The Muslim Rights Concern have said Nigerian Muslims expect the name of Professor Abideen Olaiya to be among names of ministerial nominees from the South West.
The Nigerian Senate had on Thursday reeled out the names 28 ministerial nominees sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.
According to PMNews, a top party official of the All Progressive Congress has also indicated that twelve more names of other nominees are in the offing.
While reacting to the ministerial list, MURIC said the Muslims in Nigeria are rooting for Professor Olaiya and no excuse will be accepted for omission of his name.
They said, “The Nigerian Senate has unveiled 28 names of ministerial nominees sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A top party official of the ruling party has also indicated that twelve more names of other nominees are in the offing.
“The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) can confidently reveal the name that is making waves among Nigerian Muslims at the moment. Muslims North and South of Nigeria are rooting for Professor Abideen Olaiya as one of the ministers that must emerge from the South West.
“It will be recalled that MURIC had demanded that at least four out of the six ministers from the South West should be Muslims in order to partly make up for the injustice of the past, particularly in the days of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan when all six ministers from the region were Christians to the chagrin of the majority Muslim population.
“No excuse can be acceptable for omitting Olaiya’s name in the ministerial list, not competence, not party loyalty, not even diligence or antecedent. We plead that the choice of the Muslim Ummah be respected.”
Abideen Olaitan Olaiya is currently the Associate Professor of Crop ecology/Cropping systems works at the Department of Plant Physiology and Crop Production, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
Abideen does research in Agrophysics, Agronomy of Tropical commodity crops and food crops. Their current project is ‘EVALUATION OF NEWLY RELEASED YELLOW CASSAVA VARIETIES IN VARIOUS ECOLOGICAL ZONES OF NIGERIA’. His publications majored in ecophysiology of tropical crops.
