It is his first interview with the media since he regained freedom on July 28, 2021.
The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky has said he is confident that if given a choice, most Nigerians will choose the Islamic system of government over the neocolonial system of government.
The Islamic scholar, who is the leader of Shiites in Nigeria, accused the Nigerian Government of gross violation of his fundamental right by not allowing him to go abroad for treatment despite his deteriorating health condition.
He disclosed this while responding to questions in an exclusive live programme with the Iranian Press TV monitored in Kano on Wednesday evening.
It is his first interview with the media since he regained freedom on July 28, 2021.
He had been arrested and detained since December 2015.
He said, “Even after the incarceration, we are still in another incarceration since they have refused to allow us to travel outside the country.”
Zakzaky explained that the Movement is seeking an Islamic government system to replace what he described as a neocolonial system, which he said is currently being practised in the country today.
“I believe that if there will be a plebiscite in this country and people will be asked ‘which system would you like?' Is it the status quo, which is inherited from the British colonialists or the Islamic system?
“I’m sure that the majority will choose the Islamic system. It will be the government of the people after all.
“However, this depends on the people being given the choice similar to what happened in Iran with the referendum that followed the victory of the country’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
“Nigerian authorities admit in private not in public, that they fear the Islamic Movement and the potential that it may help establish the Islamic system just as the Revolution in Iran.
“But all the IMN is after is democracy. What is a democracy? It is the government of the people,” he said