reacted to criticisms leveled against President
Jonathan by the Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC,
over an alleged Jewish sign on the yet to be
released N100 notes. The Director of MURIC in a
statement said that Pres. Jonathan was
attempting to turn Nigeria into a Zion state
through the introduction of a Jewish sign on the
yet to be introduced N100 centenary
commemoration note. Below is Mr. Abati
reaction to the allegations...
"Our attention has been drawn to a press
statement issued by the Muslims Right
Concern and signed by Prof. Ishaq Akintola
who is the Director of the group which
made a number of allegations against
President Jonathan while alleging that there
is a Jewish symbol in the proposed
commemorative new N100 note which will
be officially issued on December 19. I find
Prof. Akintola’s allegations rather curious
and they can be dealt with as follows:
First, he needs to be told that President
Jonathan is not anti-Muslim as he alleges.
President Jonathan is the President of all
Nigerians, whatever may be their beliefs. It is
not true that President Jonathan is using the
highest office in the country to promote Zion
nation. I think that is a most unfortunate
statement coming from Prof. Akintola of MURIC
and for which they owe President Jonathan an
apology.
Two, the MURIC’s director also alleged that
Muslims were marginalized in the national
conference. Again, this is a very unfortunate
thing to say.
The truth is that national conference organised
by this administration has been praised and
described as probably one of the best of such
conferences ever organised in this country. It
was a purposeful conference, a conference in
which a lot of maturity was displaced. Religion
did not become a big issue in that conference.
Rather, the conference became a platform for
addressing many issues of general concern to
various groups, ethnic or religious. MURIC
cannot claim not to know that that was a very
successful conference.
Three, MURIC is also alleging that the security
system in Aso Rock is saturated with Israeli
security operatives. This again is a blatant lie.
There are no Israeli security operatives
saturating the security system in Aso Rock. To
convince himself that this is true, we will like to
invite Prof. Akintola on a visit to the Presidential
Villa, to see whether indeed it is Israelis that are
in charge of security.
The security operatives in the Villa are not
foreigners, they are Nigerians and there is no
connection with Israel whatsoever.” On the
Jewish sign said to be on the N100 notes,
Reuben Abati said it is a sign of security which
would be used by Nigerians to determine if the
note is original or fake and is not a religious
sign as speculated by Prof Akintola. "The
premised of the issue that formed the basis for
Akintola’s vituperation is wrong and he is
misinformed. The symbol his statement is
referring to is the Star of David. There is no
where on that proposed note as indicated in the
specimen that has been widely publicized where
there is any Jewish or Zionist symbol or the Star
of David.
The Star of David is a hexagram which is two
triangles of equal lines superimposed on each
other. The hexagram is a very popular symbol
but it is not on that naira note. The symbol that
he is referring to is not a Jewish symbol. It is
what they call spark security feature. It is an
optical magnetic feature which enables the
public to authenticate a currency note whether it
is genuine or counterfeit. That is the function of
that particular design.
That design is not an hexagram and it is not in
any way associated with Israel or Jewish or
Zionism. It is two squares merged into one with
a Manila briquet, which is a symbol of the cowrie
money used during the colonial era. It is an
attempt on the part of MURIC to cause
disaffection because on the design of that note,
the value of that note is written out in the three
major languages in Nigeria, recognised in the
constitution: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. No
attempt has been made to use this proposed
naira note to discriminate anybody and the
attack on President Jonathan is undeserved,
unwarranted and totally unkind. I believe that
MURIC will see the need to quickly apologise for
misleading the public and for issuing that kind of
statement that can cause disaffection against
the President” he said
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