Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has distanced himself from religiously charged posts said to be his position on fasting.
Denying the posts on behalf of his boss, El-Rufai’s spokesman,Samuel Aruwan said at a press conference Tuesday, “the Governor draws the line at those making religiously-charged posts with fabricated quotes about his position on fasting. This is a governor that has insisted that religion is a private matter. He pulled the state government out of sponsoring religious pilgrimage and Ramadan feeding within weeks of taking office in 2015.
“When a citizen was attacked in June 2016 in the Kakuri area of Kaduna for reasons attributed to religious differences during Ramadan, Malam Nasir El-Rufai and Deputy-Governor Barnabas Bala visited the victim at the Saint Gerards’ Hospital on 8th June 2016, and he made an emphatic statement for religious freedom, declaring that “there is no compulsion in religion. It is a free country, and that means no imposition of faith or religious practices on anyone.”
According to Aruwan, “The governor added that ‘nobody can impose the tenet of his faith on another person. The decision to observe any religious activity is the prerogative of the individual.’ He explained that even a Muslim cannot be compelled to fast.
“What Malam Nasir El-Rufai would not do is to allow anybody to get away with bad behaviour by citing their religious, regional or ethnic identity. Equality before the law requires that every citizen must be held responsible for their conduct. The legion of cowards and fraudsters ever ready to spread and amplify falsehood on social media, without any effort at verification, must know that they can be held responsible for what they share. The laws of our land rightly protect the freedom of speech, but the same laws provide remedies against defamation and incitement, even in cyberspace.”
