Just as this year’s Islamic holy month of Ramadan got underway on March 1, distressing news broke that 25 people were arrested in Kano by the Hisbah board for eating in the daytime. Islamic injunctions dictate that the fast begins at dawn and ends at sunset. However, according to the Deputy Commander of the Hisbah, Mujahid Aminudeen, 20 of them were arrested for eating and five others for selling food. Religion is personal, and it is wrong for Hisbah to weaponise it.
According to Aminudeen, the operation was targeted at only Muslims. He added that it would last throughout the fast. This is untidy.
The action has elicited widespread misgivings as Nigerians kicked against the flagrant abuse of the human rights of the suspects. It was even made more concerning when the Hisbah official said that unlike in previous years, the suspects would face trial this time around.
The inclination to subsume citizens’ rights and liberties under moral codes could be gleaned from his declaration that it was “heart-breaking that in such a holy month meant for fasting, adult Muslims would be seen eating and drinking publicly. We won’t condone that, and that is why we went out to make arrests”.
The 1999 Constitution is the grundnorm of Nigeria. It guarantees freedom of religion. This is made even more poignant by the fact that Nigeria is a secular state. Therefore, the board should respect citizens’ rights.
Global Rights, a human rights advocacy group, declared: “We are forced to seriously question the wisdom of allowing bodies like Hisbah to operate in a manner parallel to the constitutional and legal framework of the country.”
While it is acknowledged that the fast is one of the five pillars of Islam to which Muslims subscribe, it needs to be emphasised that adherents should not be compelled to adhere to religious observances.
While different faiths subscribe to fasts at chosen times of the year, persuasion, rather than compulsion, should be adopted to encourage participation.
In saying they do not target non-Christians, what will Hisbah officers do in a case where its operatives arrest people in the restaurant of a Christian, animist or atheist? Will they arrest the operator of the restaurant?
Sadly, religion has remained one of the thorny issues in Nigeria. This is as worrisome as the reports of four states shutting down schools for Ramadan.
This infringes on the rights of non-Muslims attending these schools. The states did not say anything about how the salaries of teachers and other employees of the private schools would be paid for the period of the unnecessary holiday.
Will the schools be exempted from the payment of taxes for the period? Such extreme steps are linked to the emergence of Boko Haram and other Islamic terror groups in Nigeria.
With the current high state of insecurity, the terrorists might exploit the Hisbah arrests to attack restaurants in the North.
The attempt by some groups to extend Sharia to the South-West in recent times is still causing apprehension.
The excesses of the Hisbah board across some Northern states need to be checked urgently. Political and religious leaders in Northern Nigeria should stop inflaming passions and desist from stoking tensions across the country.
With over 11 million children in the North-West and North-East out of school, the governors of the affected states ought to be more circumspect in taking actions that engender religious bigotry and discrimination.
Nigeria is a signatory to various international treaties that guarantee the rights and freedoms of people. It is reasonable for states operating with laws that are incompatible with the 1999 Constitution to repeal them to remove any dangers to Nigeria’s democracy.
