Death of a nation: Trump and tragic case of Bridget Agbahime

Commentary@ITRealms:

Two weeks ago, while the world faced the frightening prospect of a Trump presidency in the US, an equally tragic event took place thousands of kilometres away in Nigeria. Except that in the case of Nigeria, the people did not elect—pardon the pun—to foist on themselves the cataclysm that may yet consume the nation. Both events—the emergence of Trump as president-elect and the “not guilty” verdict pronounced by the judiciary, and by extension the Nigerian state, on some vermin in human skin posing as God’s arbiters, bear uncanny similarities.

I don’t know if it is our proclivity for the gory and the absurd or the excitement of the US presidential election; but whatever the reason, that bizarre incident in Nigeria went unnoticed. Few people—certainly, not the mainstream media, the tribe of Internet trolls, our effete civil society or women’s organisations—raised their voice or queried that infernal judgement.

Now that the US election is over, perhaps Americans can return, in the words of the good old Dr. Damages of SaharaReporters fame, to those things that they care about most: the ability of Kim Kardashian and her clan to hold down the Internet. And the rest of us lesser mortals can go back to worrying about those things that are important to us. And in the case of Nigeria, how to make meaning of a nation that has lost its soul. But before I return to Nigeria, a slight digression on the election of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the US.

Mr. Trump seems to be on a charm offensive, seducing everybody who cares to watch that, not minding his destructive campaign rhetoric, he has the capacity for good. There are those—including our beloved Oprah—who are having a change of heart about Trump and are calling on the pessimists to give him a chance; that we should hold out hope that the self-confessed p---y-grabbing money man may turn out to be a better president than he is a businessman and entertainer.

Some have argued that candidate Trump had to maintain a bellicose persona and deploy demagoguery in order for his campaign to gain traction and for him to stand a chance against the entrenched and well-oiled political machine that was the Clinton campaign. Of course, what was frightening wasn’t so much what Trump said or did—as dangerous as they were—but the fact that half of American voters actually believed in him enough to give him the Electoral College vote.

There is another side of the Trump victory that observers seem to have ignored: the people. What happened two weeks ago in the US? In one sentence, the people happened! Whether they are right or wrong, only time will tell. Trump may indeed turn out to be a “good president”, but it does not vitiate the fact that he and his campaign stood for something. His xenophobic, misogynistic and divisive messages resonated with some voters, including religious bigots. It is not likely that those who supported his campaign messages will allow him to do otherwise or not take advantage of his victory. America is trying to heal post Trump’s victory. We can only wish them well in this healing process. The first step, we know, in the healing process, is to accept there is a problem; and in Trump, America has a big problem!

Back to Nigeria. Here are the facts of the matter for those not familiar with the case. On June 2, 2016, Bridget Agbahime, a 74-year-old Nigerian trader was savagely attacked and murdered at Kofar Wambai Market in Kano State, northern Nigeria, by a group of bloodthirsty fiends, ever desirous  of propitiating heaven. Her offence? Blasphemy! That age-old alibi that has allowed religious zealots to perpetrate evil. She was reported to have prevented a fellow trader from performing ablution—the act of washing oneself in preparation for formal prayers in Islam—in front of her shop.

Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, described the murder of Agbahime as “unjustifiable” and promised justice in line with the laws of the country. The Police arrested two key suspects, Dauda Ahmed and Zubairu Abdullahi.  Solomon Arase, the Inspector General of Police, deployed the Homicide Section of the Police to ensure proper investigation which led to the arrest of three more suspects, Abdulmumeen Mustafa, Abdullahi Abubakar and Musa Abdullahi. The suspects were charged at the Kano Magistrate court on a four-count of allegedly “inciting disturbance, culpable homicide, joint act and mischief”.

That murder took place in June. Fast forward to November, five months later, and the accused are free men, ready to prowl the streets of Kano for their next victim, thanks to Nigeria’s perverted justice system. 

On November 4, 2016, the chief magistrate, Muhammad Jibrin, acting on the advice of the Attorney General of Kano State, discharged the case and directed the release of the suspects on ground that, “Police investigation regarding the murder has not in any way implicated the accused and that prosecutors have failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused have indeed carried out the crime of killing Bridget.”

In what looked like a state sanction of the execution of Bridget Agbahime, the Kano State government went a step further, affirming that, “There is no case to answer as all the suspects are innocent.” 

So who killed Bridget Agbahime? It certainly wasn’t Donald Trump. For me, it is not so much the crime, as gruesome as it was. The real tragedy here is what appears to be the connivance of Kano State and its institutions, and by extension the Nigerian state, to uphold this death sentence passed on Bridget Agbahime.

The murder of Bridget Agbahime challenges all of us. It is beyond comprehension that a Nigerian would be so savagely beaten to death on allegation of blasphemy. It certainly is not too late to get justice for Agbahime and others who have suffered similar fate, to restore hope that ours is or could be a nation of law and order, of respect for human life and dignity of persons. By not bringing the killers of Agbahime to book, the Nigerian state is inadvertently telling us that us that ours is a lawless state; that Nigeria is Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, where warlords rule and deranged zealots exert “justice” based on their demented vision of religious codes.

Agbahime’s murder wasn’t the first time and probably won’t be the last time that a citizen of Nigeria would be killed in the name of religion unless we reclaim Nigeria from the hands of these barbaric horde and their fellow travellers. By ignoring these telltale signs, we are destroying the very thin fabric that holds us together as a people. And there are many for whom this nation died a long time ago.

The words of Pastor Mike Agbahime who witnessed the savage attack on his wife are instructive. In a November 13, 2016, interview with Punch newspaper he noted: “The saying, ‘One Nigeria’ is just mere balderdash. I say this because the leaders’ mistake is a ‘leading’ mistake. To buttress it, if our leaders cannot keep the oaths of their offices and cannot respect the sanctity of life and our constitution, there is no need to talk about oneness in Nigeria. I also say this because even if the constitution condemns killing in one part of the country and declares other people who killed in other state innocent, I wonder what kind of constitution that is.”

Let’s for once assume this murder was not done in the name of religion. It doesn’t make it any less heinous and it deserves no place in a modern democratic society. Dauda Ahmed and Zubairu Abdullahi and their cohort should be re-arrested and made to pay for their crime.

By Chido Onumah | conumah@hotmail.com; Twitter @conumah

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Kano blasphemy killing: Where is justice for Bridget Agbahime?

Commentary@ITRealms: 

Indeed, for any keen observer of governance in post-colonial Africa, Nigeria must be a very depressing address. And this is more so for the simple reason that no country, in many people’s reckoning, has done so much as Nigeria in consistently consciously making itself an object of perpetual ridicule in the comity of civilized countries of the world. 

That explains why those who argue that Africa’s backwardness is a function of Nigeria’s pathetic leadership vision cannot be entirely wrong after all. Even Nigeria’s own citizens, who look up to their country to provide the required domestic and international leadership, have continued to be utterly disappointed and embarrassed in very many ways.

Take for example the case of Bridget Agbahime. On June 2, the 74-year-old kitchen utensils trader from Imo State was brutally attacked and killed at Kofar Wambai Market in Kano by a Muslim mob who accused her of blasphemy. According to reports, she was pounced upon and murdered after she refused to allow a Muslim man perform ablution in front of her shop.

As expected, the circumstances of Bridget’s death sparked outrage within secular, Christian and progressive Muslim circles across the country and beyond, provoking once again that troubling question as to when these ignorant killings in the northern part of the country in the name of Allah would come to an end.

On behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, promptly issued a statement describing the incident as “sad and regrettable.” In the usual tone of such statements, it urged the people not to take the laws into their hands and affirmed that justice would be done in the matter.

On his part, Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, also called a meeting attended by prominent personalities including state chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Ransome Bello, the husband of the deceased, Pastor Mike Agbahime, of Deeper Life Bible Church, Igbo leaders in Kano, Islamic scholars and security agencies. At that meeting the governor named the prime suspect in that heinous crime as one Alhaji Dauda. He said the killing was “unjustifiable” and that justice would be done in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.

The Police corroborated the governor as regards Dauda. Olabisi Okuwobi, Assistant Commissioner of Police who was then Force Public Relations Officer, issued a statement saying two key suspects, Dauda Ahmed and Zubairu Abdullahi, were already in custody and would be speedily prosecuted. Added Okuwobi: “In order to ensure a diligent and professional investigation the Inspector General of Police has directed the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) to deploy the Homicide Section of the Department to immediately take over the investigation of the case and ensure a meticulous investigation and speedy prosecution of arrested suspects.”

Apart from Dauda and Zubair, the investigation led to the arrest of three more suspects namely Abdulmumeen Mustafa, Abdullahi Abubakar and Musa Abdullahi. The five suspects were charged at the Kano Magistrate court on a four-count allegation of allegedly inciting disturbance, culpable homicide, joint act and mischief.

And five months into the incident, more than enough time for Nigerians and the Agbahime family to have arrived at a closure on that act of bestiality, what did the people get? Just when they were bracing for a firm prosecution that will lead to conviction, they were treated to the familiar abracadabra that is peculiar to the country’s legal system. In what must go down as a classic judicial swindle, the chief magistrate, Muhammad Jibril, acting on the advice of the Attorney General of Kano State, discharged the suspects and terminated the case.

According to the Kano State government, “There is no case to answer as all the suspects are innocent.” Really? And this from a State whose governor had called the killing “unjustifiable” and vowed to go all out to ensure that the culprits are treated in line with the country’s laws? Where is the justice Buhari promised in his reaction to Bridget Agbahime’s killing? What the Kano government did to this case is not the kind of thing that should happen in a government that professes “change.”

Surely now, the widower, Mike Agbahime, and the entire Agbahime family must be heartbroken. It would not be surprising to hear that the man has suddenly developed some serious health problem, for this is the sort of perversion of justice that led to the death of Justice Atinuke Ige, whose husband, Bola Ige, was assassinated at their Bodija residence in Ibadan in 2001. Sixteen months later, the woman died from a heartbreak resulting from glaring manipulation of justice by state prosecutors who deliberately messed up the trial of suspects arrested in connection with her husband’s gruesome murder.

This is not the first time blasphemy killings would occur in the northern part of the country. In 1995, in the same Kano, a young Igbo trader, Gideon Akaluka, was beheaded by Muslim fanatics who stormed the police station where he was being held for alleged blasphemy. The head was hoisted on a stick and used as trophy which the mob carried round the streets in a chilling victory parade. There was neither arrest nor prosecution.

In 2007 Christiana Oluwasesin, teacher and mother of two, was beaten to death by her own students at Government Day Secondary School, Gandu, Gombe State. The sixteen suspects arrested in connection with the crime were released without any charge. In addition to the Agbahime case, this year has also witnessed blasphemy killings in Talata Mafara in Zamfara State, and Padongari in Rafi local government area of Niger State. In these two cases as in others, not one person was arrested and made to face the law.

Suffice to say that blasphemy killers in Nigeria, a secular, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country are never brought to justice. Yet without justice there can never be peace. And the absence of peace means there is no unity. Agbahime’s case happens to be the first time an attempt, no matter how idle and unenthusiastic, has been made to arraign alleged perpetrators of blasphemy execution.

But against all expectations, the case has decidedly been bungled by the government which ought to protect citizens, messed up in a manner that powerfully vindicates those who insist that Nigeria is not yet a nation, that much as the people desire to live together as one, there is an urgent need for a roundtable meeting of its various stakeholders to fashion out a modern nation by agreeing on terms for the people’s coexistence. Call it whatever name, Nigerians has to work towards arriving at an acceptable framework that determines the basis of a much desired unity in a re-invented country.

A cornerstone of that framework must be justice for all, regardless of your background or where you come from. As it is now, no matter what any Nigerian leader at whatever level preaches about Nigeria, with the way they have been denied justice, the Agbahime family, or the children of Oluwasesin, for instance, will never, ever feel that they belong to this country.

But this government can still redeem itself and that is what it should do by revisiting the Agbahime case and making sure those who needlessly killed that woman are truly punished. Otherwise, not only that this country will continue to be a laughing stock in the eyes of the world, one would be persuaded to queue behind those who still argue with candid vehemence that we are yet to have a country.

Godwin Onyeacholem is a journalist. He can be reached on gonyeacholem@gmail.com

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