A reknown Lawyer in Jos, Barr Mohammad Lawal Ishaq has called on the Plateau State government to thread carefully on an issue of demolition of the NYSC mosque in mangu.
In an article shared on his Facebook page, Barr Lawal who is also a Pioneer Secretary of the Council of Ulama and Legal Adviser to JNI raised some very important questions as to whether the state government have tried to involve the council in their decision. Read fully below.
THE NYSC MANGU CAMP MOSQUE SAGA: CALL FOR CAUTION
Late last week social media especially within the Muslim community in Jos and Plateay State at large became inundated with the concern by a move by the Plateau state government along with the Plateau State House of Assembly to ensure a mosque sited within the Plateau State NYSC Permanent Camp in Mangu, obviously for the use of Muslim corpers and possibly some members of staff of the camp, if there are any, must be demolished.
Demolishing an already constructed place of worship (Church or Mosque) anywhere in Nigeria has the tendency to create negative reaction if not handled with care.
Assuming without conceding that the mosque structure was done without the approval of the NYSC camp, the way its removal is being approached left so many questions begging for answers.
What is the special interest of Plateau State Hose of Assembly in the NYSC Camp (a federal government agency)? Why should the Plateau State Government (Ministry of Youths and Sports) be issuing out directive (See the letter attached) to the State NYSC Coordinator, who is a federal civil servant? Did those agencies tried to reach out to the Jama’atu Nasril Islam in the state to intimate it and seek for its advise/support on how to go about handling this obvious volatile issue?
I wonder why we always deliberately neglect to understand each others’ values not to even talk of respecting them. It is well known that by practice a Muslim prays five time in 24 hours. Most of the prayers are done in the daytime. It is strongly recommended (some scholars say it is compulsory) for two or more Muslims to say such prayers congeregationally. This explains why Muslims need a space to pray wherever they find themselves. This fact has been explained time without number and officials of the Plateau state government are expected to know this as well.
An NYSC Camp is expected to house Nigerians from all over the country which will include Muslims. We should be mindful of the impression we give them in the state.
Some analysts are of the view that certain interests in the state are bent on creating misunderstanding to truncate the hard earned peace in the state in order to frustrate the forthcoming proposed Local Government elections.
The Lalong administration needs to be vigilant.