The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has rejected what it describes as Governor Seyi Makinde’s attempt to enthrone a Christian successor in Oyo State, accusing the governor of pursuing a “religious script” that sidelines Muslims in the state.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, 19 May 2026, MURIC’s Executive Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, said Makinde, a Christian who has served eight years in office, has no right to “annoint another Christian” as his successor.
“It is turn by turn,” Akintola said. “Seyi Makinde, a Christian governor, has spent eight years in office. He has no right to annoint another Christian as his successor. Christian monopoly of governance must be stopped in Yorubaland.”
MURIC argued that there is an unwritten convention in Oyo and Yorubaland where a Muslim successor follows a Christian governor, and vice versa. The group said Makinde’s alleged plan to break that protocol risks inflaming religious tensions.
“We have a convention. If a Muslim spends eight years in office, a Christian should succeed him. It is so vice versa. Why does Makinde want to change that unwritten protocol? It is the turn of the Muslims. Makinde should not ignite a religious crisis in Oyo State,” the statement read.
Akintola called on Muslim leaders in the state to resist the move “with every legitimate means at their disposal,” claiming Muslims constitute the majority population and pay the highest tax yet have been reduced to “3rd class citizens” under Makinde’s administration.
“Why should Muslims hold the horns of the cow while the Christians milk it?” he asked.
The group accused Makinde of diverting state resources to Christians while Muslims “wallowed in abject poverty,” alleging “eight gruesome years of Christianisation and suppression of Islam.”
MURIC said it would not list what it called Makinde’s “atrocities against Muslims” now, but added that the record would be raised when the governor seeks Muslim votes for what it termed his “presidential joke.”
The organisation also linked the issue to the broader political situation in the South West, where it said all six governors are currently Christian. It argued that this imbalance makes Muslim political participation in Oyo State an “existential matter.”
“The political situation in the South West whereby all the six governors are Christians does not even allow such nonchalance on the part of Muslims and their leaders in Oyo State,” Akintola said. “Why should all the governors in the South West be Christians when Muslims are the majority? All six, not two, not three. Haba! Why should the Christians take every state? Sharing is caring. We reject ‘winner-takes-all’ mentality.”
