By Adekoya
Boladale
The
unabated summary execution of Nigerians under the guise of defending a
religious belief remains one of the most disgusting failures of government in
protecting the sacredness of humanity.
Christiana Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin,
Florence Chukwu, Abdullahi Umaru, Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel, Bridget Agbaheme
and Eunice Elisha all have one thing in common: they were gruesomely murdered
in cold blood by religious fanatics acting on the disguise of impulsive
cerebral dysfunction termed blasphemy.
For Christiana, a mother of two
and teacher at the Government Secondary School in Gombe, all that was needed to
end her life was the allegation that she touched the bag of her student which
contained a Quran, and such an act is interpreted as a direct defiling of the
Holy Book. She was dragged out of her classroom by ‘Allahu Akbar’-chanting
students and beaten to death.
In a similar fate, Florence, a
Christian teacher in Bauchi State, met the wrath of her students when
she confiscated a copy of the Quran from a student who was reading it during an
English class. She did not only pay with her life but for that single
act, twenty other Christians in the school were also executed by the students.
While Abdullahi was
beheaded in Kebbi for his alleged provocative utterances against
Prophet Muhammad, Methodus Emmanuel’s post on Facebook cost him
his life. Can we forget in a hurry, the recent story of Mrs. Bridget, whose only sin was
advising a customer to move forward a bit from the entrance of her shop before
performing the Ablution? Bridget was lynched to death by fanatic mob
while her husband watched helplessly.
Mrs. Eunice was hacked to death by
errant mob in the Federal Capital Territory who felt uncomfortable with her
early morning sermon about her faith. To them, such disturbance is unforgivable
and the adequate reward is nothing but death.
What about the undocumented eight
students who lost their lives over a mere argument at
the Audu Gusau Polytechnic in Zamfara?
The unabated summary execution of
Nigerians under the guise of defending a religious belief remains one of the
most disgusting failures of government in protecting
the sacredness of humanity. It is most shocking that perpetrators of
these horrendous acts are not only unchecked but armed by section 204
of Nigeria’s Criminal Code. As a signatory to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the legalization of blasphemy by our
Criminal Code contradicts Articles 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 18 and 19 of that
declaration on which basis Section 38 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended) were written.
A dissect of the aforementioned Criminal Code shows clearly wide
lacunae. The section states:
“Any person who does an act which
any class of persons consider as a public insult on their religion, with the
intention that they should consider the act such an insult, and any person
who does an unlawful act with the knowledge that any class of persons will
consider it such an insult, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable to
imprisonment for two years.”
The section fails to provide
answers to some fundamental questions on which premises fanatics have
continue to operate. By failing to describe the act(s) which constitute an
insult to religion, the law offers a get-out-of-jail-free-card to disgruntled
elements who are at liberty to determine what is an insult or what is
not. As in cases aforementioned, touching of a bag containing the Quran,
posting on social media amongst others may be viewed as an insult.
The phrase ‘any class
of persons’ is erroneous as it indicates that any individual,
either with in-depth knowledge of the religion or not, can
determine what blasphemy is. What this interprets to is that
what it takes to arrest or kill (as in most cases) is a baseless accusation by
someone without adequate knowledge of the supposed crime.
I believe it is
merely intellectual laziness that our country still concerns
itself with religion when making laws. While the argument is that
laws are product of Custom, the neglect of native religions in the formation of
the constitution erodes this argument. For Nigeria, imbibing Christianity
and Islam as the basis of customary law contradicts Africanism which itself is
the basic law. Enacting a law on the premises of these two
religions constitute a direct infringement on equity which the likes of
Ogun,
Sango, Obatala, Amadioha, Bori, Alledjenu amongst
others should enjoy. Religion is wide, hence should be considered as an
individual belief practiced by faith and not made a subject of
national embracement. Imagine, if like Christianity and Islam, other religions
are also protected by the law, hardly would anyone remain if people were
killed for ‘insulting’ Esu (a Yoruba god,
[in]appropriately referred to as a devil).
Finally, the basis of any religion
is love, tolerance and humanity. If there is a G(g)od that requires its
followers to take lives in other to prove its might then such
G(g)od deserves no worship. If there is
a G(g)od that sees death as the only punishment for abuse or
insult against itself, then worshipping such G(g)od is a waste of time. If
our G(g)od is one that demands intolerance of other people’s beliefs,
then such G(g)od should be discarded. There is no reason whatsoever for
anybody to take the life of another person.
At a time when even the lives of
animals are now sacred, the best we can do for humanity is to protect human
lives with everything we have got. Nothing is worth killing anyone over,
definitely not religion!
You can follow Boladale on
Twitter @Adekoyabee.
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