The leadership of the Taraba State chapter of the Muslim Council of Nigeria (MCN) has called on their counterparts from the Christian Association (CAN) to desist from acting as a mouth piece of the State government.
Making the call at a media briefing on Monday, in Jalingo, the State capital, they noted with dismay the way CAN had being supporting the government to relegate Muslims in the State to the background.
Led by its Acting Chairman, Qadi Abdulmumuni Abubakar, the Muslims who were reacting to a recent comment, believed that “CAN is going too far.”
Wondering why they (CAN) should be the ones defending the government on the allegations leveled against it by the council, CAN, as advised by the council, “should desist from acting blindly or sentimental on issues within and outside the State designed to pit adherents of both faith against each other. ”
According to Abubakar “CAN should desist from acting or behaving like a political party or an arm of the Taraba State government,” adding that “this is because the press conference by the Muslim Council did not in any manner join CAN in its marginalization cries.”
The council, which could not fathom why CAN went as far as debunking the allegations which the government has not denied, made available to media practitioners the list of some of the most Senior Muslim civil servants whom they alledged were denied the opportunity of ascending to the positions of permanent secretaries in the State.
On the CAN’s claim that the State was predominantly Christians, the council also argued that the “unassailable truth is that Muslims are not minority in Taraba State. ”
Buttressing their point with the 2016 National Population Commission and the report of the National Bureau for Statistics which they said projected Taraba State’s population at 3, 066,800, they affirmed that “it is only in the figment of CAN’s imagination that Taraba State is willfully seen as a Christian State.”
The leadership of CAN, it would be recalled, recently kicked against the council and the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) over their claims of being marginalized in the State, especially in the areas of appointments and employments.
