Nigeria: Long Walk Towards Anarchy

By Emmanuel Ojeifo  

I knew it would come to this. I knew that the murderers of Mrs. Bridget Agbahime, the 74-year-old Igbo Christian trader killed by irate Muslim youths at Kofar Wambai market in Kano would not be brought to book. I knew that the typical political Nigerian-speak, “We will ensure that the culprits of this dastardly act are brought to book,” is only a euphemism for intrigues, betrayals and cover-ups. I knew that the political, religious and traditional powers that be would ensure that the case is silenced and that nothing comes out of it.

*Late Mrs. Bridget Agbahime

I knew all of these when I wrote my article, “The Media and Extrajudicial Killings” published in Thisday of September 12, 2016. In that piece I argued that the Nigerian news media ought to stay on course and, with patience and persistence, pursue issues regarding human rights violations to their logical conclusion in order to hold political leaders accountable. I spoke in favour of what I termed ‘protest writing’ and ‘protest broadcast’ in media practice in order to bring to the consciousness of media practitioners the huge moral obligation that they have to “to take sides with the powerless against the depredations of power.”

Thus, when the news filtered into the public domain some days ago that the five Muslim culprits who were arrested and arraigned for the gruesome murder of Mrs. Agbahime, have been set free – “discharged and acquitted” – on frivolous grounds by a Kano Magistrates Court, I wasn’t any bit surprised. That has been the pattern of gross human rights violation in Nigeria. The sad part of it is that in the eyes of many Nigerians, tragedies claiming multiple human lives have become “one of those things.”

Like a national ritual, whenever tragic incidents happen we talk about them soberly. Our security agencies run around and get busy for a few days. Political leaders come out to assure us that the culprits would be brought to book. They then pledge that every possible effort will be made to forestall a repeat of such tragedy. End of discussion! We return to business as usual, and wait until something tragic happens again.

Has anyone heard anything about the killers of Mrs. Eunice Elisha, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) pastor who was murdered in Kubwa, Abuja, during the early hours of June 9, 2016 when she went out to preach? Has anyone heard anything about the eight students of Abud Gusau Polytechnic in Talata Marafa, Zamfara State, who were set ablaze on August 22, 2016 by some fanatical Muslim youths on allegations of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed? Fifteen years have passed since a famous Nigerian Minister of Justice was murdered in cold blood in his Ibadan residence.