The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC has blamed Nigerians for not recognising the fact that the father of a Northern girl-child had not given her out in early marriage as commonly practiced in the region.
This is following citicism that trailed Hanan Buhari’s use of the presidential jet for a photography project.
In a statement by the director of the organization, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Thursday, MURIC reaffirmed President Buhari’s youngest daughter use of the Presidential jet.
The statement stated: “A Tsunami of criticisms trailed our statement of Monday, 13th January, 2019 in which we expressed solidarity with Hanan Buhari, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Though mainly motivated by political prejudice, the criticism cut across religions. Our organisation was taken to the cleaners simply because we refused to wailers in bashing a honest man.
“But the point is that there is always two sides to a coin. Unfortunately wailers will not bother to look at the other side. Why must we all reason along one direction? We can take the bashing. We don’t mind so long as we are convinced that we are on the right path. Truth is constant.
“One particular aspect has jogged our mind again: the fact that Hanan Buhari is from a region which is considered to be conservative and educationally backward.
“This is a region where millions of male children roam the streets in almajiri fashion while parents keep the girl-child at home, marry them off at tender age and declare Western education as taboo.
“Those who are crying foul today are part of those shedding crocodile tears over the neglect of the girl-child. Well, something phenomenal happened in the Hanan Buhari narrative.
“A girl-child from this same conservative, education-shy region bagged a first class in a London university where education has genuine quality and first class actually means first class. Isn’t that alone worth celebrating? Isn’t that alone capable of inspiring other girls in the region?
“This was exactly what MURIC referred to when it said in its first statement that Hanan Buhari was an inspiration. We repeat it once again without any fear of contradiction that she is, indeed, an inspiration and a model.
“Nigerians from a section of the country have for long been lampooning Northerners for giving out their daughters in marriage at tender age. We now have a father who did not do that but took his time to allow his daughter to get the best education available.
“Lo and behold! Nigerians went for his jugular. Who did this to Nigeria? It is now clear that those making noise over early marriage and neglect of Western education in the North had never been sincere. They were more interested in deriding a whole region and reviling others in self-righteousness.
“Mischief led a section of the media to twist our statement by giving it a wrong caption in order to mislead the general public and also to cast aspersion on MURIC. The mischievous caption read, ‘MURIC Says Hanan Buhari is an Inspiration While Flying in Presidential Jet.’
“Of course that was far from our intention. We were called all sorts of unprintable names. That should not worry us anyway. Any organization or individual who wants to change society must be prepared to stomach criticism, both fair and unfair.
“We made it clear in our statement that the issue of the presidential jet was not major. We insisted that the lessons inherent in a president’s daughter studying photography and working so hard at her studies as to bag a first class degree was more important to us. We said it was capable of inspiring the youth, particularly girls in the region, to imbibe hard work.
“She was likely to create an indelible impression on the Northern girl-child. We said we were proud of Hanan. We still are till tomorrow. We stand by this statement. We have no apologies for that. No retreat, no surrender.
“Some even alleged that our statement was too pro-North and that our stand was capable of hurting the Yoruba agenda. We consider this as a gross misunderstanding of MURIC’s mission. The fact that our headquarters is in Lagos does not make us a Yoruba group. Far from that.
“We are a completely detribalised group. Our membership spreads to all tribes, including the South-East and the South- South. Our mission is to unite Nigeria. This is why we have consistently stood by the truth and the truth alone no matter whose ox is gored. We will not promote any sectional agenda.
“What manner of people are we in this country? We hail loafers and loath workers. We idolize thieves and demonise honest people. What crime has the president’s daughter committed? A young lady went for studies as the daughter of the Number One citizen in our land.
“She had all the reason in the world to indulge in self-glorification but she elected to work hard and she excelled. She came back with the highest laurel from a British university where you cannot buy grades with either your look or your cash.
