“There cannot be a justification for such gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered and all those behind her death must be brought to justice. My condolences to her family and friends”.
That was supposed to be the tweet from Atiku Abubakar, the Turakin Adamawa, the former vice president who – until recently seemed on steady cruise to his self-absorbed quest to the presidency of the republic.
A tweet that would, in normal times be deemed as right, humane and something expected of a gentleman/statesman; not only has it spawned torrents of controversies and issues far more than the man could have imagined or anticipated, it has turned into a revelation in leadership abdication by an individual known to be desperately seeking the nation’s top job.
The subject, of course was Deborah Yakubu, the young lady that was lynched before her remains were later incinerated by a bunch of religious extremists over an alleged blasphemy at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. So utterly misguided (or is it deranged?) the mob was in their rage that they even took the extra step of not simply owning the crime but posting it on the world wide web for the rest of the world to see.
Like most Nigerians who saw the video, Atiku or as he later claimed his media handlers, must have been just as outraged – hence the controversial tweet. At least, that was the situation until the closet supporters of the mob took notice and summarily let it be known that Atiku had crossed the red line. Their ensuing tweet on the same thread was a fatwa – in which the cost of the indiscretion would be proclaimed as equal, if not greater, in sum to the million votes to be lost in the still largely hypothetical 2023 presidential run! For Atiku, the threat of the mob would seem the very beginning of wisdom!
For an individual with a claim to being a man of the world, it would, sadly be, one moment to realise that the dizzying sweepstakes of presidential politics is no time to mix with the ethos of humanism –hence his order that the offensive tweet be pulled down – and fast too.
Only that he forgot that the internet never forgets. Indeed, cleaning up the messy affair has proven to be arduous; far more damaging than the man himself could have been imagined. In fact, if repudiation of that initial high moral ground which the deletion of the tweet symbolised was deemed as egregious, the shibboleth of process offered as rationalisation came off as most pathetic and utterly spineless.
“This evening I received information that a post was made that doesn’t agree with my orders. I use this to announce that any post without AA is not from me. May God protect – AA”, was all he could muster!
He couldn’t even get himself to restate the initial demand that “all those behind her death must be brought to justice”!
Yet, for that sin of indiscretion, the mob and their sympathisers still won’t trust him and so quickly cast him off as pariah. And now the other side of the national divide won’t touch him with a 10-feet pole for failing the test of character when it matters! For a man adept at playing political poker, it was for once an unenviable position to be in! Talk of the cost of prevarication in time of grave national crisis.
By the way, compare this with the unequivocal statement of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar: “The Sultanate Council condemns the incident in its totality and has urged the security agencies to bring the perpetrators of the unjustifiable incident to justice”.
That was a firm, simple and unequivocal statement that left out neither doubts about what the ‘incident’ was, nor sought any rationalisations to mitigate the gravity of a most heinous crime.
And the object: justice, which, to echo the words of Nobel Laurate Wole Soyinka, remains the first condition of humanity! That was leadership at its best.
As Atiku’s case has since proven, the art of condemning evil when it manifests, and the resolve to stand by one’s convictions when things become rough, would appear a virtue extremely in short supply among Nigeria’s political elite in particular.
As for Deborah, one understands that there are a large number of Nigerians out there who still insist that the sin of blasphemy was unforgiveable and that she brought the damnation upon her own head! The irony here is that this will also include those who took it upon themselves to execute instant justice including their army of supporters who, in their phantom theocracy, have long sworn not to recognise the law that binds everyone let alone subject themselves to its due dictates. Now because the nation’s law is set upon them, they and their promoters now seek to bring the roof down on everyone!
Among the lot is a certain Professor Ibrahim Maqari, said to be the Deputy Imam of Abuja National Mosque. According to the cleric, the Muslims should not be faulted for fighting for themselves if their grievances were not properly addressed.
Here is his tweet as reported last week: “It should be known to everyone that we the Muslims have some redlines beyond which MUST NOT be crossed. The dignity of the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the redlines…If our grievances are not properly addressed, then we should not be criticized for addressing them ourselves.”
Group grievances? Are there limits to such more so in a country where each group seems to have a word or two to say about oppression and feelings of marginalisation if not persecution? And the open invitation to self-help in a country with a surfeit of laws? Where would that lead to in our culturally diverse and multi-religious country?
Mercifully, not a few disagree that the route which the cleric seeks to promote – which affirms the primacy of street jurisprudence and mob justice over the dictates of the law and process – is the surest path to anarchy. Even the controversial Sheik Gumi has since scoffed at the very idea that some individuals can simply wake up and decree fatwa on fellow citizens without the niceties of process.
Even at that, the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court has long before now provided a general guide on crime and punishment all of which brooks no arbitrariness.
I refer here to the lead judgment of Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad (now Chief Justice of Nigeria) in the Abubakar Dan Shalla versus State 2007. The Islamic law, said the learned jurist, never left the killing open in the hands of private individuals. Where offences are alleged, he said further, this has to be established through evidence in the court of law in which the rules of fair hearing are scrupulously observed.
For now, the world can’t wait to see the killers of Deborah brought to the standard of justice denied her. That will be one sure way to establish that mob justice, whether in the streets of Lagos or Sokoto has no place in our justice delivery system – and certainly not in this day and age!
