NSCIA Condemns Advertisement On NTA

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has condemned an advertisement on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) sponsored by “Initiative for Peaceful Election’’ saying that the advertorial portrays Nigerian Muslims in a bad light.

In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP and signed by secretary-general, Prof Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, titled, “Dangerous Advertisement on NTA,” it said taken along with the current public utterances of some political and religious leaders in the country, the contents of the advertisement are suggestive of a dangerous hidden agenda.

The statement reads, “The attention of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has been drawn to an ongoing advertisement on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), the advertisement sponsored by ‘Initiative for Peaceful Election’ apparently on behalf of a political party, contains a concocted documentary which embarrassingly maligns Islam and portrays Nigerian Muslims in bad light aired on a national television owned by the federal government of Nigeria, the provocative advertisement is sending a very dangerous signal of a seemingly impending religious war to the populace.”

It said, “Incidentally, unassailable facts show that over 80 per cent of the victims of the 2011 post-election violence to which the advertisement in question refers were Muslims. These facts are available in both the reports and the white papers of the federal and Kaduna State governments’ panels on the crisis.

It added that, such an insensitive public attack on Islam and Nigerian Muslims is capable of causing chaos and thereby elicit a reaction in the like manner which may lead to further crisis. “To avert any such crisis therefore, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs hereby calls on Nigerian Broadcasting Commission which statutorily regulates the broadcast activities in the country to be alert in its duty and ensure that a religious war does not ensue as a result of dereliction of duty on its part.

“Islam is not a candidate contesting for an office in the coming general election.

and it is never expected that any individual or group with the right frame of mind would want to drag this religion of Allah into politics,’’ the statement added.