Before The Next Lynching -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

In May 2022, within the hallowed precincts of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State, Deborah Samuel was burnt to death by her fellow students. Her crime was that she allegedly blasphemed Islam. More than four years later, her killers have disappeared through the cracks of Nigeria’s justice system.

Last month, Malama Ummulkhair, an Islamic teacher, asked her way to her death in Kaduna State. Her fatal mistake was to ask a group of children for directions as she sought a location. An alarm by a handful of idle women summoned a crowd of jobless criminals, and she was promptly killed and burnt to death, accused of attempting to kidnap children.

In a country where the lives of citizens have become cheaper than kitchen salt, the question on the lips of many Nigerians is, where were those sworn to defend Nigerian lives from killers as Malama Ummulkhair was attacked?

As the fog of his grief cleared a bit, Malama Ummulkhair’s grief-stricken husband made a startling revelation cum accusation. According to him, his wife had somehow found her way to a police station where she was supposed to be safe from the alarmist killers. Instead, the DPO, rather than protect her from the crowd baying for her blood, pushed her out to her death. Expectedly, the authorities of the Nigerian police force have denied this while ordering an investigation.

In a country where those who enforce the law are often missing in action when it matters most, there is form of atrocity that should be put past Nigeria’s security personnel.

Crucially, no country that desires to grow can have headless mobs running through its streets, killing and burning people. Mob justice continues to thrive in Nigeria because Nigeria has never made it a priority to hold to account those who kill others while taking the law into their hands.

When Fwimbe Gofwan was killed in Jos a couple of years ago by a mob who mistook him for a thief, nothing was done. Deborah Samuel’s killers walk free today, looking for their next victim.

When the law is weak, the wicked operate easily and without restraint. Nigeria has become such a place where the law is weak. Consequently, the wicked here operate freely and without fear.

Nigeria must act fast to clean its public spaces and image grotesquely stained by the blood of the innocent. There is a reason every society has a court of law of some sort. There is a reason the law extends the strictures and rigors of judicial proceedings even to those caught in the act.
The main reason the law allows a trial is to hear from the parties involved and exclude the deafening noise of those who would rush justice and, in the process, crush it.

In a country ridden with crime and corruption, there is always the overwhelming temptation to take the law into one’s hands. But this temptation must always be resisted, no matter how strong.

Nigeria as a country must take a courageous stand against those who turn its public spaces into execution grounds. The message must ring out clearly that mob justice is never the solution and can never have any sort of permission, no matter the temptation. This is time-sensitive before the next lynching happens.

Bringing the killers of Malama Ummulkhair to book would send a clear message that Nigeria has not become and will never become a refuge for killers.
Ike Willie-Nwobu is a social thinker and policy practitioner. He can be reached at Ikewilly9@gmail.com.