Despite assurances by clerical and political leaders, some state-sponsored bodies enforcing religious codes have been engaging in excesses in some northern states. When the state government harasses a citizen over his choice of dressing, for consuming or trading in alcohol, it violates the constitution and abrogates the inherent right of the individual to choose. The potential for strife is real and Nigerians must resolve to end this aberration and enthrone the rule of law.
Our political leaders should always weigh the consequences of their actions. The Kano State Government should rein in its Hisbah Board that late last month announced the arrest of 31 ladies for alleged involvement in “immoral acts.” Although its spokesman, Sani Tanko, did not specify the alleged offences, their arrest near a hotel suggests they were suspected to be sex workers. Moralists may want to justify such harassment, but the Hisbah action deserves further scrutiny. The 31 were nabbed in Sabon Gari, the sprawling suburb of Kano metropolis occupied mostly by non-indigenes from all parts of the country and represents a diversity of faiths. What is a religious police enforcing the Islamic sharia law doing in such an area? A report in the African Journal on Conflict Resolution estimates that over 10,000 died in sectarian clashes in Northern Nigeria between 2000 and 2011. Riots broke out in Kaduna and several other states after sharia law was imposed on 12 states. Intruding into an area hosting a large number of adherents of diverse faiths to impose its religious preferences is a reckless provocation.
In July 2015, the same Kano hisbah had boasted that it had arrested 20 youths for “misconduct” that turned out to be keeping long hair and for dressing in an “unconventional” manner as youths worldwide are wont to do. Earlier, in August 2013, this agency had snagged 133 hapless youths – 120 males and 13 females – for “indecent dressing.” It is incredulous that in a secular country, populated by 170 million people of different faiths, a state agency will have the audacity to seek to impose a dress code on adults.
In January this year, the head of the Niger State Hisbah in Suleja, Habeeb Madaki, gleefully announced the seizure and destruction of an unspecified quantity of alcoholic beverages and praised the police for their support in its raids on such businesses. Such gross violation of others’ rights had been gathering momentum. In November 2013, the Kano hisbah intercepted trucks moving into or passing through the city and seized 20,000 cartons of beer. Aminu Daurawa, the Hisbah leader, saw nothing wrong in this and the official vandalism that followed with the public destruction of the 240,000 bottles of beer, 320,000 cigarettes and 8,000 litres of burukutu, a local alcoholic brew. Instead, he vowed that his 9,000-strong enforcers would move into all parts of the state to “put an end to the sale and consumption of alcohol and other intoxicants.”
While we concede to anyone who so desires the inalienable right to live under the moral codes of his or her faith, we remain steadfast in our opposition to any violation of other people’s inalienable right to freedom of conscience as enshrined in the constitution, the African Charter on Human Rights and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Nigeria is a signatory. Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution expressly prohibits the adoption of any religion as state religion. The adoption of criminal aspects of sharia, the sponsorship of pilgrimages, building of places of worship and harassment of legitimate businesses in the name of religion are brazen violations of the constitution that should be stopped.
When the state leaves its primary role of protecting lives and property for religious activities, it inadvertently encourages extremists who invariably believe the government has not gone far enough in imposing a theocratic utopia and take matters in their own hands. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, the urbane doctoral degree holder, and other Northern state governors should be worried that bloodthirsty maniacs like Boko Haram, ISIS, al-Shabab and other extremists have eerily similar modus operandi with the Hisbah in the enclaves where they hold sway. Trading in alcoholic beverages is a legitimate business just as is the right of any resident in Nigeria to dress as he wishes within the law as long as they do not violate the rights of others or municipal laws and regulations. Those whose religious, personal or moral codes forbid such personal preferences are free to shun the business or substances. Certainly, the state has no business circumscribing an individual’s right to lawful personal choices.
We are particularly worried that people of other faiths are being harassed and their means of livelihood attacked. We encourage them to seek redress in the law courts as envisaged in Chapter IV Section 46(1) to wit; “Any person who alleges that any of the provisions of this Chapter has been, is being or likely to be contravened in any State in any relation to him, may apply to a High Court for redress.”
The Federal Government should stop abdicating its responsibility to uphold the constitution and ensure fairness. It should forbid the police from joining the Hisbah in the serial abuse of basic freedoms. An evaluation of Sharia in 2005 by Human Rights Watch noted that several aspects of its implementation “contravene international and regional human rights standards,” and called on the federal and state governments to re-evaluate its application to ensure it did not lead to rights violations. This call should be heeded now.
