The Secretary-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Dr. Lateef Adegbite (CON), Monday in Lagos said that Muslims will make a formal protest to President Olusegun Obasanjo on the declaration by the Justice Minister and Attorney General, Mr. Godwin Kanu Agabi, over the Sharia legal system.
Alhaji Lateef Adegbite, who spoke with Daily Trust at a book launch sponsored by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDCN), said that although Agabi's declaration does not have any effect, "we would want the president to call the minister to order."
"I am sure President Obasanjo will not want to throw the country into religious conflict," Adegbite said. He noted, however, that the president had travelled to Mexico when Agabi made his pronouncement.
According to Alhaji Adegbite, the justice minister has no power to declare the full implementation of the Sharia legal system as illegal.
"I think it is the press that misinterpreted what he (Agabi) said. What he said is that he advised," Dr. Adegbite said.
He added that Agabi's advice and opinion are not tenable since sections of the constitution cited by the minister are totally inapplicable.
He argued that there are also laws regulating medicine and the accounting professions. "So, because a law discriminates, it does not make it illegal."
According to Alhaji Adegbite, it is not the business of the executive to declare Sharia as illegal.
"We are appealing to our people not to react violently. It is a kind of verbal debate and the Federal Government will not take steps to enforce mere declaration," he concluded.