Nigeria’s socio-legal ambience is a study in paradox. It could be oppressively frustrating for those suspected of being on the wrong side of the law; but for public office holders, it permits them to bask in the extrajudicial use of powers to serve their primordial interests. A case that fully brings out this contradiction is that of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky. Bizarrely, he has been in detention since December 2015. His incarceration without trial is unlawful. It is an aberration that a democratic environment like ours abhors.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari promised last week to “give an appropriate response to the issue,” Aso Rock’s weird silence over the past eight months on a simple matter of the rule of law is a sign of the insufferable arrogance of public office holders in our clime. It is a throwback to the brutish days of military tyranny. The President’s lethargic response vividly explains why human rights abuses seep through the system without censure from high official quarters. This has to change.
El-Zakzaky’s heart-rending ordeal started when members of the IMN, who were on an annual procession, blocked the convoy of Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, in Zaria, Kaduna State. In the ensuing tempest, Army personnel descended on members of the sect, killing many of them on the spot and at their headquarters in a three-day outrage. The tragedy was exacerbated by the belligerence of the IMN members.
Hundreds of the IMN members were reportedly killed; el-Zakzaky was wounded and clamped in detention and several of his wives shot. Trying to resolve the distemper, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, empanelled a judicial commission of enquiry, headed by a judge, Mohammed Garba, last January. Although the IMN stayed away, the panel said in July that the Army killed 347 IMN members extrajudicially, while an Army officer also died. Life is sacrosanct. This atrocity should have moved Buhari to instant action. But, in spite of the domestic and international outcry, the President has been silent. This falls short of expectation from a corrective government.
The blame for this horrible calamity lies with both the IMN and the government. Since the late 1970s when el-Zakzaky founded the sect, it has imperilled the socio-economic life of Zaria residents with its aggressive brand of Islam. Armed with weapons, its members regularly block major highways during its Quds and Ashura processions. They also reportedly openly brandish weapons. This is imprudent. The Shiites have no constitutional rights to block public roads. Their disregard for the law has caused confrontations with residents and security agencies that have clamped el-Zakzaky in detention several times previously. The combustible relationship between the IMN and the Nigerian Army was exacerbated during the notorious sect’s procession in 2014 when soldiers shot 35 sect members, and killed three of el-Zakzaky’s sons. How sad!
In spite of this grave security threat, the Shiites were still being pampered and tolerated in their direct challenge to the authority of the Nigerian state and impunity to fellow Nigerians. Perhaps, this is because the government treats religion sentimentally. Unlike other jurisdictions where the state understands the import of separating religion and government, regrettably, in Nigeria, the state and religion are Siamese twins. This jaundiced handling of religion fuelled the Boko Haram Islamist terrorism, in which over 20,000 persons have been killed since 2009.
But now, the dangerous slide to anarchy has reached a defining moment. Among other complaints, the lawyers to el-Zakzaky have noted that his rights were being abridged, claiming that they had not been allowed access to him while in detention. No Nigerian citizen should be treated in such a cruel manner. It can lead to an escalation in violence by el-Zakzaky’s followers. The proper thing is for the authorities to release el-Zakzaky or charge him to court. Section 35 (4) of the 1999 Constitution is clear: every arrested person must be tried before a court within a reasonable time, and in case he is not entitled to bail, he shall “be released either unconditionally or upon such conditions as are reasonably necessary to ensure that he appears for trial at a later date.”
So, why is the government seemingly at a loss as to how to handle the situation? Is it because the Shiites are a minority sect in Islam as against the majority Sunnis? Two wrongs do not make a right. The Buhari administration should stop dilly-dallying on this matter; it is dangerous. On Sunday, Iraq executed 36 convicts indicted in the massacre of 1,700 soldiers in 2014. The executed men were arrested after Iraqi forces retook Tikrit in 2015. They were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year. That is how to dispense justice with dispatch.
Crime thrives when punishment is lacking. Hundreds of Boko Haram detainees have not been conclusively prosecuted since the terror war escalated here. This is evidence of poor governance. The role of the law is to administer justice in a society, but no just cause is served when accused persons are indefinitely incarcerated without trial. El-Zakzaky’s case therefore presents an opportunity for the government to prosecute him and others in his shoes. Those found guilty should then be punished while those deemed to be innocent should be freed.
The military officers who took the law into their own hands in the IMN incident should not be spared. Even in defending Nigeria’s territorial integrity, the Army should not abandon the rules of engagement. Without fail, religious groups should be made to operate within the confines of the law. States that put religion above the common good have discovered that it spawns lawlessness. For Nigeria to be terror-free, the government should curb the religious extremism distorting our socio-political life.
