ABOUT THE ECCLESIASTICAL LAW....
Yes the development is in order especially if it will satisfy the perceived injustice in the country. The only thing is that in my opinion it is reactionary.
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The Muslim codes of jurisprudence - collectively known as 'SHARIAH', have always been the basis of laws in the various territories in the Northern part of Nigeria since before the advent of colonialism. Even when the Colonialists came they only suspended certain portions of the laws and still sustained certain portions just the same as they did with customary laws in the Southern part of Nigeria because laws of any society are part and parcel of the cultural fabric that defines the society.
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The only difference is that Shari'ah law was already codified, structured and documented unlike other customary laws and this was why it was not possible to make Muslims just accept – hook, line and sinker – all the laws that that are claimed to be 'secular' in the Constitution as well as most of structures and mechanisms of the Nigerian legal system based on the fact that the origins were from the Judo-Christian tradition.
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But all being said and done, it is the inalienable right of Christians in Nigeria to demand that they be afforded the choice to have the Scriptures as basis of laws that guide specific aspects of their life. And I do not think Shari'ah law and ecclesiastical law – or any other law for that matter – are in any way supposed to be competitive or in conflict. To each, his own.
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Haidar Wali
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The Muslim codes of jurisprudence - collectively known as 'SHARIAH', have always been the basis of laws in the various territories in the Northern part of Nigeria since before the advent of colonialism. Even when the Colonialists came they only suspended certain portions of the laws and still sustained certain portions just the same as they did with customary laws in the Southern part of Nigeria because laws of any society are part and parcel of the cultural fabric that defines the society.
.
The only difference is that Shari'ah law was already codified, structured and documented unlike other customary laws and this was why it was not possible to make Muslims just accept – hook, line and sinker – all the laws that that are claimed to be 'secular' in the Constitution as well as most of structures and mechanisms of the Nigerian legal system based on the fact that the origins were from the Judo-Christian tradition.
.
But all being said and done, it is the inalienable right of Christians in Nigeria to demand that they be afforded the choice to have the Scriptures as basis of laws that guide specific aspects of their life. And I do not think Shari'ah law and ecclesiastical law – or any other law for that matter – are in any way supposed to be competitive or in conflict. To each, his own.
.
Haidar Wali
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