By Igbotako Nowinta
Writing about similar theme in his work: “The Killing Fields – Religious Violence In Northern Nigeria ( 2007, page 214/215),” Shehu Sani, a renowned civil society activist and former Senator, remarked as a way out of religious violence thus: “As a regulatory measure, religious leaders should be screened, registered and granted license to preach.“ They must commit themselves to unprovocative and non-violent act while their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and association is guaranteed. Religion should be used to promote institutional integration instead of otherwise. “Religion should be given its proper place in national life commensurate with our historical situation. It should be seen purely as the private affair of an individual based on his or her convictions, not forced on him or her. Killing in the name of religion is a distortion of the message of God. “There is need for the reorientation of Nigerians, particularly among the youths. There is also the need for the review of the school curriculum so as to lay more emphasis on the application of religion to orientate the minds of young people”. Really “killing in the name of religion is a distortion of the message of God.” That was exactly what the killers of Deborah Samuel have done. So, it should be condemned in its entirety. Those Moslem fundamentalists or clerics who have been shouting their voices hoarse in support of Deborah Samuel’s tragic elimination should be identified and fished out for ‘religious reorientation’ by necessary moderating organs in the country, according to Senator Shehu Sani. The painful and sudden death of Deborah Samuel has nothing to do with one of the greatest lovers of peace, harmony and justice, the most respectful, distinguished and adorable Prophet Muhammed. So the lunatic street urchins that were hurriedly imported into the campus of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, along with other criminal accomplices, must be made to face the full wrath of the law of the land to serve as a deterrence to others like them in future.
The Nigerian nation was aghast about the news, a few days ago of the barbaric flogging and subsequent cold blooded murder, by stoning of Deborah Samuel, a 200 level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, by her fellow students/course mates.
The atrocious development was indeed one of the darkest chapters ever recorded inside an academic environment in Nigeria; if not the darkest ever.
The vampirous instinct of Deborah Samuel’s killers was quite unimaginable and unexplainable, that having taken hold of her by force, stuffed life out of her in such heinous fashion, they were not satisfied until they searched for gasoline and matches, and set her ablaze.
So died Deborah Samuel, a Home Economics student, in the hands of blood sucking monsters who called themselves students of Shehu Shagari College of Education Wamako, Sokoto! What a dehumanizing and barbaric scenario; what a woeful and tragic development!
Not done yet, the planners of the gruesome murder and those who remotely goaded them to do the most abominable stuff, have the alacrity and brazen audacity to storm the metropolis of Sokoto, to demand the release of those held by the police authorities, in connection with the sad event.
The most painful affront displayed by these accursed enemies of peaceful religious co-existence in our country, was the way and manner in which shops and other business interests of Southerners were targeted and looted mercilessly, in the name of phantom accusations against Prophet Muhammed.
That was indeed an injury taken to the zenith of lunacy, even in a secular state like the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was like adding salts into our already injured psyche.
As the sad news developed from several media outlets in the country, l took my turn to study the details of the dastardly and most reprehensive act.
From what l could decipher having weighed critically the gravity of the eye witnesses accounts of Deborah Samuel’s course mates, it is very clear to me that her allegedly blasphemous offence against one of the most revered religious masters on Earth: Prophet Muhammed, was cooked up, in order for her to be physically liquidated.
I see a case of extreme hatred long nourished and preserved by course mates who had been very jealous of Deborah Samuel’s academic progress in school.
Deborah Samuel’s matter, perhaps, had been taken to the throne of darkness, where she was adjudicated against, found wanting for committing no crime, and judgement of death was given, hence she fell miserably into the terrible trap that was set for her on Thursday, 12th of May, 2022, by her course mates.
If not why would a helpless, innocent and deeply religious teenage student pay with her life for just mentioning: “Jesus was the secret of my examination success,” only for her accusers to lose all sense of reasoning or decorum, even after she pleaded profusely for mercy?
For me Deborah Samuel’s gory death was a case of premeditated cold blooded murder, only for her cowardly killers to tie her assassination sophisticatedly to religious sentiments or coloration, to attract the religious approval of lunatic Moslem fundamentalists.
If her crucifixion in the name of blasphemy against prophet Muhammed was not a facade or conjured up to justify their crime against humanity, why did they take laws into their hands by inviting external murderers into the college campus to join them in finishing her off?
From what we have read about the Koran and its greatest master: Prophet Muhammed, it is an intoxicating, scintillating, fantastic and most peaceful religion, with extraordinary humanistic admonitions cum interjections, which abhor hatred, violence and wickedness in the most strictest form.
Those who crudely and practically snuffed precious life from Deborah Samuel, are not genuine Muslims, they are worse than infidels because they have simply turned one of the most tantalizing religions in the world into a vehicle of murderous orgies.
Those who killed Deborah Samuel are lunatic hoodlums, vampires in human form and false followers of Prophet Muhammed; they are enemies of academic tolerance cum sanity, and robust intellectual postulations; who have only exhibited the darkest side of witchcraft against a hapless soul.
Those few Muslims who have been most boisterous, hyper agitatedly and recklessly supported the cold blooded murder of Deborah Samuel, have only displayed their level of ignorance, illiteracy, doctrinal shallowness and unaccommodating religious instincts in a secular state like the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The growth and increased sophistication of religious cum tribal intolerance under the present regime calls for alarm, something must be done swiftly and pragmatically in this regard to save the nation from catastrophe.
After all, Sheikh Mohammed Gumi, has told us vividly that the great Prophet Muhammed never approved retaliation for insults in his earthly sojourn; that Prophet Muhammed was the highest epitome of religious tolerance; a magnificent lover and preacher of peace and love.
Gumi and other versatile and well-grounded Islamic leaders and scholars have demonstrated the greatest level of understanding of the doctrinal teachings of Prophet Muhammed.
If one may ask: where then did the murderers of Deborah Samuel, and those lslamic clerics who supported the regrettable incident get their own version of religious violence, wickedness and inhumanity from? Certainly, not from the holy book of Koran!
President Muhammadu Buhari has spoken his mind on this issue that no one has the right to take the life of a fellow human being in the name of religious extremism or intolerance.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, has timely waded into this most tragic development, by declaring a dusk to dawn curfew, to prevent further break down of law and order; and he must energetically ensure in conjunction with the policing authorities in that state that the culprits who quenched the sun of Deborah Samuel at noon must be brought to justice.
Nigerians must not tolerate a situation where the masterminds of this cruelest crime are allowed to go Scott free, just as it used to be in the past, because what we have is a very clear case of inhumanity taken too far into the realms of religious sentiments or emotions.
Writing about similar theme in his work: “The Killing Fields – Religious Violence In Northern Nigeria ( 2007, page 214/215),” Shehu Sani, a renowned civil society activist and former Senator, remarked as a way out of religious violence thus: “As a regulatory measure, religious leaders should be screened, registered and granted license to preach.
“They must commit themselves to unprovocative and non-violent act while their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and association is guaranteed. Religion should be used to promote institutional integration instead of otherwise.
“Religion should be given its proper place in national life commensurate with our historical situation. It should be seen purely as the private affair of an individual based on his or her convictions, not forced on him or her. Killing in the name of religion is a distortion of the message of God.
“There is need for the reorientation of Nigerians, particularly among the youths. There is also the need for the review of the school curriculum so as to lay more emphasis on the application of religion to orientate the minds of young people.”
Really “killing in the name of religion is a distortion of the message of God.” That was exactly what the killers of Deborah Samuel have done. So, it should be condemned in its entirety.
Those Moslem fundamentalists or clerics who have been shouting their voices hoarse in support of Deborah Samuel’s tragic elimination should be identified and fished out for ‘religious reorientation’ by necessary moderating organs in the country, according to Senator Shehu Sani.
The painful and sudden death of Deborah Samuel has nothing to do with one of the greatest lovers of peace, harmony and justice, the most respectful, distinguished and adorable Prophet Muhammed.
So the lunatic street urchins that were hurriedly imported into the campus of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, along with other criminal accomplices, must be made to face the full wrath of the law of the land to serve as a deterrence to others like them in future.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A Call For Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
