Press Release
Our
attention has been drawn to a press statement issued by the Muslims’ Right
Concern (MURIC) in which its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola made a number of
allegations against the President Goodluck Jonathan, including the mischievous
and false claim that there is a Jewish symbol in the new commemorative N100
note which will be officially issued on December 19.
(pix:nigeriatell)
President Jonathan is certainly not anti-Muslim as
Prof Akintola alleges. As we have often said, the President knows very well
that he was elected to office by a representative majority of all Nigerians and
he continues to deal with all Nigerians fairly and equitably irrespective of
their personal or group religious beliefs.
The allegation by MURIC that President Jonathan is using the highest office in the country to promote Zionism and the state of
The symbol Prof. Akintola refers to in his statement is the Star of David which cannot be found anywhere on the widely publicized specimen of the new 100 Naira note.
The symbol that he erroneously claims is the Star
of David or a Jewish symbol is actually a spark security feature
which is an optical magnetic feature that enables the public to determine if a
currency note is genuine or counterfeit.
*President Jonathan, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar and CAN President Ayo Oritsejafor (pix: thenation)
The design of the spark security feature on the new
N100 note is not in any way associated with Israel Manila briquet,
which is a symbol of the cowrie money used during the colonial era.
The value of the new N100 note is written in the
three major Nigerian languages - Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. No attempt whatsoever
has been made to use the N100 note to discriminate against any group of
Nigerians.
The MURIC Director's claim that Muslims were marginalized in the recent National Conference is also untrue.
Contrary to Prof. Akintola’s allegation, the National Conference organized by the Jonathan Administration has been widely praised and acknowledged as one of the best of such conferences ever held in this country. It was a purposeful conference, a conference in which a lot of maturity was displayed and at which religion never became a big issue.
The MURIC Director's claim that Muslims were marginalized in the recent National Conference is also untrue.
Contrary to Prof. Akintola’s allegation, the National Conference organized by the Jonathan Administration has been widely praised and acknowledged as one of the best of such conferences ever held in this country. It was a purposeful conference, a conference in which a lot of maturity was displayed and at which religion never became a big issue.
*Akintola
MURIC’s allegation that the security system in Aso
Rock is saturated with Israeli security operatives is another blatant lie.
There are no Israeli security operatives in Aso Rock. We invite Prof. Akintola
to visit the Presidential Villa and see for himself that there are no foreign
security operatives on the premises and that the only security operatives in
the Villa are Nigerians.
It is most unfortunate that such divisive
falsehoods could have emanated from a supposedly knowledgeable man like Prof.
Akintola and we demand an unreserved apology from him for the very unwarranted
attempt to cause disaffection against President Jonathan amongst a major
religious group in the country.
Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
November 25, 2014
Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
November 25, 2014
Fellow Nigerians,
ReplyDeleteWhy are you crying about symbols?
Put Jewish David Star symbol, Hitler's SS symbol, Soviet Onion's symbol, ISIS Allahu Akbar symbol, Boko Haram Shekau's tiny picture anywhere on it,
JUST give me like 10 billions of it, I WILL SPEND IT.
Any money is better than bein poor, any day.
Tell me who won't.