By Mahdi Garba
By Mahdi Garba
Come
December 12, people of conscience around the globe would be joining members of
the Islamic Movement in Nigeria to commemorate the third anniversary of the
premeditated attack on armless citizens using armed-to-the-teeth security
operatives while bracing up to hoist a flag on the dome of the Hussainiyya
Baqiyatullah, Zaria.
Few
hours after the first attack that left the some people injured, the Nigerian
soldiers invaded the residence of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, some kilometers from
the Hussainiya.
The
pretext given for the attack, according to the Nigerian army spokesperson Sani
Usman Kukasheka was that the Shia Muslims replacing the flag of Hussainiya’s
dome barricaded the road which stops the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur
Yusuf Buratai from passing. However the events that unfolded afterwards had
proved the Nigerian Army wrong.
It
was then that pundits within and without the country start to pose questions
for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government and Governor Nasir
Ahmad El-Rufai’s led Kaduna State Government. The questions have succeeded in
making the governments at both Federal and State level culpable of genocide
among the Shia minority. Prior to the questions like; what led the military
advancing to Sheikh Zakzaky’s house to kill over 705 people? Why does the
Nigerian government continue to crackdown on any supporter of Sheikh Zakzaky
that is lending a voice to put a stop to his continued illegal detention? The
list of the questions goes on.
During
the attack on Hussainiya Baqiyatullah and Sheikh Zakzaky’s house between 12 and
15 December 2015, over 705 have been killed in cold blood. Hundreds of bodies
were desecrated while others were given mass burial secretly by the Nasir
El-Rufai-led Kaduna State Government in a bid to bury their crimes. There are
families that lost more than three persons in that attack.
Hamid,
Humaid and Ali were Sheikh Zakzaky’s three sons who were killed in the presence
of their doting Dad, Sheikh Zakzaky and their beloved mother, Malama Zeenah. We
have many families like that of Malam Abdullahi Abbas, Dr. Waziri Gwantu, Dr.
Mustapha Sa’id among too numerous to mention that lost more than 3 among their
family members, including breadwinners in some instances.
Prominent
disciples of Sheikh Zakzaky like Sheikh Muhammad Mahmud Turi, Mukhtar Sahabi,
Sayyid Mustapha Nasidi are still at large since the clampdown.
After
whisking away with Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah amidst gun
injuries, the Kaduna State Government demolished every property relating to the
Sheikh, including Jannatu Darur Rahma (the cemetery where martyrs of the movement
are buried), Hussainiyya Baqiyatullah (where the Sheikh holds classes on Nahjul
Balagha, Quranic exegesis, mourning the martyrdom of Imam Hussain and other
events), Fudiyya Islamic Centre and the cemetery Sheikh Zakzaky’s mother was
buried.
He
and his wife were kept incommunicado for more than six months. When a his
family gained access to him in a Department of State Services (DSS) detention
facility, he asked his lawyers to file a case against the Federal Government
for illegal detention. After several sittings, the presiding judge, Justice
Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court 6 Abuja on 2nd December, 2016
declared the continued detention as illegal. Justice Kolawole ordered the
immediate release of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah within 45 day.
The judgement did not stopped there, the Judge also awarded a 50 million naira
(137, 174, 20 USD at the prevailing exchange rate) with a house anywhere within
Kaduna State.
Although
Nigeria’s President, General Muhammadu Buhari an erstwhile military dictator
that toppled the democratically elected government of Shehu Shagari in 1982 is
assumed to be a repentant dictator when he was contesting for elections under
the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, he has been known
for flagrant violation of court orders.
Even
as a democratically elected now, the trait of abusing court orders and flagrant
abuse of human rights are still embedded in Mr.Buhari. This is further known
with the way his government continue to handle Sheikh Zakzaky and his disciple.
Since the pronouncement of the judgment two years ago, Nigerians and the
international community have continue to await when Buhari’s led Federal
Government will release, the Sheikh and his wife despite failing health but that
don’t seem to be coming.
In
what looks like a bombshell, earlier this year Saudi Crown Prince and Minister
of Defense, Muhammad Bin Salman in an interview by US Times Newspaper as
reported by Ahlul Bayt News Agency said
they have succeeded in curtailing Iran’s influence in Nigeria. The Prince also
said his country is behind the continued illegal detention of Sheikh Zakzaky.
The
proxy nature of the crisis is not alien to the Islamic Movement and its close
allies because times unnumbered, the leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky in phone
calls has accused the Nigerian authorities for acting on the scripts of Saudi
Arabia of plotting to truncate his life using the court like that Sheikh Baqir
Nimr since their guns have failed.
Moreover,
Saudi Arabian owned Wisal TV known for its anti-Shia polemics had raised alarm
on the rise of Shiism in Nigeria prior to the attack through its documentaries.
This
was further corroborated from the encomiums President Buhari receives from
Nigerian Wahabi clerics whenever Shia Muslims are attacked in the country.
Radical Sunni scholars have used their pulpits to support what they describe as
“the good work he has started”. As President Buhari has been scored poor in
good governance, poverty alleviation, infrastructural development, human
development and economic reforms since his emergence as President in March
2015, pundits are of the notion that the “good work” he has started may not be
far from his war against the Shia minority, which these Wahabi clerics see as
danger to their own version of Islam.
Recently,
while commemorating the Arba’een of Imam Husain with a symbolic trek from
outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital to the Central Business District more
than 47 mourners have been killed with over 200 sustaining various degrees of
gun injuries in 3 days. Over 400 have been detained; out of which 142 minors
have been released, 156 have been charged to court while the whereabouts of 102
is still best known to the Nigerian security operatives.
Media
blackout has also contributed immensely in the continued persecution of the
Shia minority in Nigeria. The domestic media have been fair in their reportage,
while the mainstream has continued to respond with a loud silence. This
deafening silence compounds the issue of lack of awareness among the
international community. No mainstream media has reported that since 2015 more
than 2000 followers of Sheikh Zakzaky have been killed by Nigerian authorities.
Despite
these series of persecution by the Nigerian state, members of the Islamic
Movement have shown resilience through constant peaceful protests amidst
security threat without resorting to violence, even with government’s undying
efforts to blacklist the movement.
Mahdi Garba is a Nigerian journalist,
human rights activist, social commentator and writer. He covers the activities
of the Nigeria's Islamic movement for Rasa News Agency, Iran. He is working on
his forthcoming book 'Tears of 12 December' a memoir on the Zaria massacre
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