Why Jama’atul Nasril Islam Must Be Restructured -By Danjuma Katsina

The Kaduna-based umbrella body of Nigerian Muslim organizations, Jama’atul Nasril Islam (JNI), charged with the responsibility of unifying Muslims and championing their cause, has over the years been characterized by ineptitude and insensitivity as iam writing this piece they didn’t release a words on Hajj stampede why?

It is high time Nigerian Muslims wake up from their deep slumber and face the challenge of the need to overhaul JNI, restructure its leadership, and or even change its name completely.

This body is only very known for its regular meetings to discuss and disperse, often drunk on tea as on wine in a remotely obscure building by the roadside. It is also a very handy tool for journalists, to comment on issues affecting preoccupation o Muslims in order to balance their stories. This had been its preoccupation over the years.

During last year’s regime, Nigerian Muslims have face series of deliberate persecution and oppression without a vanguard that can sincerely speak and act on their behalf. JNI was nowhere in sight to the rescue. We can recall that Muslim holy activities were made to deliberately coincide with other worldly activities beneficial to them. At a certain military institution, a recruitment test for enrolment into the Nigerian Armed Forces was carried out during the holy month of Ramadan. The tests included physical exercises. JNI kept mute over the issue, while Christian organization have always been pro-active on issues affecting them.

I recall with great sadness the ineptitude of JNI to counter the atrocities meted on Muslims in the north-east in the form of bomb blasts and extra-judicial killings by the then Nigerian military. It is also disheartening that JNI could not offer or initiate any meaningful assistance to the plight of millions of displaced Muslims, to the extent that Nigeria is counted among countries with the highest number of refugees in the world. It was reported on the BBC how displaced Muslim women refugees were forcefully conveyed to southern part of this country and forced to untold promiscuity. JNI could neither stand up on the issue, o call for collective action against it.

Muslims from southern part of Kaduna and Plateau state could not find solace in JNI, despite the atrocities and persecution committed on them. On many occasions, Muslims from eastern part of this country expressed their complaints over the marginalization they face in the media, so that their Muslims from the north could come to their assistance. The result had always been strict silence, as if JNI was on another planet. For instance, Muslims from Ekiti state had outwardly expressed how they were being marginalized under Fayose government, for which the BBC had made commentary on the issue. The JNI feigned ignorance.

I this respect, I must commend the effort of a singular Muslim organization, called MURIC, who constantly lend its voice and amplified the complaints of Nigerian Muslims to the world. It has been the only rising voice of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria.

One may be tempted to ask: What is wrong with JNI? Why was it silent when its voice was most needed, and inept when its assistance was critically desired? We must face the truth, JNI cannot be the needed vanguard of the Nigerian Muslims. It is high time we look forward to a more vibrant and proactive umbrella body that can embrace and shelter all the Nigerian Muslims with pride and prospect. Such desired umbrella body should be capable of uniting Muslims irrespective of creed or ideology; a body that courageously champion the cause of Nigerian Muslims within and outside the country. We need a new JNI that will inject in the Muslims pride of being Muslims, protected against any form of suppression, domination or isolation. For present JNI, we should say good bye, and appreciate its little good commendable effort it had done in the past.

The effort by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to place the country on sound footing should be replicated in all facets of our existence. While we pray the administration to complete the approved eight-year tenure on this commendable effort, we Muslims of Nigeria should also restructure our house by replacing JNI with more vibrant one for the progress and development of Islam and the country.

–Danjuma is a Kaduna base journalist