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Shehu Shagari School of Training in Sokoto, northern Nigeria, was as soon as seen “as an oasis of information in an unlimited land of aridity… a logo of enlightenment and civility”. Not any extra, mentioned Dare Babarinsa in The Guardian (Lagos). Earlier this month, Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a brilliant younger Christian scholar who’d finished effectively in her exams, wrote to fellow college students on a WhatsApp group saying “I thank Jesus for my success.” From then on, “dying stalked her”.
Enraged by her reward of Jesus, some Muslim fellow college students accused her of constructing blasphemous remarks concerning the Prophet Mohammed. Dragging her outdoors, they beat her to dying and set fireplace to her physique. When the suspects had been arrested, a mob went on a rampage within the city, demanding their launch and insisting dying was the deserved punishment for blasphemy.
Even when her killers are convicted, mentioned Abimbola Adelakun in Punch (Lagos), the true problem lies “in confronting the world that emboldened” them. Nigeria is a supposedly secular state, but it’s teeming with Muslim fundamentalists who justify violent deeds on spiritual grounds.
The acute instance is the jihadist group Boko Haram, which terrorises a lot of the north. However extra-judicial sectarian killings, typically involving accusations of blasphemy, additionally happen with sickening regularity, and are all too typically endorsed by spiritual leaders.
And all too typically brushed apart by political leaders, mentioned Ebenezer Obadare in Council on International Relations (New York). Of the principle social gathering candidates working for president in subsequent 12 months’s election, only one has condemned the killing of Yakubu. The ex-vice president and presidential hopeful Atiku Abubakar did initially tweet his condemnation, however then deleted it, saying his account had been hacked.
That is all the results of the best way the nation is break up, religiously and ethnically. The Igbo inhabitants within the south is principally Christian; the Yoruba and ethnic teams within the center about 50% Christian, 50% Muslim; the Hausa-Fulani within the north are largely Muslim. Given the political hegemony of the north, politicians are loath to impress northern Muslims and the conservative spiritual institution by highlighting blasphemy instances.
The “ideological chasm” between north and south has been the core difficulty threatening Nigeria’s unity since independence in 1960, mentioned Obadare. And “the grip of conservative Islam on northern Nigeria is tightened by poverty and illiteracy”: the World Financial institution estimates that 87% of poor Nigerians reside within the north.
What’s extra, Sharia regulation holds sway in all 12 northern states, mentioned Lasisi Olagunju in Nigerian Tribune (Ibadan), and underneath Sharia, blasphemy is a critical offence. It’s mentioned “the quickest solution to die is to be wrongly accused of blasphemy in northern Nigeria. When you’re fortunate, you’ll get locked up by a Sharia courtroom.” If not, you’ll meet the destiny of Deborah Yakubu.
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