As the 2027 general elections draw nearer, governorship candidates in the South-West have been given conditions to be met before they can get the votes of Muslims in their respective states.
The list of the conditions were spelt out by the Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), in a statement released on Thursday and signed by its Executive Chairman, Disu Kamor.
Top on the table of demands was an undertaking that Muslims will be fairly treated in the composition of the cabinets, boards and parastatals, based on their demographic weight in the respective states.
MPAC lamented that “Following the 2023 general elections, the cabinets constituted by the six South-West Governors displayed a consistent and severe imbalance against Muslims, despite Muslims forming a substantial share of the electorate in every one of these states.”
It said “The time for passive expectation has passed. The South-West Muslim community deserves equity, visibility, and fair representation- and we will advocate for it until it is achieved. “
Read the full statement below:
A FAIR DEAL OR NONE: MPAC’S DEMAND TO GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATES IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA ON THE TREATMENT OF MUSLIMS
2nd July, 2026. Lagos, Nigeria
1. *PREAMBLE*
The Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), Nigeria, issues this statement as a non-partisan public service agency mandated to defend the religious, civil and political rights of Nigerian Muslims and to build an informed, active Muslim constituency in the Nigerian political process. As governorship contests approach across the six South-West states- Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti- MPAC places on record, for the benefit of political parties, candidates and the Muslim electorate, the documented pattern of treatment meted out to Muslims by successive administrations in the region, and sets out the fair deal that Muslims will require of any candidate seeking their mandate.
This statement is grounded in fact: in constitutional text, in judicial precedent, in verified statistics from MPAC’s own field research, and in the public record of state action and inaction. It is not an attack on any party, faith community or individual. It is a demand for equity, made openly, so that no candidate can claim ignorance of what is owed to Muslim citizens of the South-West.
2. *THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROMISE*
Section 38 of the 1999 Constitution guarantees every Nigerian- without qualification- freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to manifest and propagate that religion in worship, teaching, practice and observance. Section 42 prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. Section 24(1)(c) further obliges every citizen, including those who govern, to respect the dignity and rights of others. Muslims constitute slightly more than half of Nigeria’s population and are present in every state of the federation, including all six states of the South-West, where the historic Yoruba Muslim community is substantial and, in several states, forms a significant share of the population.
These are not privileges to be dispensed at the discretion of any Governor, commissioner, or ruling party. They are enforceable constitutional guarantees. Yet the record shows that, in the South-West, the practical enjoyment of these rights by Muslims has fallen consistently short of the constitutional promise.
3. *THE RECORD: WHAT MUSLIMS IN THE SOUTH-WEST HAVE ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED*
3.1 Political and Institutional Marginalisation in Cabinet Appointments
Following the 2023 general elections, the cabinets constituted by the six South-West Governors displayed a consistent and severe imbalance against Muslims, despite Muslims forming a substantial share of the electorate in every one of these states:
– Lagos State: 49 Christian commissioners were appointed against only 14 Muslims.
– Ogun State: 16 Christian commissioners were appointed against only 4 Muslims.
– Oyo State: 10 Christian commissioners were appointed against 6 Muslims.
– Osun State: 17 Christian commissioners were appointed against 7 Muslims.
– Ekiti State: the ratio stood at 24 Christian commissioners to 1 Muslim.
– Ondo State: the ratio stood at 15 to 2 under the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu; his successor, Governor Lucky Ayedatiwa, went further and constituted a six-member cabinet with no Muslim commissioner at all.
These figures were compiled and made public by many Muslim advocacy bodies, and are consistent with findings documented by MPAC. They confirm that political exclusion of Muslims in the South-West is not an isolated incident in one state, but a regional pattern replicated by every one of the six South-West Governors in the current political cycle, cutting across party lines.
This exclusion extends beyond cabinets to boards, parastatals, judicial appointments, and traditional and civic honours, where the reception accorded religious leaders differs sharply by faith- with Muslim leaders routinely receiving markedly less recognition and access than their Christian counterparts at the same public functions.
*3.2 Suppression of Voluntary Shariah Civil Arbitration*
Shariah civil arbitration panels- voluntary bodies that resolve personal and civil disputes among consenting Muslim adherents, with no criminal jurisdiction and no binding effect on non-Muslims- have operated peacefully in the South-West for over two decades: at the Central Mosque, Oja Oba, Ibadan since 2002; at Abesan Central Mosque, Ipaja, Lagos since 2003; at Egba Muslims Central Mosque, Abeokuta, Ogun State since 2018; and in Osogbo, Osun State since 2005.
Despite this settled history, when Oyo State moved in January 2025 to formally inaugurate its panel, Governor Seyi Makinde intervened to suspend the inauguration indefinitely, declaring that the state “won’t permit illegality”- even though comparable church-based mediation and arbitration committees face no equivalent state obstruction. In Ekiti State, the panel’s maiden public sitting at the Oja Oba Central Mosque, Ado-Ekiti was followed by an order from the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti for its dissolution, while the state Attorney-General publicly asserted that the existing legal structure did not recognise any Shariah court or arbitration panel in the state. Civil society groups including Afenifere and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) publicly opposed the panels as a threat to secularism, without equivalent opposition to Christian denominational mediation bodies performing an identical civil function.
This asymmetry- acceptance of church-based mediation, rejection of Shariah-based mediation, for the same category of voluntary civil dispute resolution- amounts to unequal treatment of Muslim citizens seeking culturally appropriate access to justice, contrary to Section 38 of the Constitution.
*3.3 Obstruction of Mosque Siting and Land Access*
While the South-West has not seen the outright bans on mosque construction documented elsewhere in Southern Nigeria, Muslim communities in parts of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo report that Community Development Associations (CDAs) in Christian-majority Local Government Areas routinely vote down mosque projects citing “noise” or “traffic” concerns- objections rarely raised, and rarely upheld, against church projects in the same neighbourhoods. New residential estates and Government Reserved Areas across the region are commonly planned with five to ten churches allocated for every zero or one mosque, reflecting a planning bias embedded at the layout-design stage rather than any deliberate, considered exclusion by name. Town planning boards, lands bureaux and the traditional institutions that sign off on communal land in the South-West rarely include Muslim representation, so mosque applications that reach discretionary review is likely to stall disproportionately.
*3.4 Hijab: A Right Litigated, Won, But Still Not Fully Honoured*
Lagos State’s ban on the hijab in public schools was tested through the full course of litigation, and the Muslim community won at every appellate stage. An Ikeja High Court initially upheld the ban in October 2014. The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, reversed that decision in July 2016, holding that the ban was discriminatory and violated the constitutional rights of Muslim students. When Lagos State pursued a further appeal, the Supreme Court- in Lagos State Government & Ors v. Asiyat AbdulKareem & Ors (SC/910/2016), delivered on 17 June 2022- dismissed the State’s appeal and affirmed, by majority decision, that female Muslim students are entitled to wear the hijab with their school uniform. That it took eight years, three courts and a full hearing before the apex court of the land to settle a question Section 38 of the Constitution had already answered is itself a measure of the resistance Muslim families in the South-West have had to overcome merely to exercise a guaranteed right. Lagos State did not issue a compliance circular giving effect to the Supreme Court judgment until December 2022, six months after judgment was delivered.
The pattern recurs, and continues, well beyond Lagos. At the International School Ibadan (ISI), a public secondary school under the University of Ibadan in Oyo State, female Muslim students were locked out of classes in November 2018 for wearing the hijab, triggering a legal battle that lasted six years. On 22 May 2024, Justice Moshood Ishola of the Oyo State High Court declared the ban unconstitutional, holding that ISI is a multi-religious public institution and that denying willing Muslim students the right to wear hijab violates Sections 38 and 42 of the Constitution. Rather than comply, ISI’s management twice sought a stay of execution to keep the ban in force- in mid-2024 and again in November 2024- losing both applications, with the presiding judge on the second occasion characterising the school’s continued resistance to a subsisting court order as judicial impertinence. MPAC publicly condemned ISI’s conduct as a repeated assault on Muslim students’ constitutional rights and called on the school to comply immediately with the ruling.
At LAUTECH Staff School and LAUTECH International College (LICO), Ogbomoso, in Oyo State, Muslim parents first requested permission for their daughters to wear the hijab in 2011. The request went unresolved for eight years until, in January 2019, about fifty-five female Muslim pupils who arrived at school in hijab were turned back at the gates, with the schools’ governing boards still withholding formal approval. The matter was defused only through an ad-hoc peace meeting involving local security agencies, rather than resolved through the clear, binding policy that the Constitution already requires- leaving the underlying question of Muslim students’ right to religious dress at LAUTECH’s schools unsettled in principle even where tension was temporarily contained in practice. Hostility to visible Muslim religious expression on LAUTECH’s campuses has persisted beyond the basic school system: in November 2021, a Muslim nursing student at the University itself was ordered out of a lecture and had her hijab removed in front of her classmates by a Dean of Faculty over a dress code that made no allowance for religious covering, prompting student protests before the university opened an internal investigation.
Yet litigation and protest should never have been necessary to secure what the Constitution already guaranteed, and the underlying culture of harassment has not disappeared merely because individual rulings have gone the Muslim community’s way. MPAC’s own field research shows that as of 2020, 87.6% of Muslim women who wear the hijab reported experiencing discrimination; by 2026, that figure has only marginally improved, with roughly four in every five respondents still reporting discriminatory experiences- now increasingly in public spaces and informal settings rather than confined to schools and workplaces alone. More than four in five such incidents- 82.6% as at 2026- go unreported, chiefly out of fear of retaliation and low confidence that any complaint will be acted upon. Nearly three in four of those affected report that this discrimination has damaged their confidence or mental wellbeing.
*3.5 Ceremony Without Substance*
MPAC notes, with concern, a recurring pattern in which South-West Governors extend festive greetings, Ramadan gifts and public goodwill messages to the Muslim community, while the substantive record of appointments, land allocation and institutional access tells a starkly different story. Muslim leaders visiting government houses across the region have themselves described being received with far less warmth, protocol and reverence than is extended to bishops and general overseers of churches on the same occasions. Ceremonial recognition is not a substitute for equal political and economic opportunity, and Muslims in the South-West will not accept the two being conflated.
This same pattern extends to the annual allocation of Hajj slots to government officials and party loyalists- a gesture frequently presented to the Muslim community as evidence of official goodwill. MPAC states clearly that the Muslim community will no longer accept the donation of Hajj slots to political office holders and party loyalists as a substitute for the recognition, appointments and institutional access that are due to Muslims as a matter of right. A single sponsored pilgrimage slot, however well publicised, does not offset the exclusion of Muslims from cabinets, boards, parastatals and land-use decisions across the region, and must not be mistaken by any Governor or party for engagement with, or accountability to, the Muslim community. Muslims in the South-West will judge their governments by the substance of equal treatment, not by the symbolism of periodic largesse.
4. *WHAT MPAC DEMANDS OF EVERY GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE IN THE SOUTH-WEST*
MPAC calls on every political party and every candidate contesting for governorship office across Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti States to make the following commitments public, specific and binding- not as campaign rhetoric, but as measurable pledges against which their conduct in office will be assessed:
1. *Proportional and transparent representation.* Publicly commit, in writing, to constituting a cabinet, boards and parastatal leadership that reflect the demographic weight of the Muslim population in the state, and commission an independent audit of appointments made over the preceding ten years as a baseline.
2. *Formal recognition of voluntary Shariah civil arbitration.* Issue an unambiguous executive commitment recognising that Shariah panels, like church-based mediation committees, may operate as private, voluntary civil arbitration bodies under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act and the constitutional right to freedom of association- requiring no state funding, but no obstruction either.
3. *Codified, enforceable hijab policy.* Adopt the Supreme Court’s settled position on hijab as binding state-wide policy across all public schools and institutions, with clear sanctions for principals, administrators or officials who violate it, ending the need for repeated litigation.
4. *Equitable land allocation for worship.* Mandate that all new GRA and estate layouts allocate plots for places of worship proportionate to the state’s religious demographics, and establish a religious land review panel, with Muslim representation, to audit and fast-track previously denied mosque applications.
5. *An end to discretionary obstruction.* Direct town planning authorities and CDAs to apply zoning and land-use rules equally to mosque and church applications alike, with a transparent appeals process open to public scrutiny.
6. *Equal protocol and public respect.* Extend to Muslim religious and community leaders the same standard of institutional recognition, access and courtesy as is extended to leaders of other faiths, consistently and not only during festive seasons.
5. *A WARNING GROUNDED IN CONSCIENCE, NOT SENTIMENT*
MPAC states plainly: Muslim voters across the South-West will remember. They will remember which parties governed with equity and which governed with exclusion. They will remember which administrations treated Muslim citizens as full stakeholders and which reduced them to occasional guests at government functions and beneficiaries of symbolic gestures. This memory will not be erased by a single Ramadan visit, a Sallah gift, Hajj slots, or a ceremonial endorsement by any Muslim leader or organisation.
No endorsement, however prominent its source, can substitute for the lived record of a government. MPAC will continue to mobilise the Muslim electorate of the South-West to look beyond ceremony and rhetoric, to examine the documented record of each party and each candidate in office, and to vote according to conscience and evidence. Where a party has entrenched marginalisation, obstructed lawful religious practice, or offered only symbolic gestures in place of substantive equity, Muslim voters will be encouraged to withhold their mandate from it, regardless of any last-minute courtship.
MPAC remains, as always, a non-partisan organisation. This statement endorses no party and opposes none. It insists only that whichever party seeks the mandate of South-West Muslims must first earn it- through binding, verifiable commitments to fairness- and having earned it, must be seen to keep it.
6. *CONCLUSION*
The State of Religious Freedom in Nigeria as it Affects Muslims (2026), MPAC’s own research, together with the documented public record cited above, leaves no room for doubt: the challenge facing Muslims in the South-West is no longer one of constitutional text, but of implementation, enforcement and political will. MPAC calls on all candidates, of all parties, contesting the governorship of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti States to close this gap- not with words, but with binding commitments the Muslim community can hold them to, before and after the ballot.
Between now and the election, MPAC will embark on an intense programme of awareness and advocacy to advance the issues addressed in this statement. This will include public engagements, Muslim voter education, media campaigns, and direct interface with candidates and political parties to secure clear, measurable pledges on inclusion, equity, and religious freedom.
MPAC therefore calls on all other Islamic advocacy organisations, Muslim professional bodies, and community leaders across the South-West to join this campaign. Our collective voice, unity of purpose, and sustained engagement are essential to ensure that the concerns of Muslims are prioritized on the agenda of governance in the region.
The time for passive expectation has passed. The South-West Muslim community deserves equity, visibility, and fair representation- and we will advocate for it until it is achieved. Wallahu Waliyyut Tawfiq.
Signed,
Disu Kamor
Executive Chairman
Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), Nigeria
Kamor.disu@mpac-ng.org
www.mpac-ng.org | @mpacng