Press Release: NAIRA WITHOUT ARABIC: MURIC WILL ORGANIZE STREET PROTESTS 28th March, 2007

Muslim individuals and Islamic organizations across the country have been speaking out against the new naira notes printed by the Central Bank. Our grouse is the deliberate omission of Arabic letters from the new notes. Muslim rejection of the measure has been published in the newspapers and aired on radio and television. Muslims accuse the Federal Government of removing Arabic from the naira to satisfy the elitist and vocal minority Christian population who have been clamouring for such removal.

It is sad that to date, no government official has reacted to the views of Muslims. We also note with concern that neither the Central Bank nor the Federal Government sought the opinion of Muslims in the country before removing Arabic from the new notes, not even the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), the umbrella organization of all Islamic groups in the country, was consulted.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) regards this actions as provocative, politically naïve and parochial. We demand government’s response to the Muslim position. The timing of the release of the new notes which is very close to the 2007 elections is equally ill-advised and raises questions about government’s real intention as it is capable of disrupting the current transition exercise.

It is also our strong suspicion that the N5.00, N10.00, N20.00 and N50.00 notes were unilaterally introduced by government to test the resolve of Muslims. It is further suspected that government still intends to print the remaining denominations of N100.00, N200.00, N500.00 and N1,000.00 without inserting the Arabic letters if the test cases are successful.

MURIC warns government to stop provoking Muslims. Islam is a religion of peace and Muslims are generally peace-loving and law-abiding. It is bad policies like this which usually cause chaos. We warn that further printing of new naira notes without Arabic letters should be suspended forthwith in the interest of peace. We demand a reprint of the new naira notes with the Arabic as in the old notes.

Finally, we affirm that MURIC will call out Muslim faithfuls throughout the country to stage peaceful protests and demand their Allah-given and fundamental human rights if more denominations of the new naira notes are printed without Arabic letters.

Dr. Is-haq Akintola                                           Mallam Yaqub Ahmad
DIRECTOR                                                              SECRETARY