GUSAU, Nigeria, March 8 (AFP) - The Nigerian state governor whose declaration of Islamic Shari’a law last year helped spark two weeks of bloody religious unrest, said on Wednesday that he would continue with the code but was willing to compromise.
In an interview at his residence in Gusau, Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani denied the government's claim that in a meeting with Vice President Atiku Abubakar last week the governors of northern Nigeria states had agreed to withdraw Shari’a.
The issue of Shari’a was discussed at Tuesday's meeting, but no agreement was reached. "There was no agreement. No decision was taken by the northern governors [to withdraw Shari’a]," he said.
However, the governors of the northern Muslim states were planning to hold talks with the federal government and religious leaders over implementation of the code.
Zamfara, Sokoto, and Kebbi have all agreed they will still implement Sharia, Sani said, adding he had been told privately by the governors of Kano and Niger states that they would implement the code, despite public statements to the contrary. "We will still operate Shari’a pending the time we have a final agreement," he said.
"We will not withdraw. We will discuss with the federal government how best we can implement, how best we can adjust, our arrangement," he added. What adjustments this means "depends on the discussions."
Sani, 39, declared Shari’a law on October 27 in Zamfara State last year and implementation began three months later, with the closure of three public cinemas, a ban on alcohol and prostitution, and the segregation of men and women in buses and taxis and the scrapping of co-educational schools.
Christians in Zamfara, and across Nigeria, have expressed alarm, saying Sani is seeking to impose Islam. He denies this. "Muslims believe we should not do anything that will affect Christians in terms of their freedom of worship," he said.
There needs to be a "national discussion" on religion, he added. "It is a national question. It is not just Zamfara. In Akwa Ibom [in the mainly Christian southeast], for example, they don't allow Muslims to put loudspeakers on the top of Mosques. But if we can have a national discussion... If we can sit down with the government as the 36 governors, we can resolve it as a national question."
Sani rejected the suggestion that the declaration of Shari’a law in Zamfara, and other states, was itself behind the religious riots that erupted last month, first in the northern city of Kaduna.
"As far as I am concerned I don't see Shari’a to be any part of the problem that caused the Kaduna riot. In Kaduna there has always been a crisis between Muslims and Christians," he said.
The governor also insisted his government had not introduced Shari’a because it was bereft of other ideas, listing policies on job creation, ending street begging, raising education and civil service wages, and completing roads and water projects and primary health care centers.
There is "too much" attention being focused on the Shari’a issue, he said. "The misunderstanding of Shari’a is what is causing the problem."
"I believe in the unity of this country, I believe in one Nigeria. We are one people created by God and destined to live as one country," he said. His, he said, was "a moderate Islam." But Shari’a itself cannot be withdrawn. "Shari’a is Islam. There is no distinction."
