MUSLIM RIGHTS
CONCERN (MURIC)
هيئة حقوق المسلمين
Motto: Dialogue,
Not Violence
20th August, 2026
PRESS
RELEASE:
BUS PREACHING: MEDIA, ELITES MUST NOT FAIL NIGERIANS - MURIC
Faith-based civil
liberties organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has taken the media
and elites to task on the raging debate on bus preaching.
In a press release
issued on Thursday, 20th August, 2026, the group's Executive Director
complained about the silence of both the media and Nigerian elites. He warned
that they must not fail Nigerians.
"As the debate
on the issue of preaching inside commercial buses raged, we have noticed the
loud silence of both the media and Nigerian elites on the subject matter.
"Ceteris paribus, panels upon panels would have featured
ad infinitum on our various television channels and radio stations where the
pros and cons would be extensively analysed to educate the public.
"But
surprisingly this has not been so. What we have are threats from the altars and
the dogmatic positioning from clerics. The usual enrichment and
garnishing from the media and the elites are completely absent.
"This is quite strange. Can the fourth estate of the realm
claim not to know the correct position? Are Nigerian elites deliberately
denying the reading public their eye-opening, engaging and refreshing articles?
Why are they not giving us their opinions on bus preaching in their weekly
columns and editorials? Why are they leaving the table to the clerics alone?
"MURIC frowns at this complacency. We call upon the media
to wake up to its responsibility. The role of the media is to educate, to
entertain, to inform and to instruct while using those attributes necessary to
play the roles, namely, truthfulness, knowledge, constructiveness and courage.
"Coming from
the Latin word 'medium', the media serves as a medium of communication.
Isolating itself from this debate is therefore a disservice to Nigerians. The
absence of the media from the table means we are not communicating.
"Three of
those four fundamental roles are being abandoned here. Nigerians need to be
educated, to be informed and to be instructed on the burning issue of bus
preaching. The media and the elites must therefore speak up. Silence is not an
option. They cannot claim not to know the truth. They cannot claim not to know
the ideal.
"It was
Mahatma Gandhi who said, 'Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands
speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly. Corroborating the Indian
leader, Albert Einstein declared, 'The world will not be destroyed by those who
do evil, but by those who watch them doing nothing'.
"The Nigerian
media cannot afford to stand akimbo while such aggressive debate is going on.
It is about the right to enjoy a quiet ride.
"The aloofness of the media in this conversation has
created a yawning gap at the table. By now we should have been witnessing fiery
discussions on television and radio on bus preaching. It ought to be so. It is
an obligation and its absence points to a failure, a social decay and an
unnecessary exhibition of prejudice.
"Warning
against prejudice in the journalism profession, Walter Cronkite said, 'It is
our duty to be sure that we do not permit our prejudices to show. That is
simply basic journalism'. But Leslie Moonves contended that 'Journalism has
changed and partisanship is very much a part of journalism now'.
"Yet we know where the Nigerian press is coming from. Rev
Henry Townsend who introduced Christianity to Nigeria in 1842 was the same man
who started the first newspaper 'Iwe Irohin Yoruba' in Nigeria in 1859. This
may be why many journalists feel a symbiotic nexus exists between them and a
particular religion. However, only those who succeed in severing that invisible
spiritual umbilical cord can lay claim to professionalism.
"So far the
Nigerian press has not been known to sit on the fence in matters like this.
They have always been outspoken. We must therefore ask: who is gagging the
press on the issue of bus preaching?
"We say 'No'
to selective articulation. It was Benjamin Franklin who spoke of being an
'impartial printer'. Objectivity is the golden norm of journalism. The media
must speak out boldly.
"Dietrich
Bonhoeffer once said, 'Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not
hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.' Martin
Luther King Jr rounded it up with the words, 'There comes a time when silence
is betrayal'. The press must not fail the Nigerian people".
#BusPreaching
#MediaMustSpeak
#ElitesMustSpeak
#NoToSelectiveArticulation
Professor Ishaq
Akintola,
Founder/Executive
Director,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC).




