Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, said former Zamfara State Governor now a Senator, Ahmad Sani Yerima, introduced Sharia Law to fight a personal battle with ex-National Security Adviser, NSA, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau.
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Obasanjo’s account of the event leading to the introduction of Sharia Law in Zamfara in 2000 and later on a host of states in the north, was contained in a book entitled “Making Africa Work,” co-authored by him with three other.
The book, was unveiled in Victoria Island, Lagos, on August 2.
He wrote, “The initiator of the Sharia controversy, the then Zamfara State governor, Sani Yerima, raised the issue, however, for self-serving and self-preservation reasons, not for genuine or authentic religious conviction.”
“When Yerima stood for the governorship of his state under the banner of the then All Peoples’ Party, the man who later became the National Security Adviser, NSA, General Aliyu Mohammed, sponsored a candidate under the banner of the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“The PDP candidate lost the election but it would appear that the NSA, intending to find fault against the governor, started surreptitiously to collect evidence of misconduct and corruption against the governor.
“Meanwhile, I made several attempts to reconcile them, but to no avail. I even took both of them on an official visit to China, an opportunity to bring them together. When it appeared that the NSA persisted, Governor Yerima decided to make himself untouchable.
“He invited the Imams, Muslim leaders and priests in his state, and informed them that he was turning Zamfara into a full sharia state. He promulgated a law declaring Zamfara as a sharia state. And, true enough, he became untouchable.
“Wanting not to be seen as acting in isolation, he instigated imams in other Islamic states in the north to agitate for a full sharia law declaration. In all, 12 states out of the 19 in the north promulgated full sharia law.”
