By Godwin Onyeacholem
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.
