HOW TERRORIST GROUPS AND RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS VIOLATE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN NIGERIA

For as long as I can remember, Nigeria has been a killing field of defenseless Christians by extremist Muslims. Victims of religious violence have suffered unimaginable pain in the hands of these people; abduction, rape, torture, forceful recruitment of children into their terrorist groups, gruesome killings etc. Fulani herders claim to be “global citizens”, so to them, they own every land in Nigeria. Hisbah believes that it is their moral duty to stop people from consuming alcohol, holding parties and having relationships. Suspected boko haram groups have decided to abduct and murder innocent civilians and stop children from going to school because western education is for “infidels”.

There are numerous reports of abuses by Hisbah, who frequently arrest and flog people for a variety of offenses. They often stop vehicles carrying men and women, and ask the women to disembark. They would sometimes disrupt conversations between men and women on the ground that such gatherings were immoral. They use violence to seize and destroy consignments of alcohol worth millions of naira; alcohol from which their government is generating revenue. How else can you define hypocrisy?

What about the menace by herdsmen? You find cows in the middle of the road in Central Business District,  Abuja. You can’t imagine the sight of it; cows, in Central Business District, defecating as they go! They go about destroying farmers’ means of livelihood and killing them for complaining. 

Is it Boko haram we want to talk about? You already know the story. My colleagues, Miller Ojong Esq and Christopher Ogar Esq,  escaped a bomb explosion by the whiskers in 2015. We were just students in the law school, and they were in Kano campus. That’s how they would have been roasted! 

Where then lies freedom of conscience and religion? So we must all become Muslims and abandon our pursuits of education and career? We must all live according to the dictates of sharia for the fear of the so called Hisbah? We can no longer carry on businesses in peace or express our thoughts for fear of judgement and violence. We can’t plant farms and feel safe for fear of some self acclaimed global citizens and their cattle. Is the Constitution alive at all? Do we have any business living together with these people, who clearly have their own laws? Is there a way forward?

People have suffered too much pain in the hands of these people and this has gone on for too long. No sane society would allow this, watching families mourn their loved ones, flee their homes and farms, weep without consolation. I don’t know how we have survived all these years with all that has been going on. We are just living one day at a time, not knowing what will happen next.

The main reason religious violence is on the increase is because THE GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED US. There are speculations (which are likely true) that the government is backing herdsmen and boko haram by providing them with funds and arms. If this is untrue, why is the government negotiating with terrorists? Why is the government paying them for killing innocent citizens?

The Nigerian government needs to stop these groups from attacking defenseless civilians. They need to build peace between Christians and Muslims, and this can only be achieved when the perpetrators of these abductions, torture and executions are brought to book. The least that can be done for victims is to give them justice. Programs and policies that already exist must be implemented properly and used effectively. We must continue to hold them accountable, call them out until they hear us.