Why the Controversy? Oloyede stands by proposed sharia panels, assures their role in promoting regional peace

Contrary to the assertion made by Sheikh Muhammad Habbibullah Adam Abdullah El-Ilory, Director of the Arabic and Islamic Training Centre (Markaz) and Founder of Markaz University College, who argued that implementing Sharia would lead to chaos, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has urged leaders in the South-West to back the creation of Sharia panels across the six states in the region.

Oloyede, who also serves as the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), declared that the panels—comprising Islamic scholars handling marriage and inheritance disputes—would contribute to sustainable peace in the region.

Speaking as a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political program aired on Channels Television, he urged policymakers to reconsider their stance. “Leaders should have a rethink. For sustainable peace, there is nothing bad in Muslims having” Sharia courts in the South-West, he stated.

The push for these panels has sparked controversy in states such as Ogun and Oyo, where both traditional institutions and Christian communities have rejected the idea.

Similarly, the Director of Markaz, kicked against the implementation, stressing that “Are we already practising Shari’a or not? We are. So why demand it now? It could create a crisis when no one is stopping us from living according to Islamic principles.”

Despite opposition, the Muslim community and the NSCIA, led by Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, continue to champion the initiative. They argue that Sharia panels serve as a viable alternative dispute resolution mechanism for Muslims, rather than an attempt to impose religious law on the broader population.

Oloyede said, “I believe that Nigeria is great and Nigeria will continue to be great but it requires a lot of rethinking. Recently, people are talking about Sharia Panels in South-West and I was just smiling; I was smiling that I had never seen that level of ignorance being displayed. Sharia Panel in Oyo State, somebody did a PhD thesis on it in 2007 which means it had been there before 2007. The person who wrote on that appraisal is a professor today in Ibadan. He is Prof Makinde, and the governor coincidentally is Makinde. I don’t know whether they are related.”

He added that Muslims in the South-West are paying psychologically for the harmony enjoyed in the zone.

Oloyede said, “When you have such a situation (of religious tolerance) and you do not continue to monitor what you are doing, you will be living in the past. I’m a Muslim from the South-West. The Muslims from the South-West pay psychologically for the peace and harmony that we are talking about.

“The churches are licensed by the government to conduct marriages that are statutory and if you have any dispute within your marriage, you go to government-funded high courts for dispute resolution.

“If there is a dispute in my marriage, where do I go? I don’t have the opportunity because I married according to Islamic rites, I will have to go to customary court where the customary judge knows next to nothing about my faith, about the laws on the basis on which we got married. He would now use customary law to determine Islamic marriage and the Constitution of Nigeria allows it to say where the state of assembly allows it, there should be Sharia Courts of Appeal.

“There have been Sharia Court of Appeal in different parts of the country, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria. When we say there is harmony, it means somebody is suffering in silence but when the person speaks, they say: ‘Why are you making noise?’”