By Professor Ishaq Akintola

‎An Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has rejected the candidate endorsed by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.

‎The group argued that Makinde is acting a religious script to oppress Oyo State Muslims by attempting to coronate a Christian as his successor who will spend another eight years after Makinde himself, a Christian, has spent eight gruesome years of Christianisation and suppression of Islam in the state.

‎In a statement circulated to pressmen on Tuesday, 19th May, 2026, the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, accused Governor Makinde of diverting all the milk and honey in Oyo State to the Christians while Muslims wallowed in abject poverty.

‎”It is turn by turn”, Akintola insisted. “Seyi Makinde, a Christian governor, has spent eight years in office. He has no right to appoint another Christian as his successor. Christian monopoly of governance must be stopped in Yorubaland.

‎”We have a convention. If a Muslim spends eight years in office, a Christian should succeed him. It is so vice versa. Why does Makinde want to change that unwritten protocol? It is the turn of the Muslims. Makinde should not ignite a religious crisis in Oyo State.

‎”We charge Muslim leaders in the state to resist this imposition with every legitimate means at their disposal. Muslims have the population. They pay the highest tax. But Makinde has turned them into 3rd class citizens. Why should Muslims hold the horns of the cow while the Christians milk it?

‎”If Makinde thinks Muslims in the state have forgotten his anti-Muslim antics, then he has got another thing coming. The list of his atrocities against Muslims is longer than the Nile. But we will not mention them now.  They will remain in the cooler until he starts seeking Muslim votes for his presidential joke.

“The political situation in the South West whereby all the six governors are Christians does not even allow such nonchalance on the part of Muslims and their leaders in Iyo State. That was why we asked political parties in the region to pick Muslims as their gubernatorial candidates.

“Real Muslims know what to do without being told. It is an existential matter this time around. Why should all the governors in the South West be Christians when Muslims are the majority? All six, not two, not three. Haba! Why should the Christians take every state? Sharing is caring. We reject ‘winner-takes-all’ mentality.”

‎Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).