking are part of our life.

I am of the opinion that Gov. Rauf Aregbesola and his executive council team should be commended for their pro-activeness as against this strange editorial on a matter that the state has constitutional right over.

Even, before he became Governor of Osun State, I have seen and read Aregbesola identifying with the Osun worshippers and Christians in Osun state. So giving everybody in the state its due, will not only promote peace but religious harmony among the adherents of the faithful.

I don’t know of any state or country that goes into crisis as a result of public holiday as alleged in your strange editorial that Aregbesola’s fairness in Osun was capable of causing religious mayhem in the state.

You wrote: “The abusive manipulation of religious causes has to stop. Osun State should not be turned into a new centre of full-scale religious extremism in the country’’

This definitely is provocative and itself capable of causing disaffection among the people of Osun state who are not complaining.

As media practitioners, I think our judgment on all issues should not be biased, tainted, subjective and coloured with political undertones. It must be factual, accurate, fair, objective, educative and corrective.

Thanks.

Abdur-Rahman Balogun

Chairman, Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN)
muslimmediaabj@yahoo.com (08052729751)
Plot 570 Jikwoyi-Karshi road, Jikwoyi,
Abuja.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=70590

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=72031

This space is reserved for my comment. Caveat emptor.

Re: "Aregbesola's Strange Holiday in Osun"
- A Vicious Editorial of The PUNCH

The National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO) views with serious concern the malicious subjectivity and vicious deception inherent in The PUNCH editorial of Tuesday, November 20, 2012 (p.18).

This misguided editorial, provocatively titled "Aregbesola's strange holiday in Osun", was primed to incite religious hatred and create an orgy of violence which the newspaper would have used to justify its habitual characterisation of Muslims as fundamentalists.

We will therefore urge Muslims to remain calm, despite the provocation, as The PUNCH cannot claim to be acting for, and on behalf of, our Christian brothers and sisters, nor indeed people of other beliefs. If anything, our grievances on this editorial should be directly at the newspaper in an enlightened manner.

To do otherwise is to assist this biased newspaper achieve its sinister motive at the expense of a blossoming inter-faith brotherhood being jointly promoted by Muslim and Christian leaders in the country. And for this, we will give credits to the Sultan, His Eminence, Alhaji (Dr) Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar and, not the arrogant pro-establishment and ethno-centric cleric but, the respected former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN), His Eminence, Dr. John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja.

To start with, we were not surprised that The PUNCH dismissed as "odd and totally uncalled for" the declaration of November 15 as public holiday in Osun State to mark the commencement of Islamic lunar calendar year (1434 Hijrah). The newspaper's argument had proceeded from a perverted logic that "many predominantly Muslim states do not even have public holidays for hejira" (sic). This blatant falsehood against Muslim countries cited by the newspaper is a non-sequitur fallacy, which is akin to saying that a good action is bad because not many people are doing it; or that a bad action is good because many people are doing it.

It is rather curious that the same morbid disinformation, that was peddled in the ridiculous editorial, was echoed by one Niyi Akinnaso in his "thinking with you" back page column in The PUNCH edition of November 27, 2012.

For the avoidance of doubt, Hijrah is remarkably significant to Islam both in form and content, and it represents for Muslims an epoch-making phenomenon that culminated in the rapid expansion of Islam from Madinah. The Hijrah which gave rise to the exemplary egalitarian community in Madinah actually laid the foundation for mutual understanding and peaceful co-habitation of Muslims with the people of other beliefs, especially the Christians and Jews.

Hence, as Islam frowns at wantonly ostentatious celebrations it does not forbids that a remarkable event as the Hijrah be marked in a solemn way, as enviably demonstrated this year by Osun State under Governor AbduRauf Aregbesola.

We make bold to say that the first of Muharram can as well be regarded as the universal human rights day; for it is the day of emigration of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) from Makkah to Madina. The Hijrah symbolizes for Muslims, the movement from dehumanizing oppression to liberty, the escape from danger to security, the transformation from ignorance to knowledge, the abandonment of corruption for adoption of accountability, the eradication of infantile mortality for promotion of child health care, the disentanglement of women from the bestiality of Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic era) to their adornment with divine rights, and the general transmutation of humanity from all manifestations of evil to the light of Islam. This is why, and where, The PUNCH got it wrong.

But having failed to convince itself, and confuse the public, that the Hijrah holiday was undeserved, the newspaper resorted to the logic of vicarious penalty. Yes, it may have been said that "Nigeria is known for too many holidays", and it may also be right to argue, as the newspaper did, that "excessive public holidays cause productivity slow down and set the economy back", but then The PUNCH was merely being dishonest and only playing the ostrich.

If the newspaper were sincere, it would have listed all the public holidays being observed in Nigeria, including Saturdays and Sundays, in order to identify the ones that are truly none faith-based and then set the agenda for national discourse on the number of faith-based public holidays to be observed.

If we all agree, Nigeria can then follow the footsteps of Portugal which, according to The PUNCH, "cancelled four public holidays from its national calendar". The radical implication of this is that, aside the three holidays that are truly national - the independence day, labour day and, lately, democracy day - Nigeria may adopt only one official work free day in a week and a total of four or six faith-based annual public holidays, justly shared.

As it were, the unjust imposition of Saturday and Sunday as work free days can no longer be sustained because the two days are certainly faith-based holidays, and we do not need any nobel laureate to pontificate on this. The dictionary.com, "the largest and most authoritative online dictionary", says Saturday is regarded as Sabbath which is "the seventh day of the week, following Friday"; and it is also "the day of rest and religious observance among Jews and some Christians". For effect, the dictionary.com says "Friday is the Muslim sabbath"! And with regards to Sunday, it says "it is the first day of the week, observed as the Sabbath by most Christian sects".

Given the above fact, it should be noted that Muslims in Nigeria have merely tolerated the unfair status quo of the current national calendar of public holidays. We have not accepted it, and we will not hesitate to challenge it, if need be, notwithstanding the unethical conducts of The PUNCH.

For a publication that prides itself, nay misguidedly, as "the most widely read newspaper", and even publishes the professional code of ethics as a daily ritual, it is rather amazing that The PUNCH is not striving to be the most factual, credible and balanced. Instead, it continues to wallow in a parochial campaign of hate against Islam without regards to the very ethical principles of "factual, balanced and fair reporting" and, especially, in this case, fair "commentaries".

Nonetheless, we were encouraged by the prompt reactions of people of other beliefs who have rightly dismissed The PUNCH editorial as utterly irresponsible and have even berated the newspaper for exhibiting this level of hatred towards Islam and Muslims. Already the CAN Chairman in Osun State, Superior Evangelist Abraham Aladeseye has declared that Christians were not against the Hijrah public holiday.

This reaction, in itself, shows that The PUNCH has failed woefully in its disguised attempt to instigate religious war in an otherwise peaceful state, more so, as the issue of public holidays is one on which Muslims and Christian have developed mutual respect. If, with all its arrogance, The PUNCH can exhibit such a crass ignorance of simple issue as Hijrah celebration, who again will ever trust its news reports/judgements and editorial commentaries when the integrity crisis that shrouded the recent exit of its top editors is still fresh in the court of public opinion.

NACOMYO will continue to monitor The PUNCH and all its cohorts across the nation who are in the guardian and vanguard of anti-Islam crusade. The newspaper must be refrain from surreptitious actions that may threaten the peaceful co-existence of all citizens, as brothers and sisters, in a just and united Nigeria.

Alhaji Mustapha B. Balogun
Chairman, Southern Zone & National Vice President II, NACOMYO

I am happy they responded. He who is not concerned with our affairs, is not part of us.