Igbo pressure group, Ndigbo Worldwide Union has supported request by United States lawmakers urging Nigeria to expunge Sharia and blasphemy provisions from its Constitution.
“The time for ambiguity is over,” the statement said. “A country cannot claim to operate a common-law system while simultaneously running a full religious criminal code. Two legal systems cannot coexist in a serious nation,” a statement jointly signed by the group’s President, Benjamin I. Nwankwo, and Secretary, Chief Charles Edemuzo, said in a statement seen by CPC NEWS on Friday.
The pressure group backed United States lawmakers urging Nigeria to expunge Sharia and blasphemy provisions from its Constitution, warning that no modern state can function with two parallel legal codes.
It said resistance to the US recommendation exposes “official hypocrisy” and fuels recurring bloodshed linked to Sharia enforcement in parts of the North.
“The time for ambiguity is over,” the statement said. “A country cannot claim to operate a common-law system while simultaneously running a full religious criminal code. Two legal systems cannot coexist in a serious nation.”
According to Ndigbo Worldwide Union, Nigeria’s constitutional entrenchment of Sharia, coupled with its membership of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, creates a structural contradiction that threatens national cohesion.
The group urged Northern leaders to make a clear choice: embrace a uniform, egalitarian common-law framework for all citizens, or pursue a separate Islamic political arrangement.
“Pretending otherwise is denial,” it said.
Warning that the “status quo is dead,” the group said the Sharia dispute has pushed the country to a crossroads, with options narrowing to constitutional reform through referendum or an eventual fragmentation driven by unresolved fault lines.
The statement cited the killing of Deborah Samuel and the continued captivity of Leah Sharibu as emblematic of the dangers posed by religious extremism and legal inequality.
“The National Assembly is at its moment of truth,” the group said. “Remove Sharia from the Constitution and preserve peace or ignore the warning signs and preside over a national rupture. There is no middle ground”, the statement warned.
“Nigeria has a choice. The clock is ticking, and history will remember who acted—and who failed”, it added.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria (SCSN) has rejected calls from US lawmakers to end the practice of Sharia law in the country, describing the proposal as misinformed and an attempt to undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“No power or authority can arrogantly make Muslims relinquish its practice in response to external pressure, misinformation, or political intimidation,” SCSN Secretary General Nafiu Ahmad said in a statement.
According to him, Sharia is a comprehensive way of life for Muslims and cannot be relinquished due to “external pressure, misinformation, or political intimidation.”
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