That such stories as the killing of Deborah Samuel still come out of Nigeria is a clear testament that the country is on the fast lane to retrogression. There is no better example of a nation on the edge. That such a barbaric act is offered as a story from here rankles well-meaning people in the polity. It speaks volumes of retardation that Deborah was killed in the four walls of a college of education, a tertiary institution. Nigeria suffers a huge deficit in the comity of nations with even a semblance of religious tolerance. It shows a fragile society where cohesion is a pipe dream. How come, in this era, such gruesome lynching happens in a tertiary institution where minds are meant to be liberated? Deborah expressed an opinion in her class WhatsApp group for which some people demanded that she apologized, and she simply refused, thus incurring their bloodthirsty wrath. An angle to the story, which seems to exonerate students of the institution is that the perpetrators came from outside Shehu Shagri College of Education, Sokoto, where Deborah was killed and burnt. But the students still cannot escape complicity because the external forces did not sniff their fingers to know that there was a recalcitrant unbeliever whose blood must be shed. Deborah was said to have been shielded by security men in the school from the blood-sucking religious vampires who, in their bid to waste Deborah, called for help from external collaborators. That invitation is outright indictment in the murder.
It would seem, therefore, that education is no antidote to religious bigotry and fanaticism. Twenty-seven years after Gideon Akaluka was killed in Kano by religious fanatics and the attendant outrage, the lynching of Deborah further affirms that the nation never learns from history or that history ultimately keeps repeating itself. Those who killed Akaluka for allegedly desecrating the Koran seem to have gone scot-free. The young Igbo trader’s wife was alleged to have used the pages of the Islamic holy book as toilet paper for her baby. The man was arrested by the police, but a group of Muslim fundamentalists broke into the cell, beheaded Akaluka and paraded his severed head across the streets of Kano. Some of those implicated in that dastertardly act were said to have been shielded and even ended up with top appointments. It has also been said that General Sani Abacha, who was head of state at the time, eliminated some of the perpetrators extra-judicially, perhaps because he did not want to incur the wrath of top shots in the faith. He was said to have been prevailed upon to spare one of them, who was taken outside Kano for two years. The rest is history.
The relevance of this history lies in watering the plant of impunity when culprits are spared or punished behind the camera, as Abacha was alleged to have done. Mob actions are difficult to prosecute but not impossible. The nation suffers for retrogression in the absence of serving justice on bloodthirty religious bigots. The social media has advanced succinct procurement of evidence on the matter. Videos of a youngman have been in circulation as a self-confessed, chest-beating culprit in the matter.
Those versed in Islamic religion have affirmed that it gives no adherent the right to kill in the name of Prophet Mohammed. The remnants of those who killed Akaluka are older and wiser now to know that they showed crass ignorance on the matter. What manner, and indeed, quality of education goes on in a tertiary institution that could organize a mob to kill and burn a fellow student? Education at that level liberates the mind, and should not have religious bigots seeking the bold of ‘unbelievers’. There may be several technical reasons providing a window of escape but such technicalities would give rise to more Deborah Samuels. Today’s Deborah Samuel is an offshoot of yesterday’s Gideon Akaluka. No one was openly punished, so impunity found a stronger tap root and the same treatment of this matter gives impunity even stronger taproot. Those who have not asked how Akaluka lost his head, would cost more heads to be lost.
The backlash in Sokoto town was even more senseless. But for Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s prompt imposition of round the clock curfew, the vampires were baying for more blood. They had gone for their traditional victims, people from southern Nigeria. They had begun to destroy goods, and rip open stores. People of other faiths had began to look for cover because their blood would have flowed with Deborah’s. Perhaps, they did not know that she came from their midst. They thought she was from the stock of their usual ‘customers’ on the bloodletting and looting spree. Tambuwal acted fast and nipped it in the bud. He should match it with expedited action on the probe. Sokoto has since lost its innocence as a peaceful state. Sokoto typifies a country on edge, where violence answers to the slightest of provocations.
A Port Harcourt-based pastor has shown, in practical terms, that the problem is, indeed, deeper than what we see. His offer to relocate Deborah’s family to Rivers State, give free accommodation, education to her remaining siblings shows a good heart but it is also a clear indication that Christians in that part of the nation are endangered species. That is the bone we must not allow to be in contention. Every one ought to be free to exercise their freedom of religion in Niger, Sokoto, Cross River or anywhere. Bigotry should no longer be found in our midst.