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IN THE ARENA
Deborah Yakubu, a 200-level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, was stoned to death and set ablaze penultimate week over alleged blasphemy. The way her assailants summarily terminated her life in a very cruel manner raised valid questions on the acceptability of the 1999 Constitution as Nigeria’s supreme legal instrument, Gboyega Akinsanmi writes
Sokoto, a northern state with the worst poverty and literacy indices nationwide, was on fire penultimate week. A mob of religious extremists flooded the streets of its sprawling capital, attacking Christian residents and demanding immediate release of two suspects earlier arrested by the police in connection with the murder of Miss Deborah Yakubu, a 200-level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto.
The extremists laid siege to the palace of Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubabkar III. The Sultan became a target because he condemned the mob action that abruptly terminated Deborah’s life. Also Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Dr. Mathew Kukah could have been a victim if not for the timely intervention of the police. The state governor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal saved the day by declaring a curfew after violent protests broke out across the capital. Eventually, public order was restored. But what triggered this violence? It is the same old reason. Deborah was accused of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad (SAW) on a WhatsApp platform. As a result, Muslim students mobilised within and outside the college. As shown in a viral video, they went for their target and bestially decided her fate without recourse to known laws. After they stoned Deborah to death in the public, the extremists set her body ablaze, a despicable action that has no place in law.
In Nigeria, Deborah is not the first victim of religious extremism. Before her case, some citizens, especially of Christian faith, had suffered the same fate at different times in the country’s history. Suspects have also faced prosecution for alleged blasphemy in the North.
In June 2015, a Kano Islamic Court sentenced eight men and one woman to death for saying Sheikh Ibrahim Naisse, founder of the Tijaniyyah order, was greater than Prophet Muhammad.
In August 2020, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu had his own bite when a Kano Islamic Court found him guilty of Section 382 of the Sharia Penal Code. On this ground, he was sentenced to death.
Just last April, President, Nigerian Humanist Association, Mubarak Bala bagged a 24-year imprisonment for blasphemy.
Across the North, these cases are common. But is blasphemy an offence in Nigeria? It is an offence under the Criminal Code Act, 2004, which classifies it as public insult.
In Nigeria, the Act is the highest codified legislation, which provides grounds, principles and rules for criminal investigation, trial and awards of punitive measures against any suspects found wanting under it.
In Section 204, the code does not recommends death penalty against any convict. Rather, according to the section, a convict shall be liable to imprisonment for two years only.
Under the 1999 Constitution, the decisions of the Islamic courts that sentenced convicts to death were alien. Under Section 10, the constitution stipulates that the Government of the Federation or of a State “shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.”
Section (1)(1) states that this Constitution “is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” The Constitution is superior to any legislation enacted whether by the federal legislature or by the state legislature.
Under section (1)(2), the constitution stipulates: “If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”
Finally, punishing suspects arbitrarily for blasphemy, whether by mob action violates Section 38 of the 1999 Constitution. This section stipulates that every person shall be entitled “to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
Altogether, these provisions are obviously on trial. With the rising cases of blasphemy-related killings, Nigeria is now a federation where laws that brazenly contravene the 1999 Constitution are deployed to determine the fate of innocent citizens. Also, political elites are unwilling to confront the religious extremists for fear of losing their political aspirations.
Given the bestial manner Deborah was murdered, Nigerians are calling for justice. Such demands for justice can only be seen to have been served by fair prosecution of the suspects. Also, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has petitioned the United Kingdom and United States, citing diverse religious killings in Nigeria and their implications for national unity.
In Deborah’s case, whether justice will eventually be served is evidently in doubt, at least for two reasons. First, whether by commission or by default, no suspect of religious killing has been successfully prosecuted in the history of Nigeria.
Second, a number of northern leaders never saw any wrongdoing in the way the religious extremists clubbed their targets to death on the pretext of fighting for Prophet Muhammad. Unlike previous cases, however, some progress has been recorded in the search for justice for Deborah. Already, the state has started prosecuting two suspects, Bilyaminu Aliyu and Aminu Hukunci arrested in connection with her murder.
Also, the police have declared four other suspects wanted, which suggests that Deborah may not eventually die in vain. But as prosecution kicked off, a team of 34 lawyers appeared in defence of the two suspects. This team is led by a Professor of Law, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Prof. Mansur Ibrahim. Again, this high-profile legal representation attests to the conspiracy of the northern elite, who often encourages the recurrence of religious killings. But the world is waiting for the outcome of the criminal justice dispensation, the lack of which a senior lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) argued, had triggered the recurrence of religious killings in the North.
Even if justice is served in Deborah’s case at last, that may not be an end to religious killings in the North due to inherent socio-economic issues that plague nearly all northern states.
In the north, injustice is pervasive. First, those who are killing in the name of religion are facing heinous social and economic injustice, which according to diverse reports, has reduced them to captives of bestiality. Northerners are grappling with endemic economic injustice, which impoverished not just their bodies, but also their minds. Nigeria Poverty Assessment 2022, a report by the World Bank, also lends credence to the depth of economic injustice, which the majority of northerners are battling with by the day.
In Sokoto, as spelt out in its report, the bank put its poverty headcount at about 87.73 per cent; Taraba 87.72 per cent; Jigawa 87.02 per cent; Adamawa 75.41 per cent; Zamfara 73.98 per cent; Yobe 72.34 per cent; Niger 66.11 per cent; Gombe 62.31 per cent and Bauchi 61.53 per cent.
As these indicators show, ensuring justice judicially alone will not end religious extremism in the North. Apparently, it will entail conscious pro-poor policies tailored towards addressing the economic and social injustice, which most analysts agree, often spurs most northern youths to kill in the name of religion rather than embrace the justice system under the 1999 Constitution.
