Akintola

How can the agitations for re-opening of churches and mosques in spite of the daily  growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country by some clerics be stopped?

The Muslims Rights Concern, MRC, said such agitations will end if the government at various levels extended the distribution of palliatives to the clerics.

Director of MURIC, Ishaq Akintola,  who made this suggestion in a statement on Wednesday said agitations to allow the holding of services in mosques and churches will end if the Clerics were allowed to benefit from palliatives being distributed to the vulnerable members of the society.

He said, “The open demand by certain religious leaders for their places of worship to be reopened lends credence to the pressure clerics are going through,” he said.

“Even the recent decision by some state governments to reopen religious centres is not unconnected with subterranean agitations from clerics in the states. Deserted for weeks, the house of God longs for warmth.

“The impact of the economic nosedive on imams and pastors cannot be overemphasized particularly for a country whose proletariat is overworked, underpaid and overtaxed.

“MURIC therefore advises the various state governments to speedily devise means of getting special palliatives to the clerics in the churches and mosques.

“They deserve attention at this crucial moment because they have nowhere to go. They should not be turned to beggars. They have served the government at various times. They should not be abandoned in their hour of need.

“Besides, members of their families deserve decent lives as Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stipulates the right to life for every citizen while Section 34 confers the right to the dignity of the human person.”