₦airaland Forum

Pressure Nigeria to abolish Sharia Law, disband Hisbah  —  Expert tells US lawmakers

United States lawmakers were on Tuesday urged to press the Nigerian government to abolish Sharia law in the 12 northern states where it is currently in operation and dismantle the religious-enforcement Hisbah commissions, amid warnings that both systems are deepening anti-Christian persecution.

Speaking at a joint congressional briefing convened by the House Appropriations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Dr. Ebenezer Obadare, Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said extremist groups are exploiting local religious structures to entrench violence and impunity.

He told lawmakers that Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and radicalised Fulani militias “weaponise Sharia-based institutions and Hisbah operatives to advance extremist ideology, enforce forced conversions, and operate unchecked in many communities.”

A statement issued by the Appropriations Committee quoted Obadare as outlining a two-pronged approach: “The policy goal should be two-fold: first, work with the Nigerian military to neutralise Boko Haram. Second, the United States should put pressure on President Tinubu to make Sharia law unconstitutional in the twelve northern states where they have been adopted since 2000 and to disband the various Hisbah groups across northern states seeking to impose Islamic law on all citizens regardless of their religious identity.”

Obadare noted that the Nigerian government has shown responsiveness to international pressure, citing air strikes on Boko Haram positions, the recruitment of 30,000 additional police personnel, and President Bola Tinubu’s recent declaration of a national security emergency.

“As recent events have shown, the Nigerian authorities are not impervious to incentives,” he said, adding that “Washington must keep up the pressure.”

The bipartisan session, chaired by Appropriations Vice Chair Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL), featured testimony alleging state complicity in what some lawmakers described as “religious cleansing” in northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt.

Witnesses pointed to recent attacks, including the November abduction of pupils and teachers from St Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State, as well as a pattern of blasphemy prosecutions and mass killings.

Emphasising the root of the crisis, Obadare warned that “the deadliest and most serious threat confronting the Nigerian state today is jihadist terror,” insisting that any credible solution must prioritise the dismantling of Boko Haram’s military capability.

“Every proposal to solve the Nigerian crisis that does not take seriously the need to radically degrade and ultimately eliminate Boko Haram as a fighting force is a non-starter,” he said.

AqualinaXYZ:
Tinubu don enter wahala



How is he gonna navigate through two masters



USA wey hold him drug files and Fulani wey be him slave masters



Useless thief

Amotolongbo:
These requests are coming at a wrong time.

I know that Tinubu can execute these requests from the US but that will be after winning the second term election in 2027.
Tinubu is just one of the very few Southern politicians that can call e bluff on the northerners but there is always a timing for everything.

CyynthiaKiss:
What do you mean by timing ?

So politics is more important to you than human lives right ?

Amotolongbo:
These requests are coming at a wrong time.

I know that Tinubu can execute these requests from the US but that will be after winning the second term election in 2027.
Tinubu is just one of the very few Southern politicians that can call the bluff on the northerners but there is always a timing for everything.

helinues:
Fake news from Sahara deserted.

On which capacity will USA say that?

helinues:
Fake news from Sahara deserted.

On which capacity will USA say that?

Amotolongbo:
These requests are coming at a wrong time.

I know that Tinubu can execute these requests from the US but that will be after winning the second term election in 2027.
Tinubu is just one of the very few Southern politicians that can call the bluff on the northerners but there is always a timing for everything.

unclejb2:
Let's see how this will end.

Either disband hisbah and and abolish Sharia or Nigeria is split into north and south

Let's see if the north would prefer to have Sharia than one Nigeria

Let's also see if Tinubu has either the balls to go against the Caliphate or the balls to damn the US consequences

WizardOfNG:
Most intelligent post here. Those who are critical thinkers and pragmatically intelligent observers reason as you do.

To deliver change, you must be in offices that gives you power to deliver that change. Compromises must be made so a second term can be realised that will allow Nigeria be totally and uncompromisingly reformed and overhauled as she needs to be.

mrvitalis:
North should be ready to but Nigeria above islam if they want One Nigeria

Otherwise let's divide the country

WizardOfNG:
For once, I agree with you. I have always insisted we must all unite, despite our differences, and put the North in her place for the sake of our own self-preservation.

We must all now threaten them to shape up and stop the killings and killers, as they have the power to do, or accept the rest of us will walk away from the union of death, mayhem, anarchy and economic stagnation they have turned Nigeria into.

We don't have to be friends to reach this consensus.
We simply need to be people who value peace, progress and the sanctity of human life to say enough is enough to the over-indulged and murderous North

Igbos and Yorubas can have problems but both should not be too dumb to note the greatest dangers come from the murderous mullahs up North hellbent on making Nigeria an Islamic Caliphate.

If we can't put petty sentiments aside and come together to checkmate them, then we are simply facilitating our own destruction.

We don't have to sit by a campfire to sing kumbaya songs but crucial we have enough sense to note murderers ready to kill, rape and torture strangers they do not know, and have never met, are our greatest enemies and existential threat.

erad:
I think the US is more particular about destabilizing Nigeria than actually helping. Why have they not asked Saudi and other Islamic countries to ban sharia law. You don't just propose such unreasonable solution at such a fragile moment.

Sharia law is what Muslims practice, what you should be talking about is how to standardize it with written down non-barbaric punishment for offenders. Also for the government to make sure it's binding on only willing muslims and subject to appeal at higher courts.

This is not a solution in any way, it's rather the creation of another problem because it will no longer be war against bandits, it will now be war against Islam which Nigeria is not ready for.