2023: I won't Islamise Nigeria when I become president, says Senator Yerima

A prominent northern senator, Sani Yerima, has declared his interest to run for presidency come 2023 general elections.

Yerima is one politician who has become famous for adopting and promoting the Sharia legal while he served as the governor of Zamfara state.

However, during an interview with The Sun, Yerima denied claims that he will implement the same religious agenda when elected president.

Quoting the Nigerian constitution, the senator said that every citizen of the country has the freedom of worship in any region of choice.

The former governor also insisted that during his administration, he initiated the Sharia law following due process and satisfying all the necessary legal requirements.

He said: "I didn’t do anything outside the Nigerian constitution; otherwise, the federal government then under President Olusegun Obasanjo would have taken me to the Supreme Court.

"If any governor passes any law that is contrary to the constitution, the federal government can go to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court will now pronounce that law as unconstitutional and that governor will have some sanctions."

Yerima in clear terms stated that the religious set of laws is only for Muslims, adding that Christians in the country have their rights protected by the nation's constitution.

His words: "Sharia has always been here with us before Independence and after Independence since the 1963 Constitution.

"Every constitution of Nigeria has ample provision for Sharia law and the rights of Christians are effectively protected by the constitution."

Meanwhile, Yerima had challenged the minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who claimed that the party agreed in 2014 that the south would produce the president in 2023.

Yerima said there was no agreement either written or otherwise among founding members of the ruling party for zoning of the presidential ticket.