Deborah Samuel: Shadows of a Fractured Nation

Last Thursday, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, Deborah Samuel, was stoned to death and her corpse set ablaze by Muslim extremists in the school. News reports say trouble started when Deborah made a voice note in the class WhatsApp group in which she allegedly used both “nonsense” and “Prophet Muhammed” in one sentence. Different versions of the said voice note exist, making it difficult to ascertain the exact statement.

This development is said to have enraged the Muslim students in her class who reportedly grouped, dragged Deborah Samuel from the college’s security post where she was seeking refuge and killed her. A video of the incident is circulating on the internet and Deborah’s remains were laid to rest on Saturday in her hometown. A number of her murderers are also said to have been arrested.

As expected, reactions have continued to trail Deborah’s murder. A cross section of Nigerians have condemned the act, urging the authorities to prosecute the perpetrators without fail. A number of Muslim leaders, including the Sultanate Council, are reported to have condemned the incident. However, others including the Imam of the Abuja Central Mosque – Professor I. A. Maqari – have issued comments that lean towards supporting the murderers.

“It should be known to everyone that we the Muslims have some redlines beyond which must not be crossed,” Prof Maqari is reported to have tweeted on Thursday. “The dignity of the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the redlines. If our grievances are not properly addressed, then we should not be criticized for addressing them ourselves,” he wrote.

News reports on Saturday say Muslim rioters went on rampage, burning down Christian worship centres and demanding the release of the suspects being held for the murder of Deborah Samuel. Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, has imposed a 24-hour curfew and security agents are on the streets to maintain order and guard critical infrastructure.

Nigerians are demanding fundamental solutions to the seemingly unending religious eggshells that citizens living in the North have to always walk on. They are asking why the teachings of Islam should supersede the national constitution in a supposed secular country. They are demanding far-reaching measures to stem the cancer of religious holiganism freely growing in the North with the open support of the Northern elite. More fundamentally, people are asking why the Northern Nigerian brand of Islam seems to thrive on violence and subversion of constitutional order.

There are definitely a number of factors responsible for the state of affairs in the North. Principally, the religious volatility of Northern Nigeria cannot be totally separated from the epidemics of poverty, homeless children and illiteracy ravaging the region. History shows that Islamic extremism thrives more in countries with similar indices where people have nothing to look forward to in the future because of failed, prodigal governments. Otherwise, why are there more extremists in Northern Nigeria than the South or even Saudi Arabia – the home of Islam itself? Nigeria must learn that if we do not spend our wealth to build a country where the majority of the citizens have something valuable to lose in a crisis, we will still lose that wealth – and the very soul of our nation – in the crises that will occur at every snap of the finger.

No doubt sensibilities and red lines exist in every society, and the hallmark of peaceful coexistence is to recognise and respect those sensibilities. However, the essence of government is to establish and enforce appropriate ways of response whenever these redlines may be crossed. To advocate “addressing them ourselves” as the Imam of the Central Mosque is reported to have written – and some of the Northern Muslim elite seem to agree in their comments – is a thoughtless invitation to anarchy, if all citizens begin to enforce their red lines themselves.

Sadly, Nigeria is on trial again and the concept of Nigerian nationhood is once more being cross-examined. Will the government fulfil its national obligation by prosecuting the murderers of Deborah Samuel, or will it bow to the blackmail of the lawbreakers, complicated by its own parallel and conflicting allegiances – one to the secular Nigerian constitution and another to the Islamic Sharia?