On Monday, August 10, 2020, a Sharia court in Kano state sentenced to death by hanging, a 22year-old Islamic Musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, for blasphemy. The court held that a song the musician composed and circulated on WhatsApp in March was blasphemous against Prophet Muhammad.
Sharif-Aminu’s arrest by the Hisbah, and eventual conviction by the Islamic court followed series of protests by Islamic faithful in the state for the prosecution of the musician. The protesters went as far as burning down the musician’s family house.
However, the judgement of the court generated reactions from Nigerians and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who faulted the judgement. IMPACT NEWS also joins to strongly condemn the judgement. It is important that Nigeria as a circular state cannot operate contradictory laws. While the 1999 Constitution as amended, protects the rights of every Nigerian to association, freedom of speech and that of religion, the Sharia law dictates otherwise for its adherents.
Concerned Nigerians, a CSO described the Court’s decision as repulsive to natural justice, equity and a good conscience and a gross violation of Sharif-Aminu’s rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and expression.
Some states in the northern Nigeria have since 1999 introduced Sharia law. Series of convictions have been recorded and many carried out. IMPACT News recalled that Lawali Isa’s right hand was amputated in 2001 after he was convicted for stealing three bicycles. Many Nigerians have condemned such action saying it runs in contradiction to the current reality and human advancement yet the law has continued to take effect amongst Muslims in the states.
It is important that Nigeria justice system must be put in perspectives. The implementation of the Sharia law in the north seems to target the less privileged and those at the base of the social pyramid. Two decades after the law was introduced, there is no record of any elite that has been prosecuted. Just as some Nigerians who opposed the judgement against Sharif-Aminu, we believe that there is hypocrisy in the administration of Sharia in the north.
Why do we have the dearth of development in the north yet those responsible for governance have not been brought to book in accordance to the dictate of Sharia? Why the Governor of the same Kano state, Ibrahim Ganduje, has not been prosecuted years after he was caught on camera allegedly accepting dollars from a contractor? Why has the state government not pressured the Federal Government to prosecute the so called rehabilitated Boko Haram fighters in line with Sharia law instead of feeding and clothing them while those they have pushed into untold hardship and misery live as strangers in their own country under harsh weather conditions?
It is important that the government of the northern states practicing sharia review the administration of the law.
