Northern state orders NGOs out

Local and international human rights NGOs have been ordered by the Council of Ulamas (Muslim clerics) in Kano to leave the northern Nigerian state, according to media reports confirmed by advocacy groups.

"We have received information to that effect, but it is certainly unconstitutional," Remi Adewale, a human rights activist involved in campaigns for the rights of women in northern Nigeria, told IRIN.

The order was contained in a declaration issued last week by the council, which has been functioning as an arm of the state government in charge of maintaining Islamic values since Kano adopted Sharia law late last year.

'The Guardian' daily of Lagos reported on Tuesday that an NGO umbrella called the Amalgamated Northern Human Rights Group (ANOHRIG) had criticised the clerics' move. "We are already aware of a report by the Council of Ulama, where threat and ejection notices were given by the Ulamas against non-governmental organisations and international agencies working in Kano and environs," ANOHRIG said in a statement.

"The action of the Council of Ulama is, therefore, unambiguously illegitimate, barbaric and uncalled for. It is a violation of our fundamental human rights as guaranteed by the constitution of our country which provides for us the right to freedom of assembly," it added.

Analysts told IRIN that the action of the clerics was not surprising given the wave of conservative Islamic thinking that has been sweeping parts of Nigeria's mainly Muslim north. At least eight of the 19 states in the north have opted for the strict application of Islamic law, prescribing punishments ranging from public floggings to amputation for a variety of offences.

"The conservative elements in northern Nigeria have always seen these groupings with suspicion as agents of Western cultural domination," journalist Sulaiman Abubakar told IRIN. "They see them as being an insidious influence on their political and cultural control."

As a consequence of the activities of human rights groups, he said, youths have started questioning not only the political moves of their conservative leaders, but also their cultural authority, prompting the hostile response from the clerics.