This is beyond Sharia
By
Wonders will never end. And if we wonder at a decision of the Kano State House of Assembly asking their erstwhile Speaker to step down, it is just that we are bewildered.
Alhaji Abdullahi Gwarmai was the presiding officer at the Kano State House of Assembly until last Wednesday when he was impeached by his peers.
A barrage of charges was laid against him, the most prominent being that he is in the habit of using bleaching cream, thereby contravening the Sharia legal code.
We do not think that that was the true reason; it must have gone deeper than that. And there were hints that there had been no love lost between him and the governor of the state.
Alhaji Gwarmai has said that he had always made himself look good by the use of bleaching cream for many years, which translated, may mean that when he stood for election and won; when the was appointed Speaker by the House, he might have been looking as he looked last Wednesday.
Alhaji Abdullahi had pleaded his fundamental right to deal with himself whichever way he wanted. And he is right and we do not see how he has offended others but himself by that act.
The Kano State House of Assembly seems to have set a precedent that cannot be acceptable within civilised society and which should not be accommodated under a democracy. It is an oppression of a minority by a majority; we do not think that our system approves of that. Or should. We accept that societal issues can be moral, ethical and legal. And for a legislative house, we believe its main duty is to make laws that may have moral and ethical contents. It may make moral observations but we do not think it has done itself any good by passing moral judgement as it seemed to have done.
We believe the House has minimised itself; and the Sharia under which it has taken umbrage. It has done grievous harm to a set of rules which many respect.
If people see Sharia as an ogre, its proponents should know why.