Nigeria’s blasphemy laws have been of focus
locally, nationally and internationally following
the arrest and detention of Nigerian humanist,
Mubarak Bala, the sentencing to death of a
Muslim singer, and the imprisonment of a 13-
year-old boy for blasphemy in Kano State in
Northern Nigeria.
It would appear that Muslim theocrats – within
the police and the courts – have gone to great
lengths to subvert constitutional provisions
and international human rights norms in their
quest to enforce the ‘blasphemy’ provision. For
instance, the police arrested Bala, who is the
President of the Humanist Association of
Nigeria, at his residence in Kaduna on April 28,
- They took him to Kano the following
day, where they have held him incommunicado
ever since. The arrest was at the instance of
lawyers who lodged a petition with the Kano
State Police Command complaining that Bala
had insulted the prophet of Islam in a
Facebook post.
Before his arrest, Bala received death threats
from Muslims who were angry over his posts
and comments on Facebook, including a Kano
State police officer. Police have failed to meet
their Constitutional obligation to charge Bala
within 48 hours of his arrest. Efforts to enforce
Bala’s rights have met a brick wall. The police
have not given Bala access to a lawyer. They
have not formally charged him in court. There
is no information regarding where he is held or
the condition of his detention. There is no
independent confirmation that Bala is still alive.
Bala has a wife and a 6-month old son. His
wife has petitioned the police and the
parliamentarians urging them to give her
access to her husband without success.
Kano is among the 12 states that uphold
Sharia laws in Northern Nigeria and is
notorious for jailing or murdering alleged
blasphemers or desecrators of the Quran.
Under Sharia law, the punishment for
‘blasphemy’ is death; however, in the parallel
Common Law system, the same crime is seen
as a misdemeanour punishable by up to two
years in prison. In Northern states allegations
of ‘blasphemy’ can end in the extrajudicial
killing of the accused.
In the case of Bala, the police and government
in Kano State are in a dilemma. They are
unable to try Bala in a Sharia court and
sentence him to death as many individuals in
Kano are demanding. Only Muslims are subject
to Sharia law; Bala is not a Muslim. He was
born into a Muslim family but Bala renounced
Islam in 2014. If the police must try Bala, it
would be in a secular state court, not in a
Sharia court. Even if the sentence is passed on
Bala, the penalty would not placate the
extremist base that is behind the petition. So, it
would appear that, instead of prosecuting
Mubarak Bala as required by law, the police and
government in Kano disappeared him to
appease the Muslim majority base.
In the cases of the 22-year old singer, Yahaya
Aminu-Sharif and 13-year-old Umar Farouq, the
allegations of ‘blasphemy’ have been handled
differently. Both are Muslims and were tried
and sentenced in Sharia courts. Aminu-Sharif
was accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam
in a song that he circulated on Whatsapp in
March. His ‘offense’ was that they lyrics
suggested that the Senegalese scholar, Ibrahim
Nyass, was greater than Prophet Muhammad.
Whilst Farouq was accused of making remarks
that insulted the Islamic god, Allah. Even
though Aminu-Sharif has 30 days to appeal,
some Muslim bodies, like the Muslim Lawyers
Association, the Council of Imams, and the
Supreme Council for Sharia have issued
statements urging the Kano State Governor,
Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to immediately
authorize the execution of Aminu-Sharif. If
some counter pressure is not brought to bear
on the Kano State Governor, Aminu-Sharif will
be executed. Or he may, as in the case of other
members of the Sufi Order convicted for
blasphemy in 2015, be left to languish in jail
Nigeria is a religiously pluralistic country in
which an individual’s ethnicity has a bearing on
religious demographics. The Hausa-Fulani
ethnic group, which is most populous in
Northern Nigeria, are predominantly Muslim
while the Igbo, a major ethnic group in the
south is predominantly Christian. Meanwhile
no single religion is in the majority throughout
the country. Muslims, who are in the majority
in the north are in the minority in Southern
Nigeria. Whilst Chirstians, who are in the
majority in Southern Nigeria, are in the minority
in the north. Nigeria has a volatile ethno-
religious mix and ethno-religious violence often
erupts. The application of ‘blasphemy’ laws
reinforces ethno-religious hatred and
intolerance.
Nigeria needs to repeal laws that legitimize
religious violence, oppression, and
persecution. ‘Blasphemy’ laws are enshrined in
both the Sharia and state penal codes.
However, these laws are seldom invoked,
except in the Muslim dominated states in
Northern Nigeria. ‘Blasphemy laws are
incompatible with human rights, tolerant
pluralism and peace. ‘Blasphemy’ is a
victimless crime. ‘Blasphemy’ laws make a
mockery of the justice system in Nigeria
because laws are there to protect individuals,
and not to protect ideologies, beliefs or dogma
- however important these may be to people.
Laws are made to guarantee and not violate
the rights of human beings. Incidentally,
blasphemy laws are used to flagrantly deny
basic human rights, including the rights to life,
freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of
expression. As the cases of Bala, Aminu-Sharif
and Farouq have shown, blasphemy laws
sanctify religious tyranny and impunity. They
are used to legitimize the oppression of
minorities, to justify extrajudicial murder, arson,
and attacks.
‘Blasphemy’ laws are only a legal recipe for
chaos, anarchy, and conflicts in Nigeria. In the
interest of peace, justice, and progress, Nigeria
should abolish these unjust, incoherent and
archaic laws.
