Peluola Adewale – Organising Secretary, DSM (CWI Nigeria)
The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) condemns the brutal and gruesome killing on 12 May of Deborah Samuel, a second-year student at Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, Nigeria, by her schoolmates, for purportedly committing blasphemy. She was said to have made a comment on the class WhatsApp group which allegedly denigrated Islam. As a result, she was lynched and set ablaze by an irate mob.
Her death, and other cases of mob violence across the country like the brutal murder of sound engineer David Sunday in Lekki, Lagos State, and of an army couple reportedly in Imo state, indicate Nigeria is on the verge of descent into full-blown barbarism, unless the working masses fight to take political power, end the current rotten, chaotic, failing system and bring about a socialist Nigeria.
There is presently an urgent need for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to begin to organise a series of mass actions in order to mobilise the Nigerian working people to fight around issues of deepening poverty, the rising cost of living, democratic rights, and anti-poor policies. This is the only way to ensure that frustration at the worsening situation of the country does not find outlets in ethnic and religious clashes and sentiments.
The identities of Deborah’s killers, as well as those who enabled the killing, well known because the actions were filmed and circulated on social media. In fact, it is incontrovertible that some of the perpetrators are students of the school and Deborah’s classmates. Hence, we warn against any attempt by the corrupt police and the Nigerian state to deliberately arrest and prosecute innocent people in an effort to weaken the case and allow the real perpetrators to escape justice. We also warn against any cover-up.
We consider the charges of criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbance put forward by the Sokoto state government against the two killer suspects laughable. These weak charges, and the boastful speeches of the 34 lawyers arranged to defend the accused in court, indicate that this may be nothing but a show trial to further justify the killings.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that such an act has been committed, the murderers released or discharged following a similar show trial. For instance, sixteen suspects in the murder of a Christian secondary school teacher, Christiana Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin, at the Gandu secondary school in Gombe, were released without charge in 2007.
Christiana, a married mother of two, was brutally murdered after a Muslim student falsely accused her of having torn a copy of the Quran. A few months after, her murderers were subsequently discharged on the basis of “no case to answer”.
In our view, the inability of the state to respond to these developments is one of the reasons why such occurrences have become common. This, on the one hand, represents another feature of state failure in Nigeria, and the capture of the state by competing religious interests, particularly in the northern part of the country that deploys state institutions in the service of religious interests.
Nothing on earth can justify the brutal killing of Deborah and similar victims. If the state fails to act when grievances are reported, people should organise to fight to make the state act, or to overthrow the state altogether, and replace it with one that is more responsive. Resorting to self-help to kill and burn a student who simply complained about the conduct of other classmates on a common WhatsApp group is barbaric, reprehensible and outrageous.
Since this unfortunate incident, we have seen efforts by some reactionary Islamic clerics, scholars, members of the northern ruling oligarchy, and others to justify Deborah’s death. At the same time, we have seen other forces, especially from the south, trying to capitalise on the situation to further deepen the ethnic and religious divides in the country, by spreading false propaganda videos on social media.
While recognising the need to respect people’s religious sensitivity, no one deserves to be killed or persecuted for expressing their freedom of speech and thought.
In the same vein, we consider blasphemy an archaic and barbaric conception which seeks to annul freedom of thought and conscience guaranteed in Nigeria’s 1999 constitution. For instance on 5 April last month, a prominent Nigerian humanist and atheist, Bala Mubarak, was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment by the Kano State High Court for blasphemy and public incitement. All Bala Mubarak did was renounce his Islamic faith and publicly acknowlede that he is an atheist.
Socialists hold that religion is a personal affair. This is why we demand the separation of religion from the state. Unfortunately, it is the Nigerian capitalist ruling elite which has contributed to the rise of religious identity by using religion as a means of control and influence-peddling through sponsorship of pilgrimages, the building of mosques and churches, imposing religious teachings and morality in schools, and integration of religious leaders in the affairs of the state.
As far as we are concerned, while we believe the peaceful coexistence of all the peoples of Nigeria is possible, this cannot be achieved by allowing any organised religion to dictate the limit of freedom of thought and conscience. To this extent, we condemn the blasphemy laws while, at the same time, emphasising the need for mutual tolerance and respect for people’s religious sensibilities.
Ultimately, only the united struggle of the working masses, cutting across ethnic and religious divides, can offer hope for a resolution of the seemingly insoluble crises facing Nigeria.
All the recent attacks and mob violence across the country point to a rapid descent of Nigeria into barbarism. Only the urgent intervention of the working masses through a programme of struggle and a mass workers’ political alternative armed with socialist policies can salvage Nigeria.
We have received the sad news that Segun Sango (born Segun Aderemi) has died. Segun was the founding general secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), the CWI in Nigeria. The Socialist Party sends its condolences to Segun’s family, friends and comrades. See socialistnigeria.org for an obituary
