Nigerians pride themselves on being religious. All over the country, there are today many who believe that the hole into which the country has dug itself has a lot to do with iniquities that are yet to be fully atoned for.
There are also many who believe that if Nigeria is to leave the wilderness it is currently lost in, God would have to intervene at some point.
Thus, religion thrives in Nigeria, perhaps a little more than it should. Many things are ascribed to God and His will here even when it is apparent that human failures for which heads should roll are to blame.
In the peculiar brand of politics Nigerians play so nonchalantly, religion is a big factor. Nigerian politicians being masters of the dark arts know what to exploit and what to leave out.
It is no surprise that religion plays as significant a role in the politics of Nigeria as ethnicity. Indeed, some of the most violent conflicts ever to break out within Nigeria broke out along religious lines.
Today, even many of the terrorists that have been rampaging through hapless rural communities, laying all they come across to waste, claim adherence to one religion or the other.
It wouldn’t be unfair to see that religion has divided Nigerians today almost as much as it has united them.
Blasphemy has become such a bitter battle ground not just in Nigeria but in the world today especially in those countries where the fault lines of religion run deep.
People go about with their ears pricked for the words of those who in exercising their right to expression would blaspheme God and religion.
What is blasphemy is not too clear though and this year alone, Nigerians have been sufficiently horrified by allegations of blasphemy and the mob actions taken in retaliation for them.
On May 12,2022,at the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State,a seemingly innocuous WhatsApp audio message which quickly circulated spelt the end for Miss Deborah Samuel, a student of the institution.
The audio message was blown out of proportion with an irate mob descending on her to subject her to the most agonizing of deaths. It is a measure of the failure of Nigeria’s criminal justice system that till this day all those who participated in the unspeakable crime continue to evade justice.
The following month,a similar fate befell a hapless security guard who was accused of blasphemy in the Federal Capital Territory.He too was killed by an irate mob.
On Thursday December 15, 2022, a Kano Upper Sharia Court sitting at Kofar Kudu,Kano State, sentenced to death by hanging an Islamic cleric, Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara who was charged with blasphemy. The court in a judgement that lasted for over two hours also banned radio and television stations from broadcasting works published by the cleric while ordering the confistication of two mosques belonging to him.
The cleric had been first charged to court by the Kano State Government in July 2021 for issuing statements blasphemous of the Holy Prophet Muhammad which the state government had considered capable of inciting public disturbance.
It would appear that the law has finally spoken through the courts in the case which Nigerians have keenly followed.
It would also appear that finally someone has been tried and sentenced in accordance to law for blasphemy which definitely seems to be on the rise in the country.
But the bigger question is : when would Nigeria’s infamous blasphemy laws be repealed in their entirety so that Nigerians can take another step towards the full enjoyment of the right they have to freedom of expression without fearing some fanatical mob.
In a country besieged by so many problems, what goal is achieved by arming the many religious fanatics who would sooner use religion as a bludgeon than as a scalpel?
The world has long moved along and Nigeria is very much a secular state. Blasphemy remains such a big issue here because existing laws make them so and the system allows those who preoccupy themselves with it and use it to hunt others free rein.
It is expected that the cleric would contest his sentence. But it remains scandalous that blasphemy should fetch a death sentence or any sentence at all in Nigeria.
More than showing the sudden and supposed effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Kano, the sentence shows just how removed some people are, and shockingly, just how misplaced their priorities are.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @keneobiezu
