IN John 16:2, Jesus foretold that “the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” Alhamdulillah in Islam and Hallelujah {pronounced as Halleluyah around here} in Christianity, are cousin-lexicon, in praise of God. With slight variations, both primarily mean “praise be to God or praise the Lord”.
At the risk of sounding polarizing, I have never come across blood-thirsty barbarians who profess and kill in the name of the Christian faith or whatever Christendom gods, shouting Hallelujah before slaughtering a fellow human being. I am not saying there aren’t murderous fellows who profess Christianity. I am saying they don’t claim to do if for the Almighty.
But that isn’t the case with murderers who profess Islam. When overcome by the blood-sucking demons, they usually find rationale under the canopy of Islam, mouthing either the above or Allah Akbar, which means God is the greatest. So if Allah is the greatest and undoubtedly so, why are these murderers not obeying His injunction. The much I know, Islam in its purity, forbids blood shedding and where it gives conditions for it, it didn’t call for the unrestrained mass murdering being witnessed almost on daily basis in Northern Nigeria. Not even the contentious ‘Sword Verse’ empowers Quran-believing Muslim to go on killing spree, the kind now across Nigeria since the return of civil rule.
The much-debated 9:5-6 of Quran reads, “But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them and lie in wait for them on every way. But if they repent, perform prayers and pay alms-tax, then set them free. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving. Most Merciful.
“And if anyone from the polytheists asks for your protection ‘O Prophet’, grant it to them so they may hear the Word of Allah, then escort them to a place of safety, for they are a people who have no knowledge”.
Is this what has been happening to the so-called Polytheists in Northern Nigeria, especially minority Northern Christians, minority Southern Christians dwelling therein, other minority groups who are of other faiths and even Muslims, who by accident of birth, do not belong to North’s aristos?
In the course of the week, I was sent a disheartening Facebook post which if established, would be a further proof that a relentless crude enforcement of the Sword Verse in the form of economic execution and in milder cases, exclusion of the perceived Polytheists, wont abate anytime soon. No doubt, a region-wide thing but it would be unfair to lump everyone together including a reported fair-minded administrator like the Niger State governor, who has received media praise for his own domestic DEI: a non-discriminatory attitude towards minorities in the Power State.
The post is about a recent teachers’ recruitment in Kebbi State. Mr. D. Usara who authored the post; titled it ‘To Zuru Christians in APC and CAN and said “Did you check the list of the newly recruited teachers? How many Christians have been employed? Out of 1000 names released, Christians are not up to 30. Is this the type of political party you want us to join? Can you now see the reason why we are saying that APC in Kebbi State is an anti-Christ party? They are waging political war against the Christians and yet you want us to join you and remain mute watching injustice against the Christians in the state?
“The Bible says in proverbs 31 verse 8 ‘Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves and ensure justice for those who are being crushed’ but unfortunately you are doing nothing just because of your selfish gain. God is watching you and you will face the consequences of your silence”.
Attached to the viral post was the list of the lopsided appointment.
Responding to the writer, a certain John Yakubu obviously a Kebbi minority lamented, “I regretted the day I was born under the state called Kebbi. Why not Niger State or even Abuja FCT or Kogi State. So for all the states, na Kebbi State where illiterates are the ones ruling the most educated ones. Look at the number of professors Zuru and its environs have produced so far. Even as a state they don’t have the number of professors Zuru has, but they have been relegated to nothing because of the uselessness of Kebbi government. Well it my happiness that when they think they are doing us bad, we will be experiencing good all the time because we are not of this sinful world and that is why they cant do anything to stop us as a people of 3% like they claimed”
When now-late Bukar Abba Ibrahim was Yobe governor, I lived there briefly. Wickedness is a policy of the heart, not of religion, because there is hardly any of the over 10,000 distinct religions of the world today, that teaches discrimination, systematic decimation and annihilation and outright subjugation of those who do not share its doctrines and creeds, Islam inclusive. It was a choice for Bago of Niger to treat the minority that doesn’t align with the majority’s faith, with fairness. Now a Kebbi citizen is wishing Bago his governor. I have never been to Kebbi, but there are tons of stories of religious intolerance on the part of the ruling Fulani Muslim, which became a national embarrassment when the current Budget and Economic Planning minister, Atiku Bagudu as governor hunted a senior judicial officer to her grave, just to stop her from becoming the state Chief Judge, because she was a Christian minority.
You can’t beat a child and not expect her not to cry, especially if he/she is being hit out of malice and not correction in love. During 2023 poll, Northern Christian minority and even other minority ethnic groupings who are mostly Muslim but not ethnic Fulani, seeking redemption from those seen as their forever-tormentors, queued unabashedly behind Peter Obi, presidential candidate of Labour Party, a Christian and Igbo, to the chagrin of Northern governance royalty like then-Katsina governor, Aminu Bello Masari who accused Obi of playing religious card to win the election. The question is, what card have Masari and co, been playing, excluding minorities in their domains from governance, if not ethnic shuffled with religious, a double-headed monster that has robbed the region and Nigeria of quality governance. Even when the region had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to embrace the minority by pushing for a Christian running mate for Tinubu, its front-row members still flunked it.
The writer of the viral Facebook post was challenging the Christian Association of Nigeria {CAN} and the ruling APC in Kebbi State to show compelling reason the minority Christian community in the state should heed the call to support the ruling party. Only those who experience it can feel it. It is very easy to stay out of the fray and accuse the writer and other leaders of the minority groupings of playing whatever card, but if you feel suffocated and there is no remedy in sight, desperate time shows up and desperate measures can’t be ruled out.
A situation that perfectly sums the case of Sunday Jackson from Numan, Adamawa State who defended himself from Fulani herder’s attack, killing his assailant in the process. That was the story in the public domain and the courts, including the Supreme Court of Justice Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun, that ruled he must die by hanging, didn’t provide contrary information that the killing was not done in self-defence.
Last December, in a similar case of Daniel Penny, a former US Marine known as subway chokehold guy, a Manhattan New York jury set him free of murder despite killing Jordan Neely, a subway homeless, attacking passengers. In restraining him, Penny was accused by prosecutors of applying excessive force. Yet the advanced judiciary saw reason with his defence team that he was protecting himself and others, though the danger to his own life, would be considered minimal, due to his combat background. In the Nigerian farmer’s case, he was staring death in the face with a Fulani herdsman attacking him with a machete. Despite sustaining debilitating bodily injuries during the attack, he managed to wrestle the instrument of death from his assailant, before sending him to the world beyond with his own instrument of destruction. The Nigerian judiciary, including the apex bench, ruled that Sunday should have bolted after wrestling the machete from the Fulani barbarian. There are times you wonder if our courts of law are about justice or just judgement based on whatever interpretations they give to the applying provisions, including the mischief interpretation. Maybe it is also time for the jury system, to stop putting innocent lives in the hands of a fellow with known and unknown biases.
Considering how viciously-tenacious the marauding herdsmen have been, especially against farmers whose livelihoods they regularly lay in ruins, by making their animals to rampage through their farmlands, what is the assurance that the assailant would not return for Sunday. though blood-shedding of any kind, must not be encouraged.
The Supreme Court judgement is final but an average fair-minded person of whatever ethnic and religious persuasion, would likely have issues with the ruling. Thankfully, some senior lawyers and even CAN have taken the matter up for deserving official clemency while the social media is roaring for his release.
There is always o to ge {enough is enough} point and the rumblings from North’s minorities, may boil over in very unpleasant ways if the unchecked subjugation continues. Sunday’s case may just be a preamble and a determined people are always difficult to stop. Even God attested to this at the Tower of Babel. Only that in this situation, it may be herculean confusing their tongue. They appear united in grief.
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