Cameron Duodu
LETTER FROM THE NORTH
There is a hidden agenda behind the defiant decision of the governor of Zamfara state, in northern Nigeria, Ahmad Sani, to introduce Sharia law into his state with effect from October 27.
Nigeria is split almost equally between Muslims and Christians, and to have laws based on one religion – which Sharia laws are – applied to parts of the federation, while other parts live under secular laws, is asking for big trouble.
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s position is made worse by the fact that he is already being accused of using northerners to win the election that made him president, only to “marginalise” the north once he got power. If he takes on the northern religious bigots, northerners will say, “What did you expect?” If he doesn’t, southerners will say, “Is this how he upholds the Constitution that he swore to defend?”
Sani and his fellow Sharia adherents have tried to put a gloss on the introduction of Sharia by saying that Sharia law will be applied “only to Muslims” in Zamfara. But Sharia law, once introduced, will have to be enforced, which means police, and religious zealots posing as vigilantes or informers, will be involved in the detection of Sharia “crimes”. And, of course, Muslim judges – or alkalis – who will judge such “crimes”.
The Igbo community in Zamfara has put its finger on the dangers this situation could cause them. Igbos own most of the hotels and drinking bars in the state and as Sharia bans Muslims from drinking or visiting “brothels”, Igbo managers would be in danger if Muslim police caught “Muslims” in one of these places. Would the police leave it to suspects to elect to be tried under Sharia or secular law? And what happens to the proprietor of the place?
The Igbos fear that proprietors could be terrorised into leaving town and abandoning their properties to the Zamfara Muslims. Now, mention of “abandoned properties” makes the Igbos remember the Biafran War of 1967 to 1970, during which Igbos were forced to flee from the rest of Nigeria, abandoning properties worth millions. Since the end of the war, Igbos have been fully accepted back into Nigerian political and economic life. But they have never been able fully to recover their “abandoned properties”.
There is also the question of punishment for crimes under Sharia. The Constitution of Nigeria forbids the administering of “inhuman or barbaric” treatment to human beings. But Sharia allows for the amputation of the limbs of thieves and other offenders. In adultery cases, a woman may be stoned to death and a man beheaded.
The Zamfara governor intends to impose such punishments upon offenders and has sent a number of alkalis to Saudi Arabia to be trained in the administration of Sharia law. They will return to Nigeria in January. This is a most insensitive move on the part of the governor, for many Nigerians allegedly involved in smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia have been publicly beheaded, to the consternation of human rights activists in Nigeria. They have forced the Nigerian foreign ministry to open talks with Saudi Arabia, to ensure that the rights of Nigerians appearing before Saudi courts are better looked after.
Another thing that will make it difficult for the rest of Nigeria to accept Sharia in the north is that many Nigerians have already had a taste of what Sharia means, for even under the British, some forms of Sharia law were administered in the north. One lady called Bami told her Internet newsgroup about an altercation she had with a fellow tenant while she was studying at Maiduguri, in the north.
Bami’s opponent, who spoke the local Hausa language which Bami did not understand, complained to a policeman, who told her to report at the court. When she went to the court, she was put in a filthy cell and asked to wait. The sight of the filth in the cell made her hysterical and she attacked the policeman. Whereupon the alkali presiding over the proceedings asked, in the Hausa Bami did not understand, what the matter was. The policeman answered in Hausa, and the judge, without asking Bami anything, imposed a jail sentence on her.
Had it not been for some lecturers from her college who happened to be in the court for other reasons, and who intervened on her behalf, she would have been carted away to jail, without ever having had to defend herself or indeed understanding a word of what had happened in court.
The Christian Association of Nigeria has heard too many similar stories and has appealed to Obasanjo to intervene to prevent the imposition of Sharia in Zamfara. “Mr President will certainly assist Nigeria by issuing a statement to reassure Nigerians that our country is a secular country,” the association said in a statement. “We call on the federal government to exercise its enabling power to disallow the practice and enforcement of Sharia law,” the statement added.
But Obasanjo will have to tread a wary path. Riots occur at the drop of a hat in northern Nigeria – especially over religious and ethnic issues. In July, for instance, dozens of southerners were killed in the northern city of Kano, in retaliation for the murder of three northerners in the Yoruba town of Shagamu. What Obasanjo can do without is a situation in which riots occur, forcing him to send the army in. The Nigerian army, Obasanjo fully knows, is no more insulated from the religious/ethnic rivalries in the country than the civilian populace and could well disintegrate in such an eventuality, taking the country with it.